Donald Trump was up bright and early Tuesday morning to go on a social media rant against his longtime enemy, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The 80-year-old president, who has a habit of falling asleep in public, posted on Truth Social at 3:45 a.m. about Chicago’s crime rates and urged the Democratic governor to call him to address the problem.
“Chicago violence is unchecked and at record levels. It has never been worse! This weekend 41 people were shot, 3 DEAD. These numbers are becoming normalized. It is out of control,” Trump wrote.
“The city will die if the Federal Government, a fine-tuned crime-fighting machine, is not invited in, by the Mayor [Brandon Johnson] or Governor, to HELP. I am awaiting the call. Nobody should be forced to live under these conditions. Like D.C. and others, they will have almost no crime, FAST! The State and City can’t do what I do. Governor Pritzker, CALL!!!”
Trump sent the early morning post after he appeared to nod off during an Oval Office event on Monday.
The president appeared with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and U.S. Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to promote the administration’s healthcare policies.
However, the event seemed like too much for the 80-year-old president, who was seen closing his eyes at several points during the meeting including for more than 20 seconds at one point.
Trump has frequently targeted Pritzker over Chicago’s crime rates, with the president repeatedly urging the governor to call him over claims that he can address the problem.
In June, amid a weekend in which 39 people were injured and four people were killed in shootings across the city, Trump asked on Truth Social: “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help? I could make Chicago a safe city in ONE MONTH. In ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!”
Trump has also cited his previous federal crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., including his deployment of National Guard troops, as proof that he could tackle violent crime. “I can do the same thing but on a larger scale in Chicago. And Pritzker should ask me to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in October 2025.
Studies have shown that while Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to D.C. did reduce so-called “opportunistic property crime,” such as theft and vandalism, it had no measurable effect on violent crime, including murder, assault and rape, in the capital.
Pritzker has repeatedly rejected suggestions that he call Trump to help tackle crime in Chicago.
“This is the president that thought that he could hire an unqualified company to paint the Reflecting Pool, and then thought that it would just be free of algae,” Pritzker said in June. “This is the same president that did not know that the Strait of Hormuz could be closed, shuttered essentially, by Iran if he went to war with Iran.”
“I don’t think that we should be listening to this president about promises that he makes or that he has any idea how to protect us in the state of Illinois,” he added.
Trump’s 3:45 a.m. Truth Social post is the latest sign that the 80-year-old president may not be getting enough sleep at night. He regularly posts furiously on Truth Social late at night, then returns to share updates just hours later. His last post before the message to Pritzker came five hours earlier, when the president shared an image of golfer Scottie Scheffler with Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt.
The Daily Beast previously reported a worrying trend in how often the president posts on Truth Social between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., showing there were only five days in April when Trump could have had a full night’s sleep.
The Daily Beast has contacted Pritzker’s office for comment.
