Trump threatens to use newly renamed Department of War for immigration enforcement in Chicago

By Ahmet Salih Alacaci

WASHINGTON (AA) – US President Donald Trump appeared to renew his long-standing threat Saturday to send troops to enforce immigration laws in Chicago, a city in the Democratic-led state of Illinois.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” according to a screenshot Trump posted on the US social media company Truth Social, which he owns.

“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War,” it also said over an AI-generated image resembling a parody of the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now,” which is set during the Vietnam War.

The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard to the nation’s capital of Washington, DC and previously to Los Angeles, from where they have since been withdrawn.

Claiming an effort to fight crime, Trump has said repeatedly that he is considering similar moves in Chicago and Baltimore. His remarks have faced backlash, including from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who accused Trump of seeking to become a “dictator.”

“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,” Pritzker wrote on X. “Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”