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The White House ridiculed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., on Monday for rejecting President Donald Trump’s deployment of national guardsmen to Illinois to combat crime.
“Chicago is descending into lawlessness and chaos because this slob cares more about boosting his anti-Trump creds on X than he does about making his city safe,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital.
“Pritzker should be ashamed of himself,” she said.
Pritzker, long considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said he refused to comply with the Trump administration’s “ultimatum” to deploy Illinois National Guard troops, calling it “absolutely outrageous and un-American.”
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker said.
PRITZKER SAYS TRUMP ORDERING 400 MEMBERS OF THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD TO ILLINOIS, OREGON AND OTHER LOCATIONS
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at the office of The Center for American Progress event on March 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
After Pritzker refused to deploy his own troops, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized Trump to send 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois and Oregon.
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Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard troops to Chicago.
Abbott said he deployed Texas troops to “ensure safety for federal officials” in the blue states where protesters have rejected the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deportation efforts.
“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” Abbott said.
President Donald Trump speaks with members of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers on Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
Pritzker said the Trump administration never contacted him directly about the Texas deployment but that on Sunday, the Department of War warned him to “call up your troops, or we will.”
“For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety,” Pritzker said. “This is about control.”
Pritzker has become a leading voice rejecting Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda, particularly over the past few months as the president threatened to deploy national guardsmen to Chicago.
“It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops,” Pritzker said, while urging Abbott, a Trump loyalist, to refuse to coordinate.
Pritzker criticized the Trump administration for using the National Guard as “political props” and urged Americans to “speak up and help stop this madness.”
“I want to be clear: there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “State, county and local law enforcement have been working together and coordinating to ensure public safety around the Broadview ICE facility, and to protect people’s ability to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delivers remarks in Chicago alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson and other officials after reports the White House was preparing to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Anti-ICE protesters have gathered for weeks at the Broadview ICE facility, demanding transparency about the conditions inside the holding center and rejecting the Trump administration’s deportation rollout in Chicago.
“I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” Pritzker said. “In Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution and defend the rule of law.”
Illinois Democrats, including Pritzker, Johnson and Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, have railed against Trump since he told his Cabinet in August that he’s “willing to go to Chicago, which is in big trouble.”
Pritzker and his fellow Democrats responded by labeling Trump a “wannabe dictator” as the White House for months considered deploying the U.S. National Guard to Chicago.
Federal law enforcement arrives near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., on Oct. 3, 2025. (Erin Hooley/AP)
The move is part of the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on crime nationwide and protect federal officers who are leading deportation efforts in major U.S. cities.
A federal judge blocked Trump’s efforts to deploy the U.S. National Guard troops to Oregon on Sunday.
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Trump deployed the U.S. National Guard to Washington, D.C., in early August to thwart crime in the nation’s capital. Prior to that deployment, Trump deployed the national guardsmen to Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests that devolved into riots in June.
