Overview

• New executive orders direct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to create Guard units specifically trained and equipped for public-order duties and to stand up a permanent rapid reaction force available nationwide.
• The orders instruct the Pentagon to ensure state Guard components are resourced, organized and prepared to assist federal, state and local law enforcement in quelling civil unrest when required.
• About 2,200 National Guard troops remain deployed in Washington, D.C., now authorized to carry firearms under strict rules allowing force only as a last resort in response to imminent threats.
• Officials have cited limited interventions in the capital, including assisting an assaulted officer and stopping a knife-wielding man at Union Station, with patrols concentrated in central tourist areas.
• Pentagon deliberations on a possible Chicago deployment are reported but not finalized, drawing public opposition from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, as critics point to declining violent crime statistics in cities the president has named.