(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump plans to clean up major U.S. cities that he says are plagued by crime.
Democrats see his plans to use military troops as a political power grab.
Trump has long decried the crime and conditions inside large U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. He has taken action to address crime with federal troops over the objection of local leaders already in Los Angeles and the nation’s capitol.
Chicago and New York could be next.
“Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
Illinois officials denounced the move, but it’s unclear if they have a path to stop the president.
Trump commands U.S. forces, and the GOP controls narrow majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
However, Democrats control the government in Chicago and Illinois, where politicians were quick to condemn Trump’s comments.
“We take President Trump’s statements seriously, but to be clear the City has not received any formal communication from the Trump administration regarding additional federal law enforcement or military deployments to Chicago,” Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Certainly, we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the City of Chicago. The problem with the president’s approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”
Johnson said Trump’s proposal could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement” and said crime in the city is down.
“In the past year alone, we have reduced homicides by more than 30%, robberies by 35%, and shootings by almost 40%. We need to continue to invest in what is working,” the mayor said.
Earlier this week, Trump said D.C. officials manipulated crime statistics to “give the illusion of safety.” Trump didn’t provide specific data, but said the matter is under investigation.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who hasn’t ruled out a presidential run, said Trump was trying to distract from his tariff policy, which the Democrat said was raising consumer prices. Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, called the troops a ploy for attention.
“After using Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as his testing ground for authoritarian overreach, Trump is now openly flirting with the idea of taking over other states and cities. Trump’s goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts – all to create a justification to further abuse his power. He is playing a game and creating a spectacle for the press to play along with,” the governor said. “We don’t play those games in Illinois.”
