Trump blasts the ‘murder capital of the world’ in latest social media rant

In his latest rant, Donald Trump has called the city of Chicago the ‘murder capital of the world’, but the latest data suggests he could be completely wrong

Donald Trump has slammed the city he calls the “murder capital of the world” in his latest social media rant. In a post on his Truth Social media account, Trump branded the city of Chicago the “murder capital of the world” amid speculation he could deploy the National Guard.

The Orange Manbaby has already deployed the Guard as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover in Washington DC, where he has direct legal control and has hinted at deploying troops in Chicago.

In a familiar sounding rant, the Orange Manbaby wrote: “At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, 8 people were killed. The last two weekends were similar.

“Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far.”

Data suggests Trump is wrong. There are a number of ways this can be measured, from gun crime, rates of homicide or an overall look at violent crime which includes a range of different kinds of criminal acts.

Specifically for homicides, Cook County, which is the largest county in the Chicago metropolitan area, was the county with the highest number of homicides in 2023.

Chicago was not top of the list when it came to cities with the highest homicide rates, with the dishonour going to Memphis, followed by Baltimore, St Louis, Washington DC, and Birmingham.

But the World Population review doesn’t put Chicago in the top 50 most violent cities in the world.

That data set, which lists “assault, rape, kidnapping, manslaughter, homicide, and sexual assault” as violent crimes, puts the most dangerous cities in the world as found in Mexico or parts of South America. Chicago is behind other US cities like New Orleans, St Louis and Detroit. And the latest FBI data says Chicago is the 29th worst city with over 500,000 residents for rates of violent crime.

Trump continued in his Truth Social rant by saying Illinois Governor Jay Robert ‘JB’ Pritzker “needs help badly” but that he “just doesn’t know it yet”.

The relationship between governor and president has been prickly at best, with the two trading jabs about the other, including comments about Pritzker’s weight.

In a recent cabinet meeting, Trump referenced the “slob of a governor you have in Illinois”. Pritzker bit back, saying Trump is himself “not in good shape”. He said: “It takes one to know one on the weight question. And the president, of course, himself, is not in good shape. So, he ought to respond to that from me.”

With spiky relationships between those in charge at the federal and state level playing out in public, critics of Trump have said he is deliberately targeting Democrat-led cities.

As well as Chicago, Trump has already spoken about the possibility of deploying the Guard in Baltimore and New York.

And this week, a judge ruled the Trump administration violated federal law in the use of Guard troops during Southern California immigration enforcement operations and accompanying protests in Los Angeles.

Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco argued the president is “creating a national police force with the President as its chief”.

Lawyers for Trump’s Republican administration have argued the troops were protecting federal officers, not enforcing laws.