‘Dementia’, ‘jail’: Illinois Gov Pritzker vs Donald Trump over Chicago troops deployment | Row explained

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker accused Trump of deploying National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland due to his ‘mental impairment’.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be jailed for "failing to protect" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, a remark that came in a dramatic escalation of his attempts to flood the city with National Guard troops and federal agents.

JB Pritzker said that, unfortunately, President Trump holds the military power, the federal power to do his bidding, adding that it is "what he's doing". (AFP/Bloomberg)

"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!" he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The remark comes a day after the Texas National Guard arrived in the third-largest American city following a federal judge's refusal to quickly issue a temporary order blocking their deployment.

Soon after Trump's remarks, Governor Pritzker said that "I will not back down".

"Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?" he wrote in a post on X.

Pritzker further said that the US President's "masked agents" are already grabbing people off the street, "separating children from their parents", and "creating fear".

"Taking people for "how they look". Making people feel they need to carry citizenship papers. Invading our state with military troops. Sending in war helicopters in the middle of the night. Arresting elected officials asking questions. We must all stand up and speak out," the Illinois Governor added.

Chicago Mayor Johnson also reacted to Trump's call for him and Pritzker to be jailed and said, "This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere."

Gov Pritzker's 'dementia' jibe at Trump

On Tuesday, Governor JB Pritzker accused Trump of deploying National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland on the basis of fixations that stem from his 'mental impairment'.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he said, "This is a man who's suffering dementia. This is a man who has something stuck in his head. He can't get it out of his head. He doesn't read. He doesn't know anything that's up to date. It's just something in the recesses of his brain that is effectuating to have him call out these cities."

Pritzker said that, unfortunately, the President holds the military power, the federal power to do his bidding, adding that it is "what he's doing".

Pritzker has been one of Trump's harshest critics and is reportedly a possible Democratic presidential candidate for the 2028 election.

He told the Tribune that the courts will play a key role in challenging Trump's efforts in Illinois and across the country. Pritzker said, "We're not going to war between the state of Illinois and the federal government, not taking up arms against the federal government. But we are monitoring everything they're doing, and using that monitoring to win in court."

What's happening in Chicago

Donald Trump's threat to Pritzker and Johnson comes weeks after the escalation in Chicago and its suburbs. Immigration officers have been conducting raids and tensions, with situations heating up between federal agents and protesters outside an immigration processing centre in suburban Broadview.

Earlier on Tuesday, the President also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.

“It’s been invoked before, as you know, if you look at Chicago, Chicago is a great city where there’s a lot of crime, and if the governor can’t do the job, we’ll do the job,” he said.

Over the weekend, Trump also federalised the Illinois National Guard, a move that Governor Pritzker has often opposed.

The President had earlier called Chicago a "hellhole" of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including murders.