CITYWIDE — President Donald Trump on Friday said Chicago is his next target as he deploys the National Guard to resistant cities, but Mayor Brandon Johnson said the move would be illegal — and completely unnecessary.
Trump deployed 2,000 armed National Guard troops to patrol Washington, D.C., earlier this month, saying the move will reduce crime and homelessness. But the city is experiencing its lowest crime rate in 30 years, and its leaders and residents have expressed dismay at the troops’ presence.
Now, Trump has set his sights on Chicago.
“We’ll straighten that one out, probably next, that will be our next one after this,” Trump said Friday from the Oval Office. “I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York.”
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The president then called Johnson “incompetent” and Chicago “a mess.” Trump also claimed that people in Chicago are “screaming for us to come.”
Trump did not say when he plans to send federal troops to Chicago.
In a statement, Johnson said he takes Trump’s threat seriously, but that the city has not received any formal communication regarding additional federal law enforcement or military deployments to Chicago, calling Trump’s crime strategy “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”
“Unlawfully deploying the National Guard to Chicago has the potential to inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement when we know that trust between police and residents is foundational to building safer communities,” Johnson said. “An unlawful deployment would be unsustainable and would threaten to undermine the historic progress we have.”
The mayor went on to cite 2025 crime statistics, which show a 30 percent reduction in homicides, a 35 percent reduction in robberies and a nearly 40 percent drop in shootings.
It’s not the first time Trump has threatened this. Earlier this month, the president hinted that Chicago and other major cities could be the target of a National Guard deployment. Trump said Democrat-led cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago could also see a similar response — even though each of them, as well as D.C., has recently seen significant declines in violent crime.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also criticized Trump’s plans.
“Things People are Begging for: 1. Cheaper groceries 2. No Medicaid and SNAP cuts 3. Release of the Epstein Files,” Pritzker wrote. “Things People are NOT begging for: 1. An authoritarian power grab of major cities.”
Johnson and Prizker said earlier this month that Trump has no right to send federal troops to Chicago. Pritzker has repeatedly rejected Trump’s legal authority to send troops to Chicago or other American cities, citing the federal Posse Comitatus Act that limits federal troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement.
Since Washington, D.C., is not a state, the federal government can exercise additional authority over its police and other affairs, according to the Washington Post.
There’s an ongoing court case challenging the Trump administration’s decision to send thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles in June during protests over immigration raids.
That deployment was initially ruled illegal, but it was later allowed to continue by an appeals court. Most troops have since left the city, according to The New York Times.
Johnson went on to say the focus should be on investing in crime reduction strategies that are proven to work — not adding military to cities.
“We know that our communities are safest when we fully invest in housing, community safety, and education,” he said. “The National Guard will not alleviate the housing crisis. It will not put food in the stomachs of the 1 in 4 children that go to bed hungry every night in Chicago. … 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.”
Reporter Quinn Myers contributed.
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