{"id":12610,"date":"2025-08-25T23:32:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/chicago-doesnt-need-or-want-federal-troops-gov-pritzker-says\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T23:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:32:45","slug":"chicago-doesnt-need-or-want-federal-troops-gov-pritzker-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/chicago-doesnt-need-or-want-federal-troops-gov-pritzker-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago doesn\u2019t need or want federal troops, Gov. Pritzker says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

CHICAGO \u2014 Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pushed back Monday on a threat by President Donald Trump to deploy federal troops in Chicago to fight crime, calling it \u201cunconstitutional and unamerican,\u201d and designed more for theater than public safety.<\/p>\n

Pritzker, speaking at a news conference along with top Democratic officials from across the state and with the iconic Chicago skyline in the background, said there is no justification for Trump to use soldiers to patrol the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have crime like other cities do, but let\u2019s be clear, we are actually in better shape than the 30 biggest cities across the United States,\u201d the governor said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to understand that the president of the United States is doing this for theatrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pritzker\u2019s comments came hours after Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, renewed his threat to make Chicago the next focus of his effort to draw public attention to crime even as violent incidents fall back to pre-pandemic levels throughout the nation.<\/p>\n

No request for federal assistance has been made, Pritzker said \u2014 nor has any communication come from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one from the White House or the executive branch has reached out to me or to the mayor,\u201d the governor said<\/a>. \u201cNo one has reached out to our staffs. No effort has been made to coordinate or to ask for our assistance in identifying any actions that might be helpful to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most officials in a state dominated by Democrats agree with Pritzker, the leader of the Chicago Police union, John Catanzara, told Blue Light News that the department is short 1,000 officers and could use reinforcements. \u201cMore manpower is still needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The governor, who arrived by water taxi to emphasize the city\u2019s vibrancy and beauty, made his remarks days after Trump floated the idea of federal intervention in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we need to, we\u2019re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster,\u201d Trump said at a White House briefing last week, referencing prior National Guard deployments. On Monday, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric, suggesting the federal government may need to \u201cbarge in\u201d on Illinois.<\/p>\n

Pritzker, who was joined by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and numerous city and state officials, civic and faith leaders, said Illinois has the authority and the resolve to block any attempt to override local control.<\/p>\n

They vowed to fight any National Guard action in the courts, and they urged protests to be peaceful.<\/p>\n

Johnson echoed Pritzker in criticizing Trump\u2019s motives. The mayor noted that crime was on the decline in Chicago, down more than 30 percent. \u201cWe are being targeted because of who we are as a city,\u201d said Johnson, pointing to Chicago\u2019s progressive roots in labor and immigration.<\/p>\n

Chicago Alderwoman Samantha Nugent, who previously worked with the Cook County Department of Homeland Security, said she\u2019s concerned that the National Guard potentially converging in Chicago would only create confusion because there would be a question about \u201cwho\u2019s controlling the mission.\u201d The Chicago Police superintendent is in charge of the chain of command, not the Guard, she said.<\/p>\n

The high-profile press conference followed Johnson speaking out against Trump over the weekend, telling MSNBC<\/a> that if the president moves ahead with his threat, it would be a \u201cflagrant violation of our Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, former Chicago mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot also criticized Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at what he did in D.C., he\u2019s not going to actually deal with crime,\u201d Emanuel said on BLN. \u201cThis is an attempt to deal with cities that are welcoming cities, known as sanctuary cities, and deal with immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also said a group of African American \u201cladies\u201d are \u201cscreaming\u201d for the Trump administration to address violence in Chicago. It was an apparent reference to Chicago Flips Red, whose members have criticized Johnson\u2019s handling of the large influx of migrants who needed housing and other services during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pushed back Monday on a threat by President Donald Trump to deploy federal troops in Chicago to fight crime, calling it \u201cunconstitutional and unamerican,\u201d and designed more for theater than public safety. Pritzker, speaking at a news conference along with top Democratic officials from across the state and with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}