CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has gathered most of the state’s Democratic Congressional delegation at the University of Illinois Chicago Hospital to lay out the damage that would be brought on to a vulnerable population if President Donald Trump’s administration cut Medicaid funding into strict conditions.
“Red Alerts, guys,” Pretzker said. “It’s time to wake up. Get out. I’ll do something.”
Along the way, he called billionaire Elon Musk “President Musk,” claiming that public opinion was immediately opposed to the Trump administration’s agenda, urging people to give Congressional phone numbers and communicate the impact of the president’s new policies to their representatives.
Earlier in the day, Pretzker appeared in the “view” of the segment recorded on Thursday. Host Joy Behar introduced the governor who widely considers the president’s aspirations as a “fire” Democrat.
“Everything he did has demolished constitutional democracy, and that’s what happened in Nazi Germany,” Pretzker said of Trump on the show.
The ubiquity of Pritzker comes at the moment Democrats are stumbling on their footing nationwide. In an information environment dominated by President Donald Trump and Musk, Pretzker is trying to move forward as a major voice of opposition.
This week alone, the governor traveled to Washington, DC, lobbyed for federal funds in Illinois, made comments to advance democracy in democracy groups, and appeared in media such as CNN, MSNBC and multiple podcasts.
Nazi Germany’s reference to “The View” has repeatedly recurred the state of Pritzker’s national speech last week, attracting the attention of the public.
“My oath is our nation and our constitution. America has no king. I am not going to bend my knees to one. I am not serving my ambitions, but I respect my duties,” Pretzker said at the State Capitol in Springfield. “If you think I’m overresponding to the alarm and sounding the alarm early, consider this. It took the Nazis a month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle the Constitutional Republic.”
Pretzker has long enjoyed playing the role of an attack dog against Trump. Last year he sank millions of dollars in his money into battlefield efforts to protect his abortion rights.
This year he tricked the president in large and small ways. He issued warnings against the threats to authoritarianism and democracy, accusing Musk and Trump of trying to steal Americans’ private data. In January, Pretzker announced a new policy on January 6, 2021 that would ban anyone who attacked an attacker from becoming a state employee. After Trump took office and renamed the Gulf of Mexico’s American Gulf to America, Pretzker jokingly said he would rename Lake Michigan to “Lake Illinois.”
Pretzker is trying to fill the Democrat’s void that was devastated in November, losing every state on the battlefield to Trump. Meanwhile, questions will be resolved about Pritzker’s next political step. On Friday he said he has not yet made a decision on whether he will seek a third term as governor next year. The billionaire has already pleaded with the party to make the Democratic National Convention successful in Chicago in 2024.
“JB Pritzker shows a natural willingness to go to the White House and toe toe,” says Jaimey Sexton, a Chicago-based Democratic strategist. “It’s comfortable for him to go to the toes and blow the facts away.”
“And he’ll do it with a smile on his face because he’s a friendly billionaire,” Sexton continued.
Pretzker’s attack on Trump also elicited Republican outrage from others from those who called him “top” on Fox News after Pretzker’s comments comparing the Trump administration’s actions to Nazi Germany. Trump has also personally attacked Pretzker in the past.
Pretzker is also Ukrainian, and at the end of his event in Chicago he immediately posted Trump’s rebel on X.
Asked on Friday how the governor could break through the public when Trump finally succeeded in a message that won voters in November, Pretzker returned to the public to focus on his response to the Trump administration’s early days.
“Messaging isn’t something we build out there and sell out. It’s not a campaign,” Pretzker said. “There’s anger there.”
“There have been a lot of changes. A big shift since the start of this administration just 39 days ago,” Pretzker continued. “The big changes in the people who demand that Donald Trump do what he said he’s doing during his campaign, and the people who understand that he’s not doing that, and we have to stop it.”
