‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,’ Pritzker stated.
President Donald Trump stated on Aug. 25 that whereas the federal authorities “should probably just go in and do it,” he’s not going to ship any federal troops to help with legislation enforcement in Chicago till he will get a request from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The president made the feedback after he was requested by reporters within the Oval Workplace whether or not he was ready to ship the Nationwide Guard into American cities for legislation enforcement with out a request from state authorities, a transfer that may seemingly be met with court docket challenges.
Trump stated that whereas he might do it, “we’re just going to have to see what happens,” sparking one other query from a reporter about his authorized authority to take action.
The president stated town and state authorities must be accepting the assistance provided by the federal authorities as an alternative of rejecting it.
Trump stated that if he ordered the Nationwide Guard to go in, “We will solve Chicago within one week, maybe less. We will have no crime in Chicago, just like we have no crime in D.C.”
Chicago was the nation’s murder capital in 2024, with 573 murders, in accordance with information compiled by Wirepoints.
The president stated he didn’t obtain a request from the governor of Illinois, “who is affected more than anyone else.”
“I think until I get that request from that guy, I’m not going to do anything about it. And I feel the same way about crime,” he stated.
Pritzker responded to the president’s feedback throughout a press convention in Chicago.
“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?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,’” Pritzker stated.
“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.”
Trump has additionally talked about sending Nationwide Guard troops to New York Metropolis, Oakland, and San Francisco, citing the excessive crime charges in these cities.
“Look at what the Democrats have done to San Francisco,” Trump stated within the Oval Workplace on Aug. 22. “They’ve destroyed it. We can clean that up, too. We’ll clean that one up, too,” he stated.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie rejected the suggestion, saying that town is making progress on enhancing public security.
The Nationwide Guard has been deployed in Washington for greater than every week. Trump was in a position to deploy troops there as a result of Washington is a federal district.
“All I know is we’re being celebrated because we went an entire week, now it’s 11 days, we went an entire week without a murder,” Trump stated.
The White Home stated, “As President Trump rightly calls attention to the crime and disrepair gripping other major U.S. cities—like Democrat-run Chicago—Democrat politicians seem far more upset about the offer of assistance than the crime epidemic in their own backyards.”
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