President Trump again singled out Chicago while announcing that he is deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C. alongside a federal takeover of policing there.
Trump announced these moves Monday at a news conference, saying it’s part of a push to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital even though data from the Justice Department shows violent crime in the city is at its lowest levels in more than 30 years.
DC Mayor Bowser called Trump’s police takeover “unsettling and unprecedented’ but says city isn’t “totally surprised”; this all began after a staffer in the DOGE office at the White House was injured in an attempted carjacking.Â
But while speaking to the media, the president turned his attention to Chicago, crime and cash bail.
“Every place in the country you have no cash bail is a disaster,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s what started it in New York and they won’t change it, they don’t want to change it. That’s what started it in Chicago.”
He blamed “bad” politicians, but continued, “That’s where it started, no cash bail. I mean, somebody murders somebody and they’re out on no cash bail before the day is out.”
Mr. Trump then vowed that he would “end that in Chicago.”
“We’re going to change the statute,” he said. “I spoke with Pam and Todd, everybody, and we’re going to change the statute and we’re gonna have to get the Republicans to vote because the Democrats are weak on crime. Totally weak on crime.”
Illinois passed the original version of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, known as the SAFE-T Act, in 2021, then an amended version in 2022, becoming the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail. It was put on hold hours before it was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023, but in July 2023 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the law is constitutional and it took effect in September of that year.
The law applies to the entire state of Illinois, not just Chicago, and is meant to prevent people arrested for nonviolent or low-level crimes from being held in jail simply because they do not have enough money to pay cash bond or bail. Judges are given the discretion to choose if defendants should be held in custody or released, often on electronic monitoring, before trial, which advocates said will allow more dangerous people to remain in jail even if they could afford to post bond.
In September 2024, just before the first anniversary of the elimination of cash bail in Illinois, data showed there had been no rise in crime as a result of the elimination of cash bail; in fact, violent crime and property crime were both down.
The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice advocates for reducing pretrial incarceration and educates what it means to eliminate cash bail. Matthew McLoughlin, campaign coordinator for the organization, took President Trump to task for his comments.
Under the current system in Illinois without cash bail, a judge determines whether to release someone after that person has committed a crime — as opposed to setting a price for the defendant’s pretrial release.
“Families are no longer having to choose paying a ransom to free their loved one, or paying the rent — and that’s making all of our communities safer,” McLoughlin said.
David Olson with the non-partisan Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago has studied the successes and failures of the SAFE-T Act over the last two years.
“What we could conclude is that crime didn’t go up,” he said. “What we couldn’t determine was: would crime have gone down more if this new law wasn’t implemented?”
The latest data on violent crime in Chicago as of July 2025 shows that trend has continued, with violent crime continuing to drop largely in line with national crime trends.
President Trump did not offer details about how he planned to “end” or “change” Illinois’ no cash bail law, but he did seem to say he would rely on the Republican-controlled Congress to do so.
“We’re going to change no cash bail, we’re going to change the statute and get rid of some of the other things and we’ll count on the Republicans in Congress and the Senate to vote,” he said. “We’ve got the majority, so we’ll vote. We don’t have a big majority, but we’ve gotten everything, including the ‘Great Big Beautiful Bill,’ we got that done.”
The odds of the president — who has no say-so over Illinois law — being able to reverse cashless bail in the state are near nil, according to CBS News Chicago Legal Analyst Irv Miller.
“There is 0% chance he can, by his own order, cash bail to come back to Illinois,” Miller said. “It has to be action initiated by the General Assembly in Springfield.”
President Trump announces crime crackdown in D.C.; could he do same in Chicago?
03:51
After being asked whether he would consider taking the same kinds of actions he’s taking in D.C. in other cities, Trump suggested he is considering taking similar action in Chicago, then took the opportunity to insult both Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johsnon. Â
“If we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster,” Trump said. “We have a mayor there that’s totally incompetent. He’s an incompetent man. And we have an incompetent governor there, Pritzker’s an incompetent. His family threw him out of the business and he ran for governor. Now I understand he wants to be president. But now I noticed he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance.”
Mr. Trump did not go into any details about what would potentially trigger him to send the National Guard to Chicago, or how that would work.Â
Pritzker responded on X.com, writing, “Donald, thanks for the compliment! Let’s not lie to the public, you and I both know you have no authority to take over Chicago. By the way, where are the Epstein files?”
And at a Monday news conference, Pritzker also spoke about the president’s threats, reiterating that “he has no right or legal ability to send troops to the city of Chicago.”
“The Nazis in Germany tore down a constitutional republic in just 53 days,” Pritzker added. “It doesn’t take much, frankly. And we have a president who seems hell bent on doing just that.”
Johnson released a statement, writing, “From my first day in office, public safety has been my top priority. In just two years we have made historic process, driving down homicides by more than 30% and reducing shootings by almost 40% in the last year alone. Last week, we learned that President Trump cut another $158 million in funding for violence prevention programs in cities like Chicago. These cuts are on top of the Trump administration dismantling the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and terminating more than $800 million in grants for anti-violence programs across the country.Â
“If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence. Sending in the National Guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts.”
CBS News Chicago has reached out to the White House for comment on Johnson’s call to restore funding for anti-violence programs, but have not yet heard back.Â
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