Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) warned President Trump against sending National Guard troops to Chicago, after the president suggested last week that the Democratic-run city could be his next target.
“Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’” Pritzker said Monday at a press conference, surrounded by state and local Democratic leaders.
“Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,’” he added.
Trump has mused publicly about sending troops to the Windy City as part of his effort to combat crime in Democratic cities nationwide. National Guard soldiers, some armed, have been patrolling the nation’s capital since earlier this month — and the White House has provided consistent updates on its impact, including a running list of arrests and seizures.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Pentagon for weeks has been planning a military deployment to Chicago. The proposal could involve several options, the Post reported, including sending a few thousand members of the National Guard as soon as September to patrol the city’s streets.
Pritzker called the move “exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against.”
“What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted,” he said. “It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
The Illinois governor, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, said that no one from the Trump administration has contacted state officials to try and coordinate a joint law enforcement response.
“If this was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor or the police?” Pritzker asked at the press conference.
“Let me answer that question,” the Democrat continued. “This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals.”
