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Donald Trump said his administration is abandoning its efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland in a rare retreat after resistance from local leaders.
The US president said he was removing the National Guard from the three Democrat-led cities in a post to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, adding crime had been “greatly reduced by having these great patriots in those cities”.
But Trump cautioned, “we will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again”.
Trump’s announcement on New Year’s Eve marked a capitulation by the president after months of legal battles over the limits of his authority to federalise the National Guard and deploy military troops on US soil.
Sending members of the National Guard into major cities to deter crime and support Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has been one of the most visible signs of change on American streets during Trump’s second term.
But the deployments, which have predominantly targeted Democrat-controlled cities, have sparked controversy, protests and legal challenges.
“It is had to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress than has been made??” Trump said in his post on Wednesday.
Democratic mayors and governors have argued Trump has exceeded the bounds of presidential power by federalising the National Guard to carry out day-to-day law enforcement. The guard typically reports to state governors and is placed under federal control only in emergencies.
Last week, the US Supreme Court refused to allow the president to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago over the objections of Illinois officials.
While the ruling was preliminary, it was seen as having far-reaching consequences, including in Los Angeles and Portland, where Democratic state and local officials have made similar objections to deployments.
Troops remain on the streets in Washington, where last month an Afghan national shot and killed a member of the National Guard and injured another soldier in what authorities said was a targeted attack.
Trump has separately authorised a National Guard deployment in New Orleans this week as part of stepped-up security for the city’s New Year’s celebrations. Last year, 14 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man drove a pick-up truck into a crowd and opened fire in the Louisiana city on New Year’s Day.