The National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C., will begin carrying weapons on Sunday evening just two days after given authorization by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon by email outside of normal business hours on Sunday evening for comment.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered National Guard members patrolling the streets of Washington, DC, to begin carrying their service weapons as they fulfill President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the nation’s capital,

National Guard troops on duty in President Trump’s D.C. crackdown began carrying weapons Sunday evening, according to a spokesman for the National Guard task force. Several members of the Guard from South Carolina were seen late Sunday outside Washington’s Union Station with firearms holstered to their hips.