US President Donald Trump threatened to unleash his newly rebranded "Department of War" on Chicago, further heightening tensions over his push to deploy troops into Democratic-led US cities.
The move seeks to replicate an operation in the US capital Washington, where Mr Trump deployed National Guard troops and boosted numbers of federal agents, sparking a backlash and a fresh protest yesterday that drew thousands.
"Chicago is about to find out why it's called the Department of War," Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The Democratic governor of Illinois, where Chicago is located, voiced outrage at Mr Trump's post.
"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," Governor JB Pritzker wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"Illinois won't be intimidated by a wannabe dictator," he added.
The 79-year-old Republican has steadily ramped up threats against Chicago, since an early mention of it at the end of August.
Anti-President Trump protesters took to the streets of Chicago, carrying signs that read "stop this fascist regime!" and "no Trump, no troops."
The protest route also went past Chicago's Trump tower, and protesters made rude gestures at the president's building as they walked past.
Yesterday in the US capital, where National Guard troops have been deployed since Mr Trump declared a "crime emergency" in August, a thousands-strong protest march wound through downtown with participants demanding an end to the "occupation."
Demonstrators in Washington carried inverted US flags as they marched past the country's national monuments, traditionally a symbol of a country facing existential peril.
Read more: Trump to rebrand Pentagon as 'Department of War'
Mr Trump's troop and federal agent deployments - which first began in June in Los Angeles, followed by Washington - have prompted legal challenges and protests, with critics calling them an authoritarian show of force.
Local officials in Los Angeles spoke out against the deployments and the violent tactics employed by ICE agents in Los Angeles, who often wore masks, drove in unmarked cars and chased down and snatched people from the streets without cause or warrants.
In addition to Chicago, Mr Trump has threatened to replicate the surges in Democratic-led Baltimore and New Orleans.
On Friday, Mr Trump signed an order changing the name of the Department of Defence to the Department of War, saying it sends "a message of victory" to the world.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth cheered the move, saying the US will decisively exact violence to reach its aims, without apology.
