President Donald Trump has issued another dire warning about the extent of street crime in Chicago, urging Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to call him and formally request federal military support.
“Chicago violence is unchecked and at record levels,” the president posted on Truth Social in the early hours of Tuesday morning, responding to reports about a fresh outbreak of gun violence in the Windy City.
“It has never been worse! This weekend 41 people were shot, 3 DEAD. 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.
“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!!!”
The president issued a similar appeal to Pritzker in June in response to another wave of violent crime incidents hitting the city over the Juneteenth weekend.
He told the Democrat: “Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this, FAST and Permanently. D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, all down to record lows, and quickly! CALL ME!”
Pritzker has yet to respond to Trump’s latest appeal but knocked him back on that occasion, mocking the president over the botched cleaning of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and over his failure to foresee Iran’s blockading of the Strait of Hormuz.
“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,” the governor said.
“I am deeply concerned to make sure that we are keeping the people of Illinois safe and we’ve had some terrible tragedies that have occurred.
“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.
“So I wish that he would stop tweeting or, I guess Truth Social-ing, and instead actually help us with the things that we really need.”
Trump has shown a willingness to send in federal troops, notably the National Guard and ICE, into Democrat-run cities over the last year to settle perceived law enforcement problems, often against the wishes of local political leaders and the public, inspiring protests.
Federal immigration forces did descend on Chicago last fall in what the administration called Operation Midway Blitz, bringing bad-tempered clashes between agents and demonstrators as they attempted to round-up undocumented migrants.
Their arrival was opposed by Pritzker beforehand, who clearly did not see anything to change his mind.
He later likened Trump’s operations to “the early days of Nazi Germany,” accusing ICE and other agencies of targeting ethnic minorities and arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.
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