Trump’s False Claims of Military Combat with Gang Members Debunked by Officials

President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that U.S. troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat with members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua on Washington D.C. streets has been categorically denied by military officials. This claim represents the latest in a series of demonstrably false statements the president has made regarding the deployment of troops in American cities.

During an address to hundreds of top military officers late last month, Trump vividly described an alleged confrontation: “We had gangs of Tren de Aragua, say 10, 12, 15 kids. And these military guys walk up to them, and they treat them with disrespect, and they just got pounded.” He further claimed the suspected gang members were “thrown into paddy wagons and taken back to their country.”

Joint Task Force–District of Columbia, which oversees military operations in the nation’s capital, flatly rejected these assertions. JTF–DC spokesperson Alexia Nal told The Intercept, “Nope. We’re not allowed to,” explaining that service members are prohibited from physically engaging with civilians. One defense official, speaking anonymously, characterized Trump’s claim as “obvious bullshit,” while other government officials expressed similar disbelief.

The White House did not respond to questions about the alleged assaults, whether the purported gang members were children, or if Trump was suggesting members were transported directly to Venezuela.

Trump’s fabricated combat narrative parallels his equally false claims about crime elimination in Washington since troops began their occupation in August. “D.C. is now a no — it’s a free crime city. We have no crime in D.C. … It took me 12 days,” Trump declared last month. He repeated these claims more recently, stating: “We’ve got no crime. It took 12 days to solve the problem.”

Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Ebony Major directly contradicted this assertion, stating plainly: “Yes, there has been crime. I mean, there’s crime everywhere.” The department’s website regularly documents ongoing criminal activity, including two homicides announced in press releases just last week.

Beyond Washington, Trump has deployed or attempted to deploy troops to Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon. Federal judges have increasingly pushed back against these actions. Last month, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled the Los Angeles occupation illegal, noting there was “no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

Similar rulings have blocked proposed military occupations in Portland and Chicago. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut wrote that Trump’s determination was “simply untethered to the facts,” while District Judge April Perry stated the administration’s “perceptions are not reliable.”

The president has also threatened military deployment to Baltimore, New York City, Oakland, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle, despite falling crime rates and opposition from local officials. “We’re going to go city by city,” he said earlier this month. “We’re going to have safe cities.”

Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group, noted Trump’s approach follows a familiar pattern. “All authoritarian regimes frame ruthlessly oppressive social control and militarization as necessary for public safety,” she told The Intercept. The D.C. deployment alone is estimated to cost approximately $1 million per day.

Trump’s justifications have consistently relied on hyperbole and misrepresentation. He has called protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy,” described Portland as “war-ravaged,” and falsely claimed Washington D.C.’s homicide rate exceeds “the worst places on Earth.”

His fixation on Tren de Aragua follows earlier administration attempts to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for fast-track deportations of alleged gang members. Last month, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked this effort, with Judge Leslie Southwick writing, “We conclude that the findings do not support that an invasion or a predatory incursion has occurred.”

Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security project, summed up the situation: “President Trump’s false and inflammatory justifications for deploying federal agents and National Guard troops to vibrant American cities may keep shifting, but the truth does not. There’s simply no emergency to justify deploying federal forces to Washington D.C. or any other city the president wrongly paints as a hellscape.”

Experts believe Trump’s fearmongering about American cities serves to galvanize support for increasingly authoritarian policies. “The more people believe that violence is rampant, the more power he can accrue under the guise of national security,” said Sara Haghdoosti, executive director of Win Without War.