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President Trump says he may send National Guard to New Orleans next instead of Chicago
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump suggested he may send National Guard troops next to New Orleans ‒ not Chicago, as he has repeatedly threatened ‒ as he looks to expand his crime crackdown to states where federal intervention is welcome.
One day after he declared, “We’re going in” about plans for Chicago, Trump on Sept. 3 said his administration still hadn’t decided whether it would deploy troops to the nation’s third-largest city. Trump instead pointed to New Orleans, a city in a Republican-led state, in contrast to Democratic-led Illinois.
“We’re making a determination now,” Trump said in the Oval Office to reporters. “Do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad?”
“So, we’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana,” Trump added.
More: Trump says federal troops are headed to Chicago. ‘We’re going in.’
Trump emphasized that he wants Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to request help from the Trump administration to combat Chicago’s crime. “We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us,” Trump said.
Pritzker, however, has resisted Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to Chicago, accusing the president of not being serious about fighting crime but rather “testing his power.”
“I want to go into Chicago, and I have this incompetent governor who doesn’t want us,” Trump said.
Trump is more than three weeks into his crime crackdown in Washington, DC, which has involved deploying more than 2,200 National Guard troops to patrol the streets. But unlike other American cities, DC’s status as a federal enclave gives Trump special authority to deploy National Guard troops to the nation’s capital, in contrast to governors traditionally overseeing mobilizations in their states.
More: ‘None of this is about fighting crime’: Illinois responds to Trump’s troop plans
President Donald Trump hosts Polish President Karol Nawrocki (L) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on September 3, 2025.
Louisiana governor welcomes National Guard to New Orleans
Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 11 directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “coordinate with state governors” to determine whether National Guard troops are needed in their communities.
While both Chicago and New Orleans have Democratic mayors ‒ Brandon Johnson and LaToya Cantrell, respectively ‒ Louisiana presents an opportunity for cooperation with the state’s governor, Republican Jeff Landry, while Chicago does not.
“We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” Landry said in a post on X shortly after Trump’s remarks.
Both Chicago and New Orleans have well-documented struggles with crime. New Orleans has the third-highest homicide rate in 2025, while Chicago ranks 10th, according to a list compiled from the nonprofit Freedom for All Americans based on local data. DC ranks 19th on the same list.
Mamie Francois (C), known as the “Queen of Bourbon Street”, dances with a reveler in the French Quarter on August 8, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
‘Waiting until we are asked,’ Trump says in shift of rhetoric
Trump has also discussed targeting Baltimore, Los Angeles, Oakland, California and New York City in future crackdowns. Yet the president, in his Sept. 3 remarks, signaled he may not deploy the National Guard to these cities unless he is asked.
“The politicians are not in tune with the people. The people in Chicago, the people in Baltimore, the people in all the places we talk about, they want to see us there,” Trump said, but added, “I think we are pretty much waiting until we are asked.”
His comments marked a shift in rhetoric from one day earlier, on Sept. 2, when Trump claimed that he planned to send troops into Chicago whether or not they asked for help. “If the governor of Illinois would call me up, I would love to do it,” Trump said 24 hours earlier. “Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country.”
More: Judge blocks Trump deployment of National Guard in California
A federal judge in California ruled on Sept. 2 that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops this year in Los Angeles in response to protests was illegal because it violated a federal law prohibiting the use of the military to enforce domestic laws.
However, the narrow ruling does not require Trump to withdraw the remaining 300 National Guard troops from Los Angeles, nor does it apply to other states.
Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cleveland are other cities that ‒ like New Orleans ‒ rank among the top 10 in homicide rates and are in states with Republican governors. Trump, however, has not cited them as potential targets.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican ally of Trump, told reporters last week he hadn’t planned to ask for federal troops for Memphis. “We have no plans to put the National Guard there now,” Lee said.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says he may send National Guard to New Orleans over Chicago