WASHINGTON — Thousands marched in Washington, D.C., Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s continued deployment of National Guard troops and the increased federal law enforcement on the streets of the nation’s capital.
The large demonstration, dubbed by organizers as the “We Are All DC” march, trailed down the district’s 16th Street NW toward the White House and came after several days of Trump’s heightened threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans and other Democratic-led cities.
The district’s Democratic attorney general sued the Trump administration Thursday arguing the ongoing presence of National Guard troops amounts to illegal military occupation.
Guard members from the District of Columbia and seven states had already been deployed in Washington as of this week when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday he would add 300 soldiers and 16 support staff, becoming the eighth state to send troops.
On Friday, Trump added Portland, Oregon, to the list of cities where he wants to deploy the Guard.
Demonstrators carried signs bearing the message “End the Occupation,” “Free DC” and “Get the ICE Out,” in reference to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in the district.
Dozens of organizations participated in the march, including labor unions, faith-based organizations, immigration advocates, the League of Women Voters D.C. chapter and the D.C. Democratic Party.
Gail Hansen, 71, of Washington, D.C., said she wants to see a decreased ICE presence.
“I believe in freedom, and I think we’ve all gotta let everybody know that what’s happening on our streets is unacceptable,” Hansen told States Newsroom. “ICE needs to go home. The National Guard needs to go home. FBI needs to get out of our streets. We are doing just fine in D.C.”
Charlotte Stone, 18, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, held a cardboard sign above her head depicting a caricature of Trump with a Hitler mustache and a message that read “Ignoring it is what the Germans did.”
“I’m disgusted with this country, I’m here with my friends, and we’re freshmen at George Washington University, and we’re disgusted. We need to do something about it,” Stone told States Newsroom.
The Washington Metropolitan Police Department released statistics Tuesday claiming overall crime had decreased by 8% in the district over the previous seven days.
Trump’s 30-day emergency to federalize law enforcement in D.C. ends Sept. 10. On Tuesday, district Mayor Muriel Bowser announced an agreement with the administration to continue a collaboration between local police and federal law enforcement.
On Saturday morning, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself with a burning Chicago skyline behind him and a message referring to the 1979 Vietnam War film “Apocalypse Now.”
He wrote on his platform Truth Social, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” in reference to his unofficial renaming of the Department of Defense on Friday.
–Ashley Murray, Florida Phoenix
Bo Peep says
Chocolate and nuts the place is a Hershey bar.
Pogo says
@Back
… by MAGA demand:
The Cannibal’s Ballroom Buffet
https://www.bing.com/search?q=october+1929
Don’t forget to try the stone soup.
Richard says
All white protesters yet DC is a majority African American. Where are they trucking these protesters in from?
don miller says
we always do what protestors want like keep the border wide open.
Kat says
We need to continue to tell our elected officials that it’s not OK. We need to continue to take to the streets in protest, peacefully. We need to protect the vulnerable among us.
Laurel says
Not much need be said about the three bigoted commenters here, other than wow, you poor things! “Hersey bars,” protesters “trucked in,” and last, but not the last, mr. who cares what Americans want if they leave the “border wide open.”
Do either of you have a thought of your own?
Laurel says
Portland Oregon? Seriously?
Trump is clearly desperate for ongoing, endless, need of attention!
Nobody’s home.
Erod says
Overview
Getting paid to protest – San Diego Union-Tribune
Earnings for professional protest demonstrators vary significantly, but often range from the low hundreds to several hundred dollars for a specific event, with some specialized roles potentially earning $100 or more per hour. While general demonstrator roles can pay in the low-to-mid range of hourly wages for product promotion, specialized paid protest roles can offer considerably higher rates, especially for events requiring significant time or specific actions.
Do they get. 1099 form with their cash payment ?
Pierre Tristam says
@Erod, as opposed to, like, lobbyists, who are paid seven figures, or ICE mercenaries hired at $50,000 a pop just to sign-in?
BillC says
Erod attempts to equate anti-Trump protestors with paid protestors only motivated by money. Here’s some of what he left out of the story:
“Michaela Miller and Aileen Lawlor met each other, and a group of other performers, at a San Jose coffee shop one recent morning. They were getting paid to protest and needed marching orders. The mission was to draw attention to the threat of AI censorship of creative characters, like Catgirl.
Donning matching t-shirts and cat ears, they picketed, carried signs and chanted at the entrance of a tech conference. “Uncensor AI!” they demanded. “We have only begun to meow!” They also distributed cat ears to make sure conference goers brought the message home with them.
