Chicago needs many things. A National Guard deployment isn't one of them.

The "What about Chicago?" crowd has been stirred by the president's ongoing fixation with a city he enjoys irritating.

By Carron J. Phillips

CHICAGO—During the summer of 2020, back when America was on fire—because of the nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd—and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was being championed, I had a nonverbal conversation with a member of the military that I’ll never forget.

As I was getting into my car after coming out of the Walgreens on the corner of West Roosevelt and South Canal, I made eye contact with the serviceman who was sitting in the “driver’s seat” of a tank in the parking lot.

The look on my face read, “Dude. Really?”

The look on his face replied, “I know this is stupid. I just follow orders.”

I’m hoping that scene won’t replay itself when I revisit the pharmacy next month.

“I think Chicago will be our next,” President Donald Trump recently told reporters at the White House, as he described this city as a “mess,” proclaiming that residents here are “screaming for [them] to come.”

Nobody here is saying that. And those who do want it are smart enough to keep it to themselves.

Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor are in a war of words with Trump over what he legally can and can’t do. It feels as if those in charge of this city and state must have forgotten that they’re dealing with a person who believes the rules don’t apply to him.

However, Gov. JB Pritzker is trying to change that. He recently hosted Texas lawmakers who were protesting partisan gerrymandering in the state earlier this month, and this week he drew a line in the sand in defense of Chicago and Illinois.

“If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me—not time or political circumstance—from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law,” he said, referring to Trump as an “arrogant little man.” As a billionaire who comes from privilege, Pritzker is a worthy foe. He also has the benefit of having “f*k you money”— and Trump knows it.

It’s no surprise that Trump has turned his eye to Chicago. The city has always been in the crosshairs of a particular crowd. It’s a place that’s often discussed with coded language, and the dog whistling is never subtle.

“Whenever certain issues—gun control laws, racism, policing—arise, a certain group of pundits suddenly becomes very interested in Chicago,” Mikki Kendall wrote for The Washington Post in 2018.

“Of course, no one whistling ‘what about Chicago?’ has any desire to resolve the problems in Chicago. If this were about Chicago, they’d be talking about the perils of low investment in communities, the shuttering of mental health facilities, school closures, police corruption or ineffective policing. There would be a push to bring back programs that were cut during the Illinois budget crisis,” she added.

“ ‘What about Chicago’ is a convenient deflection, and nothing more ever seems to come of it.”

In 2019, during Trump’s first visit to Chicago as president, he complained about the city’s stance on immigrants and claimed the city was world-renowned for its violence. “It’s embarrassing to us as a nation,” he said. “All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago.”

If things were so bad in Chicago, then how come Trump spent almost a billion dollars building the Trump International Hotel and Tower downtown on North Wabash?

Or is it just that the president understands that it’s easy to play the race card in this city?

At the National Association of Black Journalists' 2024 convention in Chicago, he disingenuously questioned the racial identity of the first Black woman to win her party’s nomination for president. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said about then-Vice President Kamala Harris. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"

Trump and the “what about Chicago?” crowd have been the ones to make everything about race, not Black folks. It’s a notion that needs to be discussed, given who runs and lives in the cities he’s trying to take over and those he has hinted at looking to next.

The president has made clear that any place he views as a “Black city” with Black leadership needs to be “properly governed” or whitewashed. It isn’t just a slap in the face to Black Americans; it’s an insult to all the residents who have chosen to live in these cities and voted for these legislators.

Chicago, in particular, is a target because of its long history of Black progressiveness, largely because it was a popular landing spot during the Great Migration. This was the home of Fred Hampton, an American activist and revolutionary icon. This is the place where EBONY and JET magazines were created. This is where Harold Washington became Chicago’s first Black mayor, inspiring people of color across the country to get involved in politics. And this city was founded by a Black man, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable – a Haitian entrepreneur and trader.

Like most major cities, Chicago has its good and bad. Neither the color of the residents nor the hue of the state on an electoral map has the power to make it a utopian society. But, given that elections have consequences, a madman in the Oval Office has taken it upon himself to be the arbitrator of what a place like Chicago should look like and how it should be operated.

When the news broke that Chicago was on the list for a probable federal takeover, I was on a boat in the Playpen on Lake Michigan with some friends who had taken the day to relax and unwind. As word spread and people started checking their phones, the mood changed. In a city that features one of the best skylines you’ll ever see — especially from the water—a group of people who live in one of this country’s largest metropolises had their fun put on hold.

Why?

Because a man with seemingly unchecked power hopes to control every aspect of the American experience — from how people live in cities to who’s considered “American.” When that’s the case, where you reside isn’t just a place to call home, it’s indicative of how the leader of the free world views your worth and humanity—making it an act of patriotism.

“(Chicago) Perhaps the most typically American place in America.”—James Bryce, 1888.

Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University.

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