AP News53%
Some DC residents, wary of Trump’s motives, uneasily back parts of the National Guard deployment 52%
By GARY FIELDS15%
10/23/2025, 11:04:30 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, False Dilemma, and Fundamental Attribution Error, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 19.7% saturation with 145 hits. Analysis detected 902 faulty-reasoning hits from 735 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 51.2% and a BS Rank of 52% (8,236 of 17,002 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 51.60% of the article peer group.
Some DC residents, wary of Trump’s motives, uneasily back parts of the National Guard deployment
WASHINGTON (AP) — The soldiers and airmen stood at the back of the black minivan, arming themselves — with black garbage bags and red-handled trash pickers — and headed for the park around the recreation center.
For the Washington, D.C., contingent of the National Guard deployed to the nation’s capital, it marked their 119th beautification project since the unit was called up in August as part of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention.
Their work has included cleaning graffiti in parks, picking up trash and refurbishing a recreation center.
There are plans to help a school reading program in an often overlooked area of the city.
The hundreds of National Guard troops still deployed to the city — at times armed — have unnerved some residents, who see in them the manifestation of presidential overreach on law enforcement.
And while there is deep mistrust over the motives of the overall deployment, others view the Guard in Washington, especially its local contingent’s focus on community improvement efforts, with a measure of approval.
“I’m glad for the help,” said Sabir Abdul, 68, a resident who regularly cleans the trash and debris in the park around the Fort Stevens Recreation Center in Northwest D.C.
“They have lives, but now they are here, helping us.”
The mixed feelings over the Guard deployment have forced local officials to strike a balance between opposing what they see as a flagrant violation of the city’s already limited autonomy and the acknowledgment that the district could use the help that at least the D.C.
National Guard contingent has been providing.
A lawsuit filed by D.C.’s attorney general challenging the deployment — part of a wave of legal action in multiple cities facing their own federal law enforcement interventions — will be heard on Friday.
The troops have become a fixture of the city, patrolling metro stations and neighborhoods and supporting other federal law enforcement agencies in operations that have led to hundreds of arrests and sparked fear in many communities, especially among immigrants.
Trump, a Republican, has praised the campaign as having reduced crime rates, which were already falling.
“President Trump successfully stopped the out-of-control crime crisis in our nation’s capital and turned it into a safe and clean city, with even Mayor Bowser praising the effort,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers.
To ensure the crime reduction successes continue, the federal law enforcement authorities are working with local authorities, along with the National Guard, who remain in place, she said.
D.C.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat whose city budget and laws are determined by Congress, has walked a fine line between appeasing Trump and pushing back on the deployment.
She has acknowledged that the campaign has helped push down crime, while arguing that the out-of-state National Guard deployment has not been “an efficient use of those resources.”
In the diverse Shepherd Park neighborhood, news that the Guard was arriving for cleaning efforts sparked a firestorm of opposition in community social media groups.
Neighborhood commissioner Paula Edwards was forced to explain that no local official had invited them.
“We feel that their presence is frightening to many of our constituents,” Edwards said in an interview.
She said the situation was complex because Guard members are following orders.
She also said the D.C.
Guard members were distinct from other state contingents because they are aware of the nuances and character of the city.
She said public attitudes in her community ranged from “let the troops clean the park” to some who seek to shame them.
Edwards said under different circumstances she would be glad to see the Guard there, but “only after this deployment ends.”
Valencia Mohammed, who leads a local tenants’ association, said she had reached out to the Guard to request help to clean up.
She simply wanted the park clean, including potentially dangerous items that could harm children.
Mohammed, 74, said she usually cleaned the park, along with other older residents.
She said she believed local officials opposed the Guard’s cleanup efforts because they “did not want to seem supporting any efforts by Trump, even if it was good for the community.”
“I just wanted our park beautified,” she said, “which is something none of the commissioners have done.”
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