Trump hits Chicago again: Worse than some places in Middle East

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday was talking about crime in Chicago again.

This time, he compared it to some places wracked by violence in the Middle East.

Trump’s comments came during a meeting with county sheriffs, where he told them, “if you ran Chicago, you would solve that nightmare, I tell you. .. Because to allow — I mean, literally — hundreds of shootings a month, it’s worse than some of the places that we read about in the Middle East, where you have wars going on. It’s so sad. Chicago has become so sad a situation.”

FACT CHECK: Through Feb. 5, 2017 in Chicago, there have been 266 shootings, in Chicago according to the Chicago Police Department. Last year in 2016 through the same date, there were 267.

Trump is fixated on crime in Chicago. He recently said via Twitter that if Chicago can’t fix “carnage,” he would send in “the feds.” Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been asking the Trump administration for more law enforcement officials, among other items.

Last week, at a White House event with members of the African-American community to mark Black History Month, Trump again talked about Chicago violence, saying if city officials don’t take steps, “we’re going to solve the problem for them.” He also suggested meeting directly with gang leaders might be a good idea.

“Because we’re going to have to do something,” Trump said then. “What’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country.”

Trump added that violence in the city was “totally out of control.”