Trump pulls federalized troops from Democratic cities after string of legal defeats

The Trump administration has withdrawn all federalized National Guard troops from three Democratic-led cities after a string of legal defeats.

The withdrawal was finalized late last month but was not publicly acknowledged by the White House or the Pentagon despite President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth staking much political capital on the deployments, including more than 5,000 troops to Los Angeles, about 500 in Chicago and 200 in Portland, Oregon, reported the Washington Post.

"More than 2,500 National Guard members remain in Washington, D.C., in response to Trump’s ordered deployment, but under a nonfederal status," the Post reported. "Their mission — part crackdown on crime and part sanitation duty — is expected to last until the end of the year. Additionally, there is an ongoing Guard presence in Memphis and New Orleans, but those missions, while funded by the federal government under a novel agreement with the Trump administration, are overseen by each state’s governor."

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary order in December blocking the president from deploying troops to Chicago because the justices found his ability federalize the National Guard applied only in "exceptional" cases, and that ruling stalled broader plans to use federal troops in response to civil unrest.

Trump deployed troops to the cities under the under federal orders called Title 10, which allows him to take over authority for a state's National Guard, but they're not allowed to conduct law enforcement activities, so they were not permitted to help control protests against his immigration crackdown.

“The administration finally realized the amount of resistance that was coming up, in terms of legal and public condemnation, was more than anyone anticipated," said Randy Manner, a retired Army general and former acting vice chief of the National Guard.

The Pentagon had been considering a nationwide quick reaction force made up of National Guard troops, but the administration now appears to favor using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and other Department of Homeland Security forces to deploy into areas of civil unrest because they face fewer use-of-force restrictions.