Taking Action Against Occupation
D.C. residents are resisting Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital.
Originally published in The Progressive Magazine
[More photos added]
On August 11, President Donald Trump announced in an address at the White House that he was sending the National Guard to Washington, D.C., to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse.” Later in the speech, as he stood flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, he claimed, “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
Almost immediately, D.C. residents and visitors resisted the federal occupation, much like local communities across the country have resisted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids for the past several months. Many of these public actions are not organized in advance, but rather are impromptu reactions to seeing armed and masked soldiers stopping cars in the streets. Local community groups have risen to the challenge, taking to the streets, organizing neighborhood watches for federal agents, and making it clear to Trump that the new camouflaged temporary residents of the nation’s capital are not welcome.
Over Labor Day weekend, The Progressive followed members of a new veterans’ group called Remember Your Oath as they handed out information on how National Guard soldiers can constitutionally refuse orders. Later, we took to the streets with D.C. Against Trump, a local community coalition, as members marched from D.C.’s “Black Broadway” to the Washington Monument for a rally.
Lelaina Brandt, one of the founding organizers of Remember Your Oath, speaks with two National Guard members. Brandt, a National Guard veteran, told The Progressive, “We sort of started seeing signs of things going sideways in this country. And so we had these thoughts . . . . And then when we found out they were going to be deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., we said, ‘Now is the time.’ And so we gathered our stuff and we got over here.”
Eric—wearing a shirt featuring GI Robot, a character from the DC Comics series Creature Commandos whose primary directive is to kill Nazis—talks to two National Guard members after handing them a pocket Constitution and information about the GI Rights Hotline.
A member of the National Guard holds his finger near the trigger of his rifle while chatting with members of the veterans group Remember Your Oath. Many National Guard members were armed two weeks into their deployment in Washington, D.C., following a new order from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Sean Dunn, the D.C. resident and former federal employee who threw a submarine sandwich at a federal agent on August 10, has become a legend to those resisting Trump’s military takeover. Multiple incarnations of a poster depicting the throw have been wheatpasted throughout the city—some showing the sub hitting White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller or, pictured here, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
Local businesses have been hit hard by the federal law enforcement presence, many complaining that their bars and restaurants have been empty on weekends as people are fearful. A Washington Post-Schar School poll found that 65 percent of residents say that the National Guard presence will not make the city safer. During the march, many employees and customers, including people from Solid State Books, a Black-owned independent bookstore, came out and cheered, taking videos with their phones.
Hundreds of people take to the streets in a march from “Black Broadway” to the Washington Monument, carrying signs calling for D.C. statehood and an end to the military occupation.
D.C. residents of all ages participated in the march, including this child who joined in on the chants with a whistle.
As protesters neared the end of the march, they were met with National Guard members carrying loaded rifles, who appeared to be protected by the D.C. Metropolitan Police, which felt surreal. The marchers paid them little attention, moving on to the rally held at Sylvan Theater near the Washington Monument.
Read the story of what happened after:
Zach D Roberts
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