Dive Brief:
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday pivoted from his threats to send National Guard and military troops to Chicago and Baltimore, saying he is considering sending the National Guard to fight crime in New Orleans instead.
- “We’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters. “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.”
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New Orleans City Council members spoke out against the deployment, while the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department issued a more neutral statement that didn’t directly address it.
Dive Insight:
A U.S. District Judge ruled Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of federalized California National Guard troops and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles violated federal law and commanded the Trump administration to halt deployments to other cities.
Yesterday, Trump appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Immediately following the ruling on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a request for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration’s order to extend the National Guard’s deployment in Los Angeles through Election Day.
Trump said Tuesday afternoon that he was sending troops to Chicago despite strong opposition from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. On Wednesday, he backed away from that threat, suggesting he wouldn’t go in without an invitation from Pritzker. “We could straighten out Chicago — all they have to do is ask us,” he told reporters.
Landry said on X that he would welcome Trump’s help in fighting crime “from New Orleans to Shreveport.”
New Orleans City Council Member Lesli Harris said in a statement that the city is “moving in the right direction” toward reducing crime “because of smart local investments and leadership that understands New Orleans.”
“Sending troops into Black and Brown cities is not a solution — it’s a political stunt,” she said.
Citing an “unprecedented reduction in crime and violence in New Orleans,” City Council Member Helena Moreno said she would “fight to prevent any federal takeover of New Orleans.”
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell did not make a statement about federal troop deployment to New Orleans. On July 15, she posted on X that New Orleans was seeing “historic declines in crime,” with murders down 34% and violent crime down 20%.
The City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department issued a joint statement Wednesday that did not address deployment of federal troops to the city. The statement thanked the federal government for its support, including a Special Event Assessment Rating for this year’s Mardi Gras following a New Year’s Day terror attack in the city.
“We have consistently worked with our federal partners, including collaboration with the Louisiana State Police,” the statement said. “This collaborative approach has been instrumental in reducing crime.”
On Aug, 15, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Cantrell and former New Orleans Police Department Officer Jeffrey Paul Vappie on charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice, accusing them of defrauding the city and the police department by paying Vappie’s salary and expenses when he was engaged in personal activities.
