Chicago’s bloody Labor Day weekend left at least 54 shot and seven dead, yet Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s response was to shrug it off with a line that could only come from a politician insulated from the realities his constituents face: “Big cities have crime.”
The comment came during an NBC 5 Chicago interview when reporter Mary Ann Ahern pressed him on whether he’d feel safe asking his own friends to ride the “L” after dark. Instead of answering directly, Pritzker pivoted to accusing President Donald Trump of “targeting” Chicago, insisting that red states have “much higher crime rates.”
REPORTER: 54 shot, 7 dead. Would you let your friends ride the train at night?
JB PRITZKER: But look at Trump! pic.twitter.com/SPsaCrS9Xn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 2, 2025
It was the kind of dodge Chicagoans have heard for years — and the kind that rings hollow when the sound of gunfire is still echoing through their neighborhoods.
President Trump, by contrast, has made it clear he intends to act. On August 22, he floated the deployment of the National Guard, blasting Chicago’s leadership:
“Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out probably next … the people in Chicago are screaming for us to come.”
And the numbers back him up. Chicago recorded a 25-year homicide high in 2021, and while city officials insist crime is “going down,” residents themselves tell reporters they don’t feel safe. Since at least 1970, no June has recorded fewer than 40 murders in the city, with one exception in 2014. That is not progress. That is decline dressed up in spin.
Chicago Resident: “I remember being in a family dollar store that got robbed…they kicked in the door… people are screaming… I was only 12 years old.”
Fatcat JB Pritzker sits in his ivory tower while his constituents live in fear. pic.twitter.com/Ht1aAKqlwu
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 2, 2025
Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have begged Trump not to send in federal help, claiming the National Guard would somehow “make lives worse.” Johnson went even further, insisting that deploying more police isn’t the answer — suggesting instead that “affordable housing” and “mental health services” will solve the murder crisis. That may play well in progressive talking points, but it doesn’t stop bullets from flying on summer weekends.
In an almost surreal attempt to prove Trump wrong, Pritzker filmed himself strolling through one of Chicago’s wealthiest, safest areas and posted the video online as “evidence” that the city is fine. Chicagoans living in Englewood, Austin, and Garfield Park would beg to differ.
