WASHINGTON —

President Donald Trump's authority to deploy National Guard troops in American cities is under legal scrutiny following violent clashes between protesters and federal agents in Portland and Chicago , with the White House defending the move as necessary for law and order.

Trump compared the cities to war zones on Monday and said he’s willing to invoke the Insurrection Act to send in federal troops.

“We have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” he said. “If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

A federal judge has given the Trump administration two days to respond to Illinois’ lawsuit challenging the president’s plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago, but she didn’t i

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