GOP strategist Karl Rove predicted on Saturday that deploying National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities, over the objections of the states’ respective governors, will ultimately be a losing issue for President Trump.

In an interview on Fox News’s “The Journal Editorial Report,” Rove pointed to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showing 58 percent of U.S. adults say the president should only deploy troops to areas with external threats — a view held by 72 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans and 53 percent who identify as “other.”

Only 37 percent of the public say the president should be able to send troops into a state “even if its governor objects” — including 70 percent of Republicans, 13 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of respondents who identify with neither party.

“If a governor objects, though, the partisanship starts to be felt,” Rove said, reviewing the polling numbers. “Republicans say, ‘Yeah, override the governor’; Democrats say, ‘No;’ and independents tend to side with the Democrat voters and say, ‘No, I don’t think that should happen.’”

Rove said he’s concerned about the effect the numbers will have on the president’s support, even if some voters concerned about crime might appreciate the president taking action to address the issue.

“This ultimately, I think, will tend to be a loser if the question is: Should the president do this or should he have done it,” Rove said, in remarks first highlighted by Mediaite. “On the other hand, it might get him a slight improvement among the people who are concerned about crime by saying, ‘Well, at least he’s taking action.’”

“But, overall, I think this is going to end up being a loser for the president,” he continued.

Host Paul Gigot noted that the administration would likely say that Trump is sending the National Guard into these cities to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and facilities. He noted that state and local officials in Illinois, for example, have not cooperated with federal authorities.

Rove agreed that Trump is within his right to deploy troops to protect federal facilities, but he said it remains to be seen whether the public agrees with the president’s characterization of the 2025 protests in Portland, Ore., as on par with the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

“Look, he has authority to deploy the National Guard to protect federal facilities. I think the public, though, is going to look at this and make a decision whether: Are they seeing what they saw during the summer of 2020, and riots in Portland, nightly attacks on the federal courthouse? Or is this going to be, you know, protesters outside a facility in suburban Chicago?”

Rove suggested Trump would look more justified in his approach if the protests escalate beyond peaceful protests.

“I mean, how this plays out is going to depend upon how the locals take this in stride,” Rove continued. “If it heats up, yes, the president’s going to look better. If it doesn’t heat up, if it really is just, sort of, meeting the needs of protecting the federal facilities, I’m not certain it’s going work to his advantage.”

“We saw this a little bit in Portland where the president was asked about it and he said, ‘Well, you know, I am hearing that there are fires and riots, and lots of violence every night.’ I don’t know where he was getting that because that’s not what they’re seeing on Portland TV,” he added.

Approximately 200 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and 300 soldiers from the Illinois National Guard were activated in the greater Chicago area by Wednesday night, according to an update from U.S. Northern Command. Local officials have sued to block the deployment.

A subsequent update on Friday indicated that the National Guard soldiers in Chicago and Portland “are not conducting any operational activities at this time.”