Pentagon OK’s National Guard Deployment to D.C. Ahead of Trucker Convoys

The Pentagon and the Department of Defense have approved a plan to deploy several hundred unarmed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., ahead of several trucker convoys expected to converge on the city in the coming days, according to a news alert issued Tuesday evening by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The state government and U.S. Capitol Police made the request for the National Guard “to provide support at traffic control points in and around the District,” according to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, speaking earlier on Tuesday. Kirby added that Guard personnel would also be ready in the event of “possible disruptions at key traffic arteries.” Trucker convoys, modeled after the ones that have blockaded Canadian cities in recent weeks, are headed for the Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1. Aggrieved over vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions, some of the protesters could be in D.C. as soon as Wednesday, with one organizer telling Fox News that they planned to choke the Capital Beltway.