Illinois leaders are drawing a firm line against President Donald Trump’s latest threat: sending National Guard troops into Chicago. The move, they argue, isn’t just unnecessary—it’s unconstitutional.
At a news conference in Chicago on Monday, Gov. JB Pritzker stood with political, business, and religious leaders to make the case that the city is not in crisis. He pointed to hard numbers: homicides down 32 percent from last year, vehicle thefts and burglaries each falling by more than 20 percent. “There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention,” Pritzker said. “There is no insurrection.”
For Pritzker, the president’s talk of troops isn’t about crime at all. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents and score political points,” he said. “If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is—a dangerous power grab.”
Still, the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the Pentagon has been quietly planning options for a Chicago deployment, possibly sending in several thousand Guard members as soon as September. Pritzker says neither the White House nor the Defense Department has briefed him. “We only read about it in The Washington Post,” he said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, in his first year leading the city, was equally blunt. “The guard is not needed,” he told NBC News. “This is not the role of our military. The brave men and women who signed up to serve our country did not sign up to occupy American cities.”
Illinois’ top law enforcement officials are already preparing to fight any order in court. Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Monday that a lawsuit would be swift, and Pritzker promised to challenge the move the moment it’s signed.
Duckworth, a U.S. Army combat veteran and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, called Trump’s threats to overrun Chicago with soldiers “deeply disturbing” and “un-American.”
But Trump appears undeterred. Speaking from the Oval Office, he dismissed the criticism, calling Chicago a “disaster” and labeling Johnson “incompetent” and Pritzker “corrupt.” He also signed an executive order creating National Guard units focused on “public order issues”—a move that raised more eyebrows in Springfield and City Hall.
Illinois’ Democratic senators quickly backed up their state leaders. Dick Durbin dismissed Trump’s threats as “purely political theater” and urged leaders to focus instead on bipartisan crime reduction efforts.
For now, Chicago’s message is standing on business, saying that if Trump tries to send in troops, he’ll be met in court before he’s met on the streets.
