President Trump slammed JB Pritzker as “weak and pathetic” on Saturday, warning that he’ll deploy federal troops to Chicago if the Democratic governor of Illinois doesn’t get the violence under control.
Pritzker has accused Trump of “attempting to manufacture a crisis” in Chicago, where at least 35 people have been shot, including four fatally, so far over Labor Day weekend.
Trump’s fiery Truth Social post addressed a previous weekend of carnage in Chicago, where shootings left six dead and more than two dozen hurt between Aug. 22 and Aug. 25.
“Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME,” Trump wrote.
“He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming! MAGA. President DJT,” the president added.
The White House, which notes Chicago has led the nation in homicides 13 years in a row, has reportedly been planning for months to possibly deploy as many as a thousand National Guard troops to the city as early as September to stamp out crime.
The murder rate in Chicago, however, is lower than it is in Washington, DC.
Trump has previously deployed Guardsmen to Los Angeles, to protect federal law enforcement carrying out immigration arrests, and Washington, DC, as part of a sweeping crime crackdown in the nation’s capital.
The commander in chief has also named New York City, Baltimore and Oakland, California as potential future locations where federal troops could take the streets.
Trump and Pritzker, a possible 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, have traded several barbs in recent days, with Trump often hitting the governor over Chicago’s crime problem.
“Panic stricken Governor Pritzker says that crime is under control, when in fact it is just the opposite. He is an incompetent Governor who should call me for HELP,” Trump wrote earlier this week.
The president has also mocked Pritzker’s weight, saying he “ought to spend more time in the gym, actually.”
“It takes one to know one on the weight question,” Pritzker shot back on Monday.
The governor has described Trump’s plans for military deployments to Chicago as “unconstitutional” and “a dangerous power grab.”