The event was a publicity stunt pulled off by a company called Crowds on Demand. The site hires actors and activists at rates starting at $25 to $30 an hour to man telephone banks, email and letter-writing campaigns. Getting paid to protest at live events pays considerably more.”
Sherry says
She said sarcastically. . . OMG! Now they are actually “cloning” millions of those “Woke” protestors and shipping them from protest to protest simultaneously using AI and Chat GPT!
They should actually be using “Androids” instead as robots don’t get paid, right?
OOPS! What’s that you say? Oh No! The trump/epstein “secret” tribe bought up all the little boy and girl androids for “secret” activities? Wink! Wink!
Laurel says
Erod: Remember Jan 6 protesters? First they were Black Lives Matter folks (not sure how it got there), then they were Antifa. Then they were just normal tourists on a normal day, then they were arrested and found guilty and sent to prison. Then, they were victims, and then pardoned by Trump.
Y’all gotta make up your minds. When protesters don’t suit your agenda, just relabel them. Better than facts, right?
Joe D says
Reply to Richard;
Why are the majority of DC protesters “white?”
Because minorities are concerned they are more likely to get caught up in raids/ police action sweeps / and discriminatory practices than “white” protesters.
Secondly, I as a “white” retiree, am MORTIFIED that MY COUNTRY’S CAPITAL CITY (acknowledging that the crime rate still needs improvement…like everywhere else…EVEN PALM COAST), has been overrun by unnecessary and unwanted FEDERAL TROOPS, and National Guard, under the “lip service” of PUBLIC SAFETY, while Federal funds for local Police staffing, a total blind eye to ghost gun regulations and reasonable gun safety regulations ( assault rifle bans, mandatory background checks, undocumented gun transfers, and under age gun purchases, large capacity gun clips), and Community Crime engagement funds have been voted down by the MAGA/NRA members in Congress.
If my age and health status would support my participation in a DC protest…I would be there with posters myself!
Ray W. says
I have repeatedly commented about a community-based effort in Chicago to reduce crime, funded in 1994 for 20 years. The homicide rate during the span of the effort dropped from an average of over 900 per year to a low of 420 homicides in one year. In 2014, Republicans defunded the effort and Chicago’s homicide rate began to rise.
I stumbled upon an article in The Guardian US about a comparatively new anti-violence program being implemented in Baltimore, a program that was funded in the fall of 2021 by a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), an act that was signed into law in March 2021 by former President Biden.
As background, in 2015, the number of homicides in Baltimore had peaked at 344 for the year. By 2017, Baltimore’s homicide rate per 100,000 persons was the highest in the country.
In 2021, the year that the program was funded, the number of homicides was 338. In 2022, the first full year that the program was in operation, homicides dropped only slightly to 334. In 2023, homicides dropped to 262. In 2024, homicides dropped to 202. If Baltimore remains on pace since January 1, 2025, the homicide total for the year will be 143 dead, a rate of 25 persons per 100,000, a level not seen in Baltimore since 1978. During the week before the article’s publication date, August 16, 2025, zero murders occurred in Baltimore.
This is what I gleaned about the program from an article:
– In September 2021, Baltimore received $50 million from ARPA for an experimental anti-violence program. Baltimore’s new mayor, Brandon Scott, appointed a new police chief in 2023 to aid in incorporating police officers into the experimental program.
– The program starts with an identification of persons, either victims or defendants, who are most at-risk of committing violence or of being the victim of violence in their communities. Since a significant number of the city’s most at-risk persons live in a concentrated area of Baltimore, the effort focuses on that “tiny, impoverished and identifiable” area.
– According to the reporter, “the process is epidemiological, treating violence like an infection to track.” But no one factor in a person’s life is “perfectly predictive.”
– Schools, hospitals, police, prosecutors, federal officials, the mayor, the attorney-general, social service workers, jail personnel, all have a role in identifying those at “elevated” risk.
– The reporter wrote:
“For the first time in forever, Charm City’s leaders are all pulling in the same direction, and crime is falling through the floor. They’ve placated violence in inventive and predictable ways. They are, of course, justifiably concerned that Donald Trump will undo their successes on Republican “screw cities” general principles.”
– In a typical case, the process begins with a shooting. In a community where violence demands retribution, victims can be seen as potential retaliatory aggressors.
– Wrote the reporter:
“Case workers at local hospitals treating gunshot victims will take note of a patient’s history and their friends and family. The data is combined with school records, police records, social services records, and whatever else might be relevant; then the violence-prevention team will have a quick meeting. When they determine someone has enough risk factors, they intervene.”
