Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, delivered a forceful rebuke of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies and seemingly authoritarian ambitions in his State of the State address Wednesday, warning that the federal government’s actions mirror the early stages of regimes like Nazi Germany. As President Donald Trump erases transgender and nonbinary people from federal recognition and publicly embraces the idea of ruling as a king, Pritzker issued a stark warning: history is repeating itself, and Americans must act before it is too late.
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Pritzker made clear that Illinois would remain a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people, directly calling out the administration’s targeting of marginalized communities and consolidation of executive power.
Related: Donald Trump’s government declares that transgender and nonbinary people don’t exist
“I just have one question: What comes next?” Pritzker said. “After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities—once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends—after that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face—what comes next?”
His remarks come just weeks after Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal recognition of transgender people, requiring all government documents, including passports and Social Security records, to list only a person’s sex assigned at birth. The order also rescinds anti-discrimination protections and cuts funding for gender-affirming care, which LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and medical experts warn will lead to increased adverse health outcomes, discrimination, loss of health care access, and legal erasure.
Pritzker linked Trump’s policies to the historical playbook of authoritarian regimes, drawing a chilling parallel to the rise of fascism in Europe.
“The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight,” Pritzker said. “It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.”
The governor warned that history shows what happens when leaders scapegoat vulnerable communities and consolidate power, pointing to the Trump administration’s escalating rhetoric and executive actions as a major red flag.
Trump’s king fantasy & expanding executive power
Pritzker’s speech also comes as Trump openly embraces monarchical comparisons, taking his authoritarian messaging to new levels. This week, Trump declared himself a king on his social media platform, Truth Social, celebrating his administration’s latest progressive policy reversal with a post that read: “LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The White House then reinforced the message, sharing a fake magazine cover showing Trump wearing a crown and standing behind a lectern adorned with the presidential seal alongside the words: “Long live the king.”
Trump’s increasingly autocratic statements have alarmed democracy advocates, legal scholars, and even some Republican officials, as he has openly suggested that his authority as president overrides legal constraints. In a separate social media post, Trump paraphrased a quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, writing: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Pritzker addressed this disturbing shift, rejecting Trump’s vision of unchecked executive power.
“I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: ‘I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Illinois and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor …. according to the best of my ability,’” Pritzker said. “We don’t have kings in America—and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one.”
Illinois as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people
Pritzker explicitly linked the administration’s escalating attacks on LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and other marginalized groups to the tactics used in past totalitarian regimes.
“Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage,” he said.
Pritzker’s remarks come as the Trump administration intensifies its scapegoating of transgender people, a trend extremism experts warn is a key strategy in consolidating authoritarian power.
Lies about transgender people have been injected into high-profile tragedies, with Republican leaders falsely blaming mass shootings and military accidents on trans individuals—claims that have repeatedly been debunked. The administration’s aggressive push to ban transgender people from sports, restrooms, legal documents, and health care mirrors efforts in pre-World War II Germany, where one of the first targets of the Nazi party was the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, a pioneering trans health clinic whose books were burned in 1933, NPR reports.
Pritzker has positioned Illinois as one of the strongest sanctuary states for LGBTQ+ rights, enacting laws that protect access to gender-affirming health care, ensure legal protections for LGBTQ+ residents, and shield providers from out-of-state prosecution.
He recently reaffirmed that Illinois will not cooperate with the federal government’s efforts to erase transgender people and vowed to continue expanding protections for LGBTQ+ residents. His speech is already being hailed as one of the most urgent calls to action from a Democratic governor.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis praised Pritzker’s decision to explicitly name LGBTQ+ people in his warning about authoritarianism, saying that his leadership is essential in this moment of crisis.
“Gov. Pritzker is accurately recalling history that profoundly affected his own family and the global LGBTQ community,” Ellis said. “Leaders who dehumanize people do so to divide the country and expand authoritarian control. The governor is using his platform to draw urgent attention to what’s at stake, and we can all be inspired by his words and action. Leaders should speak up for the human rights of all people and work to improve everyone’s lives. Make the call to your elected representatives today.”
Pritzker is one of the wealthiest politicians in the country, with an estimated net worth exceeding $3.5 billion. His fortune comes from the Hyatt hotel empire, founded by his family. The Pritzker family has long been one of the most powerful and influential in American business and philanthropy, with interests spanning real estate, private equity, and global hospitality.
Despite his immense wealth, Pritzker has been a progressive champion, investing his money into political causes, including abortion rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and expanding social services in Illinois.
Illinois’ history of resisting hate
Pritzker closed his address by reminding Illinoisans of their long history of standing against white supremacy and fascism, invoking the 1978 attempted Nazi march in the town of Skokie, a predominantly Jewish suburb of Chicago. The march, which would have paraded through a community home to many Holocaust survivors, was shut down by public resistance.
“Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978—just not in Skokie,” Pritzker said. “After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2,000 people came to counter-protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the ‘rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.’ It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.”
He added, “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our country needs us the most.”
