In the hours after a chaotic confrontation in Chicago last week that culminated with a federal agent shooting a local woman , top White House aide Stephen Miller delivered an urgent order to Department of Defense personnel: Prepare to send in the troops.

The facts on the ground at the time remained murky. Federal officials claimed local police were refusing to provide backup as they struggled to maintain control of the scene. The Chicago Police Department said otherwise, insisting officers were immediately sent to help out.

But inside a West Wing that had waffled for weeks over the momentous step of dispatching National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city, it offered a clear impetus, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

“Domestic terrorism and seditious insurrection,

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