New York City to get federal police for crime crackdown after DC, Chicago: Trump
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that Chicago will be the next city to receive a surge in federal policing — followed by New York City.
“People in Chicago … are screaming for us to come. They’re wearing red hats,” Trump claimed in the Oval Office as he touted his ongoing crackdown on crime in DC.
“African-American ladies, beautiful ladies, they are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago. Please.’ I did great with the black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen.”
He added: “So I think Chicago will be our next [stop] and then we’ll help with New York.”
Trump made the remarks after announcing that he would seek $2 billion from Congress to “beautify” DC, including fixing roadways, exterminating rats and replanting grass, in conjunction with his anti-crime push.
He predicted the funding would pass with bipartisan support and said he’s discussed the matter with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).
The federal government doesn’t have the same authority to seize control of the local police forces in Chicago and New York or deploy National Guard members, but the president does have the ability to surge federal agents to address crime, previously doing so in 2020 during Trump’s first term.
Trump, 79, hailed the fact that DC hadn’t recorded a single murder in the past week and scoffed at criticism by Democrats of his deployments and his federalization of DC’s Metropolitan Police Department.
But Trump gave mixed signals on the future of his DC takeover, saying at one point that he was inclined to relinquish control of the MPD as scheduled next month rather than declare a national emergency to retain control.
At another point, however, the president threatened to seize control of the entire DC government. “Mayor [Muriel] Bowser better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor very long, because we’ll take it over with the federal government,” Trump warned.
“It was a crime-infested rat hole, and they do have a lot of rats. We’re getting rid of them too.”
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Trump added of the local police force: “You’ve got to train people, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t bop people over the head.’ And a lot of those people are in courts right now, they’re going to go to jail for a long time. “
“So that’s going to take more than 30 days,” he went on.
“If I have to, I’ll declare a national emergency, which I don’t think I’ll have to do.”