A view of a B-2 Stealth Bomber flyover attends Preakness 147 hosted by 1/ST at Pimlico Race Course, May 21, 2022, in Baltimore. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — President Donald Trump greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a U.S. air base in Alaska on Friday with a flyover that included the same type of bomber and fighter jets used to strike Iran’s nuclear sites last June.
The two leaders walked along a red carpet rolled out at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with F-22 fighter jets on either side as the four F-35s and a B-2 Spirit bomber soared overhead.
According to two officials, two B-2 bombers were flown into the base ahead of Friday’s summit; the F-35 jets arrived from nearby Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. The F-22 planes were based out of Elmendorf.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump personally ordered the bombers and the flyover to the Air Force base as a kind of show of force ahead of his discussions with Russia, which also is a nuclear power.
The B-2 is considered a symbol of U.S. power, as the bombers can fly around the world nonstop and can carry both conventional and nuclear munitions. The stealth B-2 bombers are the same kind used by the U.S. during June’s Operation Midnight Hammer, in which seven of the aircraft flew 36 hours straight from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Iran where they dropped more than a dozen bunker-buster bombs.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly praised the power of the B-2 aircraft and the skill of its pilots.
Trump has insisted the sites were “obliterated.” U.S. military officials say a damage assessment is still under way. On Aug. 6, he announced his administration ordered “new and enhanced” B-2 aircraft.
“It’s an amazing machine,” he told reporters, holding up a small model of the bomber.
A view of a B-2 Stealth Bomber flyover attends Preakness 147 hosted by 1/ST at Pimlico Race Course, May 21, 2022, in Baltimore. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — Two B-2 bombers were flown into Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson ahead of Friday’s summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to two officials.
The stealth bombers are the same kind used by the U.S. to strike Iran’s nuclear sites in June’s Operation Midnight Hammer.
The B-2 is considered a symbol of U.S. power, as the bombers can fly around the world nonstop and can carry both conventional and nuclear munitions.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
The high-stakes summit at the Anchorage base comes as the U.S. seeks a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
It marks the first time in a decade that Putin has traveled to the U.S.
One key party who will not be in attendance at Friday’s summit is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump said Thursday he hopes the summit will lead to a second meeting that would include Zelenskyy.
U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8, 2025 in Washington/ (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin marks his latest effort at securing a peace deal over Ukraine, a priority in his second term.
The meeting comes after a string of deals and agreements the White House said Trump has helped broker globally that should earn him something the president has long desired — a Nobel Peace Prize.
“President Trump has brokered on average about one peace deal or ceasefire per month during his six months in office,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing last month. “It’s well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Trump himself has voiced grievance over not having a Nobel Peace Prize; while taking questions in the Oval Office in February alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, weeks after the U.S. helped broker an ultimately short-lived ceasefire agreement over Gaza, the president said, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it.”
The president has also said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for U.S.-brokered deals in other conflicts, including the June peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda and the May ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!” Trump said on social media in June.
Observers say Trump’s desire for the Nobel Peace Prize looms large over the summit with Putin, as the president looks to fulfill a campaign promise to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s something he said he would do in the first 24 hours of his second term, though months into his term, as the war raged on, said he had meant the 24-hour pledge “figuratively.”
Ahead of the planned meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, some foreign policy experts have voiced concern over how Trump and his supporters’ fixation on the prize could impact diplomatic relations.
Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued in a Washington Post column that “Trump’s unhealthy obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize has driven him to make a series of rash decisions in pursuit of ending the war in Ukraine.”
“The latest example is the scheduling of a premature summit with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska — an object lesson in how not to do diplomacy,” he wrote.
Ian Bremmer — the president and founder of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm — said in a post on X ahead of the talks that he fully expects Putin to “exploit Trump’s ambitions for admiration (a la Nobel Peace Prize) in an effort to get what he wants.”
Several world leaders and officials have expressed their support for Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize in recent months.
Among them, the government of Pakistan said in June it has formally recommended that Trump receive the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis.”
A month later, Netanyahu told Trump that he nominated the president for the award after Trump pushed for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
After signing a U.S.-brokered agreement at the White House aimed at ending decades of conflict between their countries, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia said this month that Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and they would advocate for it.
Ahead of Friday’s summit, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, told ABC News “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is “the way to his heart.”
