President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday to not-so-subtly threaten another federal takeover of the city of Chicago because of a supposed “crime wave” going on there at the moment.
“Chicago is suffering an unprecedented and particularly violent crime wave that is getting worse by the day,” wrote Trump. “The Federal Government can extinguish it quickly and completely, but the Mayor of Chicago, or the Governor of Illinois, must ask for our help. What is wrong with them? Why aren’t they asking? TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”
Just one problem, wrote American Immigration Counsel scholar and legal expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on X: the “crime wave” Trump is talking about doesn’t exist.
“This is, of course, completely made up,” wrote Reichlin-Melnick, posting a crime data report from the Chicago Police Department. “In Chicago: Murders are down 4% from 2025, and 40% from 2022; Robbery is down 21% from 2025, and 43% from 2022; Burglary is down 9% from 2025, and 23% from 2022; Aggravated battery is down 1% from 2025, and 5% from 2022.”
Trump has already effectively taken over law enforcement in parts of Chicago once since taking office, bringing in federal immigration and border officials to patrol the streets last year.
The undertaking was met with fury and widespread protest from residents, and violent incidents that included federal agents shooting a pastor in the head with a pepper ball. It also resulted in the “Broadview Six” affair, in which protesters in a West Side Chicago suburb were charged with impeding federal agents, only for the case to collapse under extensive prosecutorial misconduct.
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