Pritzker says Trump ‘suffers from dementia’ despite supporting Biden’s mental health

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has accused President Donald Trump of being a “man with dementia” as part of their escalating feud over the deployment of the National Guard to his state – despite the Democrat once supporting former President Joe Biden’s mental health.

Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday to protect federal personnel and property amid anti-immigration protests, the Pentagon confirmed. A Pentagon official said 200 Guardsmen had been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.

“This is a man who suffers from dementia,” Pritzker said of Trump on Tuesday, according to The Chicago Tribune. “He’s a man who’s got something stuck in his head. He can’t get it out of his head. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t know anything that’s up to date. It’s just something in the recesses of his brain that causes him to call these towns.”

“And then, unfortunately, he has the power of the military, the power of the federal government to do whatever he wants, and that’s what he’s doing,” Pritzker reportedly added.

Trump says Chicago mayor and Illinois governor ‘should be in jail for failing to protect’ ICE officers

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said President Donald Trump suffers from dementia, although he previously dismissed former President Joe Biden’s mental health issues. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Bruce Glikas/WireImage)

The harsh criticism comes after Pritzker defended Biden following the release of a report from special counsel Robert Hur in February 2024 that described the former president as a “friendly, well-meaning older man with a poor memory.”

“I smell a rat,” Pritzker reportedly told reporters the day after Hur’s report was released.

“It was extremely unfair for a Trump appointee, initially at the Justice Department, to offer his own opinions on the mental acuity or age of the President of the United States,” Pritzker added, according to Policy.

Pritzker further defended Biden’s fitness to serve.

“I’ve been with the President of the United States several times, he’s in on this,” Pritzker said at a press conference in February 2024, according to at WLS-TV. “This man knows more than most of us have forgotten. He knows much more because he has been in government for many years and has held important positions.”

Biden then abandoned his re-election bid in July after a disastrous debate against Trump. Biden’s own party quietly gave in to concerns about his physical fitness, mental skills and overall strength as a candidate, as fallout from the debate took precedence over conversations on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.

Uniformed military personnel, wearing the Texas National Guard patch, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. (AP/Laura Bargfeld)

At a time when Pritzker was rumored to potentially join the Democratic ticket and was holding speaking engagements in battleground states, the governor of Illinois released a statement on Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.

“President Joe Biden has dedicated his life to serving this nation, and its citizens are all the better for it. It has been a storied political career that has culminated in one of the most accomplished and effective presidencies of our lifetimes,” Pritzker said at the time. He praised Biden for “restoring the dignity of the Oval Office, bringing back to the White House the statesmanship and honor that characterized his years of service.”

He also attacked Trump, adding: “We must not ignore the threat posed by Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House,” according to WMAQ-TV. Trump won the November election.

PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS

On Tuesday, an X account affiliated with the Trump White House called Pritzker a “SICK bastard,” sharing a clip from his recent interview with WGN.

“What I know is that at the beginning of the Nazi regime, they slowly but surely began to take away people’s rights. And what we see now is exactly the same thing. They have now gone into the cities with the army,” Pritzker said in the clip posted to X by the White House Rapid Response Team. “Think about it: In your lifetime, have you ever seen anything like this? Where does the President of the United States send military or military-dressed troops – ICE and CBP – in camouflage, with automatic weapons, into our major cities? This is wrong.”

Smoke is seen rising as federal law enforcement pushes back anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, September 26, 2025. (Fox News)

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The White House Rapid Response Team said Pritzker “calls President Trump a Nazi – fomenting even more deranged violence from his crazed radical left supporters.”

Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be jailed for failing to defend ICE agents. The White House provided Fox News Digital with a statement expanding on the president’s message, noting that 30 people were shot, five of whom died, in Chicago last week alone, and yet “these deranged Trump buffoons would rather allow the violence to continue and attack the president for wanting to help make their city safe again.”

The White House did not immediately respond to Pritzker’s specific “dementia” comment about Trump.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Pritzker’s office for comment but did not immediately respond.

Brooke Singman, Aubrie Spady, Alexandra Koch and Patrick McGovern of Fox News contributed to this report.