President Trump said Tuesday that he could resolve Chicago’s crime crisis “fast and permanently,” calling on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to contact him after a weekend in which 39 people were shot across the city.
His message followed remarks two days earlier in which he argued that he could turn Chicago into one of the safest cities in the country after another violent weekend.
“At least 39 people injured, 4 dead, in Chicago weekend shootings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this. FAST and Permanently.
“D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, all down to record lows, and quickly. CALL ME! President DJT.”
Trump said four people were killed in the shootings, though Chicago police put the death toll at six, according to WLS.
Police data released last month and cited by WTTW shows that more than 500 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year, a 9% increase compared with May 2025.
Among the weekend incidents, police said two drive-by shooters opened fire in Princeton Park, leaving 13 people wounded.
Initially, cops said 12 people were injured – before adding that a man, 26, was wounded and refused medical treatment.
The drive-by shooting erupted just after 11 p.m. in the Princeton Park neighborhood during a Juneteenth celebration when two thugs inside a red SUV opened fire on the gathering before speeding off, cops said.
Responding police found a 32-year-old woman who had been shot twice in the back and a 44-year-old man whose back had been grazed by four bullets. Both were rushed to local hospitals in stable condition, police said.
Other victims included a 17-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman who were each shot in the thigh, along with a 32-year-old man who was shot in the head, according to cops.
Local alderman Anthony Beale said he was “heartbroken by the senseless shooting.”
“In a matter of seconds, an ordinary summer night was shattered by gunfire,” he said.
“Lives were upended, families were thrown into fear, and an entire community was reminded how quickly violence can change everything. No one should have to wonder if they or someone they love will make it home safely. This is the cruel reality of the mindless menace of gun violence in our city.”
Violence also erupted in Chicago’s West Side Saturday and Aniyhas Jackson, 18, died after being shot in the armpit. Cops arrested a boy, 17, as part of their probe.
A 21-year-old man was killed after being shot on the South Side early Sunday, police said.
Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has rebuffed Trump’s calls for help.
“This is the president that thought that he could hire an unqualified company to paint the reflecting pool, and then thought that it would just be free of algae. And yet days later, it turned into an algae sea,” he said, mocking the $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“And this is the same president that did not know that the Strait of Hormuz could be closed, shuttered essentially, by Iran if he went to war with Iran.
“I don’t think that we should be listening to this president about promises that he makes or that he has any idea how to protect us in the state of Illinois.”
Trump has previously branded Chicago a “hellhole” and likened the city to a “war zone,” threatening to send in the National Guard to tackle crime.
In December last year, the Supreme Court blocked Trump from sending the National Guard to Chicago as part of an operation to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Trump turned to the highest court in the land trying to overturn a lower court ruling that was upheld by the appeals court.
Trump’s justification for the attempted troop deployment to the Windy City used a law that permits the president to take over the National Guard if he isn’t able to execute the law with “regular forces.”
“Thus, at least in this posture, the Government has not carried its burden to show that [the statute in question] permits the President to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois,” the high court wrote in its decision.
Pritzker has stressed the US doesn’t need the National Guard to help combat crime.
“We’ve been fighting crime. We’ve been trying to prevent crime and it’s been working,” he said in August 2025.
With Post wires.
