'I wish his family would intervene': Pritzker says Trump aides taking advantage of decline

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker suspects that President Donald Trump's advisers are taking advantage of his apparent mental decline to manipulate him.

The president had called for Pritzker's arrest, along with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, as he deploys National Guard troops to the nation's third largest city, purportedly in a crackdown on violent crime and illegal immigration, but the Democratic official told The New Republican the threat was almost like a cry for help.

"I do not expect to be arrested, and the president of the United States says a lot of crazy things," Pritzker said. "I genuinely think there is something wrong with him. I wish that his family would intervene, because I do think he needs mental health help, and I don’t think anybody around him that works for him is going to do that, because they’re benefiting from his failure of mental health, his dementia. I wish somebody would help out the president of the United States."

"Meanwhile, you know, he says a lot of crazy things," Pritzker added. "He doesn’t have authority to arrest elected officials or really anybody where you don’t have any, you know, example of a crime being committed, and I find it ironic that this guy who’s a 34-time convicted felon is saying that I should be jailed. I’ve never been accused of or convicted of, or, you know, gone on trial for anything. He’s the guy who’s done that so many times and cheated, by the way, in civil court."

Pritzker said the threat's just another example of Trump's apparent mental decompensation.

"I don’t take it seriously other than I think the man has so much power at his fingertips because he’s president of the United States that the people around him might try to take it upon themselves to just make something up and come after me or or Gavin Newsom," he said. "I know they’ve mentioned that they might jail him or the mayor of the city of Chicago."

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was pulling the strings in Trump's presidency as his mental fitness erodes, according to the governor.

"I don’t know why he isn’t whispering in the residence here," Pritzker said. "I mean, he’s basically claiming — and the president repeats these things — but Stephen Miller is claiming that, you know, Antifa is involved somehow. Believe me, come to Broadview, would you, to these protests — there’s no Antifa there. I mean, nobody’s revealed themselves to be Antifa. I’m not even sure that, you know, what Antifa, you know, would look like, but they haven’t revealed themselves or caused any mayhem there."

"There are people who’ve broken the law, by the way, in those places, but it’s usually like their refusal to step out of the street, you know, when they should be," Pritzker added. "But, you know, I just — Stephen Miller has essentially demonized any opposition, any opponent of the president of the United States, and made them seem like they’re terrorists. He’s used that word, and he’s called Democrats part of that sort of terrorist network. It’s ridiculous. Stephen Miller is a dangerous individual on his own. He’s very dangerous when he’s got the power of the president backing him up."