US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he may use the National Guard to police the streets of Washington DC, and a White House official said federal law enforcement would increase its presence in the city this week.
The threat – and the move to follow through on it – was the latest step by Trump and his administration toward taking over running the city that serves as the seat of the US government.
“We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have to run DC. This has to be the best-run place in the country.”
A White House official told Reuters that operational details about the increased federal presence were still being finalised.
Donald Trump’s threat to send the National Guard into the capital comes weeks after he deployed California’s military reserve force into Los Angeles to quell protests. File photo: TNS
CNN reported that officers from the FBI, National Guard, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as agents from the Department of Homeland Security would be involved starting Thursday.