National Guard troops were deployed to Washington, D.C. to fight crime, but they have also participated in President Donald Trump’s beautification efforts, collecting 500 bags of trash along a 3.2-mile stretch.
When Trump announced last month he had placed D.C. police under direct federal control and deployed the National Guard to the city, he said he did it to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.” Now, soldiers are rescuing D.C. from litter.
Troops wearing orange high-visibility vests over their camouflage uniforms were seen last week picking up trash in Lafayette Park just outside the White House. Soldiers were also seen cleaning up along the tidal basin near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
“Guardsmen have cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways, collected more than 500 bags of trash, and disposed of three truckloads of plant waste,” the National Guard said in a statement shared by CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane on Monday.
The Independent has reached out to the National Guard for comment.
Trump has said he is “determined to make Washington, D.C. safe, clean and beautiful again.”
During a photo-op at the U.S. Park Police facility in Anacostia last month, Trump told local and federal law enforcement he plans on renovating D.C. parks, and then went into a bizarre spiel about how he’s “very good at grass.”
The president’s push to beautify D.C.’s parks comes after the National Park Service lost 24 percent of its permanent employees, The New York Times reported, citing data compiled by the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.
More than 1,800 park employees who left accepted the Trump administration’s resignation offers, which were made in the name of government efficiency.
White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers praised the joint task force in D.C. aimed at helping Trump “make D.C. a safer and more beautiful city” in a statement to The Independent.
“The Task Force has increased federal law enforcement to assist local officials, reduced violent crime, repaired roadways and parkways, and removed homeless encampments to restore our nation’s cherished capital,” she said.
The Associated Press recently reported there have been more than 1,200 arrests made since the start of Trump’s federal takeover on August 7, citing data released by the White House.
More than 2,200 National Guard troops have been sent to D.C., which includes soldiers from Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, the NYT reported, citing National Guard spokesman Major Michael A. Maxwell.
Experts told CNN the deployment of National Guard troops is costing about $1 million per day.
Despite the Trump administration's rhetoric about D.C., crime statistics released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. in January showed violent crime went down by 35 percent in 2024, a 30-year low, after peaking in 2023.
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