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22:48 GMT
WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (KUNA) -- US President Donald J. Trump said he ordered the National Guard to pull back from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, "despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact."
"Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren't for the Federal Government stepping in," he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
"We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!
"It is hard to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress that has been made???," he added.
President Trump ordered the deployment of these troops to Democratic-run cities, including Washington D.C., in the wake of protests against his immigration policies.
Although the National Guard forces are under the authority of state governors, he argued that their deployment was necessary for the crackdown on crime and illegal immigration.
On Tuesday, December 23, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to his policy, ruling, in an emergency plea, that the president could not, for now, deploy those troops in Chicago to help federal officials manage the protests. (end)
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