Trump’s National Guard Deployments: Bluffs, Blunders, and Blue Cities

September 16th, 2025
Brogan Jones

The second Trump administration has proven itself to be no stranger to unconventional and controversial uses of presidential power. One of the tools that the President has leveraged, which many of his predecessors opted not to, is National Guard deployments. Specifically, President Trump has sought to deploy the Guard to major Democrat-led U.S. cities, motivated to prevent and fight back against urban crime. The first boots on the ground were deployed over the summer, when Trump ordered over 4,000 troops to Los Angeles, despite objections from Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. This raised both political and legal objections, with a federal judge ruling that the deployment was against the law. A couple of months later, another U.S. city became the subject of Trump’s attention, most likely because it was a lot closer to home. In August, Trump deployed just over 2,000 troops to deescalate crime in Washington, D.C. Despite this alleged goal, troops have had a nominal impact on the crime situation in the city. Still, the D.C. deployment went over much smoother than the Los Angeles one. However, it didn’t go over as well when Trump announced his next target city.

The already tumultuous relationship between President Trump and Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, went from bad to worse when Trump, in late August, voiced his intention for Chicago to be the National Guard’s next pitstop. This triggered pushback from the governor and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Both Democrats preemptively emphasized the potential legal challenges to Trump’s proposal, claiming that there was no state of emergency or inordinate crime rate in Chicago to necessitate the National Guard’s presence. Ultimately, Trump decided not to follow through with the deployment for the time being. Alternatively, the President announced last week that his next deployment destination would be Memphis, one of two major cities led by Democrats in the otherwise red state of Tennessee. While the state's Republican governor welcomed the decision, the mayor of Memphis had a starkly different reaction. Despite Trump claiming on Fox News that the deployment had the approval of the city’s mayor, Memphis Democrat Paul Young stated he did not support the decision and did not think it would help lower crime rates. Despite this, it appears that Trump intends to proceed with the Memphis deployment.

Los Angeles, D.C. and Memphis are unlikely to be where these deployments end. Aside from GOP governors in numerous other states welcoming the idea of troops being deployed to their major cities, there are several other indications that Trump intends to continue his deployment spree. Recently leaked documents from the Pentagon indicate that a plan is in place to deploy troops into Louisiana’s urban centers, particularly New Orleans. Many other cities could potentially follow. Aside from those already discussed, Trump has voiced his desire to deploy the National Guard to the cities of Portland, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland and New York. The common trend among these cities, as well as the ones that Trump has already sent troops to, is that they are led by Democrats. In the midst of this evolving series of unprecedented executive actions, local politicians of targeted cities, as well as federal legislators, continue to disagree about whether the deployments are truly an effort to stop crime or simply a show of Trump’s power.

Extemp Analysis by: Brogan Jones

Question: Will Trump continue deploying the National Guard to U.S. cities?

AGD: It’s really whatever you want or can make out of this one. It’s not all that serious of a topic, so you could go the funny route, or you could dramatically describe the fallout from the Los Angeles deployment and the mass chaos that that caused. There’s not a lot of specific attention grabbers that stand out, but you can tie a lot of usual ones to this question.

Background: Here, you’ll want to maybe briefly explain some of the earlier deployments, like L.A. and D.C. The recent ones, you’ll probably want to use for your main reasons as good examples to support your points. These earlier ones can serve as background information to establish this pattern and explain how these deployments are becoming regular for Trump to order.

Answer/SOS: If I got this question, my answer would be yes, but only in red states. I would say this is the case because 1) Trump backed down from deploying troops to blue states cities, 2) Red state governors approve of the deployments, and 3) Sending troops, even to red states, serves as a good show of power.

The first two points are fairly self-explanatory and can be supported well by the majority of the article. First, you’d want to mention Chicago, as well as the fallout from L.A. For the second, you’ll want to talk about Memphis and the numerous other states like Arkansas and Louisiana that have governors who are ready to receive National Guard troops. The third point is where you’ll want to dig a little deeper. Trump is set on his goal of sending the National Guard to major, Democrat-led cities to fight back against crime. However, because when he does so it leads to poor results and pushback, sending troops to Democratic cities in red states is a good way to circumvent some controversy while also still showcasing his power and influence. Governors in red states who are loyal to him will also likely support him and state that the troops did help fight crime in their states, making it more possible for Trump to potentially send troops into blue states later down the line.