Politics
‘JB wants to fight’: Illinois governor embraces role as one of Trump’s fiercest foes
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — JB Pritzker is at a political crossroads.
The popular, two-term Illinois governor would be a prohibitive favorite if he runs again in 2026.
But the fiery progressive Democrat is also increasingly burnishing his national political credentials, making high profile appearances across the country, using his vast personal wealth to bankroll Democratic causes and pillorying the divisive policies of President Donald Trump.
Pritzker has strong views about what Democrats need to do to claw their way back from the wilderness after the drubbing they took in November.
“Democrats shouldn’t fall into the trap that they fell into in 2024 of responding to everything that the Republicans say, given the way they twist things,” Pritzker said in a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol office where he signs bills. “Republicans keep asking the question, ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?’ There is no good answer to that.”
But at the same time, Pritzker stresses, Democrats need to vigorously defend core principles, saying it was a “mistake” that Kamala Harris’ campaign never came up with an effective answer to Trump’s attacks for her support of transgender rights.
Asked how he would have responded, Pritzker said: “First of all, stop picking on the smallest minority of people whose civil rights are just as important as yours. … Trans children are most likely of any group to commit suicide. Why do Republicans have no sympathy for that at all?”
Pritzker is looking to execute a political balancing act when it comes to bolstering his political prospects both in Illinois and nationwide. That means speaking out forcefully on the most hot-button issues – immigration, tariffs, DOGE – while also taking steps to boost home-state constituencies like Illinois farmers and veterans.
His full-throated attacks on Trump are drawing attention from prominent national Democrats. It’s a tactic that more party leaders should emulate, says David Hogg, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who ignited a firestorm in the party in recent days with his pledge to fund primary challenges against some “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in safe-blue seats.
“We’re in a moment … where some people are saying, ‘We need to roll over and die’ and other people want to fight,” Hogg said about Democratic messaging. “JB wants to fight.”
Outspoken on immigration
The governor and his staff spent months preparing for a November loss, even though they were hopeful that Harris would triumph, said Anne Caprara, who ran Pritzker’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and is now his chief of staff.
“JB is just a person who hopes for the best and prepares for the worst,” Caprara said.
Pritzker’s immediate post-election message was a warning to Trump and an assurance to the state’s Democratic voters that he would stand up for abortion rights, immigration and LGBTQ+ protections if they came under attack.
“You come for my people, you come through me,” he said just two days after the election.
On immigration, in particular, Pritzker has been among the loudest voices attacking the Trump administration’s policies. It’s a contrast from many other ambitious Democrats who have looked for ways to show voters that they support tougher enforcement efforts targeting undocumented immigrants in the wake of the election drubbing.
“Why is Donald Trump kicking out law-abiding, tax-paying people who have been here 10 and 20 years and raised a family here?” Pritzker asked. “Why are they picking on those people and kicking them out? If you had proper immigration laws, you would want them to come to this country. We need them to fill jobs.”
Though Pritzker also has repeatedly said he supports kicking out criminals, his views on immigration have put him in the sights of Republican Rep. James Comer’s Oversight Committee, which has called him to testify next month on Illinois’ sanctuary status rules that forbid local authorities from helping with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities,” Comer, of Kentucky, said in a statement announcing the hearing.
The Illinois governor has yet to say whether he will agree to testify before the committee. His team has called it a “partisan dog and pony show.”
As Pritzker ticked off his concerns about Trump’s policies, he sat in the shadow of a wall-size portrait of one of the storied debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas.
His attacks on Trump have seldom risen to those rhetorical heights. The Illinois governor has described the president as “a narcissist,” “rich in stupidity” and someone who “behaves like a fifth-grader.” He’s even invoked Hitler in describing the Trump administration’s actions.
How he talks to the public, Caprara said, has been shaped in large part by what he learned during the pandemic, when he gave at least 85 televised press conferences on the spread of the disease and how to stay safe.
“What we learned was that in times of really great uncertainty people value clear communication from their leaders,” said Caprara. “And they value communication that is not mealy mouthed or wishy-washy or obfuscating what actually is happening in the world. And so that is the world in which we’ve operated since November.”
Pritzker is now taking that message across the country.
Since March, he has headlined the Jim Owles Winter Pride Gala in New York City and the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Los Angeles. Pritzker has also taken center stage at Democratic Party events in Florida and Texas.
Next week, he’s the featured speaker at New Hampshire Democrats’ iconic McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club dinner, a major fundraiser known for drawing big names ahead of presidential elections. And in June, Pritzker headlines the Michigan Democratic Party Legacy Dinner.
