By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the National Guard to fight crime, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement.
Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month.
“So we’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”
Trump now frequently boasts about turning Washington into a “safe zone.” The White House reports more than 1,760 arrests citywide since the president first announced he was mobilizing federal forces on Aug. 7.
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But Washington is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to 30 days. The decision to use troops to attempt to quell crime in other Democratic-controlled cities around the country would represent an important escalation.
“So we’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks,” Trump said. “It’ll take us two weeks, easier than D.C.”
Trump’s latest comments came a day after he declared “We’re going in” and suggested that the National Guard might soon be headed for Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and Baltimore. That’s despite state and local officials, as well as many residents, both places staunchly opposing the idea.
But New Orleans is a predominately Democratic-leaning city in a red state run by Landry, a Republican — and reflection of Trump floating federal intervention along ideological lines.
“Crime is down in New Orleans,” City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also a mayoral candidate, said via text message. “That would seem to be very political or a major overreaction!”
Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said it is “ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it.”
“Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police,” Morrell said in a statement. “NOPD is doing a great job with the existing resources they have. Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Landry, though, posted on social media, “We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, whose district includes the conservative suburbs outside of New Orleans, praised Trump’s efforts in Washington.
“The citizens of New Orleans, and the millions of tourists who come here, deserve that same level of security,” Scalise wrote in a social media post. “We should all be in favor of increased safety for our citizens and lower crime.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that people “continue to die in New Orleans because ‘leaders’ refuse to accept the resources that are available to them.”
“If your gut reaction is to reject the President’s offer for assistance without condition, perhaps you’re the problem – not him,” Murill said.
The City of New Orleans struck a more conciliatory tone, staying in a statement, “our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events” and that local officials “remain committed to sustaining this momentum.” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted last month on federal fraud charges and is set to be arraigned in the coming weeks.
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly railed against Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not requesting that the National Guard be deployed.
“We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago. If we don’t have the support of some of these politicians, but I’ll tell you who is supporting us, the people of Chicago,” Trump said Wednesday.
Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been adamant in saying Chicago doesn’t need or want military intervention. In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have remained similarly opposed.
In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser has said Trump’s decision to take over her city’s police force and flood streets with hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops has succeeded in reducing violent crime — but she’s also argued that similar results could have been achieved simply by having more city police officers in service.
She said Wednesday that Trump’s law enforcement powers in the city don’t need to be extended beyond 30 days, saying, “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”
Associated Press writer Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.
