Troop deployments to U.S. cities cost nearly half a billion dollars in 2025

Troop deployments to U.S. cities cost nearly half a billion dollars in 2025

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/troop-deployments-to-u-s-cities-cost-nearly-half-a-billion-dollars-in-2025/

Updated on: January 29, 2026 / 5:12 PM EST / CBS News


The Trump administration's deployment of troops to five different U.S. cities last year cost roughly $496 million through the end of December, according to estimates released by the Congressional Budget Office this week.

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The Pentagon in June 2025 deployed 700 active-duty Marines and members of the National Guard to Los Angeles following protests over the administration's immigration raids. Since then, members of the National Guard have deployed to Washington, D.C.; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; and New Orleans, Louisiana. And about 200 members of the Texas National Guard are on standby for potential domestic deployments.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reviewed all of the mobilizations, except for New Orleans because it's a more recent development, after a request from Democratic senators, including Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

"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. ............................................