Mayor Muriel Bowser sought to reassure residents in the nation's capital, adding that the National Guard deployment was unnecessary.

The National Guard began to appear in Washington, DC, tonight, a day after President Donald Trump placed the nation’s capital’s police department “under direct federal control.” Follow for live news updates.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push". Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.