Trump Previews Next Phase of Crackdown on Blue Cities

The federal government’s takeover of Washington, D.C., is well underway with the Trump administration already touting allegedly plummeting crime rates as residents of the nation’s capital are voicing their frustration with members of the National Guard and federal law enforcement patrolling their streets.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signaled that he’s ready to take his crackdown nationwide, eyeing other cities across the country with Democratic leadership. “Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That’ll be our next one after this,” Trump said, speaking from the Oval Office.

The president told reporters that Chicagoans are “screaming” for the federal government to intervene in the city, saying, “They’re wearing red hats, just like this one,” pointing to his signature hat featuring a new slogan, “Trump Was Right About Everything.” Trump has alleged that Chicago’s crime rates are out of control, as he’s claimed with Washington, D.C.

“African American ladies, beautiful ladies are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago. Please,’” he said. “So, I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”

Trump has previously threatened a federal takeover of New York City, most recently warning it could come to pass if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral election in the fall. “We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,” the president said in July.

When asked earlier this month about the possibility of Trump potentially sending the National Guard to New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said, “We don’t need anyone to come in and take over our law-enforcement apparatus. We have the finest police department on the globe.”

It was just last week when Trump announced his intent to take over Washington, D.C., utilizing his executive power to deploy hundreds of National Guard members throughout the city and to exert control over the Metropolitan Police Department, directing local officers to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The president similarly deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this summer in response to mass protests over federal immigration actions in the city. While federal law requires Trump to receive congressional approval to extend his control of D.C. law enforcement beyond 30 days, the president suggested the takeover could extend far beyond that.

“If I think we’re in great shape here, that’s one thing. But if I don’t, I’m gonna just say it’s a national emergency. And if I have a national emergency, I can keep the troops there as long as I want. People aren’t going to want to have the troops out in 30 days,” he said.

In addition to the 800 members of the D.C. National Guard deployed by Trump, six additional states have complied with requests from the president to provide their own National Guard troops to support the Trump administration’s takeover efforts. And on Friday, the secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, officially authorized the approximately 2,000 National Guard members in the nation’s capital to carry weapons as they conduct their patrols, per the Washington Post.