Illinois vs Trump Intensifies as Judge Declines to Stop National Guard Deployment

A federal judge on Monday allowed deployment of National Guard units to Illinois to proceed for now, rejecting a bid by the state to block the move. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has slammed the deployment, describing it as an “unconstitutional invasion” by the federal government. He vowed to continue resisting the president’s orders. “Their plan all along has been to cause chaos, and then they can use that chaos to consolidate Donald Trump’s power,” Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday. The ruling follows an intensifying legal and political battle over President Trump’s decision to federalize National Guard troops. The president indicated that he could invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass court challenges and send in the troops if he believes public safety is at risk. “If I had to enact it,” Trump said, “I’d do that if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.” Military officials said 200 Texas National Guard troops are en route to Illinois and are expected to be deployed in the Chicago area by Tuesday or Wednesday. A similar attempt to send troops to Portland, Oregon, has been blocked by a federal judge. Both Illinois and Oregon are engaged in legal challenges against the federal deployment, framing the move as an overreach of presidential authority. Officials in Chicago have accused federal forces of targeting residents without provocation, while the Trump administration has described protesters as engaging in insurrection. The legal disputes and political rhetoric underscore the widening confrontation between the federal government and Democratic-led states over the use of military personnel in domestic law enforcement operations.