Illinois leaders postpone Trump’s potential national guard plan for Chicago
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Illinois leaders postpone President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he could send the national guard troops in the state to repress Chicago’s crime – similar to what he has done to fight crime in Washington.
While Trump has floated that several other cities in the United States – including Chicago and New York – could also receive an influx of national guard troops to reduce crime, Illinois leaders sound the alarm and clearly indicate that these troops are not welcome in Lincoln.
“Forcing the army, not invited, in Chicago to intimidate the Americans in their own communities does not strengthen our nation, it simply distracts the soldiers from the execution of its main mission to protect the Americans from real opponents who wish us harm,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-UL., In a Monday X Post.
The White House accuses Pritzker, Illinois DEMS of whining while Chicago crime is raging
Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-ill., Said on X that “forcing the army, not invited, in Chicago to intimidate the Americans in their own communities does not make our nation stronger”.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a democrat, also said on Monday that this decision was “unconstitutional” and “non -American”.
“Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy an American city, punish its dissidents and score political points,” said Pritzker. “If it happened in another country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous seizure of power.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson, said that crime was in Chicago. More specifically, he said that the city in the past year had reduced homicides by more than 30%, flights by 35%and shooting by almost 40%.
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Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said the crime was broken in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast / The Associated Press)
“The problem with the president’s approach is that he is not coordinated, useless and unrelated,” Johnson said in a Friday statement. “The illegal deployment of the National Guard in Chicago has the potential to inflamm tensions between residents and the police when we know that confidence between the police and the residents is fundamental to building safer communities.”
However, the White House published on Monday an information sheet highlighting the local reports that Chicago had the most murders of any American city for 13 years in 2024.
On August 11, Trump unveiled plans to deploy troops from the DC National Guard and to unite the Metropolitan Police Department to fight crime in Washington. Since then, Trump has floated so that he can deploy troops from the National Guard in other cities in the United States, and has specifically zero in Chicago and has qualified the city as “a field of killing”.
“We are entering, we resolve Chicago in a week, maybe less,” Trump told journalists on Monday morning. “But in a week, we will have no crime in Chicago, like no crime at DC”
Trump on Tuesday made similar comments and said he wanted Pritzker to call him and ask him to send the national guard troops.
The mayor of Chicago calls the Trump National Guard’s plan to “the most blatant violation of our Constitution”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker talks to journalists in front of Trump Tower in Chicago when he denounces a potential plan of the Trump administration to deploy troops from the National Guard in the city. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“Everyone knows that Chicago is a Hellhole at the moment,” said Trump at a meeting of the Tuesday cabinet. “Everyone knows.”
National Guard troops are reserve forces that are exploited to deal with states and federal operations, including natural disasters. While most are generally supervised by the governments of the States, the federal government oversees the National Guard of the District of Columbia. However, Trump controversially deployed the Troops of the California National Guard in Los Angeles in response to immigration riots in June – bypassing the governor of California Gavin Newsom.
Newsom, a democrat, finally filed a complaint against the Trump administration to unite the National Guard to respond to these riots, and qualified the decision “not undoubtedly to authoritarianism”.