In addition, Pritzker’s Think Big America has pumped in money to support progressive legislation and candidates across the country, including in red states. The nonprofit has so far put money into supporting abortion rights initiatives in nine states and saw seven of them pass in the past two cycles, including in Ohio and Montana.
“Abortion rights are broadly popular, and there are plenty of Republicans and independents who came out to vote for that issue and came to our side,” said Mike Ollen, who heads the organization and is in Pritzker’s inner circle, having served as campaign manager for his 2022 gubernatorial run.
Pritzker, whose family built the Hyatt Hotel empire, has also donated millions of dollars to races across the country, including $1.5 million to the winning Democrat-aligned candidate in last month’s high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
The governor’s rising national profile has hit a nerve with Illinois Republicans who see it as political “grandstanding” and “a distraction” from “the mess” in Illinois, according to state party Chair Kathy Salvi, referring to the state’s projected $3 billion-plus budget deficit. She uses Pritzker’s speaking engagements as a foil to rally members in her weekly email.
Pritzker’s “largesse at the taxpayer’s trough drives the good people, families and business out of our beloved Illinois,” Salvi added in a statement to Blue Light News. “He is crushing us. Save America from JB Pritzker.”
Pritzker says his speaking engagements shouldn’t be read as a lead-up to a presidential campaign. All those national TV hits attacking Trump, he insists, are really an effort to bring attention to his state, highlighting the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs and federal government cuts on his constituents.
“The more that I can help stoke that, the better it is for farmers here in Illinois,” he said.
Touting Illinois accomplishments
Pritzker and his team like to remind critics of the economic chaos they inherited when he took office. A nearly two-year budget standoff between his predecessor and the Legislature sent bond ratings careening toward junk level.
Pritzker ran on an ambitious agenda and accomplished much of what he wanted in his first term, including raising the minimum wage, further protecting reproductive rights, legalizing cannabis — and getting the state’s finances back in order.
In his office across from the Lincoln portrait is a sign that Pritzker likes to highlight to visitors. It’s a headline: “Illinois credit rating upgraded: Moody’s upgrade is state’s first in two decades.”
But he seldom speaks in public without criticizing the White House. In Springfield last week, Pritzker poked at the Trump administration on economic issues even while speaking to a few hundred high school members of the Future Farmers of America.
“The harsh cuts to USDA programs proposed by DOGE and the tariffs that the president put in place are already taking their toll on our rural communities,” Pritzker said.
He went on to take questions from the statehouse press corps and then joined some Republican state lawmakers to reveal the winner of the “Coolest Thing Made in Illinois.” It was the Aerial Firefighting Helicopter Refill Pump that was actually used to help fight the recent Los Angeles wildfires. In the evening, Pritzker hosted state lawmakers and rabbis for a Passover Seder.
The Pritzker-Trump tension goes back to the 1990s, when the Pritzker family battled Trump in court over New York hotel properties. It festered through the 2016 election when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and then metastasized during Covid.
Illinois hospitals were full and people were dying, so the Democratic governor swallowed his pride and got on the line with Trump — billionaire to billionaire — to ask for help in securing N95 masks and ventilators, he tells audiences, most recently on “The View.”
Trump agreed, but only if Pritzker would go on the national Sunday talk shows and praise him. It was a vain request, but Pritzker, who purses his lips when he retells the story, acquiesced, saying he was “desperate.” When only loose-fitting masks and broken BiPAP breathing machines arrived, Pritzker fumed about being short-changed.
“He never delivered for us, Pritzker said. “He never delivered for the American people.”
Ahead of this year’s World Cup, Democrats had warned that immigration enforcement agents at matches were likely to cross the line with fans or players and create international incidents in the process. So far, those fears haven’t borne out.
As the tournament moves into its final week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department has stayed away from crowd control. Instead it has focused on joint efforts with law enforcement partners to combat counterfeiting and human trafficking around the tournament, which has seen large numbers of foreign attendees flock to the United States, Mexico and Canada in support of their teams.
Even Democrats are noticing the restraint which ICE has exercised around the matches.
“I have not seen, or have not heard of, any significant, serious report, which is really very good. I am happy to hear that,” said Rep. Nellie Pou, a Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose New Jersey district includes the area around Metlife Stadium that will host the tournament’s final match.
