President Trump snapped at a reporter Sunday for scornfully asking if he intended to go to war with crime-ridden Chicago after he posted a meme Saturday warning that the Windy City will learn about the “Department of War.”
NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, who had famous clashes with Trump during his first term, set him off by asking, “Are you trying to go to war with Chicago?”
“When you say that, darling, that’s fake news,” Trump said nicely while gaggling with reporters ahead of his trip to New York to attend the US Open.
Alcindor attempted to interject, but Trump forcefully cut her off.
“Be quiet, listen!” Trump snapped. “You don’t listen! You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate. We’re not going to war, we’re gonna clean up our cities. We’re gonna clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that’s common sense.”
On Saturday, Trump needled Democrats in Chicago with a wild Apocalypse Now-style meme on his Truth Social accounts that read, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Last Friday, Trump signed an executive order to rechristen the Department of Defense as the Department of War, using its old name from the pre-World War II era.
For days, Trump has teased plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago to address crime, like he did with Washington, DC, where he was able to also go a step further and take over the Metropolitan Police Department last month.
Trump has also floated the idea of sending troops to Baltimore and New Orleans — both of which have higher murder rates than Chicago, though fewer overall killings.
But there are legal concerns about whether he has the legal authority to send the National Guard into cities where the state governor hasn’t consented.
Illinois and Maryland are controlled by Democrats who have both been mentioned as possible 2028 contenders. Louisiana is controlled by a Republican.
Earlier this month, Trump was dealt a blow when a federal judge concluded he broke the law by dispatching the National Guard to Los Angeles in response to rioting.
During his exchange with reporters on Sunday, Trump was also asked by another reporter about why he was singling out Chicago when there are other cities in the US with higher crime rates.
“Excuse me, do you know how many people were killed in Chicago last weekend?” Trump replied. “Eight. Do you know many people who were killed, were killed in Chicago the week before? Seven.”
“Do you how many were wounded? Seventy-four people were wounded. You think there’s worse than that? I don’t think so.”
It is not entirely clear what timeline Trump is eyeing to take action to curtail crime in Chicago.
The Trump administration has boasted about the arrests and dip in crime in DC since its intervention and has touted it as a model for addressing urban crime across the country.
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