Trump Threatens 'War' on Chicago Amid Protests

Trump made the threat on Saturday through a post on his Truth Social platform, sharing a parody image from the film Apocalypse Now that depicted flames and helicopters over Chicago’s skyline. “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” he wrote. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

The president offered no further details, only adding the phrase “Chipocalypse Now,” a play on the 1979 Vietnam War film where the line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” is delivered.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to expand federal enforcement in Chicago, similar to measures already taken in Los Angeles, and to deploy National Guard troops there, reports AL Jazeera.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker denounced the remarks, saying the state “won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.” He added, “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 also condemned Trump’s comments, calling them “beneath the honor of our nation” and accusing him of trying to “occupy our city and break our Constitution.”

Protests erupted in both Chicago and DC. In downtown Chicago, more than a thousand demonstrators carried signs saying “I.C.E. out of Illinois, I.C.E. out of everywhere,” while speakers compared the crackdown to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Nazek Sankari of the US Palestinian Community Network told the crowd, “We are inspired by the steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza, and it is why we refuse to cower to Trump and his threats.”

Viviana Barajas of the community group Palenque LSNA vowed Chicago would “stand up” just as Los Angeles had. “If he thinks these frivolous theatrics to undermine our sovereignty will shut out the passion we have for protecting our people, this is Chicago, and he is sorely mistaken,” she said.

In Washington, protesters at the “We Are All DC” march carried banners reading “END THE D.C. OCCUPATION” and posters with slogans like “Trump must go now,” “Free DC,” and “Resist Tyranny.” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro reported that demonstrators were calling Trump “a fascist and an authoritarian.”

Critics also noted that Trump had already deployed 2,000 troops to the capital last month despite violent crime being at a 30-year low. Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US diplomat and DC resident, said, “Federal agents, national guards patrolling our streets, that’s really an affront to the democracy of our city … We don’t have our own senators or members of the House of Representatives, so we’re at the mercy of a dictator like this, a wanna-be dictator.”

One protester, Jun Lee, carried a woodcut sign that read “Free DC.” She said she joined the march because she was “saddened and heartbroken” by the federal intervention. “This is my home, and I never, ever thought all the stuff that I watched in a history documentary that I’m actually living in person,” she said.

Trump has claimed he has broad authority to deploy the National Guard, at times even joking about being a dictator. “Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’. I am not a dictator, by the way,” he said last month. “Not that I don’t have – I would – the right to do anything I want to do.” He added: “I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger – and it is in danger in these cities – I can do it.”