President Donald Trump has publicly said he intends to deploy the Guard to “clean up” the city, though his rhetoric has softened to imply he's waiting for a formal request—one that hasn’t been made by Democrats who say they don't want his help.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office reports there’s been no direct communication or coordination from the White House on troop deployment.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform Saturday, used a parody meme referencing the 1979 film "Apocalypse Now" to threaten deportations and the use of the Department of War to combat crime in the city of Chicago.
Art in the meme included the text, “Chipocalypse Now.”
Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have said a Guard presence to fight crime is unnecessary in the nation’s third-largest city.
Trump’s use of National Guard troops in Los Angeles to quell riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and his threats to use troops to combat crime in not only Chicago but other cities as well, has sparked debate over the proper use of the military.
“I understand the president’s dilemma but it’s problematic at a number of levels,” Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent and security executive, said on Washington Watch Monday.
The problem, Miller advises, is training.
The difference in troops, police
Guard troops are obviously capable of assisting in the fight against crime. The lower rates since their deployment in Washington, D.C., an area in which their use by the president is far less murky constitutionally, speak for themselves.
But there are a lot of overlooked layers to engagement with the public, Miller, who has also served as a police officer, told show host Tony Perkins.
“I've been a police officer, I've been a Secret Service agent, and all of those law enforcement functions involve intensive training for how to protect citizens' rights, while at the same time exacting justice and keeping the order,” Miller said.
In most states National Guard troops may cover weapons, fitness and combat drills, military discipline and first aid/trauma in 10 weeks of basic training.
There may be additional training depending on a soldier’s specialty.
Police officer training will typically cover criminal and constitutional law, community policing geared toward de-escalation and crisis intervention, emergency driving, cultural awareness, ethics and mental health response.
“Having worked with the National Guard units, I think they're great people, they come in during emergencies, but they're simply not trained or equipped to understand the protection of civil liberties while also enforcing law enforcement,” Miller said.
Chicago had 617 recorded homicides in 2023. When there were 573 recorded in 2024 it marked the first time in five years the figure had dropped below 600 for a year.
The downward trend is continuing.
Chicago saw fewer homicides during the 12 months through June 2025 than during any period in the past decade.
Chicagoans reported 498 homicides between July 2024 and June 2025, 120 fewer than during any 12-month period back to June 2016, analysis of police data showed, according to Illinois Policy.
But while the number of reporter murders are declining, so are arrests by law enforcement.
Arrests were down from 42% to 27% for the period of June 2024 to June 2025, the group found.
Trump has also mentioned Baltimore and New Orleans as cities where Guard troops could be deployed to fight crime.
The recent vicious murder of a Ukrainian immigrant woman riding a city bus in Charlotte, North Carolina highlights the crime problem in many U.S. cities.
“We have crime, violent crimes, as we saw in Charlotte, overtaking many areas of our country. The police, at the same time because of the radical defund the police movement … they're largely understaffed, and so they're quickly overwhelmed. Then we have judicial processes that don't prosecute criminals once we do catch them,” Miller said.
Rebuilding relationships with law enforcement
The problem is the inevitable trade, Miller says.
Urban Americans may enjoy cleaner, safer city streets, but are they willing to embrace a heavy-handed presence with clusters of troops in camouflage dress carrying machine guns?
Retaining security without the use of National Guard troops requires rebuilding the relationship between local law enforcement and their communities, Miller said.
“If you think about some of the liberal policies we've all had to endure, policies that attack police officers, that actually ridicule openly the ICE agents to where their families are at risk … we are going to a critical point where law enforcement officers are walking away from the profession. That is a scary place to be.
“We have to begin to restore the fundamental value of law enforcement, actually support them in the court systems, quit making them the enemy, as many have done, and get back to where we need to be,” Miller said.
