Donald Trump has threatened to broaden his federal crackdown on crime to include Chicago and New York, while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that National Guard troops patrolling Washington DC be armed. The US president told reporters in the Oval Office: 'When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess.' He added that the administration 'will help with New York', escalating controversial federal efforts to control Democratic-led cities.
The decision to arm federalised troops in the capital marks an escalation in the rare federal intervention in policing there. Nearly 2,000 National Guard members are stationed in the city, bolstered by hundreds of troops from Republican-led states. The Pentagon had said last week that troops would not carry weapons, but a defence official confirmed that, at Hegseth's direction, troops would now be on mission with their service-issued weapons.
Meanwhile, Jeanine Pirro, the District of Columbia's top federal prosecutor, has instructed prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible in cases stemming from recent arrests. The directive, first reported by the New York Times, limits the discretion of line prosecutors and could lead to longer prison terms. Pirro's spokesman said the move aligns with Trump's directive to make DC safe.
The White House reported that federal agents have made more than 630 arrests as of Thursday, though the Justice Department has not clarified how this compares with typical city police numbers. Trump earlier federalised the California National Guard over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom, deploying troops to Los Angeles to counter protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
