Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was ready to mobilize the federal authorities and to fight the crime in Chicago and Baltimore, even though he decided the resistance of elected guides and many residents in both cities.
From reporters in the Oval Office after the fate of troops of the National Guard to the third largest city in the country, Trump said: “We go in”, but added: “I did not say when.”
“I have an obligation,” said the president. “This is not a political thing.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a potential democratic candidate of the democratic president, mocked the term of sending military troops and federal agents to Chicago, and confirmed on Tuesday that the federal intervention was not necessary or sought.
The local officials in Baltimore have the democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, on similar opposing law enforcement measures in the federal government.
Trump has already sent National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, where he also federal. He said that he was planning similar steps in other Democrats, even as a federal judge on Tuesday as illegally illegal in California.
Trump criticizes managers in Chicago
The President praised the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, for working with federal forces, repeated his criticism of Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a democrat. Trump said he would like to call Pritzker and say: “Send the troops”-the two-time governor repeatedly said that he would not do so.
He said that if Pritzker “would call me, I would like to do it,” said Trump. “Now we’ll do it anyway. We have the right to do it. Because I am obliged to protect this country, and Baltimore includes this.”
He added: “Baltimore is a very uncertain place”
Pritzker stopped Trump’s comments to call him for assist. The two have been locked in an escalating word war for days when Trump described “the most dangerous city in the world” on Tuesday as “the most dangerous city”.
“No, I will not call the president and ask him to send troops to Chicago,” said Pritzker on Tuesday at a press conference with Johnson and other leaders. “I already made it clear.”
Illinois found out about a federal plan
The state received its first contact via federal interventions on Saturday when the head of Illinois State Police received a call from Gregory Bovino, head of Border Patrol El Centro, California, sector, and said to Chicago to Chicago. The governor said that no further details were offered.
Pritzker asked the public not to lead the presence of federal agents in the city, but asked the residents to respect neighbors and to film interactions with federal agents and to share them publicly.
“Authority live from their silence,” he said. “Be loud for America.”
Chicago has prepared for the extended presence of the federal government. Activists, pastors and schools are prepared for the flood of national attention.
Even without knowing exactly what is coming, the organized activist network of the city began to demonstrate to circulated protest plans, and swore to demonstrate within a few hours of troops or federal agents.
The measures are known in a city that has been trying to counter Trump’s offer for a long time, deporting more people, including adding more employees in a hotline to report the arrests of immigration.
Dozens of pastors write a letter to Trump on Tuesday, in which the focus should instead lie on underfunded schools and unemployment.
“I say the following about the believers of Chicago: Prepare their hearts for resistance,” said the letter.
Crimes in Chicago
Johnson said that violence in the city was from weapons on the streets that are traded from neighboring countries, including Indiana Republicans, to Illinois.
“Chicago will continue to have a problem of violence as long as red states continue to have a weapon problem,” said Johnson.
In the other major US cities, Chicago’s violent crime has dropped overall as a whole, although there is a persistent problem in parts of the city.
The Trump government recently resumed interest in the city’s daily crime protocol, including the apply of a flood of shootings on the Labor Day weekend as a reason for an increased military presence.
Chicago’s murder rate is 21.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, according to the analysis of the Federal Data of the Rochester Institute of Technology. It quotes seven other essential US cities – St. Louis, New Orleans, Detroit, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Richmond, Virginia – with higher installments.
Chicago reported 573 murders in 2024, the best of every US city this year. In the first half of the year, however, the violent crimes decreased considerably, which has corresponded to the steepest decline in over a decade. Footiness and murders in the first half of 2025 were more than 30% compared to the same time in the previous year.
The Attorney General of Illinois, Kwame Raoul, said that the city and the state will complain after the beginning of the federal intervention.
Trump says that intervention in Baltimore is necessary
Trump’s comments that Baltimore is involved in his obligation to protect the country, follows the local officials in this city and that against the law enforcement agency against the states against the states.
The spokesman for Moore, David Turner, said: “While we try to decipher exactly what the president said today, the governor was consistently clear: the use of the National Guard for municipal police work is theatrical and not sustainable.”
The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, listed some of the most recent achievements in the city in the containment of weapons. Scott has repeatedly accused the president of using racist rhetoric and black cities such as Baltimore and Chicago.
“Here is the reality in Baltimore,” wrote Scott on X and found that Baltimore murders in the middle of continuing declines have reached historical levasties, including the lowest number of murders that were recorded for the month of August.
Trump said his efforts in Washington ensured that it is “now a safe zone. We have no crime.”
The White House announced separately on Tuesday that more than 1,650 people have been arrested on August 7 on August 7.
“It was a nice thing that happened in Washington,” said Trump “because we showed that it could be done.”
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Associated Press Writers Lea Skene in Baltimore and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report. Tireen reported from Chicago.
