Overview

• Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard assumed interim command of the District of Columbia National Guard and toured Joint Task Force–DC positions around the National Mall and other federal sites.
• About 800 Air and Army Guardsmen are serving under state active duty with the DC Safe and Beautiful Taskforce to provide monument security, presence patrols, perimeter control, traffic management and area beautification.
• Pentagon officials emphasize the troops will remain unarmed in their vehicles and are not tasked with making arrests unless President Trump issues a direct order authorizing law-enforcement functions.
• This deployment differs from the 2020 and 2021 federal Title 10 activations that barred Guardsmen from law-enforcement duties, raising new questions about presidential authority over domestic troops.
• Ongoing litigation, including testimony in Newsom v. Trump, underlines legal scrutiny of the administration’s expansion of National Guard roles in public safety operations.