(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump announced that when it comes to his efforts to crack down on crime, he will be turning to Chicago next.
“When we’re ready, we’ll go in and straighten out Chicago,” he said when asked if he was taking concrete steps toward the effort.
Speaking during a Friday press conference, he called Chicago one of the country’s greatest cities along with San Francisco, which he said he would also work to clean up.
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Trump claimed he has had calls from Democratic leaders asking him to come to their cities.
The president has deployed the National Guard and federal agents to Washington, D.C., in what the administration has said is an effort to control crime and clean up the city.
D.C. officials have disputed the characterization of the city, noting that crime rates have been falling in recent years.
In response, the Department of Justice announced it would be looking into those statistics following Trump’s claims that they were falsified.
The president has long discussed the idea of deploying federal agents or the military to Democratic-led cities, especially those with so-called sanctuary policies that limit how much local law enforcement can work with federal immigration officials.
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Earlier in the year, he federalized California’s National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and deployed them in Los Angeles along with some Marines.
The justification for the deployment was that protests happening in the city were interfering with federal immigration operations and that local officials were unable to control them.
The president and California officials have continued to disagree on the danger posed by protests and whether federal intervention was necessary.
When deploying troops in D.C., Trump relied on a provision in the Home Rule policy for the district that allows presidents to use Metro police for federal purposes in an emergency. The policy only allows for 30 days of emergency, after which congressional approval is required.
Trump has repeatedly said that it will take longer than 30 days to achieve his goals in D.C. and on Friday said he would declare a national emergency if needed.
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It’s not clear what justification Trump would use to deploy federal assets to Chicago, which is not subject to the same federal oversight as the capital.
Statistics show crime in Chicago has also fallen, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has said the president has no right to use the National Guard in the city for the purposes of fighting crime.
