A military vehicle crashed into a car in a residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, punctuating a day that saw out-of-state troops joining patrols on the National Mall and top administration officials being met with protesters as they visited troops patrolling a transit station.
The vehicle collision, from which the civilian driver was reported to suffer minor injuries, comes as the National Guard’s mission to buttress President Donald Trump’s crackdown on D.C. enters its second week.
Under the auspices of combating crime, Trump last week activated the D.C. Guard, deployed hundreds of federal law enforcement officials on city streets, and invoked a heretofore unused law to federalize the D.C. local police force.
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D.C. officials have sued over the attempted takeover of the police force, but the Guard deployment, which Trump has the power to do unilaterally since D.C. is not a state, has seen little pushback beyond a couple of Democratic bills in Congress that are unlikely to get votes.
What started as an 800-troop mission for the D.C. National Guard has ballooned to more than 2,000 troops as Republican governors from six states have pledged to send hundreds of their Guardsmen as reinforcements.
While videos of unidentified federal law enforcement officers setting up vehicle checkpoints, violently detaining civilians and being taunted by D.C. residents have gone viral, the Guard deployments have so far appeared relatively uneventful.
But an incident Wednesday morning demonstrated the potential perils of having a bustling city teeming with military equipment.
At about 6 a.m. Wednesday, a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle, a 14-ton vehicle designed to withstand blasts from roadside bombs in war zones, collided with a small SUV in an intersection in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The driver of the civilian car, who became trapped in the vehicle and had to be extracted by the fire department, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the DC Fire and EMS Department said on social media.
The military vehicle was part of a five-vehicle convoy and, after the collision, the convoy and a D.C. police cruiser stopped to provide aid to the civilian, the Joint Task Force-District of Columbia, or JTF-DC, said in a statement.
“This is currently undergoing an investigation,” the emailed statement said. “The D.C. National Guard and JTF-DC remains committed to the safety of our service members and the public.”
Video of the aftermath of the crash circulated online.
“You come to our city and this is what you do? Seriously?” a bystander can be heard yelling at the troops in the video.
Guardsmen so far have been mostly stationed in tourist areas such as the National Mall and Union Station, a hub for Amtrak, Greyhound, regional trains, the local Metro and other transportation services. They have also been patrolling some Metro stations around the city.
The National Mall was relatively quiet when a Military.com reporter visited the area Wednesday afternoon, with a smattering of Guardsmen walking up and down the grassy corridor against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and other attractions.
The patrols were occasionally interrupted by tourists asking for pictures, while other onlookers snapped pictures or whispered about the military presence from afar.
All of the Guardsmen whom Military.com spoke with Wednesday said it was their first day on the mission, with most saying they came from West Virginia. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey was the first governor to say he’d contribute to the mission, pledging 300 to 400 troops on Saturday.
The Guardsmen were told their mission is to help local law enforcement and act as a visual deterrent, they said. Universally, they praised the kindness of the people they’ve interacted with on the Mall. And if there was any discomfort with the idea of patrolling a U.S. city, they did not show it.
“For me, it’s an honor to be at the capital serving the people,” said Spc. Nevaeh Lekanudos, who was patrolling outside the Smithsonian Metro station. “I know people kind of see it as a negative. They see it, like, we’re basically in our own territory. But we’re happy to be here. We’re all for the same thing, and we really are here for you guys. So we just don’t want it to be seen as something negative. We’re here to support.”
A couple of miles away, Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the troops deployed to Union Station on Wednesday and handed out Shake Shack burgers to some of them for lunch.
The pair, who were also joined by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, were greeted by boos and shouts of “free D.C.” from protesters that were loud enough to be heard on a stream of the visit.
Miller claimed without evidence the protesters aren’t D.C. residents and called them “crazy communists,” an unusually political message to deliver in remarks where he was surrounded by troops.
“So we’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old,” Miller said. “And we’re going to get back to the business of protecting the American people and the citizens of Washington, D.C.”
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