'They're trying to terrorise the resistance…': Illinois leaders warn Trump, 'stay out of Chicago'

President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that he had unlimited power as president to deploy the National Guard in any state, after musing whether people would call him a dictator for doing so. In a televised Cabinet meeting that lasted more than three hours, Trump attacked Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who has pushed back against a threat by the president to deploy troops in Chicago in an expansion of the crackdown on crime he is conducting in Washington. "You have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently, and Trump is a dictator," Trump said. "Most people are saying, 'If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants' -- I am not a dictator, by the way." About half an hour later, Trump said that he "would have much more respect for Pritzker" if the governor approved a National Guard deployment in his state. "Not that I don't have -- I would -- the right to do anything I want to do," Trump said. "I'm the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger -- and it is in danger in these cities -- I can do it." Referring to Pritzker, Trump continued: "No problem going in and solving, you know, his difficulties. But it would be nice if they'd call and they say, 'Would you do it?'" Pritzker, responding on social media, said: "No, Donald. You can't do whatever you want."
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