Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has declined to send the state’s National Guard to Washington, D.C., noting that he didn’t believe it to be a proper use of these troops.
“In the absence of an immediate emergency or disaster that local and regional first responders are unable to handle, the governor just does not support utilizing the guard for this purpose, and does not view the enforcement of domestic law as a proper use of the National Guard,” Scott’s chief of staff Jason Gibbs told Vermont Public on Friday.
Scott is the rare Republican leader who’s refused to bow to the Trump administration’s requests as the president has deployed National Guard and federal law enforcement to address what he’s described as a spiraling crime crisis in the capital. In reality, data shows that violent crime rates in the district have declined in 2024 and 2025, and Trump’s efforts have been criticized by Democrats as a “stunt” designed to distract from other controversies his administration is grappling with, like the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Scott’s decision followed a Pentagon request for a “few dozen” of the state’s troops, according to Gibbs, and comes as six Republican-led states, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana, have authorized the deployment of their National Guard to D.C. in the last week.
All told, Trump has already deployed 800 National Guard troops to the city, and the states’ contributions could put that number upwards of 1,700.
It’s not evident why more troops have been requested from different states and what function they will serve upon their arrival in D.C.
A spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told the Associated Press that the state’s National Guard would “assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control.” Some troops “may be armed,” a Guard representative said Sunday.
“In this case, because it is being hyperpoliticized, the governor doesn’t feel like — and I believe the vast majority of Vermonters don’t feel like — it would be an acceptable and appropriate use of the National Guard,” Gibbs added in his comments to Vermont Public.
A Scott spokesperson and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to provide additional comment.
Gibbs noted that Scott would have viewed the situation differently if D.C. leaders had called for federal aid, which was not the case this time around. On Friday, the D.C. attorney general sued the Trump administration for its federal takeover of the leadership of the district’s police force.
“This doesn’t make sense. The numbers on the ground and the district don’t support 1,000 people from other states coming to Washington, D.C.,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Monday.
This also isn’t the first time that Scott has pushed back on the Trump administration’s attempts to use the state’s National Guard. Previously, Scott rejected a Defense Department request to utilize Vermont’s National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at detention facilities.
Trials & Tribulations of King Donald
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