Trump administration live updates: National Guard expected to be deployed in Washington

Trump’s tariffs keep coming. Stock markets don’t seem to care.

The U.S. government’s gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion, a record that highlights the accelerating debt on America’s balance sheet and increased cost pressures on taxpayers.

The $37 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report issued today, which logs the nation’s daily finances.

The national debt eclipsed $37 trillion years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected because of the multiyear Covid-19 pandemic starting in 2020, which shut down much of the U.S. economy, when the federal government borrowed heavily Trump in his first term and President Joe Biden to stabilize the national economy and support a recovery.

And now, more government spending has been approved after Trump signed Republicans’ tax cut and spending legislation into law this year. The law is set to add $4.1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Read the full story here.

Monica Alba and Zoë Richards

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to hold their long-anticipated summit at a U.S. military base in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, according to a White House official.

The meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will be their first during Trump’s second term as he seeks to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains

Some National Guard troops are deploying tonight with D.C. police, a senior Army official confirmed.

This is the beginning of the deployment, and the full roster of 800 troops ordered to Washington should be operational and deployed at the end of the week.

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Monica Alba, Courtney Kube, Garrett Haake and Rebecca Shabad

Reporting from Washington

National Guard troops began arriving at the D.C. Armory today to report for duty to carry out Trump’s directive to address crime in the nation’s capital.

The guard members, who entered the D.C. National Guard’s headquarters east of the U.S. Capitol dressed in their military uniforms, are part of a mobilization of about 800 soldiers the Army activated yesterday to assist with law enforcement.

This evening, five military vehicles were parked in the shadow of the Washington Monument as tourists passed by. About a dozen guard members were milling about but did not engage with a reporter asking about their mission.

A defense official told NBC News today that guard members will specifically be engaged in crowd management, perimeter control, security and communications support for law enforcement. The official said that in most cases, they won’t be carrying firearms.

Read the full story here.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said tonight that she expected members of the National Guard to be deployed on federal property in the nation’s capital.

“My expectation, though it can change, is that they will deploy the guard on federal properties — that includes parks, monuments, federal buildings,” Bowser said when a participant asked her in a virtual conversation with community leaders for more details about the Trump administration’s plans in its anti-crime push.

Bowser also said anticipated that higher-incident areas “would be for where the federal surge officers would go. So they are their law enforcement officers, not National Guard.”

National Guard members reported for duty today at the National Armory. NBC News reported earlier that they were issued a notice that said the order covers the period from Aug. 11 to Sept. 25.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this evening that Trump was wrong to assume that the city overall is “dirty” because of its homeless encampments.

“I know from many conversations with President Trump that this is like his issue — seeing homeless encampments. I don’t know, it just triggers something in him that has him believing that our very beautiful city is dirty, which it is not,” Bowser said during a virtual conversation with community leaders.

“And so I worry about this, because we spend a lot of time and resources trying to get the people who are in encampments into shelter, and they present with a lot of issues that make them not want to go into shelter,” she added.

Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser urged D.C. community leaders tonight to “jump in” to support the city in the ways they know best, characterizing Trump’s actions as an “authoritarian push.”

“What you shouldn’t do is wait for me to tell you what to do,” Bowser said during a virtual conversation. “This is a time where community needs to jump in, and we all need to do what we can in our space, in our lane, to protect our city and to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy.”

She was responding to a question that focused on what role the faith community could play as Trump takes control of the Metropolitan Police Department and beefs up federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital.

Bowser also called on the leaders to engage in efforts to elect Democrats to the U.S. House to serve as a “backstop” to the Trump administration.

The Texas redistricting fight has provided the Democrats eyeing the state’s Senate race with an elevated platform ahead of a potentially crowded primary clash.

State Rep. James Talarico, who has been considering a bid for the seat held by GOP Sen. John Cornyn, is in the middle of the debate as one of the Democrats who are holed up in Illinois to deny Republicans the chance to move forward with a plan to net their party up to five more House seats in Washington.

Read the full story here.

Mosheh Gains, Courtney Kube and Zoë Richards

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Army Vice Chief of Staff General Mingus greeted troops today at the National Armory, according to a defense official.

The official said Mingus wanted to motivate troops and lay out some of the details of the law enforcement operation.

“What we’ve been told clearly and distinctly is that we will be in a support role to law enforcement,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, addressed violent crime at a news conference today in Washington in light of the federal takeover of the local police department.

Pirro stood next to photos of teenagers killed by gunfire in 2024 and 2025 to make her case about gun violence in the city and bristled at mention of data reported by the Metropolitan Police Department that shows violent crime has decreased.

“What this makes clear to me is that there is a whole community that is suffering because of the violent crime in this district,” sge said. “And anyone who wants to tell me the crime is down and that we don’t need an emergency focus on crimes of violence, all they need to do is take a look at this and talk to the loved ones and the family members of these individuals all shot and killed long before their time.”

Pirro dodged a question about the Justice Department’s move to cut grant funding for gun violence victim programs this year under the Trump administration.

