Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker fired back at President Donald Trump's call to have him jailed for obstructing justice in Chicago, suggesting Trump's message is "authoritarianism."
"I will not back down," Pritzker wrote Wednesday morning on X. "Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.
"What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?"
His X post came after Trump posted that the anti-Trump and anti-ICE leaders of Illinois and Chicago should face legal accountability for their ostensible "authoritarianism" of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and justice.
"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"
With Trump seeking to use National Guard troops from multiple states to secure and provide safety for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Democrat-run cities, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Pritzker may be amplifying tensions.
Johnson has called for ICE-free zones in the city of Chicago.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused Johnson of failing to meet his legal responsibility to protect federal facilities.
"You've got a mayor who literally should be in jail right now for taking away protection from the federal officers," Giuliani told Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight."
"He was supposed to provide it; he didn't. They've been doing that for a long, long time, putting federal agents in harm's way."
Giuliani said the National Guard's presence in Chicago highlights how local leadership has failed.
"This is 65 years of crooked Democratic rule," he said. "Chicago is legendarily probably the most crooked city in the history of America."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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