End of a standoff?: Trump backs away from deploying National Guard in LA, Chicago & Portland

In an ongoing standoff, US President Donald Trump has backed away from his attempt to impose federal troops in law enforcement roles on Democratic-run cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland. On Wednesday, Trump suddenly announced that he was ending the attempted deployments in the ‘Blue’ cities.

The unexpected shift came right after the US Justice Department lawyers announced that they were no longer contesting a California court’s ruling, which returned the National Guard troops to the authority of the state’s Governor, Gavin Newsom . Interestingly, this followed a rare rebuke from the US Supreme Court that blocked the White House from deploying troops in Illinois .

In the Wednesday post on his social media platform TruthSocial, the American leader attempted to paint the climbdown as temporary. He vowed to redeploy troops at a later date and reiterated that the initiative has been a success.

“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,” he wrote in his post. “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!" he added.

Is Trump backing down?

While Trump insists that the move is temporary, there seems little doubt that the latest move amounted to a retreat. Earlier on Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom hailed the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue the case further. The department announced its intentions in a filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, backing away from its argument that Trump had a right to put state National Guard troops under his authority indefinitely.

“This admission by Trump and his occult cabinet members means this illegal intimidation tactic will finally come to an end,” Newsom wrote, right after the news came out. The California governor has vocally and vigorously opposed the deployments on the streets of Los Angeles .

In June last year, Trump initially ordered National Guard members into LA in response to the protests against raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents . The deployment has been subject to a succession of legal challenges, with Newsom arguing that the situation did not justify the presence of federal forces and that Trump was exceeding his powers.

Amid several legal cases in the lower courts over the matter, the US Supreme Court last week delivered a rare rebuke by refusing to allow the administration to deploy national guards in Chicago – a move opposed by the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson , and the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker , who are both Democrats.

It is pertinent to note that Trump’s latest announcement also casts doubts on the future of national guard deployments in other Democratic-run cities, including Washington DC and New Orleans, where 350 troops were expected to arrive by New Year’s Eve.