‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,’ Pritzker mentioned.
President Donald Trump mentioned 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 no request from state authorities, a transfer that will doubtless be met with court docket challenges.
Trump mentioned 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 mentioned the town and state authorities must be accepting the assistance supplied by the federal authorities as a substitute of rejecting it.
Trump mentioned 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, based on knowledge compiled by Wirepoints.
The president mentioned 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 mentioned.
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 mentioned.
“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 mentioned 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 mentioned.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie rejected the suggestion, saying that the town is making progress on bettering public security.
The Nationwide Guard has been deployed in Washington for greater than every week. Trump was capable of 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 mentioned.
The White Home mentioned, “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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