President Donald Trump has ramped up his National Guard tactics in Washington, D.C., after saying he will send the troops into other cities.

First up, Trump says, would be Chicago, Illinois.

Trump has long criticized Chicago, the fourth-most populous city in the U.S. He has painted it as a violent place and said on multiple occasions the city is "worse than Afghanistan."

Chicago violent crime is down 22% compared to the same period as last year. That mirrors a July report from the Council on Criminal Justice that shows most crime categories have also fallen in other cities around the U.S.

Trump insists Chicago is a "disaster" and a "killing field" that could use the National Guard, even as local leaders criticize the idea. Here is what to know:

Is Trump sending troops to Chicago, Illinois?

Trump has not yet mobilized the National Guard in Chicago, though he has threatened to.

“Chicago's a mess," Trump said on Aug. 22. "You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent. We'll straighten that one out probably next. That'll be our next one after this,” he said, referencing D.C.'s federal takeover.

But asked again on Monday, Aug. 25, he acknowledged that Chicago leadership would not welcome the move.

"I was telling some of the people that, in a certain way, you really want to be asked to go," he said. "You know? I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians. Like a guy like (J.B. Pritzker) ... Guy is a disaster."

Who is Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker?

J.B. Pritzker was elected to the Illinois governor's office in 2018. An heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, he is one of the wealthiest politicians in office in the U.S., according to Forbes.

He has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, and has said the president's threats to send the national guard to Chicago are his attempt to "manufacture a crisis."

"The safety of the people of Illinois is always my top priority," Pritzker said in an Aug. 23 news release. "There is no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalizing the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders."

Trump takes aim at Pritzker in Oval Office comments

Trump called Chicago a "disaster" and a "killing field" in the Oval Office on Aug. 25.

He also mocked Pritzker for saying that sending the National Guard would be "an authoritarian power grab."

“When I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there — I made the statement that next should be Chicago because Chicago is a killing field right now and they don’t acknowledge it and they say ‘we don’t need them, freedom, freedom, freedom, he’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator,” Trump said Monday. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”

Why did Trump deploy the National Guard in DC?

Trump said he was taking over Washington, D.C., to address crime and homelessness, despite the fact that violent crime is down 26% in 2025 compared with last year. He deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and also moved to put the Metropolitan Police Department under control of the Department of Justice.

Trump does have special authority to deploy the National Guard in D.C., and he did so in 2020 as well.

"We're not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We're starting very strongly with D.C.," Trump said, adding that he may set his sights on other cities in the future.

The move drew harsh criticism from Democrats across the country.

"Violent crime in D.C. is at its lowest level in 30 years. We had an unacceptable spike in 2023, so we changed our laws and strategies," Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a televised community meeting on Aug. 12. "Now, crime levels are not only down from 2023, but from before the pandemic. Our tactics are working, and we aren’t taking our foot off the gas."

On Aug. 25, Trump also signed an executive order aimed at using the National Guard to support law enforcement.

Contributing: Steven Spearie, Hannah Hudnall, Francesca Chambers, Phillip M. Bailey, Zac Anderson, USA TODAY Network

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Trump sending troops to Chicago? What we know about National Guard deployment

Reporting by Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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