CHICAGO: The Trump administration branded Chicago a “war zone” on Sunday (Oct 5) as it sought to justify deploying soldiers against the will of local Democratic officials, while a judge blocked the White House from sending troops to another Democratic-run city.
An escalating political crisis has pitted President Donald Trump’s anti-crime and migration crackdown against Democrats who accuse him of an authoritarian power grab.
Trump late on Saturday authorised the deployment of 300 National Guard soldiers to Chicago, the United States’ third-largest city, despite objections from the mayor and state governor JB Pritzker.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the move on Fox News, claiming Chicago was “a war zone”.
LOCAL LEADERS PUSH BACK
Pritzker, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, accused Republicans of seeking to provoke unrest.
“They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops,” he said. “They need to get the heck out.”
A CBS poll released on Sunday found that 58 per cent of Americans oppose deploying the National Guard to US cities. Trump, who last week described his strategy as a “war from within”, has shown no sign of backing down.
In an untrue claim, he said: “Portland is burning to the ground. It’s insurrectionists all over the place.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed the president’s language, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that troops deployed in Washington had responded to a “literal war zone”, a description at odds with reality.
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