Chicago officials are refusing to let Donald Trump target the city once more. Echoing his recent announcement in Washington, D.C., where 2,000 troops have already been sent, the president said Friday that the Windy City might be the next target of his contentious crime campaign.
Trump told White House reporters, “I think Chicago will be our next,” before menacingly adding, “And then we’ll help with New York.” Given that the Pentagon recently ordered troops in Washington to carry firearms despite the lack of any indication of impending threats, the timing sparked questions.
Trump has long portrayed Democratic-led communities as unclean and dangerous, especially those with majority-minority populations and Black mayors. He singled out Chicago on Friday, calling it a catastrophe and claiming that despite a notable decline in violent crime, the city’s citizens are yelling for us to visit.
However, the concept is not being welcomed by Chicago’s authorities. Mayor Brandon Johnson criticized Trump’s remarks, claiming that the administration had not formally contacted his office. Johnson said, “We have serious concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops.” He denounced Trump’s strategy as disorganized, unnecessary, and flawed, cautioning that it would exacerbate tensions between locals and police officers.
JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, made fun of Trump’s assertion that people in Chicago are pleading for aid. In a scathing post on X titled “Things People are Begging For,” Pritzker mentioned the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s federal files, Medicaid protection, and less expensive food. He claimed that they weren’t requesting an authoritarian takeover of large cities.
The Senate’s number two Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin, referred to Trump’s force deployment in D.C. as merely political theater. He pushed for tried-and-true bipartisan methods to further reduce crime while reminding the nation that Chicago is a stunning, energetic city with people from all walks of life. Even more astute was Senator Tammy Duckworth, a war veteran of the Army National Guard. She charged that Trump was intimidating Americans in our own neighborhoods by abusing the military.
Chicago officials condemn Trump’s warning to target the city in the upcoming crime crackdown, saying, “Stay out of our city.”(twitter.com/I9gBTJGUy2) https://t.co/Ib0JBPpGQkpic
August 23, 2025, Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun)
In addition to condemning the comments as insulting and untrue, Lisa Hernandez, the head of the Democratic Party of Illinois, pointed out how Trump’s rhetoric feeds into a long history of racial tropes about urban crime. “Chicagoans are not pleading for him,” she remarked bluntly. Trump’s kid also voiced his opinions. Donald Trump Jr. mockingly said, “Perhaps we should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle, the other craphole cities of the country,” in an interview with Newsmax.
Chicago’s data, however, paint a quite different picture. According to city figures, homicides and gunshots fell by almost 30% in the first half of 2025 as compared to the previous year. The overall violent crime rate fell by more than 22%, which is the biggest drop in over ten years.
Mayor Johnson attributed the recovery to significant expenditures in education, mental health care, housing, and community safety. He suggested that restoring the $158 million that was taken out of violence-prevention programs would be a good place to start if Trump really wanted to help. Sending in the military is not one of the numerous things the federal government could do to help us lower crime and violence in Chicago, Johnson stated. Local voices reflected that sentiment on the ground.
The most incisive message of all was given by Pastor Donovan Price, who works closely with victims of gun violence: Avoid our city. It’s not a federal problem. We experience this on a daily basis. We are aware of the needs of our community.
