Trump says he's dropping push for National Guard in Chicago -- for now

Michelle L. Price and Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune on Dec 31, 2025

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President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.

Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” he wrote.

Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated that Trump’s effort to deploy National Guard troops to the city’s streets was “both unnecessary and unconstitutional,” adding that Chicago’s number of homicides has dropped significantly.

“In the new year, we will continue to resist federal overreach while focusing on the strategies that work to drive down crime and violence,” Johnson said.

Indeed, Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.

The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its crackdown on immigration. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.

In the nation’s capital, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen.

In Oregon, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.

California National Guard troops had already been removed from the streets of Los Angeles by Dec. 15 after a court ruling. But an appeals court had paused a separate part of the order that required control of the Guard to return to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.

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