Trumped Up Charges: What the Data Behind National Guard Deployments in U.S. Cities Actually Show

The Trump administration has justified National Guard deployments to major U.S. cities by claiming an urgent need to stop rising gun violence. Yet the administration’s own target cities show a different pattern. In cities where federal troops have been threatened or deployed, gun deaths were already declining well before Washington intervened. This mirrors nationwide reductions in violent crime and calls into question the federal government’s stated rationale. Rather than using military deployments to suppress dissent and effect a slow-motion coup, the federal government must instead support approaches that work based on independent data, including community-based violence prevention, targeted local policing and economic investment that build communities and long-term public safety.