Trump sparks outrage after threatening Chicago with a “war department”

President Donald Trump threatened to change the name to the “War Department,” angering city and state officials who had been preparing for weeks for the imminent deployment of National Guard troops to the city.

“Love the smell of deportation in the morning… Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the War Department,” Trump wrote in his post on Truth Social, accompanied by what appeared to be an AI-generated illustration of himself as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore from the 1979 Vietnam War film “Apocalypse Now.” The image read “Chepocalypse Now,” and the background showed helicopters flying away from a burning city.

The post sparked outrage among state and city officials. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called Trump a “would-be dictator” and viewed the post as a threat to “go to war” with Chicago.

Pritzker wrote on X: “The President of the United States is threatening war on an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal.”

He added, “Donald Trump is not a strong man; he’s a fearful man. Illinois will not be intimidated by someone who aspires to be a dictator.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson accused Trump of “tyranny.”

He wrote on X: “The president’s threats are unworthy of our nation’s honor, but the truth is he wants to occupy our city and violate our Constitution.”

This post follows Trump’s executive order on Friday, renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War, a move the president claimed sent a “message of strength.”

Darf Secretary Pete Hegseth said during Friday’s press conference that the name signifies that the department “will be offensive, not merely defensive. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent influence, not political correctness.”

Trump’s threats against Chicago follow his decision to federalize the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and deploy National Guard troops to the streets on August 11, citing violent crime—despite data showing that violent crime in the capital had actually declined significantly. Since then, the president has threatened to deploy similar troops to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, and Oakland.

Both Johnson and Pritzker have strongly opposed Trump’s threats of federal intervention. Last weekend, Johnson signed an executive order directing the city’s police not to cooperate with federal agents in a potential crackdown on crime and immigration.

“We will protect our Constitution. We will protect our city. We will protect our people. We don’t want to see tanks on our streets. We don’t want to see families torn apart,” Johnson said in announcing his executive order.

Pritzker said he would “absolutely” sue Trump and the federal government if he deployed troops, adding to the multiple lawsuits Chicago has already filed against the president since he returned to office in January.