Six people were killed and 39 others shot in Chicago over Juneteenth weekend.
Trump offered to fix it in a month – and a South Side priest told him to shut up.
Now the same priest has a message for the President – and it isn't a phone call for help.
Father Pfleger's Offer: Cash Without Accountability
Father Michael Pfleger has been a fixture at St. Sabina Catholic Church on the South Side for decades.
He's the same man who flew the American flag upside down outside his church this past February as a protest of the Trump administration.
He's the same man who just last April was defending Pope Leo XIV from Trump's criticism while blaming the Iran conflict for his congregation's gas bills.
https://twitter.com/ChicagoContrar1/status/2069112845116084492?s=20
And now, with six of his neighbors dead and 39 shot in 72 hours, Pfleger's big message to the President of the United States is: send a check, but don't you dare send help.
"Shut up, Donald," Pfleger said Monday. "Just send money and restore the money you took away from gun violence prevention for the city of Chicago and across this country. Give the money back now."
No police. No National Guard. No federal enforcement.
Just money – funneled through the same community programs that have been running for decades while Chicago's South Side bleeds every summer.
What Washington D.C. Proved Last Year
Trump didn't come up with the idea of sending federal help to Chicago out of thin air.
He ran the same play in Washington, D.C. last August – and it worked.
When Trump deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to D.C., reported crimes dropped 18% in the first 30 days compared to the same period the previous year.
D.C. went 12 consecutive days without a single homicide at the height of the crackdown – the kind of stretch that doesn't happen in major American cities without someone making it happen.
That's the model Trump is pointing to.
That's the model Pfleger and Brandon Johnson are refusing to try in Chicago.
Brandon Johnson's Theory of the Crime Problem
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had a message Monday too.
He said he wished Trump would "follow Chicago's lead and invest in Black America."
Johnson claimed Trump has been cutting the very programs – education, housing, health care – that keep communities safe.
https://twitter.com/paschutz/status/2069077225454936273?s=20
Meanwhile, on Juneteenth – a night meant for celebration – an SUV rolled up on a crowd in Princeton Park and two suspects opened fire.
Thirteen people were hit in that single drive-by.
Johnson called it "heartbreaking."
He didn't call Trump.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker didn't call Trump either.
The White House noticed.
"President Trump's bold actions in cities like D.C. and Memphis have dramatically reduced violent crime," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital Monday. "Local Democrat leaders in Chicago should see the President's incredible results and be begging him to do the same in Chicago."
They won't beg.
They won't call.
And they won't let federal help in.
The Pattern Chicago Democrats Won't Admit
Chicago's summer violence is not a surprise to anyone who has paid attention for more than a year.
https://twitter.com/Bp_Richard_Min/status/2069361403094245735?s=20
The pattern repeats every single summer – and every year Chicago's Democrat leadership responds the same way: hold a press conference, express heartbreak, demand federal money, and reject federal law enforcement.
The Fourth of July weekend in 2021 saw 18 people killed and at least 100 shot.
Pfleger's answer to six dead neighbors is a new city agency – a proposed Department of Gun Violence Prevention focused on coordinating violence prevention programs across the city.
More bureaucracy. More meetings.
More money flowing into programs that have not stopped a single summer massacre in 30 years.
Trump looked at the same problem in D.C. and produced 12 straight days without a homicide.
Chicago Democrats are choosing their pride over their people's lives – and a priest is standing at his pulpit telling the one man willing to act to shut up and write a check instead.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "Chicago priest tells Trump to 'shut up' and restore gun violence prevention funding after deadly weekend," Fox News, June 22, 2026.
- Kelsie Cairns, "6 dead, 39 shot in Chicago bloodbath as Trump touts DC-style cleanup where National Guard stepped in," Fox News, June 22, 2026.
- "Did the National Guard lower crime in DC? What data shows before, after Trump sent troops," The Baltimore Sun, September 22, 2025.
- "St. Sabina pastor protests Trump administration with upside-down American flag," Fox 32 Chicago, February 24, 2025.
