Illinois Governor JB Pritzker lit a political fuse on Wednesday, accusing President Donald Trump of suffering from dementia and urging his cabinet to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment. Pritzker’s remarks followed Trump’s extraordinary address to roughly 800 senior military officials in Virginia, where the president suggested that “dangerous” American cities, including Chicago, should be used as “training grounds” for U.S. troops, and warned of an “invasion from within.”
“It appears that Donald Trump not only has dementia set in, but he’s copying tactics of Vladimir Putin,” Pritzker said in this video, blasting the idea of turning U.S. city streets into simulated battle zones: “Sending troops into cities, thinking that that is some sort of proving ground for war, or that indeed there is some sort of internal war going on in the United States is just, frankly, inane and I am concerned for his health. There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked.”
Democrats quickly framed Trump’s remarks as authoritarian posturing with potential consequences. The speech, delivered as the administration leans into hardline domestic security messaging, cast dissent and crime as a home-front war, language that civil liberties groups say risks normalizing a military role in civilian life. Legal analysts noted that while presidents can use National Guard forces in limited ways, the Posse Comitatus Act is designed to keep the federal military out of domestic policing. Trump’s “training grounds” idea, they say pushes that boundary.
Republicans countered that critics were cherry-picking lines from a longer address and argued that Trump was speaking about readiness in the face of rising urban crime. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump’s comments were taken out of context, insisting the president was focused on national security and law enforcement. The political divide quickly hardened: Democrats warned of creeping militarization of cities, while Republicans defended Trump’s tough-on-crime rhetoric.
Pritzker’s comments put new focus on the 25th Amendment, the constitutional mechanism ratified in 1967 that outlines how presidential powers can be transferred if a leader is incapacitated. Invoking Section 4 would require the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unable to discharge his duties, followed by congressional involvement if disputed, a high bar meant for exceptional circumstances. Governors rarely call for its use, making Pritzker’s statement especially striking.
Trump has been touting himself as a dealmaker and global peacemaker while doubling down on aggressive rhetoric at home. His Virginia speech fit that mold but the reaction in the room was notably muted, with reports describing a subdued audience as Trump spoke of enemies “within” and floated using urban centers as training fields for soldiers.
Pritzker is not the first to sound alarms about Trump’s mental fitness, but his comments marked the first time he explicitly called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Other Democratic officials likened Trump’s speech to the tactics of authoritarian leaders, warning that blurring the lines between military and civilian spheres threatens democratic norms.
For now, Pritzker’s remarks function more as a political warning shot than a practical plan. Removing a sitting president under the 25th Amendment would require extraordinary unity among Trump’s own inner circle, something that currently seems unlikely. Still, his claim of dementia and call for removal guarantees that questions about Trump’s health and fitness will dominate another news cycle.
