US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he will deploy troops to Chicago, which he called a crime-ridden "hellhole," though he would not say when he planned to launch his latest crackdown.
"We're going in," the US president told reporters at the White House, citing weekend shooting fatalities in Chicago and touting deployments of the reservist National Guard to both Los Angeles and the capital Washington in recent months as successfully reducing crime in those Democrat-run cities.
Earlier, Mr Trump vowed to quickly and dramatically reduce crime in Chicago and said it was "most dangerous city in the world".
"I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC," Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, referring to his deployment of National Guard reservists to the US capital beginning last month.
"Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far," he said, adding that JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois, "needs help badly, he just doesn't know it yet".
Mr Trump cited what he described as the latest crime statistics from America's third-largest city - some 54 people shot in Chicago over the holiday weekend, including eight deaths, with similar figures for the previous two weekends.
"Chicago will be safe again, and soon," he said.
Mr Trump followed up with a provocative, all-caps post: "CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!"
The abrasive comments come as the Republican leader repeatedly threatens to send thousands of US military personnel into Democratic strongholds like Chicago and Baltimore, cities he has described as high-crime zones flooded with undocumented immigrants.
Mr Pritzker has clashed with Mr Trump in recent days, accusing the president of launching "an invasion" with the deployments as he seeks to boost his anti-crime, anti-immigration agenda.
Thousands of National Guard troops and US Marines were deployed to Los Angeles beginning in June, intended to assist police as they cracked down on protests and unrest over Trump's sweeps for undocumented migrants.
Mr Trump also ordered the deployment of the National Guard into Washington in August, and has claimed the move improved city safety.
He has said such a deployment could dramatically reduce crime in Chicago, home to some 2.7 million people and one of the country's most diverse cities.
President as police chief
The unprecedented steps are being challenged in federal court.
A federal judge declared that Mr Trump effectively violated the law when he used troops in Los Angeles, and barred the Pentagon from ordering National Guard reservists or Marines to perform police functions including arrests, security patrols or searches and seizures.
Judge Charles Breyer, of the District Court in San Francisco, warned in his ruling that Mr Trump appears intent on "creating a national police force with the President as its chief".
Mr Breyer's injunction, however, would only come into force on 12 September, potentially leaving an opening for the conservative-majority US Supreme Court to rule on the case.
As Chicago residents braced for a possible intervention by Mr Trump - reportedly as early as this week - its Democratic mayor delivered a spirited defense of Chicago.
"No federal troops in the city of Chicago! No militarized force in the city of Chicago!" Mayor Brandon Johnson said yesterday at a rousing Labour Day rally.
"We're going to take this fight across America, but we've got to defend the home front first," he added.
Protesters also marched through parts of Chicago yesterday in a "Workers over Billionaires" rally that also saw people vocalize their opposition to Mr Trump sending troops into the city.
Accreditation: AFP
