Trump quietly pulls National Guard from Chicago and Los Angeles after series of court losses

Donald Trump’s administration has quietly withdrawn federalized National Guard troops from Democratic cities after a series of court rulings struck down the president’s plans.

The withdrawal quietly concluded last month, with no public acknowledgment from the White House or Department of Defense despite the administration’s insistence that U.S. military assets needed to be deployed on American streets to curb violent crime and support immigration enforcement.

The end of those deployments, first reported by The Washington Post, is mentioned only by the U.S. Northern Command, stating that troops sent to Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles have “completed demobilizing activities.”

That includes the withdrawal of more than 5,000 troops from California, roughly 500 troops in Chicago and another 200 in Oregon at the president’s direction. They were sent home by January 21, according to the Pentagon.

Those deployments cost nearly half a billion dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

A month before those deployments ended, Trump announced on his Truth Social account that the administration would be removing service members “despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact.”

“Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in,” he wrote. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”

White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson downplayed the news that the administration had withdrawn those troops, as of last month, saying that The Washington Post was covering an “announcement the President made HIMSELF over a month ago,” followed by three clown emojis.

Last year, the president began ordering National Guard troops to several Democratic-led cities, an effort that one federal judge rebuked as Trump’s attempt to create “a national police force with the president as its chief.”

Legal challenges from state and local officials accused the administration of using American streets for political theater, and in December, the Supreme Court blocked the administration from sending the military into Chicago. Trump later announced the withdrawal of service members from other cities.

The Supreme Court, weighing in on the legal battle over boots on the ground in Illinois, appeared to reject the administration’s argument that protests against the president’s anti-immigration agenda are so volatile that only the National Guard, under Trump’s orders, can stop them.

“For the first time, crickets from Donald Trump,” wrote Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. “After losing in court multiple times to Illinois and other states, the National Guard was finally quietly pulled out of our streets. The pressure is working, and we’ve got to keep at it.”

More than 2,500 National Guard members are still in Washington, D.C., but under a separate arrangement for a mission that is expected to end this year.

National Guard members were initially deployed to the nation’s capital to help fight crime. But have often spent time picking up trash while others patrolled the National Mall and train stations.

In November, two West Virginia National Guard service members were shot near the White House.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains in inpatient rehabilitation after he sustained a gunshot to the head. His colleague, U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died one day after the attack.

There are also troops in Memphis and New Orleans through an agreement with the Trump administration but under the direction of their respective state’s governors.

Last year, Trump had federalized the normally state-authorized National Guards, going above the command and objections of Democratic governors.

Democratic officials and civil rights groups feared the president was testing the limits of his authority to send active-duty military into American streets for politically charged missions, and violating service members’ commitments to stay out of domestic politics in the process.

Trump deployed troops to Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles under Title 10, which allowed the president to exert authority over a state’s National Guard. But the military cannot perform law enforcement activities, like making arrests or performing searches.

In January, the Pentagon ordered roughly 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for deployment to Minneapolis in response to protests against the administration’s surge of immigration officers and violent raids

That deployment never happened, and the administration pulled out Border Patrol’s “commander-at-large” Greg Bovino and roughly 700 federal officers after the fatal shootings of demonstrators Renee Good and Alex Pretti.