As federal agents and hundreds of members of the National Guard descend on Washington to carry out the White House's promised crackdown on the city's historically low crime rates, the Trump administration is already telegraphing plans to replicate the operation in other Democrat-led cities. At a press conference on Monday, the president rattled off a list of "potential future targets," including Baltimore, Chicago and New York City, in what would be a "drastic escalation of federal presence on the streets of American cities," said USA Today. Trump described the targeted cities as "'bad, very bad,' without offering specific reasons why," said Axios.
The administration is weighing the creation of a so-called Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force, which would place hundreds of National Guard troops on "standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour," said The Washington Post. That project would launch in 2027, according to the Pentagon's "traditional budgetary process," although it's unclear whether the force might launch sooner "through an alternative funding source."
