The Trump administration has justified deploying the National Guard to American cities as a necessary response to crime, neglecting real opportunity for accountability. But a new CAP analysis finds the facts tell a different story.
The administration’s deployments and threatened deployments have come with a staggering price tag—one that could exceed $1.7 billion by the end of 2026—despite no evidence that they have reduced violent crime. In fact, all of the cities targeted by the administration had already seen significant declines in violent crime before National Guard troops were deployed.
Rather than investing in proven public safety strategies and a real plan to deliver accountability, the administration is spending taxpayer dollars on costly military deployments that do little to address the root causes of crime while expanding the use of federal force in local communities.
Research consistently shows that communities are made safer by investments in prevention, violence intervention, mental health services, and local law enforcement—not by costly military deployments that lack evidence of effectiveness.
CAP did the math: The costs of Trump’s unlawful war in Iran
Photo: Getty Images
President Trump’s unlawful war of choice in Iran continues to impose severe costs on American households, U.S. service members, civilians in the Middle East, U.S. global interests, the environment, and the economy.
Defense costs:
According to the Department of Defense (DOD), 14 American service members have been killed and at least another 414 were wounded in the war as of July 14.
The Trump administration’s deliberate obfuscation of expenditures, battlefield assessments, and other updates on the war makes estimating a precise sum total of the costs impossible, but, as of June 23, the estimated financial cost of the war to the DOD was $34.2 billion to $41.5 billion.
Domestic economic costs:
The total cost so far is about $1,100 per American household, considering the roughly $150 billion in costs to date across energy, airfare, groceries, and borrowing, plus defense spending.
Fuel prices alone remain higher than before the war. As of July 14, Americans have paid more than $68 billion, or more than $500 per household, in extra costs for gas and diesel since the war began.
These costs do not account for the additional geopolitical, humanitarian, environmental, and health costs from the conflict.
CAP’s Neera Tanden praises state AGs for stepping up to block dangerous Paramount-Warner Bros. merger
This week, 12 attorneys general from states across the nation filed a lawsuit to block the anticompetitive merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Trump administration recently approved the merger at the federal level amid reports that career antitrust officials who raised concerns were left out of the process.
The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is emblematic of the corrupt policies of the Trump administration. A close ally of President Donald Trump reportedly gets the Department of Justice to approve this deal over the objections of career officials in order to fuel a merger that will limit choices of Americans, probably raise their prices, and, by controlling CBS and CNN, damage democracy as well. The state attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, are waging an indispensable fight on behalf of the American people.
RSVP: A conversation with Sen. Chris Murphy on the risks of crypto to democracy and national security
Photo: Getty Images
President Trump and his family have made more than $2 billion from cryptocurrency ventures since his 2024 reelection, including corrupt deals that trade America’s national security for Trump’s personal profit. Cryptocurrency is used by U.S. adversaries and criminal networks to finance war, terrorism, human trafficking, and child exploitation, while Americans lose billions of dollars to crypto scams.
Against this backdrop, Congress is considering legislation called the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that would give cryptocurrency markets a veneer of oversight and consumer protection, but with gaping carve-outs and exceptions from the laws that protect investors, consumers, and our financial system. The bill would grant legitimacy to the Trump family’s crypto empire by giving Trump control of this new regulatory system while allowing his crypto corruption to continue.
Please join the Center for American Progress and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Wednesday, July 22 at 12:30 p.m. EDT for a conversation on the intersection of digital currency, corruption, and national security. The conversation will be moderated by CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden.
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