Trump's deployment of National Guard members to Chicago cost taxpayers $21 million, congressional report says
President Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard members to Illinois last year cost taxpayers $21 million, despite the troops being confined to bases amid federal court battles.
That's according to a Congressional Budget Office report requested by Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, as well as nine of their Senate colleagues. Since June 2025, domestic deployments of National Guard personnel or active-duty Marine Corps members to six U.S. cities — Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Portland, Chicago and New Orleans — totaled approximately $496 million through the end of December 2025, the report found. Senators had asked for the costs to activate, deploy and compensate guard members, the operational, logistical and sustainment costs and any additional direct or indirect costs.
Trump on Oct. 4 issued a memorandum authorizing the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to call at least 300 members of the Illinois National Guard into federal service "to protect federal personnel and property in Chicago" during the administration's “Operation Midway Blitz.” About 375 members were mobilized to Chicago, with another 200 members of the Texas National Guard sent to Illinois briefly before returning to Texas. All Guard personnel in Illinois were demobilized on Jan. 21, the report says, but 200 Texas National Guard members remain mobilized on standby in Texas, costing $4 million a month.
The U.S. Supreme Court in December ruled against Trump and refused to lift a block on National Guard deployment within the state of Illinois, finding that Trump invoked a law that required him to first be unable to execute federal law with help from regular military forces. The Supreme Court’s decision came after four lower-court judges — two appointed by Democratic presidents and two appointed by Republicans — concluded the facts on the ground didn’t justify Trump’s deployment of the National Guard. The rulings had blocked Trump from deploying troops within Illinois since early October.
The report also offers a glimpse of how much future deployments could cost.
"The factors CBO used to estimate the costs of deployments in 2025 suggest that continuing the ongoing deployments at their size as of the end of 2025 would cost $93 million per month," the report says. "More generally, deploying 1,000 National Guard personnel to a U.S. city in 2026 would cost $18 million to $21 million per month, depending mainly on the city’s cost of living."
The report also sheds light on deployments to other cities: $193 million to Los Angeles; $26 million for Oregon; $223 million for Washington, D.C. and $33 million for Memphis.
In light of the report, Durbin called the deployments "an abhorrent violation of the Constitution" and "a harmful diversion of federal resources." Duckworth said the deployments were "an immense waste of taxpayer dollars" and called them "harmful to our military's readiness, morale and resources."