In front of gleaming skyscrapers along the Chicago River, Illinois’ Democratic leaders showed a united front Monday against President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy the military into Chicago’s streets to fight crime with one message: “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.”
“You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference. “Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.”
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Pentagon has been considering for weeks deploying the military to Chicago. The report came a day after Trump suggested Chicago will be the next city he sends the military to after he activated the National Guard and other federal law enforcement personnel in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
Thousands of troops could be deployed in Chicago as soon as September, though two officials who spoke to the Post anonymously said the deployment is considered less likely for now.
“When I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there — I made the statement that next should be Chicago because Chicago is a killing field right now and they don’t acknowledge it and they say ‘we don’t need them, freedom, freedom, freedom, he’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator,” Trump said Monday. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”
The state’s leaders said they have not been contacted by the Trump administration asking whether the state wants policing help, and state leaders said they have not asked for help.
“If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab,” Pritzker said.
The state's top democrats said Trump is targeting Illinois for political reasons.
“This is an act of political theater by Donald Trump, and sadly, we have to take it extremely seriously,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “My friends, don't walk away and say this is just another political issue. This is how democracies die.”
Anticipating Chicagoans will take to the streets to protest if the military arrives, Pritzker encouraged protestors to be peaceful.
“Remember that the members of the military and the National Guard who will be asked to walk these streets are, for the most part, here unwillingly, and remember that they can be court martialed, and their lives ruined if they resist deployment,” Pritzker said.
Legal questions
Trump’s move faces significant legal questions, and Illinois leaders promised to file lawsuits to block the mobilization of the military.
The president and Congress have more powers over Washington, D.C., because of its status as a federal district and not a state, but it’s unclear what legal authority the president is considering applying to send troops to Chicago.
The National Guard is under the control of the governor, though the president has the power to federalize it to quell a rebellion or “unable with the regular forces” to enforce laws. The president can also invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to serve as law enforcement.
Those criteria haven’t been met, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.
Trump’s decision earlier this year to deploy the California National Guard to Los Angeles was challenged and has so far been upheld by a federal appeals court. California argued in that case that the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from acting as a domestic police force. The National Guard was sent to L.A. following protests over Trump’s immigration policies.
“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against and it's the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances,” Pritzker said. “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is unamerican.”
Raoul noted his office has long had effective crime-fighting partnerships with federal agencies.
“I'm not and have never been opposed to collaborative help from well-trained federal law enforcement agents. Were the president serious about addressing crime or criminal threats in Chicago, he would dedicate more resources to collaborative work that we already engage in with these federal agencies,” Raoul said.
Crime data
Overall crime in Chicago has declined by 13% this year, according to data from the Chicago Police Department. Nearly every category of crime has decreased this year, including murders — down 31%. Chicago has seen 256 murders through Aug. 17 this year, compared to 370 over the same timeframe in 2024. Shooting incidents broadly are down 36%.
Crime in Chicago has trended downward since 2023 and is down 15% overall since then. Incidents of crime are still 40% higher at this point of 2025 than in 2021, though murder is down 50% since 2021 and shooting incidents are down 57%. Felony theft, misdemeanor theft and motor vehicle theft are all up significantly since 2021.
The city’s data portal shows crime has generally been trending down throughout the 21st century from nearly half a million crimes in 2001 to about that level in 2024. The number of annual crimes in the city has been relatively flat for about 10 years, however.
Nationally, Chicago ranked 92nd in violent crime per 100,000 people in 2024 among the nation’s 200 largest cities, according to FBI data. Memphis ranked first and Milwaukee and St. Louis were eighth and ninth, respectively, while Rockford ranked 19th. Chicago had the 22nd highest murder rate and was eighth in robbery.
“I know (Trump) doesn't read, I know he doesn't listen to very many people, but I know he watches television, and so perhaps if somebody from FOX News or from Newsmax is here, they'll cover the fact that Chicago is in much better shape as a result of the work that we are doing to prevent crime,” Pritzker said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged the city must do more to reduce violence and said the Trump administration should release $800 million in violence prevention funding it has withheld this year and provide more funding for housing.
Also on Monday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to block federal funding to states and cities with cashless bail policies. Illinois eliminated cash bail in 2023 and Trump claimed jurisdictions with it have higher levels of crime. Early research of the first year without cash bail in Illinois did not show an increase in crime.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
