JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Picking up trash, mulching gardens, patrolling Metro stations - by now, we know quite a bit about what the National Guard has been up to here in Washington, D.C. What's less clear is how the armed forces writ large feel about this assignment.
Now we can get a sense. Last week, internal documents from the National Guard were inadvertently shared with The Washington Post. They included assessments of public sentiment about President Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Alex Horton covers national security for The Post and joins us now to talk about this. Hi there.
ALEX HORTON: Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: Alex, just start by telling us, what are these documents that you reviewed, and who are they typically for?
HORTON: So this is a daily assessment prepared by National Guard Public Affairs. They measure what news reports are saying about their deployment to Washington, D.C., and they're also gauging the public sentiment about what's being said on social media. And what they are designed for is to gather up the information, summarize it for leaders, just so they have a better understanding of how their mission's being perceived out there by the public.
SUMMERS: What were some of the key takeaways from these documents that you and your colleagues at The Post reviewed about the way the public views this deployment?
HORTON: There's nothing surprising in here, but what's interesting about these documents is it shows how the National Guard is well aware of these discussions that are happening out there. One of the summary slides we got ahold of says, trending videos show residents reacting with alarm and indignation. One segment features locals describing the guard's presence as leveraging fear, not security, highlighting widespread discomfort with what many perceive as a show of force.
SUMMERS: You also touched on some assessments of troop morale as well. Now, as you said, these documents include publicly expressed opinions from people who self-identify as being in the military, not the troops here in D.C. specifically. But what did you learn about how people in the armed forces are feeling about the National Guard's deployment?
HORTON: Well, I think there's a little bit of nuance to this on how legitimate and how worthwhile it is, depending on who you are and where you are in your career. If you are a young guard member, there are several benefits unique to the National Guard of going on missions like this, that increase your ability to get a VA home loan, that increase the effectiveness of your GI Bill.
Let's say you've been on active duty. You already have those benefits. You know, you're in the Mississippi National Guard and you're making five figures or six figures at your job, and now you're making $1,500 a month because you're using enlisted pay. That could start to wear on you a little bit. You can see how that could create challenges for families who need child care. That can create challenges economically for people who have to stay away from their jobs.
Now, that's a trade-off. That's what these folks signed up for. They understand there's this balance between their civilian career and their civilian life and their military life. But there is the sense that you want to be doing something worthwhile, and for the National Guard, that often means helping your neighbor when there's flash flooding or a hurricane, or going on a combat deployment.
SUMMERS: And I'll just point out that in your article, the National Guard notes that troops have, quote, "cleared 906 bags of trash, spread 744 cubic yards of mulch, removed five truckloads of plant waste, cleared 3.2 miles of roadway and painted 270 feet of fencing." And look, those are not insignificant improvements for people who live in the city, but how does this square with the National Guard's mission?
HORTON: It doesn't, really - at least the traditional missions, right? And people who study civilian military relations point to this effect that's sort of accelerated in recent years of the National Guard being an easy button for civic problems. And when the guard becomes, like, this tool that you're reaching for on everything, it erodes their mission of being ready and training for contingencies. Like, they are not just the people you call for floods. They are going to Iraq and Afghanistan, and going out and serving alongside active-duty troops in combat, and then they come home, and they respond to hurricanes.
So when you start using them in this way, it starts to break down, like, these very traditional and very rigid rules of how you use military force and where you use military force and, more clearly, how often you use it within the United States. It should be an exceptional thing, and it's becoming a lot more ordinary. And that alarms some people who follow this closely.
SUMMERS: That's Alex Horton, national security reporter at The Washington Post. Thank you so much.
HORTON: Thank you much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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