Despite President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the Washington D.C. police force and deploy the National Guard to fight violent crime in the nation’s capital, he cannot deliver on his threat to do the same in Chicago, state and local officials said Monday.
During a White House news conference, Trump announced a federal takeover of Washington’s police department and the deployment of 800 members of the National Guard to bring down crime, even though D.C. officials say crime is falling in their city.
Trump on Monday also threatened to apply to Chicago the unprecedented actions he was undertaking in Washington D.C.
“If we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster. We have a man there who’s totally incompetent. He’s an incompetent man,” Trump said, referring to Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“And we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent,” Trump added, referring to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. And now I understand he wants to be president. But I noticed he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance. You never know what happens, but Pritzker’s a grossly incompetent guy.”
Pritzker, a possible 2028 presidential hopeful who has positioned himself as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, said Trump “has absolutely no right and no legal ability to send troops in to the city of Chicago.”
Pritzker pointed to the 1878 federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act, which essentially prohibits the federal government from using military personnel to enforce domestic policy or participate in civilian law enforcement unless explicitly authorized by law.
The 147-year-old law was tailor-made to separate military authority from civilian authority.
“It means that the federal government does not have a right to send soldiers into American cities for the purpose of, well, for any purpose really, but specifically to fight crime, let’s say, and that is what he’s suggesting that he will do, violate that law,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference.
Pritzker said it’s not surprising that Trump would suggest “violating the law” after sending “National Guard troops into Los Angeles illegally.”
“I talked about the fact that the Nazis in Germany in the `30’s tore down a constitutional republic in just 53 days,” the governor said, reiterating the comparison he made in his budget address. “It does not take much, frankly, and we have a president who seems hell-bent on doing just that.”
Johnson said Trump’s repeated attempts to portray Chicago as a cesspool of violent crime run contrary to the 30% drop in homicides and nearly 40% reduction in shootings over the last year. In an interview with ABC-7, Johnson said a federal takeover of law enforcement in Chicago would “destabilize our city” and be unpopular to boot.
“No one in the city of Chicago — residents that I’ve spoken to, the people of this city — no one has ever asked for the National Guard to come to Chicago,” the mayor said.
Trump’s powers limited in a ‘sovereign state’
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, said Illinois is a “sovereign state” where the president’s powers are limited.
“No one here in Chicago is asking for the federal government to step in. And without that invitation — and without the extreme circumstances to justify it, which clearly don’t currently exist, I just don’t think it can happen,” Hopkins said.
Even Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, who has been supportive of Trump over the years, said the president doesn’t have the same jurisdiction that he has in Washington D.C.
“The president says a lot of things that aren’t necessarily doable. They’re more, I would say wishes or dreams,” Catanzara said.
“It’s a different environment than it is in D.C. They do have federal jurisdiction in D.C. They do not here in the same realm. The National Guard in D.C. is his National Guard. It doesn’t belong to anybody else… I can’t even imagine a world — short of an L.A. kind of riot situation — where it would be legally feasible.”
ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka accused the president of “using the military to buttress his domestic standing.”
“He’s under water on immigration enforcement in polling. He’s under water with regards to the economy and tariffs. He’s clearly under water when it comes to dealing with the Epstein files. In those circumstances with someone who is so reckless and so eager to just win the next news cycle, it is something that one at least has to be concerned about,” Yohnka said.
Although Trump chose to build his showcase Trump Tower along the Chicago River with a huge sign bearing his name, Yohnka said the city has long been one of his favorite political punching bags.
“We haven’t seen the worst kind of things like this, like bringing in the National Guard to support immigration enforcement in the way he promises,” Yohnka said. “So it’s tempting to say this is just bluster. The problem is, the people in D.C. are waking up to a new reality because of his recklessness. That should give us all pause.”
Trump also lashes out at cashless bail
Trump also mentioned Chicago when he talked about his plan to pressure Congress to pass a law eliminating no-cash bail. Under the law, judges no longer require anyone to pay cash bail to get out of jail while they await their trial. Instead, judges make decisions about who is locked up based on their offense and whether they are deemed a flight risk or a safety threat.
“We’re going to end that in Chicago. We’re going to change the statute… And I’m gonna have to get the Republicans to vote because the Democrats are weak on crime. Totally weak on crime,” the president said.
State Sen. Elgie R. Sims Jr. (D-Chicago), chief sponsor of the so-called SAFE-T Act, said violent and property crimes have decreased since Illinois became the “first state to fully eliminate the use of money to decide who stays in jail and who walks free before trial.” The new system is “based on risk — not riches,” Sims said, with judges weighing “actual threats to public safety and the likelihood of flight, not the size of someone’s bank account.”
“What the president wants is a justice system that favors the wealthy,” Sims said. “That’s exactly the kind of system that has long failed our communities and allowed the rich to evade consequences. It’s no surprise from someone who also wants to criminalize poverty and homelessness. In Illinois, we reject that approach. We believe public safety should not be sold to the highest bidder.”