SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
jb pritzker
'More Chaos': Trump Hammered for Plan to Double Down on Tariffs After Supreme Court Ruling
"Donald Trump illegally stole your money," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "He should give it back to you."
Feb 20, 2026
President Donald Trump defiantly vowed to continue slapping tariffs on imported goods on Friday after the US Supreme Court overturned the so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs he implemented last year.
In a press conference held hours after the Supreme Court ruled against the president's tariff regime, Trump said that he had other tools at his disposal that allowed him to hit foreign products with taxes.
Among other things, Trump said he was going to issue a 10% global tariff using his authority under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 that allows the president to levy tariffs to address "large and serious" balance-of-payments deficits with foreign nations.
However, as a Friday analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute explains, any tariffs enacted through Section 122 expire after 150 days without authorization from Congress, which in theory could put vulnerable congressional Republicans on the spot to vote for or against the president's signature policy this summer right before the 2026 midterm elections.
The president's decision to plow ahead with his politically unpopular tariffs drew immediate criticism from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who said during an interview with MS NOW that Trump was creating even more economic uncertainty.
"What he's done is just doubled down and tried to make it worse," Klobuchar explained, "which, of course, is going to create more cost and chaos for the American people."
Klobuchar: "The scariest part from his press conference, in addition to the continued assault on the rule of law and the Constitution, is that he plans to continue doing this ... [but] I think you're starting to see bipartisan opposition to the president's tariffs, which would… pic.twitter.com/pqniYagtyW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2026
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman also predicted more chaos in the months to come from Trump's trade policies, particularly when it comes to businesses that will now lobby to get back the money illegally seized from them by the president's unconstitutional tariff regime.
Writing on his Substack, Krugman argued that Trump finding alternative means to levy tariffs would not "obviate the need to refund the tariffs already collected," because "if you seized money without constitutional authority, finding other revenue sources going forward doesn’t make the original seizure legal."
David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic, predicted that the coming lawsuits aimed at getting refunds for the illegal tariffs would be a massive mess.
"The post-tariff litigation is going to be nightmarish," he wrote on social media. "Wrongfully taxed plaintiffs will now sue for return of their illegally taken money. Can their customers then sue for a portion of the higher prices caused by the wrongful taxes? More Trump chaos."
However, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed the possibility of American businesses and consumers getting refunded for the tariffs.
While speaking at the Economic Club of Dallas on Friday, Bessent was asked if he expected a "food fight" for the $175 billion in tariff revenues that government has illegally collected since April.
"I've got a feeling the American people won't see it," Bessent said of the tariff money.
Bessent: I got a feeling the American people won't see the $175 billion in tariff revenue we collected pic.twitter.com/rj0Bmm0Exg
— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 20, 2026
However, some Democrats indicated that they were not simply going to let the administration getting away with money they unlawfully confiscated from US businesses and consumers.
"Donald Trump illegally stole your money," wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "He should give it back to you. Instead Trump is scheming up new ways to force Americans to pay even more."
Democrats on the US House Ways and Means Committee wrote that "Trump does not want to refund the money he illegally stole from you," vowing the party "won't stop fighting to get your money back."
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote Trump a letter after the Supreme Court ruling demanding that the president provide every family in his state a $1,700 refund for the tariffs, which he said "wreaked havoc on farmers, enraged our allies, and sent grocery prices through the roof."
Keep ReadingShow Less
What the Pearl Clutchers of Congress Can Learn From Pritzker’s List
Why are members of Congress, with so few exceptions, so short on ideas for fighting back against Trump's manifold abuses of power?
Nov 18, 2025
On October 23, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker filed an executive order establishing a state commission charged with recording abuses inflicted by federal agents sent to tyrannize the streets of Chicago during President Donald Trump’s tellingly named “Operation Midway Blitz.” The point of the new commission was to give the abused somewhere to go with their bruises, smashed windows, and shattered lives, and to compile evidence that could be brought to bear in checking the abuse, and perhaps even (at some point) punishing it.
It is this last point, not made explicit in the executive order, that I find so encouraging about Pritzker’s executive order. It puts the Trump administration on notice that their days of reckless self-indulgence are numbered and that a case against them is being compiled.
Not only does Pritzker’s List send a message. It gives people something, if only a very little thing, to do. It reminds the abused citizens of Chicago that they, not the camouflaged out-of-state goons patrolling their streets, are in charge, and that they have a personal role to play in taking those streets back.
