Since the mission began on Aug. 11, 2025, nearly 9,700 National Guard troops from across the country have rotated through Washington. He also cited incidents in which Guard members stopped a sexual assault aboard Metrorail and intervened in an attempted knife attack. During a recent visit to Starburst Plaza in Northeast Washington, he recalled watching an Air National Guard member administer Narcan before a teenager riding a scooter remarked, “I’ve never seen this place so clean.” project the deployment will require another $1.4 billion through January 2029, on top of hundreds of millions already spent to house, equip and pay Guard members. “The National Guard are not pawns and taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for Trump’s political stunts.”