Dec. 3 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said the National Guard will be deployed to New Orleans “pretty soon,” making The Big Easy the next U.S. city to see a surge in military operations.
The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard to Democrat-run cities including Los Angeles, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., Washington, D.C., and has sought to deploy troops to other cities, including Chicago, Ill., and Portland, Ore., though those efforts were blocked by the courts.
The administration says the deployments are part of a public safety and security campaign aimed at curbing crime and protecting federal agents and facilities while assisting local law enforcement during protests against Trump’s immigration policies.
Critics, opponents and Democrats have lambasted the effort as an unconstitutional militarization of U.S. cities that they say instills fear in residents, undermines public safety and chill protests and free speech.
Trump made the announcement during the final Cabinet meeting of the year, and months after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, had asked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for a deployment of National Guard troops to Democrat-run New Orleans.
“We’re going to New Orleans pretty soon, over there. The governor called me — he’d like to have us go there. Gov. Landry, great guy, great governor, he’s asked for help in New Orleans, and we’re going to go there in a couple of weeks,” Trump said.
Landry made the request to Hegseth in a letter dated Sept. 29, asking for up to 1,000 Louisianan National Guard troops to be deployed to the state through the end of the next fiscal year.
He said the troops would support state and federal law enforcement in “addressing ongoing public safety concerns regarding high-crime rates throughout the state.”
“Thank you President @realDonaldTrump and @Sec_Noem for putting AMERICANS first,” Landry said in a statement on X following the announcement.
“We welcome the Swamp Sweep in Louisiana.”