Politics
Pritzker Vows to Stop Trump From Sending National Guard to Chicago
Gov. JB Pritzker vowed Monday to stop President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to Chicago, dismissing Trump’s latest pledge to combat crime as cover for an unconstitutional federal overreach.
U.S. military officials have been working for weeks to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to Chicago, according to a report from the Washington Post that was later confirmed by other news outlets.
“I am ringing the alarm,” Pritzker said. “Donald Trump wants to use the U.S. military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents and score political points.”
Pritzker said he would not ask the president to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, as Trump urged just minutes before the governor began his remarks.
“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,” Pritzker said. “You are neither wanted here nor needed here.”
If the president does deploy the National Guard in Chicago, residents face an “unprecedented and difficult time,” Pritzker said, urging residents to protest peacefully.
“We will see the Trump administration in court,” Pritzker said. “The state of Illinois is ready to stand against this military deployment with every peaceful tool we have.”
Pritzker offered no specifics about how Illinois would stop the deployment if it is ordered by the president.
“We believe you don’t solve crime by sending in the military,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We are being targeted because of who we are as a city.”
Pritzker and Johnson spoke at one of the most picturesque locations in downtown Chicago: River Point Park, overlooking Wolf Point, the confluence of the North, South and Main branches of the Chicago River. The upper floors and spire of Trump Tower were visible in the distance — but not the sign emblazoning the building with the president’s name.
The governor, mayor, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin were flanked by nearly every elected official in Illinois, including several members of Congress as well as those hoping to replace Durbin in the Senate.
The threatened deployment of the National Guard is a “dangerous step toward authoritarianism that puts our communities at risk,” Raoul said.
However, Raoul told reporters he did not believe filing a preemptive lawsuit would be effective.
While saying it would be illegal and unconstitutional for the president to deploy the National Guard to Chicago over his objections, Pritzker did not detail what strategy the state would use to fight the president.
“It will have to be litigated,” Pritzker said.
Nor did Johnson offer any detail what residents of Chicago, fearful of a looming military occupation, should do in response if the deployment takes place.
“Any attempt to intimidate our people from being able to live their lives, that is the quintessential example of terrorism, and we will not bend, break or bow to that type of tyranny,” Johnson said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks to reporters alongside other elected officials about plans to send the National Guard to Chicago on Aug. 25, 2025. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)
Even as Pritzker blasted Trump as a “wannabe dictator,” the governor acknowledged that his ability to stop the president from federalizing the Illinois National Guard and deploying them to Chicago was limited. Pritzker warned Republican governors not to allow the president to federalize their states’ National Guards and send them to Chicago.
Pritzker also directly addressed the federal officials carrying out the president’s orders, saying they had “forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man.”
“To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous, we are watching, and we are taking names,” Pritzker said. “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.”
If Trump makes good on the latest in a long series of threats against Chicago and its leaders, Chicago would join Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and become the third American city to be occupied by federal troops deployed over the objections of local leaders.
All three cities are led by Democratic mayors who are Black and have refused to help carry out Trump’s goal of implementing the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
Chicago and Los Angeles are also self-proclaimed sanctuary cities and have refused demands from federal officials that local law enforcement help federal agents deport undocumented immigrants. Trump ordered the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers when the federal government took control of the department.
Attempts by the Trump administration to force cities like Chicago and Los Angeles to stop protecting undocumented immigrants by yanking federal funding have been blocked by several federal judges indefinitely.
California officials sued Trump alleging he illegally federalized the state’s National Guard without the consent of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in June after protests sparked by immigration raids swept Southern California.
Newsom is also weighing a bid for president in 2028.
A three-day trial of those claims ended earlier this month, but no ruling has been issued.
Trump vowed again Monday to crack down on crime in Chicago, calling the city “a disaster” and “a killing field,” despite significant and sustained drops in shootings and homicides since the start of the year.
“We go in, we will solve Chicago within one week, maybe less,” Trump said. “But within one week we’ll have no crime in Chicago.”
Murders in Chicago dropped 31% during the first seven months of 2025, as compared with the same period a year ago, according to Chicago Police Department data. Shootings are down 37%, according to CPD data.
Trump has repeatedly insulted Pritzker and Johnson, calling them “incompetent,” while mocking Pritzker’s weight.
Pritzker, who is running for a third term as Illinois governor and has refused to rule out a run for president in 2028, has opposed Trump at every opportunity and accused his fellow Democrats of not doing enough to block the president’s efforts.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
