President Donald Trump called for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be imprisoned Wednesday morning amid his administration’s deployment of National Guard members to Illinois’ largest city.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Governor Pritzker also!”
Similar to Los Angeles, California and Washington, D.C., Trump has authorized federal officers and National Guard members to deploy to Chicago to crack down on crime and protect Immigration Customs and Enforcement facilities, and in defiance of a federal judge’s orders.
While deployed in Chicago, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that some city residents were “advocating for violence against the American people,” and that protesters were “victimizing people every day by the way that they’re talking.”
Johnson has refuted the White House’s claims that Chicago is overrun with violence, citing data that shows the city had made significant improvements in recent years in reducing its violent crime rates.
“The Trump administration, they are completely delusional right now, and what they are promulgating in this particular moment are not just unconstitutional measures, but they're dangerous and reckless,” Johnson said on Saturday during an appearance on MSNBC. “It's antithetical to who we are as a nation… This president has worked hard to relitigate the Civil War, and we're not going to stand for it!”