Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker urged Americans to “mobilize” against President Trump on Monday, a day after he delivered a fiery speech in New Hampshire calling for “disruption” and “mass protests.”
“Let me be clear, we’re in a perilous moment in this country,” Pritzker said during an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, when asked about what he was trying to convey in his speech at a New Hampshire Democratic Party dinner Sunday night.
In his speech, which conservatives quickly blasted as “reckless,” the governor declared that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace.”
“They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have,” Pritzker said at the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner, a high-profile Democratic Party fundraiser. “We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.”
“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now,” Pritzker added.
During his interview with Psaki, the governor doubled down on his comments and even likened the Trump administration’s policies to those of “Nazi Germany.”
“When you don’t control Congress, when you don’t control the White House, and people are feeling helpless and powerless, it’s time for people to mobilize,” Pritzker said. “And I wanted people to hear that they do have power.”
“My family emigrated to this country from Ukraine when the Russians were killing Jews during the pogroms,” the governor continued.
“And so, what I feel, anyway, is that the dangers that my family experienced in Ukraine, the dangers that we saw in, you know, Nazi Germany, especially in the earliest days of Nazi Germany, are the dangers that we need to react to now,” Pritzker argued. “If we don’t, things will get much, much worse.”
“This isn’t just speculative … I feel it in my bones, because I’ve seen this happen before,” the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune said of the threat he believes the Trump administration poses to the country.
“We’ve got to raise alarm bells to everybody. It’s a five-alarm fire, everyone,” Pritzker warned. “It’s time to step out of your comfort zone and step out into the streets and speak up and make your voices heard, because that’s the only thing that we have, that’s the power that we have, and we can stop them in their tracks.”
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller argued that Pritzker’s remarks in New Hampshire “if nothing else, could be construed as inciting violence.”
Miller cited the two assassination attempts against Trump and the “spate of left-wing domestic terrorism” as reasons Democrats should be cautious about ratcheting up the rhetoric against the president.
“Pritzker’s reckless rhetoric is going to get someone killed,” the Republican Party of Chicago argued on X. “A Bernie Bro already took shots at Congressmen & nearly killed Rep Steve Scalise.”
“Pritzker’s words can incite violent activity way worse than Jan 6 ever was.”
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., similarly fumed over Pritzker’s speech.
“Are you trying to inspire a 3rd assassination attempt on my dad?” he wrote on X. “Two wasn’t enough for you?”
When asked about his presidential ambitions, Pritzker — who has been eyed as a possible Democratic contender — indicated that his remarks were aimed at inspiring Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections rather than boosting his 2028 prospects.
“This is about winning in 2026 for Democrats all across the country, because we’ve got to take the Congress back if we’re going to stop Donald Trump in his tracks,” the governor said.
“We’ve got to be out in the streets now and making our voices heard in order to win in 2026 – if we don’t win in 2026 I’m fearful that they’re going to take away so many voting rights from so many people that won’t vote for Donald Trump that indeed will be completely iced out in 2028 and have no chance at all.”