Black civil rights leaders and the mayors of several cities today denounced the deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital to combat crime, calling it “fundamentally grandstanding” and “a federal coup.”

And by suggesting that other cities, also run by Black mayors, may be next, Trump was “playing the worst game of racially divisive politics,” one rights leader said.

Trump announced yesterday that he would deploy 800 guard members to Washington, D.C., suggesting that the same could happen in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California.

“When you walk down the street, you’re going to see police or you’re going to see FBI agents,” Trump said about Washington yesterday. “And we will bring in the military if it’s needed.”

Read the full story here.

Yamiche Alcindor and Kimmy Yam

Amid a tense, monthslong back-and-forth, a senior White House official confirmed to NBC News that Harvard and the Trump administration are “closer than ever before” to reaching a $500 million settlement.

The federal government had threatened to slash billions of dollars of research funding, arguing that the cuts are a way to protect against antisemitism, which the administration claims Harvard had failed to appropriately address. 

“We have a great framework of what the deal could look like, but there’s still significant pieces of the deal that need to be negotiated,” the official said.  

The New York Times first reported Harvard and the administration were nearing a deal.

Harvard did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. 

The official said that while the parties have come closer to an agreement, the deal could still take weeks or months to finalize.

Monica Alba and Laura Strickler

Reporting from Washington

Over the weekend, Trump urged homeless people living in Washington to move out “IMMEDIATELY” and claimed “we will give you places to stay” that are “FAR” from the nation’s capital.

Yesterday, he announced that he was federalizing Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and deploying the National Guard, saying the federal government will be “removing homeless encampments from all over our parks” in order to “rescue” Washington “from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”

There were “many places” homeless people could go, Trump continued.

As of today, the administration had provided few details about how that would work, instead suggesting that displaced homeless people take advantage of existing services or face fines or jail time.

Read the full story here.

Abigail Williams and Raquel Coronell Uribe

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that Friday’s meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not a concession,” characterizing it instead as a “feel-out meeting.”

“People have to understand — for President Trump, a meeting is not a concession. If you watch some of the news — I don’t watch a lot of it anymore — but you watch it, and these people are going nuts. Oh, this is — what a win for a Putin; he gets a meeting. He doesn’t view it that way. A meeting is what you do to kind of figure out and make your decision,” Rubio said in an interview on the radio show “Sid and Friends.”

“So honestly, I think we’re going to know very early in that meeting whether this thing has any chance of success or not,” he added.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed today that Rubio had spoken on the phone with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. A readout of the call said the two officials spoke about “the preparation for the upcoming summit between President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

“Both sides confirmed their commitment to ensure a successful event,” the readout said.

Gabrielle Khoriaty and Zoë Richards

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry Cole, tapped by Trump to lead the federal takeover of D.C. police, said in an interview that, starting tonight, federal agents will be “embedded with the Metropolitan Police Department.”

“You will see federal agents working hand in hand on patrol with the Metropolitan Police Department, you will also see an increase of activity, patrol activity, in certain sectors to go after the violent criminal offenders that are the drivers of this crime,” Cole told Fox News in an interview that aired this afternoon.

Victoria Ebner and Raquel Coronell Uribe

Five Homeland Security Investigations officers were patrolling outside the Metro station at Union Station in Washington this afternoon.

An officer told NBC News that they were there to increase presence in response to Trump’s announcement to raise visibility in high-traffic areas and were not there for any particular incident at the station. The officers wore face coverings as passersby began to record them.

Union Station is the busiest Metro station in the city, according to data from Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, averaging more than 14,700 entries every day.

The United States has labeled the Pakistan-based Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) a “foreign terrorist” organization, increasing pressure on the separatist militant group as the Trump administration seeks to strengthen ties with Pakistan.

The designation, which the State Department announced yesterday, is more severe than the “specially designated global terrorist” one the BLA received in 2019. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the change “demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to countering terrorism.”

The BLA, also known as the Majeed Brigade, seeks independence for Balochistan, a province in southwest Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and Iran. In March, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a passenger train in Pakistan in which dozens of hostages and soldiers were killed.

The United States appears to be moving closer to Pakistan under Trump, who hosted its powerful army chief at the White House in an unprecedented meeting and imposed a much lower tariff on its products than those from India, Pakistan’s archrival and a key U.S. partner. Pakistan said in June that it would recommend Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize over his efforts to mediate the country’s four-day armed conflict with India, though India said Trump did not play a role.

The GOP-controlled Texas Senate passed the party’s plan to redraw congressional lines in the state to pad the Republican majority in the U.S. House, but the move is likely not to matter much, as enough state House Democrats remain out of state to block the bill from becoming law.

The Senate passed the legislation 19 to 2, with nine Democrats protesting by walking off the floor. One of the few Democrats who remained, Sen. Judith Zaffirini, said shortly before the vote that while she was ready to put up a fight, she wouldn’t because the debate was set to start “anew in the next special session.”

Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican, has said that if the state House can’t reach a quorum by Friday, he’ll adjourn the chamber to end the first special session. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will continue to call successive special sessions until enough Democrats have returned to Austin to allow Republicans to pass their redistricting plan.

