President Donald Trump said Friday that Chicago will be the next major U.S. city to face a crackdown on crime after deploying federal law enforcement officials and the National Guard to Washington.
“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office, referring to his efforts in Washington to crack down on crime.
“Chicago’s a mess. We’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”
The president suggested that there are residents urging him to intervene in Chicago, adding that his administration would focus on other cities after that. He named New York City as another municipality that could be targeted.
“They’re wearing red hats, African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago,’” Trump told reporters on Friday.
Last year, there were 559 homicides in Chicago, a decrease of 7.3 percent over the previous year, when 603 murders were reported, according to a report from the University of Chicago released in December. The report noted that 689 homicides were reported in 2022, 785 in 2021, 747 in 2020, and 481 in 2019.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has yet to issue a response to Trump’s Oval Office comment, told Democracy Now earlier this month that deploying federal resources to Chicago is not necessary and said that his city is safe.
“We’re building the safest, most affordable big city in America, the most pro-worker city in America, and we’re doing it in a very collective way,” Johnson told the outlet in an interview on Aug. 15.
He said that it’s, in part, due to investing in mental health services.
“When people are having mental health crises, a paid professional mental health provider shows up to those crises, versus a police officer, to provide the necessary care there, and that frees up law enforcement to address some of the other critical issues that we are dealing with,” the mayor said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration took over the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department and deployed hundreds of National Guard troops across the city to crack down on crime.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged reports that he ordered National Guard members in Washington to carry firearms, writing in a post on X that it is a “common sense” policy.
Critics of Trump’s decision to deploy troops in Washington, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, have said that crime numbers have been on the decline in recent years and that a surge in law enforcement is not needed.
But Trump has said that her numbers are not accurate. In a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, Trump said that Bowser “must immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen, including a complete and total Federal takeover of the City!”
Trump’s post also said that “the crowds are coming back, the spirit is high, and our D.C. National Guard and Police are doing a fantastic job. They are out in force, and are NOT PLAYING GAMES!!! As bad as it sounds to say, there were no murders this week for the first time in memory.”
During his Oval Office appearance, Trump told reporters that Bowser had “better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor for long.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the Chicago mayor’s office for comment.
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