By rssfeeds-admin The Illinois governor has sparred several times with Trump, calling the president a “racist, misogynist and homophobe” and vowed to fight Trump’s agenda.
Pritzker warned against appeasing Trump, saying, “I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.”
He then went on to draw parallels between Trump’s policy agenda and the rise of the Nazis prior to World War II.
“I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum [in Skokie] and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor,” he said.
Pritzker then described how the U.S. Supreme Court granted a group of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie in 1978, in a landmark case that decided that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.
“I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust,” Pritzker, who is Jewish, said.
“What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next?” he said.
“Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame,” he said. “The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.”
“It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control,” he continued.
Pritzker then said, “My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.”
During his short time in office, Trump has signed multiple executive orders, including:
- Closing the southern border and stemming the tide of illegal immigration into the country, and tasking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with carrying out deportations of non-citizens, beginning with those with criminal histories;
- Defining two genders, male and female, banning biological males from participating in women’s sports, and barring transgender people from serving in the military;
- Assigning the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, to audit government spending and freeze funding to programs, such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts that Trump claims divide Americans into groups separated along ethnic or gender lines;
- Placing tariffs on foreign goods sold in the United States, including “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from countries that place tariffs on U.S. products abroad.
Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford), responded in a statement, saying, “The Governor spends a great deal of time posting on social media criticizing President Trump, pontificating about national issues, fueling ridiculous Nazi accusations, and laying the groundwork for his own presidential ambitions in 2028 instead of keeping his focus where it needs to be; on Illinois and the challenges we face as a state.”
Rep. Brad Fritts (R-Dixon) added, “What I find most reprehensible about the Governor’s remarks today was when he likened Republicans to Nazis. I, for one, am sick and tired of the same rhetoric, deceit, and blame that comes from the majority party in Illinois. The Governor wants to criticize what he refers to as an ‘authoritarian regime’. Perhaps the Governor has short-term memory loss, but I remember just a few years ago when he exercised authoritarian rule over Illinois during the COVID-19 pandemic under the guise of public health. What about the schools he forced to close, the children he forced to mask, and the hard-working men and women he left out to dry while he enjoyed the freedom of Wisconsin and Florida? This failed attempt to score political points on the current Presidential administration is nothing more than Governor Pritzker throwing stones from his own glass mansion.”
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