Donald Trump is preparing himself and the USA for the country's third city to soon be patrolled by the National Guard, which he has threatened with several times.
In his post, Trump refers to the fact that he has renamed the US Department of Defense to the Department of War and the text further tightens the rhetoric he has used – earlier in the week, he called Chicago a "crime-ravaged 'hell'".
"The President of the USA is threatening to go to war against an American city," writes Illinois Governor J B Pritzker on X on Saturday, and continues: "This is no joke. This is not normal”.
Refers to deportations
Dick Durbin, Democratic Senator from Illinois, said according to Chicago Sun-Times in a speech that Trump's words were "repulsive".
In Trump's post, which is partly an AI-generated image also posted on the White House's official account on X, reference is also made to the film "Apocalypse Now", and that the immigration authority ICE will deprive and deport undocumented migrants who are in the city.
"I love the smell of deportations in the morning" it says, followed by "Chipocalypse Now" over an image of Trump as a military edited in front of fire and military helicopters over Chicago's silhouette.
"Wants to occupy"
Governor Pritzker already noted on Wednesday that he expected ICE to launch a major operation over the weekend and Mayor Brandon Johnson writes on Saturday on X:
"The reality is that he wants to occupy our city and tear up the constitution. We must defend our democracy against this autocracy by defending each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump”.
Previously, Trump has ordered similar operations in Los Angeles and Washington DC, which has led to large protests. The operation in Los Angeles was, according to a federal judge in San Francisco, in violation of a law that prohibits a president from using the military in police matters in the USA.
Since the beginning of June, masked agents from the immigration authority ICE have arrested several thousand migrants, often at workplaces. This week, nearly 500 people, mainly South Koreans, were arrested in a record-sized raid against a Hyundai factory in Georgia.
