Trump Ends National Guard Deployments to Chicago, L.A. and Portland

The Trump administration has withdrawn National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, with U.S. Northern Command saying the pullout ran from Jan. 6 to Jan. 21, 2026, after more than a year of controversial federal deployments framed by the White House as a response to immigration‑related crime. The moves follow a December Supreme Court decision declining to reinstate Guard mobilization in Chicago after lower courts blocked it, and come as state and local officials and civil‑rights groups continue to accuse Trump of misusing military forces against U.S. civilians and trampling state authority. About 2,500 Guard members remain in Washington, D.C., under federal control and are expected to stay through year’s end, while federally funded Guard units still operate in cities such as Memphis and New Orleans under state command. A new Congressional Budget Office estimate released Jan. 28 pegs the 2025 cost of Trump’s Guard deployments to six cities at $496 million, fueling criticism on social media and from fiscal watchdogs that the operations were an expensive political show with little proven impact on crime. Trump, in a Dec. 31 Truth Social post, claimed the Guard “greatly reduced” crime in the three cities and warned he could send troops back “in a much different and stronger form” if crime rises again.