President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has abandoned, at least for now, his effort to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland after courts blocked the initiative at nearly every stage. “We will be back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime spikes again,” Trump wrote on social media. “Just a matter of time.”
The announcement capped a year of failed attempts to send federalized troops into Democrat-led cities over the objections of state governors, framed as part of a broader effort against illegal immigration, crime, and protests. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals simultaneously ordered the administration to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom, and governors in all three states declared legal victories.
Legal setbacks across three cities
The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago metropolitan area — a significant and unusual rebuff from the high court, though not a final ruling on the merits. Troops were never on Chicago’s streets while legal challenges wound through the courts. When the Chicago deployment was challenged, a Justice Department attorney told the court the Guard’s mission would be to protect federal property and government agents in the field, not, in the attorney’s words, to “resolve all crime in Chicago.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday on X that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up to his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard. Now Trump is forced to back down.”
In Portland, hundreds of soldiers from California and Oregon were deployed but a federal judge barred them from going to the streets. A federal judge permanently blocked the Portland deployment in November after a three-day trial. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Wednesday that her office had not yet received official notification that the remaining federalized Oregon Guard troops could return home. “They were never legally deployed in Portland and there was no need for their presence,” Kotek said in a statement, adding that if Trump had decided to follow court orders and demobilize the troops, “that is a great victory for the people of Oregon and for the rule of law.”
The largest of the three deployments began in Los Angeles in June, when Trump sent approximately 4,000 soldiers and 700 Marines to protect federal buildings after protesters took to the streets in response to a wave of immigration arrests. The mission later extended to cover immigration enforcement operations directly. The troop count fell gradually over months; troops were removed from LA streets by December 15 after a court ruling. An appeals court had paused the portion of that ruling ordering control returned to Gov. Newsom, but in a court filing Tuesday the Trump administration said it would no longer seek to maintain that pause. The Ninth Circuit’s order Wednesday formalized the transfer.
“It’s about time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom wrote on social media. “We’ve said it from day one: the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”
Crime claim challenged by local officials
Trump wrote in his Wednesday post that the troop presence had driven crime down in all three cities. Chicago officials disputed that framing, saying in a statement the city recorded 416 homicides in 2025 — the lowest figure since 2014 — and attributing the decline to local policing. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office likewise said the city’s crime reduction was due to local police work and public safety programs, not to federal troops that courts barred from patrolling its streets.
Deployments continue elsewhere
The pullback from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland does not represent a full retreat from the administration’s use of federalized National Guard units. Troops have remained deployed in Washington, D.C., since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency” there; a federal appeals court in December blocked a lower-court order that had called for ending the D.C. deployment.
In September, Trump ordered Tennessee’s National Guard to Memphis to address crime, drawing backing from the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, and its Republican senators. A Tennessee judge blocked the deployment but suspended the ruling while the state appeals, allowing the troops to remain in place.
About 350 National Guard troops arrived at New Orleans’ French Quarter on Tuesday and are expected to stay through Mardi Gras to assist with security. That deployment has bipartisan support — from both the state’s Republican governor and the city’s Democratic mayor.