Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton fires back at ‘wannabe dictator’ Trump’s Chicago takeover threat: ‘We don’t want your circus here’

The Illinois leader said the public must make clear there are “No Kings” in America as President Trump continues to threaten cities with military deployment.

As President Donald Trump continues to threaten military deployment to Chicago, Illinois’ Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton says Trump’s MAGA plot is not welcome in the Windy City.

“We do not want your circus here,” Stratton told theGrio during a phone interview on Wednesday. “We do not want federalized troops here, marching up and down the streets…he needs to do his job and keep his chaos out of the city of Chicago.”

Despite Trump’s claim that Chicagoans support his plan to send the military to Chicago to address crime, including an alleged group of “Black women wearing red hats,” Lieutenant Gov. Stratton, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2026, said, “I’m a lifelong Chicagoan and I live on the Southside of Chicago [and] I am a Black woman…and I can tell you that the Black women and families that I know in this city and that I speak to every day are not asking for soldiers parading our streets and instilling fear in our communities.”

She added, “They’re not asking to be treated like pawns in Trump’s political games.”

On Wednesday, from the Oval Office, President Trump appeared to soften his tone when asked about his plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago to address what he described as an untenable crime crisis in the nation’s third-largest city. Despite saying a day earlier that it was only a matter of when, Trump told reporters that his administration was “making a determination.”

“Do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in,” said Trump.

Trump touted the declining crime numbers in Washington, D.C., where he declared a “crime emergency” last month and deployed more than 2,000 troops. The president’s federal actions in the nation’s capital were within his legal authority because D.C., which is not a state, is under federal jurisdiction.

However, a federal court ruling in California determined that Trump’s military deployment in Los Angeles, much like what he plans to do in Chicago, is illegal. Unlike in D.C., the National Guard can only be approved by a state’s governor.

“All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago,” Trump said of Illinois and Chicago leadership.

In response to the president, Stratton told theGrio, “If he’s waiting to be asked, I can tell you he’s not going to be asked by us to come because we don’t want him here.”

The lieutenant governor said she was heartened by the California court ruling against Trump’s federal takeover, but cautioned, “Donald Trump isn’t exactly known for following the law or respecting court rulings.” She added, “Deploying troops to the city of Chicago would be both illegal and unconstitutional, and I think that that ruling really just confirms what we’ve been saying.”

Stratton said the threat of President Trump’s federal intervention in American cities, which are largely led by Black elected Democratic officials, shows he is a “wannabe dictator, who is trying to grab as much power as he can.”

“If the president really cared about addressing the concerns of Chicagoans, he can start with the things he is taking away,” said Stratton, referring to Trump’s federal cuts to health care, food assistance, and educational programs that create a “real path to opportunity.”

“Those are the things that our communities need,” said the Illinois lieutenant governor, who also slammed the Trump administration’s decision to roll back $800 million in community violence prevention funding, which has been touted for bringing down crime rates in cities across the country.

Trump’s targeting of Democratic-controlled cities like Chicago isn’t just about crime. The administration is also planning to surge federal law enforcement to conduct mass immigration raids.

While Trump’s immigration policies have largely targeted Latino communities, Stratton warned, “His cruelty will extend into so many other communities,” adding, “and we’ve already seen that.”

The lieutenant governor said now is the time for Black and Latino communities, and all communities who reject Trump’s policies, to “band together” against the president’s “hate-fueled operation.”

“As he tries to pit us against each other, we’re going to stand strong,” she said. “[We must] make it very clear that there are no kings in Chicago or in Illinois or anywhere in America.”