Trump order withholds funds over no-cash bail policies like Illinois'
[August 26, 2025]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Taxpayer resources should not be used to support
jurisdictions with cashless bail policies, according to a new executive
order signed by President Donald Trump. The order comes as the president
hedges on whether to send the National Guard to Chicago.
Within 30 days, a list of states and local jurisdictions that have ended
cash bail will be delivered to the president. The order says the federal
government may suspend or terminate federal funds, grants and contracts
to areas with no cash bail. Illinois was the first state to end money
bond statewide in September 2023.
“They have great cashless bail, you know you don’t even go to court
sometimes,” Trump joked with staff in the oval office. “Illinois, I love
that state. It’s a great state, but it’s run so badly by [Gov. J.B.]
Pritzker.”
Monday afternoon, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice held a news
conference supporting Illinois’ end to money bond. ACLU of Illinois’ Ed
Yohnka said Trump’s moves are an overreach.
“You just simply don’t have the power to limit … and choke off funding
to states on the basis of a policy that is really unrelated to the
funding that is being given,” Yohnka said.
The group couldn’t put a price tag of how much federal tax funds could
be withheld from Illinois because of the state’s no-cash bail law.
Yohnka anticipates the state of Illinois would file a lawsuit against
any withholding of federal funds, to which the ACLU would file an amicus
brief.
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President Donald Trump holds up an executive order on Aug. 25, 2025
- White House | YouTube
During the same event in the Oval Office Monday, Trump hedged on the
idea of sending National Guard troops to Chicago to address public
safety.
“These people are sick, but I’m really saying, and I say this to all of
you, in a certain way we should wait to be asked, because they have
cities that are so under, you know, out of control,” Trump said.
During an afternoon news conference with Democratic members of Congress
and other elected officials, Pritzker said there has been no
communication between state and local officials about the use of the
National Guard and there is no crime emergency in Illinois or in
Chicago.
“This is not because we’ve asked for it, it is not because there is some
justice that he is going to seek, it is because he wants to create
chaos, that is all this is about,” Pritzker said.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he couldn’t rule out a lawsuit against
the Trump administration. |
