"I want to express my most profound and everlasting gratitude to President Trump," former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said at the Chicago O'Hare international airport on Wednesday. "He didn't have to do this."

Blagojevich was headed home after Trump commuted his 14-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution-Englewood in Colorado for political corruption. The former governor, ever grateful, said that this moment transcends politics and he has nothing but love for the president.

"He's a Republican president. I was a Democratic governor," Blagojevich explained. "My fellow Democrats have not been very kind to him. In fact, they've been very unkind to him. And what he did is something I think deserves a great amount of appreciation on my part personally and he has for me, my deepest, most profound and everlasting gratitude. I can't wait to get home. I miss my daughters, my wife. I miss home."

Ask him what his party affiliation is now, and he'll tell you he's a "Trumpocrat."

The governor later sounded off on what he called an "unfair" and "broken" criminal justice system. He also called the system "racist" because he saw firsthand how it "affects people of color." For instance, he said a fair-minded society would not allow individuals to serve decades behind bars for first time drug offenses. Alice Johnson, the 65-year-old great grandmother whose life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense was commuted by Trump two years ago, would agree.

As Blagojevich walked up the steps to his home in Chicago on Wednesday morning, he told reporters that he was happy to be home, and teased a press conference.

It's a new day in Illinois.