WASHINGTON — The deployment of National Guard troops hailing from all across the country to Washington, D.C. is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion in additional funds through 2029.
The estimate from Jules Hurst III, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Pentagon’s comptroller, came in response to a series of questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a part of Hurt’s confirmation process.
“While American families are getting flattened by skyrocketing costs, Donald Trump is spending $1.4 billion to keep troops on the streets in Washington for years on end. The National Guard are not pawns and taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for Trump’s political stunts,” Warren wrote in a statement.
According to the information provided by Hurst, the National Guard deployment is planned to continue until January 2029, the end of Trump’s second term.
D.C. mission
Under Trump’s requested budget for the next fiscal year, his Make DC Safe and Beautiful mission — which has led renovation efforts of many of the city’s iconic landmarks and sought to reduce crime — would receive $605 million in funding. That would include more than $375 million for payroll expenses and travel allowances and nearly $230 million for operational expenses, such as housing and meals.
Trump first deployed around 800 National Guard troops in Washington in August 2025, an effort to tackle what he called a “crime emergency” in the city. The move came after similar deployments in many Democratic-led cities across the country, including in Los Angeles and Chicago.
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He also sought to federalize and deploy troops in Portland, Oregon, but was later blocked in the federal courts. He threatened similar actions in locations including New York and Baltimore, often following with political battles with those states’ Democratic leaders.
National Guard deployments across the country cost nearly $500 million in 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In general, the office estimated, deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to a U.S. city costs between $18 million and $21 million each month.
D.C. deployment grows
The initial deployment in Washington has since grown, with thousands of troops from states all across the country now deployed in the nation’s capital.
As of Aug. 1, there are more than 4,600 National Guard members deployed in Washington. About 680 of those guardsmen are from the District itself, while most are predominantly from the South.
Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi have sent the most guard members.
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But that total headcount has risen as many states and territories sent additional troops to help support events as part of the Trump-led Freedom250 celebration of the nation’s semiquincentennial in July.
For some states, their National Guard members have been deployed quietly to the nation’s capital, including in Idaho, where the state made no formal announcement of the move.
The Department of Defense’s budget estimates for fiscal years 2028 and 2029 assume a total headcount of approximately 2,500 National Guard personnel in Washington through January 2029. Future funding includes a planned $625.8 million for fiscal 2028 and $198.3 million for fiscal 2029.
