President Donald Trump said Tuesday he intends to “clean up Chicago,” regardless of objections from the city’s failed Democratic leadership.
Over Labor Day weekend, nearly 60 people were shot and at least nine killed in Chicago. The city recorded 572 homicides in 2024 under Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, marking its 13th consecutive year as the U.S. city with the most homicides.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker “has repeatedly resisted calls from President Donald J. Trump to ask for assistance in quelling the violence,” the White House said. Pritzker has argued, “We’ve been trying to prevent crime and it’s been working,” adding, “We have our job, which is to fight violent crime on the streets of our city — and by the way, we’re succeeding.” He has also said, “National Guard troops or any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency – and there is not,” and accused Trump of trying to “manufacture a crisis.”
On Labor Day, Johnson told a crowd, “No federal troops in the city of Chicago. No militarized force in the city of Chicago. We’re going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago.”
“Despite pleas from residents, members of the city council, and even MSNBC, Pritzker is too blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome to take action in the best interest of his constituents and end the bloodshed,” the White House said. “The Trump Administration’s message to Chicagoans and residents in Democrat-run cities nationwide is simple: you don’t have to live like this.”
Asked Tuesday if he had decided to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Trump replied: “We’re going in. I didn’t say when we’re going in. … This isn’t a political thing. I have an obligation.”
He added: “If Pritzker would call me up, I would love to do it. Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it. Because I have an obligation to protect this country and that includes Baltimore. … Baltimore’s a very unsafe place.”
Watch the clip above.
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