JD Vance, Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller Get Heckled in Washington, D.C.

Hecklers directed their ire at Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller this week when the trio visited National Guard troops stationed in the nation’s capital.

The heated moment came on Wednesday, Aug. 20 as Vance, Hegseth and Miller stopped at a Shake Shack restaurant located inside Washington D.C.’s Union Station to buy hamburgers for the troops they were meeting with, ABC News reported.

Shouts of “free D.C., free Palestine” rang out as the group stepped into the restaurant, flocked by onlookers and a herd of reporters.

“We hear these people outside screaming ‘Free D.C.’ Let’s free D.C. from lawlessness,” Vance can be heard telling the troops in a video shared by the BBC.

“Let’s free Washington, D.C., so that young families can walk around and feel safe and secure. That’s what we’re trying to free D.C. from,” he added.

As the men took turns addressing the national guardsmen, they each had to speak over the sustained shouting in the background.

“We are not going to let the communists destroy a great American city, let alone the nation’s capital,” Miller warned. “And let’s just also address one other thing: all of these demonstrators that you’ve seen out here in recent days, all of these elderly white hippies, they’re not part of this city and never have been.”

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that he was seizing control of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and sending in National Guard troops in an effort to reduce crime.

“Today we’re formally declaring a public safety emergency,” he said during a news conference on Monday, Aug. 11. “It’s embarrassing for me to be up here. I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once-beautiful capital was.”

Since then, troops have poured into the city, leading to increased arrests. Protests have also broken out due to ICE checkpoints popping up around the city and the police increasing curfew zones for minors.

In the midst of chaotic scenes, the administration’s social media accounts have boasted that all is going according to plan. The official ICE account on X shared photos of officers stopping cars and arresting people on the street, with a caption that read, “When a city fails, we will answer the call.”

The Department of Defense also flaunted its daunting presence in the nation’s capital, with photos of Humvees and armed guards patrolling the streets. Their post read, “President Trump activated the D.C. National Guard under Title 32 to assist Federal and Washington D.C. law enforcement within the nation’s capital. Safe to say: THE DOD HAS RESPONDED.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

This month, a resolution has been introduced in Congress that would allow Trump to extend federal police department control beyond the initial 30-day limit.

Vice President Vance appeared on Fox News hours after the heckling incident, telling Laura Ingraham about visiting with the national guardsmen and discussing recent changes to the city, while briefly mentioning the protesters.

“I was talking with Stephen Miller and with Pete Hegseth about this in the Oval Office yesterday, and I was like, ‘You know, we should just go over there and say hello to people.’ And you’ve got a lot of national guardsmen over there, some D.C. cops who’ve been heckled by some of the protesters,” he said. “So I thought, what a good show of moral support, to have the vice president and some of the senior team at the White House show up, we bought them some burgers, hang out with them a little bit.”