Republican-led states sending hundreds of troops to US capital

WASHINGTON - Mississippi will send some 200 National Guard personnel to Washington, its governor said on Aug 18, where they will join hundreds more from other Republican-led states to double the number of troops in the US capital.

US President Donald Trump last week ordered the

deployment of National Guard forces in Washington

as part of what he has billed as a crackdown on crime in the city, despite statistics showing violent offences are in fact down.

“I’ve approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard soldiers to Washington to support President Trump’s effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital,” Governor Tate Reeves said in a statement.

The announcement followed others over the weekend from the governors of Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina, who said they would send troops from their states.

Ohio will provide 150 and South Carolina around 200, while West Virginia will send approximately 350, some of whom have already begun to arrive, according to a statement from the joint task force responsible for the mission.

They will join 800 troops from the DC National Guard who have already been mobilised for the mission. It was not immediately clear why forces from other states were being sent instead of additional personnel from Washington.

The overwhelmingly Democratic US capital faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.

However, data from Washington police shows significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.

The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Mr Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was spurred by immigration enforcement raids.

That deployment marked the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor. AFP