Overview

• An internal media and social-sentiment assessment, inadvertently emailed to the Washington Post and confirmed by a Guard official, recorded reactions to the D.C. mission as 53% negative, 45% neutral, and 2% positive.
• Summaries cited residents’ “alarm and indignation” and noted some troops and veterans describing the deployment with “shame,” with reports of fatigue, confusion, demoralization, and complaints of “just gardening.”
• Officials maintain troops are not policing, yet the documents acknowledge instances that blur that line, including Guard members detaining suspects until police arrived.
• More than 2,300 Guard members remain assigned under the federal public safety emergency and the deployment has been extended to December as D.C. leaders press a legal challenge.
• A federal judge ruled the Los Angeles mobilization unlawful before an appeals court allowed it to continue during the case, and eleven retired generals warned in a court brief that politicized deployments could undermine the military’s nonpartisan reputation and troop morale.