Trump Announces National Guard Withdrawal Amid Crime Debate

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland on Wednesday. In a statement on social media, he indicated that federal forces would return if crime rates escalate. This decision comes amidst ongoing debates about the necessity of the National Guard’s presence in these cities.

Local leaders and Democratic officials have criticized the deployment of federal troops, arguing it represents federal overreach and claiming the administration has exaggerated isolated incidents of violence to justify military intervention. Trump has maintained that the presence of troops was essential for combating crime and safeguarding federal properties and personnel from protests.

“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump wrote. He warned, “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”

Judicial challenges have emerged against the Trump administration’s actions. Judges overseeing lawsuits filed by these cities have ruled that the federal government overstepped its authority. They found no substantial evidence supporting the need for troops to protect federal property from protests.

On the same day as Trump’s announcement, a federal appellate court mandated that hundreds of California National Guard troops be returned to Governor Gavin Newsom‘s control. A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on December 23, 2023, had previously blocked Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois, undermining his legal justification for troop deployments in other states. The court stated that presidential authority over National Guard troops likely applies only in “exceptional” circumstances.

Local leaders have attributed Trump’s decision to end the National Guard deployments in part to legal pressures. Newsom’s office commented on this by stating, “Trump’s rambling here is the political version of ‘you can’t fire me, I quit.'”

Following the announcement, the office of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson released data indicating that the city experienced its lowest levels of violent crime in over a decade in 2025, reporting a 21.3% decrease from the previous year.

The National Guard was deployed initially in June 2023 amid widespread protests against Trump’s strict immigration policies, which included heightened deportation efforts. Troops were also sent to Washington, D.C., where Trump exerted his presidential authority to intervene in local law enforcement matters, citing a perceived rise in crime, despite conflicting local crime statistics.

As legal challenges persist, military officials have increasingly wound down and scaled back the National Guard’s deployments in recent months, leaving the future of these interventions uncertain.