‘Pritzker is nothing’: Trump signals intention to deploy National Guard to Chicago despite weeks of pushback by governor

CHICAGO — In the latest development in the weeks-long effort by the president to send the National Guard to Chicago for a crime crackdown, Trump said Tuesday that he would be sending the Guard to the Windy City, even though the governor never asked.

While speaking on the White House lawn on Tuesday, President Trump told reporters that he would be sending the National Guard to Chicago once his administration’s recently announced crime crackdown in Tennessee is complete.

“So I’m going to go to Chicago early, against Pritzker. Pritzker is nothing,” the President said. “If Pritzker was smart, he’d say ‘Please come in.'”

It comes just a day after the president indicated that Chicago could be next on the list for his crime-fighting efforts.

“We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next,” Trump said Monday.

But during his Monday remarks, Trump said a specific timeline is unclear and indicated that authorities did not plan to act immediately in Chicago.

The president has faced weeks of pushback from state and local leaders regarding a potential National Guard Deployment, something he began hinting at during an Oval Office meeting with FIFA’s president in late August.

The president claimed that a local deployment was needed due to the outrageous crime in Chicago, but data provided by the city paints a different picture.

CPD reports that Chicago saw a significant decline in violent crime during the first half of the year.

After significant resistance, Trump eventually shifted his sights from Chicago and narrowed in on Memphis for a crime crackdown.

The president made the announcement about a Memphis deployment during a sit-down with Fox News on Friday morning, during which he referred to the city as “deeply troubled,” adding that his administration was going to “fix that just like we did in Washington.”

While details about the plans remain unclear, the president’s previous attempt to deploy the Guard in Chicago was met by criticism from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who called the plans a political stunt.

“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Gov. Pritzker said during a news conference addressing the threats in late August.

Additionally, Pritzker has said that he feels there is no emergency to warrant the deployment, and without a specific request by the governor, the president lacks the authority to send in the National Guard for participation in law enforcement operations.

By early September, the president had seemingly begun walking back on his plans for a Chicago Guard deployment shortly after a judge ruled that his administration had broken the law when it ordered Marines and the National Guard into Los Angeles back in June.

But things had changed by Tuesday, when Trump indicated that he did not care whether the governor had issued a formal request or not.

Without a request by the governor, however, the president can only deploy Guardsmen under Title 10 control, which can only be done with congressional or constitutional authorization.

Even still, for the most part, Title 10 Guardsmen are not authorized to conduct arrests or detain people as part of law enforcement, though they can support local law enforcement with things like logistics, transportation and intelligence.

Amid the ongoing effort, a separate immigration enforcement operation dubbed “Midway Blitz” got underway in the city last week, stoking fear in immigrant communities.

The operation was not a large-scale anti-crime effort involving the National Guard; instead, only ICE agents were utilized.