Once you appreciate the real reason Donald Trump is sending federalized National Guard units and U.S. Marines into American cities, the ultimate targets become clear. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has been very explicit that he sees President Trump’s deployment of troops to Chicago as politically motivated, tied to elections rather than public safety.
In a September 2025 interview with NPR Illinois, Pritzker argued that Trump’s repeated threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago were part of a “power grab” designed to set a precedent for military intervention ahead of the 2026 Congressional elections.
He said the administration was following a “playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob” to justify invoking the Insurrection Act and normalize the presence of armed troops under Trump’s direct command.
“We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. — Donald Trump
At an October 2025 press conference, Pritzker went further, saying Trump had “decided to declare war on a great American city” and that the real purpose was not crime control but to consolidate political power and create a campaign narrative.
Governor Pritzker was looking ahead to the 2026 Congressional elections. Trump is desperate to maintain control of the House of Representatives, which is why he’s trying to claw additional seats in Texas and elsewhere. Democratic control of the House would ultimately result in a record-setting third impeachment. The trial would be held in the Senate, where Republican control saved him the last two times. While preventing impeachment is one of his goals, staying in office for an unconstitutional third term may well be another. Trump has played with the idea of running for a third term and has already issued an executive order in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. How much of a stretch is it to violate the 22nd Amendment?
The cities where he will ultimately deploy troops are the ones that impact elections in swing states: Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Detroit. Trump called Philadelphia “one of the most egregious places anywhere in the world,” Milwaukee “a horrible city,” and urged supporters to “go into Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta” to “guard the vote.”He has repeatedly tied Atlanta to his false claims of 2020 election fraud, often singling out Fulton County as “corrupt.”
State militias existed before the National Guards were formed. In the run‑up to the 1876 election, white “rifle clubs” (paramilitary groups often overlapping with state militia structures) confronted Black militia members in Hamburg, SC. The confrontation escalated into a massacre in which at least six Black men were killed. The violence was part of a broader campaign to suppress Black voting and ensure Democratic “Redemption” in South Carolina. Trump seems to be preparing to use federalized National Guard units and the military, with no regard for Posse Comitatus, to do what state militias did in the past.
Trump has literally told us he is just practicing. Has no one asked what he is practicing for?
During the Civil Rights era, in places like Selma, Alabama, Philadelphia and Mississippi, local police forces routinely harassed, arrested, and beat Black citizens attempting to register or vote. How hard is it to imagine masked soldiers from I.C.E. and others taking positions outside polling places in the cities he’s targeting, while simultaneously getting rid of mail-in voting?
“We, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots.” — Donald Trump
Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee are more important during a presidential election because they have the potential to determine the outcome in swing states. While Trump continues to practice and probe, threatening new places like Memphis to send troops. Know that the endgame is to stay in power. His fellow dictators like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping are in power for life, while Trump is theoretically limited to two terms. Trump, with an assist from Pete Hegseth, has remade the armed forces in his own image, firing the generals most likely to resist illegal commands.
Donald Trump’s deployments to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago are not isolated responses to crime or civic unrest — they are rehearsals. These cities serve as test stages for a broader campaign to normalize federalized force in urban centers, particularly those with high concentrations of Black voters and Democratic influence. The rhetoric is familiar: chaos, disorder, infiltration. But beneath the surface lies a calculated effort to condition the public to accept military presence as a tool of electoral control.
This is not unprecedented. The historical arc from Reconstruction-era rifle clubs to modern National Guard units reveals a chilling continuity. In 1876, paramilitary violence in Hamburg, South Carolina, was used to suppress Black voting and restore white Democratic dominance. Today, Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and his disregard for the Posse Comitatus Act echo that same logic — using force not to protect democracy, but to bend it toward partisan ends.
The cities he targets — Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Detroit — are not random. They are electoral keystones, each representing a demographic and political challenge to Trump’s grip on power. His language is not coded; it is explicit. He has called Philadelphia “one of the most egregious places anywhere in the world,” Milwaukee “a horrible city,” and urged supporters to “guard the vote” in Detroit and Atlanta. These statements are not mere bluster — they are strategic signals to loyalists, law enforcement, and military actors about where and how to intervene.
Governor J.B. Pritzker’s warnings are not hyperbole. They are grounded in a sober understanding of Trump’s playbook: manufacture disorder, deploy force, and claim legitimacy through suppression. The goal is not just to win elections — it is to delegitimize opposition, criminalize dissent, and entrench executive power. The specter of a third term, floated through unconstitutional executive orders and rhetorical trial balloons, is not a joke. It is a threat.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.