Gov. JB Pritzker getting national attention for speaking out against Trump during budget address

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- Gov. JB Pritzker is getting attention on the national stage for speaking out against President Donald Trump.

The governor's budget address Wednesday included some blistering attacks on the president.

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But how much does it have to do with Pritzker's future political ambitions?

Experts on both sides of the aisle are providing some insight Thursday.

"Only an idiot would think we should eliminate emergency response in a natural disaster, education and healthcare for disabled children," Pritzker said.

The governor never seems to miss an opportunity to take on Trump, and his budget speech was perhaps his most vociferous attack to date.

"I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly," Pritzker said. "I'm watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now."

Lisa Duarte served as first deputy governor under Pritzker during his first term, and is now CEO of Point of Difference Strategies.

"JB Pritzker is the leading voice right now on, especially in the gubernatorial role, in Democratic politics against Donald Trump," Duarte said.

Pat Brady is a former Illinois Republican Party chairman.

He said Pritzker's speech was aimed at Democrats in Springfield and across the country.

"That speech is as effective in Illinois as it is nationally because President Trump's very unpopular here, and this rallies his base. He's gonna have a tough budget cycle. He's gonna need, you know, all Democrats to support him, and going after Trump, that's the way, one way, to rally the troops," said Brady, with Be Media.

The day after his speech, Pritzker released a poll about Trump's popularity, once again raising questions about the governor's presidential ambitions.

"He's got to get through a primary if he wants to go nationally, but he's also got to have a broader appeal. He can't run the Democrats, I think, right now, are struggling with, what's their message? What do we stand for? Because, just standing against Trump hasn't worked," Brady said.

"We don't have kings in America, and I don't intend to bend the knee to one," Pritzker said.

Pritzker's anti-Trump messaging on full display during his budget speech is not expected to change anytime soon.

Trump's success in his second term could be a factor in Pritzker's future political plans.

"If they fail, that's going to create that opportunity. And I think that that is where the governor is looking for that opportunity to be, to be standing in that gap and saying, 'Hey, we can pull a little from each side and maybe change over the composition of the House, and potentially from there, look forward to a Democratic president,'" Duarte said.

Pritzker said in his speech that his criticism of Trump had nothing to do with his own political ambitions.

But, they do help elevate his national standing, and his comments resonate with his Democratic base.