Trump Says He Is Prepared to Send ‘More Than the National Guard’ Into U.S. Cities

President Trump told American troops assembled in Japan on Tuesday that he was prepared to send “more than the National Guard” into cities to enforce his crackdowns on crime and immigration, further escalating how he has talked about using the military at home and abroad.

Speaking to thousands of military service members aboard an aircraft carrier at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan on Tuesday, Mr. Trump delivered a partisan speech that resembled the raucous rallies that made him an ascendant force in U.S. politics.

But throughout his nearly hourlong speech, his usual ramblings about the physical appearances of audience members and steam-powered catapults were laced with dark warnings about how he might choose to deploy military forces.

“We have cities that are troubled, we can’t have cities that are troubled,” Mr. Trump said. “And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to have safe cities.”

Mr. Trump also defended the U.S. military’s strikes against what the administration has said are suspected drug smugglers. The tactics have drawn widespread rebuke from experts who have said it is illegal to use the military to target civilians — including criminal suspects — who are not directly participating in hostilities.

Mr. Trump has increasingly used speeches to the military to air his grievances and bolster his accomplishments. Still, the scene was striking: an American president defending war and military deployments on U.S. soil, and employing partisan talking points on the global stage.

The president delivered his speech on the U.S.S. George Washington, an aircraft carrier docked south of Tokyo, at an American military base in Japan that was set up in the aftermath of World War II. It was an unsubtle show of force as Mr. Trump prepares to meet China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, this week, for talks that hold great stakes for the global economy.

In recent months, Mr. Trump began deploying National Guard troops to cities, mostly heavily Democratic ones, often over the objections of their local leaders, some of whom have launched legal challenges. He has called upon the military to help stop illegal crossings at the southern border and staff immigration facilities; guard federal property and personnel amid protests; and back sweeping crime-fighting efforts.

On Tuesday, he signaled that he was prepared to go further in deploying the military on American soil.

“We’re not going to have people killed in our cities,” he said. “And whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing.”

Mr. Trump also indicated that the series of recent U.S. strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific amounted to a war.

“We’re winning it already, the sea,” he said. “I mean, the only problem is, nobody wants to go into the sea anymore, even the fishing boats.”

Mr. Trump defended the military’s recent attacks on boats, saying that the “radical left” had claimed that strikes had killed fishermen and not suspected drug smugglers. “Submarines don’t go fishing,” he said.

The United States has acknowledged at least 10 strikes on boats and semi-submersible crafts from South America that have killed 43 people. The administration has said they were all involved in drug smuggling but has provided no evidence for its claims. Other governments have said that innocent people have been killed in those strikes, including a fisherman whom the president of Colombia accused the United States of murdering.

In his speech, Mr. Trump praised the tactics, saying that “we’re knocking them out one by one.” He claimed that the United States had almost completely stopped drugs from coming into the country by sea, “and now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land.”

“For many years, the drug cartels have waged war in America, and at long last, we’re finally waging war on the cartels,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump was completing the second stop on a three-country swing through Asia in what he largely cast as a diplomatic and peacemaking mission. Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump engaged in a series of diplomatic events, meeting Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, for the first time.

He devoted only a small portion of the address to the military and economic relationship between the two nations. He announced that he had just approved an order of missiles to supply Japanese F-35 planes and that Ms. Takaichi had informed him that the Japanese company Toyota would invest $10 billion in putting auto plants throughout the United States.

Mr. Trump spent a considerable amount of his speech attempting to endear himself to the service members in the crowd.

“Our ultimate strength does not come from equipment,” he said. “It comes from the men and women of the rank and file. That’s true. It comes from you people, incredible people, good-looking people. Too many good-looking people. I don’t like good-looking people. I never liked good-looking people. I’ll be honest with you, never admitted that before.”

Mr. Trump promised to support salary increases for all service members. The government shutdown that has prompted him to move around federal funds and use a private donation to pay troops.

The president also said that many of the sailors took a pay cut to attend the event.

“We’re not going to deduct anything because you came in to listen to your commander,” he said. “I’d like to be an admiral. I always wanted to be an admiral, to be honest.”