Trump threatens Department of War invasion of Chicago in menacing post

President Donald Trump ramped up his threats to enact a federal takeover of Chicago, Illinois on Saturday after sharing an image on social media depicting an AI-generated version of himself standing in front the city’s skyline, with military helicopters flying overhead and flames burning in the background.

The image included the phrase ‘Chipocalypse Now,” a reference to the 1979 war film “Apocalypse Now,” and a quote that reads “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” another reference to one of the film’s most notable lines: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” another line plastered on the image reads.

Trump has ramped up threats to deploy federal officers to Chicago in recent weeks, having declared the city as the “worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far,” and that a federal takeover could “solve the crime problem fast.” The threats come in the wake of Trump’s ongoing takeover of Washington, D.C., which has seen thousands of federal officers and National Guard members, some armed with long rifles, patrolling the city’s streets.

Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has pushed back against Trump’s threats, labeling the president as a “wannabe dictator,” and pledging to oppose any deployment of federal officers to his state’s largest city.