Trump Warns He'll Send ‘More Than National Guard’ to US Cities

‘We’re going to 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.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday told U.S. military members in Japan that he may send in more troops than just the National Guard to deal with crime in urban areas.

“We have cities in trouble. We can’t have cities that have trouble,” Trump told troops at the USS George Washington at the Yokosuka Naval Base. “We’re sending in the National Guard, and we need more than the National Guard.”

Trump added: “We’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to 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.”

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In recent months, the president has sent the National Guard to Washington; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles; and Chicago. He has also warned that other cities may see a Guard deployment due to crime and illegal immigration.

The deployments have faced legal pushback, although an appeals court ruled this past week that Trump has the power to deploy National Guard troops to Portland.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Oct. 20 voted 2–1 to issue a stay on a federal judge’s ruling that barred the president from deploying the Oregon National Guard to Portland.