“I think what Trump has done is make it clear that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize more than anything else,” he said. “And the way to his heart, as Pakistani Chief of Staff [Asim] Munir found, Bibi Netanyahu found — offer to nominate him.”
Bolton, who has been critical of Trump’s foreign policy decisions, left his post during Trump’s first term amid reports of conflict among the president’s foreign policy advisers. Trump said he fired Bolton, while Bolton said he resigned. At the start of Trump’s second term, Bolton said Trump terminated his Secret Service protection.
White House officials have touted Trump as a “deal maker” intent on reaching peace. Heading into the summit, Vice President JD Vance called the expected meeting with Putin “a major breakthrough for American diplomacy,” saying in an interview with Fox News that a peace deal wouldn’t happen without Trump.
“We’re gonna try to find some kind of negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops,” Vance said.
“Both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are gonna be unhappy with it. But I don’t think you can actually sit down and have this negotiation absent the leadership of Donald J. Trump,” Vance continued.
Though he often brings it up, Trump has contended that he is “not politicking” for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was last given to a U.S. leader in 2009, when former President Obama received it less than a year into his first term.
“It would be a great honor, certainly. But I would never politic. I’m not doing it for that,” he said during this month’s Azerbaijan-Armenia peace summit. “I’m doing it because of really, number one, I want to save lives. That’s why I’m involved so much with Ukraine and Russia — saving lives of Russians and Ukrainians.”
A day before the planned summit, Trump said he believed he’d have a “good” conversation with Putin but said that the more significant development in the peace effort would be a second meeting between the U.S., Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I’m there for one reason,” he said. “I want to see if I can stop the killing.”
US President Donald Trump (R) meets Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019. (Photo by Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In his first term, President Donald Trump met with Russia’s Vladimir Putin six times but one moment stood out.
It happened in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018 when Trump, standing next to him, suggested he believed Putin’s denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 election over the findings of U.S. intelligence.
At the time, Trump said U.S.-Russia relations had “never been worse” than before they met but that had “changed.”
Now, Trump is set to hold his first one-on-one meeting with Putin of his second term at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska.
The backdrop for Friday’s highly-anticipated summit is a darker one, amid Russia’s relentless onslaught on Ukraine and Putin presenting a frustrating obstacle to Trump’s professed desire to end the war.
The meeting will spotlight their relationship — one that Trump said during the 2024 campaign was so strong he could end the conflict on his first day in office or even before.
“It seems that Donald Trump used to think that he understands Putin well and has a good rapport with him, but over the last few months we’ve seen him alter his position in that regard and actually become more frustrated with Putin. I think he’s becoming more moderated in his expectations about what the meeting can bring,” said Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump called Putin a “strong leader” in his first term and a “genius” shortly after his forces first invaded Ukraine.
Early in his second term, Trump said that Putin would be “generous” in peace talks and Ukraine more difficult.
Trump made several public demands of Ukraine, including that it would have to give up its goal of joining NATO and possibly cede some territory, while notably not setting any such red lines for Russia.
The president even sympathized with Putin’s status as a global pariah, saying in February that he would “love” for Russia to rejoin the Group of Seven nations and that it was a mistake for Moscow to have been expelled from the company of world leaders following Putin’s annexation of Crimea.
“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK?” Trump said back in the spring.
Over the last few months, however, Trump’s tone toward Putin has shifted.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote on his social media platform in late May.
Trump expressed repeatedly that he’s “disappointed” in the Russian president as strikes intensified between Russia and Ukraine this summer.
In July, Trump said he was fed up with the “bull—- thrown at us by Putin.” “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” he said.
“We’re not happy with Putin. I’m not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now, because he’s killing a lot of people,” Trump added.
Trump has kept American-made weapons supplied to Ukraine through a deal with European partners and recently slapped steep secondary tariffs on India, one of the largest purchasers of Russian oil, in indirect pressure on Moscow.
Still, Trump held back on his threats to impose harsher sanctions on Aug. 8 if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. Instead, on that date, Trump announced he would host the Russian leader on U.S. soil for a one-on-one meeting.
“He has more that he could do in order to push Putin to come to the table,” said William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine currently serving as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
So far, Trump has tempered expectations about Friday’s summit. He’s called it a “feel-out meeting” and the White House described it as a “listening exercise.”
At the same time, he warned again this week of “severe consequences” if Russia didn’t end the conflict.
