The Trump administration plans to federalise 300 Illinois National Guard troops, Democratic Governor JB Pritzker said Saturday, marking the latest escalation of the president’s use of federal intervention in US cities.

But the same day, a similar mobilisation of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon was temporarily blocked after a federal judge found President Donald Trump was likely overstepping his legal authority in responding to relatively small protests near a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

Trump has characterised both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest, calling the former a “war zone” and suggesting apocalyptic force was needed to quell problems in the latter. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or talked about sending

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