Trump Calls For The Arrest Of J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
from the bring-it-on dept
Here is a brief timeline of events that got us here. Chicago has had a decline in violent crime and murders over the course of the last several years, with 2025 on pace to mark it as the safest year yet in the city. Despite that plain fact, Donald Trump has banged on about how my beautiful city is a “war zone” and “crime ridden” and so on. In early September, Trump essentially declared war on Chicago via social media, pumping this idiotic meme out to his followers and the rest of the world.
We have a great deal of dog parks here in Chicago, which I assume is why Kristi Noem got right to work with plans to terrorize the city. A raid on a single apartment building in the city, including the use of ICE and other federal agents deploying to the roof of the building from Black Hawk helicopters, resulted in the detention of everyone that lived there, only a portion of whom were detained over their immigration status. The rest were merely held, terrorized, had weapons pointed at them, had their possessions destroyed or strewn about, and then told to be on their fucking way. Noem was particularly incensed when, at one point, a city facility refused to let her take a piss. DHS does have its priorities, I suppose.
Meanwhile, protests outside of an ICE facility in a suburb, Broadview, have essentially been ongoing. Noem and Trump have made a great deal of noise about the danger that ICE and DHS agents are enduring, which is a particularly odd take as the only shots fired in all of this danger thus far that I can find have been when an ICE agent shot a protester. Now, the federal government claims that the woman was shot after she “rammed” her car as part of a “convoy” of protesters and that the ICE officer acted in self defense. An attorney for the protesters claim otherwise. Also the “convoy” appears to consist of two cars.
Rather than let this play out in the courts, or merely release the body camera footage to put this to bed, Trump, of course, greedily used this and related incidents to federalize the Illinois National Guard to deploy to Chicago alongside some Texas National Guard as well in order to “protect” ICE agents from the people they are shooting and otherwise terrorizing. Meanwhile, Trump has published a list of his enemies to the White House website, because that’s totally normal and chill, and IL Governor J.B. Pritzker is on the list.
So, when Illinois and Chicago sued in court to stop the illegal deployment of the armed forces to the city, Trump jumped straight onto social media and called for the arrest of both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
President Trump on Wednesday called for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) to be jailed as the two leaders push back on the Trump administration’s crime crackdown and immigration enforcement raids on the Windy City.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Officers!” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Governor Pritzker also!”
Bring it on. Make your arrest. File charges. Kick off what will be a full on revolt of big cities across the country, never mind states with governors who have enough brain cells to rub together to understand where this all ends. If this all needs to come to a head, then let’s do it.
Because nothing about an arrest of a mayor and governor absolutely acting within the bounds of the law would be constitutional. We throw around the phrase “constitutional crises” a lot these days, and validly so, but this would be something entirely different. Thus far, no charges have been filed against either Johnson or Pritzker. If none emerge, then this is meaningless bloviating from a president who will demonstrate he cannot backup his words with force. And if he does attempt to back those words up, you will see defiance at a level far beyond what has been shown to date.
Pritzker and Johnson both seem to understand this.
“I 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?” Pritzker posted on X.
“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere,” Johnson posted on X in response to Trump.
I know my state and I know my city. If the federal government wants to make a serious attempt to detain our mayor and governor, let them try. The resulting revolt by the public and the litigation that will result will be epic. This is all coming to a head one way or another, it seems. We might as well get started.
But make no mistake: this is a five alarm fire for American democracy.
Filed Under: brandon johnson, chicago, dhs, donald trump, illinois, jb pritzker, kristi noem
Comments on “Trump Calls For The Arrest Of J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson”
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
I suppose it beats the smell of Trump’s Depends in the morning.
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“I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
I suppose it beats the smell of Trump’s Depends in the morning.
That's the point of everything trump is doing.
“Bring it on. Make your arrest. File charges. Kick off what will be a full on revolt of big cities across the country, never mind states with governors who have enough brain cells to rub together to understand where this all ends. If this all needs to come to a head, then let’s do it.”
You gotta understand, trump WANTS violence, and the more the better. That’s the point of everything he’s been doing. He’s looking for his Reichstag Fire moment. He needs a Cause célèbre he can use to legitimately invoke the insurrection act and declare martial law.
I don’t know that that’s necessarily a bad thing – it’d certainly bring everything to a head. But it’d be nice if we could get rid of him without a full-blown civil war.
I have some hope that the Supreme Court is gonna give him a whole lot of disappointing decisions on the stuff they granted him on the shadow docket.
And all these hopelessly incompetent but loyal MAGA boobs holding the reins of government have to be approaching critical mass – you can only have morons running things, pouring sand in the wheels of government, just so long before everything comes to a screeching halt.
My dream is that trump/maga will have a very hard time with setbacks of various kinds in the next few months, and that then, the whole administration will messily implode.
And then if that doesn’t happen, plan B.
Re:
He is going to keep on deploying violence, keep on tearing up the law, so the only rule is force, until he has no opponents left. Fascists want violence, yes, but they also want everyone to roll over without a fight where possible because that helps them dig in deeper with normalising everything they do. Anything Trump gets away with now is precedent future presidents will act on as the baseline norm.
Re:
“You gotta understand, trump WANTS violence, and the more the better. That’s the point of everything he’s been doing. He’s looking for his Reichstag Fire moment. He needs a Cause célèbre he can use to legitimately invoke the insurrection act and declare martial law.”
I completely understand this. In fact, it’s mostly my point, but the seasoning I add to it is this: this is coming one way or another. And if it’s coming one way or another, I would rather Trump’s victims participate in choosing the time and location for when this comes to a head.
Otherwise, it’s left to the administration’s devices.
