J.B. Pritzker visited an elementary school on Friday and told President Trump he could learn a few things from the kindergarteners he met there.
In a video obtained by the Daily Beast and posted to X, the Illinois governor pointed to a poster of “Classroom Rules” and cheekily escalated his ongoing feud with Trump.
“They get to learn every day about these classroom rules and they follow them,” Pritzer said of the students he met at Wagoner Elementary School on Friday, as the president’s threat to send federal troops to Chicago looms over the city.
“I have to say there are a few in here the leaders in Washington ought to learn. For example, listen carefully. Maybe treat each other with respect. And, of course, make good decisions.”
Our leaders in Washington could learn a thing or two from some of the best elementary school students here in Illinois. pic.twitter.com/bLRfm1r6aJ
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) August 29, 2025
“I wish more leaders in Washington would do that,” Pritzer said.
The visit to the Sauk Village elementary school, about 30 miles south of Chicago, was advertised by the governor’s office as a chance to highlight investments in education on the first day of classes.
Pritzer also seized the chance to needle the president, though, with the help of some civic-minded students.
In one classroom he visited, the students made Venn diagrams comparing the role of the president to the governor.
Donald Trump, the students wrote, “leads the country” while JB Pritzker “leads the state.” At the intersection of the diagram, the students wrote that “leaders take care of people.”
The governor seemed to receive a warm welcome from the students, snapping a pic with the school’s mascot and admiring a picture someone had drawn of him dressed as Superman.
He struck a different tone on Friday than the pugilistic one that has characterized his interactions with Trump in recent days.
“He ought to spend more time at the gym, actually. The guy is a disaster,” Trump, 79, said about Pritzker on Monday.
Pritzker, who has chosen to take on the nom de guerre “JBeefy,” fired back later that day, saying that Trump “is not in good shape.”
“I would say also that his personal attacks on me are just evidence of a guy who’s still living in fifth grade,” Pritzker said in a preview of his school visit days later.
Trump has even threatened to scuttle a $1.2 billion dollar project to tackle invasive fish in Lake Michigan. Both Michigan and Illinois are pitching in, but the government is funding 90% of the project—an agreement Trump carped about on Thursday.
“I didn’t get a request from the governor of Illinois. Until I get that request from that guy, I’m not going to do anything about it,” Trump said about the carp-containment project (which is already Congressionally approved).
Chicago would become the third city where Trump has sent the National Guard to take over for local law enforcement, joining Los Angeles and Washington D.C.—where 2,000 troops are still stationed.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that a military intervention in the Windy City has “long been in planning” and could take place as early as next month.
“We’ll straighten that one out probably next,” Trump said about Chicago last Friday, while claiming bizarrely that “African-American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please President Trump, come to Chicago, please.’”
Based on their paper-plate diagrams, it seems like the students of Wagoner Elementary are on a different page than the beautiful Black women Trump is hearing from.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The post Dem Gov Trolls Trump With Help From Kindergarteners appeared first on The Daily Beast.
