President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Democrat mayors of large American cities for their handling of violent protests and riots, calling their cities "out of control" and "like war zones."
Speaking to reporters after being briefed by law enforcement officials in a forum called "Keeping American Communities Safe," the president said that he would be making an announcement on America's cities sometime next week.
"And we will be meeting you in a similar vein, but a little different subject next week, and that concerns our cities and, again, people that have lost control of some of our great cities," he said. "We're going to straighten things out."
Asked to expand upon the announcement, President Trump called out Democratic leadership in cities such as Seattle, Minneapolis and Portland, bashing them as being "poorly run." He also pointed to the widespread violence in the city of Chicago over the weekend and asserted his administration is "not going to put up with that."
"But we have other cities that are out of control; they're like warzones," the president said. "And if the cities are going to straighten it out, if local politicians, or in this case - I don't say this for political reasons - they're all Democrats. They're liberal, left-wing Democrats. And it's almost like they think this is going to be this way forever, where in Chicago, 68 people were shot and 18 died last week. We're not going to put up with that. We're not going to put up with that."