Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s critique of Chicago’s “unchecked” levels of violence — instead blaming the president for gutting anti-violence programs.
The latest back and forth between the political rivals happened early Tuesday when the president on Truth Social wrote that “Chicago violence is unchecked and at record levels.” Trump’s comments came after a weekend mass shooting in Washington Park left one man dead and 14 others injured.
“These numbers are becoming normalized. It is out of control! The city will die if the Federal Government, a fine tuned crime fighting machine, is not invited in, by the Mayor or Governor, to HELP,” Trump wrote. “I am awaiting the call. Nobody should be forced to live under these conditions. Like D.C. and others, they will have almost no crime, FAST! The State and City can’t do what I do. Governor Pritzker, CALL!!!”
Trump implored similar language during “Operation Midway Blitz” and said both Johnson and Pritzker should have asked him for help with crime in the city, and amid massive protests against immigration enforcement. The enforcement led to a protracted legal battle over the use of the National Guard, which the president ultimately lost. Pritzker and Johnson instead put up a unified front against Trump’s targeted operation in Chicago, which left Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez dead and injured Marimar Martinez.
“When Trump last sent agents to Illinois, they murdered a father and shot an innocent woman in broad daylight — then attempted to cover it up,” Pritzker said in a statement. “We need to keep reducing violence, but this President does not make it easier. If only he hadn’t defunded the very programs that help.”
The governor’s office on Tuesday also accused Trump of “enabling” crime” — not fighting it.
“Governor JB Pritzker would like to set the record straight: this is the same federal administration that launched a lawless, lethal invasion on Illinois and gutted funding for gun violence prevention in the U.S.,” his office said. “Trump is not fighting crime — he is committing and enabling it.”
The Department of Justice last year cut more than $800 million in federal grants nationwide for violence prevention and public safety programs, citing shifting goals at the agency.
Johnson on Tuesday defended the city’s investments in driving down violence in Chicago, noting that last year marked the fewest homicides since 1965.
“The president of the United States of America has an open invitation to invest in the people of Chicago, and we’ve called for these investments repeatedly. He removed over $800 million out of gun violence reduction programs. He cut the ATF budget by 30%,” Johnson said at a press conference. “You know when you have a president who is literally defunding the operations that can actually assist us in creating safer communities, it’s difficult to take anything that he says seriously.”
The mayor called Trump a “sorry individual.”
“If he was serious about driving violence down, not just in Chicago but across the country, he would not be engaged in endless illegal wars. The president is investing more to bomb children than he is to feed children,” Johnson said. “He has an open invitation in Chicago and across this country to reverse the largest upward transfer of wealth that he placed into the hands of the ultra-rich, and actually fund the institutions and operations that ultimately provide safety and security for the people of this city and this nation.”
Contributing: Mariah Woelfel