Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth received a frosty reception in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station on Wednesday, shortly after the Trump administration launched a federal takeover of the capital.
Vance and Hegseth, joined by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, were at the transit hub to meet with members of the National Guard deployed to the nation’s capital by President Donald Trump. Trump took control of the city’s police force and deployed the guard to combat what he called “out of control crime” in D.C.
The two met guardsmen at the fast-food restaurant Shake Shack in the station, covering the troops’ lunch. Upon leaving the chain restaurant, Vance and Hegseth faced a chorus of disapproval from angry citizens at the station, in videos shared to social media.
JD Vance heckled a bit as he enters Shake Shack in DC’s Union Station pic.twitter.com/dkRc7tyhAB
— Arthur Delaney 🇺🇸 (@ArthurDelaneyHP) August 20, 2025
Cries of “fascist scum” and “wife beater” followed the pair. A member of the crowd called Vance a “couch f**ker,” a reference to a fake excerpt purported to be from his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vance, Hegseth and Miller can be seen walking past the protesters, accompanied by a security detail. Miller later called the protestors “elderly…stupid white hippies” when speaking with the press at Union Station.
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The scene is emblematic of tensions in the nation’s capital following Trump’s takeover. A recent poll by the Washington Post-Schar School found that 65 percent of D.C. residents believe that Trump’s actions will not make the city safer. Roughly 80 percent of those surveyed opposed Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police, while 77 percent supported funding increases “to build economic opportunities in poor neighborhoods with higher crime.”
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