A social worker then knocks on the door of the home of the person identified as being at-risk, complete with a letter from the mayor. The person is asked to accept help to avoid exposure to future risks. The contents of the letter are explained and delivered. If the person declines the offer of help, he or she is told that if they fall back into the criminal justice system, they could be identified as a danger and prosecuted where necessary and if able, with the goal of removal from their community.
– About three-quarters of those approached accepted the offered help. The process is called “focused deterrence.”
– Within a year, the level of violent crime began to drop in Baltimore.
– Ever since the onset of the program, 95.7% of those receiving help have not been re-victimized and 97.7% of those who are victimizing others have not recidivated.
-Said Mayor Scott:
“We have the lowest amount of violence that we’ve seen in my lifetime, and I’m 41 years old. … If everyone says that they agree that this is the top issue, that we have to make sure that more people are not becoming a victim of these things, why change it? Why disrupt the apple cart, if the apple cart is producing the best results that we’ve seen in a generation.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Do FlaglerLive readers wonder what President Trump did to the funding for this experimental and evidently successful anti-crime program?
Three months after he took office, the Department of Justice cut many community violence-intervention grants in half, including that for Baltimore. The termination letter said, starting with the reporter’s initial words:
“[T]he grant did not align with its priorities including ‘directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combating violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault.'”
Just what about cutting a city’s homicide rate almost in half doesn’t align with Trump administration policies? From the wording of the letter, can it be successfully argued that the Trump administration was lying when that letter was written?
Community, city and state officials in Maryland are trying to find sufficient funding to keep the program going.
President Trump has described Baltimore as one possible city among a number of possible cities that may be in need of a federal military presence to combat crime, just as he has named Chicago as a city that may be in need of a federal military presence.
In two different instances, Democrats have passed federal legislation providing funding for experimental programs designed to reduce violent crime. In both of those instances, the programs have worked. Then, Republicans come in and try to kill the anti-crime efforts by either slashing the funding for those programs or completely gutting them.
After the Chicago program was deprived of funding on October 1, 2014, the homicide rate in Chicago began to skyrocket. In 2016, one of the main themes of President Trump’s campaign message to voters was that they needed him to fight the rising homicide rate in Chicago. This campaign message doesn’t work if Republicans admit that they are the ones who cut off the funding for the experimental program that had brought the homicide rate in Chicago down by more that 50%, at least in many of the years it was in operation.
In four short years of operation, Baltimore’s homicide rate is on pace to be down by more than 50%, yet the funding is being cut back.
I argue that those who decry violent crime in Flagler County as out-of-control, and there are many among us who do just that, then why don’t you pressure your political leaders to at least look into these programs?
Ask your political leaders to find out how these programs work and how much they cost. If appropriate and eventually successful and if violent crime levels in the country drop, then it might be successfully argued to those who control the purse strings that the overall cost of the programs can bring about significant savings in law enforcement costs to the cities and county.
When I looked into the Chicago program some 11 years ago, after hearing about it at a seminar, the study I found included a segment on how many homicide prosecutor positions had been eliminated and how many homicide detectives had been reassigned to other non-homicide duties. Going from over 900 homicides per year to rates consistently in the 400’s can do that to a police budget.
Maybe such a program can’t work here due to differences in demographics. Baltimore has a population four times that of Flagler County and I suppose that far fewer of the elderly among us retire to Baltimore’s inner city. Maybe there are too few young people at significant risk in Flagler County that meet the criteria for the program.
Ray W. says
Less that a week ago, but after President Trump told his followers that Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore were the most violent cities in America, The Guardian published an article about crimes rates in American cities with populations above 100,000.
The leaders?
Jackson, Mississippi, with a murder rate of 78.7 per 100,000 residents.
Birmingham, Alabama, with a murder rate of 58.8 per 100,000 residents.
St. Louis, Missouri, with a murder rate of 54.1 per 100,000 residents.
Memphis, Tennessee, with a murder rate of 40.6 per 100,000 residents.
Chicago’s murder rate in 2024 was 17.5 for every 100,000 residents. The entire state of Louisiana last year had a murder rate per 100,000 residents of 14.5. And so far this year, Chicago’s murder count is 118 fewer people killed to date compared to 2024. If the trend continues, the murder rate in Chicago per 100,000 residents will drop to about 15, according to the reporter.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Murder rates, among all crime statistics, are fairly easy to discern, as it is difficult to manipulate the existence of a dead body, though the reasons why people kill others is sometimes difficult to discern.
And the murder rate all across the country has been dropping this year compared to last year, with some exceptions.
I do agree with one thing that Trump says about Chicago. Chicago has a populace of 2.7 million people. A city of 2.7 million people will likely have more homicides in sum than a city of 200,000 residents. But that doesn’t make Chicago more dangerous to its people than St. Louis.