Gadyaces Serralta, director of U.S. Marshals Service, right, presents President Donald Trump with an honorary badge as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the National Guard in each state to create a quick-response force to quell protests and deter crime after using troops to assist with security during immigration protests in Los Angeles and patrol in Washington, D.C., as part of a crackdown on crime.
He said other cities, specifically Chicago, should be asking him for help.
“I think we should really let them have their city, let their city go to hell” and then they will ask us for help, Trump told reporters at the White House during a news conference announcing several executive orders.
“These people [troops and federal law enforcement], eventually, they’re going to have to be appreciated for what they are doing, and they’re going to have to be appreciated by the officials that are really happy when we go in because they’ve lost control of their place,” he said.
The executive order about the National Guard signed Monday calls on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to oversee “each state’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized and available to assist federal, state and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law.”
Each state should find an appropriate number of troops to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization and have the resources and training needed to serve nationwide, according to the order titled, “Additional Measures to Address the Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia.”
More than a week ago, Trump deployed 2,000 troops from the D.C. National Guard and six supporting states onto the streets of the nation’s capital to stop what he has referred to as an emergency crime wave. However, D.C. police data stated violent crime is down in the city by 26% compared with last year — which had the lowest levels of violent crimes in 30 years.
Since Guard troops have been on patrol in Washington, there have been no killings in the city, Trump said.
The deployment was seen by some as a test for sending the military into other large U.S. cities, which typically lean Democratic. Trump said he’s considering plans to use Guard troops to target crime in Chicago. He said Monday that he has not reached a decision.
“We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do,” he said. “The problem is, it’s not nice when you go in and do it, and somebody else is standing there saying, as we give great results, say, ‘Well, we don’t want the military.’ ”
Chicago, too, has seen lower levels of violent crime in 2025, according to its police department.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday that the state has worked with federal law enforcement in the past, and there is no emergency now that warrants sending in the National Guard or other military troops.
“Donald Trump’s threat to bring the National Guard to Chicago isn’t about safety — it’s a test of the limits of his power and a trial run for a police state,” he said.
Two months ago, Trump activated more than 4,000 members of the California National Guard and 700 Marines stationed within the state to deploy to Los Angeles where immigration protests followed a series of raids by federal agents on area businesses to find people living in the U.S. without authorization. The majority of those troops have since returned home, but they primarily worked to protect federal property and personnel, including federal agents conducting immigration arrests.
In L.A. and D.C., local officials did not support the deployment of troops. California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit arguing the deployment was illegal. It is ongoing in federal court.
Military troops are barred from conducting domestic law enforcement activities based on an 1878 law known as the Posse Comitatus Act. However, troops have been used in recent years for crowd control during protests.