All of which causes me to wonder: Where are the JB Pritzkers of Washington DC? Why are members of Congress, with so few exceptions, so short on ideas—good at “pearl clutching” in response to the president’s manifold abuses of power (here, for once, Donald Trump isn’t lying), but so clueless about fighting back? Where, for example, is the commission that Senate democrats have set up to compile evidence of criminal abuses of power in Pete Hegseth’s extrajudicial killings off the coasts of Columbia and Venezuela? How have they not gotten around to founding it?
Had someone with a backbone and big ideas taken the lead in DC, they might have come up with a plan that would both hit back at the Republicans for their cruelty and bring some real benefit to those affected by it.
In fact, dozens of such commissions are needed to collect evidence of criminal malfeasance, and to create a public record of the dates, times, and details of the crimes, from those working in the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and so on. All have been dragooned into abusing rights, flouting the Constitution, and telling Trump’s lies. If nothing else, the very existence of such de facto grand juries, organized by elected officials and helped by the efforts and evidence of affected citizens, will put the Trump administration on notice that a case against it is being compiled.
But Democrats don’t operate this way. They tell us that the midterms are looming, that something good is bound to happen in a year’s time, so “Donate Now”—as if we had that kind of time to waste, and as if there were nothing that they should be doing for us, and with us, right now.
Evidence of the DC Democrats’ well-meaning incompetence was on full display in their recent handling of the government shutdown. To their credit, they did manage to make Donald Trump look mean-spirited (as if that needed emphasizing), but the final cave-in made them look weak and, yet again, satisfied with just getting by, without a plan. The whole initiative ended up imploding because it depended on saner heads prevailing among the Republicans, and that was never going to happen.
With no Pritzker in sight, the dearth of ideas really showed. Had someone with a backbone and big ideas taken the lead in DC, they might have come up with a plan that would both hit back at the Republicans for their cruelty and bring some real benefit to those affected by it. The federal healthcare subsidies were scheduled to expire. Given the Republicans’ determination to see them dead, they were beyond rescue. So why not let Republicans bake that poisoned cake, then force them to eat it!
Here's how it might have worked. Subsidies expire and healthcare costs soar. That’s entirely on them. As a counter move, and to actually help those in need, Democrats could have undertaken to set up funds (via a consortium of state-sponsored and charitable efforts) to help those affected deal with, and cover at least some of, their soaring costs. But, in doing so, they could also make clear up front that this aid is temporary, merely a stop-gap measure, and that the charitable subsidies will expire, say, six weeks before the midterm elections next fall. They would then assure those depending on these subsidies that further help is both wanted and can be expected after the elections, but only if those in the House and Senate who supported Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” are voted out of office—“Oh, and here, by the way,” they would add, “are the names of those who voted for it.”
Now that would be hardball! But DC Democrats have nothing like this up their sleeve. They are quicker to tell you why any such plan could never work than to come up with one that can. But there are some out there, such as Pritzker with his list, who are writing a new playbook, one to “get going on” right now, based on fighting back, getting things done, and giving Trump and his conspiracy of fools far more to worry about than they can handle.
Keep ReadingShow Less
JB Pritzker Warns Trump Would ‘Take Us to War With Venezuela’ to Distract From Epstein
"He’s going to do everything in his power to distract,” said the Illinois governor.
Nov 13, 2025
As President Donald Trump escalated tensions in the Caribbean with its deployment of an aircraft carrier and warships, one of his top critics in the Democratic Party warned that Trump could follow through on earlier threats to strike Venezuela as newly released documents shed light on a topic the White House has sought to keep secret: the details of the president's friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“My great fear, of course, is that with the release of that information, which I think will be devastating for Trump, he’s going to do everything in his power to distract,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “What does that mean? I mean, he might take us to war with Venezuela just to get a distraction in the news and take it out of the headlines.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a series of emails in which Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, told a friend he spent Thanksgiving 2017 with Trump, informed a former New York Times journalist he had a "photo of donald and girls in bikinis," and suggested he had briefed Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, on Trump in 2018.
Trump has long claimed he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s after Epstein recruited girls at the president's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
After the Democrats released the emails, the Republican-controlled committee disclosed 20,000 pages of messages from the financier, who was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. Those messages, which were obtained from the Epstein estate in response to a subpoena, included a comment from Epstein that he was “the one able to take [Trump] down" and suggestions that he had knowledge of the president's real estate and business dealings.
