Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he is still prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities besides the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.

The comments come after Trump threatened Chicago as the next city he would target after his administration’s federal takeover of Washington, prompting pushback from Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who on Monday afternoon called the proposed actions “un-American.”

“They should be saying, ‘Please come in,'” Trump told ABC News Correspondent Jay O’Brien as he took questions from reporters the Oval Office after signing executive orders.

Trump still railed against Chicago, which he called a “disaster,” and Pritzker, who he said was a “slob.”

“I made the statement that next should be Chicago, because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don’t acknowledge it. And they say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom. Freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying ‘maybe we like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person,” the president said.

“But I’m really saying, and I say this to all of you, in a certain way, we should wait to be asked,” Trump continued.

Trump went back and forth repeatedly on Monday over whether the government should wrest control or wait to be asked.

“We may wait. We may or may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do,” Trump said. “The problem is, it’s not nice when you go in and do it and somebody else is standing there saying, as we give great results, say, ‘Well, we don’t want the military.'”

Meanwhile, Pritzker and Chicago officials are speaking out against Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard.

“Earlier today, in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,'” Pritzker said at a news conference in Chicago on Monday afternoon.

“What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American,” the governor added.

Crime statistics from Chicago’s Police Department show murders year to date and robberies are down 31% and 33% respectively compared to the same period in 2024. Overall, the statistics show crime in the city is down 13% year to date compared to 2024.

“There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention,” Pritzker said on Monday. “There is no insurrection. Like every major American city in both blue and red states, we deal with crime in Chicago. Indeed, the violent crime rate is worse in red states and red cities.”

ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Trump on whether he would send troops to Republican-led states and cities experiencing high crime. Trump said yes but appeared to brush off that it would ever be necessary.

“Sure,” Trump responded. “But there aren’t that many of them.”

Trump continued to focus on Democrat-led areas and railed against cashless bail policies, though a report from Axios that analyzed FBI crime data showed 13 of the 20 U.S. cities with the highest murder rates were in Republican-run states.

The president on Monday defended the first 11 days of his administration’s takeover of Washington, which includes more than a thousand National Guardsmen deployed to the nation’s capital, some permitted to carry weapons for personal protection.

As part of his crime crackdown, Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending cashless bail in Washington and threatening to revoke federal funds for other areas around the country that have similar policies.

The president also signed an order directing the Justice Department to investigate instances of flag burning for possible charges, despite a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that the government cannot criminalize destruction of an American flag when done as an act of expression.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced that he is removing Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Board Governor, from her position.

In the letter addressed to Cook that was posted on social media Monday night, Trump said there was “sufficient evidence” that Cook made false statements in mortgage agreements in a referral made by Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency to the Department of Justice to remove her from her role.

“At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,” the letter said.

“I have determined that faithfully executing the law requires your immediate removal from office,” Trump closed the letter.

In response, Cook released a statement saying Trump “has no authority” to fire her and that she will “continue to carry out my duties.”

“I will not resign,” she said.

Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, also indicated legal action is coming, saying they will take “whatever actions are necessary” in order to block what they describe as Trump’s “attempted illegal action.”

ABC News has reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment.

Last week, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.

In a statement provided to ABC News last week, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.

“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”

Cook was nominated to serve on the board of governors in 2022 by former President Joe Biden. Her term runs until January 2038. Cook is the first Black woman in history to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is once again upping the pressure on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to do away with a century-old Senate tradition that places some constraints on the president’s authority to appoint judicial nominees.

Trump is targeting the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, a time-honored Senate process that gives senators the right to approve or object to nominees nominated to serve as federal judges or U.S. attorneys in their home states.

Senators approve of a nominee by returning their blue slip to the Judiciary Committee Chairman. If a senator does not return their blue slip or returns it with objections, the nominee does not advance. In blue states like New York, some of Trump’s judicial nominees have stalled out because Democratic senators have not returned blue slips.

