Georgia Commits 300 National Guard Troops to DC Crime Crackdown

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is joining a growing list of Republican governors supporting President Donald Trump’s crime emergency response in Washington.

Members of the National Guard stand by at Union Station in Washington on Aug. 14, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The state of Georgia is sending more than 300 of its National Guard troops to support President Donald Trump’s ongoing crime crackdown in the nation’s capital.

“Georgia is proud to stand with the Trump administration in its mission to ensure the security and beauty of our nation’s capital,” Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said on Sept. 5. “We share a commitment to upholding public safety and are grateful to these brave Guardsmen and women, for the families that support them, and for their dedication to service above self.”

Kemp’s office said the deployment would consist of some 316 personnel, including 300 soldiers and 16 support staff, join the National Guard mission in the District of Columbia.

With the deployment, Kemp joins a growing list of Republican governors supporting Trump after the president issued an executive order on Aug. 11 declaring a crime emergency in the District of Columbia. In addition to mobilizing the D.C. National Guard, Trump also federalized the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia have already dispatched troops from their respective states to support the crime control mission, dubbed Joint Task Force-DC.

Joint Task Force-DC currently consists of 2,290 total National Guard troops, including 952 troops from the D.C. National Guard, and 1,338 from the supporting states. Those troops are supplementing the Metropolitan Police Department’s force of about 3,000 officers.

Kemp’s office said the first 16 soldiers, filling support roles related to medical and military police activities, arrived at Joint Base Anacostia-Boiling earlier this week. The remaining 300 Georgia National Guard troops are due to mobilize and begin arriving in the District of Columbia in mid-September, and relieve other National Guard troops previously dispatched for the crime prevention effort.

“As they have demonstrated again and again, our Georgia Guard is well equipped to fulfill both this mission and its obligations to the people of our state,” Kemp said.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Sept. 5 that there have been more than 1,900 arrests in the District of Columbia since the start of Trump’s crime emergency response.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has announced a drop in crime since the start of the federal effort.

“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer,” Bowser said on Aug. 27. “So this surge has been important to us for that reason.”

Still, Trump’s crime crackdown has not been without its share of opposition.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, on Sept. 4, announced his office is suing to challenge the use of National Guard troops as part of this law and order campaign.

“Armed soldiers should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” Schwalb said. “The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms. It must end.”

The Trump administration has faced similar legal challenges following the deployment of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to guard federal property in Los Angeles in June. Democrats in Illinois are also bracing themselves as the Trump administration weighs a National Guard deployment as part of another crime crackdown in Chicago.