The Pentagon is preparing to send National Guard troops to Chicago

The Trump administration has been quietly preparing to send National Guard troops to Chicago as part of a broader push on crime and immigration enforcement, according to several U.S. media outlets.

The Pentagon has been drawing up contingency plans that could see thousands of Guard members mobilized to the country’s third-largest city as early as September, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed officials familiar with the discussions.

Asked about the reports, the Pentagon declined to provide confirmation. “We won’t speculate on potential future operations,” a defense official said, stressing that the department is constantly coordinating with other agencies on strategies to protect federal personnel and property.

The news follows President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this month to deploy Guard troops to Washington, D.C., where another defense official said personnel would soon be armed. Trump hinted that Chicago and New York would be next.

“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Chicago will be the next, and then we’ll move to New York.”

A Chicago deployment would mirror the administration’s controversial June action in Los Angeles, when 4,000 National Guard members and 700 active-duty Marines were dispatched despite pushback from state officials, according to CNN. It would also tie into a wider crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, quickly voiced their opposition. Pritzker accused Trump and Republicans of using “law and order” as political cover, writing on X that “nothing could be further from the truth.” In remarks to WBEZ Chicago, he added: “Public safety is under attack by the Trump administration.”