Trump posted "CALL ME!" at midnight, begging Illinois's governor to let him fix Chicago crime. JB Pritzker reminded everyone this is the guy who turned the Reflecting Pool green.
When you're this desperate to be needed, you post "CALL ME!" at 12:14 in the morning.
That's exactly what the President of the United States did. After a violent weekend in Chicago, Trump took to Truth Social in the dead of night and pleaded with Governor JB Pritzker for a chance to ride in and fix it. "Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this, FAST and Permanently," he wrote. "D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, all down to record lows, and quickly! CALL ME!"
Instead, Pritzker stood in front of cameras and calmly dismantled the idea that this president is competent to manage anything, let alone his state. "This is the president that thought that he could hire an unqualified company to paint the Reflecting Pool," Pritzker said, "and then thought that it would just be free of algae."
Then he kept going. "This is the same president that did not know that the Strait of Hormuz could be closed if he went to war with Iran. I don't think that we should be listening to this president, or that he has any idea how to protect us in the state of Illinois."
It is a devastating point, because it is true.
This is a man whose signature beautification project, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, turned bright green within days because he handed the job to an unqualified contractor.
A man who started a war with Iran and was apparently surprised when Iran threatened the world's most important oil chokepoint in response.
And now he wants the keys to policing an American city, promising he can fix it "fast and permanently."
What Pritzker understands, and what Trump cannot, is that "CALL ME!" is not a plan.
Sending in federal agents or the National Guard over the objections of a state's elected governor is not crime policy. It is a photo op, the same instinct that produced a green pool and a Strait of Hormuz he didn't see coming.
There is something revealing in the timing, too. A midnight post in all caps, demanding to be phoned back.
This is a president who governs by attention, who needs the spotlight more than he needs the outcome, reduced to begging a governor on social media at the hour when only insomniacs and the truly rattled are awake.
Pritzker isn't calling. And a midnight "CALL ME!" from the man who turned the pool green is not an offer of help. It's a cry for attention.
