Trump Says He’ll ‘Probably’ Take Over Chicago Next

President Donald Trump said Friday he is eyeing Chicago, Illinois, as the city he will shift his focus to once he is done cracking down on crime in Washington, D.C.

Trump first declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., in early August and deployed the National Guard around the city two weeks ago to crack down on the crisis. The president told reporters Friday that he is looking at Chicago as the next city to help, followed by potentially New York City. (RELATED: Trump Announces He Will Personally Patrol DC)

“Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out probably next, that will be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough. And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“So I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York, and we’re going to help with and I think, really, I think a lot of and a lot of these people that are, you see on television, they are including the people in this audience. They’ll say bad things about me, and then they’ll say, ‘thank God he’s here,’ because half of them got mugged, and they don’t want to get mugged again,” the president continued.

The president added that he is willing to declare a National Emergency to keep the effort going if Congress does not extend the 30-day limit on troops in D.C.

Since August 7th, there have been 719 total arrests made, a White House official shared with the Daily Caller. Of those arrests, 300 are illegal aliens who have been taken in for additional alleged crimes including assault, rape, murder, sexual assault, DUIs and drug smuggling, the official added. In total, five known gang members have been arrested, including an alleged MS-13 gang member on Thursday who had prior arrests for Enter Property with Intent to Damage and six prior immigration encounters.

On Thursday night, 2,300 agents participated in the operation, the official told the Caller. There are numerous agencies helping out in the operation including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Secret Service and the Homeland Security Investigations.

NEWS: Last night during Trump’s DC crack down, 77 arrests were made, per WH official to @DailyCaller. Of those, 24 illegal aliens were arrested on charges including: sexual assault, carnal abuse, rape, assault, threats to injure a person, simple assault, resisting arrest and…

— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) August 21, 2025

“Have there been concrete steps that the administration is taking [to take over other cities]?” a reporter asked Trump on Thursday.

“When we’re ready, we’ll go and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C. Chicago is very dangerous. Great place. I built great stuff there. I have the most beautiful building in Chicago, I think. But I hate to see what’s happened to Chicago. Chicago was our greatest city,” Trump said.