Gov. Kathy Hochul has condemned President Donald Trump for sending troops into the streets of Washington, D.C., but she’s in no rush to withdraw hundreds of National Guard soldiers posted in New York City’s subway system on her orders.
The Democratic governor first deployed about 750 National Guard soldiers to the subways in March 2024. She said the guard members, along with police officers, would deter would-be criminals looking to enter the transit system.
That was nearly a year and a half before Trump, a Republican, invoked his federal authority and deployed the Guard to address crime in the nation’s capital. Hochul called that move “overkill for a show of force.”
In the governor’s telling, the two deployments couldn’t be more different: Trump is imposing his will on a city and taking control of its police force over the objection of its mayor. The New York National Guard, on the other hand, is working in consultation with the NYPD and MTA.
“I'll stand by what I did — wildly different from the abuse of power that Donald Trump is once again engaging in in our nation's capital,” Hochul told reporters in the Bronx earlier this week.
Hochul’s initial decision to call in the Guard drew criticism from Republicans, who said she was stepping on the NYPD’s toes. Advocates for subway riders accused her of unnecessarily militarizing the transit system and fueling perceptions that it’s unsafe — as the Trump administration has claimed.
The soldiers, in full uniform, are tasked with assisting officers who randomly check bags at certain subway stations. Riders are required to comply if they want to enter the station.
The National Guard has completed about 19,000 “missions” in the subway system since March 2024, with each separate location each day counting as a mission, according to spokesperson Richard Goldenberg.
Last year, Hochul’s budget division estimated the deployment would cost about $17 million a year. A spokesperson for the division this week said the costs are baked into a $45 million increase in the current state budget, for a post-9/11 military task force known as Empire Shield.
Hochul told reporters in Albany on Tuesday that the Guard has been “scaled back in different ways” as the NYPD ramped up its presence on the subways in recent months. But she did not specify how, and the total number of soldiers remains the same as it was a year ago, according to the National Guard. Hochul temporarily added another 250 soldiers to the mix in December while highlighting a drop in subway crime.
In recent weeks, National Guard troops have been spotted in stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, including at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, 149th Street-Grand Concourse and West 4th Street-Washington Square.
Hochul’s initial deployment has since been supplemented with a new surge of police officers, with the state partially bankrolling the deployment of NYPD officers on each subway train during overnight hours. Major subway crimes have continued to decline in recent months.
According to the MTA, major felony crimes in the subway system dropped 8% in July 2025 compared to the previous July, all while average daily ridership increased from 3.4 million to 3.9 million. Citywide, major crime fell 5.6% over the same period, according to the NYPD.
Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Riders Alliance, which advocates for New York City’s transit riders, said it’s difficult to attribute the drop in subway crime to any one policy amid the overall decrease in crime. He’s criticized Hochul’s National Guard deployment from the start, arguing the presence of camouflaged troops could inflame tensions with members of the public.
“ I think we've seen in the past weeks in D.C. the real dangers of trumping up crime and militarizing urban spaces,” he said. “It’s not something that New Yorkers want to see.”
Hochul has used the National Guard in other ways in her nearly four years as governor. She sent approximately 3,000 soldiers into state prisons while correction officers staged an unlawful strike earlier this year. Those soldiers remain in the prisons, acting in a support role as New York struggles to recruit new correction officers amid a dire staffing shortage.
When it comes to the city’s subways, William Banks, a national security scholar and professor emeritus at Syracuse University, said the National Guard’s presence is “symbolic in large measure.” But he said it’s firmly within Hochul’s power to keep the troops there.
“It’s an attempted deterrence of those who would do bad things there — violate the law, harass people, challenge or attack people,” he said. ”Soldiers strike a certain presence because of their uniform and their stature.”
Hochul has described the National Guard as a “calming presence” in the subways, in contrast with how she’s portrayed Trump’s D.C. deployment. She’s cited the decline in transit crime as a measure of her move’s success, but has given no indication of when she may pull the soldiers out.
“I don't have a decision on when they'll absolutely leave the subway system, but I'm really proud of the work they've done just calming the whole experience down,” she said Tuesday. “I think people will tell you … they feel much safer.”
Trump has likewise touted the National Guard’s work in Washington. On Thursday, he delivered pizza and hamburgers to a group of police officers and soldiers to thank them.
“The crowds are coming back, the spirit is high, and our D.C. National Guard and Police are doing a fantastic job,” he posted on Truth Social, his social-media platform. “They are out in force, and are NOT PLAYING GAMES!!!”
