President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would "probably" visit Kenosha, Wis., where unrest has surged over the past week in the wake of the police shooting of an African American man, Jacob Blake.
During a roundtable discussion in Orange, Texas, in which state officials assessed the storm damage from Hurricane Laura, a reporter asked the president whether he would also visit Kenosha.
"Probably so," Trump responded. "We’ve had tremendous success as you know. We were finally able to get the go ahead from the local authorities to send in the National Guard. We sent in the National Guard, and within a few minutes of the Guard, everybody cleared out and it became safe."
More than 1,000 National Guard soldiers have been on standby at the Kenosha protests to prevent a further escalation of violence, Reuters reported. Roughly 1,000 people marched peacefully there Saturday in a rally against police brutality, the Associated Press reported.
Trump deferred on a question on the fatal shooting of two Kenosha protesters Tuesday, in which a 17-year-old from Illinois has been charged, saying the case is under investigation.
"They'll be reporting back to me over the next 24 hours, 48 hours maybe max, and we’ll have a comment about it," he said.
The president also used the question to criticize officials in Portland, Ore., a city that has seen months of protests over systemic racism. He said Portland's mayor "doesn't have a clue what he's doing."
Trump's comments echoed sentiments from his recent tweets on outbreaks of unrest in cities nationwide.
"Portland, with a very ungifted mayor, should request help from the Federal Government. If lives are endangered, we’re going in!" Trump tweeted earlier Saturday.
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