The Trump administration has been planning for weeks to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, a move the US president has called for to intensify crackdowns on crime and immigration, according to reports in the US media.

The Pentagon is developing plans that could mobilize several thousand National Guard members as early as September to the nation's third-largest city, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed officials.

The Pentagon declined to confirm the reports, with one official saying: "We will not speculate on other operations."

"The Department is a planning organization and works continuously with other partner agencies on plans to protect federal property and personnel," the official added.

The news comes after Donald Trump deployed more than 1,900 National Guard reservists to Washington, the federal capital, who are expected to soon be armed, according to another Pentagon official.

Trump said Friday that Chicago and New York — major cities run by Democrats — were ready to receive similar treatment.

"We're going to make our cities very, very safe," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I think Chicago will be next, and then we'll help New York."

The potential deployment to Chicago would follow a similar pattern to the Trump administration's controversial June operation in Los Angeles, where 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 active-duty Marines were deployed despite opposition from local officials, sources told CNN.

The potential deployment in Chicago would complement the intensified crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting undocumented migrants.

Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, according to city police, an eight percent decrease from 2023.