Trump came in for harsh criticism, as the governor expanded on his remarks reported earlier in the day in accusing Trump of “inflammatory” rhetoric, calling on governors in a conference call to “dominate” protesters.

“We live in some extraordinary and difficult moments now,” Pritzker said. “This has something to do with the leadership in this nation. … I don’t want to dominate peaceful protesters who have legitimate grievances.

“The president has fanned the flames instead of bringing peace and calm,” Pritzker said. “It is usually the job of the president to stand up in these circumstances and try to bring down the temperature. That’s not what this president does.”

Saying he found Trump guilty of “inflammatory rhetoric” in the face of the national crisis — which has seen even the White House under attack — he added, “I wish that the president would hold his words. If he can’t say something that is going to help us across the nation to bring the temperature down, then he shouldn’t say anything at all.”

Ideally, Pritzker said, Trump should “speak to the pain that’s being experienced by people all across the country — African Americans, people of color, who have been subject to situations like we’ve seen,” such as the Floyd killing. “I really think it is time to call for calm, around not just the city of Chicago, but the entire state of Illinois and the entire country. That is in part the job of a president. This one hasn’t done it.”

Brigadier Gen. Richard Neely, commander of the Illinois National Guard, added that he wanted to “echo the governor’s call for peace.”

“We’ll do what’s necessary here,” Pritzker said, “first of all to allow the peaceful protesters to do the kind of protest that’s appropriate, and then to catch the bad guys.

“We will meet the challenge,” the governor said. “We have the capability to meet the challenge. The people of Illinois have the capability. And again I would ask for people to step up and call for calm and peace in our streets.”

Soon after Pritzker’s news conference, Trump staged one of his own in Washington, D.C., saying he was deploying troops to quash violence. Pritzker immediately rebuffed that on CNN, saying, “I reject the notion that the president can send troops into the state of Illinois.”

He made no apologies for the hard criticism of the president, saying, “We have to express our values. What I said is an expression of the values of the people of Illinois.”