Welcome to The Logoff: Days after deploying National Guard troops to Chicago against the wishes of local leaders, President Donald Trump is calling for the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to be jailed.
What happened? In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump wrote, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
What’s the context? Trump has deployed around 500 National Guard troops — 200 from Texas and 300 more from Illinois — to the greater Chicago area, despite opposition from leaders in the city and state. Both Johnson and Pritzker have vocally condemned the move, which Pritzker described as an “invasion.”
Why does this matter? The Logoff generally steers away from covering Trump pronouncements until they translate into real-world impacts, because they often amount to false alarms. Trump is easily suggestible, so he’ll express openness to ideas put to him as questions, and he’s more likely to say something than he is to follow through with it. But it’s worth underscoring both the absurdity and the seriousness of Trump’s post.
First, it’s not immediately obvious what federal immigration agents — who have aggressively deployed militarized force in Chicago, including Black Hawk helicopters and tear gas — need protection from.
And second, while threats of jail aren’t anything new for Trump — in 2016, he made calls to jail his opponent, Hillary Clinton, a major feature of his rallies — the context is significantly different now.
Trump successfully engineered the indictment of former FBI director James Comey last month, and Rep. LaMonica McIver is currently facing farcical felony charges for “impeding” law enforcement earlier this year. Top Trump advisers like Stephen Miller have attacked judges and elected officials standing in the way of immigration operations in increasingly extreme terms. Trump’s comments on Wednesday may just be the latest example of that extremism — but they shouldn’t go unnoticed.
