“It creates the possibility of bad situations” in which some local kid, perhaps, loses their head and tries to fight back, she said. “Then all bets are off.”

A survey Saturday of city politicians in deep-blue Boston hardly reveals a surprise: They broadly oppose Trump’s idea to send National Guard troops into Boston in an effort, according to the Republican president, to help fight crime. It’s one of the few topics that unify Boston’s progressive mayor, her challenger, the even-more-progressive wing of the Boston City Council that needles her from the left, and some of the council’s relatively more conservative members.

For example, Councilor Ed Flynn, a centrist critic of Wu who represents South Boston and Chinatown, said in a statement that he has great respect for the Guard and appreciation for the role they played in mobilizing resources quickly and efficiently during the pandemic, but, “it is not necessary to activate the National Guard for law enforcement support in Boston.”

Trump continues to float the prospect of using the Guard, which is typically called up by state governors to help in the cases of national disasters or specific unrest, to augment local, state and federal law enforcement in multiple cities Trump has deemed to be suffering from severe street violence. He took control of the police force in Washington and sent the Guard into Los Angeles, and threatened to do the same in other cities, such as Chicago and Boston.

Supporters have cheered this hardline stance and unusual use of the Guard, saying it’s necessary after years of what Trump characterizes as soft-on-crime policies in Democrat-led big cities that, in some cases, are objectively struggling with violent crime.

“Boston has more than its fair share of crime, and President Trump’s offer to provide National Guard assistance should serve as a wake-up call to Governor Healey and Mayor Wu: If they don’t protect our residents, the president may step in for them,” Amy Carnevale, the chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said Saturday.

But critics say this is a page out of a classic authoritarian playbook, and is merely meant to use a show of force to punish and intimidate those who don’t support the president.

“Trump is fighting to make himself and his friends richer and more powerful at the expense of the rest of us,” said Sharon Durkan, a progressive councilor who represents the Back Bay and Beacon Hill. “He has ballooned the debt, handed tax cuts to billionaires, gutted healthcare, and now he’s using the National Guard to stoke fear and destabilize our democracy.”

Boston officials argue that this city is “the safest major city in America,” as Mayor Michelle Wu repeatedly contends; in reality, that’s a difficult claim to parse, but there’s no doubt that it does have generally low and declining crime rates.

Wu and other Democrats in Massachusetts have repeatedly drawn the ire of the Trump administration. She has been called down to D.C. to testify about Boston’s policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and the administration has targeted the Boston area with multiple major immigration-enforcement efforts in the past few months. Trump is eyeing another concerted effort here, Politico reported on Friday, based on administration sources.

“Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law — city, state and federal. We are the safest major city in the country because all of our community members know that they are part of how we keep the entire community safe,” Wu said in a statement. “Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom and a home for everyone. Stop attacking cities to hide your administration’s failures.”

Other city councilors said similarly. Councilor Brian Worrell, whose district includes Mattapan and parts of Dorchester, said such a move would only “further fear and division in our communities.” And Councilor Enrique Pepén of Hyde Park called it “nothing more than a political ploy by the Trump administration.”

Joshua Kraft, who’s running against Wu in in this year’s elections from her right, also rejected Trump’s ideas about using the Guard. He’s criticized Wu for her approach to crime, but said Boston can handle whatever public-safety issues it has by itself.

“Bringing the National Guard into American cities has nothing to do with public safety and is all about Donald Trump exerting power on cities that stand behind their immigrant communities,” Kraft said in a statement.

On Saturday, several people going about their business in Boston said they were worried.

Mary Walsh, 64, was walking down a residential block in Allston to help her daughter move into a new home. She called it a “shame” that Trump is in office — and added, “We have to deal with it.”

“He’s so into theatrics that I really try not to give anything he says much attention,” she said. “Personally, I just roll my eyes, and I’m like, ‘Here we go again.’”

Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter. Jessica Ma can be reached at jessica.ma@globe.com.