Why is Trump trying to deploy the National Guard to US cities?

Kayla Epstein

Role,

6 October 2025

President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard into several US cities has drawn a round of legal challenges by state and local officials.

Trump argues the use of federal troops is necessary to quell violence in Democratic-controlled cities, crack down on crime and support his deportation initiatives.

But several Democratic governors have pushed back, saying the deployments are unnecessary and risk escalating tensions.

Illinois filed a lawsuit on Monday asking a judge to block the deployment of troops to Chicago, while a federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard members from Texas and California to Portland, Oregon.

people on 4 October who engaged “in aggressive behaviour toward each other in the street” and refused to follow orders. One person was in possession of bear spray and a collapsable baton.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal law enforcement fired tear gas and smoke canisters to break up the protest and made several arrests.

Trump has claimed the city is “burning down,” but Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said “there is no insurrection in Portland, no threat to national security.”

The Trump administration has moved to send 200 California National Guard troops to neighboring Oregon to respond to the protests.

But US District Judge Karin Immergut, who Trump appointed during his first term, has temporarily blocked his action in a pair of back-to-back rulings.

On Saturday, Judge Immergut blocked Trump from federalising the Oregon National Guard. “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” she wrote in her ruling.

The next day, she issued a temporary restraining order against him deploying California’s National Guard in Portland instead.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal