CHICAGO — President Donald Trump said he could announce as early as Wednesday a National Guard deployment to a state and city that wants it, seemingly taking off the table for now his weeks-long threat to use military assets in Chicago to deter crime over the objections of Democratic leaders.

“We’re going to be announcing another city that we’re going to very shortly, working it out with the governor of a certain state who would love us to be there, and the mayor of a certain city in the same state that would love us to be there,” Trump told reporters Tuesday night in touting the results of his federalization of law enforcement and National Guard assets in Washington, D.C., by dining out at a restaurant.

“We’ll announce it probably tomorrow (Wednesday), and it’s going to be something we will do like we did here. But this city. Here I am standing out in the middle of the street. I wouldn’t have done this three months ago, four months ago, I certainly wouldn’t have done it a year ago,” Trump said.

For now, at least, Trump’s decision to hold off federalizing National Guard troops and sending them into Chicago represents a political victory for one of his most vociferous opponents, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. The two-term governor has maintained throughout a weeks-long back and forth between him and the president that Chicago did not face an emergency that warranted military deployment, that such a deployment was not wanted by the public and that such an act would be illegal.

In an interview with NPR recorded before Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Pritzker said it was difficult to read the Republican president’s on-and-off threats about sending the guard to Chicago.

“It’s almost like he’s bipolar because on one hand, he is attacking Chicago and announces that this is ‘Chipocalypse,’ and he wants to make it like ‘Apocalypse Now’ and attack our city. On the other hand, he says, ‘Well, maybe I’ll go somewhere else. Maybe we’ll go to Portland, or maybe we’ll go to New Orleans.’ So it’s really hard to tell what’s evolving at the White House,” said Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential aspirant.

Pritzker was referring to a Saturday posting Trump made on his “Truth Social” media platform, showing military helicopters flying over Chicago’s lakefront skyline with the title “Chipocalypse Now,” a reference to the 1979 Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now.” Trump was dressed in U.S. Army fatigues like the lieutenant colonel portrayed in the movie by actor Robert Duvall, who famously utters the line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” Trump wrote. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

Pritzker responded to Trump’s tweet by calling it “not normal,” and the president later denied he intended to go to war with Chicago, calling it “fake news.”

But following the June deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles after sporadic protests against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities there, as well as in Washington, Trump spent three weeks dangling the threat of military deployment to Chicago.

One factor that may have chilled such a move was a federal court ruling in San Francisco that found Trump’s military deployment in Los Angeles was illegal and violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which sharply restricts military use in domestic law enforcement activities.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was in the Chicago area Wednesday for a press conference announcing the seizure of unauthorized e-cigarette products, said Chicago should ask for Trump’s help but won’t.

“Chicago doesn’t want the president’s help,” Bondi said during the press conference in suburban Bensenville. “The president’s made it very clear he wants any major city in this country, any city — who they want his help — he wants to come in and help them.”

Bondi also telegraphed that a declaration would be made soon regarding Guard deployment.

“You’re going to hear an announcement very soon where we’re going next. But we want Chicago to ask us for the help, and they’re not going to do that we understand,” she said.

Trump had previously discussed New Orleans and Portland, Oregon, as potential alternative National Guard deployment sites to Chicago. And on Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former Trump first-term White House press secretary, deployed 40 of the state’s National Guard to assist with ICE enforcement.

In lieu of a National Guard deployment, Trump has announced an increased immigration enforcement by ICE and other federal agencies under “Operation Midway Blitz.” The Department of Homeland Security declared the increased sweeps on Monday, though so far reported arrests have not increased significantly.

ICE did announce on Wednesday that as part of its recent operations, it had arrested “several dangerous criminal illegal aliens” in Chicago, saying one was arrested “for aggravated sexual assault of a child family member,” while others had previously been convicted of an array of offenses, including rape, domestic battery and driving under the influence.

“These are the criminal illegal aliens Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, and their fellow sanctuary politicians protect over the law-abiding American citizens,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message: no city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens.”

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