“I think that Trump believes that strongmen of Putin’s kind are to be negotiated with eye to eye, and he wants to feel the ground to see what he gets from the meeting with Putin. The problem with that is Putin is also a shrewd manipulator and he has the KGB background, he is known to be very convincing and make people like him in person,” said Snegovaya.
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, said Putin’s goal for this summit is to get back into Trump’s good graces.
“What Putin wants to get back, he’s not so worried about the sanctions, he wants the relationship back with Trump. We’ll see if he gets it,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Former U.S. President Barack Obama participates in a book talk with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel at The Anthem on December 02, 2024 in Washington, DC. Obama and Merkel discussed her memoir “Freedom” as well as world politics and the history the two former leaders have witnessed. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Barack Obama on Thursday joined a virtual meeting with Texas House Democrats who left the state to deny Republicans the ability to pass newly drawn GOP-favorable congressional maps, cheering on their efforts and stressing their work comes at a critical time in the fight against partisan gerrymandering.
ABC News is first to report on the meeting and its contents.
Obama “lauded their fight against the Republican efforts to enact an even more egregious gerrymander in Texas ahead of the midterms. He made clear that they are part of a bigger effort to protect free and fair elections and commended them for inspiring others with their actions,” an Obama spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he is moving forward with putting proposed new congressional maps for the state on the ballot on a Nov. 4 special election in an attempt to counter mid-decade redistricting being pushed by Republicans in Texas.
“I know they say ‘Don’t mess with Texas.’ Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State,” Newsom said at a news conference, flanked by Democratic members of Congress and California union leaders.
“We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘Find me five seats,'” he added later.
He said the state government will affirm its commitment to the state’s independent redistricting commission after the 2030 census, “but we’re asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting in 2026, 2028 and 2030 for the congressional maps to respond to what’s happening in Texas … and we’ll do so in a way that also affirms our desire as a state to level the playing field all across the United States.”
In a campaign video released concurrently with his announcement, Newsom framed the issue in stark terms.
“It is a five-alarm fire for democracy in the United States of America. Donald Trump, who is trying to light a torch on democracy, continues to try to rig the election,” Newsom says in the video.
As the governor was speaking, federal agents appeared to be conducting an immigration enforcement operation outside of the venue.
“Where are we? We are at Democracy Center and right outside at this exact moment? There are dozens and dozens of ICE agents, you Donald Trump, you think it’s coincidental? Donald Trump and his minions, Tom Homan, tough guy, clearly decided, coincidentally or not, that this was a location to advance ICE arrests,” said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said there was “no way” the operation was a coincidence.
“This was widely publicized that the governor and many of our elected officials were having a press conference here to talk about redistricting. And they decided they were going to come and thumb their nose in front of the governor’s face,” she said. “Why would you do that? It’s unbelievably disrespectful. It’s a provocative act. They’re talking about disorder in Los Angeles and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now. This is just completely unacceptable.”
ABC News has reached out to Customs and Border Protection for comment.
The California legislature will have to pass legislation to put the maps on the ballot.
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Newsom said California won’t move forward with its mid-decade redistricting plans if Republican-run states considering redistricting don’t move forward with redrawing their own maps.
“This does not go forward — I want to remind everybody — unless one of these other states move forward, there’s still an exit ramp — not just Texas, but Missouri, as I mentioned, or Florida, Indiana, these other states that are considering doing the unprecedented, rigging their elections with midterm redistricting. So we’re hopeful they don’t move forward. If that’s the case, this effort will not be necessary. But we’re not waiting,” he said.
Republicans are criticizing Newsom’s move as political.
“Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said in a statement ahead of the press conference.
“Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.”
(WASHINGTON) — National Guard troops have begun 24-hour operations around Washington, D.C., as of Thursday morning, according to a Department of Defense official.
It’s part of President Donald Trump’s plan to address crime in Washington by taking over the city’s police department and deploying the National Guard troops.
Thursday’s National Guard presence in Washington included one small unit deployed to both Union Station and the National Mall early in the morning, according to a spokesperson for joint task force behind the operation. The idea is that residents and tourists would awake Thursday morning to the sight of military presence, according to a person familiar with the effort.
Earlier this week, some National Guard troops patrolled along the National Mall — a relatively safe and quiet stretch of Washington known for museums, monuments and hot dog vendors serving tourists.
Guard members on patrol are not carrying weapons as of now, and they will not have the weapons in their vehicles, according to two defense officials.
