President Donald Trump put Chicago criminals on notice Saturday, promising to deploy federal troops to the violence-plagued city in a threatening Truth Social post.
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump wrote, referencing his Friday executive order renaming the Department of Defense to its original name.
The post included an AI-generated image of Trump seated with fire and helicopters over the Chicago skyline, dressed as Robert Duvall’s character in Apocalypse Now. The text read, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” and “Chipocalypse Now.”
Trump has previously indicated he wants National Guard troops sent to Chicago to combat crime and illegal immigration, despite opposition from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D).
“We’re going in,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting. “I didn’t say when.”
Pritzker called Trump “a scared man,” saying, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said Trump’s threats were “beneath the honor of our nation” and accused him of attempting to “occupy our city and break our Constitution,” per the New York Post.
Trump slammed Pritzker as “weak and pathetic” after the governor claimed the president was “attempting to manufacture a crisis.” “Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker… just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME,” Trump wrote.
Chicago continues to face rampant violence. Over Labor Day weekend, seven people were killed and 54 were shot. Trump has labeled the city “the murder capital of the world,” citing 573 murders in 2024 compared to 377 in New York City and 268 in Los Angeles.
The deployment of troops to Chicago is more complicated than previous mobilizations, like the August deployment to Washington, D.C., because National Guard forces are controlled by the governor. Local police have already arrested nearly 2,000 people since August 7 with federal aid.
Trump has also indicated he may target other cities for federal enforcement, including New York and New Orleans, but Chicago remains his top focus.
“The other aims are that he’d like to stop the elections 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections,” Pritzker claimed during a CBS interview.
Trump’s “Chipocalypse Now” post has drawn national attention, igniting debates over presidential authority, public safety, and the potential militarization of domestic law enforcement.