In a post on his social media platform on Sunday evening, Trump made his continued displeasure with this Senate tradition known.

I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump said. “This is because of an old and outdated “custom” known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions.”

This isn’t the first time that Trump has gone after blue slips and Grassley. But Grassley has consistently committed to maintaining the Senate tradition.

In a post on X on Monday, Grassley once again defended the Senate process.

“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley posted. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILUREThe 100 yr old “blue slip” allows home state senators 2 hv input on US attys & district court judges In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES.”

But Grassley’s pushback has not dissuaded Trump from trying to force modifications to the process.

While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump doubled down, saying he would file a lawsuit to challenge the use of blue slips, though he did not say who he intended to file suit against. He then blamed Grassley for a lag in the advancement of his appointees to be judges and U.S. attorneys.

“It’s a gentlemen’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or or U.S. attorney in particular,” Trump said. “And this is based on an old custom. It’s not based on a law … And I think it’s unconstitutional. And I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”

The Senate has the authority to govern itself and typically retains authority to make its own rules and traditions. Blue slips are not codified in the Senate rules, but are rather a courtesy observed by the committee chairman.

The blue slip process goes back to at least 1917, according to the Congressional Research Service. Since the use of blue slips is not codified or in the committee’s rules, the chair has the discretion to determine whether a home state senator’s negative or withheld blue slip stops a judicial nomination from receiving consideration by the committee and whether it reaches the Senate floor.

Trump explicitly expressed his desire to advance nominees like Jay Clayton, who was appointed to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York by Manhattan federal judges earlier this month despite his nomination being stalled in the Senate by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s refusal to return a blue slip on the nominee.

“That’s the only way you get by. But generally speaking, you can’t do that because you’ll have judges from the other party. So, so Jay Clayton just got approved and he’s in, but he didn’t get approved by the senators, Trump said.

Trump said the blue slip process was a barrier for him to get any Republican judges through — that he can now “only get a Democrat U.S. attorney.”

“The only person that I can get approved are Democrats or maybe weak Republicans. But we don’t want that. But the only person I will be able to get approved in any of those states where you have a Democrat will I can’t get a U.S. attorney. I can only get a Democrat U.S. attorney,” Trump said.

Still, Senate Republicans are generally opposed to modifying the tradition.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who serves on the Judiciary Committee and announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek re-election next year, said in a post on X Monday that getting rid of the blue slip is “short-sighted.”

“Chairman Grassley is a principled conservative who wants to keep radical liberals off the bench. Getting rid of the blue slip is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term,” Tillis posted. “It’s why radical liberal groups have been pushing to get rid of the blue slip for years — Republicans shouldn’t fall for it.”

A number of Senate Republicans spoke out when Trump last called for changes to the Senate process in July.

At the time, Majority Leader John Thune expressed little interest in making modifications.

“I think that the blue slip process is something that’s been used for a long time by both sides, and neither side has violated its usage in the past,” Thune said in July. “So my view on it is and I’m happy to hear what Sen. Grassley and some of my colleagues say, “but no, I don’t think there’s any strong interest in changing that up here.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Despite more than 2,000 National Guard troops authorized by President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said students in the nation’s capital will not be aided by their presence as children return to school this week.

“We don’t need federal agencies to help get kids to school,” Bowser told ABC News. “We will take care of getting our kids to school.”

The school year begins as Bowser and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) tout proficiency rates in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and math are the highest since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ELA proficiency rate is the highest on record.

Hundreds of thousands of students are returning to the classroom across major metropolitan school districts this week.

Some 100,000 students return to D.C. schools on Monday amid the Trump administration’s surge of law enforcement into Washington. Student safety is always a top issue for education leaders during back-to-school season. However, the presence of troops in Washington is raising new questions as a military-style vehicle was involved in an accident last week and troops will be gathering throughout the city at Metro rail stations, which is how many students get to school.

