Trump’s National Guard deployments could cost $1.1 billion this year, CBO estimates
Members of the National Guard stands at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on MLK Day on January 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s use of federalized National Guard troops in U.S. cities is projected to have cost roughly $496 million last year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
If current troop levels are maintained, the deployments could cost as much as $1.1 billion this year, according to CBO estimates.
Monthly costs vary widely by location and troop levels, according to the estimate for 2026, ranging from about $6 million for roughly 350 Guard members in New Orleans, to $28 million for 1,500 troops in Memphis, and $55 million for nearly 2,950 personnel in Washington, D.C., though the precise number of troops fluctuates. Some 200 Guardsmen mobilized in Texas are estimated to cost about $4 million a month.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, requested the analysis in October.
“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,” Merkley said in a statement.
Last year, the largest share stemmed from operations in Washington, D.C., at about $223 million, followed by deployments to Los Angeles at $193 million, which included active-duty Marines, and smaller missions in Memphis ($33 million), Portland, Oregon ($26 million), and Chicago ($21 million), according to the CBO.
The estimates include troop pay, hotel lodging and meals. They do not account for longer-term costs, such as education benefits, disability compensation that service members may accrue during the missions, and the use of equipment and military vehicles.
The estimates are further complicated by uncertainty over both the duration and scale of the deployments, according to the CBO report.
“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.”
Last summer, Trump deployed federalized troops into several Democratic cities. They were later pulled from cities including Los Angeles and Chicago after the Supreme Court ruled the president lacked sufficient legal justification for the deployments.
U.S. Supreme Court building on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — For more than a century, an American birth certificate has been a key to unlocking the benefits of American citizenship.
Most parents of newborns on U.S. soil have simply needed proof of birth from a hospital to apply for social security numbers, passports and early life benefits for their children. Into adulthood, the birth certificate has been universally recognized as proof of citizenship for voter registration, employment, home loans and military service.
A landmark case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday will determine whether that longstanding cultural norm and legal precedent will continue, or whether sweeping bureaucratic changes that could impact millions will soon take effect.
President Donald Trump is asking the justices to uphold his Day 1 executive order eliminating birthright citizenship under a novel interpretation of the 14th Amendment and requiring parents to prove their own legal status before citizenship is granted to their children.
All lower courts that have considered the case struck the order down.
The amendment, which was ratified in 1868, says all “persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens. Congress later codified the same language in federal citizenship law in 1940.
“Look at the dates of this long ago legislation – THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR!” Trump posted on social media Monday. “It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!”
Trump argues children born to parents who are not American citizens or legal permanent residents were never considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. because they still owe political “allegiance” to a foreign nation.
Courts and the government, however, have repeatedly interpreted the 14th Amendment to unambiguously confer citizenship on all children born on U.S. soil, including to babies of unauthorized noncitizens and temporary residents, such as international students, foreign nationals who are in the U.S. on tourist visas and seasonal workers.
“The [14th] Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States,” wrote Justice Horace Gray in an 1898 Supreme Court opinion addressing the status of children born to noncitizens.
Immigrant advocates and civil liberties groups insist Trump’s order is blatantly unconstitutional — contrary to the plain text of the Constitution and history of the citizenship clause — and would unleash “chaos” nationwide.
“The impacts on this country would be catastrophic,” said ACLU attorney Cody Wofsy, who is leading the case against the order.
“Most directly, the children who would be stripped of their citizenship would be … subject to arrest, detention and deportation from the only country they’ve ever known,” Wofsy said.
An estimated 255,000 children born every year on U.S. soil to noncitizen parents could lose legal status under Trump’s order, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some may have difficulty establishing citizenship in any country, effectively being born as “stateless.”
“Babies [born to parents] from countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, where there is not a clear pathway to citizenship in their home countries,” said Anisa Rahm, legal director of the South Asian American Justice Collaborative. “So therefore, where do they belong?”
While the administration insists the order will only apply to children born after it takes effect, legal scholars have warned that a ruling striking down birthright citizenship could have retroactive consequences.
“The citizenship of other Americans could be called into question,” said Winnie Kao, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, one of the groups that brought a class-action suit against the administration over the order.
“Vast swaths of U.S. law would need to be reexamined because they are premised on birthright citizenship,” added Kao. “It will also be a total administrative and bureaucratic nightmare for everyone — even for parents who are U.S. citizens.”
An ABC News review of Trump administration plans for implementing a new citizenship policy across federal agencies suggests a more involved and potentially complicated process for new parents than currently exists, if the executive order takes effect.
The Social Security Administration says birth certificates would no longer be sufficient documentation to obtain a new Social Security Number for a newborn.
“SSA will require evidence that such a person’s mother and/or father is a U.S. citizen or in an eligible immigration status at the time of the person’s birth,” the agency wrote in a July 2025 guidance memo.
Parents would first need to submit their own citizenship documentation by mail, phone or online, the agency said. Alternatively, parents could provide a “self-attestation” of citizenship subject to “state and federal penalties for perjury,” according to the memo.
The State Department says it would adopt similar verification measures for passport applicants.
For children born to lawful but temporary immigrants — who would no longer be eligible for citizenship — the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says parents would need to register to obtain the same temporary legal status for their kids.
Federally funded benefits for children, like nutrition assistance and health care services, provided by the Department of Health and Human Services would also require extensive documentation by all parents to prove their children were citizens at birth, the agency said in a memo.