Epstein also told journalist Michael Wolff of Trump, "Of course he knew about the girls." He told his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was also convicted of helping Epstein with his sex trafficking operation, that the president was "the dog that hasn't barked" in a 2011 email and said Trump had spent "hours at my house" with one of Epstein's well-known victims, Virginia Giuffre.
Pritzker on Wednesday demanded the full release of the Epstein files, saying Trump was "silent because he knows what's inside."
The release of the documents came after months of demands from Democrats that the US Department of Justice fully disclose files related to the Epstein case, which they believe would implicate Trump.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he plans to hold a vote next week on releasing the files. Johnson finally swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Wednesday after a weekslong delay he tried to blame on the government shutdown and Grijalva promptly became the 218th lawmaker to sign a discharge petition forcing the vote.
The president said late Wednesday that "the Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures."
But as Pritzker pointed out, the new developments in the Epstein saga follow the Trump administration's threats against Venezuela and his bombings of boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean—strikes that have killed at least 76 people and have been denounced by legal experts and Democratic lawmakers as extrajudicial killings.
The bombings have been part of what the administration claims is a campaign to stop drug trafficking out of Venezuela—a country that, according to the United States' own intelligence and law enforcement agencies, plays virtually no role in the trafficking of fentanyl, the leading cause of overdoses in the US.
Venezuela is a transit hub for—but not a significant producer of—cocaine, which is sometimes transported via the Caribbean to the US.
But while Trump has claimed to Congress that the US is in "armed conflict" with drug cartels, drug trafficking has long been treated as a law enforcement issue—not one to be confronted through military strikes—with those suspected of transporting illicit substances arrested and their products confiscated by the Coast Guard and other agencies.
Trump has also signaled that the US could attack Venezuela directly and has authorized Central Intelligence Agency operations there, prompting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to ready the country's entire military arsenal for a potential response on Tuesday. Maduro has accused Trump of seeking "regime change"—which Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long advocated for—and Trump explicitly said in 2023 that he would seek to take control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves if he won the presidency again.
On Wednesday, top military officials reportedly presented Trump options for potential military operations within Venezuela.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Evil, Fascist, Wannabe Authoritarian' Stephen Miller Threatens IL Gov. Pritzker With Arrest
"Remember, these fascist freaks pardoned the actual people convicted of 'seditious conspiracy' while falsely accusing their opponents of this serious crime," said one journalist.
Oct 25, 2025
Just over nine months after President Donald Trump returned to office and pardoned his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, one of the Republican's top aides suggested that federal law enforcement may arrest Democrats standing up to the White House's anti-migrant agenda, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Asked about the administration's willingness and federal authority to arrest the Illinois leader on Fox News Friday, Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, responded: "Well, the answer I'm about to give doesn't only apply to Gov. Pritzker, it applies to any state official, any local official, anybody who's operating in an official capacity who conspires or engages in activity that unlawfully impedes federal law enforcement conducting their duties."
"So if you engage in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws or to unlawfully order your own police officers or your own officials to try to interfere with ICE officers, or even to arrest ICE officers, you're engaged in criminal activity," he said, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Different types of crimes would apply. There is obstruction of justice. There is harboring illegal aliens. There is impeding the enforcement of our immigration laws."
"And then, as you get up the scale of behavior, you obviously get into seditious conspiracy charges, depending on the conduct, and many other offenses. So again, it depends on the action. It depends on the conduct. It depends on what is taking place," Miller continued. He went on to tell ICE officers that "you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties."
Both Miller's threat toward Pritzker and other officials, and his immunity claim, were met with swift backlash, including from Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan, who highlighted Trump's pardons for the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists.
"Remember, these fascist freaks pardoned the actual people convicted of 'seditious conspiracy' while falsely accusing their opponents of this serious crime," the journalist wrote on social media. "(On a side note, arresting Pritzker would make him the most popular politician in America overnight.)"
Trump himself has called for jailing Pritzker and Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson "for failing to protect" ICE officers. Priztker, a billionaire and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has suggested Trump should be removed from office via the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Miles Taylor, who served as Department of Homeland Security chief of staff during the first Trump administration and authored an infamous, anonymous 2018 New York Times editorial, said Friday, "Feels like we're going down the rabbit hole pretty fast here, folks."
