Snapshot: A Hostile Plan to Invade Chicago
Trump's intention to send military troops is about escalating conflict, creating a spectacle and distracting from his other problems—not about fighting crime
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent troops to enable nine Black students in Little Rock to enter an all-white school. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard to enforce the admission of James Meredith, the first Black student at the University of Mississippi. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect protestors marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, after they faced violent attacks.
Each of these cases, involving three different presidents, demonstrated the desire to employ federal authority to uphold the law and make things better. They stand in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s hostile plan to invade Chicago with National Guard troops.
“Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” Trump falsely posted on Truth Social yesterday morning. “[Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC.”
Later, responding to a reporter at the White House about the likely deployment of the National Guard in Chicago, Trump said, “Well, we’re going. I didn’t say when. We’re going in.”
We’re going in. Like he’s prepping a military invasion. This is nuts. This is dangerous. And Pritzker said Trump is planning to deploy troops from the Texas National Guard, in addition to beefing up his police state forces from ICE, Customs and Border Control, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.
This further pits predominately Republican states against predominately Democratic cities, just as he did by encouraging GOP governors to send National Guard troops to D.C., including South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.
“There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops,” Pritzker said, standing beside Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and State Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole, and anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans, too.”
Added Mayor Johnson, "He just wants his own secret police force that will do publicity stunts whenever his poll numbers are sinking, whenever his jobs report shows a stagnating economy, whenever he needs another distraction from his failures."
Trump’s planned military expansion comes in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling yesterday that Trump illegally used troops to perform law enforcement functions in Los Angeles. San Francisco District Judge Charles Breyer barred the federal government from deploying troops in California to engage in “arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants.” Trump will of course appeal the decision, which undermines his hostile plans for Chicago and other Democratic-led cities.
In the case of Chicago, Attorney General Raoul underscored that the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the deployment of troops for law enforcement. He noted last week, “There either has to be a foreign invasion, rebellion from within or inability to enforce a federal law because of inadequate resources through regular means. None of those circumstances exist in regards to dealing with crime in Chicago.”
Trump’s planned invasion also comes at a time when there is a growing demand from House members to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. This will intensify after as many as 100 victims of Epstein are scheduled to speak out in a press conference today. There are already some Republicans who have joined Democrats and signed a discharge petition to force a House vote on the full release of the files, a move that House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes in his effort to cover up for Trump.
But the defiance seen so far in Chicago is encouraging (and, speaking as a Chicago native, not surprising). The governor’s response has been clear.
"We have reason to believe that [Trump Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen Miller chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year," Pritzker said. "It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try and disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let's be clear: The terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here."
And Pritzker rejected Trump’s assertion that he should be asking for Trump to send troops. “When did we become a country where it’s OK for the US president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything — especially something we don’t want?” Pritzker asked. “Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation, that we treat this as normal?”
No, Governor, not all of us have lost our minds. This is a time for strong and clear defiance of the hostile plans of a weak and desperate man determined to further fuel conflict in our beloved country.
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Having gone to college in Chicago, I will assure you that Chicago is not about to roll over for Trump. Not the residents, not the leaders, no one. Nor should they. It really is mind-blowing that ANYONE thinks this is okay. His swagger is sickening. Let's hope the Roberts (wimp) Court doesn't continue to further erode the Constitution.
We should start naming this regime for what it is: the MAGA Looting of America.