Black mayors and leaders decry Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard in cities

Black civil rights leaders and the mayors of several cities on Tuesday denounced the deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital to combat crime, calling it “fundamentally grandstanding” and “a federal coup.”

Black civil rights leaders and the mayors of several cities on Tuesday denounced the deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital to combat crime, calling it “fundamentally grandstanding” and “a federal coup.”

And by suggesting that other cities, also run by Black mayors, may be next, President Donald Trump was “playing the worst game of racially divisive politics,” one rights leader said.

Trump announced Monday that he would deploy 800 guard members to Washington, D.C., suggesting that the same could happen in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California.

“When you walk down the street, you’re going to see police or you’re going to see FBI agents,” Trump said about Washington on Monday. “And we will bring in the military if it’s needed.”

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said the president’s actions and words were racially polarizing, considering crime rates in these cities are largely declining.