President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected a reporter's question about whether he intended to "go to war" with Chicago, saying his aim was to "clean up our cities" and calling the idea "fake news." The exchange came a day after the president posted an image on his Truth Social account warning that Chicago would learn about the newly renamed Department of War.
The back-and-forth unfolded during a gaggle with reporters as Trump prepared to travel to New York for the U.S. Open. NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked, "Are you trying to go to war with Chicago?" Trump responded, "When you say that, darling, that's fake news," before cutting her off and saying, "Be quiet, listen! You don't listen! You never listen. That's why you're second-rate. We're not going to war, we're gonna clean up our cities. We're gonna clean them up, so they don't kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that's common sense."
Trump's Saturday post on Truth Social included an image that read in part, "Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR," and referenced deportations. The social-media post followed an executive order Trump signed last Friday renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War, reviving terminology used before World War II.
For several days the president has suggested deploying the National Guard or other federal forces to cities he says are suffering high rates of violent crime, pointing to an intervention in Washington, D.C., that the White House has cited as a model. The administration said arrests and a decline in crime followed federal action in the capital.
Trump has also raised the possibility of sending troops to Baltimore and New Orleans, and has repeatedly mentioned Chicago in public remarks. He did not give a specific timeline for any deployment to Chicago during the exchange Sunday. When another reporter asked why Chicago was singled out when some other cities have higher rates of certain crimes, Trump cited figures he said reflected recent weekends in Chicago, saying eight people were killed one weekend, seven the previous weekend and 74 people were wounded.
Legal and political questions surround any attempt to send federal troops or the National Guard into cities without state consent. Under federal law and longstanding precedent, governors generally control their states' National Guard forces unless they are federalized, and deployment in the absence of a governor's approval can prompt legal challenges. Illinois and Maryland are led by Democratic governors, while Louisiana is governed by a Republican.
Earlier this month a federal judge ruled that Trump broke the law by dispatching the National Guard to Los Angeles in response to rioting, a decision that could shape litigation over future deployments. The ruling underscores judicial scrutiny of the administration's use of federal and state forces to address domestic unrest.
White House officials have portrayed the D.C. intervention as evidence the administration can reduce violence through a combination of federal law enforcement and support for local authorities. Local and state leaders, as well as litigation over authority without gubernatorial consent, could complicate any effort to replicate that approach in other cities.
Trump's exchanges with reporters come as his administration escalates rhetoric on immigration and crime while moving forward with organizational changes to the military and federal law enforcement posture. The president's comments Sunday reiterated an emphasis on intervention in urban areas, but offered no detailed plan or schedule for action in Chicago or the other cities he has mentioned.
