'We're going in': Trump insists on sending the National Guard to Chicago and takes aim at Baltimore

"We're going in." With these words Donald Trump re-emphasized his intention to deploy National Guard troops in the "hellhole" of Chicago, despite opposition from the city's mayor, Brandon Johnson and the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, both Democrats. In addition, the president noted that Baltimore—also governed by the Blue Party—is also a strong candidate to receive military support given its crime statistics.

However, Trump categorically denied before the press accusations that he is strictly targeting cities governed by his political opponents in his campaign against crime and his offensive against illegal immigrants.

"I have an obligation," he said, citing crime statistics for Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city. "This is not a political issue. I have an obligation when 20 people have been murdered in the last two and a half weeks and 75 have been shot. Chicago is a hellhole right now. Baltimore is a hellhole right now," Trump declared.

Pritzker "desperately needs help, he just doesn't know it yet"

In an earlier post on his Truth Social network, the U.S. president promised, "I'm going to solve the crime problem (in Chicago) fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far," he said. He added that the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois, JB Pritzker, "desperately needs help, he just doesn't know it yet."

He then followed up with a provocative post in all caps, "CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!"

Pritzker: deployment would be an "invasion" and a "test of Trump's power"

Trump, who in August already sent National Guard troops to Washington, did not clarify when exactly he will send soldiers to the Windy City, where the governor and mayor strongly oppose the plan.

Pritzker who had previously called Trump a "dictator" before, has come down hard on the president in recent days, accusing him of preparing an "invasion"by the military in Chicago.

"None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer," Pritzker told reporters Tuesday. "For Trump, it's about testing his power and generating political drama to cover up his corruption," he added.

Trump brags about success of DC measure: "We have no crime"

Beginning in June thousands of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines were deployed to Los Angeles to support police in cracking down on protests and riots sparked by Trump's immigration raids.

In August Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, and on Tuesday he reiterated that the move improved security in the capital. "It's a safe area now," he said. "We don't have crime."

Justice Breyer: Trump seeks to "create a national police force with the president as chief"

A federal District Court judge in San Francisco on Tuesday ruled that Trump violated the law by deploying troops to Los Angeles, and barred the Pentagon from ordering National Guard reservists or Marines to perform police functions, including arrests, security patrols or searches and seizures.

Justice Charles Breyer, a Bill Clinton appointee, warned in his ruling that Trump seems intent on "creating a national police force with the president as its chief."

However, Breyer's injunction would not take effect until Sept. 12, which could leave a door open for the conservative-majority Supreme Court to rule on the case.