The court allowed an earlier order giving a timeline for troop withdrawal to stand as the administration considers its response.
Published December 5, 2025
A U.S. appeals court has blocked a lower court’s order requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to withdraw the National Guard from Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks.
Thursday’s decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request to suspend the previous order to consider its response.
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District Judge Zia Cobb ruled in November that the Trump administration must withdraw federal troops by Dec. 11, and later extended that deadline by 21 days.
In their order, the Court of Appeal judges emphasized that the decision to suspend the order “should not in any way be construed as a judgment on the merits.”
The Trump administration has sent at least 2,000 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., as part of what he calls a crime-fighting and beautification effort.
He tried to do something similar in Democratic-run cities across the country, including Los Angeles, California, but ran into legal challenges. Portland, Oregon. and Chicago, Illinois.
Rulings have been delayed in the U.S. capital, a federal territory where the president wields more power.
Nevertheless, Cobb ruled in November that the Trump administration had “acted contrary to law” by deploying the National Guard for “non-military crime deterrence missions without a request from city officials.”
Thursday’s decision came days after two West Virginia National Guard members were shot and killed in the line of duty a few blocks from the White House.
One of the members, 20-year-old Sarah Beckström, later died from her injuries. Another member, 24-year-old Andrew Wolf, remains in critical condition.
Authorities charged 29-year-old Afghan man Rahmanullah Rakanwar with the attack, after which the Trump administration pledged to send 500 more National Guard troops to the city.
