Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

Democratic leaders look to derail #Trump as he threatens to send #NationalGuard to more #cities

#JBPritzker took a water taxi along the #Chicago Riverwalk, past one of Trump’s downtown towers. The gleaming & heavily trafficked tourist district was a deliberate backdrop on the day the #Illinois governor directed a defiant message: “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.”

#law#MilitaryState #authoritarianism
https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-guard-troops-democrats-cities-chicago-988a659d9d13deb1e7a8f52cf47efef8
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

“This is not about fighting crime,” said #JBPritzker, flanked on Monday by #Chicago Mayor #BrandonJohnson & other leaders, adding that it’s more about “an arrogant little man” trying to “intimidate his political rivals.”

Pritzker, who is seeking a third term in 2026, has been among #Democrats’ most vocal #Trump critics. Weeks into Trump’s second admin, Pritzker compared it to the #Nazi#ThirdReich.

#law#MilitaryState #authoritarianism
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

Pritzker’s aides said his priority is to keep a #federal deployment from happening. That’s why #JBPritzker & his staff hustled to gather a cross-section of political, civic & faith leadership in a show of unity that #Trump would surely see.

“I know he doesn’t read ... but I know he watches television,” he said of Trump. “And so perhaps if somebody from Fox News or from Newsmax is here, they’ll cover the fact that #Chicago is in much better shape” because of what local officials are doing.
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

More recently, #JBPritzker welcomed #Texas#Democrats who fled the TX statehouse to delay #Republicans’ partisan redrawing of the state’s congressional districts at Trump’s request.

In #Chicago Monday, Pritzker & Johnson emphasized that the #Trump admin had not reached out about its plans…. Trump acknowledged he hadn’t talked to #Illinois or #Maryland ofcls & at one point Monday said he might not send #troops unless Pritzker asked.

#law#MilitaryState #authoritarianism
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago
#JBPritzker aides agreed #Democrats have a chance to emphasize public safety policy choices.

A litany of speakers in #Chicago cited drops–some of them considerable–in violent #crime & property crimes in the city. They also highlighted the hundreds of millions of dollars in #Trump admin cuts in federal support for #law enforcement, #housing & other programs that Johnson called “proven solutions to crime & violence reduction.”

“We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence,” the mayor said.