Pritzker on Trump: Everyone understands 'we've got an authoritarian in office'

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) heavily criticized President Trump during a late-night TV interview Thursday, calling him an unchecked "authoritarian."

"I think everybody understands that at this point, we've got an authoritarian in office," Pritzker said during an appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" with Jimmy Kimmel. "He's essentially tearing apart the things that really matter to working families across the United States, and nobody's stopping him."

"Congress is under the control of his party, and they're all paying homage to him at all times — no one's willing to break with him," he added.

Pritzker drew national attention by calling for mass protests of Trump's administration and allies during a speech at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on Sunday.

"These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace," he told the gathering. "They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have."

"We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box," the Illinois Democrat added.

The White House responded to the call to action, accusing Pritzker of encouraging violent attacks.

"His comments, if nothing else, could be construed as inciting violence," Stephen Miller, a top Trump aide, told reporters at the White House on Monday, recalling the two thwarted assassination attempts against the president during his time on the campaign trail. "People are engaging in rhetoric and behavior that puts the lives of public servants in danger, puts the lives of conservative Americans in danger."

But Prizker reiterated his protest call during his discussion with Kimmel.

"The only thing, in my view, that we really can do on a national level is let them know about our displeasure," the governor said. "If [members of Congress] don't know how much resistance there is out there in their own districts, then they're just going to keep following Donald Trump and doing whatever he wants, so we've got to be out there — loud, proud, you know, stand up, speak out."

Trump has relentlessly attacked Pritzker for his discernible weight. During a campaign rally in Ohio last year, he accused the governor leader of being "too busy eating" to lead the state and riffed on how many hamburgers he would order.

"He wants to eat all the time," the president said to laughs from the crowd.

Pritzker, a billionaire whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain, said he is unbothered by Trump's taunting.

"Frankly, that's how you know he's afraid of you," he told Kimmel on Thursday.

The Illinois leader first met Trump in late 2018, during Trump's first term, when the president invited a group of incoming governors to the White House. Pritzker had just won the Illinois gubernatorial election with nearly 55 percent of the vote, campaigning heavily on attacking Trump.

"I have to say, I contemplated whether to go or not,” he recalled in the late-night interview. "I had run an entire campaign where every chance I got — in fact, I started a lot of my speeches by saying, 'Everything we care about is under siege by racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic president in the United States.'"

He added, however, that the meeting was cordial.

"Oddly, he spent a lot of time talking to me, you know, seemingly interested in being my friend, which was very odd," Pritzker said.