‘Be quiet!’: Trump Lashes Out At Black Journalist Over Question About Chicago War Post

Donald Trump’s relationship with members of the press has always been combative—especially Black press members, but his latest exchange with NBC News correspondent Yamiche Alcindor underscores just how volatile and dismissive Trump can be when challenged, especially by a Black woman.

While meeting with the press on Sunday as he prepared to leave the White House for the U.S. Open in New York, Trump lashed out at NBC’s Yamiche Alcindor for bringing up his recent post to Truth Social, threatening an invasion of Chicago using an altered image from the 1979 film, “Apocalypse Now.” The post inserted Trump in the role played by Robert Duvall and was captioned with “I love the smell of deportations in the morning… Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

The imagery showed helicopters hovering over the Chicago skyline, a chilling suggestion of militarized force against an American city. Alcindor pressed Trump about the post on Sunday, asking if he intends to “go to war with Chicago.” 

Rather than offer clarity, Trump attacked the reporter, calling the question “fake news”, despite it being a post he posted on his Truth Social platform. 

“When you say that, darling, that’s fake news,” Trump quipped. When Alcindor tried to follow up, Trump cut her off, escalating into a tirade. “Listen. 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. We’re gonna clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that’s common sense.”

The president’s comments, complete with a condescending “darling” and a public dismissal of a Black woman journalist as “second-rate,” ignited swift backlash. 

Critics saw it as both a dodge of accountability and another example of Trump’s long-standing hostility toward Black women in positions of authority.

Many critics spoke out about the exchange, but Congressman Jonathan L. Jackson was more direct, taking to X to call out Trump directly, writing, “President Trump is intimidated by #BlackWomen.  He has spent decades attacking and belittling Black women because he fears their strength.  I stand with @Yamiche as she does he JOB for the American people and ask the tough questions.”

The scene echoed Trump’s long pattern of belittling women journalists—particularly women of color—when pressed on uncomfortable truths. Alcindor’s insistence on holding him accountable contrasted sharply with the president’s reflex to deflect, deny, and demean.

Illinois officials didn’t mince words in their response. Governor J.B. Pritzker took to X to call the post “a threat against an American city,” calling Trump “a scared man” for the post:

“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,” Pritzker wrote. “This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”

Still, Trump’s allies rushed to reframe the controversy stating that the post was “taken out of context”, including Former ICE director Tom Homan who suggested on CNN that the administration was merely declaring war on “criminal cartels” and “public-safety threats”; despite the meme specifically invoking Chicago by name, twice; while featuring its skyline under siege—there was no mistaking the intent.

The White House itself has tried to downplay the episode, but the damage has been done. Trump’s rhetoric, paired with his repeated threats to deploy federal troops into Chicago, has heightened fears of federal overreach and militarized crackdowns similar to his attempt to control Democratic cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. 

Illinois leaders have made clear they will not cooperate. Governor Pritzker has publicly rejected federal assistance, and Mayor Johnson issued an executive order barring local law enforcement from supporting the agency in any form. 

The incident highlights a broader danger: Trump’s ability to use social media to broadcast inflammatory imagery and then dismiss reporters’ questions about it as “fake news.” By framing his own words as a misrepresentation, he positions himself as both provocateur and victim, dodging responsibility while undermining the role of the press.

But the stakes are higher than media theatrics. Threatening to “go to war” with an American city—even in meme form—risks normalizing authoritarian rhetoric and eroding the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. 

For Chicagoans, and for Black and Brown communities across the country, Trump’s words read as yet another escalation in his campaign to conflate public safety with militarized force in order to add another layer to his attempt to rig upcoming elections.

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