Trump claims Chicago leaders should be jailed

UNITED States President Donald Trump has said the Illinois governor and the Chicago mayor should be jailed as they oppose his deployment of National Guard federal troops for his immigration and crime crackdown in the nation’s third-largest city.

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The Republican president made the comment in a social media post, the latest example of his brazen calls for opponents to be prosecuted or locked up - a break from longtime norms as the US Justice Department traditionally has tried to maintain its independence from the White House.

Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social that Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker “should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers” in a reference to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr Johnson, in a social media post on X, said: “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a black man unjustly arrested. I'm not going anywhere.”

Mr Pritzker, also on X, said: “I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”