{"id":28398,"date":"2025-09-06T21:46:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/trump-appears-to-threaten-chicago\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T21:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:46:30","slug":"trump-appears-to-threaten-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/trump-appears-to-threaten-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Appears To Threaten Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Daniel Johnson <\/p>\n

September 6, 2025<\/p>\n

‘The President\u2019s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,’ Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson posted on social media. <\/p>\n

After Donald Trump appeared to threaten Chicago with a National Guard invasion using his favorite communication device, memes posted to his Truth Social account, leaders in Illinois responded with swift and strong condemnations of both his message and tone.<\/p>\n

According to The Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>, Trump made several references<\/a> to the 1979 movie \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d with Trump apparently casting himself in the role of Lt. Colonel Kilgore. In a take on Robert Duvall\u2019s delivery of the often quoted \u201cI love the smell of napalm in the morning,\u201d line, Trump amended his post to read \u201c\u2018I love the smell of deportations in the morning,\u2019\u201d a clear reference to the film.<\/p>\n

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. <\/p>\n

This is not a joke. This is not normal. <\/p>\n

Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won\u2019t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator. pic.twitter.com\/f87Zek7Cqb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) September 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The implication is both clear and troubling, evidenced by the response of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on X on Sept. 6. Pritzker declared that the post, which the White House\u2019s official account also posted to the social media site, \u201cis not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cThe President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn\u2019t a strongman, he\u2019s a scared man. Illinois won\u2019t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson used his X account to call on the city\u2019s citizens to protect each other amid more lawless threats aimed at the city from Trump and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. <\/p>\n

We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com\/B7AH1ufByH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) September 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump,\u201d Johnson wrote.<\/p>\n

As Chicago resident and former member of the Chicago City Council and the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times<\/em> from 2017-2019, Edwin Eisendrath, told The Guardian<\/em>, the National Guard won\u2019t solve any perceived problems with crime<\/a>. In addition, Chicago\u2019s history as a city of activists does not bode well for a deployment of troops inside the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think of the civic action you\u2019ve seen over history, whether that\u2019s the Pullman strikes a century ago, or Haymarket, or the early union movement, or what we did in the civil rights movement, or the organizing for the Women\u2019s March, Chicagoans are organized. So we aren\u2019t helpless,\u201d he told the outlet. <\/p>\n

Sjonia Harper, a resident of Bronzeville, one of Chicago\u2019s most well-known historically Black neighborhoods, also recognizes the pattern in Trump\u2019s calls to invade certain cities across the country, which he says are dealing with unacceptable crime rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to just end with [Chicago]. It\u2019s going to expand. He\u2019s already talking about New Orleans, and if you think about all the cities he\u2019s talking about \u2013 LA, Black mayor; DC, Black mayor; Chicago, Black mayor; Baltimore, Black mayor; New Orleans, Black mayor. We have to be able to call it out for what it is,\u201d Harper noted.<\/p>\n

According to Matt Conroy, a Democrat who is running for election in Chicago\u2019s fifth congressional district, the federal troops will likely \u201cterrorize\u201d Black and Latinx communities while costing taxpayers an exorbitant sum of money. <\/p>\n

\u201cRather than addressing the root cause of this, they\u2019re just doing what they think looks good for the TV and pretending to be a strongman authoritarian, and that\u2019s all that Donald Trump really wants to be. What they\u2019re doing is completely illegal. \u2026 Honestly, [Trump could] invoke the Insurrection Act, but [it\u2019s important] to stay together, have a plan, know your rights and be respectful of law enforcement, to not escalate the situation further, and to provide [Chicago residents] with additional resources,\u201d Conroy pointed out.<\/p>\n

To that end, Denise Poloyac, a board member for the Indivisible Chicago Alliance, indicated in her comments to the outlet that for Chicagoans, the best prescription for federal overreach is solidarity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be effective if we don\u2019t act together, and I think we draw our strength from each other. I think that is the strength of Chicago, and that\u2019s what\u2019s going to get us through this, and, you know, I think that\u2019s the strength of a lot of places in this country. I think that\u2019s what Trump\u2019s administration doesn\u2019t understand, that we are in a community,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

RELATED CONTENT:<\/strong> Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Signs Executive Order Aimed At Limiting Federal Troops<\/p>\n

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