WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump's law enforcement crackdown will start carrying firearms, the Pentagon said Friday.

The Defense Department didn't offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed.

The step is an escalation in Trump's intervention into policing in the nation's capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members have been stationed in the heavily Democratic city, with the arrival this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.

Trump initially called up 800 members of the District of Columbia National Guard to assist federal law enforcement in his bid to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. Si

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