National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C. will remain in the nation’s capital for another four months. The Trump administration extended the orders for the mission through at least February 2026.
The extension was first reported by CNN and confirmed by multiple other outlets. Currently more than 2,300 National Guard troops are in the district, with approximately 960 of them coming from the District of Columbia National Guard. The rest are from seven Republican-led states that have sent their military personnel to Washington at the request of the Pentagon.
The extension comes as the mission into D.C. approaches the three-month mark. President Donald Trump announced plans to activate the D.C. National Guard in August to aid local and federal law enforcement fight allegedly high crime — federal crime data showed the city is seeing record lows in violent crime. Due to D.C.’s unique status, the president directly oversees the National Guard and they were activated under Title 32; as a result they can support local lawn enforcement and temporarily limit people’s movement but cannot arrest them. The troops from outside states were also sent under Title 32, rather than federalized under Title 10.
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Soldiers, who largely have patrolled federal parks and Metro subway stations, have been spotted over recent weeks picking up trash in Washington or being heckled by city residents, including some who have played the “Imperial March” from “Star Wars” at them.
Orders initially called for the mission to end in November, and some states previously announced plans to pull their troops from D.C. by that window. D.C. leadership has opposed the deployment, with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filing a lawsuit seeking to end the mission. A federal judge has not yet ruled on issuing a temporary restraining order against the administration’s deployment.
A post to the SAM.gov website for federal government contracting in September said that the National Guard Bureau was doing “market research” to find a vendor to feed troops in D.C. through January. At the time the National Guard said the post did not constitute an official extension of the deployment to the nation’s capital.
The extension comes the same week that a memo leaked confirming plans for the National Guard to set up quick reaction forces in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. The plan also calls for a “specialized” military police battalion to be set up inside Washington, D.C., according to information obtained by Task & Purpose.
Washington was the second city the Trump administration sent troops into, following Los Angeles in June. The administration federalized members of the California National Guard under Title 10 to go to Los Angeles and has attempted to make similar moves in Portland and Chicago, although those are held up by legal challenges.
