The Trump administration<\/span> has deployed roughly 35,000 federal troops within the United States this year, according to exclusive figures provided to The Intercept by official military sources.\u00a0That marks a 75 percent increase on the previous count offered by The Intercept<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n These\u00a0occupation forces<\/a>, drawn from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and National Guard, have been operating under\u00a0Title 10 authority<\/a>, or federal control, in at least five states \u2014 Arizona,\u00a0California<\/a>, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas \u2014 in service of the Trump administration\u2019s anti-immigrant agenda.<\/p>\n The true number of federal troops deployed may be markedly higher. When asked directly, Northern Command, which oversees military operations in North America, said it has no running tally of how many troops have operated under Title 10.\u00a0The Office of the Secretary of War has, for weeks, dodged questions about the total number, refusing to say if they even know it themselves. The increase of 15,000 troops since July could reflect better accounting, as opposed to a marked spike in Title 10 deployments over the last two months, but it\u2019s impossible to know for certain due to efforts by the Department of War to conceal basic information about the forces.<\/p>\n Trump \u201chas forced 35,000 troops into a role they did not sign up for: intimidating their own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Experts say that the increasing<\/a> use of military troops in the interior of the U.S. represents an extraordinary violation of Posse Comitatus, a bedrock 19th-century law banning the use of federal military forces to execute domestic law enforcement that is seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America. The deployments continue to nudge the United States closer to a genuine police state<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration has forced 35,000 troops into a role they did not sign up for: intimidating their own communities as pawns in Trump\u2019s authoritarian power grab,\u201d Sara Haghdoosti, the executive director of Win Without War, told The Intercept. \u201cThe scale of the abuse of both our communities and troops who signed up to defend the Constitution and now are routinely being ordered to violate it is breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n The financial expense<\/a> may also be astronomical<\/a>. These deployments could already have cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. The actual number is unknown because the Pentagon is engaged in a coordinated cover-up of the costs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to know exactly how much the rapidly expanding police state is costing taxpayers,\u201d Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group, told The Intercept. \u201cThe aptly renamed Department of War refuses to publicly disclose the total number of troops deployed on U.S. streets, or the costs of the National Guard\u2019s participation in the illegal, ineffective, and inhumane mass deportation agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some 23,866 federalized<\/span> Army National Guard troops have been deployed within the United States since January 20, 2025, according to exclusive statistics provided to The Intercept by the National Guard Bureau Press Office.<\/p>\n Some of these National Guards members are part of President Donald Trump\u2019s ongoing military occupation<\/a> of Los Angeles<\/a>. In June, Trump deployed troops to LA to put down protests <\/a>against his administration\u2019s immigration raids<\/a>.\u00a0The number of troops crested at around 5,500\u00a0<\/a>but has since shrunk<\/a> to around\u00a0300<\/a>. In addition to the Guard members, Trump sent in 700 Marines, who were later replaced by a contingent of 400 additional Marines.<\/p>\n More than\u00a010,000\u00a0troops<\/a>\u00a0are deploying or have already deployed to support the mission to secure the southern border, according to Northern Command, bolstering the approximately 2,500 service members who were already assisting Customs and Border Protection\u2019s border security mission when Trump took office. Of these forces, around 8,500 or more have been active-duty troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines \u2014 operating under Title 10 authorities \u2014 according to a NORTHCOM spokesperson.<\/p>\n Around 1,200 members of the Marine Corps and Naval Reserve also provided clerical support<\/a> at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities earlier this year while serving under Title 10 status. In July, these troops were transferred to Title 32 status, according<\/a> to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, meaning they reverted to the control of their state\u2019s governor, although their duty is federally funded and regulated.<\/p>\n In addition to these almost 35,000 Title 10 forces, other National Guard members are serving under state control. National Guard forces deployed to Washington, D.C.,<\/a> as part of Trump\u2019s federal takeover of the district last month are operating under Title 32 status. With no governor to report to, the D.C. National Guard\u2019s chain of command runs from its commanding general, to the secretary of the Army, to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, to the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n This month, Trump has repeatedly announced<\/a> the deployment of troops<\/a> to Memphis, Tennessee.\u00a0During a phone interview<\/a>\u00a0that aired on Memphis\u00a0radio station KWAM\u00a0in August, Trump said the occupation of Washington was a template. \u201cWe\u2019re doing sort of a test right now in D.C., it\u2019s working unbelievably,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019ve arrested hundreds of criminals, hard-line criminals, people that will never be any good.