Bowser said D.C.’s existing transportation strategies include using the district’s safe passage program with local law enforcement lining the streets. If families feel unsafe, the district offers a safe connect program, which connects students with a ride to school.

Bowser believes using the Guard as law enforcement is unnecessary and said the crime rate had decreased “precipitously” before Trump’s surge.

“I think calling men and women from their homes and their jobs and their families — they have to be used on, you know, on mission-specific items that benefit the nation,” Bowser said, adding, “I don’t think we have an armed militia in the nation’s capital.”

But Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith acknowledged that the federal agents spread throughout the city have made improvements to safety.

“Hearing from the officers on the street, some of them have found it to be very helpful, some people in the community have found it to be very helpful,” Smith said.

In Philadelphia, where nearly 200,000 students are returning to schools this week, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington argued crime and shootings have also decreased there. He noted that the nation’s eighth-largest school district is investing in “safety zones” by contracting with the Philadelphia Police Department to provide additional patrols in areas that have an uptick in violence.

“We’ve invested more resources and safe paths programs where we contract with community organizations to oversee children as they traverse, as they make their way to school, to ensure their safety,” Watlington told ABC News. In addition, Philadelphia is hiring more school safety officers for the school district staff, Watlington said Watlington said he is fostering a welcoming environment in the City of Brotherly Love, which he said is creating a culture where young people feel connected, seen, and heard.

“We have to build relationships,” Watlington said.

“We’re focusing on that heavily in the school district, because when kids who feel connected, their social and emotional mental health and wellness are attended to, and they have relationships with each other and with adults, when they see something, they’re more likely to say something and so those are a number of things that we’re doing in our strategic plan to provide for the safety and well being of our young people and our staffs,” he said.

But Watlington and Philadelphia parents and families do have anxiety about significant cuts to its public transit system, SEPTA.

“We just can’t go and get more yellow school buses and put them on the street in Philadelphia,” Watlington said. “We rely on public transit, and it is unfortunate, and it’s no fault of our children that they’ll have some impacts to their transportation.”

Still, Bowser and education officials in both D.C. and Philadelphia agree safety is the top priority for their respective cities. At Bowser’s back-to-school pep rally earlier this month, she stressed a community response is needed to ensure a successful first day back.

Bowser urged D.C. residents to clap, cheer, and celebrate the city’s students all week.

“Our children deserve and will get a joyful start to their school year,” Bowser said, adding, “All the adults in our buildings, all of the people in our government are focused on making sure that that happens.”

“We want them to have a great school year, and we’re all going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former CIA Director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that he’s dubious that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

“There’s not that much right now that would lead us to believe that,” Petraeus told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “I don’t think, in fact, out of the last two weeks, really, Jonathan, I think what should be clear to all, and I think it is even clear to President Trump, is that despite all of his efforts, again, which we applaud to end the war, to stop the killing, Vladimir Putin clearly has no intention of doing that unless he’s given additional territory, which is heavily fortified, and Russian forces would have to fight for years at the pace that they’re going.”

Petraeus’ comments come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Trump last week in Washington alongside a contingent of other European leaders in pursuit of gathering more support to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 72 drones and one Iskander-M ballistic missile into the country in its latest overnight barrage, of which 48 drones were intercepted or suppressed, as the country marked the anniversary of its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. Ukraine continued its own long-range attacks on Russia overnight, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, which said it shot down 95 Ukrainian drones over 14 regions during the latest exchange.

Petraeus said that currently the “obstacle to peace” is Putin. He says that the U.S. should reconsider restrictions on some weapons that it won’t send to Ukraine and send more aid to ultimately bring an end to the 3 1/2-year war.

“And what we need to do is change those dynamics by helping Ukraine far more than we have so far. Lifting restrictions on them, seizing the $300 billion of frozen reserves and European countries of Russian money, giving it to Ukraine. More sanctions on Russia, even including the Gazprom bank, and curtailing the export of oil further than we have already,” Petraeus said.

