President Donald Trump has hinted he plans to expand his domestic troop deployment to other Democrat-led cities in the United States, starting with the midwestern metropolis of Chicago, Illinois.
Trump’s warning arrived shortly after the Department of Defence confirmed to US media that the National Guard troops currently patrolling Washington, DC, will now be carrying weapons.
In a statement on Friday, the Pentagon said the decision came directly from Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth.
“Members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our Nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training,” the statement said.
Trump had called up the National Guard on August 11 to address crime in Washington, DC, dismissing nonpartisan data from the Metropolitan Police Department that shows violent crime in the city at a 30-year low.
The city had seen an uptick in murder and other crimes after the COVID-19 pandemic began, but since 2023, violent crime has fallen by 35 percent, according to the police statistics.
Trump, however, renewed his attacks against the city’s leadership on Friday and once again threatened to take over the local government. He has already federalised the local police force, a power he can exert for a period of 30 days.
“It was a crime-infested rat hole, and they do have a lot of rats,” Trump said of Washington, DC, during a meeting with reporters and FIFA football federation president Gianni Infantino at the White House.
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