Trump to pull National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland as courts curb deployments
President Donald Trump said his administration is removing National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, but warned federal forces will “come back” if crime rises — a retreat that follows a string of legal setbacks, including a U.S. Supreme Court order limiting his authority to seize control of state guards.
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Local leaders in those cities and Democratic officials have argued the deployments were unnecessary and amounted to federal overreach. They said the administration exaggerated isolated episodes of violence to justify sending in troops and asserted the courts have validated their challenges.
“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He has said deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland were needed to combat crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters.
Judges overseeing lawsuits brought by cities have repeatedly found the administration exceeded its authority and failed to show troops were necessary to safeguard federal sites. Shortly before Trump’s announcement, a federal appellate court ordered the administration to return hundreds of California National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s control.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 23 blocked Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois, undercutting his legal rationale for using soldiers elsewhere. In an unsigned order, the court said the president’s power to federalize state Guard units likely applies only in “exceptional” circumstances. “At this preliminary stage, the government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the majority wrote.
Opponents of the deployments said those rulings forced the administration’s hand. “Trump’s rambling here is the political version of ‘you can’t fire me, I quit,’” Newsom’s office said.
Chicago officials touted local data minutes after Trump’s post, saying the city recorded the lowest level of violent crime in more than a decade in 2025, with incidents down 21.3% from 2024. City leaders maintained throughout the controversy that local strategies, not federal troops, were driving declines.
Trump began ordering deployments in June amid protests against his hardline immigration agenda, including efforts to expand deportations. He also sent troops to Washington and asserted control over local law enforcement in the capital, citing what he called rampant crime — a claim that ran counter to local statistics — while invoking the president’s unique authority over D.C.
As legal challenges mounted, military officials had already been winding down operations and scaling back troop footprints, leaving some deployments in limbo. The new withdrawal marks the clearest signal yet that the administration’s attempt to assert broad federal control over state National Guard units has been checked by the courts, at least for now.
It remains unclear whether the administration will pursue new legal avenues or attempt targeted redeployments under narrower justifications tied to protecting specific federal facilities. Trump’s warning that federal forces could return if crime increases sets up the possibility of renewed clashes with governors and mayors, who insist local policing and state control of the National Guard are both lawful and more effective.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
