A Democracy Drive Thread
Federalizing the National Guard and deploying soldiers into U.S. cities — Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, Portland, Chicago — over the objections of governors and mayors, and what the courts said about it.
Through 2025 and into 2026 the administration repeatedly federalized the National Guard and deployed troops into American cities — Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, Portland, Chicago — usually over the objections of the governors and mayors who run them, and usually framed as a response to crime or immigration-enforcement protests. This thread tracks those deployments in chronological order, with sources, alongside what the courts said about them: more than once, federal judges and ultimately the Supreme Court found the administration had overstepped its authority. The entries are presented in order so the pattern is visible on its own.
April 28, 2025
On the ground
Executive Order 14288 also directs the Justice Department to go after local officials and prosecutors the administration considers soft on crime.
June 9, 2025
After protests against immigration raids, Trump federalized more than 4,000 California National Guard troops and deployed about 700 Marines to Los Angeles, over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objection. In September a federal judge ruled the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act, the 19th-century law barring the military from civilian law enforcement; California put the cost to taxpayers near $120 million.
June 18, 2025
On the ground
Asked by Sen. Tammy Baldwin what part of the Constitution allowed it, Hegseth answered that “we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy.” Rep. Salud Carbajal called him “an embarrassment” after he dodged questions in a House hearing.
August 5, 2025
In his own words
Posting a photo of the bloodied 19-year-old, known online as “Big Balls,” Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens” and that “The Law in DC must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.” He added: “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City.” Violent crime in Washington had been falling. Six days later he sent National Guard troops into the city and seized control of its police.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run.”
On the ground
At the Aug. 5, 2025 signing, Trump said “we’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe,” including deploying “our National Guard or military.” Vice President JD Vance is vice chair, and members include Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The order came two months after Trump sent the Guard and Marines into Los Angeles over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military.”
August 11, 2025
Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. and deployed roughly 2,000 National Guard troops, drawing in units from other states. On August 24 the troops began carrying their service weapons. The deployment, costing about $1 million a day, was repeatedly extended and kept in place into 2026.
August 14, 2025
On the ground
The agents appeared outside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14, 2025, as Newsom was speaking inside. Bovino told a reporter: “We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place since we don’t have politicians that will do that.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it a “provocative act”: “The governor is inside having a press conference; there was no reason in the world for them to come here.” Agents’ own texts later showed they called the operation a “stunt.”
On the ground
Dunn, an Air Force veteran, had called the agents “fascists” and shouted “I don’t want you in my city!” The video was titled “Nighttime Routine: Operation Make D.C. Safe Again Edition.”
August 25, 2025
Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to ensure a “standing National Guard quick reaction force … available for rapid nationwide deployment,” with specialized units to address crime in cities — extending to all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Defense officials described it as institutionalizing the use of Guard troops for domestic law enforcement.
August 26, 2025
In his own words
During the more than three-hour meeting on Aug. 26, 2025, Trump attacked Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and said: “Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’ — I am not a dictator, by the way.” He also said the government would seek the death penalty in every Washington, D.C. murder case; D.C. abolished capital punishment decades ago.
“Not that I don’t have — I would — the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities — I can do it.”
August 27, 2025
On the ground
Groups of 150 attorneys are to be sent “as soon as practicable” for renewable 179-day details, after the administration fired many immigration judges amid a backlog of about 3.5 million cases.
On the ground
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the station had “fallen into disrepair” and that federal control would help “make this city safe and beautiful.” The move extended Trump’s control over the capital.
September 8, 2025
In his own words
Speaking at the Museum of the Bible on Sept. 8, 2025, Trump said: “And much lesser things, things that take place in the home, they call crime. You know, they’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime, see?’ So, now I can’t claim” as big a drop. The DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence said intimate-partner violence is a crime and “a precursor to domestic violence homicides.”
“If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime, see?’”
September 11, 2025
On the ground
O’Hara, 35, had regularly protested Trump’s Guard deployment in Washington by walking a few feet behind patrols, playing Darth Vader’s theme at a modest volume and posting the videos on TikTok. He was released without charges. In October he sued with the ACLU, alleging violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights, and the District later agreed to pay him $50,000.
September 12, 2025
Trump announced a National Guard deployment to Memphis, saying the city was “deeply troubled.” Tennessee’s governor said the troops would support local police rather than make arrests, and a “Memphis Safe Task Force” of federal agencies and Guard members began operating later that month.
September 28, 2025
Trump moved to send National Guard troops to Portland over ICE protests, calling the city “war-ravaged.” Oregon and Portland sued; a judge temporarily blocked the deployment, the DOJ was found to have relied on outdated evidence, and in November a federal judge issued a permanent injunction, finding the president’s portrayal of the city “simply untethered to the facts.” The administration appealed.
September 30, 2025
In his own words
At the Sept. 30, 2025 meeting, Trump named San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, said “We’re under invasion from within,” and pointed to the quick reaction force he had ordered for deployment into cities. Crime in those cities had been falling. The commanders sat largely in silence. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the same meeting to declare an end to “politically correct” leadership in the military.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
October 6, 2025
In his own words
“We have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” he said. The next day he said Democrats “are like insurrectionists” and accused the left of “kamikaze” attacks on the country.
““If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.””
October 14, 2025
In his own words
Calling Mamdani a communist, Trump said he “wouldn’t be generous to a communist, a guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window,” and promised, “We will clean up the crime in about 30 days.”
“I wouldn’t be generous to a communist, a guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window.”
October 17, 2025
On the ground
The administration argued in October 2025 that it needed to federalize the Guard to stop what Trump called unremitting violence against ICE agents at Chicago-area facilities. Two lower courts rejected his claim that the protests amounted to a “rebellion.” On Dec. 23, the Supreme Court left the deployment blocked in an unsigned order, a rare emergency-docket loss for Trump. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
October 19, 2025
In his own words
In a Fox News interview, Trump said residents want the military in their city: “San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world and then 15 years ago it went wrong. It went woke.” City leaders said crime was under control, with the homicide rate on track to be the lowest since 1954. A judge had already found the Los Angeles deployment violated federal law, and the Portland deployment was blocked.
“Don’t forget: I can use the Insurrection Act.”
October 28, 2025
On the ground
Blaha, a congressional candidate, said his words were twisted and that retaliation against Guard members who speak out is “real.”
““I signed up to defend the American people and protect the Constitution.””
December 23, 2025
When the administration moved troops toward Chicago, Illinois and the city sued, arguing the deployment was unlawful. A federal judge blocked it in October, and on December 23 the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s bid to deploy the National Guard to the Chicago area while the case proceeded. By the end of 2025 the administration confirmed the Guard was leaving Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland.
January 18, 2026
Amid ICE protests in Minnesota, Trump posted that he would invoke the Insurrection Act if state officials did not quell what he called “insurrectionists,” and threatened to send military police. He had also told the military’s top generals at Quantico of plans to send troops to “very unsafe” Democratic cities, naming San Francisco among them.
January 28, 2026
On the ground
The CBO estimate, requested by Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, covers the National Guard and Marine deployments to Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Portland and Memphis through the end of December 2025. Keeping them going would cost about $93 million a month. It excludes the December deployment to New Orleans. Merkley said Americans deserve to know “how many hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars have been and are being wasted.”