A routine military formation turned into a shouting match in the nation’s capital as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took aim at protesters, labeling them “ingrates” during an address to National Guard troops gathered at Meridian Hill Park.
The troops were assembled as part of the Trump administration’s “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” an initiative deployed ahead of the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations. The event drew immediate pushback from local demonstrators, who blared sirens and chanted “Guard, go home!” while administration officials, including Stephen Miller and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, spoke to the ranks.
Hegseth, a military veteran, opened his remarks by apologizing to the soldiers for a scheduling delay.
“To the soldiers here, thank you for everything you’re doing. Thank you for waiting out here in the sun. I’m to blame. Sorry, I had a meeting go long,” Hegseth said. “I never want to make the formation stand out any longer than it has to, because I’ve stood in your formation before, waiting for somebody to show up so I can get out and do my job.”
As the noise from the crowd persisted, Hegeseth incorporated the demonstrations directly into his speech, framing the disruption as a contrast to the Guard’s mission.
“And that’s the beautiful part about what you do. You do your job no matter what. In fact, this background noise this morning is perfect. It’s the sound of ingrates. Of ingratitude. Of people who are so blinded by ideology they can’t see law and order, and common sense in front of them,” Hegseth said. “But there’s nothing ideological about this group. There’s nothing political about this exercise. Law and order is something all Americans deserve, Black, white, rich, poor, man or woman from DC or far-flung places in this country.”
The task force has drawn scrutiny from critics who view the military presence in the district as an overreach of executive authority. Hegseth, however, maintained that the deployment is a non-partisan effort to secure Washington for residents and tourists during the milestone year.
“And the beautiful thing is, when I look at this group, that’s all of you. From all across this great country, you’re not from Washington, most of you, but this is your capital,” Hegseth told the crowd. “And you believe in this 250th year that it should be safe and it should be secure for every single citizen that lives here and every single citizen that comes to visit in this 250th year. And you do it whether it’s cold, whether it’s raining, whether it’s — well, it doesn’t snow here that often — whether it’s snowing or whether it’s 100 degrees on the 4th of July. See, these ingrates will fade away. They’ll go back to wherever they came from. You will do your job, and you will do it professionally with courage, boldly, assisting with arrests, helping people who need help.”
Before concluding, Hegseth turned his attention to the press, attributing recent drops in local crime rates directly to the White House and task force leadership.
“The crime rate here has dropped in staggering amounts. And the media won’t want to admit it because of course they’d have to give credit to President Trump. And then they’d have to give credit to the Department of War or to Stephen Miller,” Hegseth said. “But courageous men like President Trump and Stephen, who said enough is enough, are the reason why this city is a safe and beautiful place, 250 years into our great republic.”
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