Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city is taking President Donald Trump’s comments about sending in the National Guard to combat violence “seriously,” calling the move “uncoordinated, uncalled for and unsound.”
“We take President Trump’s statements seriously, but to be clear the City has not received any formal communication from the Trump administration regarding additional federal law enforcement or military deployments to Chicago,” Johnson said in a statement Friday afternoon. “Certainly, we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the City of Chicago.”
Trump said earlier Friday he plans to send the National Guard to Chicago next as part of his attempts to curb violence in multiple U.S. cities, which began with similar measures taken in Washington D.C. He also specifically called out Johnson as “an incompetent mayor.”
“Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out probably next,” Trump said. “That’ll be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough. And the people in Chicago … are screaming for us to come … so I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Trump did not give any indication on timing other than saying it will begin “when we’re ready.”
“Unlawfully deploying the National Guard to Chicago has the potential to inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement when we know that trust between police and residents is foundational to building safer communities,” Johnson said in his statement hours after the president’s remarks. “An unlawful deployment would be unsustainable and would threaten to undermine the historic progress we have.”
The mayor said the city has seen a 30% reduction in homicides within the past year, a 35% reduction in robberies and shooting have gone down by nearly 40%.
“We need to continue to invest in what is working,” he said. “We know that our communities are safest when we fully invest in housing, community safety, and education. The National Guard will not alleviate the housing crisis. It will not put food in the stomachs of the one in four children that go to bed hungry every night in Chicago. The National Guard will not fully-fund our public schools or provide mental healthcare or substance abuse treatment to Chicagoans in need. The National Guard is no substitute for dedicated local law enforcement and community violence interrupters who know and serve our communities every day. There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them.”
It’s not the first time Trump has mentioned sending the National Guard to Chicago, citing violence.
He previously called out the city and Illinois for its “no cash bail” policy, while decrying “out-of-control crime” in Democratic-led cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. He did not, however, mention Memphis, St. Louis, Birmingham and New Orleans — all cities in red states with the highest murder rates, according to the FBI.
But there have been questions over whether Trump can send troops to Chicago.
“It’s clear to me he does not have the legal right or ability to do that. Since I was first elected, I have talked about that, the Nazis in Germany tore down a constitutional republic in just 53 days,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a vocal Trump critic, said earlier this month. “It does not take much, frankly, and we seem to have a president who is hellbent on doing just that.”
The governor said that a law known as the PosseComitatus Act – put into place after the Civil War to ensure the military does not act as police against civilians – precludes the president’s actions.
But the Army said in a previous statement that the president is acting under Title 32, which deals with the role of the National Guard and the ability for governors or the president to call up the guard under certain circumstances.
Meanwhile in D.C., Trump said in a social media post Friday he was considering “a complete and total Federal takeover.” He’s already seized control of the local police department for 30 days, which could be extended with congressional approval.
Trump has claimed the city is in the midst of a crime crisis despite statistics showing a declining problem. The U.S. attorney in Washington has opened an investigation into the numbers, the latest pressure point in a tug of war between the administration and D.C. government.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser must immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen,” the president wrote.
And it comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members are stationed in D.C., with the arrival this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.
The Pentagon and Army said last week that troops would not carry weapons.
The city had been informed about the intent for the National Guard to be armed, a person familiar with the conversations said earlier this week. The person was not authorized to disclose the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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