Pou, who had raised concerns about ICE at the sporting event in congressional hearings in the months before the game, attributed the low-profile approach ICE has taken to security at the matches to congressional oversight and “a change in the administration between Secretary Noem, who absolutely didn’t care about what was going on, and Secretary Mullin.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has taken a more tempered and discreet approach to the agency’s enforcement operations than his predecessor Kristi Noem — mending some of the frayed relations she had with Capitol Hill. DHS has also played a major role at the World Cup in less controversial areas. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service and the Coast Guard have helped down unmanned aerial vehicles such as drones operating near sporting arenas.
Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who has chaired House Homeland Security Committee and advocated using sporting events as a diplomatic opportunity to showcase American power, was similarly pleased. While McCaul never joined Democrats in expressing fears about ICE’s conduct at games, he had repeatedly pressed DHS officials on the department’s plans for securing the World Cup.
Their role at the game “is not to deport a bunch of people,” McCaul said, crediting Mullin for the restraint. “Their role is to combat human trafficking. So far, they’ve been staying in that lane, and I think that’s a positive thing.”
Mainly, ICE has deployed agents that are part of the enforcement agency’s Homeland Security Investigations arm. That arm, unlike its deportation-focused counterpart Enforcement and Removal Operations, focuses on investigating serious criminal activity including trafficking, counterfeiting and child sexual abuse material.
“DHS will continue to work around the clock with federal, state and local partners to ensure a secure environment for the remainder of the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” the department said in a statement.
Mullin touted his department’s work on the World Cup in testimony to Congress last month, saying that “we’ve had no serious major incident,” and praising the department’s anti-human trafficking and counterfeiting work.
“Now, there’s a lot of fans that go around. Things happen. But there’s been no serious issue. We’ve had some threats come up. We’ve been able to knock it down because of our relationship with FBI plus ICE,” Mullin said. “We’ve got great reports back from our fan base.”
Asked by a reporter in late June whether ICE was given specific guidance to exercise restraint, Mullin said the fears were unfounded and “there was never guidance that needed to be given.”
“That was the left drumming up fear, and that’s all it was. ICE has always been there to protect the public, and that is what they continue to do every single day,” Mullin said. “The plan was always to keep the games safe and every stadium secure, even in sanctuary cities, and what we’ve proven through this is DHS is capable to work with sanctuary cities if they are willing to work with us, and when we do it together, we can keep everybody safe.”
There have still been immigration-related issues tied to the World Cup. In June, Custom and Border Protection barred a Somali-born referee who was trying to enter the United States, citing unspecified “vetting concerns.” The Trump administration was very strict about how long Iran’s national soccer team could stay in the United States for matches, often forcing the team to return to its base camp in Mexico shortly after playing.
But those issues are not the result of ICE actions, and those incidents have taken place out of major public view, reducing the impact they’ve had on the perception of the games.
Still, some Trump critics on Blue Light News say those actions could hinder the broader ability of the U.S. to use the World Cup as a forum to showcase the best America has to offer to global audiences.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat who has promoted U.S. “sports diplomacy” efforts, said that while she was “grateful that ICE has not been terrorizing fans,” she warned that some of those other moves are creating the appearance of a double standard, given that FIFA has declined to criticize those moves from the Trump administration.
“You’ve had the referees not allowed. You had teams, players, who have been held up for hours and hours for searches. And the treatment of the Iranian team,” she said. “When you’re talking about sports diplomacy and you’re talking about a worldwide competitive event that really is about unifying the world through this sport and then you have multiple instances where players — the true ambassadors behind this sports diplomacy — are being mistreated, I call foul.”
Sophia Cai contributed to this report.
When Argentina defeated Egypt with a last-minute miracle — making it the western hemisphere’s lone survivor into the quarterfinals — the country’s libertarian president Javier Milei said he was “crazy with joy.”
As his Argentina faces off today against Switzerland, Milei — arguably U.S. President Donald Trump’s most Trumpian ally in the Western hemisphere, if not worldwide — could use some good news.
“Milei worked miracles bringing down inflation and corralling public spending. But that came at a significant social cost, and he has been far less successful in attracting investment and creating jobs,” said Benjamin Gedan, a former U.S. State and Treasury Department official who now heads the Stimson Center’s Latin America program in Washington. “The president is ubiquitous, endlessly picking fights and exhausting even many onetime supporters.”
Both in his brash style and brash politics, the chainsaw-brandishing Milei is Trump’s kindred spirit. Before there was DOGE, Milei slashed tens of thousands of public sector jobs to combat what he claimed was administrative bloat.
On other issues, he has followed Washington’s lead. After the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization, Argentina followed suit. Milei has also threatened to leave the Paris Agreement, shunned BRICS and sidelined Mercosur in favor of deeper alignment with the U.S.
