Trump awaits court decisions on National Guard deployments even as protests fade

Published December 14, 2025 6:00am ET



Legal battles over President Donald Trump‘s use of the National Guard in cities to protect federal assets have dragged on even as unrest has subsided, with the president awaiting key court decisions over the deployments in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Trump first deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles in June, after unrest over immigration operations in the city devolved into violence. The federalization and deployment of troops, against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), sparked a lawsuit from the governor and other state officials, a tactic that has been repeated to challenge deployments in Chicago; Portland, Oregon; and Washington. Each of the lawsuits has resulted in different rulings, which have placed the deployments in various states of limbo, even as the peak of the unrest has passed.

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