\u201d National Guard troops there have been seen doing custodial work, including picking up\u00a0500 bags\u2019 worth<\/a>\u00a0of trash, removing graffiti, and raking leaves around the capital.<\/p>\n \u201cWE\u2019RE COMING, and when we do that, as we did in now VERY SAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., the no crime \u201cmiracle\u201d begins. ONLY I CAN SAVE THEM!!!,\u201d Trump wrote <\/a>on Truth Social on Saturday in regard to a National Guard deployment in Memphis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Soldiers and Airmen of the Tennessee National Guard always stand ready to support the citizens of our state and nation,\u201d a spokesperson for the Tennessee National Guard told The Intercept by email. \u201cPlanning is underway for a strategic mission to address crime in Memphis, and we will continue to coordinate with our state and federal partners to determine the most effective path forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The spokesperson did not provide estimates of the number of troops that would take part in the occupation and could not say for certain whether the troops would be deployed under Title 10 or Title 32 status. \u201cOnce things are finalized, that information will be available,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cNo guardsmen have been deployed to Memphis during this planning stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has also threatened to deploy National Guard troops to\u00a0Baltimore<\/a>,\u00a0Chicago<\/a>, New York City<\/a>,\u00a0New Orleans<\/a>, Oakland<\/a>, and Saint Louis<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled earlier this month that Trump\u2019s deployment of\u00a0federal troops to Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0was illegal and harkened back to Britain\u2019s use of soldiers as law enforcement officers in colonial America. He warned that Trump intends to transform the National Guard into a presidential police force.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law. Nearly 140 years later, Defendants\u2014President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense\u2014deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced,\u201d is how Breyer began a\u00a052-page ruling<\/a>\u00a0that found Trump\u2019s deployment of troops to Los Angeles was illegal. \u201cYet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Breyer ruled that the Pentagon systematically used armed soldiers to perform police functions in California in violation of Posse Comitatus and planned to do so elsewhere. \u201cPresident Trump and Secretary Hegseth,\u201d\u00a0he wrote<\/a>, \u201chave stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service in other cities across the country \u2026 thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,\u201d said Hina Shamsi, director of American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s National Security Project. \u201cPresident Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process. State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s troop deployment<\/span> in Washington is already estimated to have a price tag of more than\u00a0$1 million<\/a>\u00a0per day, based on the reported deployment of around 2,100 Guard members to D.C.\u00a0Mayor Muriel Bowser\u00a0opened the door<\/a>\u00a0for federal forces to continue policing the district\u00a0indefinitely<\/a>, which could push costs into the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.<\/p>\n Homestead estimates that if Trump deployed National Guard members to Chicago \u2014 as he has repeatedly threatened to do \u2014 a force of just 3,000 troops would cost around\u00a0$1,590,000 per day<\/a>.<\/p>\n In June, the estimated cost of deploying the first 2,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles was\u00a0$134 million<\/a>,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the Pentagon\u2019s acting comptroller\/CFO, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell.\u00a0<\/p>\n In mid-July, a Pentagon spokesperson told The Intercept that he would provide an updated estimate of the total in a matter of days. He then went silent, and Department of War press secretary Kingsley Wilson stepped in and refused to offer an update. \u201cNothing additional for you at this time,\u201d she told The Intercept, after offering nothing. She provided a similar response when asked for the total cost of all Title 10 deployments.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress continues to provide a blank check to the military to make our streets look like war zones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n While the costs associated with these troops are being kept secret, they are expected to skyrocket. Sec. 20011 of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act appropriates $1 billion, available through September 30, 2029, \u201cfor the deployment of military personnel in support of border operations, operations and maintenance activities in support of border operations, counter-narcotics and counter-transnational criminal organization mission support, the operation of national defense areas and construction in national defense areas, and the temporary detention of migrants on Department of Defense installations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCongress continues to provide a blank check to the military to make our streets look like war zones,\u201d said Homestead. \u201cThere is not a single measure of wellbeing that has not declined in the U.S. over the last three decades as the Pentagon budget has increased.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the potential cost of domestic troop deployments running into the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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