Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said Trump’s threats are an attempt to «intimidate his political rivals» on Monday.
President Donald Trump has threatened to send National Guard troops into Chicago to address crime—but the latest data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBI) shows several major cities have higher rates of violent crime.
When reached by Newsweek, a spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Trump is spreading «tired narratives about Chicago and our residents instead of actually doing the hard work of building safer communities.»Why It Matters
Trump has floated the idea of federalizing the National Guard to deal with crime in large cities run by Democrats after deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., earlier in August.
The idea was met with criticism from Illinois leaders such as Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker, both Democrats, who have pointed out that violent crime is on the decline in the city, which had previously struggled with the issue. While crime temporarily increased across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has since fallen off in the years since. If Trump were to send National Guard troops into Chicago over objections from the governor, that would likely set off legal challenges, as presidents can only do so in specific circumstances.What to Know
Chicago’s violent crime rate remains lower than that of the two largest cities, according to the FBI crime data. It has a violent crime rate of about 540 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
For comparison, New York and Los Angeles have violent crime rates of about 671 and 728 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, respectively.