California state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-11), one of the Democrats running for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's seat in the next cycle, said: "They're now explicitly taking the position that state and local elected officials are committing crimes when they attempt to protect their communities from the ICE secret police."
Weiner's state Senate district includes San Francisco, one of the cities targeted by Trump with immigration agents, and a potential National Guard deployment. The president said he backed off the threat to send troops to the city, for now, after calls from billionaire friends.
However, Trump's administration is still fighting in federal court to deploy the National Guard in the Chicagoland area, where ICE's Operation Midway Blitz is underway. The people of Illinois have responded with persistent protests, including at an ICE facility in suburban Broadview, where agents have met demonstrations with violence.
"No, ICE officers do not have immunity to assault and arrest unarmed Americans without a warrant," former Obama administration official and Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau stressed on social media Friday.
Tufts University international politics professor Daniel Drezner similarly said, "This seems very disturbing and also wrong."
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) concluded: "Stephen Miller is the most evil, fascist, wannabe authoritarian in the Trump regime. And that’s saying something."
Miller's comments came just two days after Pritzker appeared on Fox News and discussed Trump's attacks on him, immigration agents' actions in Illinois, and the risk that Trump may try to use US troops to steal future elections.
The governor's deputy chief of staff for communications, Matt Hill, responded to Miller's remarks by pointing to that appearance.
"Holy crap. Gov. Pritzker did ONE interview on Fox, and Stephen Miller is freaking out," Hill said on social media with a snowflake emoji. "All the Gov. did was appoint experts to collect videos and testimony of what's happening in Chicago. Now, Miller is threatening to silence Illinoisans and arrest their governor."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'We're Not Going to Forget': Pritzker Warns Trump Enforcers Miller, Homan, Bovino That Immunity Not Forever
"It may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know... it's not like we don't have a record of what they're doing."
Oct 17, 2025
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is warning top lieutenants of President Donald Trump's violent and unlawful immigration enforcement policies that they will not always have the protection of presidential immunity and that lawmakers in the future will seek to hold them to account for their behavior, including unlawful orders given at the behest of the president.
With episodes of violent raids, unlawful search and seizures, and the mistreatment of immigrants, protesters, journalists, and everyday citizens, Pritzker, in a Thursday evening interview on MSNBC, specifically named White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and Gregory Bovino, the Customs and Border Patrol commander operating in the Chicago area, as people whose actions will not be forgotten.
"All these people need to recognize, you may have immunity because Donald Trump's willing to pardon anybody who's carrying out his unlawful orders," said Pritzker, "but you're not going to have it under another administration."
Pritzker: "Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. So he should know that yeah, it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget." pic.twitter.com/ExpdyijtnO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2025
Pritzker said that all the people serving the president, "including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there's a change in administration that's willing to hold them accountable when they break the law."
Calling out Miller in particular, the governor charged that the xenophobic Trump advisor, who has been a leading champion and director of the harsh crackdown measures and federal deployments in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and elsewhere, has "clearly ordering people to break the law."
Critics and legal experts have said the deployments themselves are unconstitutional, and the heavy-handed tactics of agents have resulted in numerous violations of civil liberties and constitutional protections.
Miller should know, said Pritzker, that "it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget and it's not like we don't have a record of what they're doing."
On Thursday, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jeremy Raskin (D-Md.) led a letter from Democrats on the committee demanding that the Trump administration "immediately end its unlawful and violent enforcement campaign in the Chicagoland region, warning that the Administration’s actions are undermining public safety, violating constitutional rights, and destabilizing communities."
According to a statement from Raskin's office:
For months, personnel from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have employed military-style tactics in enforcement operations across Chicago, spreading fear, chaos, and violence. Such extreme enforcement tactics have only escalated since the Administration’s announcement of Operation Midway Blitz in September. In early October, President Trump went further, federalized the National Guard—over the objections of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker—and ordered troops to Illinois to enable these unlawful and unconstitutional assaults on Chicagoland residents.
In October alone, DHS personnel have shot two people and publicly advanced self-serving narratives that were immediately contradicted by body camera and surveillance footage, handcuffed an Alderperson at a hospital checking on the welfare of a constituent being detained by ICE, indiscriminately deployed tear gas in front of a public school and against civilians and local law enforcement, placed a handcuffed man on the ground in a chokehold, shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball, thrown flashbang grenades at civilians, and raided an entire apartment complex and reportedly zip-tied U.S. citizens, children, and military veterans for hours.
