President Trump said on Friday that he planned to target Chicago and New York for his next federal crackdown on crime, suggesting he was willing to use active-duty troops on city streets.
At an event in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump credited his federal takeover of Washington’s police force and the deployment of the National Guard for cleaning up the city. He has used inaccurate figures to portray D.C. as lawless, and crime had been falling before the takeover.
“We haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do if we have to,” Mr. Trump said. “After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe.”
Mr. Trump then called Chicago “a mess” and said that “we’ll straighten that one out.”
“Probably next, that will be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough,” he said, adding, “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Later, a reporter asked Mr. Trump if he had taken any concrete steps toward bringing a federal crackdown to Chicago. The president said he had not.
“When we’re ready, we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s comments suggest he will use the crackdown on Washington as a template for other cities around the country. But he would have limited ability to deploy the show of force in the same way he did in D.C.
Its unique status as a federal district, not a state, means Mr. Trump can wield greater control in Washington than in other cities. While the Home Rule Act allowed the president to take temporary control of D.C.’s police force during what he portrayed as an emergency, similar laws do not exist for other cities.
And while Mr. Trump controls the D.C. National Guard, governors typically command the Guards in their states.
That said, Mr. Trump would have a number of ways to display a show of force. Courts have already upheld his federalization of National Guard troops in California, most likely emboldening the president to deploy other states’ Guard troops.
Mr. Trump could also order a surge of federal law enforcement officers from the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to descend on Chicago.
But the most extreme step Mr. Trump could take would be to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the active-duty military for civilian law enforcement in American cities. Mr. Trump has mulled doing so in the past, in response to protests, but said on Monday that such a step had not been necessary.
The president has been suggesting for weeks that he might deploy National Guard troops to other cities, including Chicago, which is experiencing a historic drop in homicides. The city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, responded to Mr. Trump’s comments, calling a potential deployment of National Guard troops “unlawful” and “unsustainable.”
Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, said he had not received any communication from the Trump administration about a plan.
“There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them,” Mr. Johnson said.
Murders, shootings and robberies have fallen significantly in Chicago in 2025, police statistics show.
Crime in Washington was already declining before Mr. Trump ordered a takeover of the city’s police force.
Mr. Trump said on Monday that the takeover had produced a week without a homicide and that it was “the first time in memory that that’s happened.”
But D.C. has already had several weeks this year without a homicide, including a stretch in late February and early March in which the city did not experience a homicide for more than two weeks, according to police statistics.
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