Washington, D.C. — A new analysis released today by the Center for American Progress reveals that the Trump administration’s costly and controversial deployments of the National Guard to Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, and New Orleans have failed to reduce violent crime. If current deployments are extended through the end of 2026, it is projected it will cost American taxpayers more than $1.7 billion.
Despite President Donald Trump’s claims of success, the administration is exploiting a preexisting, nationwide downward trend in crime to justify an authoritarian expansion of presidential power, stripping funding from proven community intervention models to build an ineffective multibillion-dollar surge of federal agents and National Guardsmen. In fact, the 11 cities targeted or threatened by the administration with National Guard deployments saw an average 14 percent decrease in violent crime and a 22 percent decrease in murders in the 12 months preceding federal intervention. The administration is now requesting more than $4 billion in Department of Defense and Department of Justice (DOJ) funding to expand these failed strategies, despite not having any evidence that National Guard deployments had a measurable effect on citywide homicide rates, violent crime rates, or gun victimization rates. Preferring to use unpopular, costly, and ineffective tactics instead of working alongside local officials, this administration is proposing a $1.2 billion reduction in DOJ grants that local police departments and municipal governments rely on to reduce crime.
“The data has finally caught up to the rhetoric: Donald Trump’s signature public safety strategy has had no measurable effect on reducing violent crime, while it will cost taxpayers nearly $2 billion by the end of the year,” said Chandler Hall, associate director for Public Safety at CAP. “While the administration tries to take credit for falling crime rates, the truth is that these historic declines were happening long before federal troops ever arrived. It’s time to stop funding costly and ineffective interventions and start investing in the local strategies, technology, and community prevention programs that actually keep families safe.”
To evaluate the administration’s public safety claims, CAP conducted a rigorous mathematical evaluation across three distinct models to control for seasonal fluctuations and time variance.
Read the report: “The Trump Administration’s $1.7 Billion National Guard Deployments Fail To Reduce Urban Crime” by Chandler Hall
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