President Donald Trump said Friday that he will deploy the National Guard to New Orleans, escalating his federal crime crackdown to one of America’s most violence-plagued cities and vowing to restore order where local leadership has failed.
“We’re going to come into New Orleans, and we’re going to make that place so safe,” Trump declared during a Rose Garden event at the White House. Calling the city’s murder problem “a couple of headaches,” he said, “We’re not going to stand for it. And we’re going to come in, we’re going to clean it up.”
The announcement followed days of speculation after Trump signaled that New Orleans could be the next target of his law-and-order push. Earlier in the week, the president said he was weighing whether to send troops to Chicago or to Louisiana’s largest city.
“We’re making a determination now — do we go to Chicago, or 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 tough, quite bad,” Trump said Wednesday.
The choice highlights a political divide in how America’s cities have responded to Trump’s crackdown. Illinois Democrats have openly resisted federal help, with Gov. JB Pritzker warning Trump not to intervene in Chicago and calling the idea “an insult.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has gone further, rolling out a “Protecting Chicago Initiative” meant to shield residents from what he casts as federal overreach.
In Louisiana, however, Trump found an ally. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has been outspoken about the state’s violent crime problem and has placed blame squarely on progressive policies. The partnership gives Trump an opening to federalize law enforcement in New Orleans despite opposition from the city’s Democratic mayor.
In his Rose Garden remarks, Trump pledged rapid results. He promised New Orleans would be “safe” within two weeks of the Guard’s arrival, citing what he described as a dramatic turnaround in Washington, D.C., where he launched his first federal crime initiative early last month.
“That’s going to be the safest place, just like this is the safest place,” Trump said of New Orleans, before broadening his promise nationwide. “And then we’ll be going elsewhere throughout the country, we’re going to bring crime down, because we can’t have cities that are unsafe.”
The move underscores Trump’s strategy of directly confronting violent crime where he believes local governments are unwilling or unable to do so. His tough-on-crime message has long resonated with conservatives frustrated by rising violence in Democrat-led cities.
Now, with backing from leaders like Landry, Trump is pressing his federal authority to intervene in cities that have struggled for years to control violent crime.
Whether New Orleans will see the same immediate drop in crime that Trump claims for Washington remains to be seen. But his bet is clear: that an assertive federal presence, rather than progressive policies, is the fastest path to making America’s streets safe again.
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