Trump says Pritzker, Johnson ‘should be in jail’; ‘Come and get me,’ governor replies

Posted October 08, 2025 9:45 am

Marni Pyke

Escalating tensions between Illinois and the White House, President Donald Trump on Wednesday recommended jailing Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Gov. Pritzker also!” Trump posted on social media.

The jab comes amid a surge in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests in the Chicago region, and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Illinois.

Pritzker, who has accused ICE of racial profiling and excessive force, and called the National Guard mobilization “unconstitutional,” responded that Trump was “a coward. He says a lot of things to the camera; he likes to pretend he’s a tough guy. Come and get me.

“What kind of a country are we living in when the president is targeting his political opponents?” Pritzker asked reporters in downtown Chicago Wednesday.

“That is the world that we are living in now. He said he was going to jail (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom. He said he was going to jail me. He says he’s going to jail the mayor of the city of Chicago. These are people who stand against him, disagree with him, speak out about it but literally have done nothing wrong,” Pritzker said.

Johnson posted that “this is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, when asked what crimes the president believes Pritzker and Johnson had committed, failed to identify any, but she said they “have blood on their hands” and pointed to Chicago Police Department reports that at least five people were killed and 25 shot over the weekend.

“Instead of taking action to stop the crime, these Trump-deranged buffoons would rather allow the violence to continue and attack the President for wanting to help make their city safe again,” Jackson said.

The exchange comes as National Guard troops from Texas are positioned in Will County despite a lawsuit by the state and city to block any Guard deployment. A hearing on that suit is scheduled for Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Military personnel in uniforms bearing the Texas National Guard patch were at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Will County on Wednesday. A hearing on the state’s lawsuit to block the Guard’s deployment is scheduled for Thursday. AP

Pritzker addressed retaliation by the White House on Tuesday at the North Star Summit in Minneapolis with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“I’m asking any of you to visit me at the gulag in El Salvador,” Pritzker quipped.

Of Trump, Pritzker said, “he’s out of his mind and has dementia. It’s clear to me he is targeting blue cities and blue states.

“We’re the targets. We need to be strong. We need to fight back.”

Trump has often singled out Chicago and Illinois, in part because they have some of the country’s strongest immigrant protections. Both are “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which limit cooperation between police and federal immigration agents.

Johnson has strengthened those protections even further with executive orders, including one that bars immigration agents from using city-owned land as staging areas for operations. He calls Trump’s actions unconstitutional.

Johnson also has accused Trump of waging a war on Chicago and having an “animus” toward women and people of color. Nearly one-third of Chicago’s 2.7 million are Black and roughly one-third are Hispanic.

· Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.