In a letter addressed to Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, the 18 Democratic members of the committee, including Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who represents the Chicagoland district, said, "The Administration claims the mantle of law and order, yet its actions in the Chicagoland
area demonstrate it is a catalyst for lawlessness and dysfunction."
"Violently abusing residents, kidnapping parents and children and disappearing them into detention facilities without access to basic necessities, and illegally deploying the militaryagainst a great American city," the letter continues, "does nothing to make anyone safer—in fact, it jeopardizes the safety and well-being of every community members."
Demanding a halt to the attacks by federal agents in Chicago, the lawmakers said "[t]he American people want a common- sense approach to public safety and immigration, not violent tactics that traumatize and destabilize communities. They want leadership, not theater. We urge you to step back from the brink and use your positions to enhance public safety, instead of undermining it."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Terrifying Escalation' as Trump's Federal Troops Bring War-Like Scenes and Chaos to Chicago
A group of veteran Chicago activists said the latest immigration enforcement operations are "a brazen attempt to instill fear in and demand obedience of all Americans."
Oct 15, 2025
Federal immigration enforcement officials have been ramping up operations in Chicago in recent days, including in a violent confrontation on Tuesday in a neighborhood in which agents deployed smoke grenades, pepper balls, and tear gas against local demonstrators.
As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, the confrontation began when federal agents deliberately rammed into a car that they had been pursuing on the Southeast Side of Chicago.
The collision with the vehicle forced the car's two occupants to exit the vehicle and flee from law enforcement officials on foot. Shortly after this, a crowd of local residents came out of their homes and began protesting against the actions of the immigration agents.
According to the Sun-Times, "a large number of armed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents responded to the crowd by hurling smoke grenades, shooting pepper balls and deploying at least three rounds of tear gas over the area, even with children and seniors in the area." By the end of the confrontation, four protesters were placed under arrest, as were the two men who were targeted for arrest by immigration enforcement officials.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker expressed outrage over the incident and demanded accountability from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over what he described in a social media post as "unchecked attacks on Chicago residents."
"[ Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is an out-of-control danger to our peaceful communities," he added.
Andre Vasquez, a Chicago City Council member, told The New York Times in an interview that federal immigration officials are causing chaos throughout the city.
"Chicago’s been doing just fine, and then these guys showed up," he said. "There is big concern about what these unidentified, masked men are doing in this city without accountability. Chicagoans are just trying to live their life. We’re not going to tolerate unconstitutional authoritarianism."
As Common Dreams has reported, the Trump administration has deployed federal agents to several cities that it claims are overrun with crime—but statistics have shown violent crime on a significant decline in recent years in Chicago and other cities targeted by the president.
Oscar Sanchez, who volunteers for a local rapid response network that tracks immigration enforcement activities, told the Sun-Times that the latest actions by CBP agents mark a significant escalation in law enforcement aggression.
“When you’re using these tactics, you are asking people to be hospitalized,” he said. “You see elderly folks on the [ground], so you just ask yourself, what is this for? Why is the aggression needed? Why are these elevated tactics even being used?”
Sanchez's words were echoed by six Chicago activists who took part in 1960s demonstrations against the Vietnam War, and who wrote an editorial for the Sun-Times in which they described the tactics being used by law enforcement as a "terrifying escalation" beyond anything used by law enforcement officials during the famous anti-war demonstrations outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
After describing the actions taken by the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois National Guard during the 1968 protests—including "clubbing, corralling, gassing protesters, dragging many of us into patrol wagons"—they said that what the Trump administration is doing today is even worse.
"Flouting the Constitution, President Donald Trump has declared war on the very people he was elected to serve," they wrote. "The Trump administration, weaponizing the Department of Homeland Security against ordinary Americans, is occupying Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Memphis, Chicago, and Portland, deploying military tactics to stifle free speech, staging performative raids under the pretext of pursuing dangerous criminals, and subverting democratic norms without accountability."
The end goal of these operations, the activists warned, is "a brazen attempt to instill fear in and demand obedience of all Americans."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Pritzker Warns Trump Will Have Military Seize Ballot Boxes So He Can 'Count the Votes Himself' in Elections
"Come and get me," the Illinois governor said when asked about the president's call to have him arrested.
Oct 08, 2025
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a new warning on Wednesday about President Donald Trump's efforts to deploy the American military in US cities against the wishes of local elected officials.
