White House border czar Tom Homan defended President Donald Trump’s plans to send the National Guard to Chicago, insisting the move is not an attack on the city itself but part of a broader fight against drug cartels and sanctuary city policies.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Homan said that action against sanctuary cities is a top priority for the administration, arguing that these jurisdictions “knowingly release illegal alien public safety threats to the streets every day.”
Homan suggested that a new phase of the White House’s crime crackdown could be unveiled as soon as next week, and that Chicago is high on the list of cities under consideration. Trump has already dispatched the National Guard to Washington, D.C., while asserting control over the city’s police department in August, despite opposition from residents. He later boasted that the capital had become “a crime-free zone” and pointed to other major cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, and Baltimore as potential targets for similar federal interventions.
“They’re a force multiplier,” Homan said of the Guard, stressing that presidents from both parties have relied on military support for law enforcement since the 1980s. He framed the deployment as a necessary tool to combat criminal networks and maintain public safety.
Tensions escalated further when Trump shared an image of himself on Truth Social styled as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore from the film Apocalypse Now, a move that drew criticism for its provocative symbolism as the administration weighs sending troops into America’s major cities.
