CHICAGO — President Donald Trump Monday revived his menace to sending Nationwide Guard troops to Chicago after weeks of issuing conflicting statements on his administration’s plans for the town.
The president made the remarks Monday throughout an Oval Workplace ceremony through which he signed an government order to ship a activity power of Nationwide Guard troops and federal legislation enforcement brokers to Memphis — a plan Trump described as a “reproduction” of his administration’s deployment of troops to Washington, D.C. final month.
“We’re going to be doing Chicago in all probability subsequent,” Trump advised reporters, earlier than twice telling a narrative a few “very prime quality” but unnamed businessman who urged him to “save Chicago.”
“We’re going to attend a short time however we’re going to avoid wasting Chicago,” Trump mentioned. “We will’t let it go.”
Elected officers in Chicago and Illinois braced for a army incursion earlier this month following related statements by the president, who as an alternative pivoted to sending troops to Memphis. Trump’s “Memphis Secure Process Pressure” will embody Nationwide Guard troops and a staff of brokers throughout every of the Justice Division’s federal legislation enforcement companies. The U.S. Legal professional for the Western District of Tennessee will lead the duty power, in accordance with Trump’s order.
Trump mentioned Monday that FBI brokers had been despatched to Memphis 4 months earlier “for legislation enforcement operations to get a few of the numbers down.”
“They did an excellent job however we’re sending within the large power now,” Trump mentioned.
Trump additionally mentioned that his administration equally despatched FBI brokers to Chicago on a “reasonable foundation” and claimed, with out citing proof, to have “introduced down crime just a little bit.”
But that declare adopted weeks of deceptive depictions of Chicago as a “hellhole” and the “homicide capital of the world,” portray an image of a metropolis practically past restore. Trump’s characterizations of crime in Chicago, nonetheless, don’t maintain as much as fact-checks exhibiting dozens of different cities with far greater homicide charges or legislation enforcement information that’s charted an ongoing drop in violent crime within the metropolis. Chicago has seen 288 homicides this 12 months, down 30 % from this time final 12 months, in accordance with the Police Division’s citywide crime statistics doc, which is up to date weekly.
Knowledge included within the division’s annual report confirmed 580 homicides in Chicago in 2024, down 7 % from 2023 and down about 27 % from 2021, a 12 months cities throughout the nation noticed main spikes in violent crime.
The Monday Oval Workplace signing ceremony included GOP Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee, who supported the measure. Memphis Mayor Paul Younger has in the meantime mentioned that he didn’t ask for the Nationwide Guard and didn’t assume it could drive down crime, in accordance with the Related Press.
Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have each vocally opposed the prospects of army troops patrolling the streets of Chicago.
Earlier this month, Johnson signed a largely symbolic government order calling on Trump to “stand down from any makes an attempt to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces — together with the Nationwide Guard — to Chicago.” The order affirmed that native legislation enforcement wouldn’t work alongside federal brokers and it referred to as on federal brokers to put on uniforms and physique cameras and to indicate their faces.
At a information convention final month, Pritzker advised Trump that he was “neither needed right here nor wanted right here.” Pritzker and Johnson mentioned that that they had not been alerted or consulted on any plans to deploy troops to the town.
“If this was actually about combating crime and making the streets secure, what potential justification may the White Home have for planning such an distinctive motion with none conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor or the police,” Pritzker mentioned. “To invade our streets and neighborhoods and disrupt the lives of on a regular basis individuals is a unprecedented motion, and it ought to require extraordinary justification.”
Trump’s Monday order doesn’t element when troops could be deployed to Memphis, and Trump was once more imprecise on his intentions for Chicago.
Although troops have but to be deployed to metropolis, immigration brokers have fanned out throughout the Chicago space this month as a part of the administration’s “Operation Halfway Blitz.” Officers and organizers have reported the presence of brokers and ICE automobiles. Some arrests have been confirmed, and ICE officers fatally shot a person final week throughout an tried arrest simply outdoors the town in Franklin Park.
Reporters Melody Mercado and Charles Thrush contributed.
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