A White House official told ABC News that overnight Wednesday into Thursday, the multi-agency federal task force made 45 arrests — 29 of which were immigration-related arrests. Law enforcement teams arrested people on a variety of charges including first and second degree assault, controlled substance possession and distribution, and carrying a concealed weapon, the White House official said.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that overnight Wednesday into Thursday, the FBI and law enforcement partners in Washington contributed to the 45 arrests with 16 arrests “tied to the violent crime surge” and seized three firearms.
“Your FBI will make DC Safe Again,” Patel wrote.
Law enforcement agents conducted a traffic safety compliance checkpoint on busy 14th Street in Northwest Washington Wednesday night, which led to one arrest. A group of protesters spoke out against the checkpoint, shouting at the law enforcement officers, according to video from Washington’s ABC station, WJLA.
Army officials said their mission was to aid law enforcement with logistics support, transportation and administration duties, as well as being visible around the Mall.
“That’s part of our assignment — to go to the national monuments and be present,” Col. Dave Butler, an Army spokesperson, told ABC News on Tuesday.
Trump announced Monday that he planned to mobilize 800 National Guard troops to address what he considered “out of control” crime in the city, as well as taking over control of the Metropolitan Police Department. Trump has made claims about rampant violent crime in Washington, which D.C. police statistics show is actually decreasing. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city has spent the last two years driving down violent crime — “driving it down to a 30 year low, in fact,” she told MSNBC on Sunday.
“It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023, this is 2025 and we’ve done that by working with the community, working with the police, working with our prosecutors, and, in fact, working with the federal government,” Bowser told MSNBC.
Defense officials said the joint task force, led by Army Col. Larry Doane, will run the operation.
The task force includes 800 activated National Guard members, defense officials said. The troops will work in shifts of 100 to 200 troops at a time, and some of them will be assigned to administrative or logistical roles in support of local law enforcement.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson on Thursday said the 800 National Guard troops will remain “until law and order has been restored.”
“They will remain until law and order has been restored in the District as determined by the president, standing as the gatekeepers of our great nation’s capital,” she said.
The task force overseeing the activated Guard troops will operate similarly to how the D.C. Guard has handled inaugurations or responding to crises, as it did during the Jan. 6 riots. The National Park Service will play a considerable role because of its oversight of the National Mall, officials said.
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart, Kelsey Walsh and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders are set to hold a news conference on Thursday where they’ll make a “major announcement” in response to Republican-led efforts in Texas to redraw the state’s congressional maps.
Newsom said Tuesday night that California will move forward with drawing new congressional maps that “WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY” and allow Democrats to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. He had previously sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday asking the president to tell Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican governors to abandon efforts to draw new congressional maps in Texas, which could help Republicans flip three to five congressional seats if passed.
Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the U.S. House with 219 seats to Democrats’ 212. Other states such as Missouri, Indiana, New York, and Illinois have begun weighing mid-decade redistricting in light of Texas’ effort.
Newsom has floated holding a special election statewide on Nov. 4 for Californians to vote on new congressional maps and temporarily bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission is meant to prevent gerrymandering and partisan influence. Both Democrats and Republicans in the state have expressed concerns over sidelining the commission.
No maps have been released publicly, but multiple legislative sources familiar with the matter told ABC station KGO-TV that five Republican seats would be targeted, going tit-for-tat with Texas.
But if lawmakers don’t declare a special election by Aug. 22, it would be nearly impossible for the state to run a statewide election that meets federal standards or would hold up in a court challenge, according to the office of the California Secretary of State.
Elections officials in California have also pointed to federal deadlines such as the 45-day-pre-election deadline to issue ballots to military and overseas voters, which could make it more technically challenging to run an election on short notice.
Republicans have also cried foul. U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., who has proposed a bill that would nullify any new congressional maps introduced before the next U.S. census, told Newsmax on Tuesday, “Gavin Newsom is a unique threat to democracy. He is trying to overturn the will of voters … So I’ve introduced this bill saying this cannot be done. We need to stop Newsom’s scheme in its tracks. And that will also stop this brewing redistricting war from breaking out across the country, which I don’t think is going to be a good thing.”
Newsom’s gambit comes as Democratic state legislators in Texas remain outside of the state in an effort to run out the clock on a special legislative session in Texas that is considering new maps by denying quorum.
Abbott said Wednesday that the House of Representatives would be willing to “get to work” if Democrats returned to Texas for the second special session Friday but are keeping all options on the table if they don’t come back.
