This is the Way

In a scathing critique of President Donald Trump, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday accused the Republican president of deploying National Guard troops to the Democratic cities of Chicago and Portland based on fixations that stem in part from his being mentally impaired.

“This is a man who’s suffering dementia,” Pritzker said in a telephone interview with the Tribune. “This is a man who has something stuck in his head. He can’t get it out of his head. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t know anything that’s up to date. It’s just something in the recesses of his brain that is effectuating to have him call out these cities.

“And then, unfortunately, he has the power of the military, the power of the federal government to do his bidding, and that’s what he’s doing.”

President Trump escalated his battle with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying the Democratic leaders should be imprisoned for failing to protect ICE officers.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!,” Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social. 

Trump didn’t specify what laws Johnson or Pritzker allegedly broke.

“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested,” Johnson said on social media. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Pritzker responded on social media by saying: “I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”