On Aug. 25, in NPR’s Up First episode, “Trump Threatens Chicago, DOJ Latest, US-South Korea Summit,” the hosts Steve Inskeep and A Martinez reported that President Donald Trump is potentially sending the National Guard to Chicago. The mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, was not happy about this, saying it would be “illegal, uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”
Clearly, Johnson and Trump are not in agreement with each other. In the same episode, Inskeep and Martinez played a soundbite of the President giving his reasoning for sending the troops. “Chicago’s a mess,” Trump said. “You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out probably next.”
NPR’s White House Correspondent Tamara Keith noted that this was an “off-the-cuff” moment, but it has been clear that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington is a test run for what is to come in other cities. She also cited a report by The Washington Post showing the Pentagon does indeed have plans to send the National Guard to Chicago.
On Sept. 6, Trump posted on Truth Social that “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War just a day before. Even Fox News agreed that this could be his strongest hint of sending the National Guard to Chicago.
So far, Trump has yet to send out the National Guard to the Windy City. But it appears that Chicago does not intend to go without a fight, with Johnson posting on X that “The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
So, will troops be sent out to Chicago? That remains to be seen. In the recently mentioned NPR episode, Keith noted that the president had gotten into a verbal fight with the governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, and threatened to send the National Guard there as well.
Not to mention, as of Sept. 12, ABC News reported that Trump might also send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee. Why? In the president’s own words, “Memphis is deeply troubled. We’re going to fix that, just like we did in Washington.“
With the president mentioning different cities where he might deploy the National Guard, it does not appear he is tied down to a specific plan or timeline. Rather, he seems to say he’ll send the National Guard to whatever city he disagrees with at the time, but with no initiative to back him up.
Trump is known for speaking in extremes and not always adhering to his word, but the fact of the matter is, he is still the president. Although his words should be taken with a grain of salt, they should also be taken with caution.