Illinois governor responds to President Trump's comments about Chicago violence – NBC 5 Chicago
Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back on President Trump’s criticism of how Chicago and Illinois officials are addressing violence in the city.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responded to President Donald Trump’s comments about violence in Chicago over the weekend, questioning the president’s claims that he could make Chicago “a safe city” in a single month.
Speaking at an unrelated press conference Monday, Pritzker was asked about a social media post from Trump, in which the president asked why Pritzker wasn’t “calling me for help” following several incidents, including a mass shooting, over the Juneteenth holiday weekend.
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“This is the president that thought that he could hire an unqualified company to paint the reflecting pool, and then thought that it would just be free of algae. And yet days later, it turned into an algae sea. And this is the same president that did not know that the Strait of Hormuz could be closed, shuttered essentially, by Iran if he went to war with Iran,” Pritzker said. “I don’t think that we should be listening to this president about promises that he makes or that he has any idea how to protect us in the state of Illinois.”
At least 13 people were injured when two gunmen opened fire from a vehicle at around 11 p.m. Friday in the Princeton Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, authorities said.
By Sunday afternoon, at least 37 people had been shot, seven of them fatally.
The wave of shootings captured Trump’s attention.
“Lots of killing going on in Chicago. 22 people shot, at least 4 dead,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help? I could make Chicago a safe city in ONE MONTH. In ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!! D.C. went from one of the worst to one of the safest cities in the U.S.”
The Illinois governor acknowledged he was “deeply concerned” about the safety of Illinois residents and noted the state had seen some “terrible tragedies.”
“It’s why I have asked for help from the FBI, the DEA, the ATF. Because going after guns and drugs and gangs is something that concerns me, just like it does local residents who are affected by those factors,” he said. “So, I wish that [Trump] would stop, you know, tweeting, or I guess Truth Socialing, and help us with the things we actually need.”
Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s calls for a military intervention. Under Trump, National Guard troops have been deployed on crime-fighting missions in Democrat-led cities including New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and Memphis, Tennessee.
Hundreds of National Guard members arrived in the Chicago area last October, though a federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from deploying them in Illinois.
While Chicago Police Department data shows a slight uptick in shooting incidents compared to the first half of last year, violent crime rates have generally dropped in the city over the past few years, in parallel with national trends.
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the Princeton Park mass shooting, calling it a “horrific act of violence.”
“I am heartbroken by the violence in Princeton Park last night,” he said in a social media post on Saturday, in part. “What should have been a night of celebration and community reflection for Juneteenth was shattered by a horrific act of violence. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones…”
Other major U.S. cities experienced gun-related violence over the weekend. In Philadelphia, two people were killed and two others wounded following a shooting early Sunday morning, according local news reports. In Cincinnati, a shooting reportedly killed three people Saturday evening. And police in Kansas City, Missouri say they are investigating a shooting Friday evening that left one dead and five wounded.
