President Donald Trump told U.S. 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, 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,” 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.”

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.

Trump has increasingly used speeches to the military to air his grievances and bolster his accomplishments. Still, the scene was striking: a U.S. 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 USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier docked south of Tokyo, at a U.S. military base in Japan that was set up in the aftermath of World War II. It was an unsubtle show of force as 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, 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 U.S. 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.”

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, Trump engaged in a series of diplomatic events, meeting Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, for the first time.