Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker hit back at President Donald Trump on Monday, as the president considers deploying the National Guard to Chicago.
Trump said in the Oval Office that he would like to work with Democratic governors and mayors to deploy the National Guard to major cities to address violent crime. Pritzker responded to Trump’s comments during a press conference with local and state Democratic leaders, saying that Trump and the National Guard are “neither wanted here nor needed here.”
“If this was really about fighting crime or 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. “Let me answer that question. 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 to intimidate his political rivals.”
The Illinois governor said that Trump’s plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago are “exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against.”
“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?’” Priztker added. “Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.’”
While Trump has not officially taken any step toward deploying the National Guard or federal law enforcement agents to Chicago, he said last week that the Windy City would be “next” after he ordered the National Guard and federal agents to address violent crime in the nation’s capital. On Monday, the president continued his calls for a National Guard deployment in Chicago, adding that he would prefer that Democratic leaders ask him to send in the troops.
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“You really want to be asked to go, you know,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. He ought to spend more time at the gym, actually.”
“That guy is a disaster,” he added.
Among U.S. cities with more than one million residents, Chicago has faced the highest murder rate for seven straight years, according to data put together by the Rochester Institute of Technology and cited by the White House. In 2024, Chicago had a homicide rate of 21.7 per 100,000 people. Chicago’s murder rate was three times higher than that of Los Angeles and more than five times higher than New York’s. The Trump administration is also reportedly considering sending in the National Guard to address violent crime in Los Angeles and New York City.
Trump enraged Democrats when he sidestepped California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles earlier this summer as parts of the county faced violent anti-ICE protests. Newsom sued the Trump administration over the National Guard deployment, and the decision in that case is currently pending before a federal judge.