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US president Donald Trump, who has long spoken of his desire to be given the Nobel Peace Prize, has this week rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, shared footage of a boat he claimed was carrying drugs from Venezuela being struck by an American missile, and has now issued a warning to Chicago which social media users are claiming is Trump “declaring war” on American citizens.
The Republican floated the idea of sending troops into the Illinois city – much like he has done with Washington D.C. and California - last month, when he described it as a “mess”.
“You have an incompetent mayor – grossly incompetent – and we’ll straighten that one out, probably next that’ll be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough.
“So I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York,” he said.
And on Saturday, the convicted felon once again talked of taking action in Chicago, sharing an AI-generated image on Truth Social of himself in a hat and sunglasses looking out as several helicopters fly above a fiery city, complete with the text ‘Chipocalypse Now’.
Yes, that’s a play on the title of the 1979 war film Apocalypse Now, with Trump referencing the movie’s iconic line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” in the accompanying caption.
“’I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” he wrote.
Considered by many to be a film commenting on the “absurdity of war”, Apocalypse Now was based on Joseph Conrad’s 1899 book Heart of Darkness, with the IMDb page for Francis Ford Coppola’s epic summarising the plot as being about a US Army officer serving in Vietnam who is “tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god”.
Following Trump's reference to the film, Twitter/X users have expressed outrage at the implication behind the post, while others have pointed out the anti-war messaging behind the movie:
“MAGA literacy is at an all-time low,” wrote another. “There are no heroes in Apocalypse Now”:
Others slammed the president’s post as “embarrassing”:
And “f***** up”:
Politicians have also condemned the post, with former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz writing that “there’s nothing normal about the President declaring war on an American city”:
California governor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, accused Trump of using US troops “like political pawns”, adding “do not allow yourself to become numb to this”:
In a statement issued to indy100, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: "Eight people were killed and over 50 people were wounded last weekend in Chicago but Democrat leaders are more upset about a post from the President - that tells you everything you need to know about the Democrats’ twisted priorities and why Chicago has had the most murderers of any US city for 13 consecutive years.”
indy100 has approached Coppola's representatives for comment.
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