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The Trump administration has pulled federalized National Guard troops from several U.S. cities, U.S. Northern Command has confirmed.
The withdrawal includes troops deployed at the direction of President Donald Trump to Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, where state and local officials had opposed their presence. Officials said the troops were sent home by Jan. 21.
National Guard members serving under Title 32 authority remain stationed in various locations nationwide. That includes about 2,500 troops in Washington, D.C., as well as personnel in Memphis and New Orleans.
Under Title 32 status, a state’s governor mobilizes National Guard forces with authorization or direction from the president. While those troops operate under state control, they receive federal pay and benefits.
The withdrawal follows months of legal challenges to the deployments. In December, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to lift a lower court order blocking President Trump’s effort to send federalized National Guard troops into Chicago over objections from state officials. The high court did not address the broader constitutional questions but allowed the injunction to stand.
Critics argued that legal limits on domestic troop activities constrained what National Guard forces could do in cities.
“Legal limits on what troops can do on U.S. soil made them ‘100% ineffective at accomplishing what [Trump] wanted,’” retired Army Lt. Gen. Randy Manner told The Washington Post.
“The administration,” Manner said, “ultimately realized the resistance — in the courts and in public condemnation — was far greater than anyone anticipated.”
Earlier in January, President Trump said he was ending his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland.
“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. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”
