President Trump will federalize 300 Illinois National Guard troops, Gov. JB Pritzker revealed Saturday, accusing the Trump Administration of issuing an “ultimatum” to deploy forces within the state.
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker stated.
“In the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard,” he added. “They will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance—not a serious effort to protect public safety. For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.”
Trump has previously threatened to deploy Illinois National Guard members to Chicago to address rising crime. Last month, after a violent weekend that saw 11 murders and numerous shootings, the president criticized Pritzker for downplaying the city’s crisis. “That’s what I call dangerous,” Trump said, dismissing Pritzker’s claims of crime control as misleading.
Pritzker rejected the federal intervention, citing recent actions by officials in South Dakota and New York. “Yesterday, Kristi Noem’s and Greg Bovino’s masked agents threw chemical agents near an elementary school, arrested elected officials exercising their First Amendment rights, and raided a Wal-Mart,” he alleged. “None of it was in pursuit of justice, but all of it was in pursuit of social media videos.”
The governor emphasized that Illinois’ state, county, and local law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure public safety near the Broadview ICE facility and protect constitutional rights. “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” Pritzker declared.
Trump has repeatedly deployed National Guardsmen to cities across America despite federal restrictions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. Chicago has been a recurring target, with the president recently sharing a meme comparing himself to a character in “Apocalypse Now” under the caption “Chipocalypse now.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on its plans in Illinois.
