President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is removing National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — Only a question of time!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The move comes after the Supreme Court last week declined an emergency request from the Trump administration that said the troops were necessary for the protection of federal agents working in Chicago to enforce immigration policies.
In an unsigned order, the court rejected the administration’s claim that circumstances on the ground in Illinois met the criteria for the president to invoke a federal law allowing him to call up the National Guard to federal service.
“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the court ruled.
The decision only involved Chicago, but was likely to strengthen other National Guard deployment challenges. It does not affect the District of Columbia, where troops have also been deployed, as it is a federal district and not a state.
A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom — a Democrat — said in an email Wednesday, “We won in court and forced him to. Trump’s rambling here is the political version of ‘you can’t fire me, I quit.'”
Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Tina Kotek of Oregon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
