The governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, says the state is prepared to take President Trump to court “pretty quickly” should the president send the military into Chicago. Mr. Trump said as recently as Saturday that he was prepared to deploy assets to the city. 

Mr. Trump has been thrilled with the results of his takeover of Washington, D.C.’s law enforcement apparatus, and now wants to replicate that success in cities across the country. He has been specifically targeting Chicago for more than a week, saying that the murder rate is far too high.

The president’s takeover of the capital’s police force, along with his deployment of National Guard troops and additional federal agents, is already notching some significant successes and winning praise even from some Democrats. Last week, the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, praised the president for his help in combating crime, though she argued that masked federal agents were leading to a sense of distrust in the community. 

Polling suggests that voters support the president’s decision to deploy those federal resources. A Harvard–Harris poll — the results of which were released last week — finds that a majority of voters believe the Washington takeover was necessary and justified. In total 54 percent thought the move was necessary, while 46 percent said it was unnecessary.

Mr. Pritzker, preparing for a possible takeover, says he is ready for the fight. In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Mr. Pritzker said the president is doing this all on a “whim” because he and Chicago are living “rent free” in the president’s head. 

“We hope that they don’t send any troops along with ICE, and if they do, they’ll be in court pretty quickly because that is illegal,” he said. “National Guard troops — any kind of troops — on the streets of an American city don’t belong, unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency. There is not.”

Mr. Pritzker says “no one in the administration” has called anyone in his own office or anyone in the city of Chicago. 

“It’s clear that, in secret, they’re planning this, well, it’s an invasion with U.S. troops,” the governor said. “It’s disruptive, it’s dangerous, it tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don’t let us know what their plans are and we can’t coordinate with them.”

Mr. Pritzker says, however, that he would welcome real coordination on issues like violent crime and gun violence with open arms should the administration actually seek to work with Chicago. 

“We want more help. You know what kind of help we want? Civilian law enforcement help,” Mr. Pritzker said. “We would like [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] agents to help us take more guns off the streets. We would like [the] FBI, again, to coordinate with our local law enforcement to help catch perpetrators of crimes.”

“If they do that, we would welcome that. But that’s not what they’re planning to do,” he said. 

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, violent crime in Chicago has fallen significantly in recent years. At its high point in the second half of 2021, the murder rate stood at 17.3 per 100,000. In the first six months of 2025, that rate has been cut by more than half, down to seven per 100,000.

Rates of aggravated assault, robbery, carjackings, and gun crime are also down in the last few years by varying degrees, but the city remains one of the most crime-ridden metropolises in America.

The secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, also on “Face the Nation” Sunday, confirmed that her department was planning to “add more resources to those operations” in Chicago. “I won’t disclose the details because they are law enforcement and investigative folks that are on the ground there, and I want to make sure that we keep their security our number one priority,” she said. 

On Saturday, in response to the president’s threats, Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, signed an executive order aimed at preemptively protecting residents from federal agents or members of the military should they be sent to the city. 

“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Mr. Johnson said at the signing event on Saturday. The order states that Chicago’s police department is barred from participating in any kind of investigations, joint patrols, or arrests, among other things. 

Later that day, the president issued a threat on Truth Social, saying that the federal government would be coming to Chicago if the crime issue is not quickly resolved. “JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME. He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Mr. Trump wrote.