Protesters Boo Vance Amid 1,900-Troop Guard Buildup in Washington

Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were met with loud boos and chants of “Free D.C.” when they stopped at Washington’s Union Station on Wednesday to thank National Guard troops deployed under President Donald Trump’s public-safety emergency. Joined by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the officials bought burgers for soldiers at a Shake Shack, with Vance telling them, “You guys bust your ass all day, we give you a hamburger. Not a fair trade.” Outside, demonstrators denounced what they described as the militarization of the nation’s capital. Roughly 1,900 Guard members are being positioned across the city, more than half from Republican-led states including Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to military officials. The soldiers are currently unarmed, though the Pentagon says arming them is under consideration. Vance dismissed the protesters as “crazy” and said the deployment was needed to “free Washington, D.C. from lawlessness,” arguing that official crime statistics understate the city’s problems. Local leaders dispute that assessment. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week that violent crime has fallen to a three-decade low, even as the city continues efforts to improve public safety. Attorney General Pam Bondi reported more than 550 arrests since Trump declared the emergency last week. The Guard activation is the largest peacetime federal troop presence in the capital since the 1960s, escalating a political clash over control of policing in the Democratic-run city.