President Donald Trump is sharpening his focus on crime in U.S. cities, reiterating over the weekend that Chicago may soon see a larger deployment of National Guard troops.
The warning comes as part of his administration’s crackdown on violent crime and illegal immigration.
“Do you know how many people were killed in Chicago last weekend? Eight,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Chicago.
“You know how many people were killed in Chicago the week before? Seven.
“You know how many people wounded? Seventy-four people were wounded.
“You think there’s worse than that? I don’t think so.”
The remarks followed a post he shared on Truth Social featuring an AI image of himself styled as Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now.”
The image, captioned “Chipocalypse Now”, was paired with Trump’s comment:
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning…
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Unsurprisingly, critics accused the president of threatening military action against a U.S. city.
Trump rejected that interpretation, clarifying his intentions.
“We’re not going to war,” Trump told reporters.
“We’re going to clean up our cities.
“We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five