President Donald Trump has been threatening for weeks to send National Guard troops into Chicago to help the city manage issues with violent crime and undocumented immigrants, despite protests from the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson. But Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — who is also strongly against the move — says he thinks Trump’s comments are nothing but bluster…and they could be a sign of something more ominous .
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After deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., President Trump has gone back and forth in public comments about whether or not Chicago would be next. On Sept. 6, he posted to his Truth Social platform, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
He later toned down his messaging, claiming that Governor J.B. Pritzker would have to ask for his help before he sent troops there. Now, it looks the country’s third largest city is back on his radar.
“I’m going to go to Chicago early, against Pritzker. Pritzker is nothing,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on Sept. 16. “If Pritzker was smart, he’d say, ‘Please come in. If they lose less than six or seven people a week with murder, they’re doing a great job in their opinion. Chicago is a death trap, and I’m going to make it just like I did with D.C., just like I’ll do with Memphis.”
But Pritzker said he has no reason to take Trump’s comments seriously, saying he’ll probably forget about it when something else distracts him.
“Sometimes he attacks, sending his agents in; sometimes he forgets. I think he might be suffering from some dementia, you know?” Pritzker told reporters who asked for his response to Trump’s comments. “And the next day he’ll wake up on the other side of the bed and stop talking about Chicago. So I’ve never really counted on anything that he said as real. When he said that he wasn’t coming to Chicago, I didn’t trust that. When he says he is coming to Chicago, it’s hard to believe anything he says.”
The Illinois’ governor has said that he is open to help from the Federal government that doesn’t include the military on city streets.
“I have been very clear about what we do want,” Pritzker told reporters. “What we do want is civilian law-enforcement assistance. We want to make sure that we have enough FBI, ATF, DEA on the ground. We have some already, as you know.”
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