President Donald Trump pledged to order federal intervention in Chicago to control crime if the city administration doesn't reduce the homicide rate soon.

Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday night, "If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on...I will send in the Feds!"

Trump tweeted that there had been 228 shootings and 42 homicides in Chicago since the year started, indicating a worsening of crime since 2016, which was a particularly bloody year for the nation's third largest city. There were 34 murders in Chicago during the same period last year.

Trump made his bold pledge a day after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, criticized the Republican president for focusing too much on the size of the crowd at his inauguration and failing to appeal to "our better angels as a country." Emanuel is former White House chief of staff for Democratic President Barack Obama, whom Trump has succeeded in office after Obama and Trump attacked each other repeatedly during the campaign.