Members of the Georgia National Guard patrol the Anacostia Metro Station in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2026. (Jeremy Farson/U.S. Air National Guard)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to American cities cost $496 million last year and could cost $1.1 billion this year, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The estimates cover the cost of deployments to Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Portland, Ore.; and Chicago as well as the mobilization of 200 National Guard personnel who were put on standby in Texas after leaving Chicago.
The deployments to Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland have ended, but the National Guard presence is continuing in Washington, D.C., Memphis and New Orleans, where troops were deployed in late December. The standby force in Texas also remains.
Continuing those deployments at their year-end size would cost $93 million per month, according to the nonpartisan agency’s analysis, which was requested by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.
Nearly a dozen other Senate Democrats signed on to the request for a formal probe in October.
“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 on Wednesday.
The agency said it was difficult to predict future costs, partly because many of the deployments have been challenged in court. Generally, deploying 1,000 National Guard personnel to a U.S. city in 2026 would cost $18 million to $21 million per month, depending on living costs.
The ongoing deployment of more than 2,690 troops to Washington, D.C., which the Trump administration has indicated will continue at least through the end of 2026, will cost $55 million per month, or $660 million for the year, according to the analysis.
The agency said it calculated expenses by tallying costs for military pay and benefits when National Guard personnel are mobilized, costs for housing and food, and transportation costs for moving personnel from their home stations and back. Those total expenses range from $522 to $607 per service member per day.
Trump began the deployments in June 2025 in Los Angeles in response to protests stemming from immigration enforcement efforts. Pentagon officials at the time said the mission, which also included the deployment of 700 active-duty Marines, would cost $134 million.
The Congressional Budget Office said the mobilization actually cost $193 million last year. Deployments cost $223 million in Washington, D.C.; $33 million in Memphis; $26 million in Portland; and $21 million in Chicago.
Trump has defended his decision to send National Guard troops to American cities, arguing they have lowered crime and made cities safer.
“Can’t imagine why governors wouldn’t want us to help,” he said in a news conference this month.
