A United States appeals court has issued a stay on a lower court’s order requiring the administration of US President Donald Trump to withdraw the National Guard from Washington, DC, in the coming weeks.

The decision on Thursday by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit granted a Trump administration request for a pause on a previous order as it considers its response.

District judge Jia Cobb had ruled in November that the Trump administration must withdraw federal troops by December 11, later extending the deadline by 21 days.

In their order, the appeals court judges stressed that their decision to pause the order “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits”.

The Trump administration has deployed at least 2,000 National Guard troops – res

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