Federal officers deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters on July 16, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.

US President Donald Trump has suggested that he may order deployment of federal law enforcement agents to major cities to crack down on demonstrators protesting racial injustice and police brutality.

President Trump: In Portland they’ve done a fantastic job... No problem. They grab them. Lot of people in jail. pic.twitter.com/gL8w4ceoHq

— The Hill (@thehill) July 20, 2020

Trump made the comments Monday in the Oval Office of the White House in response to a question about reports that the government was sending 175 federal troops to Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and other US major cities.

I’m going to do something - that, I can tell you, Trump said. Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these - Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.

He made the comments amid outrage over the federal crackdown on demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.

The governor and the mayor and the senators out there, they’re afraid of these people, Trump said. That’s the reason they don’t want us to help them. They’re afraid. I really believe they’re actually maybe even physically afraid of these people - because what they’re doing is incredible.

The US commander in chief further called the federal agents’ performance a fantastic job.

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have deployed their forces to crush the dissent, triggered over the death of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota.