U.S. President Donald Trump announced on 31 December 2025 via a Truth Social post that his administration is removing National Guard units from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland.
He attributed this decision to his claim that crime has been “greatly reduced” because of the presence of federal forces and asserts further that these cities would have been “gone” if the federal government had not intervened.
Nevertheless, while the withdrawal was framed as a reaction to improved safety, it is also worth noting that the decision follows a series of significant legal defeats.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from the administration to deploy the National Guard to Chicago just days before the announcement. The Court indicated that federal laws allowing a president to “federalize” the National Guard do not extend to protecting specific agents deployed to enforce immigration laws.
Moreover, in California and Oregon, the administration faced similar legal hurdles. In Los Angeles, guardsmen had already been removed from the streets by mid-December following a court ruling, though a separate legal battle over who controls the Guard was still ongoing.
Trump made it clear that this withdrawal might not be permanent. He warned that federal forces would return “in a much different and stronger form” if crime rates begin to rise again, stating it is “only a question of time.”
Note that the withdrawal does not affect all cities. National Guard deployments in cities like New Orleans and Memphis are continuing since the governors of Louisiana and Tennessee cooperated with or requested the federal assistance.
Trump deployed the National Guard in several U.S. cities in 2025 as part of a two-pronged strategy focused on immigration enforcement and crime reduction.
However, while the deployment cited law and order as the primary reason, the specific motives for each city were different.
The deployment in Los Angeles began in June 2025. It was largely a reaction to massive protests against the hardline immigration policies and increased raids by immigration agents under the second Trump administration. Trump federalized the California National Guard to “protect federal property” and support immigration enforcement efforts.
In Portland, the deployment was specifically aimed at protecting ICE facilities from what the U.S. President described as domestic terrorists to ensure federal operations were not interrupted by demonstrators.
The second Trump administration framed the deployment in Chicago as an anti-crime initiative intended to target criminal illegal aliens and curb gun violence.