Petraeus referred to a Wall Street Journal report that the Pentagon is limiting Ukraine’s use of U.S.-made long-range missiles against targets in Russia.

“This is another case where it appears that the Pentagon is carrying out policies that conflict with President Trump’s inclination. Now, I can understand why they would limit the use of certain long-range systems against Russia when they think that Russia might still be willing to make a deal. But that should be very clear not to be the case, at this moment, and I hope that there will be a review of that policy,” Petraeus said.

Nonetheless, Petraeus said he knows the war cannot last forever, saying that the war so far has killed and wounded 1.06 million Russians, including more than 500,000 that haven’t been able to return to the front lines due to the severity of their injuries, and is also having a “very substantial impact” on its civilian workforce.

“This has to have, over time, a very, very substantial impact on the ability of Russia just to find a civilian workforce as well. In fact, it’s reported that they were actually looking in Africa for women who can actually replace some of the men in Russia, in various industries,” Petraeus said.

Petraeus also responded Sunday to the Trump administration either firing or reassigning 16 top military officers, seven of whom are women, thus far into his second term. The latest removals happened Friday, including the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, just weeks after he oversaw a preliminary report that contradicted Trump’s assertion that Iran’s nuclear sites were obliterated by U.S. strikes in June.

“I think it has to be a concern. Obviously, it’s unprecedented. There’s never been anything like this,” Petraeus said. “There have been cases in the past where individuals who’ve gotten crosswise with the president or with the secretary of defense certainly, usually on a policy issue in which they should not have spoken out and indeed were replaced. But the numbers here obviously are much more significant than that.”

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(NEW YORK) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the U.S., has been released from criminal custody in Tennessee and is on his way to Maryland, an attorney for Abrego Garcia told ABC News.

The Salvadoran native has been in criminal custody since the federal government brought him back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges.

Once he is is released, immigration authorities will not be allowed to detain Abrego Garcia due to a ruling from a federal judge who last month ordered the government to return him to Maryland and blocked the administration from deporting him upon his release in Tennessee.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said this week that they hired a private security company to bring him to Maryland.

In her July order, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the U.S. government “shall restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”

Xinis said her order to have Abrego Garcia placed under ICE supervision in Maryland, where he was living with his wife and children before he was mistakenly deported in March, is necessary to “provide the kind of effective relief to which a wrongfully removed alien is entitled upon return.”

The July order, which also requires the government to provide 72 hours’ notice if it intends to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, is “narrowly tailored” to allow the Trump administration to initiate “lawful immigration proceedings upon Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland.”

The immigration proceedings may or may not include “lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis said.

Abrego Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.

He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.

On Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused federal prosecutors of “vindictive and selective prosecution” in a motion seeking to dismiss the criminal charges against him.

In the 25-page filing, the attorneys argued that the government charged him “because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights.”

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been singled out by the United States government,” his attorneys said.

Abrego Garcia’s trial in his human smuggling case is set to begin on Jan. 27, 2027.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Republican National Committee on Friday elected President Donald Trump’s candidate of choice, Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, by unanimous voice vote.

Gruters’ ascendency underscores the RNC’s commitments to boosting those who share Trump’s political vision as the White House zeros in on its priorities ahead of the midterms.

The position had been left open by departing chairman Michael Whatley, who last month launched a bid for retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis’ Senate seat. While co-signing Whatley’s campaign on his social media site, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” to Gruters, who he said would do a “wonderful” job as chairman.

Trump’s backing cleared the prospective field instantly and Gruters ran unopposed.

Whatley also gave Gruters his stamp of approval to replace him.

Gruters chaired the Florida GOP from 2019 to 2023 – and Republicans told ABC News he was mission-critical in eliminating Democrats’ voter registration advantage in the state. After the 2018 election, Democrats had a voter advantage of 263,269. Yet, in the fall of 2022, Republicans expanded their reach, leading voter registration by 292,533 voters — a near 556,000 registered voter swing, per PBS.

