President Donald Trump’s latest remarks about Black women have set off a wave of outrage — even among some of his own supporters — after he described a mysterious group whose devotion to him, he claimed, was growing stronger by the day.
During a Cabinet meeting Tuesday at the White House, Trump claimed he’s seen “a force of Black women” in Chicago “pleading” for him to save them. But it has many online wondering who, if anyone, he was actually talking about.
“The people of Chicago are walking around with MAGA hats,” Trump said. “You have women, beautiful Black women, walking around with MAGA hats. ‘Please let the president in and we don’t care how he does it … bring in the Marines.’”
Earlier this month when asked about criticism from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Trump lashed out, accusing the two Democrats of “failing their own city” before pivoting to his now-familiar talking point about Black women urging him to intervene.
“I see Black women, wearing a red MAGA hat, last night on television [saying] ‘Please let the president come in. My son was attacked, my—’ you have a force of Black women, Black women, they’re like, only Trump. They want Trump to come in,” he said.
The president’s repeated references to Black women baffled many observers, especially in a city where more than 70 percent of voters supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
On social media, users ridiculed Trump’s comments as both delusional and pandering.
“Does he think saying ‘beautiful Black women’ makes him sound less racist than he is??? Because it doesn’t,” one user wrote on Threads.
Another added, “He lies using that line about Black women, because he knows full well Black women were the largest demographic that DID NOT vote for him in 2024.” A third summed up the mood bluntly: “Hallucinating nonstop these days.”
Some reached their boiling point, “That’s a whole LIE!! I live in Chicago and that is NOT happening. There no black women walking around anywhere here in Chicago walking around with a MAGA hat on. Stop lying so damn much, DAMN!!!🤬🤬🤬”
While Trump offered no specifics, Chicago natives came forward to say the president was talking about members of “Chicago Flips Red,” a small group of Black Trump supporters who frequently attend city council meetings to criticize Democratic leadership. The group’s founder, Patricia Easley, along with several members, said their activism may have caught Trump’s attention.
“You sent me, you sent [Chicago Flips Red founder] Zoe Leigh and you sent Danielle Carter a love note, because you saw the work that we were doing in City Hall,” said Jessica Jackson, a South Shore resident, during a press conference at Chicago City Hall. “You saw us saying that we wanted you to come into Chicago to deal with the Democratic machine.”
Still, most critics and city officials aren’t buying it. Alvin B. Tillery Jr., professor of political science and African American studies at Northwestern University, said Trump’s story is “a bald-faced lie.”
“Black women remain the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituency and strongly opposed to Donald Trump’s agenda,” Tillery told HuffPost. “At best, he may have seen a small handful of individuals on television or social media, but it’s a complete distortion to present that as representative of the views of Black women in Chicago.”
Yini Zhang, assistant professor of communication at the University at Buffalo, agreed that Trump’s “force of Black women” remark was “vague” at best. “If we give Trump the benefit of the doubt, there might be a small group of Black women who demanded troops to be sent to the city to address crime,” she said, “but there’s no information to by any means suggest that a majority of Black women hold this position.”
Tillery called Trump’s repeated references to Black women a “deliberate political tactic.”
“He understands that Black women are among the most trusted voices in American politics — they anchor households, churches and community networks,” he said. “By claiming that even this most loyal Democratic group is asking for his intervention, he’s trying to lend legitimacy to an otherwise outrageous threat.”
Zhang noted that Trump’s framing of Black women “serves a symbolic purpose — to suggest a dramatic shift in public opinion.”
“The implicit message is, ‘Even those who didn’t vote for me are now begging for my protection,’” she said. “By framing Black women as the ones in need of rescue, Trump positions federal troops as saviors, casting women of color as dependent on military intervention.”
Trump’s claim also reignited a long-running debate over his fixation with Chicago — a city he frequently portrays as lawless. Pritzker pushed back Monday, saying Trump had “decided to declare war on a great American city that has the lowest homicide rate in 60 years.”
Some local Republicans defended Trump’s stance, insisting crime remains a problem. “You continuously get on TV and tell us that ‘I walked on the lakefront at 6:30 in the morning and I didn’t see any crime.’ No, that’s because it was on 79th and Halsted that night,” said David Sheppard, a Republican running for the Illinois House. “Enough is enough,” he added, calling for federal help.
But experts say Trump’s rhetoric about Chicago is misleading and damaging. “Crime in Chicago has been trending downward, and most neighborhoods are safe, vibrant and full of hardworking families,” Tillery said. “When conservatives talk about Chicago as a war zone, they erase the humanity of its residents and fuel dangerous stereotypes that can justify heavy-handed and ineffective policies.”
“They don’t want to fix anything in this city,” he added. “They just want to further divide Americans.”
