Pritzker Responds to Trump With Insults of His Own

President Trump would be putting himself in legal jeopardy by deploying federal troops in Chicago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker warned Monday. Trump has reportedly been planning a military deployment to Chicago for weeks in what Pritzker previously described as "authoritarian overreach." Speaking Monday, accompanied by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, Pritzker warned Trump against the "unconstitutional" and "illegal" plan, saying, "if you hurt my people, nothing will stop me—not time or political circumstance—from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law," per NBC Chicago.

Responding to Trump's Friday assertion that he would rather be "asked" to call in the National Guard, Pritzker said, "You are neither wanted here nor needed here," per CNN. "This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against," he continued, per NBC. "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," Pritzker added, at times referring to the president—who'd called Pritzker a "disaster" who "ought to spend more time in the gym"—as a "dictator" and an "arrogant little man."

Duckworth, who spent 23 years in the military, including 17 with the Illinois National Guard, said the planned deployment is "deeply unfortunate and obviously unnecessary," intended "to protect a tin-pot dictator's thin skin." The officials stressed that no member of the Trump administration has reached out to city or state leaders about the plan. If this were a serious effort to reduce crime, "it would be a coordinated effort with the mayor, the governor, law enforcement officials at all levels," said Durbin. Pritzker warned Chicago could "face an unprecedented and difficult time ahead" should the plan go ahead. "But I know you, Chicago," he said, "and I know you are up to it."