In return, Trump last October rewarded Milei, whom he dubbed “my favorite president,” with a crucial $20 billion economic lifeline. An internal Pentagon email cited by Reuters suggested the U.S. also considered supporting Argentina’s claim on the Falkland Islands in revenge for Britain’s stance in the U.S. war against Iran.
But none of it has been enough to save Milei from his political troubles at home. His administration has been hit by several corruption scandals, including his own suspected links to a failed digital coin and the forced resignation of his cabinet chief earlier this month over allegations of misappropriating public funds. Combined with rising inflation, it has made Milei an unpopular figure at home ahead of an election next year.
A survey by Opina Argentina this week found that 58 percent of respondents hold a negative view of the president, placing him behind his main political rivals.
Notably, Milei has not attended any of his country’s matches, despite having previously traveled to the U.S. 17 times since his election in 2023. He might be trying to steer clear of the Argentina football federation (AFA) and its president, Claudio Fabián “Chiqui” Tapia, who, according to Argentine newspaper La Nación, is being investigated by the FBI for possible money laundering.
Milei also skipped Trump’s big July 4 bash in Washington, opting instead for a more low-key celebration at the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, causing some Argentinian commentators to speculate about a possible chill in bilateral relations.
On Thursday, however, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put those rumors to rest, congratulating Argentina on its 210th Independence Day in a statement that praised Milei as “an indispensable partner” in the two countries’ joint fight against “narcoterrorism, transnational crime, and authoritarian regimes.”
The two countries have another thing in common: Messi, the 39-year-old Argentine playmaker who is one of the World Cup’s top scorers and also plays for Inter Miami. Both Trump and Milei have sought, in their own ways, to bask in his glow.
“You could have gone anywhere in the world, any team in the world, and you chose Miami,” Trump told Messi during a White House visit in March. The meeting prompted criticism from some in Argentina who accused the soccer legend of lending legitimacy to Trump’s politics by appearing alongside him.
Milei, in turn, seized on that criticism to attack the media and his political opponents and align himself with the football star, declaring: “If you mess with Messi, you mess with us all.”
Messi, meanwhile, has steered clear of politics. A far less polarizing figure than either president, an Argentine survey conducted before the World Cup put his approval rating over 90 percent. When Messi led Argentina to a World Cup trophy four years ago, however, it did not do much to boost the country’s governing class. President Alberto Fernández saw his Peronist coalition suffer a historic defeat in the following year’s election. He was later charged with domestic abuse, and his former vice president is now serving house arrest after a corruption conviction.
“Which is all to say,” observed Gedan, “Messi is a national hero, but Argentine politicians don’t get to share the glory.”
Reports of an aggressive FBI investigation underway in Florida into alleged corruption involving Argentina’s national soccer body are prompting confusion about the Trump administration’s stance toward using U.S. courts and law enforcement to pursue corruption extending beyond U.S. borders.
Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper reported Wednesday that U.S. prosecutors questioned a key businessperson by Zoom earlier this month as Argentina continued its strong run in the World Cup, powered by indomitable veteran Lionel Messi. The Miami Herald also confirmed aspects of the probe, which reportedly focuses on TourProdEnter LLC, a Florida-based company that handled promotional deals for the Argentine Football Association.
The association and people linked to TourProdEnter have denied wrongdoing. No charges have been filed. The Argentine Football Association did not respond for a request to comment.
The moves by the FBI, along with the reported involvement of at least three Justice Department prosecutors, are notable because after President Donald Trump returned to office last year, he paused for several months all enforcement of a U.S. law that makes it a crime to bribe foreign officials overseas, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Trump previously called it a “horrible law.” Incoming Justice Department officials said previous administrations had used the statute to bring criminal cases over alleged corruption that had little connection to the U.S.
Among the cases to face such criticism are a series of prosecutions that began more than a decade ago under former President Barack Obama’s administration into corruption in international soccer. A dozen people were ultimately convicted in the probe, which was led by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, and toppled FIFA’s leadership.
Appeals in some of the cases have dragged out. In May, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, Joseph Nocella, appeared personally in court to explain to a judge why the Justice Department wanted to drop the case against a former Fox television executive whose conviction for paying bribes for soccer broadcast rights was initially thrown out but later reinstated by an appeals court.
Nocella said the administration had higher priorities, such as counterterrorism, national security, drug and human trafficking and violent gangs, the Associated Press reported.
It’s unclear whether the ongoing U.S. probe into Argentina’s soccer operations is proceeding because a significant part of the activities under investigation took place in the U.S. or some other wrongdoing has been uncovered that makes the case more attractive under current Justice Department policy.
The FBI declined to comment on the case.
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