Illinois Gov Calls For Trump's Removal Over Military Threats

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump — the most dictatorial president ever to claim he’s “not a dictator” while also claiming a dictator is what the people want — suggested that cities like Chicago should be used as “training grounds for our military,” during his and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s meeting with senior military officials, which turned out to be a forum for Trump and Hegseth to beat their chests about “warrior ethos” and their anti-woke vision for the military.

While those senior generals and admirals were reportedly so bored that, after Hegseth got off stage, Trump got on stage and remarked that he “never walked into a room so silent before,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker saw the meeting as a cause for alarm. Specifically, Pritzker took issue with Trump because the president had essentially threatened the city of Chicago and its residents with the prospect of being test dummies for military personnel to inflict violence on under the guise of maintaining law and order.

“It appears that Donald Trump not only has dementia set in, but he’s copying tactics of Vladimir Putin. Sending troops into cities, thinking that that’s some sort of proving ground for war, or that indeed there’s some sort of internal war going on in the United States is just, frankly, inane and I’m concerned for his health. There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked,” he said, according to ABC news, which noted that while Pritzker has said he believes the president suffers from dementia in the past, he’d never called for Trump’s removal from office until now.

Gov. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have both said repeatedly that they neither need nor want the National Guard deployed to Chicago because local law enforcement is more than capable of doing their jobs, and because violent crime has done almost nothing but trend downwards in the city, as it is all over the country. Of course, facts and data, as usual, have no impact on Trump or any of the MAGA-fied sycophants he has lined his administration with.

From ABC:

Pritzker on Monday said he had received a report that the Trump administration is seeking to deploy 100 military troops in Illinois to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and facilities amid the ongoing federal crackdown on illegal immigration.

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “The Department of War has received a request for assistance to safeguard Federal personnel, property, and functions in the state of Illinois. Any decisions will be made in accordance with established processes and announced at the appropriate time.”

My God, Trump and Hegseth really have everyone in this ass-backward administration casually referring to the Department of Defense as the “Department of War” even in official statements.

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Richard Hayes told ABC there’s not much Pritzker can do to prevent Trump from deploying the National Guard to Chicago, but he and other governors whose states Trump has threatened with military weaponization can take action after the fact.

“I think the president is going to go and activate the National Guard, if it was my guess,” Hayes said. “The governor cannot refuse to pass that order to the adjutant general or stop the process himself unless he deems it completely illegal, and that’s going to be a pretty broad swath, but what he can do – all the governors can – they can contest the deployment once the orders are sent. They can contest the deployment in court, and that’s what you saw play out in California.” (Earlier this month, a federal judge in California ruled Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles violated the law.)

So, there we have it, folks: our president is an authoritarian non-dictator with dictator-like qualities, and the only way to fight him is to let him be a wannabe dictator and sue him for it later.

What a time to hope we all stay alive.

SEE ALSO:

‘The Guard Is Not Needed’: Chicago Mayor Pushes Back On Trump’s National Guard Threat

Trump Ramps Up Threats To Send Troops To Chicago After Violent Labor Day Weekend

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Calls For Trump’s Removal Over Threat To Use Chicago As ‘Training Grounds For Our Military’  was originally published on newsone.com