Homeland Security officials plan to deploy federal agents to Chicago, while President Donald Trump threatened to send law enforcement personnel to other Democratic-led cities experiencing spates of crime. Trump defended his administration’s use of force in Portland, Or., where agents have clashed nightly with protesters and made arrests from unmarked cars, the Washington Post reports. Calling the unrest there “worse than Afghanistan,” Trump’s rhetoric escalated tensions with Democratic mayors and governors who have criticized the presence of federal agents on the streets, saying he would send forces into cities with or without the cooperation of their leaders. “We’re looking at Chicago, too. We’re looking at New York,” he said. “All run by very liberal Democrats. All run, really, by the radical left.”
With his poll numbers sinking, Trump has cast himself as a law-and-order strongman who will pacify U.S. communities roiled by spreading disease, the economic crisis and large street protests for racial justice. Trump has wielded images of violent demonstrations, though most racial justice protests have been peaceful. In Chicago, Homeland Security agents would likely assist with intelligence-gathering and targeting of the drug-trafficking groups and gangs driving the violence. Trump has mentioned New York and Philadelphia as two other cities where his administration is looking to send federal agents. Trump lashed out at Democratic officials in Oregon who have asked his administration to withdraw from Portland, saying the heavy-handed tactics of DHS agents were exacerbating the confrontation outside the federal courthouse where violent clashes have played out over several weeks. To date, Portland and Seattle are the only cities that have seen sustained battles between militant protesters and authorities.