Live updates: Trump moves to oust Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, blasted the Trump administration today over Trump’s comments that he is considering sending the National Guard into Chicago.
Pritzker said at a news conference he does not think Trump is sincere about wanting to make streets safer, adding that Trump did not consult with him or Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on the matter.
“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. This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities and end elections,” Pritzker said.
“There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention,” he added. “There is no insurrection.”
The Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., during Trump’s second term in office.
“Finally, to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous. We are watching, and we are taking names,” Pritzker said.
In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “If these Democrats spent half as much time addressing crime in their cities as they did going on cable news to complain about President Trump, their residents would be a lot safer.”