National Guard deployment in Washington extended through 2029
The Pentagon confirmed that the National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C., will continue through Inauguration Day 2029 — effectively the remainder of President Trump’s term — unless he decides otherwise. The mission, framed as an anti-crime effort, has grown into a “summer surge” that has roughly doubled troop levels in the city to nearly 5,000, drawn from more than 20 states.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deployment now costs more than $3 million a day. Trump first sent the Guard to the capital in August 2025, and the mission has been extended several times since; committing it through 2029 turns what began as a temporary surge into a standing presence.
Local officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, have said they neither requested nor support the deployment. But Washington is not a state, and the president holds ultimate authority over the D.C. Guard — leaving city leaders with little direct means to end a federal presence they oppose, and setting up a prolonged dispute over the militarization of local policing in the capital.