CHICAGO (NewsNation) — President Donald Trump on Monday referred to Chicago as a “killing field” even though homicides in the nation’s third-largest city have dropped by more than 30% since last year.
However, for those who call Chicago home, whether Trump’s pledge to deploy federal troops here is needed remains up for debate. But elected officials, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, are clear in their opposition to Trump’s plans for Chicago.
Trump has suggested that he will likely deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, similar to the way he has in Washington, D.C., in recent weeks. But Chicago’s Democratic mayor and the state’s governor have said troops are not needed in the city, where homicides are down by 31%, shooting incidents have been reduced by 36% and crimes like robbery, burglary and car thefts are all down by between 21 and 36%, according to the Chicago Police Department.
However, despite the drops in violent crimes that leaders are touting, crime remains an issue in Chicago, where smaller offenses such as the smash-and-grab burglary of a Foot Locker store over the weekend continue to concern business owners and residents alike.
Two other Foot Locker stores were burglarized last week, and a Nordstrom store in Chicago’s River North neighborhood was also targeted on Sunday. Meanwhile, Chicago police have warned residents on the city’s South Side to be on alert after 16 home break-ins targeting elderly residents have been reported recently.
Johnson called Trump’s insistence on deploying troops to Chicago a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution, calling it illegal. On Monday, Johnson said that the city’s work to make Chicago safer continues but “while we continue to make progress, that doesn’t mean that we will rest.”
Donald Trump’s National Guard threats are “un-American,” Pritzker says
Pritzker, whom Trump referred to as a “slob,” called Trump’s characterization of what is happening in Chicago as “manufactured.”
“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against,” Pritzker said Monday, adding, “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
He added, “There is not an emergency in the city of Chicago. There is nothing that calls for having troops on the streets of Chicago.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said on Monday that officials with the National Guard said that they have not been contacted by the Trump administration about being deployed to Chicago. Pritzker said that no one from the White House or the Trump administration has reached out to him or to Johnson and said the state and city have made no requests for federal intervention.
“This is not about fighting crime,” the governor said. “This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the national military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try to intimidate his political rivals.”
Pritzker said he is speaking out as a way of telling Trump that his proposed deployment will make local officials’ jobs harder and the lives of residents worse.
“I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,'” Pritzker said, adding that if the city and state needed federal assistance, officials would ask for it.
Johnson said Chicago is being targeted by Trump “because of who and what we represent.” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said his office will use every legal tool to prevent the unlawful deployment of troops to Chicago, which he characterized as “immoral and dangerous.”
Trump said last week that people in cities like Chicago are begging him to send federal troops to their cities to make living conditions safer. However, state, local and federal officials said Monday that Trump’s claims and plans for Chicago are nothing more than “political theater” and an attempt to distract from what his administration is doing.
“I can tell you that Chicagoans are not calling for a military occupation,” Johnson said on Monday. “They are calling for the same thing we have been calling for for some time. And that’s investment.”
Chicagoans have mixed feelings about Donald Trump’s plans
But as elected officials continue to dispute the need for the presence of troops on Chicago streets, residents are split on what they say is needed.
Imani Williams told NewsNation that she just lost a friend during a deadly mass shooting and that her child’s father has also been shot over the past two years. She said that she has experienced grief, emotional distress and pain due to the ongoing violence in Chicago.
“I think (Trump) needs to send them right away,” Williams told NewsNation. “It’s just a lot going on, and it’s like, the people are against the police, and we need to bring reinforcements in to establish law and order because it’s crazy out here.”
Others disagree.
“There’s crime all over. It’s not just Chicago,” Chicagoan Joanne Johnson told NewsNation. “But I don’t think it’s something that deserves the National Guard being here. I think that’s ridiculous, and I think it’s all political.”
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told NewsNation on Monday that he believes city officers “are OK” with National Guard troops being sent in “as long as it’s done in a proper way.”
“If President Trump is truly thinking of helping the city of Chicago, as well as other places around the country, that’s fine,” Johnson said. “But you have to have the local jurisdictions direct the way in which the federal people are deployed.”
Johnson added that local citizens want to be safe, but “safe in the right way.”
“You start to use and utilize military to start to patrol the streets of your city, then you’re going to have a problem with the community at large because there’s a lot of effort put forth to repair that relationship (between residents and law enforcement) and just putting armed military on the streets won’t do the trick. It just won’t,” he said.
Johnson is not the only former city official who has addressed Trump’s threats.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote on X that Trump is using the threat of sending troops to Chicago as a “distraction game” and that Chicagoans “don’t take well to being threatened.”
“Keep Chicago out of your mouth,” Lightfoot wrote.
