Armed National Guard members patrol near the U.S. Capitol as security tightens after President Donald Trump’s deployment order. (Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis)
"Governor Pritzker should spend less time demonizing the police, more time trying to recruit more police and more time trying to call the president of the United States to get crime in his city under control," Leavitt said. "The president wants to allow law enforcement, whether it's state, local, federal, to do their jobs, to arrest criminals, to put them behind bars and to remove public safety threats from American communities. He'll continue to do that."
Pritzker, a Democrat who hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2028, has pushed back against the possibility of National Guard troops arriving in Chicago to address crime and said Monday the move would be "unconstitutional" and "un-American."
"Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish its dissidents and score political points," Pritzker said. "If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delivers remarks in Chicago alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson and other officials after reports the White House was preparing to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement Friday that crime is down in Chicago and said the city in the past year has reduced homicides by more than 30%, robberies by 35% and shootings by almost 40%.
But the White House has continued to point to local reports that Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city for the past 13 years, as of the most recent 2024 data.
"For 13 consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city," Leavitt said Thursday. "This is JB Pritzker's legacy, by the way."
