And a line of four National Guard members in full uniform, each armed with a handgun, walked single file through the scene. Multiple studies have since found that the National Guard presence in D.C. has had no effect on violent crime. Still in legal limboLike the rest of Trump's controversial domestic deployments of the National Guard, the D.C. deployment has been challenged in court. That steep cost is coming at the expense of other priorities for the National Guard, says retired Gen. Randy Manner, who was once a top official in the National Guard at the Pentagon. It's something that affects all of us," Beau Tremitiere, counsel at Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal center that has been tracking the D.C. deployment.