WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)—President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was withdrawing National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, following a series of legal setbacks over his military deployments in US cities.

The Republican president sent troops into the three cities run by Democrats for what he said was a crackdown on illegal immigration and crime in the first year of his second term in the White House.

Local leaders slammed the moves as authoritarian overreach and launched a string of legal challenges, with the US Supreme Court last week blocking the Chicago deployment.

“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

Trump said the three cities “were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in.”

“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” Trump added.