By Michelle L. Price and Jaimie Ding
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump mentioned he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a transfer that comes after authorized roadblocks held up the hassle.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” he mentioned in a social media publish on Jan. 1.
| DOWNLOAD: 26 on 2026: A police management playbook
Governors sometimes management states’ National Guardsmen, and Trump had deployed troops to all three cities towards the desires of state and native Democratic leaders. He mentioned it was needed as a part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime and protests.
The president has made a crackdown on crime in cities a centerpiece of his second time period. He has mentioned he sees his tough-on-crime strategy as a successful political difficulty forward of subsequent yr’s midterm elections.
Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier in 2025 as a part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration.
In his publish, Trump mentioned the troops’ presence was chargeable for a drop in crime within the three cities, although they have been by no means on the streets in Chicago and Portland as authorized challenges performed out. When the Chicago deployment was challenged in courtroom, a Justice Department lawyer mentioned the Guard’s mission can be to guard federal properties and authorities brokers within the area, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s workplace in a press release mentioned town’s discount in crime was as a result of efforts of native police and public security applications. Chicago officers echoed the sentiment, saying in a launch Tuesday that town had 416 homicides in 2025 — the fewest since 2014.
Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with authorized challenges at practically each flip.
Trump’s choice to federalize National Guard troops started in Los Angeles in June, when protesters took to the streets in response to a rise of immigration arrests within the space. He deployed about 4,000 troops and 700 Marines to protect federal buildings and, later, to guard federal brokers as they carried out immigration arrests.
The variety of troops slowly dwindled till simply a number of hundred have been left. They have been faraway from the streets by Dec. 15 after a decrease courtroom ruling that additionally ordered management to be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom. But an appeals courtroom had paused the second a part of the order, that means management remained with Trump. In a Tuesday courtroom submitting, the Trump administration mentioned it was not searching for a pause in that a part of the order.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to return management of the National Guard to Newsom.
“About time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom mentioned in a social media publish. “We’ve said it from day one: the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”
Troops will stay on the bottom in a number of different cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December paused a decrease courtroom ruling that had referred to as for an finish to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., the place they’ve been deployed since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”
Trump additionally ordered the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis in September as half of a bigger federal activity drive to fight crime, a transfer supported by the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and senators. A Tennessee choose blocked using the Guard, siding with Democratic state and native officers who sued. However, the choose stayed the choice to dam the Guard because the state appeals, permitting the deployment to proceed.
In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops deployed by Trump arrived within the metropolis’s historic French Quarter on Tuesday and are set to remain by way of Mardi Gras to assist with security. The state’s Republican governor and town’s Democratic mayor help the deployment.
The lady mocked police and mentioned she’d “kill my kids if they ever became a cop,” based on the East Greenwich police report
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office ended joint air rescue operations following a brand new county coverage allowing off-duty marijuana use by firefighters
A civil rights settlement mandates oversight and coverage updates for Antioch PD after texts and federal indictments revealed racist messages and extreme drive
NYPD
A field containing official NYPD pants, shirts, jackets and hats was discovered close to Green-Wood Cemetery
___
Ding reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Adrian Sanz in Memphis contributed.