Speaking from the Oval Office Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump threatened to ignore court orders and override local governors and mayors to deploy US military assets in major American cities. In a “big lie,” Trump declared that Chicago, the third largest city in the US, was “like a war zone” and said he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if it was necessary.”

“So far it hasn’t been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” Trump threatened, adding, “If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.”

The aspiring dictator promised to “go city by city” until he had “safe cities.”

Making clear that Trump’s statements to ignore the judiciary are not empty bluster, his top fascist adviser, Stephen Miller, signaled in an interview with CNN on Monday that the administration will try to sidestep rulings it dislikes.

On Sunday night in Oregon, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut temporarily blocked the administration from federalizing National Guard troops for Portland, finding the deployment “untethered” to the “facts on the ground.” That ruling triggered furious attacks by Miller, who characterized it as a “legal insurrection.” This was followed by public threats from the president, who said judges who rule against him “ought to be ashamed.”

On Monday, Miller said the White House will “abide by the ruling insofar as it affects the covered parties,” but will pursue other means to deploy military or federal assets to places like Portland and Chicago. Miller’s insistence that the White House will “abide by” court rulings only “insofar as they affect the covered parties” makes clear that the administration views judicial orders as mere bumps in the road. It is carrying out evasive maneuvers, like its attempt to use the Texas National Guard instead of California’s, while appealing injunctions to the fascist-controlled Supreme Court. Ultimately, it will deploy troops regardless of legal constraints.

Miller was asked by CNN whether it was “hyperbolic” to call demonstrators “terrorists.” He replied, “No. If anything I’m understating the severity of the situation.” He claimed—without evidence—that since the Joint Terrorism Task Force became involved, “we’ve found common funding … meeting points … this is terrorism.” Asked if the administration planned to charge protesters with terrorism, Miller answered, “Yes, I would like to,” and added that “the domestic terrorism statute in Congress needs to be strengthened.”

Following the comments of Trump and Miller, the White House posted a new memorandum directed towards Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem titled, “Department of War Security for the Protection of Federal Personnel and Property in Illinois.”

The memo falsifies protests outside ICE facilities in Broadview, Illinois, claiming the demonstrations are a “coordinated assault by violent groups.” The memo claims these alleged “groups” are delaying deportation operations “through violent demonstrations, intimidation, and sabotage of Federal operations.” It continues, “These violent activities appear to be increasing, and the situation in the State of Illinois, particularly in and around the city of Chicago, cannot continue.”

In reality, the “violent groups” in the Chicago area are the police and federal immigration Gestapo. Since the onset of the action given the Nazi-style nickname “Operation Midway Blitz,” federal immigration police have shot at least two people, killing Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez on September 12. A lying Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release issued after the killing falsely portrayed the restaurant cook and father of two sons as a “criminal illegal alien” and alleged that he “dragged an officer for a significant distance.”

In fact, video evidence contradicted every key element of that narrative. He did not cause any serious injury to an ICE agent. Body camera footage uncovered by the Chicago Sun-Times confirmed that the ICE agent had a minor scrape on his knee and his jeans were torn, “nothing major.”

Villegas-Gonzalez had no criminal record apart from minor traffic violations that were over a decade old. When he was murdered by ICE, the 38-year-old was not engaged in criminal activity. In fact, ICE ambushed him after he dropped off one his kids at school before he headed to work.

A second person was shot this past Saturday by federal immigration agents. Marimar Martinez, 30, was shot by federal agents during a confrontation in Brighton Park. Martinez was hospitalized and released. She and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, have since been charged by federal prosecutors for “forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer.” No agents have been charged for shooting either Villegas-Gonzalez or Martinez.

As is the case in the killing of Villegas-Gonzalez, none of the claims advanced by DHS following Saturday’s incident should be taken at face value. Despite ICE saying that agents were forced to fire on Martinez because she allegedly was carrying a “semi-automatic” weapon, none of the charges filed by federal prosecutors on Monday are related to guns. DHS claims Martinez and Ruiz “blocked” agents in with their vehicles, but eyewitness accounts claim the agents initiated contact with their vehicles first. Following the shooting, a several-hour protest/standoff ensued between outraged community members and heavily armed government thugs.

Against that backdrop, Trump’s new directive federalizing Illinois National Guard troops for “protection of federal personnel and property” is effectively a declaration of military operations against an American city already under occupation by federal immigration forces.

The order’s language—“regular forces are insufficient to ensure execution of federal law in Illinois”—is a direct echo of the legal justifications used to invoke the Insurrection Act. It authorizes the secretary of war to deploy Guard units “for 60 days” to secure ICE, FPS (Federal Protective Service) and DHS facilities and to “protect operations where demonstrations may interfere.”

Given that federal agents are already the ones carrying out shootings, fabricating press statements and terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods, this order represents a cover-up of the militarized assault on the people of Chicago.

In response to Trump’s far advanced plans, the Democrats are doing everything in their power to tamp down opposition and channel it back into the party and the corrupt courts. In a press conference Monday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the Trump administration was creating “the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send the military to our city.” Pritzker said he did not know why Trump was depicting Chicago as a “hellhole, a war zone,” saying “he’s done it for some unspoken reason.”

As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, Trump “is not acting on his own ... he represents the interests of the corporate and financial oligarchy.” Furthermore:

The American ruling class is acutely conscious of and terrified by the existential crisis of the capitalist system. It is aware that the national debt—now approaching $40 trillion—is unsustainable.

The oligarchs are convinced that a massive assault on the living standards and even the lives of the working class is necessary.

The Democrats, no less than the Republicans, are a party of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. They are far more terrified of a mass movement against the entire rotten system than they are of the coming to power of a fascist government in America.

This is why Pritzker, Democratic Socialists of America-backed Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said nothing during Monday’s press conference about action to remove the Trump administration.

None of them even called on Congress to impeach the president over his usurpation of local authority and threats to invoke the Insurrection Act. Instead, the Democrats announced they would be filing a lawsuit in response to Trump’s dictatorial plans.

In a hearing Monday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, US District Judge April Perry refused to immediately block Trump’s federalizing of 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and Governor Greg Abbott’s deployment of up to 400 Texas National Guard troops to Chicago. Perry said she would give the Trump administration until midnight Wednesday to respond to the lawsuit with opening arguments set for Thursday.