SPRINGFIELD — With an eye toward this election year and possibly the next, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker used his State of the State and budget address to outline a message of resistance to President Donald Trump and the need to push affordability against the economic moves of his White House.

Speaking before a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly, the two-term chief executive, who is seeking reelection and a potential 2028 White House bid, said the Trump administration’s actions federal funding cuts for various programs — which he likened to “proclamations from the Lollipop Guild” — have cost the people of Illinois $8.4 billion.

“When Donald Trump is taking resources away that are rightfully ours, none of us — Democrats or Republicans — should be OK with that,” he said, before issuing a stark warning aimed at Republicans that caused some of the most conservative lawmakers to walk out of the House chamber. “If you want to talk about our Fiscal Year 2027 budget, you must first demand the return of the money and resources this president has taken from the people of Illinois.”

Pritzker also noted Trump’s aggressive enforcement of immigration laws by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents in the Chicago area during Operation Midwest Blitz. He called Illinois the “canary in the coal mine” for the federal agents’ actions in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were shot and killed.

“It’s a playbook as old as the game — overwhelm communities, provoke fear, suggest that those tasked with enforcing the law are also above it — and drip authoritarianism bit by bit into our veins in the hopes that we won’t notice we are being poisoned by it,” Pritzker said. “The problem for Donald Trump and (Trump senior homeland security advisor) Stephen Miller was that Illinoisans did notice.”

Adopting the refrain of “affordability” that politicians have recited nationally for the midterm elections, Pritzker used his eighth budget speech to say that the state’s “narrative and our economy is changing and improving, and we’re setting ourselves up for even better results in the years ahead.”

“We won’t let headwinds from Washington stop us from addressing the fact that Illinoisans, like Americans everywhere, are still paying too much for groceries, too much for housing, too much for electricity, too much to live,” Pritzker said. “Everything is just too damned expensive.”

For the budget year that begins July 1, Pritzker proposed a rough hold-the-line spending plan, contending the state needs to play financial defense against future Trump moves to slash federal funding in states the president views as his political opposition.

Among his proposals was to drop a state incentive program for large data centers amid concerns over the effect their massive electricity use would have on residential ratepayers. He also issued an executive order directing his staff to identify sites for new nuclear power plants after a state moratorium was lifted.

To encourage more housing, Pritzker is asking lawmakers to limit local governments’ authority over certain residential zoning areas so that multi-family and other structures can be built.

He also sought to resurrect plans lawmakers failed to endorse from last year’s speech to ban students’ use of cell phones in schools and allow community colleges to offer specialized bachelor’s degrees.

On the revenue side, he proposed a new tax on social media companies based on how many users they have in the state — a concept that could raise $200 million earmarked for education. But as the March primary and November general election loom, there was no call for a general tax increase, as he also called on lawmakers to curb their spending habits to create new programs.

Pritzker reserved much of the final minutes of his address to deliver a form of a love letter to Illinois and the country, urging citizens to use that emotion to embolden their hopes despite “the turbulence of Donald Trump.”

“I am begging my fellow politicians, my fellow Illinoisans, my fellow Americans to realize that right now in this country, we are not fighting over policy or political party. We are fighting over whether we are going to be a civilization rooted in empathy and kindness–or rooted in cruelty and rage,” Pritzker said.

“I love my country. I refuse to stop. The hope I have found in a very difficult year is that love is the light that gets you through a long night,” he said.