Politics
Donald Trump’s Threats to Yank Federal Funding from Chicago Amount to ‘Terrorism,’ Brandon Johnson Says
Video: The WTTW News Spotlight Politics team on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s comments and more of the day’s top stories. (Produced by Andrea Guthmann)
Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s efforts to strip federal funding from cities like Chicago with laws on the books designed to protect undocumented immigrants amount to “terrorism” and vowed again to fight the federal government.
Johnson told reporters during a news conference at City Hall that he would not follow Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lead and visit the White House to ask Trump to spare Chicago. Pictures of Whitmer hiding her face from photographers in the Oval Office went viral, threatening her political future.
“I will just say, outside of a 2016 Cubs World Series ring, I’m not kissing a ring, OK?” Johnson said. “The president of the United States of America has an open invitation to the fifth floor of the greatest freakin’ city in the world, the city of Chicago. He can come talk to me.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to yank federal funding from self-proclaimed sanctuary cities and states. One of the first acts by Trump after taking office was to issue an executive order stripping self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding. That order has been blocked by a federal judge.
“Trying to force your will to break the spirit of working people in order to have a conversation, that’s terrorism. We’re not going to negotiate with terrorists,” Johnson said.
Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker have repeatedly said Chicago and Illinois will continue to prohibit local and state law enforcement agents from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport undocumented residents unless they have been convicted of a crime.
“Trying to force your will to break the spirit of working people in order to have a conversation, that’s terrorism. We’re not going to negotiate with terrorists,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he was not calling Trump a terrorist.
“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.
Read More: What Does It Mean That Chicago Is a Sanctuary City? Here’s What to Know
Chicago expects to receive approximately $3.5 billion in new and existing federal grant dollars in 2025, officials said. The city’s 2025 budget is $17.1 billion.
In addition, the Chicago Transit Authority expects to receive $1.9 billion from the federal government to extend the Red Line south to 130th Street and the Chicago Public Schools received $1.3 billion from the federal government during the 2024-25 academic year.
“These aren’t threats anymore, right?” Johnson said. “These are real, adversarial attacks against working people.”
Trump was not the only politician Johnson accused of terrorizing the people of Chicago, referring to the 2013 closure of 50 Chicago Public Schools. The backlash to that decision jump started the political career of Johnson, a former organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union.
“Our challenges in Chicago did not start with Donald Trump,” the mayor said. “One of the greatest, I believe, acts of terror that was ever administered by an administration was the Emanuel administration.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
