John,

How much money is going toward Donald Trump’s military occupation of U.S. cities?

Twelve U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren and retired Lieutenant Colonel and Purple Heart recipient Tammy Duckworth, want to know. They have sent a letter to the Congressional Budget Office to demand an assessment of the projected expenses.

As Trump continues his highly irregular practice of sending the U.S. military into Democratic cities and states, these costs will only continue to increase. But already, an independent assessment estimates the cost to date comes to $473 million -- nearly half a billion dollars.

This figure represents the sum of the following per-city expenses, so far -- to mobilize thousands of unnecessary National Guard troops and Marines, against the clearly stated wishes of elected state and city leaders, to the following targeted cities:

$270 million -- Washington, DC
$172 million -- Los Angeles, CA
$15 million -- Portland, OR
$13 million -- Chicago, IL
$3 million -- Memphis, TN

Send a direct message to the Congressional Budget Office now, to urge an independent assessment of the costs of these sustained military deployments in our communities.

And if Trump follows through on his current plans, we can expect these costs to multiply exponentially. He has threatened to send additional troops “everywhere,” and he has specifically named the cities of New Orleans, Baltimore, New York City, Oakland, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle -- every single one of which has a Democratic mayor.

Is this really in response to any kind of crisis, as Trump claims without any evidence? Or is Trump in fact laying the premeditated groundwork to declare martial law -- whether to impact the 2026 elections, or even extend his presidency beyond its constitutional term limit in 2028? No one can say what Trump is really up to, but it is fair to ask how much the military occupation is costing us today.

And already, it appears we are paying close to half a billion dollars just for the five cities to which he has sent troops so far. In the words of Senator Duckworth, “If Donald Trump is burning through hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on his authoritarian campaign of intimidation, the American people deserve to know about it.”

Support the Senators who are demanding the CBO conduct an independent assessment of the costs of these ongoing military actions within the United States.

- DFA AF Team