Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker isn’t pulling punches. On ABC’s This Week, he accused President Donald Trump of fabricating allegations to smear political foes—claiming the lies are part of a campaign to chill dissent.
Pritzker’s critique came amid the latest escalation over the Trump administration’s attempt to deploy federal forces and the National Guard in Chicago, framing the governor as an institutionalist standing between executive overreach and constitutional order.
Trump, unsurprisingly, responded like this was personal. He’s publicly demanded that Pritzker (and Chicago’s mayor) be jailed over alleged failures to protect ICE agents—a move critics say is theater wrapped in intimidation.
If you look behind the rhetoric, what’s happening is a power play disguised as moral certainty. Trump claims “law and order,” while Pritzker says the real threat is to due process. The war of narratives is reaching a fever pitch.
This is more than another showdown between red and blue states. It’s a test: can you weaponize the law when your targets are political, and can the rest of the country live with the precedent?
Citations
- Breitbart – “Pritzker: Trump Is Making Things Up to Go After Political Opponents” (Oct 12, 2025)
- Reuters – “Illinois sues to block Trump from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago” (Oct 6, 2025)
- New York Post – “Trump says J.B. Pritzker should be in jail for not protecting ICE in Chicago” (Oct 8, 2025)
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