Trump to send National Guard to Kenosha today after request from state governor

The National Guard will be deployed to Kenosha after Wisconsin agreed to federal help in quelling three nights of looting, arson and violence, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.

The president said that federal law enforcement would be sent to the city after the state’s governor, Tony Evers, requested federal assistance from the White House.

“We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets. My team just got off the phone with Governor Evers who agreed to accept federal assistance (Portland should do the same!)...” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

It comes after Mr Evers previously turned down an offer of federal help to end the outbreak of violence following the shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday, according to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

“We have a National Guard standing by that if the general for the National Guard needs additional help, we’re there to do it ... But today, that request was denied by the governor,” Mr Meadows said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night.

“The governor informed [Mr Trump and Mr Meadows] we’d be increasing Wisconsin National Guard support in Kenosha and therefore would not need federal assistance in response to protests.”

On Tuesday, the governor declared a state of emergency and doubled the deployment of the state’s National Guard soldiers to 250.

The acceptance of the federal National Guard comes after two people were shot dead, and one injured, on the third night of violent riots in Kenosha. Video from the scene showed a man brandishing a rifle before firing multiple shots, with Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth saying to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier on Wednesday that a “vigilante group” had been patrolling the streets in response to the looting, burning and damage.

A 17-year-old Illinois resident, Kyle Rittenhouse, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after allegedly shooting the two people in Wisconsin on Tuesday night.

“[The suspect] fled the state of Wisconsin with the intent to avoid prosecution for that offence,” Antioch Police Department said in a criminal complaint, according to Lake County Clerk of Courts public records first obtained by The Daily Dot.