() President Donald Trump announced that when it comes to his efforts to crack down on crime, he will be turning to Chicago next.
“When we’re ready, we’ll go in and straighten out Chicago,” he said when asked if he was taking concrete steps toward the effort.
During a Friday press conference, he described Chicago as one of the nation’s top cities, along with San Francisco, which he also intends to clean up.
Trump claimed he has had calls from Democratic leaders asking him to come to their cities.
The president has sent the National Guard and federal agents to Washington, D.C., as part of the administration’s efforts to reduce crime and tidy up the city.
D.C. officials have disputed the characterization of the city, noting that crime rates have been falling in recent years.
In response, the Department of Justice announced it would be looking into those statistics following Trump’s claims that they were falsified.
He has frequently talked about sending federal agents or the military to cities led by Democrats, particularly those with sanctuary policies that restrict local law enforcement’s ability to collaborate with federal immigration authorities.
Earlier in the year, against the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, he nationalized California’s National Guard and deployed them to Los Angeles along with some Marines.
The rationale for this move was that the ongoing protests were disrupting federal immigration operations, and local authorities were unable to manage them.
The president and California officials have continued to disagree on the danger posed by protests and whether federal intervention was necessary.
For the deployment in D.C., Trump used a clause in the district’s Home Rule policy, allowing him to utilize Metro police for federal purposes during emergencies. This policy permits a 30-day emergency period, after which congressional authorization is necessary.
Trump has repeatedly said that it will take longer than 30 days to achieve his goals in D.C. and on Friday said he would declare a national emergency if needed.
It’s not clear what justification Trump would use to deploy federal assets to Chicago, which is not subject to the same federal oversight as the capital.
Statistics show crime in Chicago has also fallen, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has said the president has no right to use the National Guard in the city for the purposes of fighting crime.
