Trump announces 'surge' of federal officers to Chicago despite outrage over Portland crackdown
Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will "sruge" federal law enforcement officers to Chicago "immediately" to quell violence there, building on a similar force already operating under legally questionable orders in Portland.
Democratic lawmakers have accused the president of using the federal police deployments as a campaign tactic. Part of his sales pitch for a second term, despite trailing former Vice President Joe Biden nationally and in most key swing states, is that he is a "law-and-order president." But majorities of American voters, according to multiple polls taken in recent weeks, oppose Mr Trump's response to violence across the country, a large portion of which is linked to the killing of George Floyd and other black people by white police officers.
The FBI, ATF, Drug Enforcement Agency, US Marshall's Service and Department of Homeland Security will send "hundreds" of what he called "very skilled" officers to Chicago "immediately," he said during an East Room ceremony.
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