Trump’s National Guard deployments cost taxpayers nearly $500M, report reveals

(TNND) — President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in major cities across the country for immigration enforcement has cost taxpayers nearly $500 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The CBO said in its 10-page report that since June, the Trump administration has sent troops to six cities – Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Tenn., Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. – costing about $496 million through the end of the year.

The costs of those or other deployments in the future are highly uncertain, mainly because the scale, length, and location of such deployments are difficult to predict accurately,” the CBO said. “That uncertainty is compounded by legal challenges, which have stopped deployments to some cities, and by changes in the Administration’s policies.

The report further explained that continuing the deployments at its current size as of the end of 2025 would cost $93 million per month, while deploying 1,000 troops to a U.S. city in 2026 would cost $18 million to $21 million per month, depending on the city’s cost of living.

Trump began sending troops in June to protect federal government personnel and property after he enforced immigration enforcement operations that sparked protests and confrontations.

In August, the National Guard was deployed to Washington, D.C. in assistance to Trump’s efforts to crackdown on crime in the nation’s capitol.

By December, Trump pulled troops out of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, a week after the Supreme Court ruled the administration had not identified a valid legal authority that would allow the military to execute federal laws in Illinois.

The CBO report was prompted by Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Merkley, asking the nonpartisan agency to analyze the cost of activating, deploying and compensating National Guard troops, along with the cost of sustaining and maintaining these deployments.

“The American people deserve to know how many hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars have been and are being wasted on Trump’s reckless and haphazard deployment of National Guard troops to Portland and cities across the country,” Merkley said in a statement Wednesday.