By Emmanuel Bobby
President Donald Trump said he is suspending — for now — his effort to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, following a series of legal defeats that stalled the plan.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — only a question of time!” Trump wrote in a social media post Wednesday.
National Guard units are typically controlled by state governors, but Trump moved to federalize troops in the three cities over the objections of Democratic state and local leaders. He argued the deployments were necessary as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime, and protests.
The president has made combating crime in major cities a central theme of his second term and has repeatedly floated invoking the Insurrection Act to override court challenges. He has also framed his tough-on-crime approach as a political advantage ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Troops had already been withdrawn from Los Angeles, where Trump earlier deployed them as part of a broader enforcement push tied to immigration and crime. In his post, Trump claimed the presence of troops led to falling crime rates in all three cities, even though Guard members were never deployed on the streets in Chicago or Portland due to ongoing legal challenges. During court arguments over the Chicago deployment, a Justice Department lawyer said the Guard’s role would be limited to protecting federal buildings and personnel, not addressing crime citywide.
Local officials pushed back on Trump’s claims. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office said the city’s drop in crime was the result of local policing and public safety programs. Chicago officials echoed that view, noting the city recorded 416 homicides in 2025 — its lowest total since 2014.
Trump’s efforts to deploy the Guard in Democratic-led cities have faced resistance in court at nearly every step. In December, the Supreme Court declined to allow the administration to proceed with the Chicago deployment, dealing a rare but significant setback to the president. While the order was not a final ruling, it effectively blocked the plan.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up against his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard.”
In Portland, hundreds of National Guard troops from California and Oregon were federalized, but a judge barred them from operating on city streets. After a three-day trial, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment in November.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said her office had not yet received official notice that remaining federalized troops could return home, adding that they “were never lawfully deployed to Portland” and that their withdrawal would be “a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law.”
Trump’s use of the National Guard began in Los Angeles in June, after protests erupted in response to a wave of immigration arrests. He deployed about 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to protect federal buildings and later to assist federal agents. Over time, the number of troops was reduced to several hundred. They were removed from the streets by mid-December after a lower court ruling ordered control returned to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Although an appeals court initially paused that portion of the ruling, the Trump administration said this week it would no longer seek to maintain control. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the administration to return command of the Guard to Newsom.
“About time Trump admitted defeat,” Newsom wrote on social media, calling the federal takeover “illegal.”
National Guard deployments remain in place in other cities. In Washington, D.C., an appeals court paused a lower court order that would have ended the deployment of Guard troops sent in August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”
In Tennessee, Trump ordered the National Guard to Memphis in September as part of a federal crime task force, a move supported by Republican state leaders. A judge blocked the deployment, siding with Democratic officials, but allowed it to continue temporarily while the state appeals.
In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops arrived in the French Quarter this week and are expected to remain through Mardi Gras to assist with public safety. The deployment there has the support of both the state’s Republican governor and the city’s Democratic mayor.
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