Congressman Jackson Condemns the President's 'Declaration of War' on Chicago, Calls for Action on Gun Trafficking

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Jonathan L. Jackson (IL-01) issued the following statement in response to the President's escalating threats to deploy federal military forces to Chicago and the administration's recent moves to rebrand the Department of Defense as the "Department of War."

"The President of the United States has effectively declared war on an American city. His recent social media post, featuring an AI-generated image of Chicago in flames with the caption, 'Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of War,' is an unprecedented and dangerous threat against our own citizens. This is not a joke or a political stunt; it is a direct threat of military action against the people I represent, and it marks a profound constitutional crisis.

"This administration's campaign of fear is a chilling echo of the Red Scare, a dark chapter in our history when hysteria was manufactured to justify repression. The playbook is the same: scapegoat an internal group-in this case, the residents of so-called 'Democrat-run cities'-and use what W.E.B. Du Bois once called 'witchwords' like 'lawless' to demonize political opponents and justify unconstitutional actions. The narrative of a 'nationwide crime wave' is a baseless pretext for an authoritarian power grab, distorting data to heighten racial tension and undermine local governance. When an administration threatens to deploy troops against a city over the explicit objections of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker, it is a direct assault on the will of the voters and the principle of federalism.

"The President's rhetoric is a deliberate fiction, contradicted by the facts on the ground. The claim that Chicago is a 'killing field' is demonstrably false. This past summer was the safest in Chicago in six decades, with homicides down 46.7% and shootings down 42.6% compared to the same period last year. Overall violent crime is down more than 21%. Chicago is not an outlier in need of military occupation; it is a leader in the nationwide trend of falling crime, with a homicide reduction rate nearly double the average of other large cities.

"This manufactured crisis is amplified by a deeply symbolic and ideological shift. The executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the 'Department of War' is a strategic move to normalize domestic militarism. On our nation's Great Seal, the American eagle's head faces the olive branch of peace, not the arrows of war, signifying our foundational preference for peace. This administration is attempting to symbolically turn the eagle's head toward the arrows, signaling a new default posture of conflict against its own people. This, combined with the cynical effort to restore the names of military bases that honored Confederate traitors, erodes the military's non-partisan status and co-opts its symbols for a divisive political agenda.

"If the President were serious about public safety in Chicago, he would address the real crisis: the iron pipeline of illegal firearms flooding our streets from states with weaker gun laws. The vast majority of crime guns recovered in Chicago are trafficked from outside the city. The weapons are becoming more deadly, with law enforcement recovering military-grade accessories like laser sights, extended magazines, and machinegun conversion devices, or 'switches,' at an alarming rate. The recovery of these switches in Chicago has increased by over 700% since 2020.

"Americans should not be fighting other Americans. We must confront the root causes of gun violence with substantive, nationwide legislation. An occupying army is not the answer. The answer is for Congress to pass universal background checks, enact a federal anti-trafficking law to dismantle the gun-running networks, and reinstate the ban on assault weapons.

"I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this dangerous confrontation and join me in forging a path toward real solutions that will bring long-term safety and security to all Americans. It is time to work for the America we all believe in."

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