The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that continued operations will cost $93 million a month.
It would cost President Donald Trump nearly $500 million to deploy troops to major U.S. cities in 2025, according to the latest estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Last year, President Trump mobilized more than 10,000 National Guard and active-duty Marines and sent them to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Portland, Chicago and New Orleans to deter crime and protect federal immigration enforcement.
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“Since June 2025, the administration has deployed National Guard or active-duty Marine Corps personnel to six U.S. cities, at a total cost of approximately $496 million through the end of December 2025,” CBO Secretary Philip Swagel said in a report released Wednesday.
The actual number of troops patrolling U.S. streets fluctuated throughout 2025 due to legal challenges to President Trump’s orders from city and state authorities, with just over 5,000 active by the end of December.
CBO estimates that continued deployment at that scale will cost $93 million per month in 2026.
Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland have all shut down since the end of December, while Washington, D.C., Memphis, and New Orleans continue to operate.
If President Trump sends troops elsewhere, CBO estimates that deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the average U.S. city in 2026 would cost between $18 million and $21 million a month in 2026, depending on the cost of living.
“The costs of these future deployments are highly uncertain, primarily because it is difficult to accurately predict the size, length, and location of such deployments,” the report said.
The most expensive military operation of 2025 was in Washington, D.C., at $232 million, according to CBO, where President Trump mobilized 2,950 troops to patrol the capital’s streets to combat what he called “out-of-control” crime.
CBO estimates that it costs $55 million a month to maintain troops in Washington, DC. President Trump reportedly intends to keep them in the nation’s capital until the end of 2026.
Los Angeles was the second most expensive business in 2025 at $193 million per month.
Trump deployed 4,200 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to patrol the city in June, but the operation was largely scaled back within three months, according to the CBO.
The 2025 deployments to Portland and Chicago will cost $26 million and $21 million per month, respectively, and deployed 400 and 375 personnel to each city at the height of President Trump’s executive operation last year.
Although the military is out of Chicago, 200 National Guard troops are on standby in Texas, at a cost of $4 million a month, according to CBO.
Deploying the National Guard to Memphis last year cost $33 million a month and mobilized 1,500 personnel at its peak. The operation is still underway, but local media reports that the number of remaining troops is much smaller.
According to the CBO, President Trump has authorized the deployment of 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans starting in 2026 at a cost of $6 million per month.
