Appeals and Supreme Court Rulings Undercut Federal Effort to Federalize Guard Units
President Donald Trump said he is suspending his effort to deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles and other cities, following court rulings that blocked the move and challenged his authority to override state control.
The decision comes after a series of legal setbacks related to Trump’s effort to send National Guard units into the three Democratic-led cities as part of a broader initiative targeting crime, immigration enforcement, and protests. Governors typically command their states’ Guard forces, and officials in all three states opposed the deployments.
Trump has made a hard-line approach to public safety a central theme of his second term, repeatedly arguing that aggressive federal intervention is needed in major cities. He has also raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law that would allow the president to deploy troops domestically over objections from state leaders. Trump has described his crime policies as a key political strategy ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Governor Gavin Newsom said, “I’m glad President Trump has finally admitted defeat: we’ve said all along the federalization of the National Guard in California is illegal.”
“The President deployed these brave men and women against their own communities and without regard for the Constitution and federal law. We welcome our California National Guard servicemembers back to state service, where they can continue to serve and protect the people of California — long delayed due to Trump’s political theater.”
National Guard troops had already been withdrawn from Los Angeles after being deployed earlier this year. In a statement, Trump credited the Guard’s presence with contributing to lower crime rates in the affected cities, though troops were never actively deployed on the streets in Chicago or Portland as legal challenges delayed the effort.
During court proceedings over the Chicago deployment, a Justice Department attorney said the Guard’s role would be limited to protecting federal buildings and personnel rather than broadly policing the city. As litigation continued, the number of deployed troops was gradually reduced to several hundred.
A lower court ruling later ordered that control of the California National Guard be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom, though an appeals court initially paused that portion of the order. In a filing Tuesday, the Trump administration said it would no longer seek to delay the transfer of authority.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit directed the administration to restore control of the National Guard to Newsom, effectively ending the federal deployment effort.