“We will make our cities very, very safe,” Trump said in front of journalists in the White House on Friday. “I think Chicago will be next, and then we will help New York.” Trump particularly targeted the Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago. The big city in the north of the United States is a “mess” and is ruled by a “highly incompetent” mayor, said the US President. The residents of the metropolis in the US state of Illinois would literally “scream” for the help of the government in Washington.
Governor Pritzker clearly rejected Trump’s statements. People would “no authoritarian appropriation” by the Trump government, he wrote in the online service X. Trump wanted “fear” and “destabilize” existing measures in the fight against crime in order to “create a justification for further abusing”.
Trump had already ordered the National Guard to Washington on August 11th and the local police of the US capital assumed the federal control. The right -wing populist Republican justified his approach with an allegedly out of control. So he said he wanted to preserve Washington from “crime, bloodshed, chaos, misery and worse”.
However, statistics show a significant decline in violent crimes between 2023 and 2024 in the capital, after an increase during corona pandemic. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser emphasized that crime was at a 30-year low. According to the local police, 573 murders were registered in Chicago last year, which corresponds to a decline of eight percent compared to the previous year.
Critics accuse Trump right -wing populist sharpening – and an attempt to expand his power and control cities ruled by Democrats. In Washington, more than 1900 members of the National Guard are now in use. They come from the capital itself and from the republican states of West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense, the national guards in Washington, said “would soon be used with their service weapons”. At the beginning of the deployment of the National Guard, it was said that “weapons are available if necessary”, but should remain in the arms chambers.
In June, Trump had already mobilized the National Guard and Marine Fanter in Los Angeles to end protests against his immigration policy. It was the first time in 60 years that a US president sent the national guard against the will of the local authorities. The city of California and the state of California are ruled by the Democrats.
The national guard, which had several hundred thousands of belonging, has its roots in militias, which in the 17th century before the United States was founded in the individual colonies. It traditionally takes on tasks in disaster protection, in home protection and to support the police in the US states. She also provides reserve staff for the U.S. armed forces abroad.
It is not uncommon for US presidents to order the national guard’s operations. However, this happened in only a few cases without the consent of the governor of the respective state.
