Outside a metro station in Washington, D.C., a couple months back, a commuter walked up to two

National Guardsmen and handed them a business card with a handwritten note on the back.

Thank you for your service to our country and please remember your oath to the Constitution

as well as your duty to disobey illegal orders.

Steve Walsh captured that scene for NPR.

He's a military and veterans reporter for W.HRO in Norfolk, Virginia.

He was in Washington to see how members of the Guard felt about their deployment to the Capitol.

We aren't using their names because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.

I think there was a misunderstanding of why we were here.

People were assuming the worst case scenario. And now that we've kind of settled in our role, what we do here, I think people

are finally understanding that we are here to help. National Guard troops are still in D.C.

Three months since President Trump declared a state of emergency. Troops from around the country are patrolling the national mall and metro stations,

and also doing landscaping and litter pickup.

Not everyone in D.C. feels they're helping, though.

Some troops have been met with protests and bullhorns.

One resident followed around guard members on patrol and played the Imperial March from Star Wars.

On one occasion, he was handcuffed by D.C. police and is now suing for alleged First and Fourth

Amendment rights violations. The National Guard, like the rest of the U.S. military, is traditionally nonpartisan.

The current commander-in-chief is stress testing that principle.

In a speech to top military officers in September, the president said American cities could

be training grounds for our military.

It seems that the ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they've done to

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