Trump WITHDRAWS National Guard troops from three Democratic cities

Donald Trump has withdrawn National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland after the Supreme Court made a rare ruling against his administration.

The President touted the soldiers' achievements in bringing down crime in the Democrat-run cities but claimed their work had been stymied by local opposition. 

'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 on Truth Social on New Year's Eve.

'We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time! It is hard to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress that has been made.'

The withdrawal comes after a Supreme Court ruling on December 23 that refused to lift blocks on the Chicago deployment. This effectively halted similar legal battles in motion over Portland and Los Angeles. 

Violent crime plunged dramatically across the US in 2025, with homicides expected to drop roughly 20 percent - the largest one-year decline ever recorded, according to ABC News.

Washington DC, where the most National Guard troops were deployed, has seen a 31 percent drop in killings, the largest of any other major city, according to the analysis. 

Trump faced furious pushback over the deployments and was accused of turning troops into political targets following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in the capital just before Thanksgiving. 

The President ordered troops into Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland earlier in 2025 primarily to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out raids on illegal migrants amid violent protests by far-left agitators. The President also asserted that the presence of the troops would help to bring down crime in Washington DC and Memphis.

The deployments faced immediate legal challenges, with federal courts ruling that Trump lacked authority to federalize the troops without meeting specific criteria, such as to quell a rebellion.

Initial plans had called for hundreds of troops in each city but many soldiers were blocked from actual deployment and placed on standby or had already been partially withdrawn as legal hurdles were raised.

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Washington DC's deployment of around 2,000 troops started in August and was by far the largest, focused on crime and homelessness. In the first 20 days, violent crime in the capital dropped by almost 50 percent compared to the same period in 2024, according to a CBS News analysis.

Two National Guard soldiers were shot, including one fatally, on November 26 less than a mile from the White House, further fueling debate. An Afghan who served with US forces in his homeland has been charged with murder over the attack.

Trump argued that the shooting was evidence of the need for troops in the crime-ravaged capital, while Democrats warned that he was turning soldiers into political targets. 

Last week's ruling marked a rare setback for the Trump administration at the high court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and has frequently backed his broad assertions of presidential authority since his return to the White House.

The conservative-dominated court has allowed Trump to ban transgender people from the military, claw back billions of dollars of congressionally approved federal spending, move aggressively against immigrants and fire the Senate-confirmed leaders of independent federal agencies.

Three justices publicly dissented: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. 

Alito and Thomas said in their dissent that the court had no basis to reject Trump's contention that the administration needed the troops to enforce immigration laws. Gorsuch said he would have narrowly sided with the government based on the declarations of federal law enforcement officials.

The Trump administration argued that the troops are needed 'to protect federal personnel and property from violent resistance against the enforcement of federal immigration laws.' 

US District Judge April Perry in Illinois wrote that she found no substantial evidence that a 'danger of rebellion' is brewing in the state and no reason to believe the protests there had gotten in the way of Trump's immigration crackdown.

Perry initially blocked the deployment for two weeks before extending the order indefinitely in October while the Supreme Court reviewed the case. 

The ICE facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview has been the site of tense protests, where federal agents have previously used tear gas and other chemical agents on protesters and journalists.

Last month, authorities arrested 21 protesters and said four officers were injured outside the Broadview facility. Local authorities made the arrests.

Similar legal challenges blocked or limited deployments in California, Oregon and Tennessee, with courts in all three states ruling against the administration.

The administration has repeatedly sought the Supreme Court's intervention to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. 

Justices have sided with the administration in almost every case that they have been called upon to review since Trump returned to the White House.