Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, August 12th, 2025. This is USA Today is the excerpt.

Today, what we know about Trump's use of the National Guard in D.C.

While investigations are underway after a deadly explosion at a steel plant in Pennsylvania

and how the U.S. is tackling concerns about a flesh-eating parasitic fly.

President Donald Trump said yesterday he was deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.,

as part of an aggressive federal effort to crack down on crime in the nation's capital.

That's while he said the federal government would also seize control of Washington's

Metropolitan Police Department.

I spoke with USA Today, Pentagon correspondent Tom Vandenbrook, to get a better sense of what those

moves mean.

Thanks for joining me, Tom.

Taylor, good to be here.

So just starting with the basics, what we know now, Tom, what did President Trump announce here about National Guard troops and also the federal government taking over D.C.'s police department.

What do these moves mean?

Well, Taylor, the president announced that 800 National Guardsmen from the District of Columbia will be deployed to the streets of the district to supplement police already there.

There are 3,000 police officers

in the Metropolitan Police Department, but those 800 guardsmen will be doing some logistical

duties, presumably to free up the police here to do more traditional police work. So that's part of it.

The other part is that he's announced that the federal government will assume responsibility

for D.C. police. So they're going to take a direct hand and how the city is policed. And Tom,

why does the president argue all this is necessary? He maintains in very colorful language,

including savagery, that there's a huge crime problem in the district. But the facts don't

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