The military said some troops are now carrying guns as Trump claims there is now ‘no crime’ in the US capital.National Guard troops patrolling the United States capital at the direction of President Donald Trump have started carrying firearms, the military said on Sunday.“Starting the late evening of August 24, 2025, [Joint Task Force-DC] service members began carrying their service-issued weapon,” the Joint Task Force-DC said in a statement.The troops are only authorised to use force “as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm”, the statement said.Unnamed officials told the Reuters news agency that the National Guard would either carry M17 pistols or M4 rifles.The announcement came as Trump claimed, without evidence, on Sunday that there is “NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC!”, one week after he deployed troops there.In the same post on Truth Social, Trump said he might “send in the ‘troops’” to neighbouring Baltimore, which he described as “out of control” and “crime-ridden”.Responding to an invitation from Maryland Governor Wes Moore to visit Baltimore and walk its streets, Trump said: “I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk’.”However, according to the Baltimore police department, there was a double-digit reduction in gun violence in July compared with the previous year. The city has had 84 homicides so far this year – the fewest in more than 50 years, accord …
