DA Krasner to host town halls to discuss how residents can respond if Trump deploys National Guard to Philadelphia

District Attorney Larry Krasner will host a series of town halls this week to discuss how Philadelphians should prepare and city officials should respond if President Donald Trump sends the National Guard into the city.

Krasner, who is running for reelection, will gather at places of worship in West Oak Lane, Southwest Philadelphia, and Society Hill to address the possibility of the president’s deploying troops to the city.

Krasner said the events are hosted by his office, not his campaign, and are meant to be a way for him to answer peoples’ questions and share insight on what might happen if Trump takes action in Philadelphia. The conversations with feature a collection of panelists, including various faith leaders, anti-violence advocates, and legal experts from across the city.

The gatherings come as the president ramps up rhetoric and expands his plans to send troops into large cities with Democratic mayors that he says are rife with crime. Beyond Washington, the president has so far vowed deployments to Chicago and Memphis and has floated the possibility of troops in a number of other cities, including Baltimore, Cleveland, Portland, New York, and New Orleans.

He has not mentioned Philadelphia.

But Krasner has said the city should prepare, just in case.

Last month, after Trump deployed troops to Washington and said he planned to do the same in other cities, Krasner gathered with religious leaders to denounce the action as illegal and rooted in racism. Since then, the DA has appeared on MSNBC and CNN to ramp up his criticism of the president and said that if the National Guard is sent to the city, Philadelphians should use their cellphones to document the troops’ activity.

“You bring this, you bring this light, you video what [Trump] is doing in your city, and you make it available on social media,” Krasner, a Democrat, said on CNN earlier this month. “He cannot erase that history. He cannot deny that evidence.”

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Unlike in Washington, a federal district over which Trump has wide authority, the president would face significant legal obstacles in deploying troops to other cities without the permission of the state’s governors. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has so far welcomed the president’s plans for Memphis.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has opposed such action in Pennsylvania and called Trump’s moves in Washington and other cities “wrongheaded.” He said his team “has been preparing for such a thing to happen in Philadelphia.”

Philadelphia this year has experienced a significant reduction in violent crime and is on pace to record the fewest homicides since the 1960s.

Krasner’s town halls, called “Be the Light, Bring the Light,” will be held: