President Trump mentioned Friday the federal authorities would flip its consideration to Chicago subsequent to attempt to crack down on crime after surging regulation enforcement and deploying the Nationwide Guard in Washington, D.C.
“After we do that, we’ll go to a different location, and we’ll make it protected additionally,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace.
“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump added. “Chicago’s a large number. You could have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent and we’ll straighten that one out in all probability subsequent. That might be our subsequent one after this. And it will not even be powerful.”
Trump mentioned there have been “African American ladies, beautiful ladies,” urging him to intervene in Chicago, a metropolis that has lengthy struggled with gun violence. He indicated his administration would focus subsequent on Chicago earlier than turning to others, resembling New York Metropolis.
Metropolis information has proven that deadly and nonfatal shootings in Chicago are down from current years, a part of a broader pattern of violent crime lowering nationwide.
The Trump administration earlier this month started surging federal regulation enforcement throughout elements of the District to crack down on what the White Home mentioned was an unacceptable degree of crime, regardless of statistics exhibiting violent crime has declined within the metropolis.
Final week, Trump took federal management of the Metropolitan Police Division and deployed lots of of Nationwide Guard troops throughout town to additional the crackdown on crime.
It is unclear how Trump would enact the same effort in one other metropolis. He can’t seize management of an area police division outdoors of Washington, D.C., the place house rule legal guidelines give the federal authorities larger authority. And Illinois officers have pushed again in opposition to strategies that Trump may ship within the Nationwide Guard.
Critics of Trump’s aggressive crackdown throughout D.C. have pointed to statistics that present town’s violent crime fee fell in 2024 and is down once more 2025. There are additionally indicators that it’s as a lot about immigration enforcement as it’s about addressing crime.
