President Donald Trump on Monday issued a stark warning for Chicago, telling Illinois Governor JB Pritzker that the city “will die” unless federal law enforcement is invited in to stem a surge of weekend violence that left three people dead and 41 others shot.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump described Chicago’s violence as “unchecked and at record levels,” saying “It has never been worse!” He referenced the weekend toll — 41 people shot, 3 DEAD — and argued that “These numbers are becoming normalized.”
“It is out of control! The city will die if the Federal Government, a fine tuned crime fighting machine, is not invited in, by the Mayor or Governor, to HELP,” Trump wrote.
The comments came after Chicago police recorded 22 shootings over the weekend. In one incident shortly after midnight on Saturday, a shooter opened fire into a large crowd at Washington Park, wounding at least 15 people, one of them fatally, according to Fox32. No suspect has been arrested in that attack.
Trump’s message was direct: “I am awaiting the call. Nobody should be forced to live under these conditions.” He added that, like Washington, D.C., Chicago could see crime drop to near zero “FAST!” and insisted “The State and City can’t do what I do. Governor Pritzker, CALL!!!”
Federal Deployment Track Record
Trump pointed to his administration’s law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., which he said has resulted in over 16,000 arrests, the removal of hundreds of gang members, and the confiscation of 2,000 illegal firearms.
His push to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago has been repeatedly resisted by Pritzker, a Democrat who has filed legal challenges to the deployments. At the end of 2025, Trump withdrew the National Guard from Chicago after the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling that sided with Illinois in its challenge to the deployment.
At the time, Trump said he was removing the Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland “despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact.”
Pritzker’s Response
Pritzker, who has consistently downplayed the severity of Chicago’s crime problem, issued a statement on “gun violence” following the Washington Park shooting, though he did not directly address Trump’s call for federal intervention.
In a September 2025 interview with NBC 5 Chicago, Pritzker was asked whether he would feel comfortable telling friends to ride the subway after midnight. He responded: “Look, big cities have crime. There’s no doubt about it. But let’s just pay attention to what President Trump is doing targeting Chicago, overlooking red states that have much higher crime rates.”
Pritzker has previously argued that Trump’s focus on Chicago is politically motivated, pointing to higher crime rates in some Republican-led states.
Diverging Approaches
While Pritzker has resisted federal help, other states have taken a different path. Officials in Tennessee, for example, worked closely with federal law enforcement to crack down on crime in Memphis, a city long plagued with violent crime. That cooperative approach stands in contrast to the standoff between the Trump administration and Illinois over Chicago.
Trump’s latest plea to Pritzker comes as Chicago grapples with a persistent gun violence problem that has drawn national attention. The weekend’s death toll and the mass shooting at Washington Park have reignited debate over how best to address the city’s public safety crisis.
No indication has emerged that Pritzker is willing to change his position and invite federal forces into Chicago. The governor has consistently maintained that state and local authorities are best positioned to handle the city’s crime challenges, and he has criticized Trump’s federal interventions as overreach.
Trump, for his part, appears determined to keep pressing the issue, using the weekend’s violence as fresh evidence of what he describes as a failure of local leadership.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-makes-dire-prediction-for-blue-city-after-weekend-of-violence