Overview

• Speaking at Quantico, President Trump described a domestic “enemy” and said he told Pete Hegseth that “dangerous” cities could serve as training grounds for the National Guard.
• Trump singled out Democratic-run cities including New York, Chicago and San Francisco as being in “bad shape,” saying he would “straighten them out, one by one.”
• On ABC, Speaker Mike Johnson called the quotes “cherry-picked,” declined to say whether using American cities as training sites is appropriate, and pointed to the recent D.C. National Guard mobilization.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries labeled the comments “deeply disturbing,” arguing that Americans should not be treated as an “enemy from within” or “target practice” for the military.
• Coverage placed the remarks in the context of prior federal interventions, noting Trump’s past deployment to Portland that state and city leaders said they did not request and opposed.