Trump threatens Chicago with apocalyptic force and Pritzker calls him a
'wannabe dictator'
[September 08, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday amplified his
promises to send National Guard troops and immigration agents to Chicago
by posting a parody image from “Apocalypse Now” featuring a ball of
flames as helicopters zoom over the nation's third-largest city.
“'I love the smell of deportations in the morning,'” Trump wrote on his
social media site. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the
Department of WAR.”
The president offered no details beyond the label “Chipocalypse Now,” a
play on the title of Francis Ford Coppola's dystopian 1979 film set in
the Vietnam war, in which a character says: “I love the smell of napalm
in the morning.”
In response to the post, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, called
Trump a “wannabe dictator.”
Trump on Friday signed an executive order seeking to rename the Defense
Department the Department of War, after months of campaigning to be
considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. The renaming requires
congressional approval.
The illustration in Trump's post shows him against a backdrop of the
Chicago skyline, wearing a hat matching that of the movie's war-loving
and amoral Lt. Col. Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall.
Trump's weekend post follows his repeated threats to add Chicago to the
list of other Democratic-led cities he's targeted for expanded federal
enforcement. His administration is set to step up immigration
enforcement in Chicago, as it did in Los Angeles, and deploy National
Guard troops.
In addition to sending troops to Los Angeles in June, Trump has deployed
them since last month in Washington, as part of his unprecedented law
enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital.
He's also suggested that Baltimore and New Orleans could get the same
treatment, and on Friday even mentioned federal authorities possibly
heading for Portland, Oregon, to “wipe ’em out,” meaning protesters. He
could have been mistakenly describing video from demonstrations in that
city years ago.
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Participants wave flags during the 2025 Pilsen Mexican Independence
Day parade Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn
Kaster)
Details about Trump's promised Chicago operation have been sparse,
but there's already widespread opposition. City and state leaders
have said they plan to sue the Trump administration. Pritzker, a
possible 2028 presidential candidate, is also fiercely opposed to
it.
The president “is threatening to go to war with an American city,”
Pritzker wrote on X over an image of Trump’s post. “This is not a
joke. This is not normal.”
He added: “Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man.
Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
Trump has suggested that he has nearly limitless powers when it
comes to deploying the National Guard. At times he's even touched on
questions about his being a dictator.
“Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops
crime, he can be whatever he wants’ — I am not a dictator, by the
way,” Trump said last month. He added, “Not that I don’t have — I
would — the right to do anything I want to do."
“I’m the president of the United States," Trump said then. “If I
think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities
— I can do it.”
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