--- title: 'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Sending Guard to Chicago description: Trump said he will deploy the National Guard to Chicago and other cities, despite pushback from locals 'We're going in," he said. "I didn't say when." canonical: https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-02T20:34:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T13:06:58.642Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Sending Guard to Chicago og:description: “We’re going in,” Trump said. “I didn’t say when.” og:url: https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte81ab1840691b2a4/6998c97883ec374acdc7ae60/GettyImages-2233412568.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump Makes Announcement In The Oval Office Of The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Sending Guard to Chicago twitter:description: “We’re going in,” Trump said. “I didn’t say when.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte81ab1840691b2a4/6998c97883ec374acdc7ae60/GettyImages-2233412568.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Says He Intends to Deploy National Guard to Chicago > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/) and [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/) Sep 2, 2025 8:34 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House on September 2, 2025 President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House on September 2, 2025 Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/) and [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/) Sep 2, 2025 8:34 PM UTC President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would at some point deploy the National Guard to Chicago in an effort to stem violent crime, escalating a confrontation [with local officials](https://time.com/7313566/chicago-johnson-national-guard-trump-ice/) who have warned him not to intervene. “We’re going in,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he had decided to send troops to the nation’s third-largest city. “I didn’t say when.” The President’s declaration followed days of sharp rhetoric aimed at Chicago and its Democratic leadership. In a string of [social media posts](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115134530741891730) Tuesday, he described the city as the “MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!” while insisting he could “solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in D.C.” He cited shootings over the Labor Day weekend that left at least eight people dead and dozens more wounded. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic, has rejected federal intervention and urged the White House to stay out of Chicago. “I’ve been standing up to Donald Trump, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people’s rights and from using the military to invade states,” he said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. Shortly after the President’s press conference, Pritzker addressed reporters on Tuesday afternoon alongside Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who issued an executive order last week instructing local police [not to cooperate](https://time.com/7313566/chicago-johnson-national-guard-trump-ice/) with federal agents or troops if they are deployed. The confrontation highlights the limits of presidential authority outside of Washington, D.C., where Trump sent the National Guard in August. In the District of Columbia, the President serves as commander in chief of the Guard. In Illinois, by contrast, the governor ordinarily controls deployment, though Trump has argued that he can act unilaterally. Legal experts predict the question will quickly end up in court if Trump follows through and deploys the military to Chicago. “If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up, I would love to do it.” Trump said. “Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it.” He added that he has an “obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore.” Pritzker responded in his own press conference shortly afterward. “I'm aware that the President likes to go on television and beg me to ask him for troops,” he said. “I find this extraordinarily strange, as Chicago does not want troops on our streets.” The administration has already faced challenges on similar efforts. A federal circuit court judge [ruled](https://time.com/7313929/trump-national-guard-la-los-angeles-marines-judge-ruling/) on Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of 4,000 national guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles earlier this summer violated federal law, though the decision did not force the withdrawal of hundreds of Guard members still stationed in Los Angeles. The White House is expected to appeal that decision. Chicago has long struggled with violent crime, but city officials note that the problem is not as severe as Trump portrays. Homicides and shootings have declined this year, putting the city on pace for its lowest homicide rate in half a century, according to police statistics. Still, a violent Labor Day weekend gave Trump an opening. “Two weeks ago they had six people murdered and 24 people hit by bullets,” he said. “Last week… seven people died. Over the last two days, that was the crown jewel. They had, I guess, 9 or 10 killed, and 50 hit with bullets.” The President also broadened his criticism to include Baltimore and Los Angeles, both led by Democrats, and suggested they could be next. “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far,” he said in a social media post. Trump pointed to his deployment of national guard troops in Washington, D.C. as a blueprint for other cities. “I’m very proud of Washington. It serves as a template and we’re going to do it elsewhere,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/"},"headline":"'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Says He Intends to Deploy National Guard to Chicago","datePublished":"2025-09-02T20:34:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T13:06:58.642Z","description":"“We’re going in,” Trump said. “I didn’t say when.”","url":"https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/","keywords":["Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte81ab1840691b2a4/6998c97883ec374acdc7ae60/GettyImages-2233412568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Nik Popli","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/nik-popli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte81ab1840691b2a4/6998c97883ec374acdc7ae60/GettyImages-2233412568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Makes Announcement In The Oval Office Of The White House","caption":"President Trump Makes Announcement In The Oval Office Of The White House","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/","name":"'We’re Going to Do It Anyway': Trump Says He Intends to Deploy National Guard to Chicago"}}]}] ```