We are witnessing what may be either a second civil war or the most severe constitutional confrontation in modern American history.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is claiming that President Donald Trump is preparing to deploy the Texas National Guard into the state of Illinois without the governor’s consent.
This is not speculation.
Pritzker stated plainly, “We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois.”
He further warned that any minor incident—“if someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent”—would be used as a pretext for declaring an emergency and deploying armed troops into Chicago.
This partisan disagreement is a fundamental challenge to the very structure of our republic.
“None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer. None of it. For Trump, it’s about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption,” Pritzker said.
Legal experts are sounding alarms.
Marc Elias, a preeminent election attorney, called this “an existential threat to democracy that we have not seen from Donald Trump, even with all of the stuff he has pulled so far.” Elias described “the use of the National Guard from Texas to go into Illinois, as a move clearly intended to be a provocative act.”
The precedent is chilling.
The administration recently attempted to federalize the California National Guard against the will of Governor Gavin Newsom. When challenged in court, the president lost.
Yet rather than retreat, the fascist Republican administration appears to be escalating—choosing to deploy a guard unit from a politically aligned state into a state whose leadership opposes it.
This is not how our system works.
The National Guard is intended to protect citizens, not to be used as a political instrument to intimidate states and override the authority of duly elected governors.
Though crime in the Illinois city has fallen in recent years, Trump is primed to make an example of Chicago this week, when federal immigration agents and National Guard troops are expected to begin blanketing the streets.
Pritzker’s plea was direct: “I’m imploring everyone—if and when that happens—do not take the bait.”
Pritzker decried Trump’s crime-fighting promise as a partisan ploy to justify an unnecessary military presence in the city run by Democrats. And the governor, along with Illinois’ other most powerful Democrats, is urging members of the public not to fall for it.
“We know before anything has happened here, that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago,” Pritzker said during a news conference alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
“If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago,” Pritzker said. “I’m imploring everyone: If and when that happens, do not take the bait.”
But the question remains: what happens if the bait is taken?
What happens if US soldiers are ordered into an American city against the will of its people and its government?
We are in uncharted territory.
The courts may be the only remaining guardrail against a profound and dangerous escalation, but the possibility of a second civil war remains profoundly realistic.
As Elias stated, “The courts are going to have to step in. They are gonna have to put an end to this, or else I fear that a tragedy is going to be the inevitable future.”
The stability of our nation depends on the preservation of state sovereignty and the rule of law. This action, if carried out, would represent a direct assault on both.
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