Chicago leaders are rejecting President Donald Trump’s latest threat to send the National Guard into the city, calling it a political stunt rather than a genuine plan to improve safety.
On Friday, Trump said Chicago would “probably” be the next city where his administration deploys federal troops, officers, and agents.
“Chicago’s a mess, you have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “We’ll straighten that one out, probably next. I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized large Democratic-run cities with majority-minority populations, often portraying them as unsafe and chaotic. His remarks followed a recent announcement that he would send troops to Washington, D.C., after claiming the nation’s capital had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”
That move triggered strong backlash, with critics warning it undermined constitutional limits and local self-governance. Supporters, however, framed it as necessary to restore order.
Following Trump’s new comments, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker accused him of “attempting to create chaos that distracts from his problems.” In a statement on X, Pritzker argued Trump was trying to “incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts,” pointing to falling crime rates in Chicago. He credited local partnerships and programs for driving a 30 percent drop in homicides over the past year, while accusing Trump and Republicans of stripping away resources like health care, food assistance, and funding for community safety.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said his administration has not received formal notice of any federal deployment but warned such an action could heighten tensions between residents and law enforcement. “The problem with the President’s approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled-for, and unsound,” Johnson said, noting steep declines in homicides, robberies, and shootings. He emphasized that the National Guard would not solve underlying issues such as housing insecurity or child hunger.
Earlier this month, Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to seize control of D.C.’s police force for the first time in history. He ordered about 800 National Guard troops, plus reinforcements from six Republican-led states and federal agents from the FBI, DEA, and ICE—bringing the total force to more than 2,000. Yet city crime data shows violent crime in D.C. has dropped 26 percent from last year, reaching a 30-year low.
In Chicago, July’s police report showed homicides at their lowest point since 2014. Overall major crimes fell 14 percent year-to-date, while robberies, car thefts, burglaries, and shootings all posted double-digit declines. Police also recovered nearly 6,704 firearms this year, averaging 38 per day. Johnson credited youth employment programs, expanded mental health care, and housing investments for the progress.
Despite that, the Trump administration has cut significant funding for such initiatives. In July, it slashed $158 million in gun violence prevention grants, including many benefiting Chicago. In April, the Justice Department canceled 69 community intervention grants nationwide, part of a broader halt affecting $811 million. A DOJ official said the programs “no longer effectuate the agency’s priorities.”
Johnson argued that if Trump wants to help reduce violence, restoring those funds would do far more than sending in troops. “There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them,” he said.
Some of Trump’s allies defended the idea. Donald Trump Jr. told Newsmax that troops should also be sent to “Portland, Seattle, the other craphole cities of the country.”
But Illinois Senator Dick Durbin pushed back, saying Chicago is “a beautiful, vibrant city with people from all walks of life … These unprecedented threats from President Trump are nothing more than a power grab to distract from his disastrous policies.”
Trump has not confirmed when or if he will follow through on deploying troops to Chicago or other cities.
