Trump's Chicago Plans Appear to Be Far Along

On Friday, President Trump suggested he might soon deploy federal troops to Chicago, as he has in Washington, DC. Now the Washington Post reports that the plan for doing so is pretty far along:

• The newspaper says the Pentagon has been planning a military deployment to Chicago for weeks, one that could involve mobilizing a "few thousand" members of the National Guard and could take place as early as September.

• While the DC comparison is the most recent, the Post sees the move on par with Trump's move in June to deploy thousands of members of the California National Guard, along with hundreds of active-duty Marines, to the streets of Los Angeles. There, the troops helped quell protests of immigration raids. In the case of Chicago, Trump says the move would be to rein in gun violence and crime. "Chicago's a mess," he said Friday.
• Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, meanwhile, has pushed back against Trump's plans, reports the Hill. In a series of social media posts, Pritzker said the president "is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he's causing families." He called the president's plans "authoritarian overreach."