Thousands march in Washington, Chicago over Trump's moves

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO — Several thousand protesters marched in Washington, DC, on Saturday to demand that US President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city's streets.

With Trump vowing crackdowns in other Democratic-led cities as well, he appeared to threaten Chicago with migrant deportations in a social media post with an image that parodied the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.

Protesters at the "We Are All DC "march, including undocumented immigrants and supporters of Palestinian statehood, chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some of which read, "Trump must go now", "Free DC "and "Resist Tyranny".

"I'm here to protest the occupation of DC," said Alex Laufer. "We're opposing the authoritarian regime, and we need to get the federal police and the National Guard off our streets."

Claiming that crime was blighting the city, Trump deployed the troops last month to "reestablish law, order, and public safety".

Trump also placed the capital district's Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the city's streets, moves critics have decried as federal overreach.

More than 2,000 troops, including those from six Republican-led states, are patrolling the city. It is unclear when their mission will end, though the Army this week extended orders for the DC National Guard through Nov 30.

Trump was playing golf at his course outside Washington and was not at the White House when protesters marched past on Saturday.

But he appeared to step up pressure on Chicago in a post on his Truth Social platform that said, "I love the smell of deportations in the morning," parodying a line from the 1979 movie.

"Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR," the president wrote, referring to his new order to rename the Department of Defense.

The post was accompanied by a seemingly AI-generated picture of Trump dressed as a military officer in the film with helicopter gunships and explosions in the background.

In downtown Chicago, several thousand demonstrators marched past Trump Tower on Saturday, protesting Trump's threats to flood the city with immigration agents. The protest came after fears of increasing deportations chilled a normally raucous Mexican Independence Day celebration.

Protesters also opposed Trump's threats to deploy National Guard troops to fight crime in Chicago, which would be an extraordinary effort to militarize the country's third-largest city. On Wednesday, however, Vice President JD Vance said there were "no immediate plans" to send the National Guard to Chicago.

Agencies via Xinhua