President Donald Trump held two marathon press sessions where he repeatedly raised using the military to police U.S. cities and defended himself against accusations of being a dictator. Trump claimed Chicago deserved federal intervention, called it a "killing field," and signed an order creating National Guard specialized units that could be trained in police work. Critics labeled the plan a takeover and said it relied on exaggerated crime claims. CNN anchor Abby Phillip and others expressed shock at Trump's comments, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker criticized the move as politically motivated rather than crime-focused.
The takeover scheme has also prompted increased chatter that Trump is a dictator, a criticism that Trump addressed head-on at one point during his flag-burning executive order photo op: And they say, we don't need him, freedom, freedom, he's a dictator, he's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and I'm a smart person.
PHILLIP: Chicago is a city that's seen a significant drop in crime over the last year, including homicides, which are at their lowest levels in nearly a decade. But the facts don't matter to Trump, who today gave himself more power to expand his law enforcement crackdown, by signing an order that creates so-called specialized units within the National Guard that could be trained in police work.
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