Hours after Trump called for Pritzker's imprisonment in a Wednesday morning Truth Social post, the Illinois governor claimed in an interview with MSNBC that the president's ultimate goal with sending troops into US cities was to control the outcomes of future elections.
"He wants to militarize major cities across the United States, especially blue cities in blue states, because he wants us to get used to the idea of military on the streets," he said. "2026 elections, I believe he's going to post people outside ballot boxes and polling places, and, if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes and count the votes himself."
Pritzker pointed out that Trump considered ordering the military to seize ballot boxes after he lost the 2020 presidential election, but he was met with resistance from officials in his own administration.
However, Pritzker said that "I believe he would do it in 2026" to help Republicans maintain control of Congress.
Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities across the US, especially blue cities in blue states, because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of ballot boxes and polling places and if he needs to in order to… pic.twitter.com/hIyz41tsAb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2025
Pritzker also struck a defiant tone when asked about Trump's call to imprison him.
"This guy's a convicted felon who's threatening to jail me!" he exclaimed. "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me."
Pritzker: "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump. If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me." pic.twitter.com/3QBrovBpZs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2025
Pritzker's remarks come as Trump and his administration have deployed Texas National Guard soldiers to Chicago over the objections of both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The state and city are challenging the deployment in court.
Federal immigration officials have been employing increasingly aggressive and violent tactics in the Chicago area in recent weeks, including attacking a journalist and a protesting priest with pepper balls outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Serious, Ominous Stuff': Trump Calls to Jail Johnson, Pritzker After Texas Invasion
One critic accused Trump of "pitting armed soldiers from one state against the citizens of another."
Oct 08, 2025
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hours after members of the Texas National Guard arrived to patrol the streets of the third-largest US city.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the "Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers" and then added, "Governor Pritzker also!"
Sam Stein, a reporter at The Bulwark, described Trump's call to jail Johnson and Pritzker "serious, ominous stuff" in a post on X, and then recommended an article written by his colleague, Jonathan Last, who warned that the Texas National Guard is being used "to impose the president’s will on the citizens of Illinois."
Last then listed actions by federal immigration enforcement officials that he described as a ratcheting up of "extralegal violence against both immigrants and citizens in Chicago" aimed at provoking an angry local response that will then be used as a justification for further escalation.
"He is setting not just the federal government against one of the states, but pitting armed soldiers from one state against the citizens of another," Last warned.
Trump's threats to jail Johnson and Pritzker came on the same day that former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned in federal court after Trump directly lobbied for his indictment last month, even going so far as to fire the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia because he did not think there was a legitimate criminal case against Comey.
Trump on Tuesday officially deployed Texas National Guard troops to Chicago, purportedly to assist local law enforcement and federal immigration officials working in the area.
Since the president launched "Operation Midway Blitz" in September, hundreds of federal immigration agents have been deployed to Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, where Pritzker has said they have caused "chaos" where none existed before they arrived—attacking a journalist and a priest with pepper balls at a protest outside an ICE facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
In a speech delivered last week in front of hundreds of US generals, Trump laid out plans to use the American military to battle against a group of citizens whom he described as "the enemy from within."
"This is a war too," Trump said at one point during his speech. "It’s a war from within."
The president also said that he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that "we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," after he listed San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles as "very dangerous places" that "we’re gonna straighten... out one by one."
Trump for decades has spoken in approving terms of governments that use the military to crush internal dissent. In a 1990 interview with Playboy, for instance, Trump said that the Chinese government "almost blew it" when student protesters flooded into Tiananmen Square.
"Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength," Trump said of China. "That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Illegal... Unconstitutional... Dangerous... Wrong': Texas National Guard Troops Invade Illinois
"Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting," vowed Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
Oct 07, 2025
Defying objections from state and local leaders, Texas Army National Guard troops sent on orders from President Donald Trump began arriving in Chicagoland Tuesday, sparking widespread outrage and vows to resist.
Hundreds of federalized troops arrived at a military facility in suburban Joliet, Block Club Chicago reported. The Trump administration also announced plans over the weekend to federalize the Illinois National Guard and call up hundreds more troops for a mission to ostensibly support the president's anti-immigrant crackdown.
Officials including US Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson—all Democrats—have condemned the deployment.
"No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate,” Pritzker said in a statement ahead of the deployment. “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
President Trump and Governor Abbott have illegally sent the Texas National Guard into the sovereign state of Illinois over the objections of Governor Pritzker.This is a frightening and unconstitutional escalation.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@durbin.senate.gov) October 7, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Johnson—who on Monday signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones,” barring US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel from using city-owned facilities—addressed the deployment during a Tuesday press conference.
