Speaking to thousands of military service members aboard an aircraft carrier at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan on Tuesday, Trump delivered a partisan speech that resembled the raucous rallies that made him an ascendant force in U.S. politics.
But throughout his nearly hourlong speech, his ramblings were laced with dark warnings about how he might choose to deploy military forces.”We have cities that are troubled. We can’t have cities that are troubled,” Trump said. “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 has increasingly used speeches to the military to air his grievances and bolster his accomplishments. Still, the scene was striking: an American president defending war and military deployments on U.S. soil and employing partisan talking points on the global stage.
The president delivered his speech on the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier docked south of Tokyo, at a U.S. military base in Japan that was set up in the aftermath of World War II.In recent months, Trump began deploying National Guard troops to cities, mostly heavily Democratic ones, often over the objections of their local leaders, some of whom have launched legal challenges. He has called upon the military to help stop illegal crossings at the southern border and staff immigration facilities; guard federal property and personnel amid protests; and back sweeping crime-fighting efforts.On Tuesday, he signaled that he was prepared to go further in deploying the military on U.S. soil.
“We’re not going to have people killed in our cities,” he said. “And whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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