President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is pulling National Guard troops out of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, for now.
District judges and appeals courts have issued various rulings about the legality of the deployments. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a lower court’s decision barring Trump’s use of the National Guard in Chicago.
“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 in a TruthSocial post. “Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in. We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”
Trump went on to call the Democratic leaders of the cities and states where he deployed troops “greatly incompetent.”
Despite objections from local and state officials, the federal government deployed thousands of National Guard troops at Trump’s direction, in a purported crackdown on crime and immigration. Many states and cities where troops were sent sued the Trump administration, beginning a lengthy litigation process to determine control over the troops and the limits of the federal government.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.