Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh blasted city and state leaders Wednesday for rejecting President Trump’s offer of federal help as violence continues to grip the Windy City.
"Yesterday, what you witnessed was the Useless Five," she told "Fox & Friends," referring to Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, Chicago's Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson and other local officials who defiantly responded to Trump during a Tuesday news conference.
Leigh, who is originally from Albany, New York, described herself as a "suburb kid" who never had to deal with gun violence until she moved to Chicago in her mid-20s.
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Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh criticized Democratic officials for refusing federal help from President Donald Trump during "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images (left); Fox & Friends (right))
"My mother's originally from Chicago, and the fact of seeing seniors getting killed, our children getting killed, mothers getting killed, young men getting killed, and we are not getting any help at all… it's starting to become normalized and that is not normal," she added.
Data from the Chicago Police Department indicates eight were killed and more than 50 were injured in shootings over Labor Day weekend.
Pritzker maintained his refusal to ask for National Guard troops to be sent to Chicago during Tuesday's news conference, hours after Trump insisted "we're going in."
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Chicago police officers patrol downtown on Aug. 26, 2025, in Chicago. President Donald Trump has floated federal intervention to mitigate crime in the city despite opposition from Democratic officials. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
"I'm aware that the President of the United States likes to go on television and beg me to call and ask him for troops. I find this extraordinarily strange as Chicago does not want troops on our streets. I refuse to play a reality game show," he said.
Meanwhile, Johnson accused Trump of using gun violence victims to expand his own power and insisted that Chicago will continue to have a "violence problem" as long as red states have a "gun problem."
The mayor signed an executive order on Saturday prohibiting local police from working with their federal counterparts while vowing to protect the Constitution, the city and its people.
The order affirms that Chicago police officers will continue to enforce state and local laws, but will not work with the National Guard or federal agents on patrols, arrests, immigration enforcement or other law enforcement actions.
Leigh "disagree[s]" with what she called Chicago's long-standing "progressive Democratic gang" and its refusal to accept federal help, accusing its members of "playing politics."
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom and Emma Bussey contributed to this report.