US Military Deployments to Cities Near $500 Million, Budget Office Warns

By Staff, Agencies

The cost of US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to American cities has neared half a billion dollars, according to a new estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The nonpartisan office calculated that deployments carried out between June and December 2025 cost approximately $496 million. It warned that if similar operations continue at the same scale, the overall cost could exceed $1 billion over the next year.

The estimate was prepared in response to a request from Senator Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, and does not include a more recent deployment to New Orleans.

Since June, thousands of National Guard troops and Marines have been sent to cities including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Portland, Chicago, and New Orleans.

Trump has defended the move as necessary to counter violent crime, arguing that local authorities failed to restore public safety.

The White House said the deployments have contributed to falling crime rates, with officials claiming that residents in major cities are now safer as a result of federal intervention.

The deployments have drawn legal and political scrutiny, with courts repeatedly examining whether the president has exceeded his authority by deploying military forces domestically. Legal experts have warned that the actions may stretch constitutional limits.

According to the CBO, maintaining the level of deployments seen at the end of 2025 would cost around $93 million per month nationwide.

Sending an additional 1,000 National Guard troops to a new city in 2026 would cost an estimated $18 million to $21 million per month, depending largely on local living costs.