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President Trump will use the military to stop the 2026 elections or take control of them, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has claimed.
Pritzker made the wild claim in an interview on Sunday with CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“He has other aims, other than fighting crime,” Pritzker said of Trump’s crime crackdown, which has involved the deployment of National Guard and other military troops to the streets of US cities, including Los Angeles and Washington DC.
“The other aims are that he’d like to stop the elections 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.
“He’ll just claim that there’s some problem with an election, and then he’s got troops on the ground that can take control.”
The White House dismissed Pritzker’s claims as fanciful.
“It’s amazing the lengths this slob will go to in order to deflect from the terrible crime crisis that has been plaguing Chicago for years,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The New York Post.
“Chicago’s residents would be much safer if Pritzker actually did his job and addressed his crime problem instead of trying to be a Resistance Lib hero,” she added.
President Trump has slammed Pritzker as “weak and pathetic,” as he prepares a deployment to Chicago, which he has described as a “hellhole.”
Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard will be deployed to Chicago as early as this week, as part of a major operation directed at increasing immigration enforcement and tackling crime.
According to The New York Times, at least 200 Homeland Security officials will be deployed to Chicago, where they will operate from the Great Lakes Naval Base and work to arrest illegal aliens across the so-called “sanctuary” state of Illinois.
It’s also rumoured that National Guard troops will be deployed to help ensure the Homeland Security officials are able to carry out their duties free from interference by protestors and rioters, like in Los Angeles.
CNN reports: “Chicago was among the first cities targeted in immigration enforcement operations when Trump took office in January. The administration also sued the city over its so-called sanctuary policies, though the case was dismissed when a judge ruled the federal government lacked the legal standing to bring the challenge, and threatened to withhold federal funding, which was also blocked by a judge.
“Now, the anticipated operations in Chicago are expected to be at a larger scale, using personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and possibly other agencies. Officials are preparing the National Guard to help if a peacekeeping presence is needed, akin to what unfolded in Los Angeles following protests, the sources said.
“Preparations for Chicago are already underway, including sending armored vehicles to the city in the coming days and surging federal agents by next Friday, Sept. 5, when, according to two sources, the operation is expected to kick off. Discussions, however, are still ongoing and planning is in flux.”
Governor Pritzker has vowed to sue the Trump administration if troops are deployed to Chicago.
Since the beginning of the summer, President Trump has used federal resources and state National Guard to aid immigration and law enforcement.
National Guard soldiers and Marines were deployed to the Los Angeles area in June to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after they faced significant protests and rioting conducting detention raids.
This month, President Trump deployed National Guard troops to the streets of the capital “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.”
Thousands of troops from multiple states have now been committed to the crackdown in Washington.
Soldiers from West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio will join members of the DC National Guard, as well as around 3,000 police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department and 500 federal law enforcement personnel.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump hailed the effects of his intervention in the capital.
“Carjacking in DC is down 87%,” he posted.
“ALL other categories of crime are likewise down massively since I got involved. DC will soon be a CRIME FREE ZONE, in only 14 days, far faster than scheduled. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
