Chicago next target of Trump’s crime crackdown

The Pentagon is reportedly working on plans from the White House to deploy US military to the Windy City as soon as September.

The Defence Department are considering several options, including plans to mobilise thousands of National Guard members in the city.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, August 22, President Trump called Chicago “a mess” and criticised the city’s leader, Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“We’ll straighten that one out probably next,” said the President.

He went on to name New York as a potential future recipient of his “help”.

The news follows similar crackdowns in other Democratic leaning cities - including national capital, Washington DC.

The Democratic governor of Illinois said the President is “abusing power” and “trying to manufacture a crisis” in the wake of the news.

In a statement, he said the state had received no outreach from the federal government on the situation, and there was no emergency requiring this intervention from the government. 

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First broken by The Washington Post, the scale and timeline of the operation remains unclear. 

Despite the lack of clarity, Chicago Mayor Johnson said the city has “grave concerns” about the impact of any unlawful deployments of the National Guard. 

“The problem with the President's approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for and unsound," he said.

He added that in the past year, homicides in Chicago have fallen by more than 30%, as well as robberies down by 35% and shootings by nearly 40%.

In a statement late Saturday evening, the Pentagon said they “won’t speculate on further operations”.

“The department is a planning organisation and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel."

When asked for comment on the plans, the White House referred to Trump’s statement on Friday. 

The news follows last weekend’s deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington DC, in a government crackdown.

The President had portrayed the nation’s capital’s crime as “out of control”, despite Justice Department data showing violent crime hit a 30-year low last year. 

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has since called for the personnel on the streets to be armed, despite initial reports that these troops would not carry weapons. 

A statement from the Pentagon said the troops “will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons”. It remains unlear if arming troops is a reflection of their role in Washington changing. 

This was not the first time the Republican president had deployed domestic forces. In June, Trump evoked Title 10 of the US Code AND deployed 700 Marines and 4,000 National Groups to Los Angeles during protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has strongly criticised the President’s interference, and has since legally challenged the legality of the deployment.

A lawsuit is currently making its way through the US court system.