Pritzker, Johnson 'Should Be In Jail,' Trump Says

CHICAGO, IL — President Donald Trump took to social media Wednesday morning to call for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed.

"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!" Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The president's words are a dramatic escalation as 400 National Guard troops from Texas descend on the Chicagoland against local authorities' wishes.

Related: National Guard Troops Arrive At Elwood Training Facility

Pritzker and Johnson both bit back with responses to Trump, as the unrest in the city continues.

“I will not back down,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X. “Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?... We must all stand up and speak out.”

In an interview on MSNBC, Pritzker pointed out that "that this is a convicted felon ... who is threatening to jail me," calling the president "unhinged" and "a wannabe dictator." He also issued a challenge, saying, "And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: If you come for my people, you come through me. So, come and get me."

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

Trump's comments come after outrage from conservatives relating to a protest on the Southwest Side, where federal immigration agents shot a woman they accused of ramming them with a car. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, Chicago police refused to assist federal authorities at the time.

Internal dispatch from the Chicago Police Department's chief of patrol during the incident indicated that "no units would respond" to a call for assistance from armed Border Patrol agents, according to the Chicago Tribune. Supt. Larry Snelling denied that his officers were ever told to stand down from responding to the protest at a Monday press conference.

Chaos in the Chicagoland surrounding federal immigration agents continued this week, with a 23-year-old U.S. citizen reporting that she was arrested and released in Waukegan on Monday. Community leaders have called the heavy-handed policing from federal authorities un-American.