Washington, DC – US President Donald Trump has expressed growing concern over rising crime and civil unrest in several major American cities, particularly Chicago and Portland, prompting him to send a wider deployment of National Guard troops.
This came after a White House press briefing on Monday, where Trump was questioned about the recent surge of agents across the country.
He said the White House must act if local officials are unable to ensure order and protect public property.
If continuing unrest persists, Trump raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, a federal law that allows the use of military forces during times of national emergency, giving them to directly police and arrest civilians.
The move drew criticism from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also on Monday, who accused the president of escalating tensions to justify further militarization.
After this, Illinois and the city of Chicago have also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to block orders to federalize Illinois Guard troops and deploy Texas Guard troops to Chicago.
However, several reports on Tuesday confirmed that hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers have already gathered at an Army Reserve facility outside the city.
Separately, a federal judge in Oregon temporarily halted the administration’s plan to send troops to police Portland.
It can be recalled that months earlier, Trump already deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., citing similar crime concerns, even as reports indicated that crime rates there had already declined.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly described Chicago as “the murder capital of the world” and already had his eyes to push for stronger guard troop presence there to curb violence.