Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Trump of being a “wannabe dictator” in a fiery speech railing against White House plans to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago.
“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against,” Pritzker said during an address in the heart of the Windy City Monday.
“What Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American,” he said, adding nobody in Chicago wants their “neighborhood turned into a warzone by a wannabe dictator.”
Pritzker’s comments come two days after the Washington Post revealed the White House was developing plans to deploy possibly several thousand National Guard troops in Chicago as early as September to stem crime in the city.
Those plans have been developing for months, according to reports, and would resemble Trump’s deployment of armed National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers to Los Angeles in June and Washington DC this month.
The White House has not confirmed the reports, but when asked by reporters in the Oval Office earlier Monday whether he was considering sending troops to Chicago, Trump said, “I am.”
Pritzker called Trump an “arrogant little man” on Monday, and characterized his plans as political intimidation.
“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 and intimidate his political rivals,” Pritzker said while accusing Trump of trying to “militarize our cities, end elections.”
Crime is down in Chicago across nearly all categories, Pritzker said, citing a 30% decline in homicide rates year over year. And he said nationally, Republican-led cities and states have worse crime rates than blue communities.
“We have made no requests for federal intervention. None. We found out what Trump was planning the same way all of you did. We read a story in the Washington post,” Pritzker said.
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