Re:
” But it’d be nice if we could get rid of him without a full-blown civil war.”
It would. And I hope we can, and I hope we do.
But my expectation is that we can’t and we won’t.
Re: They WANT violence, but they don't NEED it
You gotta understand, trump WANTS violence, and the more the better. That’s the point of everything he’s been doing. He’s looking for his Reichstag Fire moment. He needs a Cause célèbre he can use to legitimately invoke the insurrection act and declare martial law.
While it’s true that the regime and it’s supporters want and need violence, both as an excuse for their power-grab and because they’re bloodthirsty sickos, you’re mistaken if you think that they need actual violence in order to excuse their actions. The Trump regime has been case after case of him simply declaring something to be true and his collaborators both in congress and SCOTUS nodding their heads in agreement.
Not understanding how international trade works and not liking that other countries aren’t paying the US as much as they ‘should’ be is simply declared to be an emergency and used as justification for why the president has power over tariffs.
A handful of protesters in one part of a city is declared as evidence that the entire city is in revolt and used as justification to nationalize state troops and send them in to crack down on the reigme’s critics.
One DOGE employee gets attacked in DC and again the regime declares that evidence that the entire city is a lawless hellscape, and again the national guard are sent in like obediant attack dogs to occupy the city.
(Meanwhile another MAGAt supporter gets outright murdered in a republican-run state and nary a peep about sending in the troops to ‘restore order’. Funny that…’)
What I’m getting at is that while the regime lusts for bloodshed and is eagerly hoping for it when it comes to declaring something like martial law or the insurrection act the absence of violence isn’t going to be as much of a shield as you might think it would be because ultimately they don’t actually need it, as this is a post-reality regime and truth is what the head of it says it is.
And you, Donald, what have you been doing during this pretended “more than 1000%” raise of attacks targeting ICE officers? Do you also deserve jail, maybe a tiny cell in El Salvador?
Re:
cecot would be too nice for the traitor king! so why not go with one of his favor phrases. “off with there head!” while going after those that pissed in his cheerios! why we could even setup an old school guillotine just for him….
Re: Be careful what you wish for
Hitler went to jail after his personal January 6th moment (the Bierhallenputsch). He wrote “Mein Kampf” while in there, jumpstarting his political career.
Admittedly there isn’t much evidence of Trump writing a whole lot other than sharpie scribblings.
Re: Re:
And furthermore, Hitler was in the prime of his life when he left jail. Trump is way too old to mount a political comeback if he ever goes to jail. The chances of him dying of a massive and excruciatingly painful heart attack (which I’m hoping will happen any day now…) are better.
That is some very repugnant stolen valor coming from a convicted felon and draft dodger like Donald Trump. Trump has no right to wear a cavalry stetson at all. Fred Trump paid to get a fake doctors excuse so Chump does not get to pretend to be a soldier.
Don’t even try to imply being president makes it OK. The only thing he has done as president is crimes, bribes, lies and undermining the US constitution. He has served no one but his own interests.
Re:
It is called “warrior ethos”.
This reminds me of a rooming house that I lived in once upon a time. I struggled to get along with my room-mates, and actively lobbied for the removal of not one, but several. Since the landlord was an old friend of my family, I assumed that I had the upper hand, but, much to my surprise and chagrin, it was I who was evicted.
Be careful, Donny Boy, because sometimes that “squeaky wheel” just gets REPLACED.
In Europe we had Napoleon Bonaparte as misbehaving president. He was deported to the remote island of Elba to live the remainder of his life in comfort and isolation.
I wonder what has happened to Epstein’s island. Would that be a good place to send Donald Trump to and let him live the remainder of his life in isolated comfort?
Solidarity
Timothy “Dark Helmet” Geigner: I may be from your eastern coast rival NYC but I stand in full solidarity with my Chicago siblings against the fascism that Trump is wreaking upon your great town. He’s power mad, evil, tyrannical, and exactly the reason why the US was founded. He’s playing with fire.
“Many dog parks”, or “a great many dog parks”.
“only some of whom were detained”.
Re:
Do you think that you’re helping?
Re: Re:
It’s helpful to know whom we can safely ignore.
Re:
Pedantic much?
If its going to happen, lets get it over with.
Donald Trump is an openly treasonous piece of shit.
morning smells
I love the smell of dissent in the morning.
– Mike
“as many military wars are lost as are won. However, political defiance offers a real possibility of victory.”
— From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation by Gene Sharp
'No one is allowed to accurately call the king a tyrant, nor his goons thugs.'
Scratch the surface even the slightest(because it’s not like it’s at all hidden) and what he’s really whining about is that anyone at all in the city is allowed to protest or be critical of the US gestapo, and to a dictator and a fascist being in opposition is the most heinous crime out there.
Constitutional?
“Because nothing about an arrest of a mayor and governor absolutely acting within the bounds of the law would be constitutional.”
What is “constitutional”? These days? Whatever the MAGA SCOTUS justices say is constitutional. So far, they’ve pretty much let tRump decide and gone along for the ride.
Add icing to the cake: tRump is allowing QATAR – a country that houses multiple extreme terrorist organisations – to BUILD a military airbase in the US. Qatar is not known for democracy.
The tRump administration has weaponized the entire federal govt to silence dissent & punish people/organizations that tRump views as an enemy.
What will Qatar owe tRump? What will Qatar be willing to do for tRump? Will Qatari soldiers join ICE and terrorise people in the US.
Probably not Constitutional. Unless tRump, backed by MAGA SCOTUS says it is.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Chicago residents would probably be thrilled with Johnson’s arrest, given his historic unpopularity (and ineptness and corruption!).