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Year: 2025

Trump’s week shaped by crime agenda, potential guard deployment to Chicago

Trump’s week shaped by crime agenda, potential guard deployment to Chicago

More details of President Donald Trump’s potential deployment of additional National Guard troops to Chicago could come into focus this week.  The move comes as the Trump administration doubles down on its tough-on-crime agenda, seeking a larger federal footprint in Democrat-led cities, drawing pushback from local leaders who contend the move is political. TRUMP VOWS TO MAKE DC ‘SAFER’ AND ‘BEAUTIFUL’ AS CAPITAL BATTLES CRIME AND HOMELESSNESS On Friday, Trump said he would address crime in other major U.S. cities, describing D.C. as a “hellhole” before federal law enforcement and more than 2,200 National Guard members were mobilized to patrol the city’s streets. “Now it’s safe,” the president said a day after visiting with deployed troops in the capital. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week that more than 700 arrests have been made in D.C. since Aug. 11. Trump said he would expand security efforts to other major U.S. cities across the country, singling out Chicago but offering few specifics. “Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent,” Trump said on Friday, adding that the Windy City will “be our next one after this,” a reference to the current security presence in Washington. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said in a statement on Friday that his city has yet to receive details about additional federal law enforcement or military deployments to Chicago. He called the Trump administration’s efforts “uncoordinated, uncalled-for and unsound.” CHICAGO MAYOR SLAMS TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT PLAN Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement Saturday that he has also not heard from the federal government and noted that his state has not requested security assistance. Chicago, home to about 2.7 million people, has topped the nation in homicides for 13 straight years, logging 573 in 2024 alone, according to the city’s own figures. It is not immediately clear what the size and scope of the potential deployment in Chicago will be, or when it might begin. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to send the National Guard to Baltimore following an invitation from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to attend a public safety walk and learn about the security needs. “As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this crime disaster before I go there for a walk,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. He added that he could deploy National Guard members to Maryland in order to “quickly clean up the crime.” The president added that he did not appreciate the tone of Moore’s Aug. 21 invitation. TRUMP SAYS HE COULD SEND THE NATIONAL GUARD TO MARYLAND TO ADDRESS CRIME Earlier this month, the Trump administration rolled out plans to curb crime and the growing homeless population in the nation’s capital.  “The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the crime numbers get worse, and the city only gets dirtier and less attractive. The American public is not going to put up with it any longer,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Aug. 10. Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post that he wants the homeless to “immediately” move “far from” the nation’s capital. “The criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong,” he wrote in the same post, adding that the new crackdowns on both issues are “going to happen very fast.” “There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK,” Trump wrote, adding that more details on these efforts will be laid out during a press conference on Monday. 

Scoop: ‘Make America Fentanyl Free’ campaign launches to help Trump lower overdose deaths

Scoop: ‘Make America Fentanyl Free’ campaign launches to help Trump lower overdose deaths

FIRST ON FOX: A new campaign launched on Monday to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s pledge to reduce fentanyl overdose deaths, which are one of the nation’s deadliest public health crises. The campaign, titled Make America Fentanyl Free, is described as a privately-funded multi-million-dollar ad blitz on national and local television, and across all major social media platforms, including X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook. The effort, which was first shared with Fox News Digital on Monday, aims to reduce the number of Americans killed by fentanyl, a highly potent and extremely dangerous synthetic opioid. Fentanyl and fentanyl-related drugs have been responsible for most drug overdose deaths in the U.S. for nearly a decade. “The Make America Fentanyl Free ad campaign was launched to support President Trump’s efforts to save American lives from deadly fentanyl, which continues to be a leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45,” organizers said in a statement. DRUG DEADLIER THAN FENTANYL SPREADS ACROSS THE AMERICAS Organizers emphasized that the mission of the campaign, which is also online at MakeAmericaFentanylFree.com, is to inform Americans about the devastating effects of fentanyl, and pointed out that “ingesting as little as three grains of fentanyl can be lethal within minutes.” The campaign is also intended to educate the public about the hidden dangers of fentanyl, which is frequently disguised in other substances, such as cocaine and marijuana.  TRUMP SIGNED FENTANYL LAW WILL END ‘CAT AND MOUSE’ WITH TRAFFICKERS “Make America Fentanyl Free is working with President Trump to aggressively make sure every American understands the danger of fentanyl,” the narrator in the ad says. The effort also intends to “send a strong unequivocal message to Mexican drug cartels that actions leading to American deaths or harm will result in serious consequences.” The Trump administration says it has lowered fentanyl deaths in the U.S. by beefing up security along the nation’s borders, emphasizing law enforcement, and raising tariffs against China and Mexico to keep fentanyl and other lethal drugs out of the country. Organizers touted that “on day one in office, President Trump shut down the dangerous, open border and stemmed the flow of deadly fentanyl through our country. As a result, fentanyl traffic at the border fell by 54% in the first months of the Trump Administration. FATHER WHOSE SON DIED FROM FENTANYL WARNS ‘OVERDOSES CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE’ But organizers said their effort is needed to “continue eradicating deadly fentanyl from our communities.” Trump last month signed into law a bill permanently placing street versions of fentanyl on the list of controlled substances, which should make it easier to prosecute fentanyl traffickers and put them behind bars. But the Trump administration has also been criticized when it comes to battling fentanyl deaths, for seeking major cuts to domestic programs that work to reduce drug demand. And Democrats in California, taking aim at what they call Trump’s “unlawful deployment of military personnel to Los Angeles,” say the effort has slashed the California’s National Guard’s fentanyl and drug interdiction force by 32%, “directly harming California’s ability to fight the flow of illegal drugs into our communities.” Organizers of the new effort highlight that Make America Fentanyl Free is a privately funded campaign “launched without taxpayer dollars.” Some of the major contributions to fund the campaign have come from a number of the president’s major donors and allies, according to sources in Trump’s political orbit.