Revenue from tariff collections rose to almost $28 billion last month, according to a Treasury Department report released today.

Customs duties were the third-largest source of revenue for the federal government during July, ahead of corporate income taxes.

More than $110 billion of tariffs have been collected from importers this year.

Despite the surge in revenue from the duties, the United States still ran a more than $291 billion budget deficit in the month.

Yamiche Alcindor and Dareh Gregorian

The White House is conducting an expansive review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to ensure they align with Trump’s view of history, an administration official confirmed to NBC News.

The assessment, which The Wall Street Journal first reported, will include reviews of museum exhibitions, online content, internal curatorial processes, exhibition planning, the use of collections and artist grants and wording related to museum exhibit messaging, the official said.

Read the full story here.

Trump will meet one-on-one Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at today’s briefing.

“Yes, that’s part of the plan,” she said when she was asked whether it would be a one-on-one meeting. “And as for the other mechanics and logistics, I will let our team speak to that when they’re ironed out.”

Trump faced strong condemnation during his first term as president when he met with Putin at a summit in Helsinki in 2018 and excluded top White House aides from attending. Afterward, Trump said he believed Putin’s denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Gabe Gutierrez and Rebecca Shabad

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at this afternoon’s press briefing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t invited to the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday because the meeting was requested by Putin.

When asked why Zelenskyy wasn’t invited, Leavitt said the “meeting came about” because Putin requested it through Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff.

“So the president is agreeing to this meeting at the request of President Putin,” she said. “The goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.”

Leavitt added that Trump hopes that there can be a trilateral meeting involving Zelenskyy in the future to bring the conflict to an end.

“I think the president of United States, getting in the room with the president of Russia, sitting face to face, rather than speaking over the telephone, will give this president the best indication of how to end this war,” she said.

Conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her news briefing if the president was considering awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to “Big Balls,” the Department of Government Efficiency employee who was attacked in D.C. earlier this month, for his “heroic actions.”

“I haven’t spoken to him about that, but perhaps it’s something he would consider,” Leavitt said of the president. “I’ll ask him and get back to you,” she said.

Edward Coristine, who uses the name “Big Balls” online, was beaten during an attempted carjacking and had tried to protect a woman he was with, the police report on the incident said.

Trump vented his outrage about the assault on his social media platform last week.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that homeless people in D.C. could face jail time if they do not use certain resources.

“Homeless shelters offered, addiction and mental health services, or jail, if they refuse, are the options on the table right now,” she said, when asked about the administration’s plans to address homelessness in D.C.

Leavitt stressed that a law on the books that was never enforced gives police the authority to take such actions.

South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, will meet with Trump in Washington this month to discuss trade between the two allies, as well as security cooperation amid growing threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

The summit will take place Aug. 25, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing Lee’s spokesperson. The liberal leader has made shielding his export-dependent economy from steep U.S. tariffs a top priority since taking office in early June.

The visit follows a July agreement under which Washington reduced its proposed 25% tariff on South Korean goods to 15%, including cars, the country’s top export to the U.S., while South Korea pledged to buy $100 billion in U.S. energy and invest $350 billion in the U.S. Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the talks are expected to cover expanding cooperation in key industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding.

The summit comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea accelerating its weapons program and dismissing calls for diplomacy. There are concerns that Trump could reduce the U.S. military presence in South Korea, which hosts about 28,500 American troops.

Nine Texas state Democratic senators walked off the floor today as their Republican colleagues began discussing the GOP-backed redistricting efforts that could help pad their majority in the U.S. Congress.

But unlike their House Democratic colleagues, their move will not block the Senate from considering the legislation.

The state Senate has the same quorum rules as the House, requiring two-thirds of senators to move forward with legislation. Democrats would need all 11 of their state senators to refuse to sit in the chamber to block the Senate from moving forward with the plan, but two remained inside when the rest walked out.

In a statement, the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus said that the senators walked out because “this session should only be about flood relief, and we refuse to engage in a corrupt process,” referring to the GOP push for mid-decade redistricting.

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Bridget Bowman, Ryan Nobles, Julie Tsirkin and Henry J. Gomez

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown has decided to run for Senate next year in Ohio, according to three sources familiar with his plans, potentially putting the Republican-leaning state in play for Democrats.

Brown lost his race for a fourth term last year by about 3.5 percentage points as Trump carried Ohio by 11 points. But a midterm year is typically tougher for the president’s party, and Democrats have been aggressively recruiting Brown to run in the special election to serve the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term against Sen. Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor whom Gov. Mike DeWine appointed to Vance’s seat.

Read the full story here.

The Supreme Court announced its oral argument schedule for the fall, with the highlight being a major showdown over the future of the Voting Rights Act.

The court will consider that long-running dispute over congressional redistricting in Louisiana on Oct. 15.

Another notable case involving a challenge to a state ban on so-called conversion therapy aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientation or gender identities will be heard Oct. 7.

On Nov. 10, the justices will consider a religious rights claim involving a Rastafarian man whose dreadlocks were cut against his wishes by Louisiana prison officials.