Taxpayers have forked out half a billion dollars for President Trump’s National Guard deployments during his second term, new Congressional Budget Office figures show.
So far, Trump has deployed the National Guard to six cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Portland, and Washington, D.C., where they have helped quell protests sparked by ICE raids, removed trash, and done gardening in the capital.
In a 10-page report filed to Sen. Jeff Merkley, the Democrats’ ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, the CBO revealed the cost of the operations to taxpayers now stands at $496 million.
“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 report said. “That uncertainty is compounded by legal challenges, which have stopped deployments to some cities, and by changes in the Administration’s policies.”
The CBO is tasked with providing balanced, nonpartisan information to Congress and said that, in 2026, operations could cost taxpayers $1.1 billion, or $93 million per month.
“More generally, deploying 1,000 National Guard personnel to a U.S. city in 2026 would cost $18 million to $21 million per month, depending mainly on the city’s cost of living,” the report said.
Merkley posted a blistering statement on the report’s findings, saying, “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.
“That’s why we’ve called for this full, independent analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to get a detailed understanding of the cost. Trump is weaponizing taxpayer funds to illegally tighten his authoritarian grip on our communities. It must end.”
CNN, citing Defense Department data, reported that National Guard personnel receive $95,000 per person per year in compensation.
Trump’s National Guard deployments have been controversial and frequently criticized for taking service members from red states to deploy them in blue cities.
During one of their most controversial deployments, Guardsmen were observed conducting what the administration called “beautification” operations, which amounted to tidying up around D.C., despite assertions they were there to reduce crime in urban centers.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to the report’s findings by defending Trump’s National Guard deployments.
“Thanks to the Trump Administration’s highly successful efforts to drive down violent crime, cities like Memphis and D.C. are much safer for residents and visitors—with crime dropping across all major categories. The media should talk to individuals who are able to go about their daily lives without fear of being assaulted, carjacked, or robbed thanks to the Trump Administration,” she said.
At the time of writing, Trump’s operations in Portland, Chicago, and Los Angeles have been brought to a close.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for further comment.
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