[CNN] President Donald Trump and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are each the type of foe the other loves to hate.
On one level, their escalating showdown over the president’s threat to send the National Guard onto the streets of Chicago is a convenient political feud.
Trump thrives when he has an enemy to target. His political appeal is based on the premise that he is stronger than anyone who tries to challenge or restrain him.
Pritzker is a potential Democratic presidential hopeful. His party is pining for someone to show defiance to Trump. And since one of his possible rivals for the 2028 Democratic nomination, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is leading the fight back, it’s good politics to show he’s just as tough.
But this clash runs deeper than a short-term political spat. It might develop into a full-blown crisis between a Republican White House and a major Democratic-run city and state. Likely legal challenges could turn on core values of republicanism in a dispute between a president with a monarchical sense of power and a state that rejects federal duress.
When Pritzker on Monday told Trump, "Do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here," he was echoing tensions fundamental to the American system of governance that were stirred at notable moments of US history — for instance, in the run-up to the Civil War and around federal enforcement of civil rights laws.
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