Key points
- Illinois Gov Pritzker condemns threat as an attack on an American city
- Thousands protest in Chicago and DC against Trump’s troop deployments
- Legal challenges and criticism grow over Trump’s use of federal agents and troops
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday 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 Trump deployed National Guard troops and boosted numbers of federal agents, sparking a backlash and a fresh protest on Saturday that drew thousands, according to AFP.
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump posted Saturday on his Truth Social account.
The Democratic governor of Illinois, where Chicago is located, voiced outrage at Trump’s post.
“This is not a joke”
“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.
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.
Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator. pic.twitter.com/f87Zek7Cqb
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) September 6, 2025
“Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator,” he added.
“Love the smell of deportations”
The post featured an apparent AI image of Trump and the quote: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” — both references to the 1979 Vietnam War film “Apocalypse Now”.
In the film, the line is spoken by Lt Col Bill Kilgore who says he loves the smell of “napalm” — not “deportations” — as the American military drops the highly flammable weapon on Vietnamese targets.
The 79-year-old Republican has steadily ramped up threats against Chicago, since an early mention of it at the end of August, AFP reported.
“Beneath honor”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also denounced Trump’s threat as “beneath the honor of our nation”.
The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution.
We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/B7AH1ufByH
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) September 6, 2025
“The reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump,” Johnson wrote on X.
On Saturday in a post on X, Johnson wrote: “CPD has taken 24,000 guns off the street since I took office, most of which originated from Republican-run states outside Illinois.”
Why are we even debating something that doesn’t work? Ask me what is working, not about a failed attempt to criminalize our young people. pic.twitter.com/GxokY2Bwzv
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) June 18, 2025
“The Trump administration’s budget cuts to federal gun violence prevention agencies like ATF will lead to fewer investigations and operations with local law enforcement, endangering our historic progress on community safety.”
“No Trump, no troops”
Anti-Trump protesters took to the streets of Chicago on Saturday, 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.
On Saturday in the US capital, where National Guard troops have been deployed since 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 DC carried inverted US flags as they marched past the country’s national monuments, traditionally a symbol of a country facing existential peril.
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.
“A message of victory”
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, Trump has threatened to replicate the surges in Democratic-led Baltimore and New Orleans.
On Friday, Trump signed an order changing the name of the Department of Defense 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, according to AFP.
