‘Want to be asked to go’

WASHINGTON —President Trump indicated Monday he was leaning against deploying federal forces to fight crime in Chicago, saying he doesn’t want to “barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians.”

Trump had said Friday that he planned to replicate his DC crime crackdown in the Windy City, followed by New York City — only to be met with local pushback.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was “evaluating all of our legal options to protect the people of Chicago from unconstitutional federal overreach.”

“In a certain way, you really want to be asked to go,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday morning.

“You know, I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker, he has to spend more time in the gym.”

“They have a political thing about it,” Trump added while signing anti-crime executive orders.

“It’s like the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. But I don’t like going to a town, city, place, a state, and then be criticized by some corrupt or incompetent governor where crime is rampant.”

Trump noted that on Friday he had “made the statement that next should be Chicago, because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don’t acknowledge it, and they say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom! Freedom! He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator,” the president went on.

“I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person, and when I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send in troops, instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘You’re trying to take over the Republic!’ These people are sick.”

Trump’s abrupt reversal followed his claim that African-American women were wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats and pleading for federal intervention in Chicago.

He did not mention any updated plans for New York City.

Trump has mobilized hundreds of National Guard members and federal agents to help fight violent crime in Washington. He ordered similar surges of federal resources to various cities in 2020, during his first term.

On Aug. 11, Trump ordered the Metropolitan Police Department in DC to be brought under federal control for 30 days.

“I really want to be appreciated when we go into a city and wipe out the crime,” he added while hosting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung Monday afternoon, arguing his DC crackdown had worked.

“It sounds so horrible. I’m embarrassed to say it in front of you, because they don’t have anything like this. Washington DC, sir, has not had a murder in 11 days.”