WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to send U.S. National Guard troops to fight crime in Chicago, but declined to offer a specific timing of the deployment.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said over the weekend that Chicago police will not collaborate with any National Guard troops or federal agents if Trump deploys them to the city in coming days as he has threatened in the past.

“We’re going in. I didn’t say when, but we’re going in,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office.

But Trump, at one point, suggested he wanted a request from the mayor, saying that “I would love to receive calls from governors and mayors saying they need help.”

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat whose name has also been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has previously said the president lacks the legal authority to deploy troops to his state if not requested by the governor.

Trump has been threatening to expand his federal crackdown on Democrat-led U.S. cities to Chicago, casting the use of presidential power as an urgent effort to tackle crime even as city officials cite declines in homicides, gun violence and burglaries.

Local officials and residents in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, have been preparing for the possible arrival of federal agents and troops.

The Democratic mayor, surrounded by other city leaders, signed an executive order on Saturday aimed at preparing Chicago for any U.S. enforcement operation, as Trump has staged in Los Angeles and Washington.

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(Reporting By Nandita Bose, Jarrett Renshaw, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart. Writing by Idrees Ali; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alistair Bell)