$1 Million-a-Day National Guard Occupation in D.C. Signals Possible Expansion to Other Cities

The National Guard’s ongoing deployment in Washington, DC, as part of President Donald Trump’s “crime crackdown,” is bleeding public funds at an alarming rate—about $1 million a day. “We won’t know the total cost until the mission concludes,” a defense official told CNN, though multiple experts have already calculated the daily tab based on troop pay, food, lodging, transportation, and logistics. Kate Kuzminski of the Center for a New American Security estimated the price is “likely costing more than $1 million a day,” while retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian echoed that the figure is accurate. What’s more troubling is the Pentagon and White House’s refusal to disclose official numbers, despite having done so in other cities, such as Los Angeles, where the Pentagon openly shared a $134 million estimate for a similar mission.

From an abolitionist perspective, this secrecy reveals more than bureaucratic caution—it reflects a deliberate attempt to obscure the true costs of militarization in our communities. These deployments do not address root causes of harm; they displace resources that could fund housing, health care, and education. Instead of community investment, we are watching public money weaponized against poor and working-class residents. Soldiers are not only stationed in metro stations and near monuments but also assigned to “beautification projects,” picking up trash and replanting grass. This is political theater at the cost of human safety and dignity.

Officials admit cost estimates exist but are being withheld at “senior levels of the Pentagon and the White House” because of the political stakes. As one insider put it, “everybody wants to have their hands in” communication around the mission. The refusal to disclose is not about logistics—it is about control and narrative management. Communities have the right to know how their money is being spent, especially when that money bankrolls the militarization of public space.

What’s happening in DC is not isolated. Other cities with large Black and Brown populations—Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, Atlanta—could be next. The Los Angeles deployment already set a precedent, and federal mobilization in other urban centers remains a looming possibility. Each new mission funnels taxpayer dollars into temporary military occupation instead of permanent community solutions. As abolitionists, we must be clear: $1 million a day could be funding life, but instead it funds repression.

Link: CNN