Trump Sounds Off After 39 Shot, Multiple Killed In Blue City
President Donald Trump is sounding off after another bloody and deadly weekend in Chicago.
Fox News Digital has confirmed that six people have died and 39 others have been shot in a series of shootings in the Windy City over the weekend.
Chicago police say 13 people were shot in a mass drive-by shooting in Chicago’s Princeton Park neighborhood Friday night. Chicago police: Two suspects opened fire on multiple victims after an SUV drove up on a crowd of people.
“Offenders from inside the vehicle began firing gunshots towards the crowd before fleeing the scene. Multiple victims sustained gunshot wounds and were transported to local hospitals,” CPD said.
Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a tame response in a post to X regarding the drive-by shooting incident.
“I am heartbroken by the violence in Princeton Park last night. What should have been a night of celebration and community reflection for Juneteenth was shattered by a horrific act of violence. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones,” Johnson wrote.
In a post to Truth Social, President Trump said, “Lots of Killing going on in Chicago. 22 people shot, at least 4 Dead. Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!! D.C. went from one of the worst, to one of the safest cities in the U.S. President DJT.”
Soon after Trump’s original post, the official numbers skyrocketed when police released newly compiled data.
Last year, Trump sent hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., in an attempt to crack down on crime in our nation’s capital.
All shootings are under investigation, Chicago police say.
Meanwhile, Trump has also been fighting to clean up the streets in Washington, D.C.
At least 13 officials within the Metropolitan Police Department have reportedly been terminated or disciplined following an internal investigation into allegations that department leaders manipulated crime statistics to make Washington, D.C., appear safer than it actually was.
According to reports first detailed by local media and later amplified by lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee, senior police officials allegedly downgraded serious offenses into lesser categories in official reporting systems, reducing the number of violent crimes reflected in public data releases.
The internal probe reportedly resulted in termination notices being issued to Second District Commander Tatjana Savoy and former Third District Commander Michael Pulliam, along with at least one police captain and numerous additional supervisory officials.
Cmdr. Pulliam had already been suspended last year after allegations surfaced that violent crimes were intentionally reclassified to lower-profile offenses.
Investigators reportedly concluded that the practice was more widespread than initially believed, involving multiple districts and layers of department leadership.
The scandal has become politically explosive because crime statistics in Washington were repeatedly cited by city officials and national Democrats as evidence that public safety conditions were improving, even as residents continued reporting concerns about violent crime, carjackings, robberies, and assaults across the city.
The committee’s earlier report painted a damaging picture of department leadership under former Police Chief Pamela Smith.
According to that report, district commanders told investigators they felt pressure from leadership to “fix” crime numbers and create what lawmakers described as “the perception of low crime in the District.”
The alleged manipulation reportedly focused on reclassifying offenses among the city’s major violent and property crime categories.
Serious assaults, robberies, and other crimes were allegedly downgraded in ways that kept them from appearing in headline public crime statistics.
Critics argue that such practices distort public understanding of crime trends and affect policy decisions, resource allocations, and public trust in law enforcement.
Jeanine Pirro recently revealed that federal prosecutors reviewing cases from the department had upgraded certain assault and firearms charges because suspects appeared to have been undercharged by local authorities.
Trump ‘Briefed With Options’ Amid Stalled Iran Talks
The Trump administration on Wednesday continued to express optimism about negotiations with Iran, even as Iranian officials insist that no direct talks have taken place, according to reports.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said no face-to-face meeting had occurred in Doha and that no direct negotiations with the United States were currently planned.
Despite Tehran’s position, President Donald Trump described the discussions as “very good,” apparently referring to indirect contacts involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicating through third-party intermediaries.
Vice President JD Vance struck a firmer tone the same day, warning that the United States could escalate its response if Iran refuses to cooperate or takes actions that further destabilize the Middle East.
His remarks underscored the administration’s message that while it remains open to a diplomatic resolution, additional measures remain on the table if negotiations fail.
“If Iran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, threaten its neighbors and support terrorism, President Trump has options to deal with it,” Vance noted, without elaborating.
Earlier, a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Trump had been briefed on several military options, including “all-out war,” but Trump said he wanted to give diplomacy more time.
Vance additionally stated that the US “dropped bombs on Iran because it fired on ships, and we used leverage to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
He went on to suggest that the U.S. could take that course of action again.
Vance also said the current talks are “to discuss the details and flow of maritime traffic.”
The vice president, addressing U.S. military personnel at a naval base in Virginia on Wednesday, also said that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back decades.
“If you look at what our own intelligence says about their nuclear program, they are further away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20 or 30 years,” Vance said, though he stopped short of Trump’s claim that the program had been “totally obliterated.”
“What the president asks you to accomplish is to destroy the defense industrial base of that country, so that if they ever decided to rebuild their military, or if they ever decided to rebuild that nuclear program, they would be harmless to do it. You did that exactly as well,” Vance added, per the Times of Israel.
The VP went on to say that Trump is now “negotiating from a position of strength because of you.”
“If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the President’s got options. If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we’ve got options,” Vance continued.
“But what we must never do is drop bombs just for the sake of dropping bombs. And that is what the president will never ask you to do,” Vance added.
“He’ll ask you to go to war, yes. But when he asks you to go to war, he’ll tell you exactly what you’re going for,” the veep noted further.
“And I think that is what you should expect out of your political leadership.”
“What I noticed about the people who are attacking the administration for negotiating is that they are the very same people who, for example, encouraged us to just go a little bit further and just drop a few more bombs in places like Afghanistan,” he said.
“If you go back to the mistakes that were made, those very same people refused to say what we were dropping bombs for,” he added.
“We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago… Because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships… We applied some leverage, and we’ve had free commercial transit for the last three days,” Vance told the naval personnel.
