President Donald Trump announced Friday that Chicago would be the next city his administration targets in a federal crackdown on crime, following his controversial intervention in Washington, D.C. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump suggested the campaign in Chicago could mirror or even exceed the scale of federal involvement in the capital. “We’ll straighten that one out, probably next,” he said. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
The president credited his takeover of policing in Washington, including the deployment of more than 1,900 National Guard troops, with delivering a week without homicides in the city — a stretch he described as a “miracle,” despite such periods having occurred multiple times this year. Trump said he could keep Guard members in the capital “as long as I want” under a national emergency declaration, a prospect that has alarmed many residents. He also threatened D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, warning that if she did not “get her act straight,” the federal government would assume broader control.
Trump dismissed polling showing widespread disapproval of federal troop deployments, insisting that city residents were calling for help. He claimed that Chicagoans, including African American women “wearing red hats,” had personally urged him to bring his law-and-order campaign to their neighborhoods. “When we’re ready, we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago just like we did D.C.,” Trump said, attacking Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as “incompetent.”
Mayor Johnson, in response, said the city had received no formal communication from the White House and pointed to steep declines in homicides, robberies and shootings over the past year. He warned that an uncoordinated and “unlawful” National Guard deployment would inflame tensions and undermine trust between police and residents. “Trust is foundational to building safer communities,” Johnson said. “The problem with the President’s approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also condemned Trump’s comments, accusing him on X of using Los Angeles and Washington as “testing grounds for authoritarian overreach” and now seeking to “incite fear” in Chicago. Pritzker argued the move would destabilize local safety efforts and deepen mistrust. As Trump pushes forward with his plans, Democratic leaders are bracing for what they see as another federal incursion into city governance — one that could reshape the balance of local and federal authority in policing.