"As far as what we are hearing, the National Guard—first of all, it’s illegal, unconstitutional, it’s dangerous, it’s wrong," the progressive leader of the nation's third-largest city told reporters. "This is not about deportation. This is not about safety for this president."
Illinois and the city of Chicago on Monday filed a pair of lawsuits seeking to block Trump's invasion. US District Judge April Perry subsequently refused to block the deployment, instead ordering the US Department of Justice to respond to the lawsuit within 48 hours. Perry set a Thursday hearing on the matter before she issues a ruling on the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order to block the deployment.
Trump's Illinois deployment followed his federal invasion of cities including Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; and Portland, Oregon. Judges have ruled that the LA and Portland deployments are illegal.
On Monday, Trump said he was open to invoking the Insurrection Act to put down future civil unrest in US cities, drawing sharp condemnation from legal experts and other critics, some of whom accused the president of trying to foment disorder he could cite to justify even more authoritarianism.
Officials and activists in Illinois vowed to continue resisting Trump's actions.
"Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting," Pritzker said Tuesday. "We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities."
Keep ReadingShow Less
GOP Senator Calls ICE Comments by Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Criminal Incitements to Violence
The two Democratic leaders have strongly condemned "Operation Midway Blitz," in which immigration agents have violently raided homes and cracked down on peaceful protests.
Oct 07, 2025
Merely by describing the recent actions of federal immigration agents in Chicago, one Republican senator claimed at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, the city's mayor and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, were "inciting violence."
At the hearing, where Attorney General Pam Bondi testified on her leadership of the US Department of Justice since she was appointed by President Donald Trump, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) recited a list of recent statements by Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, both of whom have expressed strong opposition to "Operation Midway Blitz."
The campaign has involved the deployment of more than 200 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal immigration authorities who have officially been directed to arrest undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records. More than 1,000 people have been arrested since ICE arrived in the nation's third-largest city in September. Nationally, the libertarian CATO Institute found in June that about 65% of people detained by ICE this year have not had any criminal conviction.
In Chicago over the past month, US citizens, immigrants with legal status, and children have been swept up in raids and violence. ICE agents have been filmed throwing a congressional candidate to the ground at a protest; a journalist reported being attacked with a pepper ball by a masked agent "absolutely unprovoked" outside a detention facility where she was covering protests; and body camera footage has cast doubt on the Department of Homeland Security's justification for the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez.
In her comments on Tuesday, Moody claimed to be concerned about violence in Chicago—but as with Trump's signing of a presidential memo last month that mandates a "national strategy" to allow law enforcement to clamp down on left-wing organizers before they can commit "violent political acts," the senator reserved her alarm for violence that she claimed Pritzker and Johnson were inciting by talking about ICE.
Moody condemned Pritzker's description of "militarized [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE agents to the streets of Chicago" and his statement that "people are getting detained, they're getting arrested." She placed special emphasis on the words "US citizens," apparently to suggest the governor should not speak about the fact that citizens, including residents of an apartment complex where ICE agents broke down doors and dragged people out onto the street one night last week, have been detained.
Moody: Pritzker says they are using tear gas and chemical agents at peaceful protesters…. I am wondering if Pritzker and Johnson understand that there are federal laws that criminalize inciting violence pic.twitter.com/ffpN6xWRWQ
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2025
Moody also denounced Johnson's comments on "a rogue, reckless group of heavily armed, masked individuals roaming throughout our city" and for saying that the city "will use this as an opportunity to build greater resistance."
The senator appeared to suggest that, were it not for Johnson and Pritzker's expressions of outrage over Trump's deployment of federal agents and the National Guard in Chicago, residents would not be alarmed about Operation Midway Blitz.
"I am wondering if Pritzker and Johnson understand that there are federal laws that criminalize inciting violence," said Moody. "Any time you start pitting your own people against their own government, a government that's only there at its core to protect rights and the safety of its people, that is incredibly dangerous."
Without being pushed by Pritzker and Johnson, Chicago residents have engaged in nonviolent protests against Trump's anti-immigration agenda in recent weeks, with thousands marching in solidarity with immigrant communities before the deployment of ICE agents began.
Keep ReadingShow Less
See More
Most Popular
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy