Trump Calls for Imprisoning Democratic Leaders as Troop Deployment Nears in Chicago
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’s governor, both Democrats, be jailed, as his administration prepared to deploy military troops onto the streets of the nation’s third-largest city.
Neither Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson nor Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker faces any criminal charges, but both have emerged as outspoken critics of Trump’s immigration crackdown and his plan to station National Guard troops in Democratic-led cities.
Trump’s call to imprison the two elected officials came as another of his prominent political rivals, former FBI Director James Comey, was due in court to face criminal charges that many legal observers have described as politically motivated and lacking substance.
Since entering politics in 2015, Trump has frequently urged that his opponents be jailed — though Comey is the first to actually face prosecution.
On his social media platform, Trump accused Johnson and Pritzker of failing to protect federal immigration officers in Chicago.
“The Mayor of Chicago should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers — and so should Governor Pritzker!” Trump wrote, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.
Earlier this week, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order establishing an “ICE-free zone,” barring federal immigration agents from using city property for enforcement activities.
Neither Johnson nor Pritzker immediately responded to requests for comment.
Despite objections from the governor, the mayor, and other Democratic leaders in Illinois, hundreds of Texas National Guard troops have gathered at a military base outside Chicago. Trump has threatened to send troops to additional U.S. cities, describing them last week as potential “training grounds” for the armed forces.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that most Americans oppose the deployment of U.S. troops in cities where there is no external threat.
After earlier deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump has ordered Guard units into Chicago and Portland, Oregon, dismissing opposition from Democratic mayors and governors who say his claims of widespread chaos and violence are exaggerated.
“My goal is very simple — to stop crime in America!” Trump wrote on his platform.
While violent crime spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, rates have declined in many U.S. cities in recent years. The National Guard has so far been used mainly to protect federal buildings, not to combat street-level crime.
Local officials in both Chicago and Portland say that protests against Trump’s immigration policies have been largely peaceful, contradicting the far more dire portrayal offered by the administration.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News, however, that “there is domestic terrorism happening right now in Chicago.”
Governor Pritzker has accused Trump of deliberately inflaming tensions to justify further militarization. Illinois has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the troop deployment, though a federal judge on Monday allowed it to proceed for now. Another judge has temporarily halted deployment in Portland.
Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — a rarely used federal law last applied during the 1992 Los Angeles riots — to override any court orders blocking his plan.
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