Gov. Larry Rhoden said Sunday that the troops were deployed at the request of President Trump
PIERRE, S.D. – A team from the South Dakota Air Guard has been deployed to the nation’s capital to aid in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in U.S. metropolitan areas.
The governor’s office on Sunday announced that Gov. Larry Rhoden has authorized a 12-member unit out of the Rapid City-based 129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment that is on the ground in Washington, D.C., at the White House’s request.
“South Dakota stands in solidarity with President Trump and his efforts to Make America Safe Again,” Rhoden said in a statement provided to The Dakota Scout. “With the National Guard’s help, President Trump has restored law and order to our nation’s capital – and our guardsmen will help keep it that way. We will not sit on the sidelines while crime threatens the safety of our families.”
According to the governor’s office, the 12 public affairs guardsmen are serving in a public affairs capacity within the joint information command center. The deployment was not made public until their arrival in Washington, D.C., due to security reasons, the governor’s spokeswoman said.
The deployment is under the command of the D.C. National Guard, is expected to last 30 days and will be fully federally funded, the governor’s office said.
It comes as part of Trump’s broader “law and order” push in the nation’s capital. Earlier this month, the president authorized the use of U.S. military forces to supplement local policing efforts in Washington.
The announcement also follows comments by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who on Sunday warned that additional military deployments to U.S. cities could be forthcoming in response to high crime.
“We do intend to add more resources to those operations,” the former South Dakota governor said while appearing as a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation. “But we will continue to go after the worst of the worst like President Trump has told us to do, focusing on those who are perpetuating murder and rape and the trafficking of drugs and humans across our country.”
But former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem took a decidedly different view in 2024 on militarizing the National Guard when she said there would be “war on our hands” if former President Biden federalized South Dakota’s National Guard and stopped them from performing duties at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“If (Biden) is willing to do that, and to take away my authority as governor as commander in chief of those National Guard (troops), boy, we do have a war on our hands,” Noem said Feb. 4, 2024, on Fox News.
Noem tweeted Feb. 6, 2024, that federalizing the Guard would be a “direct attack on states’ rights.”