National Guard troops from South Carolina stand outside Foggy Bottom Metro Station on August 20 in Washington, DC. Photo / Getty Images
The death count rose through the long weekend. By this morning, Chicago police said eight people were killed.
More than 50 people had been shot, including seven in a single drive-by.
United States President Donald Trump seized on the violence - describing the Windy City inaccurately as the “worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far”.
In an earlier screed he called Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, “weak and pathetic” for rejecting federal help. “He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” the President warned.
The clash underscores a broader confrontation between the White House and Democratic-led cities, as Trump uses troops and federal control to project toughness on crime and assist in his immigration crackdown.
He sent the military to Los Angeles after immigration raids sparked violent protests. He then put Washington DC’s police under federal command and sent in more than 800 National Guard troops to tackle crime.
He’s now threatening to take similar measures in Chicago, Baltimore - which he’s called “a hellhole” - and even New York City.
Trump’s actions and rhetoric have overwhelmingly been met with opposition from Democratic governors and mayors as well as legal obstacles.
A US district judge today issued an order barring the use of troops deployed in California and any other military troops in the state “to execute the laws”.
Last weekend Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order barring federal officers from wearing masks or disguises on city streets, a measure meant to resist unilateral deployments.
“We do not want military checkpoints or armoured vehicles on our streets and we do not want to see families ripped apart,” he said.
The White House dismissed Johnson’s order. “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticise the President, their communities would be much safer,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
Over the past month, Trump has focused on Chicago, Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and Washington.
All are Democratic strongholds, many led by black mayors.
Yet the highest homicide rates last year were in Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; and St Louis all cities in Republican-led states.
The governors of Mississippi and Tennessee, whose states rank among the most violent, have sent their own Guard troops to Washington.
For Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Trump’s attack on the city was personal.
He grew up in East Baltimore, where he said guns were shoved in his face, he was robbed before turning 7, and he saw a man shot on his block.
Now 39, he pointed to the city’s steepest homicide decline in decades, even as FBI data shows Baltimore recorded a homicide rate of 34.8 per 100,000 residents last year, the fifth-highest in the nation.
“I’m a black man in America,” he said in an interview.
“I’m never surprised when folks revert to racist tropes to rile up their base. Just pushing the National Guard into our cities is uncalled for and it’s over-reach.”
What Baltimore needs, he added, is more federal agents, prosecutors, and co-ordination to stop illegal guns.
Savannah, Georgia, Mayor Van Johnson, who leads the African American Mayors’ Association, said the White House’s focus was deliberate.
“The cities he repeatedly mentions have historic decreases in violent crime,” he said.
“There are other cities with higher crime rates that don’t have black mayors, and they never come up. If this is retribution, if this is a dog whistle, then you’ll call it what it is.”
In Washington, where Trump’s order has already taken effect, police are under federal control and Guard troops patrol the streets.
Officials say carjackings fell 87% in the first three weeks and overall crime dropped by double digits.
Mayor Muriel Bowser credited the presence with creating a “sense of accountability” through more stops and seizures but warned that masked immigration agents and out-of-state troops had left residents “living in fear”.
She told Trump aides that 500 more local officers could have produced the same results.
In New York, Mayor Eric Adams responded with defiance at his official residence, Gracie Mansion.
“Our communications with the federal government is we got this,” he said in an interview.
“We removed over 23,000 illegal guns off our streets. We’re witnessing record levels of decreasing crimes, homicides and shootings.”
Days later, after a Bronx shootout killed one man, wounded three others and left a teenage girl critically injured, Adams ordered 1000 officers into the borough and said he would invite gang members to the mansion to “settle their beef”.
A national poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research after the Washington deployment showed why Trump’s message has resonated beyond the cities he names.
About half of Americans said they approved of his handling of crime. Fifty-five per cent said it was acceptable for the Guard to support local police in major cities, though only a third favoured a full federal takeover.
Jonathan Fahey, a former federal prosecutor and acting ICE director during Trump’s first term, said the show of force can work.
“If you surge resources in the worst part of Chicago, you could significantly reduce crime in a very short period of time,” he said.
“All of a sudden it makes an enormous difference, because criminals see the massive action and know some jurisdictions are tougher.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who like Pritzker is considered a Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, has rolled out his own counterpoint.
He said state suppression teams launched in the Bay Area and now headed to Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Central Valley have made more than 9000 arrests, recovered 4000 stolen vehicles and seized hundreds of guns and 700 pounds of fentanyl.
“He’s doing things to people, not with people,” Newsom said.
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