‘We’re going in’: Trump confirms he will send National Guard to Chicago but won’t provide timing

President Donald Trump promised Tuesday he would deploy National Guard troops to prevent crime in Chicago but wouldn’t say when.

The action could coincide with an expected surge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting deportations.

“We’re going in. I didn’t say when we’re going in,” Trump said at a White House event, noting he was prompted by violence over the Labor Day holiday weekend in the city.

“I have an obligation. This isn’t a political thing. There’s no place in the world … you can go to Afghanistan, you can go to places that you would think of — they don’t even come close to this. Chicago is a hellhole.”

Gov. JB Pritzker called the National Guard threat an unconstitutional political stunt and power grab that doesn’t reflect declining crime rates.

“I refuse to believe any of this is normal,” he said at a briefing Tuesday joined by state and local leaders.

“He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole,” Pritzker said.

“We are ready to fight troop deployments in court.”

Pritzker said federal agents already are staging in the region and he expects operations similar to those seen in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

More than 50 shootings, at least eight of them fatal, occurred over the long weekend in Chicago, according to published reports. Those included a drive-by shooting that wounded seven people and one where a teenage girl was hit by a stray bullet, the Trump administration said.

“A lot of presidents wouldn’t do it,” Trump said. But after watching news of the violence, “I say, ‘that’s not this country. We have to do something.’”

Previously, Trump has blamed Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson for violence in the city.

“I’d love to have Gov. Pritzker call me … and say, ‘We do have a problem and we’d love you to send in the troops because the people have to be protected.’”

Pritzker retorted, “When did we become a country where it’s OK for the U.S. president to insist on national TV that a state should call him to beg for anything?

“What I want are the federal dollars that have been promised to Illinois and Chicago for violence prevention programs that have proven to work.”

“There is no emergency in Chicago that warrants federalizing the National Guard,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “In Cook County, we’ve seen a 35% drop in gun homicides from last year.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that ICE will have additional resources in the Chicago area.

“We will continue to go after the worst of the worst across the country,” she told “Face the Nation.”

Armed federal agents with military vehicles will be staged on federal property, including Naval Station Great Lakes, Pritzker noted.

Latino communities are expected to be raided by unidentified federal agents as will be Mexican Independence Day celebrations on Sept. 16, Pritzker said. He disputed claims that violent criminals are the target, “instead, you’re likely to see videos of them hauling away mothers and fathers.”

“We have reason to believe the White House will stage the Texas National Guard in Chicago,” he added.

Pritzker and Preckwinkle asked residents who protest to do so peacefully.

“For the people of Cook County, do not be intimidated,” Preckwinkle said. “Do not be silenced. No show of force is stronger than united communities that refuse to yield our rights.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the president should focus more on stopping guns from getting into Chicago from out of state.

“We don’t have an immigration crisis in Chicago. The violence in Chicago is not because we have too many immigrants. It’s because we have too many guns,” he said. “We need the federal government to stop the endless flow of guns into our state and into our city. Occupying our city will do nothing to stop this problem.”