President Trump says he’s backing off from efforts to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland. This follows a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the move in Chicago, a federal judge permanently blocking the deployment of National Guard troops in Oregon, and a battle over returning control of the California National Guard to its state.
The pullback may be mostly symbolic, since troops in Chicago and Portland had little presence due to legal challenges. Still, it marks a pause in one of Trump’s most aggressive attempts to expand presidential control over state National Guard forces – something not seriously tried since the civil rights era.
National Guard troops remain in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Memphis, where either their Republican governors support the deployments, or the courts haven’t stopped them. Democratic leaders in affected states say the deployments were unnecessary and unlawful, pointing to falling crime rates in cities like Chicago.
Perhaps it is summed up best here: “We won in court,” Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said on Wednesday. “Trump’s rambling here is the political version of ‘you can’t fire me, I quit.’”
The above summarizes the Dec. 31, 2025 New York Times article “Trump Abandons Efforts to Deploy National Guard to 3 Major Cities” by Alex Welsh.
See also the Dec. 31, 2025 PBS News article “Trump says he’s dropping push for National Guard in Chicago and other cities” by Michelle Price and Jaime Ding (AP).