President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he is, for now, abandoning plans to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, following
a series of legal challenges that stalled the effort. In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said he was withdrawing the deployments temporarily. "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. National Guard troops had already left Los Angeles, where they were deployed earlier this year as part of the administration's wider crackdown on crime and immigration. Troops were also sent to Chicago and Portland, but were never deployed on the streets as court challenges moved forward. The proposed deployments, largely targeting Democrat-led cities, have faced legal obstacles across the country.
In December, the US Supreme Court declined to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its immigration enforcement efforts. While not a final ruling, the decision marked a rare setback for the president at the nation's highest court.
In Washington DC, the district's attorney general, Brian Schwalb, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the deployment of more than 2,000 National Guard troops.
In Oregon, a federal judge permanently barred the deployment of National Guard forces in the state.
In California, National Guard troops were removed from the streets of Los Angeles by December 15 following a court ruling. An appeals court later paused a separate requirement that control of the Guard be returned to Governor Gavin Newsom.
However, in a court filing on Tuesday, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking to delay that aspect of the ruling, clearing the way for the California National Guard to return fully to state control after Trump federalised the force in June.