During oral arguments last year in a predecessor case involving Trump’s birthright citizenship order, Justice Brett Kavanaugh — often a key vote in hotly contested cases — voiced concern about whether the government would be able to carry out citizenship checks for parents of the more than 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. each year.
“Federal officials will have to figure that out essentially,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the justice under questioning.
“How?” Kavanaugh responded skeptically.
“So, you can imagine a number of ways –” Sauer began.
“Such as?” Kavanaugh quipped. “For all the newborns? Is that how it’s going to work?”
Sauer replied at the time that the administration did not have all the details worked out because courts had blocked the executive order in full.
Polls show the nation is sharply divided over the issue of American citizenship for newborn children of unauthorized immigrants. Half of adults — 50% — say they should receive U.S. citizenship; 49% say they should not, according to an April 2025 Pew Research Center survey.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on Jan. 11, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said Sunday that the Trump administration was “attempting to cover up what happened” in the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
ABC News obtained cell phone video of the incident that was taken by the ICE agent who fired the shots.
“I think what we are seeing here is the federal government — [Department of Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, Vice President [JD] Vance, [President] Donald Trump — attempting to cover up what happened here in the Twin Cities, and I don’t think that people here and around the country are believing it,” Smith told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Trump administration officials have asserted that Good was attempting to run over the ICE officer with her car, prompting the officer to shoot her in what they say was self-defense. Noem said Good’s actions were an act of “domestic terrorism.”
Local officials and many Democratic lawmakers have disputed DHS’s assessment of the incident.
“You are saying the administration is trying to cover up this shooting. That’s a pretty serious charge. What do you mean exactly,” Raddatz asked.
“What I mean by that is that you can see everything that they are doing is trying to shape the narrative, to say what happened, without any investigation,” Smith said.
Smith went on to criticize the administration for its response to the shooting.
“What I think is essential to keep in mind here is that if we’re going to trust the federal government, how can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiassed investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened.”
Smith said she has “seen nothing in any of the eyewitness videos, nor in any of the eyewitness reports from this tragic day, that would suggest that [Good] was in any way a threat to these officers.”
“Legally, do you think the ICE officer — certainly said he feared bodily harm. Is that possible in your eyes?” Raddatz pressed.
“It’s hard for me, looking at the evidence that I have seen, to imaging how he could feel bodily harm,” Smith said.
The FBI is investigating the shooting, but Minnesota officials said that the federal government has cut them out, blocking state agencies from accessing case material.
“And then they bar, from participating in the investigation, the unbiased state investigators who frequently collaborate with federal investigators on — when there are things that need to be looked into. So, I mean, I think they have just completely destroyed any credibility as they have so quickly rushed to judgement.”
The fatal shooting of Good sparked country-wide protests against ICE presence in American cities. In Minneapolis, local officials maintain that the protests have been mostly peaceful.
Here are more highlights from Smith’s interview:
On the actions of the ICE officer around the shooting, as captured by videos Smith: I understand how law enforcement, professional law enforcement, is trained. They are trained to deescalate situations, not make some worse, not make conflict worse. They are certainly trained to step out of the way of a moving vehicle, not place themselves in the middle of a moving vehicle. And no professional law enforcement would like, exchange words or banter with somebody who is engaged in their legal right to protest and then lose control, which is, you know, which looks to me like what happened here.
Message to people protesting shooting, ICE’s presence in communities Smith: Of course it is essential that we have peaceful protests. And what I have been saying to people, in all the opportunities I have when I talk to people on the street is that, that the Trump administration wants to foment chaos and division and fear and even violence. And it is essential that we do not fall into that trap, that our, our strength is in our unity, our strength is in our peaceful demonstrations. And, you know, we will not give in. We will not sort of cave in to the fear and the chaos that they are trying to create, they are creating, but we will meet that with unity and with peace.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel delivers remarks on an arrest connected to the 2012 U.S. Embassy attack in Benghazi, at the Department of Justice on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The UFC will host training sessions at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, this weekend, the mixed martial arts promotion and FBI announced on Thursday.
FBI Director Kash Patel has long been a UFC fan and talked about doing this type of training in one of his first calls with staff at the FBI.
“I’m thrilled to announce this historic seminar between the FBI and the UFC at Quantico,” Patel said in a statement. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our FBI agents to learn and train with some of the greatest athletes on earth — helping the world’s premier law enforcement agency be even better prepared to protect the American people.”
The seminars will be on March 14 and 15 and will be led by current and former UFC fighters, including one champion, UFC said.
“I have tremendous respect for the FBI and the work they do every day to protect this country,” UFC CEO Dana White said in a statement. “Our UFC fighters are some of the baddest men and women on the planet and they are heading to Quantico to train the best FBI agents in mixed martial arts. It’s an incredible opportunity for our athletes to experience, and we’re proud to support the FBI in strengthening their defense techniques.”
UFC fighters taking part in this weekend’s training include current interim UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethe, the first UFC BMF champion Jorge Masvidal, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, former UFC strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha, former UFC lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler, top UFC flyweight contender Manel Kape and mixed martial arts legend Renzo Gracie, the UFC said.
“This collaboration is part of an overall initiative by the FBI to provide its agents with exciting, innovative training options and to constantly look for opportunities to revamp and improve their preparation to continue to be the best of the best,” the FBI said in a release.
The FBI did not say what type of training would be conducted.
The Trump administration and UFC relationship is not new. Trump has attended multiple fights in recent years and the White House is hosting a UFC fight on the Ellipse later this year.
The White House-UFC event, which has been named UFC Freedom Fights 250, is June 14, which is also President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The event is also meant to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
