Trump says National Guard to withdraw from Chicago, Portland and L.A.

President Donald Trump said the National Guard is being removed from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, claiming federal deployments led to significant reductions in crime in those cities.

“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 said in a social media post on Wednesday.

“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” Trump added. He also criticized Democratic Mayors and Governors in the post.

In late December, the Supreme Court of the United States blocked the administration’s attempt to deploy the Guard to Chicago, ruling that the president failed to identify a legal basis to use military forces to enforce laws inside a state absent a breakdown of order or a foreign invasion.

Similar legal challenges played out on the West Coast. In Los Angeles, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling returning control of the California National Guard to Governor Gavin Newsom, finding the continued federal presence unlawful.

In Portland, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment of hundreds of troops, ruling that using military personnel to protect federal immigration facilities exceeded presidential authority.