Donald Trump threatened to send federal law enforcement to Chicago if the city doesn’t curb its violence.
"If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!" the president tweeted.
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
An article in the Chicago Tribune Monday detailed the city’s crime for 2017. Thus far, there have been 228 people shot in the Windy City—a 5.5 percent increase from the same period in 2016, and 42 homicides—a 24 percent increase from last year’s rate at this time. These figures were discussed in a segment on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," which is likely what inspired Trump's tweet.
One of the show's guests, Horace Cooper, an adjunct fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, said, "I don't know another word besides 'carnage' to describe the devastation that's been taking place."
Just over an hour later, at 9:25 p.m. ET, Trump took to Twitter using the same statistics Fox News had used and the same language as Cooper.
Trump was unclear as to which federal agents he was talking about.
In August, then-presidential candidate Trump said the city’s crime problem could be dealt with in a week’s time if police were “mugh tougher” than they are now.