- Trump threatens to imprison the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois.
- National Guard troops gather outside Chicago despite opposition.
- The former head of the FBI must appear in court to face criminal charges.
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for jailing the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepares to deploy military troops to the streets of the third-largest city in the United States.
Neither Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson nor Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have been charged with criminal offenses, although both have emerged as prominent opponents of Trump's immigration crackdown and the deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-leaning cities.
Trump's call to jail the two elected officials comes as another high-profile political rival, former FBI Director James Comey, was scheduled to appear in court to face criminal charges that have been widely criticized as flimsy.
Trump has frequently called for imprisoning his opponents since he first entered politics in 2015, but Comey is the first to face prosecution.
On his social media platform, Trump accused Johnson and Pritzker of failing to protect immigration agents who have been operating in Chicago.
“The mayor of Chicago should be in jail for failing to protect ice officials! Governor Pritzker too!” Trump wrote, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Johnson on Monday signed an executive order creating an “ICE-Free Zone” that prohibits federal immigration agents from using city property in their operations.
“This is not the first time Trump has tried to wrongfully arrest a black man. I'm not going anywhere,” he said on social media.
Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, also said he would not back down. “Trump is now calling for the arrest of the elected representatives who control his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
Trump has promised to harness the power of the federal government to attack his enemies. In addition to Comey, his Justice Department is investigating several other high-profile critics. All have denied wrongdoing and Comey is expected to plead not guilty to charges of lying to Congress.
Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled that ICE had violated a 2022 agreement that limits the agency's ability in several Midwestern states to arrest immigrants without a warrant, in an opinion that could limit some of the aggressive tactics adopted by ICE since Trump returned to office.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said the agency had wrongly declared the deal off and extended it through February.
Troops to Chicago
Hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers have gathered at an Army installation outside Chicago, despite the objections of Pritzker, Johnson and other state Democratic leaders. Trump has threatened to deploy troops to more American cities, which he said last week could serve as “training grounds” for the military.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that a majority of Americans oppose deploying troops without an outside threat.
Trump has ordered Civil Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, following his previous deployments to Los Angeles and Washington, DC. In each case, he has defied staunch opposition from Democratic mayors and governors, who say Trump's claims of lawlessness and violence do not reflect reality. He has also said he will send troops to Memphis.
“My goal is very simple. STOP CRIME IN AMERICA!” he wrote on his social media platform.
Violent crime has been declining in many US cities since the peak of the Covid era, and until now National Guard troops have largely been used to protect federal facilities, not combat street crime.
Protests over Trump's immigration policies in Chicago and Portland had been largely peaceful and limited in size, according to local officials, far from the conditions described by Trump administration officials.
At an immigration center in Broadview, Illinois, outside Chicago, four protesters held signs and chanted slogans Wednesday in front of a wall of heavily armed officers. The administration has said National Guard troops could be sent to protect the facilities, but none had arrived by early afternoon.
Pritzker has accused Trump of trying to foment violence to justify further militarization, and his state has sued to stop the deployment. A federal judge on Monday allowed the deployment to continue for now. Another federal judge blocked the deployment in Portland.
Trump has threatened to invoke an anti-insurrection law to circumvent any court order blocking him, which was last invoked during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
