President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
In a press conference from the Oval Office on Friday, President Donald Trump pledged to deploy US combat soldiers to major American cities with or without the consent of local officials or the population.
After repeating comments made to him earlier this month by Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena, in which Vena told Trump he had to “save Chicago,” Trump named Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis and New Orleans as the next targets in his war on the “enemy within.” Trump said:
Now we are going to go for the big one. We set ourselves up very well in Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans…going in early, just to see what was happening.
Declaring war on the some of the largest cities in America, Trump said:
We are studying, we are studying the site. It’s sort of like war. I hate to tell you, it’s like war, some of these people are really bad. They are really really sick people, they are dangerous people, they are killers, they are murderers, drug dealers and we can’t have it.
As with the occupation of Los Angeles and Washington D.C., Trump is making clear that he and the ruling class he represents see entire sections of the urban working class as an enemy population that must be subdued by force.
Trump’s comments are a concrete confirmation of the Marxist analysis of the capitalist state. Marx and Engels wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, published in 1848:
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.”
As Lenin explained in State and Revolution (1917), citing Engels, the modern state relies on “special bodies of armed men,” comprised of cops, guards, soldiers, the courts, prisons, to repress the working class and maintain the rule of the capitalist class.
Lenin wrote:
“The state is a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The state arises where, when and insofar as class antagonism objectively cannot be reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that the class antagonisms are irreconcilable.”
He continued:
Engels elucidates the concept of the “power” which is called the state, a power which arose from society but places itself above it and alienates itself more and more from it. What does this power mainly consist of? It consists of special bodies of armed men having prisons, etc., at their command.
The special armed body of which Lenin wrote—the FBI, National Guard, and potentially active-duty soldiers—is being mobilized not to safeguard the lives and conditions of workers, but to terrorize and discipline them.
The same day Trump declared war on Chicago, federal agents operating in the area were filmed violently assaulting anti-ICE protesters at an ICE facility in Broadview, part of metro-Chicago. As of this writing, at least three protesters have been arrested. In one video, a woman is seen being shot at close range with a pepper ball rounds before another masked agent pepper sprays her in the face.
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Throughout the press conference, Trump repeatedly congratulated himself for deploying soldiers to Washington D.C. and other cities, while attacking Democrats for mildly criticizing his actions.
“They want crime,” Trump said, referring to the Democrats. Stoking violence against transgender persons, Trump added, “They want transgender for everybody. We are not going to let bad things happen to our country.”
Far from opposing Trump, the Democrats have gone along with his attacks on immigrants, workers and democratic rights. Trump noted in his press conference that Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, previously endorsed and supported by Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Socialists of America, had already agreed to a Republican continuing resolution to keep the government funded after October 1.
This did not prevent Trump from lashing out at House Democrats for not fully backing a resolution honoring the “life and legacy” of the racist and fascist Charlie Kirk. “Just today the House Democrats voted against condemning the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. Who could vote against that?” Trump said.
In fact, the resolution received significant Democratic party support, with 95 “yea” votes, nearly 45 percent of the caucus, including the entire Democratic House leadership.
Several reporters asked Trump questions concerning the government-coerced suspension, and possible cancellation, of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has provoked outrage among large sections of the population in the US and even internationally. Under many of Kimmel’s YouTube videos, workers and fans of the show from around the world have left comments in support of the late-night host.
The liar in the White House claimed he was “strong on free speech,” while steadfastly backing his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, characterizing him as an “incredible American patriot with courage.” Without offering any evidence, Trump claimed that between 89 and 97 percent of newscasts about him are “bad” and therefore should be “illegal.”
Trump said: “They will take a great story and make it bad. I think that is really illegal, personally.”
In response to a question from ABC’s Jonathan Karl whether he was committed to free speech, “including of people critical of you,” Trump snapped:
That’s why your network paid me $16 million… You are guilty Jon… ABC is a terrible network. You should be ashamed of yourself. NBC is equally bad. For you to stand there and act so innocent and ask me a question like that… frankly you are a terrible reporter. You know it, and so do I.
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