Protesters hold signs as they march during a 'Workers over billionaires' rally on Labor Day in Chicago on September 1, 2025. KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, September 2, that he will deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, calling the Democratic-run midwestern city a "hellhole" ravaged by gun crime. "We're going in," the Republican president told reporters, while hinting that he would also send soldiers to Baltimore, another Democratic-run city.
Trump denied charges he is strictly targeting cities run by his political opponents for his anti-crime campaign and his crackdown on undocumented migrants. "I have an obligation," he said, citing Chicago crime statistics. "This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks and 75 are shot with bullets."
Trump, who already sent National Guard troops into the streets of Democratic-run Washington, DC, last month, declined to say exactly when he would send soldiers to Chicago, where the Democratic state governor and mayor strongly oppose the plan. "Chicago is a hellhole right now. Baltimore is a hellhole right now," Trump said.
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