CHICAGO — President Donald Trump appears to be backing off his plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago after weeks of threatening to do so over the objections of local leaders.
Trump has publicly flirted in recent weeks with the idea of deploying the National Guard to Chicago, describing the city as a dangerous “hellhole” despite data showing Chicago is leading a national downward trend in violent crime.
But no troops have arrived — though the city is experiencing a surge of federal immigration agents as part of Operation Midway Blitz — and Trump backed off his threats of a military incursion in Chicago as he talked to reporters Tuesday night at a Washington, D.C., steakhouse, where he was also heckled by protesters.
“We’re going to be announcing another city that we’re going to very shortly, working it out with the governor of a certain state who would love us to be there, and the mayor of a certain city in the same state that would love us to be there,” Trump said, according to the Tribune.
During a Fox News segment Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also said Chicago likely wouldn’t see a military intervention.
“They are a progressive city and they don’t want the president’s help. That’s on them,” Bondi said, according to Politico. “Chicago should be begging Donald Trump for help to keep Chicago safe — yet they aren’t. So we’re going to a city who wants us there.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker and other officials have repeatedly denounced Trump’s National Guard deployment plans, saying it would be unconstitutional and an abuse of federal power.
“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker said a press conference in late August, flanked by Johnson, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other state and city leaders.
At a press conference Tuesday in Pilsen, Pritzker accused the Trump administration of using the latest rise in immigration enforcement as a pretense to bring in the National Guard.
“We’re frankly standing up and speaking out and ready to take them to court, to do everything that we can to protect the people who live here from what Donald Trump is trying to do,” Pritzker said.
Trump has been fixated on Chicago for weeks, and on Saturday he posted an AI-generated image on his Truth Social feed that referenced the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now” with the message, “Chicago about find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
As part of Operation Midway Blitz, about 200 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with access to 100 vehicles are being sent to Chicago, Pritzker said Tuesday. Federal agents are targeting undocumented people in the city and throughout Illinois, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release.
The operation prompted Chicagoans to protest Tuesday night Downtown. Hundreds joined the rally and march organized by the Coalition Against Trump and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
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