President Trump suggested Tuesday he’s planning to send National Guard troops to Chicago, in what could be the latest salvo in his controversial push to use federal forces to address crime, drawing pushback from local political leaders.
“We’re going in. I didn’t say when, we’re going in,” Mr. Trump said in an Oval Office event, after a reporter asked if he plans to send the Guard to Chicago.
Mr. Trump did not specify whether his administration will primarily send Guard forces or federal law enforcement agents to Chicago. He also didn’t say how many Guard troops could be deployed, or where they will hail from.
He later suggested Baltimore could also draw a federal response.
The president has vowed for weeks to intervene in Chicago and Baltimore, arguing the two cities have failed to contain violent crime. Chicago could be the third city to face a crackdown under the Trump administration: Thousands of Guard troops and federal agents have been deployed to the streets of Washington, D.C., since last month as part of an anti-crime initiative, and Guard forces were sent to Los Angeles in June to protect immigration agents.
Mr. Trump said he hopes Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — a vociferous Trump critic — will call him and request that troops be sent to Chicago. But the president said: “We’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Pritzker called Mr. Trump’s comments “unhinged.”
“No, I will not call the president asking him to send troops to Chicago,” he said.
Pritzker said he expects federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies to surge in Chicago in the coming days. He said the president could then “use any excuse” to deploy military personnel.
The governor said his administration is “ready to fight troop deployments in court.”
Any Guard deployment to Chicago would likely draw legal pushback.
The D.C. National Guard is controlled by the president, but the 50 states’ Guard forces are typically run by governors. Mr. Trump called members of the California National Guard into federal service without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s permission by invoking a law that applies to rebellions or situations where the president can’t enforce the law with “regular forces.”
Newsom sued the Trump administration over the move. An appeals court ruled that Mr. Trump likely had the right to call up the California National Guard, but a lower court judge on Tuesday ruled the deployment violated a 19th century law prohibiting the military from being used for domestic law enforcement.
