President Donald Trump snapped at a reporter Sunday after being asked whether his militarism in a recent social media post signaled plans to “go to war with Chicago,” continuing a broader pattern of confrontations with women of color.
The exchange took place outside the White House as Trump was leaving for the U.S. Open in New York, after NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor pressed him about a Truth Social post depicting him in an AI-generated meme from the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now.”
The image was captioned, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning”—a twist on one of the movie’s most famous lines.
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” also read the post, titled “Chipocalypse Now.”
Alcindor asked Trump what it meant in light of the rancor between the White House and Illinois officials.
“Are you ready to go to war with Chicago? Why use the Department of Defense?” Alcindor asked days after Trump ordered the name changed to the Department of War. “That’s fake news,” Trump fumed.
When Alcindor pressed further, the president cut her off: “Be quiet, listen! You don’t listen! You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate. We’re not going to war. We’re gonna clean up our cities… Clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that’s common sense.”
The back-and-forth drew swift reaction online, where some voices ran to Alcindor’s defense. “This is Yamiche Alcindor, the reporter Donald Trump just disrespected in front of the press. She is an impeccable journalist and she deserves to be protected,” one supporter wrote on Threads.
Trump’s suggestion of deploying U.S. troops to Chicago has already stirred political backlash. He has floated the idea for weeks, following similar federal actions in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. While the president has broad authority in the nation’s capital, his Los Angeles deployment became entangled in lawsuits and court orders.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has rejected the notion outright, stressing that he has not requested federal help. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order prohibiting city law enforcement from cooperating with any such move.
The president’s clash with Alcindor also echoes his repeated attacks on Black women in public life. Throughout his campaign and into his presidency, Trump has singled out figures including Reps. Maxine Waters and Ilhan Omar, along with journalists April Ryan and Abby Phillip. Critics argue his language carries both racial and gender undertones.
“The way Trump spoke to Yamiche Alcindor was abysmal,” someone argued on Threads. She asked a necessary question with professionalism and instead of answering he tried to belittle her. This is the pattern. Black women do their jobs with brilliance and integrity and insecure white people respond with hostility. It was never about the question. It was about the audacity of a Black woman who refuses to shrink. And history shows every time a Black woman refuses to shrink the world shakes.”
Just last week, Trump directed insults at ABC News contributor Donna Brazile after she criticized his decision to strip former Vice President Kamala Harris of Secret Service protection.
In a series of Truth Social posts, Trump wrote: “Why does Fake News ABC’S This Week With George Slopadopolus have Low IQ ‘commentator’ Donna Brazile on the show? Wasn’t she totally discredited when she gave Crooked Hillary Clinton the questions to a Debate??? Wasn’t she FIRED by Fake News CNN for so doing??? Donna is dumb as a rock, and a liar besides.”
The incident also highlighted Trump’s increasingly aggressive posture and rhetoric toward the media and political opponents.
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