“If they show up, great, we’ll get to work and get all these bills passed. If they don’t show up, we’ll continue with the law enforcement efforts to try to track them down, arrest them and take them to the Capitol, but we will be ready either way,” he told Texas-based radio host Mark Davis.
Texas House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu, in a statement Wednesday afternoon, said that another special legislative session in the Texas legislature could be “a reset moment” for getting aid to victims of the flooding in central Texas – but he placed the onus on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Wu wrote, “This could be a reset moment: a chance to finally deliver real solutions for flood victims and fix the broken emergency preparedness system that continues to put every community in Texas at risk … ready to fight for flood relief, defend our communities, and invest in the safety Texans deserve. Will the Governor finally work with us for our families in the Second Special Session?”
ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and KGO-TV’s Monica Madden contributed to this report.
Members of the National Guard arrive at the Guard’s headquarters at the D.C. Armory on August 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will seek more permanent federal control of the Washington, D.C., police force as he continues his efforts to ramp-up crime enforcement in the nation’s capital.
Earlier this week, Trump announced his plans to deploy National Guard troops in the nation’s capital, declaring a public safety emergency in order to put the Washington police department under federal control and station the National Guard on the city’s streets. Trump’s current control of the D.C. police force expires in 30 days, after which Congress would have to weigh in.
Asked Wednesday whether he’d work with Congress to extend the emergency authorization allowing him to temporarily seize control of local law enforcement, Trump said he’ll ask Congress for a “long-term” extension of federal authority over the Washington police force.
“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that — long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days,” Trump said at an event at the Kennedy Center.
Trump indicated at one point that he’d ask Congress for more funds to fight crime and to make repairs to Washington’s streets and parks.
“We’re going to make Washington beautiful. We’re going to redo roads. We’re going to redo the medians. The pavers and the medians are all throughout the city. We’re going to take all the graffiti off. We’re going to have to remove the tents. And the people that are living in our parks, we’re going to be redoing the parks, the grasses and all. We’re going to be going to Congress for a relatively small amount of money. And [Senate Budget Committee chair and GOP Sen.] Lindsey [Graham] and the Republicans are going to be approving it,” Trump said.
Trump has long threatened to take control of Washington, saying he wants to crack down on violent crime in the District although police statistics show that in the past two years, violent crime has gone down.
“Fighting crime is a good thing. We have to explain we’re going to fight crime — that’s a good thing,” Trump said Wednesday. “Already they’re saying, ‘He’s a dictator,’ he said, referring to Democrats. “The place is going to hell. We’ve got to stop it. So, instead of saying, ‘He’s a dictator,’ they should say, ‘We’re going to join him and make Washington safe.'”
“We’re going to be essentially crime-free. This is going to be a beacon, and it’s going to also serve as an example of what can be done,” Trump said.
National Guard troops began deploying in larger numbers along the National Mall overnight, according to a person familiar with the plan.
According to a person familiar with the effort, the latest plan calls for sending the activated Army soldiers to spots around the National Mall in the middle of the night so they will be visible to D.C. residents by Friday morning.
Officials said the Trump administration is still in the process of setting up a joint task force, which will be led by Army Col. Larry Doane. While the task force is expected to include 800 activated soldiers, D.C. residents won’t see that many on the streets.
The troops will work in shifts of 100 to 200 troops at a time, and some of them will be assigned to administrative or logistical roles in support of local law enforcement, officials told ABC News.
ABC News producers did not see any National Guard or increased law enforcement presence around Washington Wednesday afternoon — including around the National Mall, D.C. Armory or in Logan Circle where a man was gunned down and killed earlier this week.
A White House official told ABC News that, beginning Wednesday night, officials expected a “significantly higher National Guard presence to be on the ground throughout Washington, D.C.” The White House official added that beginning Wednesday night, the deployment will transition to round-the-clock, 24/7 operations. Those operations had been previously focused on evening and overnight hours.
On Tuesday night, more than 1,450 federal law enforcement officers and National Guard members patrolled Washington, according to a White House official. Law enforcement teams made 43 arrests on Tuesday night — nearly twice the number made Monday night, the official said.
Those law enforcement teams included 750 D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers who were “uniformed, marked as patrol and directly assigned as anti-crime officers,” the White House official said. That was in addition to the federal law enforcement who had been previously mobilized in the area. The White House official said that there were about 30 National Guard troops on the ground last night.
