A defiant Mayor Brandon Johnson Tuesday characterized as “terrorism” President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold billions in federal funding from sanctuary cities and cut off funding to school districts in Chicago and other major cities that adhere to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
“Trying to force your will to break the spirit of working people in order to have a conversation — that’s terrorism. And we’re not going to negotiate with terrorists,” Johnson said.
The mayor was asked whether he is calling Trump a terrorist.
“No. What I’m saying is trying to hold people hostage and manipulating them to succumb to his will and then, hold up our tax dollars — that is how terrorists behave,” Johnson said. “He’s not going to hold the people of Chicago ransom.”
Last week, Trump delivered the latest in a string of shots across the bow to the city that has long been one of his favorite political punching bags.
In a social media post, the president warned that he is “working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!” He added, “No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country and are being mocked all over the World.”
At his weekly City Hall news conference Tuesday, Johnson showed no signs of being intimidated by the threat of losing $3.5 billion in annual federal grants to the city and $1.3 billion more at the Chicago Public Schools.
Instead, the mayor took his running feud with Trump to another level.
Johnson made his remarks after being asked whether he was open to visit the White House to meet with Trump — as Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did recently and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot did during Trump’s first term as president — to “kiss the ring” and stop federal funds from being held back to Chicago.
“Outside of a 2016…Cubs World Series ring, I’m not kissing the ring,” the mayor said.
Johnson said that, if Trump wants to open a dialogue with Chicago, he is “open and willing to talk to anyone” just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with former Mayor Richard J. Daley — even though animosity between the two leaders was well known.
“There’s a long history of Black political leaders talking to people who may not see us as first-class…Frederick Douglass spoke to individuals [who] counted him two-thirds worth of a human being,” the mayor said.
But Johnson said any face-to-face meeting with Trump would have to take place in the mayor’s office on the fifth floor of City Hall.
“I’m happy to talk to him. But I’m going to tell him the truth. You got to show up for working people in this city, in this country — not for the oligarchs and the ultra-rich. That’s what has destroyed our economy. We have the ultra-rich who continue to receive tax breaks while the rest of us have to pay for their failures,” Johnson said.
“He should get here as soon as possible,” Johnson added, “cause people in Chicago and this country need him to actually show up for working people.”
Both Lightfoot and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel relished standing up to Trump. The president was wildly unpopular in Chicago, and criticizing Trump was a no-risk, high-reward political game.
The same now holds true for Johnson, whose public approval ratings have been languishing in the single-digits.
That’s what a heavily-rehearsed, carefully-scripted Johnson attempted to do when he was summoned to Capitol Hill last month to testify before a House Oversight Committee on Chicago’s sanctuary city status, which prohibits Chicago police officers from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
But Johnson was seen by many as timid that day, careful to avoid saying anything that could be used against Chicago in the lawsuit that the Trump administration has filed against the city.
On Tuesday, the gloves were off.
The mayor said it “wasn’t a coincidence” that Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “attacked our city” by sending busloads of migrants to Chicago.
“They were working to destabilize democratically-run cities [and] to do it under the guise of immigration reform…They wanted chaos,” said Johnson, whose first year in office was dominated by the migrant crisis and the racial flames it fanned.
“Unfortunately, this president is determined to destabilize cities like Chicago, and it is incredibly reprehensible and sometimes feels incorrigible at times that this individual refuses to recognize the value of the cities of this country.”
As for the threat to cut off CPS funding, Johnson said it’s predictable.
“When forces want to intimidate and erode and disrupt democracies, they go after the institutions and particularly our public institutions,” Johnson said. “There are individuals who firmly believe that the teaching of Black history, Asian-American history is a threat to their privilege.”