Trump hints at Chicago military action, sparks political backlash

US President Donald Trump sparked a political firestorm on Saturday by hinting at a possible military intervention in Chicago, drawing criticism from the city's mayor and the governor of the US state of Illinois.

Trump, a Republican, shared an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on his platform Truth Social depicting the skyline of the Democratic-led city in a style reminiscent of the war film "Apocalypse Now."

The image included the line "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR," alongside the caption, "I love the smell of deportations in the morning," echoing the famous film quote about napalm. It remained unclear whether the post was a serious threat.

Trump has previously vowed to take aggressive action against alleged crime surges in Chicago. In Washington, which he labelled a "rat hole," he recently deployed the National Guard and placed local police under federal control, even though data shows that crime has dropped in the nation's capital. Details of any Chicago plan, including potential National Guard deployment, were not disclosed.

Illinois Governor and Democrat JB Pritzker denounced the remarks, calling Trump a "wannabe dictator" in a post on X. He added: "The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal."

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson described the threats as "beneath the honor of our nation," saying that "the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution."

Chicago would be the third Democratic-led city targeted, after Los Angeles and Washington, where protests against Trump's military interventions resumed over the weekend. The president has also floated other major cities, including Baltimore, New York, and New Orleans - all run by Democrats - as potential sites for similar moves.