How Trump Is Expanding the Role of the American Military on U.S. Soil

chairwoman ruff’s conclusion to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., is his boldest move to date to expand the use of military power on U.S. Soil.

The deployment of 800 National Guard troops to Washington, which the president alleges has been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,” amplifies the law-and-order themes that play well with his political base. He buttressed this announcement Monday by effectively federalizing the Washington police department, putting it under the control of the Trump administration.

In making these moves, he alleged the actions were warranted for a number of reasons that ranged from crime to homelessness.

The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by Trump to push the boundaries of how U.S. Troops can be deployed in American territory, triggering a fierce legal debate over the U.S. Military’s expanding footprint at home. Trump is also using U.S. Military bases for migrant detention centers and has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and on the Southern U.S. Border.

“The most benign interpretation is that this is an attempt to gain a public-relations victory by claiming credit for the already historically low crime rates in D.C.,” said Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former professor at the U.S. Army War College. “The worst-case interpretation is that it is a test run for more legally dubious uses of military forces in other American cities.”

The same day as Trump’s announcement about the National Guard in D.C., a federal trial began in San Francisco over California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s challenge to Trump’s move to federalize state National Guard units there two months ago. The case might be the opening salvo in a much broader battle over the use of military force in the nation’s streets when the president’s claims of emergency are widely disputed.

Trump has long leaned on the threat of using U.S. Military force to respond to domestic problems. In the first administration, chief of staff John Kelly told others that one of his biggest challenges was dissuading the president from using the military on U.S. Soil. He said that Trump didn’t understand that the military was only meant to be deployed domestically in rare circumstances, according to a person familiar with the exchanges.

After returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump increasingly began to notice homeless encampments when his motorcade drove through the city to go to his golf course in Sterling or to the Kennedy Center, according to a senior administration official. “He’s staying in D.C. A lot more this term, and he pays attention to the news in D.C.,” the person said.

Trump raised the issue of crime and graffiti with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser during the transition and closely followed a spate of crimes over the July 4 weekend, repeatedly raising the topic of crime with top aides, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

For nearly 150 years, the Posse Comitatus Act has sharply limited the military’s role in domestic law enforcement, barring it from policing civilians except in rare, legally defined cases. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, he has deployed the National Guard and U.S. Military on domestic soil several times.

In June, Trump deployed U.S. Marines and California National Guard troops to Los Angeles when demonstrators protested the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ arrests of suspected illegal immigrants, leading to confrontations with law enforcement.

On the U.S.-Mexico border, where active-duty U.S. And National Guard soldiers have been deployed, troops have detained migrants inside a newly declared “National Defense Area,” and U.S. Air Force planes have also been used to ferry detainees out of the country.

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that military bases in New Jersey and Indiana would be used to house detainees suspected of being illegal immigrants who would be overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. That would enlarge the network of military facilities for detained migrants, which has included U.S. Military bases at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Guantanamo, Cuba, which have already been used to hold detainees.

While Trump activated all 800 members of the D.C. National Guard, only 100 to 200 soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time, according to an Army statement. Army spokesman Dave Butler said they would not come in direct contact with civilians and only provide a presence to deter criminals, as well as administrative and logistical support to law enforcement. D.C. Officials say violent crime last year was at a 30 year low.

While U.S. Troops deployed to Los Angeles were only meant to protect federal buildings, their role was broadened to escorting ICE agents during their arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

It also turned out to be open-ended—while they were initially meant to stay in Los Angeles for 60 days, the Pentagon recently issued a new activation order to extend their deployment through early November. Only several hundred of the nearly 5,000 National Guard troops sent to the city remain, mostly limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles.

It isn’t clear how long the National Guard will be deployed to Washington.

“These missions are highly fraught for the military, and whether they turn out well or poorly depends on the implementation details that are still murky,” Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, said of Trump’s decision. “The closer the implementation details come to traditional police work, the more problematic—both legally and operationally—it is for the military.”

Previous presidents have deployed the National Guard to quell large-scale civil unrest, as was done in 1968 when riots erupted in Washington, D.C. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, President Lyndon Johnson deployed 1,750 National Guardsmen and more than 11,000 active duty troops to support the beleaguered D.C. Police forces.

The laws pertaining to the District of Columbia grant Trump authority for using the National Guard that goes beyond what he enjoys in the rest of the country. The president has direct control over D.C. National Guard without taking steps to federalize the troops, as it required in U.S. States.

“D.C. Has long been unique both politically and legally, even compared to other federal territories. The president has direct control of the D.C. National Guard in a way that he doesn’t have other National Guards, including Guam’s,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. “The larger issue is the possibility that we become desensitized to the prospect of a U.S. President putting troops in D.C. For entirely invented reasons.”

Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com, Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com and Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com

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