A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is dialing back his threats against Chicago after an explosive post on social media over the weekend that many interpreted as a plan to wage war on the city.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The president has vowed to step up immigration raids and send the National Guard to a number of American cities led by Democrats.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf is in Chicago. Kat, you've been there for the past few days. What happened over the weekend?
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Yeah. So on Saturday, Trump posted this pretty remarkable meme on social media you just referred to. It's an AI image of him as a character from the 1979 Vietnam War film "Apocalypse Now," and it shows Chicago burning with helicopters flying overhead. And it says, Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of War. He's referring there to his rebranding of the Department of Defense last week. And that got a lot of attention, especially from elected officials here. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker responded by posting, quote, "the president of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal." But then on Sunday, Trump was asked by a reporter if he was threatening war with Chicago. And here's how he responded.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're not going to war. We're going to clean up our cities. We're going to clean them up so they don't kill five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense.
LONSDORF: Data shows that violent crime is down in Chicago in recent years, but Trump maintains that the National Guard would be sent here and to other cities to fight crime. He's also threatened to step up immigration arrests and deportations.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so that's the view from D.C. How are people feeling in Chicago?
LONSDORF: People are still going about their daily lives, but it is tense. On Saturday, there was a big protest downtown with marchers taking up whole streets for blocks. I talked to people there, and they told me that they were really worried about American democracy, especially after they've seen Trump deploy National Guard troops in both LA and D.C. in recent months. On the immigration side of things, people are genuinely scared. I went to Pilsen. It's a neighborhood where many people with Mexican roots live on the West Side. I talked to 27-year-old Andrea Soria (ph) there. She teared up a bit, telling me about several undocumented members of her family who haven't left their houses this week.
ANDREA SORIA: For them to not be able to go out. And all this week, they've been relying on myself, you know, go get groceries. Go check on this.
LONSDORF: And she said it's been really stressful.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Trump has said he will send the National Guard, Kat. He just hasn't said when or where.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: Wasn't there a ruling last week, if I remember right, saying that Trump's deployment of troops to Los Angeles this summer was illegal?
LONSDORF: Yeah, you're right. That judge found that Trump's use of the National Guard violated a law that limits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. But that ruling, which the Trump administration has appealed, only applies in California. In D.C., where the National Guard has been deployed for about a month, Trump has the authority to do so because of how enmeshed the federal government is with D.C. In most cases, governors deploy their state National Guards. Many experts say that what we're seeing here, with it being potentially forced on states, is uncharted territory.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So what are you going to be watching for in the coming days?
LONSDORF: Well, we still really don't know what Trump's going to do. Remember, Trump has threatened multiple cities. Yesterday evening, he left things open, saying he would make a decision about where to send federal troops and agents, quote, "over the next day or two." When asked specifically if he has plans for Chicago this week, he said, no, not really.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Chicago. Kat, thanks a lot.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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