US President Donald Trump has suggested that the federal government could next target Chicago in its crime reduction efforts, after several days of operations in Washington.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said the US capital is becoming “one of the safest places anywhere on Earth,” adding that his administration would extend its efforts to other cities afterwards, Xinhua reported.
The president declared, “Chicago will be our next one after this.”
On 11 August, during a White House press conference, Trump confirmed deploying the National Guard to restore order and ensure public safety in Washington.
At the time, he also identified Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland, all governed by Democrats, as cities facing serious crime problems.
According to a release from Joint Task Force–DC on Thursday, more than 1,900 National Guard personnel from several states, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana and Tennessee, mobilised for the Washington mission.
The president visited law enforcement officers and National Guard troops in Southeast Washington on Thursday, reiterating his intention to pursue similar operations in other cities.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has meanwhile directed National Guard members patrolling Washington’s streets to begin carrying their service weapons, CNN reported on Friday, citing a US defence official.
The report noted, “The directive from Hegseth represents a notable shift in guidance from the Pentagon, which had previously indicated that National Guard members could be armed if the circumstances warranted.”
Confrontation with Mayor Bowser
Earlier on Friday, Trump criticised Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, on Truth Social, warning her to “immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen, including a complete and total Federal takeover of the City!”
The president has previously described crime in Washington as ‘out of control’, declaring a ‘crime emergency’ on 11 August.
Bowser has rejected this characterisation, pointing out that violent crime is down not only from 2023 but also from 2019, adding that the city is at a ’30-year low in violent crime’.
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