On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker appeared on MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, where the two discussed how Democrats are using personal attacks against President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
Psaki praised Barack Obama for making Trump look “small and sad” during his campaign speech in Georgia. I found that highly entertaining, considering Obama himself looked small onstage, sounded angry, and repeatedly raised his voice to a high pitch.
Psaki then turned to Pritzker and said:
“So I was watching that speech that former President Obama was giving, making Trump seem small and sad. It is something that you are very good at. We have watched you do a number of times. You seem to take some joy in it as well.
It’s an approach we’ve seen others do as well, making that argument in so many ways. It feels like it has become a way to kind of cut down Trump and not lift him up and make him bigger than he needs to be.
But it’s an evolution. Tell me about why you think that’s the right strategy. Cause I think we’re seeing more and more people do it. And you are one of the originals.”
Apparently, mocking and belittling the president is now considered a political strategy worth celebrating on MS NOW. Psaki wasn’t challenging Pritzker over his personal attacks. She was practically congratulating him for being one of the first Democrats to make a habit of them.
Pritzker responded by attacking Trump’s mental health, his behavior, and even the decorations in the Oval Office.
But listen to what the governor actually said:
“Well, let’s face it, President Trump gives you so much material to work with. And he’s gotten to a point where everything it’s almost ridiculous. The things that he says, it’s clear that he is a little bit off, there’s something wrong with him.
I’ve said he’s got dementia. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he says some things that you can hardly believe.
And the way he acts, you know, the way he’s doing to decorate, decorate, I use quotes, the Oval Office, in a way that is offensive, I think, to the history of the United States and reminds everybody that he is not at all in touch with the challenges that working families are going through right now.”
Pritzker claims Trump has dementia, then, in the very next sentence, admits he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him.
Which is it?
Pritzker isn’t Trump’s doctor. He presented no medical evidence to support his accusation. Yet there he was, casually throwing around a serious medical diagnosis on national television.
And Jen Psaki? She had just been applauding his ability to make Trump look small.
Pritzker wasn’t finished. He went on to praise Obama, declaring that there was “nobody better” at articulating and cleverly packaging what Democrats were supposedly feeling about Trump. He then described Trump as a “ridiculous figure” who was hurting Americans and “should be pushed aside.”
This is what passes for news on MS NOW: make personal attacks on President Trump, speculate about his mental health, complain about his decorating choices, and congratulate each other for being mean. Meanwhile, billionaire heir JB Pritzker sits comfortably in a friendly television interview, playing amateur neurologist and interior design critic.
While Pritzker is on national television criticizing the gold decorations in Trump’s Oval Office, families in Chicago are burying their loved ones.
In 2025 alone, Chicago recorded 416 murders and 1,847 shooting victims, according to CBS Chicago.
And the violence hasn’t stopped. According to WTTW News, Chicago recorded another 321 homicides during the first nine months of 2026. By October 26, the city’s shooting-victim count had reached approximately 1,550 for the year, according to preliminary tracking data.
Since JB Pritzker became governor in January 2019, Chicago has recorded approximately 4,800 homicides and more than 23,000 shooting victims, including people who survived and those who lost their lives. That’s thousands of families devastated by violence in Illinois’ largest city during Pritzker’s years as governor.
Pritzker’s net worth jumped $1 billion since becoming Illinois governor in 2019. Yet he complained about Trump’s wealth increasing during his presidency.
Pritzker, whose fortune was estimated at $4.2 billion by Forbes, can afford to spend his television appearances obsessing over Donald Trump. The families burying loved ones in Chicago don’t have that luxury.
And remember what Pritzker said about Trump?
“He is not at all in touch with the challenges that working families are going through right now.”
What about the working families in Chicago who have buried their sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers during your years in office? What about the parents who worry every time their children walk out the door, wondering whether they’ll make it home alive?
President Trump has repeatedly called for federal intervention to help confront Chicago’s violent crime. Pritzker opposed his proposed National Guard deployment, which was also blocked by the courts.
Instead of turning every Trump proposal into another political catfight, why not focus on what additional federal assistance could actually do to protect Chicago families? Working with President Trump would help stop the shootings and deaths that more than 95 years of unbroken Democratic control of Chicago’s mayor’s office—since the last Republican left in 1931—have failed to prevent.
Pritzker wants to lecture Trump about being out of touch with working families while sitting on a multibillion-dollar fortune, mocking the president’s mental health, and complaining about gold decorations in the Oval Office.
And here’s the part Pritzker apparently doesn’t understand.
Working families in Chicago aren’t worried about the gold decorations in Trump’s Oval Office. They’re worried about gunfire in their neighborhoods, their children getting shot, and whether the people they love will make it home alive.
Governor, you want to accuse Donald Trump of being out of touch with what working families are going through? Try telling that to the thousands of Chicago families whose loved ones have been shot or murdered during your time in office.
They don’t need you to diagnose Donald Trump. They need you to do your job and help stop the killing.
Can you believe this man is running for a third term as governor? Come on, Illinois. You can do better than JB Pritzker.
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