(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump says Chicago is next on his list of cities to focus on cleaning up crime.
In December, after Trump was elected to a second non-consecutive term, Danielle Carter-Walters used public comments at a Chicago City Council meeting to call for the Trump administration to come to Chicago and make an example out of city officials.
“Please come here first, because you know what, we’re going to help you,” Carter-Walters said.
Friday, Trump said he’s cleaning up Washington D.C. and plans to address crime in Chicago next.
“Chicago’s a mess,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “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. And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come now wearing red hats.”
The president said he hasn’t talked with city officials like Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“I haven’t spoken, he’s grossly incompetent. I haven’t spoken to them,” Trump said. “You know, when we’re ready, we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago just like we did D.C.. Chicago’s very dangerous. Great place I built. Great stuff there. I have a, I have the most beautiful building in Chicago, I think. But I hate to see what’s happened to Chicago.”
Johnson said in a statement Trump’s approach is “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound” and will “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
Asked about other possible federal enforcement earlier in the day Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the Trump administration is plotting against political opponents.
“I’m not daring them to do anything, I’m just saying they don’t have a right,” Pritzker said Friday at an unrelated event. “Federal law and state law, separate endeavors and they don’t have a right to do the things that they are threatening to do.”
While city wide murder is down 50% over the past four years, burglary, felony theft, misdemeanor theft and motor vehicle theft are all up a total of 40%.
