Trump pulls National Guard troops from Chicago, LA and Portland after court setbacks, says 'we will come back when ...'

President Donald Trump said he removed National Guard troops, for now, from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, after legal roadblocks held up his push to deploy them in Democrat-led cities.

Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he was 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.




Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities was 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 paved the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalised the Guard in June.