In what would be an unprecedented act and an escalation of his current occupation of Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump announced that he is willing to deploy U.S. Armed Forces to cities including Chicago and New York, after sending thousands of National Guard troops and FBI, DEA, DHS, ATF, and ICE agents to patrol the streets of the nation’s capital.
The President’s remarks came shortly after the Pentagon announced it will arm the 2,000 National Guard troops currently in Washington, D.C.
Deploying the U.S. Military to a major American city in peacetime—without a national emergency, without invoking the Insurrection Act, and without a governor’s request—would risk violating the Posse Comitatus Act.
“We haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do, if we have to,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, speaking about his occupation of Washington, D.C. “And after we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also. We’re going to make our country very safe, we’re going to make our cities very, very safe.”
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“Chicago’s a mess,” Trump charged. “You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten one out probably next. That’ll be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”
“And the people in Chicago,” Trump claimed without offering evidence, “are screaming for us to come. They’re wearing red hats, just like this one. But they’re wearing red hats.”
“African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please, please, President Trump, come to Chicago. Please.'”
“I did great with the Black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen.”
Trump won just 15% of Black voters in 2024. 83% voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“So I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York.”
Critics blasted the President’s remarks.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker wrote: “Things People are Begging for: 1. Cheaper groceries 2. No Medicaid and SNAP cuts 3. Release of the Epstein Files.”
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“Things People are NOT begging for: 1. An authoritarian power grab of major cities.”
Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton added: “If Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city. Chicago doesn’t bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators. As a Black woman from the South Side, I can assure you @realdonaldtrump, your political circus isn’t welcome here.”
“Chicago isn’t going to sit down for this s—,” commented attorney Seth Abramson. “It’s illegal, it’s un-American, and it comes very close to declaring a war on America.”
“He said it. Chicago is next,” wrote former journalist Kat Abughazaleh. “This is an authoritarian order being pushed by a racist wannabe-dictator to terrorize one of America’s bluest and most diverse cities.”
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