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Trump Says Chicago 'Probably Next' for National Guard Invasion
"If Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city," said one senior Illinois official. "Chicago doesn't bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators."
Aug 23, 2025
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Chicago is the next city in his crosshairs for the kind of federal invasion and occupation currently underway in Washington, DC—a threat that sparked defiant pushback from officials in the Windy City and beyond.
"After we do this, we'll go to another location, and we'll make it safe also," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his federalization of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department and deployment of National Guard troops from the district and five Republican-controlled states.
"We're going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago's a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent and we'll straighten that one out probably next," the president said, referring to progressive Brandon Johnson. "That will be our next one after this. And it won't even be tough."
On August 11, Trump dubiously declared a public safety emergency in Washington, DC, despite violent crime being down 26% from a year ago, when it was at its second-lowest level since 1966, according to official statistics. Critics have noted that Trump's crackdown isn't just targeting criminals, but also unhoused and mentally ill people, who have had their homes destroyed and property taken.
On Friday, Trump threatened to completely take over Washington and oust Mayor Muriel Bowser if she does not stop pointing out that crime has decreased in the city, which the president called a "crime-infested rat hole."
In addition to Chicago, Trump has threatened to send federal forces into cities including Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and San Francisco. Violent crime is trending downward in all of those cities—with some registering historically low levels.
Unlike in Washington, DC, where home rule laws allow the federal government to take control of local police, Trump would face greater obstacles to intervention in other cities.
"President Trump can't seize control of the Chicago police or any other local department outside of DC," Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) noted on social media Friday. "The military cannot and will not patrol the streets of Chicago, and I will work with state and local officials to ensure that doesn't happen."
Mayor Johnson said in a statement that "the problem with the president's approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound."
"If the Trump administration is serious about driving down violence in Chicago, or anywhere else in America, then he should not have taken over $800 million away from violence prevention," he added.
Other elected officials in Illinois also expressed anger and alarm at the prospect of a Trump intervention in Chicago.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued the following statement in response to comments President Trump made today threatening to deploy federal law enforcement to perform civilian law enforcement duties in the city of Chicago: tinyurl.com/5n89nt86
[image or embed]
— Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (@ilattygeneral.bsky.social) August 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
"After using Los Angeles and Washington, DC as his testing ground for authoritarian overreach, Trump is now openly flirting with the idea of taking over other states and cities," Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on X.
"Trump's goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts—all to create a justification to further abuse his power," the governor continued. "He's playing a game and creating a spectacle for the press to play along with."
"We don't play those games," Pritzker added. "Our commitment to law and order is delivering results. Crime rates are improving. Homicides are down by more than 30% in Chicago in the last year alone. Our progress in lowering crime has been made possible with [community violence intervention] programs that they’re defunding."
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a Democrat running for US Senate, said that "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," she added. "As a Black woman from the South Side, I can assure you... your political circus isn't welcome here."
Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) wrote on social media, "President Trump: You are not welcome in Chicago."
"Sending the National Guard endangers Black communities already overpoliced and under-invested in," she added. "If you cared about saving lives, you'd pass gun safety laws and fund community violence intervention."
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With More Lies About Crime, Trump Threatens Federal Takeover of DC, Ouster of Mayor
The attorney general of Washington, DC said recently that contrary to the president's claims, "violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year."
Aug 22, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to oust Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and to have the federal government fully assume control of the nation's capital.
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that Washington, DC under Bowser's leadership has been "unsafe" and "horrible."
"Mayor Bowser better get her act straight, or she won't be mayor very long, because we'll take it over with the federal government, running it like it's supposed to be run," said Trump. "It was a crime-infested rat hole, and they do have a lot of rats, and we're getting rid of them too, and we've made a lot of progress."
Trump: "Mayor Bowser better get her act straight or she won't be mayor very long because we'll take it over with the federal government and run it like it's supposed to be run ... it was a crime-invested rat hole." pic.twitter.com/6Pngwy0esr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 22, 2025
In reality, crime in Washington, DC had been falling before Trump decided to deploy the National Guard and other federal agents into the city. As Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb recently recounted, "Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year."
Shortly after attacking Washington, DC, the president said he was pushing for the National Guard to be deployed across other American cities.
"After we do [Washington, DC], we'll go to another location and make it safe also," he said. "We're going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago's a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we'll straighten that one out probably next, that'll be our next one after this, and it won't even be tough."
Trump then suggested sending the National Guard to New York.
Trump says he's willing to deploy the "regular military" to American cities, the adds that "Chicago is next and then we'll help with New York" pic.twitter.com/w0stIFzYEr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 22, 2025
Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who is currently running for the United States Senate, warned Trump against sending the National Guard to her state's biggest city.
"If Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city," she said. "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... your political circus isn't welcome here."
Polling released this week by The Washington Post showed that Trump's National Guard deployment is massively unpopular with DC residents, as 79% of residents surveyed said they disapproved of the deployments, including 69% who said they strongly disapproved.
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DOJ Launches Probe After Serial Liar Trump Accuses DC of Faking Crime Stats
The move comes amid the president's military occupation of the nation's capital, despite an official drop in violent crime.
Aug 19, 2025
He didn't like the latest jobs numbers, so he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and tapped a notorious yes-man to replace her.
He doesn't like "woke" history, so he ordered federal agencies and institutions to whitewash official accounts of the nation's troubled past.
Now US President Donald Trump's Department of Justice is investigating whether police officials in Washington, DC manipulated crime data as the president, a proven prolific liar, tries to justify his federal takeover of a city where violent crime is officially at historic lows.
"DC gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety. This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing!" Trump wrote Tuesday on his Truth Social network. "Until four days ago, Washington, DC was the most unsafe 'city' in the United States, and perhaps the World. Now, in just a short period of time, it is perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour! People are flocking to DC again, and soon, the beautification will begin!"
According to Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report data from 2024, Trump's statement wildly diverges from reality, as 28 cities had higher violent crime rates than Washington, DC.
Now, the same US Attorney's office that just this April lauded the drop in crime in the capital is probing the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) amid pushback against Trump's federalization of the force and deployment of National Guard troops from five jurisdictions and other federal agents onto the streets of the city. The DOJ criminal probe will be led by the office of US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
There have been multiple internal allegations that MPD manipulated crime data. In 2020, former MPD Sergeant Charlotte Djossou filed a lawsuit alleging that senior department officials routinely misclassified more serious crimes to artificially reduce their reported rate. The DC Police Union, led by Gregg Pemberton, has also accused MPD supervisors of ordering officers to downgrade violent crimes to lesser offenses.
Last month, MPD suspended Michael Pulliam, a senior officer who allegedly altered crime statistics in his district. However, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, told The Washington Post Tuesday that MPD Chief Pamela Smith had investigated all seven of the city's police districts for possible crime data manipulation and found problems only in Pulliam's jurisdiction.
"We are not experiencing a spike in crime," Bowser insisted in a recent interview with MSNBC. "In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down."
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