Editorial: No, President Trump, Chicagoans are not 'the enemy within'

Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Oct 2, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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We’ve heard the president of the United States denigrate and demean Chicago before.

What we haven’t seen until now is President Donald Trump appearing before a gathering of the nation’s military commanders — summoned to Quantico, Virginia, from all over the globe for what turned out to be a bizarre made-for-TV rally of sorts — and describing our fellow citizens as “the enemy within” and adding our city to his list of potential “training grounds” for troops who enlist to defend America from foreign adversaries.

Trump speaks illiberally as a matter of habit. It’s sad to say that many Americans, whether supporters or opponents, at this point are inured to the schoolyard taunts and cartoonish bravado from our nation’s commander in chief.

But context in this case makes all the difference. It made these words — as Chicago braces for an incursion of federal troops over the objections of Gov. JB Pritzker — disturbing.

“Last month I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances,” Trump told the top brass, who sat quietly for the hour and 15 minutes of the president’s rambling, divisive and highly partisan remarks. “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within. We have to handle it before it gets out of control.”

“We should use some of these cities as training grounds for some of our military,” Trump said. “National Guard, but military. Because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”

There are many things wrong — and honestly un-American — about Trump’s framing of Chicago and this city’s issues. Let’s start with this one.

People gathering and peacefully protesting this administration’s actions do not constitute “civil disturbances” needing to be “quelled.”

Pritzker on Monday warned the public that the Trump administration intends to dispatch 100 troops in response to protests outside the federal facility in Broadview that has been used to detain suspected undocumented immigrants as federal Border Patrol agents and others have surged into the area in recent weeks. It wasn’t clear from what the governor said — and he likely doesn’t know much more than we do at this point — whether the troops would be used exclusively at Broadview to enable the agents to do their jobs without interference or whether they’d patrol other parts of the city.

We will hope for a limited and well-defined mission if they come.

This much we can say: Trump’s bellicose words before an audience of generals who must follow his orders don’t give us comfort. Chicagoans have the constitutional right peacefully to protest their government and should feel safe when doing so without worrying about use of force by a National Guard member or any other member of the Armed Forces in need of “training.”

Which brings us to the second major issue with Trump’s remarks. Our city — or any other American city — should not be a “training ground” for troops ultimately enlisted to fight foreign adversaries. President Trump, Chicagoans are your fellow Americans.

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