Good question. Everyone knows the answer, too. Donald Trump has J.B. Pritzker cornered, whether the governor of Illinois realizes it or not.
After another violent weekend in Chicago, voters there and in the state are looking at the suddenly calm streets of Washington, DC … and wondering why they have to live with high levels of crime without any action from current leadership. Trump has already demonstrated that the introduction of federal resources can have a dramatic effect on crime, and especially on street crime. If those resources are available, some of them certainly wonder, why isn’t Pritzker asking for them?
Trump asked the same question, after a weekend where six people got murdered in the Windy City and twelve others shot and wounded. The subtext for this declaration is that Pritzker allowed these murders and shootings to happen through inaction:
Trump also told reporters on AF1 that “we could solve Chicago very quickly,” but that Pritzker refuses to protect his constituents:
Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have tried playing down the rate of violent crime in Chicago — or blaming it on Indiana — but the people who live there know better. It’s not just the murders either, but all violent crime. As data from Illinois Policy shows, the high crime rates in Chicago only took a short break during the pandemic lockdowns but have rapidly increased ever since:
The number of violent crimes grew to its highest level in a decade last year, but the arrest rate dropped, according to a new analysis from the Illinois Policy Institute.
In 2023, violent crime was 11.5% higher than in 2022. Two of the largest factors contributing to the rise in crime came from a decade-high 30,501 instances of vehicle thefts and carjackings, and 22,569 cases of assault in 2023.
Homicides were down 14% compared with 2022 levels, but with 625 homicides the city still experienced 45% more murders than a decade earlier.
The murders can’t be charted on the same Y axis. However, as John Lott reminds us today, that shouldn’t give anyone the idea that homicides aren’t constant in the city. While DC took a holiday from murders and shootings for almost two weeks last month, Chicago’s streets continued being fatal — and even the per capita homicide rate tends to downplay the impact:
Chicago has long been a notoriously dangerous U.S. city, with summer weekends often resulting in dozens of shooting injuries and deaths. The homicide rate for the city in 2024, however, sat at about 17.4 homicides per 100,000 people, which is far lower than rates in more dangerous cities such as Memphis, Tennessee — which saw 40.6 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024.
If the Trump administration is aiming to save the most lives, however, heading to Chicago before Memphis, Tennessee, would fulfill that goal, Lott explained.
“Should you look at the murder rate or the number of lives to be saved? If saving most lives is the goal, in 2024, Chicago (recorded) 573 murders, Memphis 242,” Lott wrote in an X post comparing the two cities.
Again, don’t just count the homicides, although clearly those are the worst of the crimes. Count up all the carjackings, robberies, burglaries, and so on — all the criminal miseries afflicting Chicago. If a National Guard deployment could alleviate that and keep Illinois citizens from being victimized, why wouldn’t Pritzker call them up, at least under his own control and under whatever restrictions he sees as necessary?
The real reason: To do so would be to admit the progressive policies that Pritzker and Johnson apply are what is failing Chicago. Until the deployment in DC, Pritzker and Johnson could ignore crime and misery as inevitable and unaddressable. Trump proved that crime rates at the current level in American cities are neither inevitable nor unaddressable, and that puts Pritzker in a corner with no escape route.
Trump is about to ramp up that pressure, too:
The Department of Homeland Security kicked off a crackdown on illegal immigrants in Chicago Monday — after local Democrats spent the weekend protesting President Trump’s threat of a federal law enforcement surge in America’s third-largest city.
“DHS is launching Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by criminal illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois,” the department tweeted.
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew [Democratic] Governor [JB] Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.”
Today’s Supreme Court ruling will certainly facilitate that process. If Johnson and/or Pritzker tries to pull a Karen Bass-Gavin Newsom strategy of obstruction, Trump will order the National Guard into Chicago to protect those operations, and they both know it.
But that still leaves us with the fact that Trump is wildly succeeding at forcing Democrats to defend crime, murder, and mayhem when tactical cooperation would actually benefit them. Muriel Bowser figured that much out in DC. The only explanation for their obstinacy is that Democrats and progressives truly believe that the only thing they have to offer is Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids … and they are willing to sacrifice the lives and safety of their constituents in their Trump-obsession feud.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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