“You’re registering almost a million new Republicans in Florida. That was what Joe’s chairmanship was, kind of the hallmark of what he was able to do …after Joe’s chairmanship, Florida slipped from battleground status,” said Scott Golden, a longtime friend of Gruters, who currently chairs the Tennessee Republican Party.

And Golden noted that Gruters, who is currently the RNC’s treasurer, is a “terrific, terrific” fundraiser, another key trait for a party chairman.

“I think everybody feels very comfortable that he’s going to do a very good job as Chairman. He’s a great analyst, a CPA by trade. Obviously, Florida is a great proving ground for politics,” said Golden. “I think most members around the country recognize that and know that he knows what he’s doing. He will run the party competently and make sure that all the resources are on the field to make us successful in ’26.”

Gruters was one of the earliest backers of Trump, throwing his support behind him way back in 2016. Trump paid the favor back and endorsed Gruters’ state Senate re-election run in 2022, and boosted him once again, this time to be Florida’s chief financial officer, noting the pair’s long history.

“Joe was on the ‘Trump Train’ before it even left the station,” Trump wrote on social media in May 2024. “As a State Senator and Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Joe has done more than anyone to help turn Florida RED, and elect Republicans across the State.”

While Gruters faced nearly no public opposition from members of the committee and members of the president’s political orbit – he does have one public detractor: Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

During a news conference where DeSantis offered support to the candidate that would ultimately become Florida’s chief financial officer, he slammed Gruters.

“Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do,” DeSantis said during the July event. “So, if George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ My response would be ‘no.'”

Though Gruters told local publication Florida Politics, he is open to mending fences.

ABC News has reached out to DeSantis for comment.

Veteran Republican political strategist Brett Doster told ABC that Trump not only gets a fundraiser, but a fighter, in Gruters.

“I’ve known Joe for more than 20 years now – since before he was elected to the state house. Joe took a big risk and went with Trump back in 2015 when almost every leader in Florida, out of personal loyalty, was sticking with either Jeb or Marco,” Doster said.

“With Joe Gruters as GOP chairman, Trump gets a practiced mouthpiece who will go to war for the administration on the Sunday shows and will keep the RNC rigidly fixed on the Trump – Wiles playbook for the midterms. Gruters will be undistracted by Congressional or Senate power plays.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced that he is “going out” with police and military in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to oversee the surge in federal law enforcement and National Guard, who are responding to what he says is a crime emergency in the district.

“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump told radio host Todd Starnes on Thursday.

The president mobilized the National Guard one week ago to assist the police, claiming crime was out of control. Officials have said Guard personnel are not making arrests, only helping to detain people briefly if necessary before handing them off to law enforcement.

Violent crime levels have decreased compared to years prior, down 26% since 2024, a 30-year low, according to crime stats released by the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Trump also told Starnes that the D.C. deployment was “sort of a test” and indicated that they would copy the model in other cities around America.

“It’s working unbelievably, much faster than we thought. We’ve arrested hundreds of criminals, hardline criminals, people that will never be any good,” Trump said.

The president said that he would put Memphis “early” on the list of next cities to patrol.

“And, you know, unfortunately, we have a lot of cities like that. But I love Tennessee. You know, I won Tennessee by many, many, many points. So it was a landslide, far greater than even, you know, the Republican. Republicans do good in Tennessee, but, I mean, my number was like 35 points, and I’m glad you tell me that I can put that early on a list, and I’m sure that people would love it,” he added.

In June, Trump deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids carried out by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the administration, alleging that it violated the Posse Comitatus Act — an 1878 law that prevented the president from using the military as a domestic police force. A ruling has not been issued in the case.

Trump went on to say that he “straightened out crime in four days in DC.” The president also rebuffed criticism about his actions in the nation’s capital.

