The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have sued US President Donald Trump, seeking to block the deployment of federalised National Guard troops to Chicago, as hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas headed to the nation's third-largest city.

Trump then escalated the widening clash with Democratic-led states and cities over the domestic use of military forces, threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act as a means to circumvent court restrictions on deploying troops where they are unwanted by local officials.

Illinois had sued in response to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's orders over the weekend to bring 300 Illinois National Guard members under federal control and then to mobilise another 400 Texas National Guard members for deployment to Chicago.

While Illinois' request for

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