WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Monday to fire off some new domestic and international policy.
Chicago’s soaring murder rate and North Korea’s claim to have a nuclear weapon that can reach the U.S. were both fodder for Trump tweets — as were his gripes about a cover photo used by CNN on its new book about the 2016 presidential race.
He started the day with an upbeat message about welcoming 2017.
“Well, the New Year begins. We will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he tweeted.
That was followed three hours later with a tweet about Chicago’s bloody 2016.
Trump suggested that the federal government should get involved to help Chicago combat its sky-high murder rate.
Chicago had more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined in 2016 — and the overwhelming majority of the deadly shootings occurred in the same five neighborhoods.
Police officials in Chicago said the murder spike was gang-related, and most of the homicides weren’t random shootings.
“Chicago murder rate is record setting — 4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016. If Mayor can’t do it he must ask for Federal help!” Trump tweeted Monday afternoon.
But he didn’t offer any specifics on what kind of support his administration would give — even though he’s touted his ability to fix America’s “dangerous” cities on the campaign trail.
“We have a situation where we have our inner cities — African-Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous,” Trump said at the first presidential debate in September.
“You walk down the street, you get shot. In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since Jan. 1. Thousands of shootings. And I say, where is this? Is this is a war-torn country? What are we doing?” Trump railed then.
His vague tweet Monday could be read as a promise of more federal funds for Chicago — or a suggestion that the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, call on the National Guard to restore order, a move the Democrat is unlikely to make.
Chicago’s murder surge — up from 485 homicides in 2015 — is the largest spike in 60 years.
The nation’s third-largest city also saw 1,100 more shooting incidents than it did in 2015. There were 3,550 in 2016, compared with 2,426 in 2015.
Instead of calling in the feds, Chicago might want to call in the NYPD.
The Big Apple’s murder rate fell by roughly 5%.
New York had 335 murders in 2016 — down from 352 in 2015.
New York also held the number of shooting incidents to under 1,000 for the year — a major achievement for the NYPD.
The city closed out 2016 with 997 shooting incidents, compared with 1,124 in the same period in 2015 — an 11.3% drop.
Compared with 2014, shootings are down almost 14% — or 1,154 to 997.
A rep for Emanuel responded to Trump’s tweet by stressing the need for gun control reforms and federal programs that can help the city.
“As the President-elect knows from his conversation with the mayor, we agree the federal government has a strong role to play in public safety by funding summer jobs and prevention programming for at-risk youth, by holding the criminals who break our gun laws accountable for their crimes, by passing meaningful gun laws, and by building on the partnerships our police have with federal law enforcement,” Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said.
“We are happy he is taking this issue seriously and look forward to working with the new administration on these important efforts,” Collins added.
Trump also took to Twitter to take aim at North Korea — vowing the rogue nation won’t go far with the international ballistic missile it says it’s developing.
“North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!” Trump tweeted.
Thirty minutes later, Trump put the onus on China to pressure North Korea.
“China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!” he followed up.
The tweets were in response to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s Sunday comments that Pyongyang plans to test an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S.
The country has repeatedly threatened to attack America, and while it has never flight-tested a weapon, it’s been ramping up nuclear tests over the past decade.
In between sounding off on domestic and world issues, Trump took time to gripe about a new book that features a picture of him on its cover.
“@CNN just released a book called “Unprecedented” which explores the 2016 race & victory. Hope it does well but used worst cover photo of me!” Trump complained.
The book — titled with a word Trump infamously misspelled as “Unpresidented” on Twitter — came out Dec. 6.
Trump followed up his complaint with more boasting about his surprising win Election Night.
“Various media outlets and pundits say that I thought I was going to lose the election. Wrong, it all came together in the last week and … I thought and felt I would win big, easily over the fabled 270 (306). When they cancelled fireworks, they knew, and so did I,” he wrote over two tweets, referencing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s scratched plans for victory fireworks over the Hudson River.
With New Wire Services
With Jason Silverstein, Graham Rayman, Ginger Adams Otis