The law enforcement teams were “deployed throughout all seven districts in D.C. to promote public safety and arrest violent offenders,” the White House official said.
After Trump’s announcement Monday, approximately 850 officers and agents fanned out over D.C. right after Trump declared a crime emergency in the capital, making 23 arrests, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, National Guard troops were spotted on the National Mall, with many stationed around the base of the Washington Monument. The troops left Wednesday morning.
It was not immediately clear why the presence of U.S. troops along the National Mall was needed, other than to put Trump’s orders on display. The area, marked by museums, monuments and long stretches of grass, is known as a relatively safe part of the city that attracts mostly tourists and school groups.
ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that National Guard did not make any arrests of individuals in Washington.
Members of the National Guard arrive at the Guard’s headquarters at the D.C. Armory on August 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will seek more permanent federal control of the Washington, D.C., police force as he continues his efforts to ramp-up crime enforcement in the nation’s capital.
Earlier this week, Trump announced his plans to deploy National Guard troops in the nation’s capital, declaring a public safety emergency in order to put the Washington police department under federal control and station the National Guard on the city’s streets. Trump’s control of the D.C. police force expires in 30 days, after which Congress would have to weigh in.
Asked Wednesday whether he’d work with Congress to extend the emergency authorization allowing him to seize temporary control of local law enforcement, Trump said he’ll ask Congress for a “long-term” extension of federal control of the Washington police force.
“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that — long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days,” Trump said at an event at the Kennedy Center Wednesday afternoon.
Trump indicated at one point that he’d ask Congress for more funds to fight crime and to make repairs to Washington.
“We’re going to make Washington beautiful. We’re going to redo roads. We’re going to redo the medians. The pavers and the medians are all throughout the city. We’re going to take all the graffiti off. We’re going to have to remove the tents. And the people that are living in our parks, we’re going to be redoing the parks, the grasses and all. We’re going to be going to Congress for a relatively small amount of money. And Lindsey [Graham] and the Republicans are going to be approving it,” Trump said.
Trump has long threatened to take control of Washington, saying he wants to crack down on violent crime in the District although police statistics show that in the past two years, violent crime has fallen dramatically.
“Fighting crime is a good thing. We have to explain we’re going to fight crime — that’s a good thing,” Trump said Wednesday afternoon. “Already they’re saying, ‘He’s a dictator.’ The place is going to hell. We’ve got to stop it. So instead of saying, ‘He’s a dictator,’ they should say, ‘We’re going to join him and make Washington safe.'”
Trump pledged to make Washington “crime-free.”
“We’re going to be essentially crime-free. This is going to be a beacon, and it’s going to also serve as an example of what can be done,” Trump said.
On Tuesday night, more than 1,450 federal law enforcement officers and National Guard members patrolled Washington, according to a White House official. Forces made 43 arrests on Tuesday night — nearly twice the amount they made Monday night.
Those forces included 750 D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers who were “uniformed, marked as patrol and directly assigned as anti-crime officers,” the White House official said. That was in addition to the federal law enforcement who had been previously mobilized in the area. The White House official said that there were about 30 National Guard troops on the ground last night.
The forces, which included 19 inter-agency teams, were “deployed throughout all seven districts in D.C. to promote public safety and arrest violent offenders,” the White House official said.
After Trump’s announcement Monday, approximately 850 officers and agents fanned out over D.C. right after Trump declared a crime emergency in the capital, making 23 arrests, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
The surge in federal law enforcement has yielded more than 100 total arrests since Aug. 7, according to a White House official. The official said that the charges have included one homicide charge, seven narcotics charges, 33 firearms charges, 10 warrants, 23 charges against undocumented immigrants and 29 other charges. The official adds that they have seized 24 firearms since operations began.
The official said that on Wednesday night they expect “significantly higher National Guard presence to be on the ground throughout Washington, D.C.” The White House official adds that beginning Wednesday night, the operations will transition to round-the-clock, 24/7 operations. Operations had been previously focused on evening and overnight hours.
On Tuesday, National Guard troops were spotted on the National Mall, with many stationed around the base of the Washington Monument. The troops left Wednesday morning. It was not immediately clear why the presence of U.S. troops along the National Mall was needed, other than to put Trump’s orders on display. The area, marked by museums, monuments and long stretches of grass, is known as a relatively safe part of the city that attracts mostly tourists and school groups.
