(The Center Square) – As the 104th General Assembly gets underway, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is revealing his priorities for 2025.
The governor held a news conference in Springfield Wednesday after attending the inauguration of the Senate.
Pritzker has repeatedly criticized President-elect Donald Trump and his policies, and was asked if he will continue to “Trump-proof” Illinois.
“We are doing the best we can to try to predict the things that might happen, especially the things that would have the biggest negative impact on the people of the state of Illinois,” said Pritzker. “I’m worried about health care. Changing the rules around Medicaid so that people would get excluded and we might have hundreds of thousands of people who would go without health care, so we’re worried about that.”
There was talk in Washington D.C. about clawing back a federal loan given to electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. The governor said this week in Normal that Trump ally and Tesla owner Elon Musk seems to be behind the threat and said his administration has already addressed the possibility.
“Just as I am about protecting the people of the state, I am about protecting the workers of the state and the companies of the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker has vowed to protect noncitizen immigrants in Illinois after Trump takes office, but said felons should be evicted from the country.
“Someone who is not a U.S. citizen and entered this country without any documentation or permission, people who commit violent crimes who are in that category shouldn’t be here,” he said.
It has been an eventful week for Pritzker. A bill regulating hemp products that the governor backed failed to advance amid in-fighting among Illinois Democrats, resulting in Pritzker criticizing the speaker of the House and the mayor of Chicago.
