BURSTIllinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) accused President Trump of trying to "manufacture a crisis" to justify an anticrime takeover and anticipated immigration crackdown in Chicago, similar to what Trump has spearheaded in the nation's capital in recent weeks.
"This is not about public safety, and this is not about making our residents safer," Stratton said during an appearance on CNN's "News Central" on Tuesday. "What Donald Trump wants to happen is he wants to manufacture a crisis."
"He wants to ... inflame tensions, and he wants to make sure that he can cause some sort of crisis so that he can say that he's coming to the rescue," she added.
The White House called the comments from Stratton and other state and local leaders about the president's motives "despicable."
"It is despicable that state and local leaders in Illinois would rather let crime continue to plague their cities than partner with President Trump to make their communities safe again," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday. "As the country's 'homicide capital' for 13 consecutive years, Chicago clearly has an out-of-control crime problem that has jeopardized the safety of law-abiding Americans for far too long."
"This is why the Democrats continue to be so unpopular — they refuse to adopt commonsense policies that Americans support," she added.
Stratton said she didn't think that the level of collaboration was adequate.
"There's been no direct communication with the governor — there’s been no coordination, not just with our administration, but with local law enforcement — and so, if this really is about what do we need to do to promote public safety and create safer communities, why would there not be coordination with our administration?" Stratton told CNN's Kate Bolduan on Tuesday.
She continued, "Why would we not work with local law enforcement that's already on the ground and has relationships with our communities across the state and across the city?"
"So, this is not about public safety; it’s not about coordination," the lieutenant governor added.
Trump declared a public safety emergency and deployed soldiers to Washington, D.C., last month. He has repeatedly signaled in recent weeks that Chicago, which has struggled with gun violence, could be next, and he posted about crime in the Windy City multiple times on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Stratton and local leaders acknowledged this week that they expect a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Chicago.
Trump has been in an ongoing feud with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) over the White House's threats to escalate federal intervention in the city.
Seven people were killed in Chicago and 54 reportedly injured across at least 34 separate shootings during the Labor Day weekend, according to police data.
"At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, 8 people were killed. The last two weekends were similar," Trump wrote in one of the Tuesday morning posts — misstating the number of fatalities by one. "Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far. Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet."
"CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!," he wrote in a follow-up post.
Stratton announced in April that she's running for an open U.S. Senate seat next fall that Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is vacating after nearly three decades in the post.