Fox News contributor Ted Williams pushed back against President Donald Trump on Wednesday night. He slammed the call to send 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., just after two Guardsmen got shot and left in critical condition near the White House.
Appearing on The Ingraham Angle, Williams, a former D.C. homicide detective, said the move risked escalating an already tense moment in the capital. “I think we need to stick away from this Democrat/Republican,” he said. “We’ve got two American, two National Guardsmen who have been shot in the District of Columbia. One of my deepest concerns right now is that the president has decided to send 500 additional National Guard members to the District of Columbia. Now, I’m asking, why in the hell are you doing that?”
Williams urged the president to reconsider, saying troops on edge after the attack could be placed in an impossible position. “The sad part about this right now is that the National Guard are out there on the streets and they are deeply concerned,” he said. “They know that two of their fellow National Guardsmen have been shot, and they are gonna be on a high state of alert. And the last thing we need in the District of Columbia or anywhere else is another Kent State.”
The two Guardsmen were shot during a “high visibility” patrol near the Farragut West Metro station in downtown D.C. Officials say they were ambushed before other Guard members returned fire and subdued the suspect. Both soldiers remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Trump ordered the additional 500 troops into the city shortly after the shooting, a continuation of his months-long strategy of using the National Guard to police the capital. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the surge, saying, “This happened just steps away from the White House. It will not stand.”
Williams, who spent years investigating violent crime in the city, argued that Guard troops are not trained for day-to-day policing. “The National Guard is not trained, the National Guard members are not trained to do law enforcement work,” he said, adding that D.C. needed “more law enforcement officers on the street, professionals.”
Guest host Jason Chaffetz was stunned by the critique. “Ted, Ted, are the National Guardsmen the good guys or the bad guys? They’re good guys,” he snapped. When Williams attempted to respond, Chaffetz cut in again: “Hold on, ok, why do you want less good guys? I’m shocked to hear you say that.”
Williams said he supports the Guard but not the mission. “We need to leave politics out of it,” he said, urging viewers to focus on the wounded soldiers and the motive behind the attack instead of turning the incident into a partisan spectacle.
Chaffetz countered by citing crime statistics the Trump administration has repeatedly promoted, arguing that the Guard deployments have cut homicides and violent crime. Williams didn’t dispute the numbers but argued that escalating the military presence could backfire by putting troops in situations they aren’t trained to handle.
The shooting suspect, identified as Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 under the Biden administration and later received asylum under Trump.
But on Fox Wednesday night, the clash wasn’t about asylum approvals. It was about the president’s order to flood the capital with troops, and a rare moment when a Fox News voice told Trump directly that his response to violence in D.C. might make the city even more volatile.
