(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has told U.S. troops he was prepared to send “more than the National Guard” into U.S. cities if needed, in the latest demonstration of his willingness to escalate a confrontation with Democratic-led local governments that oppose the deployments.
Trump delivered his remarks on Tuesday aboard the George Washington aircraft carrier, which was docked at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo. His speech, which occasionally touched on partisan issues, was interrupted by applause and cheers from the troops several times.
“We have cities that are troubled … and we’re sending in our National Guard. And if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard because we’re going to have safe cities,” Trump said.
When later asked about those remarks, Trump said he would do it if necessary.
“It hasn’t been necessary. We’re doing a great job without that. As you know, I’m allowed to do that,” he told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to South Korea on Wednesday.
Since June, Trump has deployed National Guard troops to various Democratic-led jurisdictions in an extraordinary expansion of the use of the military for domestic purposes. Trump has sent them to Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C., and is waging court battles to try to dispatch them to Portland and Chicago.
In Los Angeles, Trump also took the rare step of deploying active duty Marines, although their job was to protect federal agents and federal property and they have since been withdrawn.
Trump has left open the possibility that he might use the centuries-old Insurrection Act to deploy active duty troops for policing purposes and sidestep any court rulings blocking the dispatch of Guard troops into American cities.
Under federal law, National Guard and other military troops are generally prohibited from conducting civilian law enforcement. But the Insurrection Act allows for an exception, giving troops the power to directly police and arrest people.
“If I want to enact a certain act I’m allowed to do it routinely. I’d be allowed to do whatever I want,” Trump said in his remarks on Air Force One. “The courts wouldn’t get involved, nobody would get involved. I can send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I can send anybody I wanted.”
Since his second term as president began in January, Trump has shown little hesitation in seeking to wield governmental authority against his political opponents, as he pushes to expand the powers of the presidency in ways that have tested the limits of the law.
Last month, in a speech to top military commanders, Trump suggested using U.S. cities as “training grounds” for the armed forces, alarming Democrats and civil liberties groups.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
