On Sunday, President Trump attempted to downplay a social media post that appeared to threaten Chicago with war, saying he simply wanted to “cleanse” the city.
Speaking to reporters before leaving the White House for the U.S. Open, Mr. Trump commented on his Saturday post, which cited his new name for the Pentagon with an image depicting helicopters, flames, and the Chicago skyline. The post, titled “Apocalypse Now,” in reference to the 1979 war film “Apocalypse Now,” read: “Chicago is about to find out why they call it the War Department.”
On Sunday, when asked if he was “threatening Chicago with war,” Mr. Trump called the post “fake news” and reprimanded a reporter who asked why he was using the Defense Department.
“We’re not going to war, we’re going to clean up our cities,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. This isn’t war, this is common sense.”
This message marks a worrying escalation in Mr. Trump’s efforts to continue deploying the military on American soil in the name of fighting crime and illegal immigration. For weeks, Mr. Trump has attacked Chicago and other Democratic-led cities, calling them “hellholes” because of crime, and has floated the idea of sending federal agents and National Guard troops to cities across the country. Mr. Trump deployed the military to Washington, D.C., in August and to Los Angeles in June.
His Saturday post drew sharp criticism from Democrats, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who criticized Mr. Trump on social media, calling him a “would-be dictator.”
“The President of the United States is threatening to wage war on an American city,” Pritzker wrote. “This is not a joke. This is not normal.”
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House border official Tom Homan said the message was “taken out of context” when asked if the president was planning a war in Chicago.
He added that the message was intended to convey the following message: the administration “will wage a war on criminal gangs; we will wage a war on illegal immigrants and threats to public safety,” citing previous operations in the city that have successfully apprehended violent criminals who entered the country illegally.
Homan said federal actions in Chicago, including the deployment of the National Guard, could begin this week, but he declined to specify how many National Guard troops would be deployed.
