‘Easier than DC’: Trump suggests national guard deployment in New Orleans; vows to fix city in two weeks

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of sending the National Guard to New Orleans, raising the prospect of expanding federal law enforcement operations to more US cities.

“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.” he said, as quoted by AP.

The president said New Orleans’ crime problem could be fixed quickly.

“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 DC”

City leaders, however, rejected the idea. “Crime is down in New Orleans,” City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, also a mayoral candidate, said via text. “That would seem to be very political or a major overreaction!”

Chicago, Baltimore also in Trump’s sights

Trump’s comments followed his earlier pledge, “We’re going in," about deploying the National Guard to Chicago and Baltimore. Local officials have firmly opposed the plan. Illinois governer JB Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, along with Maryland governer Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, all said their cities do not want federal intervention.

“We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago,” Trump said, as quoted by AP. “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 often points to Washington, DC, as proof of success, calling it a “safe zone” after deploying federal agents and troops. The White House says more than 1,760 arrests have been made since August 7.

But unlike DC, which is under federal authority, Trump’s plan to send forces into other Democratic-led cities would mark a major escalation. In Louisiana, the dynamic is different: New Orleans is controlled by Democrats, but the state is run by Republican governer Jeff Landry, who backs Trump’s idea.

Washington mayor Muriel Bowser has said violent crime fell after Trump’s intervention, but argued the same results could have been achieved by adding more local police officers instead of deploying the National Guard.