(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump challenged Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker to seek federal assistance after a bloody weekend left multiple dead and dozens injured across Chicago, Just the News reported.
“Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help,” Trump wrote Sunday morning on Truth Social. “I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!”
The president’s rebuke came after a surge of gun violence swept through Chicago during the Juneteenth holiday weekend starting last Friday. The deadliest single episode unfolded shortly after 11 p.m. Friday in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side, when two gunmen in a red SUV pulled alongside a large crowd in the 200 block of West 95th Street near Princeton Avenue and opened fire, per a report by CBS.
13 people were wounded—victims ranging in age from 17 to 47—with at least one 26-year-old woman in critical condition at the University of Chicago Hospital, per Fox 32. As CBS reported, investigators placed more than 100 evidence markers along the block, many flagging what appeared to be rifle shell casings scattered across the street and sidewalk.
The weekend’s cumulative violence reached at least seven fatalities and 38 additional wounded across numerous incidents throughout the city, the Associated Press reported.
Trump has previously sent National Guard forces to New Orleans, Memphis, and Washington to suppress crime. As Townhall reported, Trump highlighted his administration’s achievements in the nation’s capital, asserting it transformed “from one of the worst, to one of the safest cities in the U.S.” and presenting this as proof of what federal action could deliver for Chicago.
Yet Pritzker, frequently mentioned as a prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s offers of federal support for America’s third most populous city. Both the governor and Mayor Brandon Johnson maintain that Chicago crime rates are actually falling, pointing to an approximately 30 percent reduction in homicides, and accuse Trump of fabricating a crisis to score political points.
According to a report by the Washington Examiner, Pritzker has charged that Trump desires “mayhem on the ground” as justification for sending additional forces, characterizing the broader initiative as “an authoritarian power grab” designed to threaten political adversaries in Democratic strongholds. The governor earlier issued a stark warning stating “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,” per a report by the Huffington Post.
This confrontation marks the newest episode in a prolonged battle between the president and Illinois leadership. Following a Labor Day 2025 weekend that saw nearly 60 shooting victims, Trump declared he would invoke the Insurrection Act. The following month he issued a presidential directive federalizing 300 Illinois National Guard members to safeguard federal personnel after Pritzker declined to activate them.
Pritzker’s office provided no response to inquiries from Just the News.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
