Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted this photo of Texas National Guard troops leaving for Chicago. Photo by Gov. Greg Abbot via X
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed for “failing to protect ICE,” and Pritzker responded: “Come and get me.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
Johnson and Pritzker are Democrats who have spoken out against Trump’s plans to deploy military troops to Chicago, which has included Johnson signing an executive order to create ICE-free zones within the city.
On Monday, Trump told reporters that he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to send National Guard troops into Portland, after a federal judge blocked the mobilization a second time.
Also on Monday, Chicago and Illinois filed suit against the Trump administration to block deployments. Hours later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted an image of the Texas National Guard leaving his state and headed for Chicago.
The elite Texas National Guard.
Ever ready.
Deploying now. pic.twitter.com/7lXe7Wpmue— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 7, 2025
Approximately 500 National Guard soldiers — 200 from Texas and 300 from Illinois — arrived at an Army Reserve training center in the Chicago suburb of Elwood.
Northern Command said troops would establish security perimeters, perform crowd control and use de-escalation tactics.
“This is novel. It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily illegal, it’s just different,” Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Richard Hayes told CBS News. “As far as the soldiers are concerned, the Illinois National Guard, even the Texas National Guard, they don’t get a say in whether they go or not go. It’s not a political organization, they’re just here to do what they’re being asked to do.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after Trump’s post calling for him to be jailed, Pritzker said, “Look, he’s a coward. He says a lot of things. He likes to pretend to be a tough guy. Come and get me,” the Chicago Sun Times reported.
“What kind of country are we living in where the president of the United States is targeting his political opponents?” Pritzker said. “I mean, that is the world that we’re living in now, where he is calling out — he said he was going to jail [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom. He says he’s going to jail me. He says he’s going to jail the mayor of the city of Chicago. These are people who stand against him, disagree with him, speak out about it, but literally have done nothing wrong. We are doing the people’s business by standing up for them.”
Pritzker added that Trump is “demented” and “literally unhinged.”
Johnson also said on X that he will fight back: “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere.”
Earlier Wednesday, Pritzker posted on X that he “will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
He also posted a video interview he did with an MSNBC reporter, in which he said, “If you come for my people, you come through me.”
Trump has been threatening to send troops to Chicago for months, like he has with other Democrat-run cities, such as Portland, Memphis and New Orleans. He was able to do so in Washington, D.C., but that city has different laws that allow the federal government to manage it.
On Wednesday night, several hundred people marched in downtown Chicago to protest the deployment of National Guard troops.
Pritzker and Johnson have sued the Trump administration regarding the troop deployment.
U.S. District Judge April Perry allowed the Trump administration until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to respond to the lawsuit and set a hearing for Thursday.
In Portland, Ore., U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut blocked the Trump administration from federalizing the Oregon National Guard and then ordered no other states from sending troops there.
