President Trump on Tuesday vowed to expand his use of the National Guard in U.S. cities, adding that some cities are in so much trouble that he may deploy “more than the National Guard.”
“We have cities in trouble. We can’t have cities that have trouble,” Mr. Trump told U.S. Service members in Japan, while aboard the USS George Washington at the Yokosuka Naval Base. “We’re sending in the National Guard and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send in more than the National Guard.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. must have “safe cities.”
“We’re not going to have people killed in our cities, and whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing,” he said.
The president did not offer more details about what he was considering.
Mr. Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, the District of Columbia, Memphis, Chicago and Portland despite pushback from local officials and court challenges. All of the cities where Mr. Trump has dispatched troops have Democratic mayors and, except for Memphis, they are located in blue states.
Last week, the president backed off plans to send federal agents to San Francisco after speaking with the city’s Democratic mayor, Daniel Lurie.
A federal appeals court ruled last week that Mr. Trump could deploy troops to Oregon for now, handing the administration a legal victory on the issue.
