Why Is The National Guard Patrolling Streets In Washington, D.C.?

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump has ordered Washington, D.C.'s National Guard to patrol the capital's streets, and members from other states' Guards are joining them. We look at why the Guard is in D.C., what it is doing, and whether its presence points to future uses of the military in U.S. cities.

This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, and national correspondent Brian Mann.

This podcast was produced and edited by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.3	Hi, this is Lillian in Portland, Oregon, where I just finished biking 207 miles from Seattle to Portland with my dad
0:21.8	on a tandem in my first ever STP. This podcast is recorded at 1.32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on
0:29.6	Monday the 18th of August. Things might have changed by the time you listen to this, but hopefully
0:34.7	my legs will have recovered. Enjoy the show.
0:46.4	Congratulations. That sounds like just a gorgeous bike ride. Hey there. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Tom Bowman. I cover the Pentagon.
0:50.7	And NPR's Brian Mann is with us. Hi, Brian. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me.
0:54.6	Glad to have you here. Today on the show, how the Trump administration is using the military
1:00.0	in Washington, D.C. and how it could lead to more use of the military throughout the country.
1:06.3	Brian, let's start with you. You've been out and about in Washington the last several days.
1:11.2	How would you describe the military presence in the city?
1:14.6	Yeah, mostly what I've been seeing, Tam, is National Guard units in sort of the tourist areas in kind of the high-end retail districts of the city, also on the mall near the big tourist destinations.
1:27.4	Occasionally, I've seen Humvees moving through the city in other areas.
1:32.4	And on top of that, of course, there's this big deployment of federal agents,
1:37.0	many of them masks from the FBI, from Homeland Security,
1:40.4	from the Drug Enforcement Administration, on top of metropolitan police. So it's the presence of
1:46.2	police throughout this city. On top of the National Guard, it's pervasive. Explain the justification
1:52.0	here. President Trump has said that this is an emergency or has used emergency powers to bring in
1:59.2	the National Guard. Is that supported by data?
2:04.2	Local officials have not requested this.
	...

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