Two hundred South Carolina National Guard (SCNG) troops deployed to Washington, D.C., in early August as part of President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown should be back in the Palmetto State by Sept. 30.
“South Carolina National Guard will conduct a relief-in-place with the Georgia National Guard and expects its soldiers to return home to South Carolina before the end of the month,” Maj. Karla N. Evans told Statehouse Report in a Sept. 11 email.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster authorized the Washington deployment on Aug. 16, after President Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital.
News that S.C.’s Guardsmen would soon be heading home came on the heels of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s Sept. 5 announcement that his state would contribute 300 troops to relieve some soldiers currently serving in D.C. — a mission that Trump has called “a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor.”
Critics of Trump’s move to use soldiers for domestic law enforcement note that crime in Washington has fallen steadily since a pandemic-related spike in 2020, though the numbers still remain well above the national average.
Since deploying to Washington, Palmetto State Guardsmen have “engaged in a broad range of public safety support activities—including Metro station presence, high-traffic patrols, traffic operations and school safety initiatives,” Evans said.
Asked for specific examples of Guardsmen’s activities during the operation, SCNG pointed Statehouse Report to the Guard’s news channels, where a video news release detailed work in helping to apprehend a robbery suspect on Aug. 31.
“I stayed with that individual as he was moving down the street to keep track of his location,” Staff Sgt. Hardy Bogue said in the video. “The police came up quickly … and they apprehended the individual.”
In contrast, one Palmetto State resident who recently visited Union Station in Washington told Statehouse Report he saw troops from other states that seemed to be stuck with little to do.
“I was able to talk to several of them as they were largely just standing
around, and many of them seemed quite bored,” he said. “Most of the time, they were just gathered in groups talking.”
“Right decision”
In a Sept. 9 visit with Palmetto State Guardsmen, Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of S.C. said Trump made “the right decision” in sending the troops.
“The men and women of the National Guard represent the principles that keep our country strong, and I am grateful for their commitment to public safety and the security of vulnerable citizens,” Scott said.
But with Trump threatening to send troops to more cities amid news reports of declining morale among those deployed, some are beginning to wonder what’s next for South Carolina’s guardsmen — and whether they’re being asked to take on a mission that critics say could turn dangerous in a New York, Atlanta or Chicago minute.
As president, Trump has significant authority over the federal district in Washington, including direct command of its National Guard, which legal experts say has provided a legal basis for the D.C. deployments.
But when he indicated that Chicago would be next, saying in a Sept. 6 social media post that the city “is about to find out why it’s called the Department of War,” Illinois officials were quick to push back.
“The president is using fear to deflect and drive a wedge among us,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “Unfortunately, he seems to be succeeding to some extent, but the people of Chicago won’t take kindly to a bully and a wannabe dictator.”
At press time, it was unclear where Trump’s troops-to-Chicago plan stood, with the president telling reporters on Sept. 10 that he’s now considering sending troops to “another city” where the governor and mayor “would love us to be there.”
Asked Wednesday whether McMaster would consider sending troops to Chicago or any other city if asked, the governor’s office directed Statehouse Report to his public comments of Aug 26.
“There’s no doubt in some of these big cities [people] aren’t safe,” McMaster told reporters. “So as long as we are requested to do it and as long as the law allows it … we will help.”
Unfair to troops?
But Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton, a decorated combat pilot who flew one of the last American military planes out of Kabul, Afghanistan, told Statehouse Report he believes the whole exercise unfairly politicizes the nation’s armed forces.
“It’s incredibly unfortunate that our National Guard is being used as political props,” Sutton said in a Sept. 10 interview. “Nobody signed up for this service.”
In particular, he said, he’s concerned about the safety of both troops and citizens in a place like Chicago, given that the National Guard is trained to fight, not to police cities.
“A military action and a law enforcement action are two totally different animals,” he said. “So we’re just applying the wrong tools to the problem there.”
Finally, Sutton argued, the deployment divides the country in ways that S.C. GOP leaders might see more clearly if the positions were reversed.
“Imagine if Illinois sent troops to a South Carolina city against our governor’s wishes under a Democratic president,” Sutton said. “Those folks in Columbia would be screaming their heads off about Big Brother and federal overreach, and rightly, if the shoe was on the other foot.”
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