By Jonathan J. Cooper and Leah Askarinam | Related Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to increase his navy deployments to extra Democratic-led cities, responding to a suggestion by Maryland’s governor to hitch him in a tour of Baltimore by saying he may as an alternative “send in the ‘troops.’”
Final week, Trump stated he was contemplating Chicago and New York for troop deployments just like what he has unleashed on the nation’s capital, the place 1000’s of Nationwide Guard and federal legislation enforcement officers are patrolling the streets.
Trump made the menace to Baltimore in a spat with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has criticized Trump’s unprecedented flex of federal energy aimed toward combating crime and homelessness in Washington. Moore final week invited Trump to go to his state to debate public security and stroll the streets.
Moore stated he invited Trump to Maryland “because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance” about enhancing crime charges in Baltimore. After a spike through the pandemic that matched nationwide developments, Baltimore’s violent crime fee has fallen. The 200 homicides reported final yr had been down 24% from the prior yr and 42% since 2021, in keeping with metropolis knowledge. Between 2023 and 2024, total violent crime was down almost 8% and property crimes down 20%.
“The president is spending all of his time talking about me,” Moore stated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I’m spending my time talking about the people I serve.”
In Washington, the place Trump is surging Nationwide Guard troops and federal legislation enforcement officers, a patchwork of protests popped up all through town over the weekend, whereas some usually bustling corners had been noticeably quiet. In a number of the most populated areas, residents walked by small teams of nationwide guardsmen, typically speaking amongst themselves. Movies of arrests and detainments circulated on social media.
Trump has stated Chicago and New York are almost certainly his subsequent targets, eliciting sturdy pushback from Democratic leaders in each states. The Washington Put up reported Saturday that the Pentagon has spent weeks getting ready for an operation in Chicago that would come with Nationwide Guard troops and probably energetic obligation forces.
Requested concerning the Put up report, the White Home pointed to Trump’s earlier feedback discussing his need to increase his use of navy forces to focus on native crime.
“I think Chicago will be our next,” Trump advised reporters on the White Home on Friday, including, “And then we’ll help with New York.”
Trump has repeatedly described a number of the nation’s largest cities — run by Democrats, with Black mayors and majority-minority populations — as harmful and filthy. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is Black, as is Moore. The District of Columbia and New York even have Black mayors.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, talking throughout a spiritual occasion Sunday at Howard College in Washington, stated the Guard’s presence within the nation’s capital was not about crime: “This is about profiling us.”
“This is laced with bigotry and racism,” he later elaborated to reporters. “Not one white mayor has been designated. And I think this is a civil rights issue, a race issue, and an issue of D.C. statehood.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, stated there isn’t a emergency warranting the deployment of Nationwide Guard troops in Chicago.
“Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families,” Pritzker wrote on X. “We’ll continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect Illinoisans.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson stated town doesn’t want “a military occupation” and would sue to dam one. He stated there was no communication from the White Home a couple of doable navy deployment.
“We’re not going to surrender our humanity to this tyrant,” Johnson stated Sunday on MSNBC. “I can tell you this, the city of Chicago has a long history of standing up against tyranny, resisting those who wish to undermine the interests of working people.”
Cooper reported from Phoenix.
Initially Printed: August 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM PDT
