When the National Guard Comes to Town

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One month after sending the National Guard into Washington, D.C. saying they would fight crime there, President Trump is so pleased with the results that he is discussing how to put federal troops onto the streets of cities across the country — from Chicago to New Orleans. It’s a potentially dramatic expansion of what has already become an unprecedented military deployment on domestic soil. Today, we hear from residents of Washington about what life is like with the National Guard in town.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavarro. This is the Daily.
0:09.9	One month after sending the National Guard into Washington to fight crime there,
0:19.6	President Trump is so pleased with the results
0:22.6	that he's now discussing how to put federal troops under the streets of cities across the country,
0:28.6	from Chicago to New Orleans.
0:31.6	It's a potentially dramatic expansion of what has already become an unprecedented military deployment on domestic soil.
0:41.5	Today, my colleague Jessica Chung speaks with residents of Washington about what it's really like
0:49.3	when the National Guard comes to town.
0:58.7	Music National Guard comes to town. It's Monday, September 8th.
1:06.0	I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed,
1:14.4	bedlam, and squalor, and worse.
1:19.6	Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving
1:24.3	mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people. And we're not
1:30.0	going to let it happen anymore. We're not going to take it. This is Liberation Day in D.C.
1:37.1	And we're going to take our capital back. We're taking it back.
1:49.0	A day after President Donald Trump announced he was deploying National Guard troops into Washington, D.C.
1:51.0	The first Humvees started pulling in.
1:54.0	They lined up between the African American History Museum and the Holocaust Museum along the National Mall.
2:00.0	About 800 troops eventually came, and they weren't alone.
2:04.4	President Trump also called them the DEA, Homeland Security, and the FBI.
2:09.6	My message to residents is this.
2:12.9	We know that access to our democracy is tenuous.
	...

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