Trump says critics who call him a dictator for crime crackdown are 'sick'

President Trump said Monday that people who accuse him of being a dictator are “sick,” and that his deployment of the National Guard to the District is a matter of common sense.

“I don’t act like a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense, and I’m a smart person,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And when I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send in troops. Instead of being praised, they’re saying, ’You’re trying to take over the Republic.’ These people are sick.”

The president said he has heard the accusations repeatedly since he ordered the troops to patrol Washington’s streets less than two weeks ago.

“They say, ’We don’t need him. Freedom. Freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator,’” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of [other] people are saying, ’Maybe we’d like a dictator.’”

Mr. Trump has vowed to crack down on violent crime in the country, in part, by deploying federal troops into Democrat-run cities to make major arrests. Earlier this month, he mobilized the National Guard to Washington and placed the city’s police department under federal control.

State and federal statistics say crime has been declining in the nation’s capital, but Mr. Trump has alleged Washington has been falsifying numbers to appear safer than it actually is.

The presence of 800 National Guard members, some armed, has sparked protests and criticism from Democrats who say the president is acting as a dictator.

Democrats say the president is ignoring crime statistics to impose federal law enforcement in cities run by liberal mayors with whom Mr. Trump disagrees.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on Saturday that “there is no emergency” in the state that would justify Mr. Trump’s federalizing the Illinois National Guard. He accused Mr. Trump of “attempting to manufacture a crisis.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the homicide rate in Baltimore, a city Mr. Trump has also claimed is overrun with crime, is the lowest it’s been in four decades.

“If [Mr. Trump] wanted to have a serious conversation about violent crime, he should have to pay attention to the work we’re doing in the state of Maryland to be able to address the issue,” Mr. Moore said.