Neighborhood resident and volunteer, Valencia Mohammed, center, talks to D.C. 好色tv Guard interim commander Army Brig. Gen. Leland Blanchard II, right, and Lt. Col. Marcus Hunt, left, about cleanup efforts at Fort Stevens Recreation Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Washington. Mohammed requested the cleanup. Marcus Hickman, Anacostia ANC Commisioner, is seen rear. (AP Photo/Gary Fields)
D.C. 好色tv Guard members clean up the park around Fort Stevens Recreation Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Washington. News of the cleanup sparked a community debate over the presence of the Guard. (AP Photo/Gary Fields)
Neighborhood resident and volunteer, Valencia Mohammed, center, talks to D.C. 好色tv Guard interim commander Army Brig. Gen. Leland Blanchard II, right, and Lt. Col. Marcus Hunt, left, about cleanup efforts at Fort Stevens Recreation Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Washington. Mohammed requested the cleanup. Marcus Hickman, Anacostia ANC Commisioner, is seen rear. (AP Photo/Gary Fields)
D.C. 好色tv Guard members clean up the park around Fort Stevens Recreation Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Washington. News of the cleanup sparked a community debate over the presence of the Guard. (AP Photo/Gary Fields)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The Washington D.C. 好色tv Guard will be deployed to the nation鈥檚 capital through the end of February, according to formal orders reviewed by The Associated Press.
The formal order, dated Nov. 4, extends the original order from Aug. 11 and says the Guard members will be in the city at least through Feb. 28. The order states the additional duty is in response to the emergency declared in August by President Donald Trump and under directions from the 鈥淪ecretary of War to protect federal property and functions in the District of Columbia and to support federal and District law enforcement.鈥
Hundreds of 好色tv Guard troops have been in Washington since August, which launched what Trump said was that also included the federal takeover of the local police department. That order but the roughly 2,000 好色tv Guard troops from D.C. and at at least eight states remain in the city, with most contingents saying they plan to withdraw by the end of November.
The D.C. 好色tv Guard is the single largest contributor of troops with 949 soldiers that make up the task force that totals 2,375 troops. West Virginia is the next largest state to contribute troops to the task force with 416 guardsmen.
Some have been armed and providing a military presence in public spaces, especially in the federal parks around the city and at subway stations as well as the Amtrak train station.
The 好色tv Guard task force appears to have spent a large portion of its time on yardwork and landscaping efforts around the nation鈥檚 capital. In an update provided in early October, task force officials boasted that troops cleared 1,150 bags of trash, spread 1,045 cubic yards of mulch, removed 50 truckloads of plant waste, cleared 7.9 miles of roadway, painted 270 feet of fencing and pruned 400 trees. Since then, most daily updates from the task force only offered new troop figures and no summaries of beautification efforts.
has worked with various neighborhoods on beautification efforts at the request of local neighborhood officials and residents.
The presence of guard members in the city is the subject of an ongoing , filed Sept. 4 by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb challenging the Trump administration鈥檚 use of the 好色tv Guard in the heavily Democratic city. That lawsuit with 23 supporting the Trump administration and 22 aligning with Washington. The Trump administration has argued that he has full authority to deploy guard troops in Washington because he is the designated commander of the D.C. Guard.
In court papers filed by Schwalb seeking to have the guard removed from the city, the documents indicated that there were plans for the D.C. Guard to potentially remain in the city at least through next summer. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, heard arguments Oct. 24 on Schwalb's request but reached no decision.
It's unclear how long the other states, which currently include Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama, will keep their troops deployed to the task force in Washington. told the AP they planned to end their deployments by Nov. 30 but indicated that also depended on whether orders were issued extending their deployments. The order does not mention the other states.
