The White House releases a video criticizing the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois
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The White House escalated its feud with Illinois Democratic leaders on Wednesday, releasing a video criticizing Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
In the video, which appears to show police and immigration authorities, President Donald Trump described Chicago as “a mess.”
“You have an incompetent mayor, completely incompetent,” Trump said. “We have a governor who refuses to admit he has problems. Everyone knows how bad it is. The open border nightmare has flooded our country with fentanyl and people who shouldn’t be here, some of the worst people on Earth and illegal drugs have decimated American communities and left us with the greatest law enforcement challenge in our country’s history.”
President Donald Trump (left) called for the imprisonment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (center) and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for “failing to protect” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Wednesday. (Stephanie Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The White House then turned to an audio clip of Pastor Corey Brooks speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” in August, where he noted that violent crime had not improved in Chicago and urged the president to send in the National Guard.
“We need to invite President Trump in,” Brooks said in the clip. “We’re calling on the National Guard to come in… We’ve had 254 deaths in 233 days, and anyone in our community who says people are safe, that’s an outright lie.”
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The focus shifted back to Trump, as he added that Chicago “needs help.”
“They urgently need help,” the president said. “Chicago is desperate for help. We don’t want to lose Chicago. We will lose Chicago. We want to save these people. We will lose them. We will not allow this kind of brutality to destroy our community any longer. We will stop it. One by one.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker opposes federal deployments to Chicago. (Camille Krazaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
The video was posted hours after Trump called for the arrest of Johnson and Pritzker on the website Truth Social.
“The Mayor of Chicago should be in jail for failing to protect ice officers! Governor Pritzker too!” Trump wrote in a post.
“What’s left on the path to total tyranny,” Pritzker responded to X, noting that he “will not back down.”
The two leaders in Illinois clashed with the president over immigration enforcement and Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops into the state to protect federal employees and property amid escalating anti-immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Broadview.
Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois this week and were mobilized for an initial 60-day period.
Law enforcement arrests a protester near a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois, on October 3. (AP/Erin Holley)
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On Tuesday, Pritzker accused Trump of being a “man with dementia,” claiming that the president “doesn’t read,” according to the British newspaper the Daily Mail. Chicago Tribune.
“This is a guy who has something stuck in his head. He can’t get it out of his head,” Pritzker said. “He doesn’t read. He doesn’t know anything up to date. It’s just something in the recesses of his brain that makes him call out to these towns.”
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He added: “Unfortunately, he has the authority of the army and the authority of the federal government to carry out his orders, and this is what he does.”