Democratic leaders look to derail Trump as he threatens to send National Guard to more cities

WASHINGTON (AP) — JB Pritzker took a water taxi along the Chicago Riverwalk, past one of Donald Trump’s famous downtown towers. The gleaming and heavily trafficked tourist district was a deliberate backdrop on the day the Illinois governor directed a defiant message toward the White House: “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.”

The governor’s protests, however, may not matter. After Trump’s National Guard deployments to Los Angeles in June and Washington, D.C. this month, the Republican says his next targets for federal intervention may be two of the nation’s most Democratic cities: Chicago and Baltimore.

Trump’s possible move — targeting states whose governors are among potential White House contenders in 2028 — would be another escalation of presidential power, directly challenging the rights of states and cities to govern themselves. It also would intensify a partisan scramble for voters’ trust on matters of public safety.

For Trump, militarizing U.S. streets is the latest tactic to support his “law and order” branding and mass deportation agenda. It’s a way to cast Democratic leaders in affected locales as weak and ineffective, even as Trump exaggerates the violence he’s ostensibly trying to stop. Pritzker “should be calling me, and he should be saying ‘Can you send over the troops please?’” Trump said Tuesday at the White House. “It’s out of control.”

Democrats see a dangerous overreach by an aspiring authoritarian and have said they will challenge Trump in court if necessary. They also see in the political fight a way to persuade voters, especially moderates and independents, that Republicans bluster on crime while Democrats are better able to protect citizens and keep the peace.

“This is not about fighting crime,” said Pritzker, flanked on Monday by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other leaders, adding that it’s more about “an arrogant little man” trying to “intimidate his political rivals.”

Yet there are risks for Democrats. Though violent crime is down across the country, including Chicago, arguing over how to combat what’s still happening means tussling on some of Trump’s most comfortable political turf. Additionally, Trump has demonstrated a willingness to block federal money for locales where elected officials have opposed him.

For Pritzker, another way to fight Trump

Pritzker, who is seeking a third term in 2026, has been among Democrats ’ most vocal Trump critics. Weeks into Trump’s second administration, Pritzker compared it to the Nazi Third Reich. More recently, he welcomed Texas Democrats who fled the statehouse in Austin to delay Republicans’ partisan redrawing of the state’s congressional districts at Trump’s request.

In Chicago on Monday, Pritzker and Johnson emphasized that Trump’s administration had not reached out about its plans, first detailed in a weekend Washington Post story. The president acknowledged he hadn’t talked to Illinois or Maryland officials and at one point Monday said he might not send troops unless Pritzker asked.

Pritzker’s aides said his priority is to keep a federal deployment from happening. That’s why Pritzker and his staff hustled to gather a cross-section of political, civic and faith leadership in a made-for-TV show of unity that Trump would surely see. Of course, it also trained cameras on Pritzker.

“I know he doesn’t read … but I know he watches television,” he said of Trump. “And so perhaps if somebody from Fox News or from Newsmax is here, they’ll cover the fact that Chicago is in much better shape” because of what local officials are doing.

In a bit of Trumpian bravado, he added, “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.”

Democrats want to reframe the conversation on crime

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another potential Democratic contender in 2028, said Trump’s characterizations of Baltimore and other cities reflect a president “living in this blissful ignorance, these tropes.”

Nonetheless, voters have been siding with Republicans on the issue.

A CNN/SSRS poll from May found that about four in ten Americans said the GOP’s views on crime and policing aligned more with their own, compared to just three in ten who felt the same about Democrats. The rest said neither party reflected their views.

Trump also had an advantage on the issue over Democrat Kamala Harris in their 2024 general election matchup. According to AP VoteCast, a national survey of presidential voters, about half of respondents said Trump was better able to handle crime, while about 4 in 10 said this about Harris.

Democrats acknowledged the gap this week at a national party gathering in Minneapolis. In a presentation to Democratic National Committee members, party strategists noted Republicans spent about three times the amount of money on crime-related ads than Democrats did in recent presidential election years.

But they said there is an opening. They urged Democrats not to mimic Republican “tough-on-crime” rhetoric but instead position themselves as being “serious about safety, not empty scare tactics.”

Pritzker aides agreed Democrats have a chance to emphasize public safety policy choices.

A litany of speakers in Chicago cited drops – some of them considerable — in violent crime and property crimes in the city. They also highlighted the hundreds of millions of dollars in Trump administration cuts in federal support for law enforcement, housing and other programs that Johnson called “proven solutions to crime and violence reduction.”

“We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence,” the mayor said.

There are notable places Trump isn’t mentioning

The debate also raises questions about where Trump has not called for federal intervention.

Trump, as a candidate, regularly assailed U.S. cities – not just Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington. Detroit was “decimated” and “filthy.” Atlanta was a “killing field.” Pritzker noted that Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, have notably higher murder rates than Chicago.

But Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia all have Republican governors. Michigan, meanwhile, is home to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, but one who has deviated from her colleagues like Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom by engaging more directly with Trump, including in-person visits to the White House.

And even one leading Republican executive, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, added tacit support to Democrats’ critiques.

“Ultimately, the best public safety outcomes are delivered by local police departments and local officials, who know the communities,” he said in a statement, without mentioning Trump by name. “America’s mayors never see takeovers by other levels of government as a tactic that has any track record of producing results. Local control is always best.”

—— Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples contributed from Minneapolis.