President Donald Trump asked for 500 additional National Guard members to be deployment in Washington, D.C., after two members were shot and critically injured just blocks from the White House Wednesday afternoon, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth said the president asked him for the deployment, and he will ask Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll.

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"This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, D.C., safe and beautiful,” Hegseth said on camera in the Dominican Republic. "But if criminals want to conduct things like this, violence against America's best, we will never back down.”

Two Guard members from West Virginia were shot just before 2:30 p.m. next to Farragut Square P

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