Trump says he’s ordering troops into Chicago and Baltimore

National Guard troops will be heading to Chicago – but President Donald Trump won’t say when they will deploy. After taking federal control of the Washington, D.C. police force last month, Trump believes the takeover should serve as a ‘template’ for how he will handle violent crime in other U.S. cities.

He said the next targets are the ‘hellholes’ of Chicago, Illinois and Baltimore, Maryland . Chicago, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office for an announcement on Tuesday, is worse than Afghanistan . And Baltimore, he claimed, is ‘one of the most unsafe places anywhere in the world.’

The president said he will send in National Guard troops to crime-ridden U.S. cities because he has ‘an obligation to protect this country.’ ‘We’re going in,’ Trump said. ‘This isn’t a political thing. I have an obligation.’ Trump ordered last month 800 troops from around the country to help patrol D.C. and crack down on street crime.

He has lauded the operation as a success, claiming that the enhanced presence of federal law enforcement and armed troops has brought crime to a halt in the nation’s capital. ‘Let me tell you a little story about a place called D.C. – District of Columbia, right here where we are. It’s now a safe zone. We have no crime. It’s in such good shape,’ Trump praised.

‘Washington, D.C. is a safe zone right now – it’s a safe city.’ He made the comments during an announcement at the White House on moving Space Force command from blue Colorado to red Alabama. Trump says he wants Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore – both Democrats – to call and ask for him to send in troops.

But even if they don’t, Trump admitted he still plans to carry out his plan to use the National Guard as a police force in liberal U.S. cities. ‘If the Governor of Illinois would call me up, I would love to do it,’ Trump said on Tuesday. ‘Now, we’re going to do it anyway, we have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country,’ he added. ‘And that includes Baltimore.’

‘I saw where Gov. Moore was asking me to take a walk down the street of Baltimore. Well, Baltimore is a very unsafe place.’ Trump threatened for months to take federal control of D.C. amid a spike in high profile incidents of crime.

It appeared to come to a head last month when former DOGE staffer Edward Capstone, was brutally attacked and beaten by a group of teenage attempted car jackers. Two 15-year-olds were arrested as they attempted to flee the scene. On August 11 – just days after the bloody incident – Trump declared a ‘public safety emergency’ in D.C. and announced a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department under the Home Rule Act.

He says that weeks after invoking the provision, crime is at a standstill in the District. ‘I’m very proud of Washington, it serves as a template,’ Trump said on Tuesday. ‘And we’re going to do it elsewhere and Chicago is certainly going to be high [priority].’ While the takeover of D.C. has a time-cap of 30 days, Trump has indicated he plans to extend beyond that and retain control.

Meanwhile, he is plotting the next cities where he will target violent street crime. ‘Chicago is a hellhole right now, Baltimore is a hellhole right now. Parts of Los Angeles are terrible,’ he said. Trump claimed that if he hadn’t sent in National Guard troops during the anti-ICE riots earlier this year, then the Olympics would no longer be held in Los Angeles in 2028.