On December 31, 2025, Donald Trump posted the following on Truth Social:
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. Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren't for the Federal Government stepping in. We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time! It is hard to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress that has been made??? President DJT
Trump's post comes eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a ruling by a federal judge in Chicago that bars the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops in Illinois.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito all dissented.
Read a full report of the decision and the events leading up to it on the SCOTUSblog website here.
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Commentary:
True to form, Trump can't just announce the end of deployment and leave it at that. Instead, he chooses to disseminate more divisive and hyperbolic B.S.
To say that Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were "GONE" is way, WAY over the top and just a lie.
To say that it's only a "question of time" before he will have to deal with more violence is, once again, just more vilification and divisiveness, as is his statement about the incompetence of "Democrat Mayors and Governors."
It's worth noting that according to a September 4, 2025 article on Governor Gavin Newsom's official state of California website entitled Trump's illegal National Guard deployment in Los Angeles cost taxpayers $120 million:
The Title 10 deployment of more than 4,200 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines cost $71 million for food and other basic necessities, $37 million in payroll, more than $4 million in logistics supplies, $3.5 million in travel, and $1.5 million in demobilization costs, which adds up to an estimated $118 million.
Trump's deployment of the National Guard to American cities was nothing more than a publicity stunt. It was just Trump showing America, and the world, that he thinks can do whatever he wants. The deployment was simply not necessary.
Thankfully, there are some rational, reasonable people in power (like the six Justices that ruled against Trump) who had the wherewithal and the courage to stand up and do what's right.