Democrats blast Trump for war threats on US cities
Democrats admonished President Trump on Saturday after he made a joke about deportations in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago is about to find out why we call it the Department of War,” the president wrote with a meme of himself next to the words, “Chipocalypse Now.”
Democratic party members from California and Illinois condemned the post.
“The President of the United States is deploying the military onto US streets and using our troops like political pawns,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote in a statement on X.
“DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME NUMB TO THIS,” he continued.
Newsom feuded with Trump earlier this year after the White House assumed control of the state’s National Guard. The president ordered soldiers to Los Angeles without the governor’s approval, to enforce the administration’s immigration agenda.
As Trump eyes Chicago for a federal takeover by force, leaders in the Prairie State have rejected the president’s swipe at federal intervention.
“No Donald, Chicago is not your war zone,” Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is also a combat veteran and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, wrote in a statement on X.
In response to Trump’s earlier post celebrating deportation, Duckworth described the meme of the president in a Calvary hat as “stolen valor at its worst.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) also chimed in.
“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,” Johnson wrote on X.
“We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
Earlier in the day, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the president a “wannabe dictator.”
“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,” Pritzker wrote on social platform X in response to a meme shared by Trump. “This is not a joke. This is not normal.”