United States President Donald Trump is sending paramilitary style units to opposition strongholds and enclaves throughout the US in a bid to safeguard government installations and appeal to his base ahead of presidential elections later this year.
According a report by Reuters, Trump will deploy officers from the country’s border patrol agencies to the opposition stronghold of Portland, Oregon after months of unrest caused by the killing of a black minority by state security officials.
The murder of the minority in the United States’ agrarian heartland earlier this year was captured on video and sparked a nationwide protest movement against the state and Trump’s government.
The protests, which have largely been carried out peacefully, have broken into sporadic violence with state buildings and monuments attacked and destroyed.
Protesters have targeted statues of slave-owning rebellion leaders, known as Confederates, that declared independence from Washington during the US Civil War but are nevertheless celebrated by the ruling white majority.
Trump will likely use his local deployment of the military and his strongman image as key parts of his reelection campaign later this year.
His base, a significant portion of whom supports the rebellious confederate leaders and not the government in Washington, have been buoyed by Trump’s public proclamations of support for the confederate statues despite their historical treason.
Unlike most US presidents, Trump will look to the deployment of troops within the United States rather than abroad to carry his reelection campaign.
