Thirty-nine people were shot — six of them killed — in Chicago over the weekend, and President Trump is daring Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to pick up the phone and ask for help. The stakes are simple: Americans are dying in their own cities while the politicians who run those cities refuse to change course.
The bloodshed peaked Friday night when two gunmen in a red SUV rolled up on a Juneteenth crowd in Chicago's Princeton Park neighborhood and opened fire. Thirteen people were injured in that single attack, victims ranging from a 17-year-old boy to a 47-year-old man, according to CBS News. A 32-year-old woman took two bullets in the back. A 32-year-old man was shot in the head. Both survived. The shooters sped off and remained at large as of Tuesday.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he could fix Chicago's violence "FAST and Permanently," pointing to Washington, D.C., Memphis, and New Orleans as cities where he claims crime has dropped to record lows. "Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this," he wrote. "CALL ME!"
Pritzker, a Democrat eyeing a 2028 presidential run, didn't just decline — he ridiculed the offer. The New York Post reported Pritzker mocked Trump over a $14 million Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation that turned into an algae mess and accused the president of not understanding that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz. "I don't think that we should be listening to this president about promises that he makes or that he has any idea how to protect us in the state of Illinois," Pritzker said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, for his part, called the weekend "heartbreaking" and lamented that "too many families" have experienced loss. Alderman Anthony Beale said an "ordinary summer night was shattered by gunfire" and called it "the cruel reality of the mindless menace of gun violence in our city."
Notice what's missing from those statements: any acknowledgment that Democrat-run policies might be part of the problem. The framing is always "gun violence" — never policy failure, never prosecutorial neglect, never the revolving door that puts violent offenders back on the street.
The numbers tell their own story. More than 500 people have been shot in Chicago already this year, up 9% from the same period in 2025, according to police data cited by WTTW. On the West Side Saturday, 18-year-old Aniyhas Jackson died after being shot in the armpit; cops arrested a 17-year-old boy. On the South Side early Sunday, a 21-year-old man was killed.
Trump has previously branded Chicago a "hellhole" and a "war zone," threatening to send in the National Guard. The Washington Examiner noted that as of Tuesday morning, none of Pritzker's social media accounts had acknowledged either Trump's posts or the violent weekend itself.
The open question: How many weekends like this do Chicagoans have to endure before the governor picks up the phone?
