For weeks, the White House has been threatening to deploy troops to Chicago, despite the objections of the state’s mayor and Illinois’ governor. That governor, J.B. Pritzker, appeared on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday morning to discuss the threat and strike a defiant tone.
Per The Independent, Pritzker “vowed Sunday to use the power of state government to resist President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard resources and federal law enforcement agents like ICE to Chicago.”
“As I’ve said before, come and get me,” Pritzker said on the show.
On President Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act as part of his efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker says, “The Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason. There has to be a rebellion.” https://t.co/eOdJcJQaan pic.twitter.com/2GKr0UYl16
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 12, 2025
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At issue is the threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.
“Well, the Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason,” the Illinois governor said on the show. “There has to be a rebellion, there has to be an insurrection in order for him to be allowed to invoke it.”
“He can say anything he wants, but if the Constitution means anything, and I guess we all are questioning that right now, but the courts will make the determination, (and) if the Constitution means anything, the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked to send them in because they want to fight crime,” Pritzker told ABC News.
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Pritzker also pointed to “inconsistencies” in the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago. A court, this week, blocked the president’s push to send the National Guard to Chicago, although a different judge the following day issued a partial block of that order.
