"We're going in": Trump announces troops will be sent to "hellhole" Chicago

US President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he will deploy troops to Chicago, which he called a crime-ridden "hellhole," though he would not say when he planned to launch his latest crackdown on a US city.

"We're going in," the US president told reporters at the White House, citing weekend shooting fatalities in Chicago and touting deployments of the reservist National Guard to both Los Angeles and the capital Washington in recent months as successfully reducing crime in those Democrat-run cities.

Trump described Chicago as the “most dangerous city in the world” in a post on his Truth Social account earlier. 

Earlier, Trump stated that the capital, Washington, D.C., is currently “safe” following the deployment of National Guard troops, highlighting his administration’s continued use of federal forces to manage security in key cities.

The escalation comes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Chicago will soon expand, signaling a stepped-up presence of federal agents in the nation’s third-largest city. Noem, speaking to CBS News’ Face the Nation, declined to provide details on the timing or scope of the deployment.

The move follows previous deployments of federal agents and National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June, and earlier to Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration has increasingly relied on federal law enforcement to supplement local authorities.

Meanwhile, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, has criticized Trump’s plans, portraying the president’s actions as a threat to democratic norms and raising concerns over federal intervention in city policing. The political debate is expected to intensify as Trump prepares for the upcoming election cycle.