Democrats Push Back Against Trump’s Talk of Deploying National Guard

President Trump said last week that he was weighing the deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to cities including Chicago, New York and Baltimore, framing Democratic-led urban centers as crime-ridden and “out of control.”

Democratic leaders at the state and local level rejected that characterization and warned that such moves would be politically motivated rather than crime-driven.

In Chicago, former mayor Rahm Emanuel argued on CNN that the threat reflected hostility toward Democratic leadership and immigration policy more than a strategy to fight crime. “This is an attempt to deal with cities that are sanctuary cities,” he said, “not to actually deal with crime.”

Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker said there was “no emergency” that could justify federalizing the state’s National Guard and accused the president of “attempting to manufacture a crisis.”

In Maryland, Governor Wes Moore noted that homicides in Baltimore have fallen and criticized Trump’s “1980s scare tactics.”

He invited the president to join him on a public safety walk, an invitation Trump publicly declined, writing that troops would be sent to “clean up the crime disaster” first.

Baltimore’s mayor, Brandon Scott, dismissed the idea as a photo opportunity but endorsed more resources for FBI, ATF and DEA operations already supporting the city police.

Democratic leaders in Washington also cautioned against Trump’s rhetoric. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said that while Americans want safer communities, the president had “no basis, no authority” to send federal troops.

New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani added that New Yorkers are not asking for National Guard patrols but for assurances on healthcare and affordability: “The crisis is the cuts to social services,” he said.

Crime has been declining in many of the cities Trump singled out, though Democrats acknowledged that challenges remain, particularly in areas like gun offenses and carjackings. Emanuel stressed that local strategies are already in place: “More police on the beat and getting kids, gangs and guns off the street. And that’s what has to be done.”