Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push". Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.

National Guard troops called on to active-duty by President Donald Trump arrived at the footsteps of the Washington Monument on Tuesday as part of his plan to address what he insists is "out of control" crime in the nation's capital.