Trump says Chicago mayor and Illinois governor ‘should be in jail’ for not protecting ICE agents

(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump is ramping up a war of words with the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, suggesting in a social media post on Wednesday that they “should be in jail” for what he claimed was their refusal to protect ICE agents.

Trump’s social media post came as Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Monday night and were preparing to be deployed in Chicago.

“Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on Tuesday as the Texas National Guard troops appeared at an Army Reserve training center in the Chicago suburb of Elwood.

“We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities,” Pritzker said.

The military deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders, as well as from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”

Trump fired back on Wednesday on social media.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers!” the president wrote. “Governor Pritzker also.”

Johnson responded in a social media post on Wednesday, writing, “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere.”

Pritzker also reacted to Trump’s post, writing on social media on Wednesday, “I will not back down.”

“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power,” Pritzker said. “What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”

While speaking to reporters at a rally on Wednesday afternoon for federal workers protesting the government shutdown, Pritzker called Trump “demented, literally. Unhinged.”

“This is someone that is so insecure that he lashes out, pretending that he can come arrest people for no reason at all. He can’t. He isn’t gonna do it,” Pritzker said.

“TACO. Trump always chickens out,” Pritzker added, using the acronym that became a popular meme by Trump’s critics over the summer as the president made tariff threats only to later reverse them.

The back-and-forth between the Illinois leaders, both Democrats, came as after Trump conditionally threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Chicago. The act, which dates back to 1807, empowers the president to nationally deploy the military and federalize National Guard units to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or an armed rebellion against the federal government.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

Meanwhile, the Texas National Guard has been seen at an Army Reserve training center in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, ABC News has learned.

Groups of soldiers were seen walking the grounds of training center in Elwood, with most of the troops apparently having arrived on Monday night, according to ABC News’ Chicago station WLS.

Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday that over the weekend, he called on Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support of this decision” to send the Texas National Guard members to Chicago.

Earlier Tuesday, Abbott had replied to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”

The deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders.

“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”

In its lawsuit filed on Monday, the state of Illinois and the City of Chicago asked a judge to block the Trump administration’s deployment of military troops to Chicago.

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit said.

The foundational principle separating the military from domestic affairs is “in peril” as President Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities across the country, the suit said.

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