President Donald Trump said he is stepping back “for now” from a push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, pointing to legal roadblocks that had slowed or blocked parts of the effort, according to a Wednesday social media post. Trump said he would return later “in a much different and stronger form” and linked the decision to what he portrayed as a future rise in crime.
In the post, Trump said, “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” The president had made a crackdown on crime a central theme of his second term and had previously deployed National Guard troops to those cities against the wishes of state and local Democratic leaders, according to the AP report.
Governors typically control their states’ National Guardsmen, but Trump had sought to federalize troops for use as part of a broader crackdown that he connected to immigration enforcement, crime and protests. The administration’s approach was also shaped by efforts to counter court obstacles, including Trump’s past remarks about invoking the Insurrection Act if legal challenges continued to block the plan.
Legal fights had already restricted where troops could operate. In Portland, hundreds of troops were deployed, but a federal judge barred them from going on the streets, and a separate decision permanently blocked the National Guard deployment there in November after a three-day trial. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office said the city’s reduction in crime was driven by local police and public safety programs, while Illinois and Oregon officials said court outcomes reflected limits on what the federal government could do with state Guard forces.
Trump said the troops’ presence was responsible for a drop in crime in the three cities, though the AP report said Chicago and Portland deployments never reached street-level operation as legal challenges played out. When the Chicago deployment was challenged in court, a Justice Department lawyer argued the Guard’s mission would be to protect federal properties and government agents in the field, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.” The report said Chicago officials pointed to local figures, including 416 homicides in 2025, the fewest since 2014.
The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area, an outcome described by AP as a rare and significant setback. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote on X that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up against his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard. Now Trump is forced to stand down.” In Los Angeles, troops had already left after an earlier deployment earlier in the year.
In Portland and Oregon, state officials framed the setbacks as adherence to court orders and rejected the president’s claimed public-safety impact. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said her office had not yet received “official notification” that remaining federalized Oregon National Guard troops could return home and that they “were never lawfully deployed to Portland and there was no need for their presence.” She added that if Trump demobilized troops as ordered by the courts, it would be “a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law.”
Trump’s federalization of National Guard troops began in Los Angeles in June, after protesters took to the streets in response to an immigration enforcement push in the area, AP reported. The administration deployed about 4,000 troops and 700 Marines to guard federal buildings and later to protect federal agents involved in immigration arrests, with the number of troops gradually dwindling until several hundred remained. Troops were removed from the streets by Dec. 15 after a lower court ruling ordered control returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom, though an appeals court pause meant control remained with Trump; AP said later court action required the administration to return control to Newsom.
While Trump said he was dropping the push in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland for now, the AP report said the administration said it would keep troops on the ground in other cities. The report said a federal appellate panel in December paused a ruling tied to ending National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C., where troops had been deployed since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.” The administration also ordered deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis in September as part of a larger federal task force focused on crime, and AP reported that a Tennessee judge blocked the use of the Guard before later staying the decision to allow the deployment to continue.
In New Orleans, AP reported that about 350 National Guard troops deployed by Trump arrived in the city’s historic French Quarter on Tuesday and were set to stay through Mardi Gras to help with safety, with support from the state’s Republican governor and the city’s Democratic mayor.
Ding reported from Los Angeles, and AP reporters John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Jack Brook in New Orleans; and Adrian Sanz in Memphis contributed to the story.