Johnson and Pritzker call Trump's threat to send National Guard to Chicago illegal
After President Donald Trump on Friday said Chicago would be the next target for sending in federal troops to fight crime, similar to his strategy in Washington, D.C., Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker said any such move would be an illegal abuse of power.
"There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them," Johnson said in a statement.
In a post on social media, Pritzker accused the president of "An authoritaian power grab of major cities."
"Things People are Begging for: 1. Cheaper groceries 2. No Medicaid and SNAP cuts 3. Release of the Epstein Files," Pritzker wrote. "Things People are NOT begging for: 1. An authoritarian power grab of major cities."
The angry responses from the mayor and governor came after President Trump singled out Chicago again on Friday, saying the city likely will be his next target for a crackdown on crime, after he deployed nearly 2,000 National Guard members in Washington D.C.
Mr. Trump said that effort is going so well, he's ready to repeat the effort in Chicago.
"Chicago's a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we'll straighten that one out probably next, that'll be our next one after this, and it won't even be tough," Trump said. "And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come in. They're wearing red hats, just like this one, but they're wearing red hats. African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, 'Please, President Trump, come to Chicago. Please.' I did great with the Black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen, so I think Chicago will be our next."
The remarks were the president's clearest indication yet that he intends to bring his crusade against crime beyond the corridors of his direct authority in Washington. Mr. Trump also said he's willing to bring in the "regular military" into the District of Columbia, not just the National Guard, which would be a significant escalation of the president's use of the military on U.S. soil.
The threat from the president was loud and clear, leaving the mayor, governor, and those who work directly to prevent violence in Chicago to respond just as loudly.
"Certainly, we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the City of Chicago. The problem with the President's approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound," said in a statement. "Unlawfully deploying the National Guard to Chicago has the potential to inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement when we know that trust between police and residents is foundational to building safer communities. An unlawful deployment would be unsustainable and would threaten to undermine the historic progress we have made."
In his own statement, Gov. JB Pritzker accused Trump of trying to "incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts — all to create a justification to further abuse his power."
"As Donald Trump attempts to create chaos that distracts from his problems, we will call it out for what it is. Trump and Republicans are trying to distract from the pain they are causing working families–from tariffs raising the prices of everyday goods to stripping away healthcare and food from millions of Americans," Pritzker said. "Our state and local law enforcement partners know our neighborhoods and our streets because they live here too. They are not asking for this and we will continue to listen and coordinate with them, as we always do. The safety of the people of Illinois is my highest priority, so we will follow the law and stand up for the sovereignty of our state."
Contrary to the president's claim that Chicago is "a mess," Mayor Johnson noted crime is actually down significantly over the past year. Johnson said, in the past year in Chicago, homicides have dropped by more than 30%, robberies are down 35%, and shootings are down nearly 40%.
"We know that our communities are safest when we fully invest in housing, community safety, and education. The National Guard will not alleviate the housing crisis. It will not put food in the stomachs of the 1 in 4 children that go to bed hungry every night in Chicago. The National Guard will not fully-fund our public schools or provide mental healthcare or substance abuse treatment to Chicagoans in need. The National Guard is no substitute for dedicated local law enforcement and community violence interrupters who know and serve our communities every day."
Vaughn Bryant, executive director of Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, said when he hears the president threatening to bring in federal troops in Chicago, he sees it as a negative.
"I don't know what's necessarily going on that would trigger that type of response," he said. "What our local government and federal government to an extent as well have invested in is our civilian infrastructure. That's the major change in terms of what's going on from a public safety perspective, and if we're seeing declines, then in my mind, figure out what's going on that is causing the declines and do more of what's working."
Metropolitan Peace Initiatives helps more than 15 boots-on-the-ground organizations in 28 communities across Chicago.
"At the community level, we're trying to lower both shootings and homicides community by community as well," Bryant said.
Bryant said it's working, considering the sharp drop in violent crime in Chicago over the past year.
Pastor Donovan Price, founder of Solutions & Resources, a group that provides counseling, social services, crisis response, and more for violent crime victims, gave his two cents about the president's remarks about possibly sending in the National Guard to fight crime in Chicago.
"The fact is, we don't need that. Come to people who live here. Come to people who live day-to-day. This is not an old episode of Untouchables, which he must be watching, or something like that," he said. "We're doing well here, we're making progress, we're giving hope, and you're taking it away."
Price is often on the front line, helping the families of those impacted by Chicago violence. He said the threat by President Trump won't unite communities.
"This is divisiveness. This is a power struggle," he said. "This has undercurrents and they're nothing but evil in my opinion."
Legally, it's not clear how the president's plan for Chicago would work.
The president's authority over the National Guard in D.C. is different than in a city like Chicago, because D.C. is a federal district, not a city run by a state.
CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller said the president does not have the authority to unilaterally send the National Guard to Illinois. That's Gov. JB Pritzker's call, and he's made it clear he's not interested. Still, the president can demand more federal agents be assigned to Chicago.
"They could say to, you know, any state outside Illinois, 'Listen, please send your federal agents to Chicago. We want them to report to the FBI office, or DEA, or ATF office, just to supplement what's already here.' That could happen, it could happen in the manner of a couple days, as a matter of fact," Miller said. "The DEA, the FBI, the Secret Service is here. They're all here already performing law enforcement functions, and it's not something that would be unusual for the federal government to say, 'We are going to supplement our resources here in Chicago to try to assist the Chicago police in performing police functions.'"
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul also weighed in Friday evening, accusing the president of "turning our military on American citizens in his ongoing attempts to move our nation toward authoritarianism."
"His actions are not just un-American. They are unwise strategically. Our cities are not made safer by deploying the nation's service members for civilian law enforcement duties when they do not have the appropriate training," Raoul said. "To be clear: We have made no such request for the type of federal intervention we have seen in Los Angeles or Washington D.C. There is no emergency in the state of Illinois."
Raoul said if the president were serious about supporting victims of violent crime, he wouldn't be withholding Justice Department funding for federal grants to help crime victims by adding a new condition to those grants that denies funding to any program that "violates (or promotes or facilitates the violation of) federal immigration law."
Raoul and officials in 19 other states and D.C. this week sued the Trump administration over that rule, arguing it's part of an illegal crackdown against "sanctuary states."
The states that joined Monday's lawsuit argue that the rule is illegal, since the Reagan-era law that set up the federal government's crime victim grant programs doesn't say anything about immigration enforcement.