The National Guard is feeling the cost of President Donald Trump’s insistence on using National Guard troops to carry out his expansive immigration roundups and policing actions in Washington, D.C.
National Guard Major General Greg Porter, based in Wyoming, told the state’s lawmakers during a meeting of the Joint Transportation Highways & Military Affairs Committee that the costs of Trump’s National Guard deployments are still unknown, but they’re no doubt eating into the branch’s funds, according to WyoFile.
Porter said that the costs of prolonged deployments will eat into funding intended for things like training and operations.
“It’s free chicken right now to ICE,” he told the state lawmakers. “So, we’ll see how long this lasts and where that goes, but it really has an impact on our readiness accounts.”
National Guard units are typically deployed to assist during times of extreme civil unrest, but more frequently help with disaster relief and other state-side support missions. Now, state National Guard units are asking Congress to provide them with more funding to help cover the cost of their typical fall training deployments, according to Porter.
“Some states could face significant financial liabilities that would directly impact readiness,” Porter told WyoFile. “To keep the Guard trained, equipped, and ready to respond when our nation calls, federal funding must be provided accurately, fully, and on time.”
In just the first seven months of his presidency, Trump has deployed the National Guard to two American cities — Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. — essentially as shows of force. This week he threatened to send more troops to Chicago and New York.
In LA, National Guard troops were sent to crush protests against ICE and the agency’s immigration raids. In Washington D.C., Trump insisted the National Guard was needed to help combat violent crime, even though the city’s crime statistics show that violent crime is actually down from previous years.
Wyoming troops were deployed to D.C. in January to provide security during Trump’s inauguration. That deployment cost $250,000 from the state’s readiness accounts, and Wyoming is still waiting to be reimbursed by the federal government.
It’s not just the states worried about getting paid, but the National Guard members as well.
Last week, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal voiced his concerns that National Guard members sent to patrol D.C. weren’t being paid.
“While I recognize that these soldiers will be compensated eventually, I am troubled by the prospect of servicemembers not knowing when they will be paid next,” he wrote in a letter to Pentagon and White House officials.
He said that any delays in their pay could put National Guard members in financial trouble, adding that troops deployed to D.C. are missing out on “salaries, housing allowances and medical coverage” they receive from their civilian jobs while they’re deployed.
“Any delay in compensation for their service will place many Guardsmen in financial hardship. Even though servicemembers understand that they will be compensated at some point, they should not have to wonder when exactly their next paycheck will come,” he said.
The Intercept asked Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project to estimate the possible cost of Trump’s operation in D.C. According to her analysis, his use of the National Guard to hang around the capital could exceed $1 million per day.
“It’s unconscionable that the Trump administration would hand the military a blank check of over a million dollars a day to occupy D.C. while stripping access to health care and food aid from millions of families across the country,” Homestead told The Intercept. “The daily cost of the D.C. troop deployment is more than four times what it would cost to operate affordable housing for D.C.’s entire unhoused population. The government’s priorities could not be more clear.”
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
