National Guard in US Cities After Trump v. Illinois: Troops Leave Chicago, LA and Portland but Stay in DC Until 2029

On 23 December 2025 the Supreme Court refused, by 6 to 3, to let the administration deploy federalised National Guard troops in Illinois. The Court read the law the President relied on, 10 U.S.C. 12406, narrowly. It allows the Guard to be federalised when the President can’t execute the laws with the “regular forces.” The Court said that means the active-duty military, so the Guard can be sent in only where active-duty troops would be insufficient and could lawfully do the job themselves.

A week later the President pulled the troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. The deployments still running in 2026 rest on other legal footing.

Where the Guard went

Los Angeles came first, in June 2025, with about 4,000 California Guard troops federalised over the governor’s objection and 700 Marines. A federal judge later found the use of troops had violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in law enforcement, and in December ordered the deployment ended. Portland’s 200 Oregon troops were blocked by a permanent injunction in November 2025 and demobilised in January. Chicago’s deployment was blocked from the start and reached the Supreme Court.

In Minneapolis, in January 2026, the President threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and about 1,500 active-duty troops were put on standby. They stood down weeks later. The Act hasn’t been invoked.

Where it stayed

Washington, DC, is different. The President commands the DC National Guard directly, because DC isn’t a state. The deployment began in August 2025 under an executive order declaring a crime emergency. In July 2026 it was extended to 20 January 2029. Nearly 4,700 Guard members have rotated through, most of them volunteers from states with Republican governors. A district judge ruled the deployment unlawful in November 2025, but an appeals court stayed that ruling.

In Memphis and New Orleans, troops are under state command, with the governors’ agreement. In Memphis, Tennessee’s governor capped the force at about 150 unarmed troops. In New Orleans, 350 Louisiana Guard troops arrived at the end of 2025 at the governor’s request.

Separately, up to 1,700 Guard troops in 19 states have supported immigration enforcement, which the White House treats as a different mission.

The cost

CBO estimated in January that the 2025 deployments cost $496 million, and that continuing them at end-2025 levels would cost about $93 million a month. Each new deployment of 1,000 troops costs $18 million to $21 million a month. CBO put the DC mission at about $3 million a day. The Pentagon said extending it to 2029 adds $1.4 billion. The Project on Government Oversight puts the total cost of the DC mission at about $3.4 billion.

The state and local side

For cities, the legal fight was about who controls the Guard. Each Guard unit belongs to its state, and the governor commands it unless the President federalises it. The Supreme Court’s reading protects that arrangement: a President who wants troops in a city over a governor’s objection now needs to show active-duty forces would fall short, or invoke the Insurrection Act.

That leaves three routes for future deployments: DC, where the President is already in command; states whose governors agree; and the Insurrection Act, which no President has used since 1992.