President Donald Trump, speaking aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, threatened to expand National Guard deployments to more American cities — claiming the government can do “as we want.”
The remarks came during a high-profile visit with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, where the two leaders signed a deal for rare earth mineral supplies. Trump hailed it as the dawn of a “new golden age” in U.S.–Japan relations, but his comments about domestic military action quickly stole the spotlight.
Trump, visibly energized, boasted that sending the National Guard into Washington, D.C., had supposedly brought crime “down to almost nothing.”
“Crime is less than half, and within a month, it’ll be gone, getting rid of all the bad ones,” he said. “And we’re going to go into Chicago, we’re going to go into our cities, we’re going to clean them out, we’re going to straighten them out, and we’re going to have safe cities.”
The president went further, claiming that Americans no longer object to seeing military or paramilitary forces deployed in their own neighborhoods.
“People don’t care if we send in our military, if we send in our National Guard, if we send in Space Command. They don’t care who the hell it is. They just want to be safe,” he said. “And we have safe cities now. We’re starting in Memphis. Memphis was a disaster. It’s been there. They’ve been there for two weeks, and it’s a whole different story.”
It’s not the first time Trump has floated the idea of deploying federal forces to deal with domestic crime, but his language this time — “we can do as we want” — raised eyebrows. The implication that his administration sees few limits on its power to send troops into American cities struck critics as a major red flag.
Between handshakes and photo ops with Japan’s new leader, Trump also waded into even more controversial territory — hinting at the idea of running for an unconstitutional third term.
“I haven’t really thought about it,” he told reporters. “We have some very good people, as you know, but I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”
The comment — casual on its surface — landed like a thunderclap back home, fueling new debates over how far Trump is willing to go in his second term.
Watch the clip below:
Trump: "People don't care if we send in our military, if we send in our National Guard, if we send in Space Command, they don't care who it is, they just want to be safe … we're gonna go into Chicago … we can do as we want to do." pic.twitter.com/FKEhISQkdv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 28, 2025
