After President Donald Trump announced on August 11 that he is deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and suggested he would do it in other major U.S. cities too, many in right-wing media celebrated the announcement, claiming D.C. should be a “test case” and arguing that “we need full military occupation” of other “problematic cities” like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Research/Study
Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC
TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk: “We got a big military. We should be willing to use it.”
Written by Gideon Taaffe & Chloe Simon
Published
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Trump deployed the National Guard to DC and has suggested doing it in other cities
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- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety and endangers law-abiding Americans.” The New York Times reported, “Officials have said that 800 National Guard members and roughly 500 federal law enforcement agents were also being deployed to city streets to help curb crime.” [The New York Times, 8/12/25]
- D.C. is experiencing declining crime rates, especially murder. Crime data analyst Jeff Asher noted, “The bottom line is that violent crime in DC is currently declining and the city’s reported violent crime rate is more or less as low now as it has been since the 1960s.” Asher also noted that D.C.’s murder rate “has consistently fallen since peaking in late 2023 and is tracking the city’s pre-COVID trend so far in 2025.” [Substack, Jeff-alytics, 8/11/25]
- Trump suggested the National Guard may be deployed to New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California. At an August 11 press conference, Trump claimed, “We're not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We're starting very strongly with D.C., and we're going to clean it up real quick.” As USA Today noted, “Each of the cities that Trump mentioned are led by Democratic mayors in states with Democratic governors.” [USA Today, 8/11/25]
- Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles to crack down on anti-ICE demonstrations earlier this year. The president ordered 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in a move that is still being challenged in court. Currently, 250 National Guard troops remain deployed in Los Angeles. [NBC News, 8/11/25]
- Time magazine: “In other cities, the President cannot unilaterally commandeer police departments or deploy federal troops for ordinary law enforcement without state approval or a declared federal emergency.” Meryl Chertoff, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, told Time: “When the President basically says ‘I govern all of it,’ the Constitution requires that there be some justification for that. And this notion that everything becomes an emergency is often used as a way of bypassing what would ordinarily be state autonomy.” [Time magazine, 8/12/25]
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Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy the National Guard to other cities
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- Newsmax host Ed Henry speculated that following the district, Trump will target more “blue cities” like Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco, and New York City. Henry claimed, “Mark my words, the president is only using D.C. as the opening salvo. I bet he's coming for LA and Detroit, San Fran, New York, especially with a socialist likely to be that city's next mayor.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 8/12/25]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called to deploy the military against Americans: “Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco. We got a big military. We should be willing to use it.” Kirk said, “We need full military occupation of these cities until the crime desists. Period.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/11/25]
- On Fox’s The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld reacted to the deployment of the National Guard in D.C., saying, “If it works there, think about all the other cities — Chicago, Baltimore, D.C. — all of a sudden you could see a change.” He claimed, “I think that what is scary to the Dems is not the military. It's the fact that they know this is going to work, and that it's already working. Just like deportation. What are they going to do?” [Fox News, The Five, 8/12/25]
- On The Sean Hannity Show, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett advocated for Trump deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles and New York City. Jarrett claimed the “9th Circuit Court of Appeals already ruled he had the authority to federalize California's National Guard troops in LA. He could do the same thing in New York, in Chicago. He can do it in Washington, D.C.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/12/25]
- Right-wing streamer Zack Hoyt, known online as Asmongold, claimed that “if he is able to take over Washington, D.C.,” Trump “will have the political capital to do that in New York or to do that in Chicago.” Hoyt reacted to a comment calling Trump’s actions in the district a “template,” saying, “Yeah. Exactly. It's a test.” [YouTube, AsmongoldTV, 8/12/25]
- Podcaster Megyn Kelly advocated for Trump to bring the National Guard into other cities to “start clearing out the homeless” and “bring back institutionalization” so U.S. cities can become “something we actually could be proud of again.” Kelly said: “Trump is like the first president in my lifetime who's like, eh, maybe I'm going to get involved. I actually might get involved. There might be something I can do. That's going to be harder outside of Washington, which has a specific law that allows the president to do this. And New York and Chicago and Oakland, they don't have that law. But Trump doesn't seem bothered by that. He was intimating, ‘either you do it or you're going to hear from me in those cities.’ And I have to say, like, what if he did? Imagine if we actually did deploy federal troops, many of whom we apparently are able to spare, to go in there, start clearing out the homeless — yes, bring back institutionalization for the ones who are deeply deranged, … I mean, he's talking about just urban decay, that's part of it, and turn our greatest cities around to something we actually could be proud of again.” [SirusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 8/12/25]
- One day before, Kelly claimed, “The South Side of Chicago needs martial law for God's sake. … Honestly, if the races were reversed, this already would have happened.” Her guest, Article III Project President Mike Davis, argued a pathway for Trump to deploy the National Guard in other cities, saying, “He has less power there than he does in Washington, D.C., but there are still federal laws that the the Justice Department can use to prosecute crimes in those cities.” [SirusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 8/11/25]
- On Fox News, OutKick's Clay Travis declared that Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., should be a “test case for whether we can go into other cities.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/12/25]
- Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) if he would support the National Guard being deployed to “other problematic cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and, let's say, Seattle and Portland and New York?” Kennedy agreed, saying, “We would have to be invited into other cities but if it works, and it will, I would think other cities would welcome the additional help.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/12/25]
- Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt claimed she would “feel safer” if Trump sent the National Guard to where there “is a lot of crime” such as Time Square in New York City. Earhardt: “I think it's great. I wouldn't mind seeing the National Guard, especially if it's in areas where there is a lot of crime. I mean, think about Times Square. There is a lot of crime there. We cover a lot of stories there. If they had National Guard troops in Times Square, it would make me feel safer.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/14/25]
- On Jesse Watters Primetime, guest host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed, “It's time for the rest of the country to follow his law and order example. If not, voters might start demanding Trump come to their city.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/13/25]