“And all I do, all they do is they say ‘He’s a dictator, he’s a dictator’ — the place, people are getting mugged all over the place, and they give you phony records, like, it’s wonderful and it’s worse than it ever was, but we’ve got it going. People are so happy. They’re going out to restaurants again,” he claimed.

Trump’s remarks came a day after Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller visited the National Guard at Union Station, where they were drowned out by boos from protesters.

Nearly 2,000 guardsmen from D.C. and six states have been mobilized to support Trump’s mission at the nation’s capital. They remain unarmed at this time, but officials have said they expect that to change.

The troops have been stationed outside many tourist hot spots, including the National Mall and Union Station, where crime incidents are known to be lower than other parts of the city. Trump and other officials have not given a timetable of when the troop deployment will end.

Vance on Wednesday dismissed crime statistics that showed incidents were lower in Union Station. He claimed that they do not report the full scope of crime in D.C.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s federal police surge in the nation’s capital, calling it politically motivated and disconnected from crime in the city.

“This doesn’t make sense. The numbers on the ground and the district don’t support 1,000 people from other states coming to Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration will suspend public White House tours due to the construction that is scheduled to start soon on a new ballroom, multiple congressional offices told ABC News.

Spokespeople or the official websites for several of these members say they were told by the White House that the pause on these tours will start in September and tours could be postponed “indefinitely.”

Offices gave various reasons for the pause on tours, including “construction projects,” “extensive renovations” and “because of construction on the new White House ballroom.”

All tours of the White House are scheduled through a visitor’s representative or senator. About 10,000 people toured the White House each week during the Biden administration.

ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment. The Visit the White House page on the White House website doesn’t mention tours being paused, but greets visitors with an “Announcement Regarding Upcoming Expansion” about the ballroom project, which it says will begin in September.

The website for Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., reads: “Unfortunately, the Trump administration recently announced that it would pause all public tours of the White House beginning in September to accommodate construction projects. We apologize for any inconvenience to those who have submitted tour requests for this period, and will share further updates as soon as additional guidance is available.”

The website for Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., says: “Beginning on September 1st, 2025, the White House will be undergoing extensive renovations. As a result, all tours of the White House are postponed indefinitely. To read more information from the White House, please read their official statement. We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.”

Other congressional offices said they have received unclear instruction about tours when they’ve asked the administration.

“We haven’t gotten any real guidance from the WH – they haven’t published any new dates and when we’ve inquired they said that “availability has not yet been published as they continue to finalize the president’s schedule,'” one congressional aide said.

Another office said it had reached out to the White House after the Washington Post initially reported that tours would be suspended. Administration officials told their office coordinator that the pause was “because of construction on the new White House ballroom,” an aide said.

Yet another said that they were told White House tours were not immediately barred but rather would halt at the start of September.

A White House liaison “confirmed that we can still book tours through the end of August, but they have cancelled all September tours. They said that they’ll give more info after Labor Day,” an aide told ABC News.

A separate congressional office also said it was waiting for a more “formal announcement from the visitor’s office” about how to move forward with scheduling public East Wing tours.

Another office said its constituents whose September tour was cancelled included “military families who had been approved for tours timed to show their families the White House before they were transferred to new duty stations outside the region.”

“They’re pretty disappointed,” the aide added.

The Trump administration suspended tours for about a month at the start of his second term in January. First lady Melania Trump made the announcement when they reopened in late February.

ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Michelle Stoddart and Caleigh Bartash contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced that he is “going out” with police and military in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to oversee the surge in federal law enforcement and National Guard, who are responding to what he says is a crime emergency in the district.

“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and, with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump told radio host Todd Starnes on Thursday.

The president mobilized the National Guard one week ago to assist the police, claiming crime was out of control.

The plan came a day after Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller visited the National Guard at Union Station, where they were drowned out with boos from protesters.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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