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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday shot back at President Donald Trump’s potential plans to temporarily federalize the city, calling on citizens to “protect Chicago from Donald Trump.”
Johnson was responding to one of Trump’s Truth Social posts, which said he “loves the smell of deportations in the morning…” and “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
A photo accompanying Trump’s post showed him photoshopped into the city with fire and military helicopters overtaking the iconic Chicago skyline.
A pedestrian walks past security fencing around the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker warned residents that he expected federal immigration agents to step up activity in the third-largest US city this weekend. (Taylor Glascock/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“Chipocalypse Now” was also scribbled on the bottom left of the picture.
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson wrote in a response on X. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) and at least a dozen other organizations planned a rally for 5 p.m. Saturday in the Congress Plaza Garden, “in response to Trump’s threats to send federal troops into Chicago despite no requests from local or state leaders.”
“Trump’s threats are racist, and his claims that crime is out of control in Chicago are false,” CATA organizers wrote in a statement. “It is just a pretext to continue his white supremacist plans to let ICE loose in our cities, and detain and deport as many immigrants as he can.”
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Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, added that violent crime in Chicago reached its lowest point since 2019.
“The people of Chicago know Trump is a racist and a liar, and have shown militant opposition to his policies, manifested most recently in the Workers Over Billionaires protest on Labor Day, when 10,000 Chicagoans cheered as Mayor Johnson shouted, ‘No Federal Troops in the city of Chicago!’” Chapman wrote in the statement.
It is unclear why the organization decided to pick the 5 p.m. time frame, as opposed to a time when there is a larger time period of daylight.
President Donald Trump has previously hinted at sending National Guardsmen to the windy city.
The coalition also posted an “emergency protest plan,” noting that if federal troops are deployed before 3 p.m., they will march near Congress Plaza at 5 p.m. that same day.
If federal troops are deployed after 3 p.m., organizers said protesters will march at 5 p.m. the next day, according to the coalition’s website.
“Our Coalition is prepared to hit the streets as soon as federal troops are deployed in our city,” the coalition wrote on its site. “We need the broadest unity possible to fight back against Trump’s escalating attacks against working and oppressed people. THE PEOPLE, UNITED, WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!”
Antonio Cacho, who is originally from Mexico, thanks Gov. JB Pritzker for his work on Sept. 3, 2025, outside Jumping Bean Cafe in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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The conflict comes after Trump shared there would be a federal surge in the city, similar to the action in Washington, D.C., which could include National Guard troops and immigration authorities.
Democratic leaders, including Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have aggressively pushed back on the idea.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, told Fox News Channel’s “Fox Report” Sunday he thinks a federal surge would be “helpful.”
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“Even though we see our statistics are trending in the right direction, who would argue against making them trend even further, even lower, meaning less victims on the street,” Lopez said. “It’s absolutely asinine to me hear my Democratic colleagues say that we don’t want more help.”
CATA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Cameron Arcand contributed to this report.