* The party of limited government…
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, accusing them of “failing to protect” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have been sent to the city.
His comments mark another escalation — at least in rhetoric — against Democratic leaders in Illinois who have been pushing back against his immigration crackdown there. There is no evidence that either Johnson or Pritzker has done anything to warrant jail time, and the White House did not specify which laws the president believes they have broken.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
The post is here.
* The president didn’t elaborate, but the Tribune speculates…
Trump’s comments appeared to refer to instructions sent to Chicago police during a protest that emerged on the Southwest Side after federal immigration agents shot a woman they later accused of ramming them with a car.
Conservatives have been in a furor after an internal dispatch from the department’s chief of patrol that said, “no units would respond” to a call for assistance from armed Border Patrol agents who said they were in the middle of a crowd about two hours after being targeted in two hit-and-runs.
Snelling on Monday denied that officers had been told to stand down, but did concede, “I will say there was a lot of miscommunication, back and forth about what was really happening out there on the ground, and we need to do better.”
* CBS 2…
Pritzker issued a statement on X in response to President Trump’s post.
“I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” Pritzker wrote.
Pritzker continued in a thread of X posts: “His masked agents already are grabbing people off the street. Separating children from their parents. Creating fear. Taking people for ‘how they look.’ Making people feel they need to carry citizenship papers. Invading our state with military troops. Sending in war helicopters in the middle of the night. Arresting elected officials asking questions.”
Mayor Johnson also posted to X.
“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested,” he wrote. “I’m not going anywhere.”
* Drudge’s front page…
* Asked for comment, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives dodged the question. I do not believe a follow-up question was asked.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about the president’s statement today…
Look, he’s a coward. He says a lot of things to the camera. He likes to pretend to be a tough guy. Come and get me. […]
I mean, look, he’s demented, literally unhinged. And this is somebody who’s so insecure that he lashes out, pretending that he can come arrest people for no reason at all. He can’t. He isn’t going to do it. TACO. Trump always chickens out.
