Over the weekend, outraging most Chicagoans and upending whatever norms remain in this nation, Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, “Chicago about to find out why they call it the Department of WAR.”

With the tagline “Chipocalypse Now,” he posted a cheesy image Saturday with helicopters flying over the city and with Trump’s face imposed on the body of “Apocalypse Now” actor Robert Duvall, who played the crazy Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 movie.

Trump walked back (kinda) the sophomoric war talk Sunday, and, as always, his supporters claimed that his performative bluster was not to be taken literally. One indeed hopes that the president of the United States does not plan to go to war with the nation’s third largest city, but we’ve heard far too much of this man’s disgusting, unhinged and irresponsible nonsense. And we’ve had more than enough of him trashing our reputation around the world.

Believe us, there is a real economic impact.

“Chicago is a crime-ridden hellhole,” screamed the headline on a Friday column in the Daily Telegraph, one of Britain’s most-read daily newspapers. The screed’s writer, Paul du Quenoy, is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute in … guess which state? And if du Quenoy knows anything about Chicago beyond the standard Trumpian talking points from 30,000 feet, there was no evidence of that knowledge anywhere in his column.

“It’s a disastrous city,” he wrote.

Charming.

Stupid, too. Du Quenoy owes us an apology. Our letters section stands ready to publish it.

The issue is not so much that du Quenoy holds those views and has been mobilized in support of Trump’s battles with local leadership, for that is to be expected. It’s that Trump’s taunts, even if made in cruel jest, have made the column seem timely and such a headline appear justified in a legitimate media outlet, given that it paraphrases an actual presidential posting. We can just imagine some unimaginative editor scrambling for such a column because Chicago is in the news. Well done. You at least found a writer from the right side of the Atlantic.

This kind of egregious behavior from Trump and his patsies serves only to cause economic damage to a city that foolishly let Trump stick his name atop one of the buildings that make up our gorgeous skyline.

If you are a European tourist planning a trip to Chicago, reading that piece likely will make you think again. We think the Telegraph owes this city an apology too. It’s free to write about Chicago crime, of course, a problem we never have downplayed. But at least get a writer from here, folks. We can recommend a few, and they hardly are all left of center.

Florida? Please.

In our intemperate initial reaction this weekend, we contemplated commissioning a Parisian to trash London. They are not that hard to find.

In the face of all that, we were glad to see the latest effort from the tourism agency Choose Chicago to push back on behalf of the city. We’ve been critical of some of that outfit’s past slogans. “Never Done, Never Outdone,” which is still around, is not one of our favorites since it makes us sound like a burger. And “Second to None” seemed to parade our collective insecurity. But this new one, “All for the Love of Chicago,” hits the correct notes for this difficult moment for the city we indeed hold dear in our affections. If the Chicago Tribune cannot support Chicago, even as it notes its faults, then we might as well hang up our laptops.

We got a kick out of watching all of the videos posted both by Chicagoans and visitors on the Choose site, a diverse array of posts made from numerous locations and by those clearly of different walks of life.

No, we are not so naive we think that this rushed marketing effort fully can counter Trump’s attacks or even columns such as the one by du Quenoy, which alas is hardly unique.

But whereas we think our politicians should be controlling their rhetoric and de-escalating tensions in the name of public safely, we believe the city marketers have to push back on all our behalves.

Chicagoans work too hard to let someone else define them and the city they love.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.co