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President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he think Gov. JB Pritzker is “afraid for his life” and baselessly claimed protesters in Chicago are “paid.” <\/span>Andrew Leyden\/Zuma<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Donald Trump<\/span> is making good on his promise to invade more American cities<\/a>. <\/p>\n On Saturday, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.) announced<\/a> that the Trump administration planned to deploy 300 National Guard troops to Illinois \u201cagainst our will.\u201d Gov. Pritzker added that Department of Defense officials had told him that if he did not call up the troops himself, they would.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThey will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance\u2014not a serious effort to protect public safety,\u201d Pritzker added. \u201cFor Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Pritzker said<\/a> the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was requesting National Guard troops be sent to Illinois to protect ICE agents, who have been carrying out what they call \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d an enforcement effort that DHS says<\/a> has led to more than 1,000 arrests.<\/p>\n It is unclear where or when the National Guard troops were deployed, and spokespeople for the White House and Pritzker\u2019s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Mother Jones<\/em> on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n Trump has already sent the National Guard to Washington, DC<\/a>, Portland, Los Angeles,<\/a> and Memphis, even though troops in some of these cities don\u2019t appear to have much to do<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Portland operation also hit a legal snag: On Saturday, a Trump-appointed federal judge temporarily blocked<\/a> Trump\u2019s deployment of the troops to the city, saying that the president\u2019s allegations of unrest and his depiction of the city as \u201cwar-ravaged\u201d were \u201cuntethered to facts.\u201d The government, the judge said, \u201cmade a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power\u2014to the detriment of this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has long been floating the idea of sending troops to Chicago, which he has called \u201ca mess,\u201d as I previously reported<\/a>. Earlier this week, at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s bizarre military meeting<\/a>, Trump said he told Hegseth officials \u201cshould use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds\u201d for the US military, adding, \u201cwe\u2019re going into Chicago very soon. That\u2019s a big city with an incompetent governor, stupid governor.\u201d<\/p>\n On CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/em> on Sunday, Pritzker told<\/a> host Jake Tapper that residents are \u201cbooing\u201d the presence of ICE, who are \u201cjust picking up people who are Brown and Black, and then checking their credentials.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t need them before they showed up,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n
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