Members of the South Carolina National Guard ride a Metro train as they patrol, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered National Guard and law enforcement to patrol the nation's capital to assist in crime prevention, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
An incident occurred on the Washington, D.C. Metro on Friday, when a passenger on a train tried to take the weapon of a National Guard soldier deployed as part of President Donald Trump's seizure of the city, CNN's Brian Todd reported.
Trump's D.C. deployment, ostensibly to combat crime even as the crime rate has dropped dramatically in the capital in recent years, has provoked rising tensions with residents.
"The incident we're talking about occurred at the Capitol South Metro station, not too far away from here ... an individual attempted to grab a National Guard soldier's firearm during a disturbance there on a Metro train," Todd told anchor Jake Tapper.
"According to the task force, Mississippi National Guardsmen were summoned by travelers to a Metro train where a disturbance was occurring," said Todd. "The Guardsmen entered the train. They separated three individuals who were engaged in a disturbance. According to the task force, those individuals included two males and one female. Now, at that point, according to the task force, one of the males reached for the service weapon of a soldier ... the soldier, quote, 'assisted him to the ground where he was placed in hand restraints until a metro transit police officer arrived.'
"Now, these Guardsmen have been carrying their firearms in the open since earlier this week," said Todd. "This was an order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that they carry their firearms when they're deployed here in D.C. The mayor of D.C. has said that she does not believe that the National Guardsmen should be engaging in police operations, but we have to stress that this kind of incident could have occurred, actually, if a Metro police officer had come on board the train and tried to separate those people, that could have happened to a Metro police officer as well."
Nonetheless, he added, "it does illustrate, you know, what's in store, possibly for these National Guardsmen, at least some of the dangers involved as they carry their weapons openly on the streets of D.C."
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