Mayor Johnson fans the flames of race hatred in his political war against President Trump
“You have a president that is cutting off medicine and food, a president that is working to erase culture. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. He’s doing it in plain sight,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday.
By Fran Spielman
May 27, 2025, 2:23pm CDT
Mayor Brandon Johnson delivers the Chicago Welcome at Monday’s Memorial Day commemoration in Grant Park. He stepped up his war of words with President Donald Trump at his weekly news conference Tuesday.
Mayor Brandon Johnson appears to be helping himself politically — and playing to the local crowd — by standing toe to toe with President Donald Trump. So it’s no surprise that he’s doing more of it, even if provokes the president and makes Chicago a bigger target.
That much was clear again Tuesday when Johnson opened his weekly City Hall news conference by highlighting the many ways Trump’s budget cuts and legal actions threaten to undermine everyday life in Chicago.
“You have a president that is cutting off medicine and food, a president that is working to erase culture. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. He’s doing it in plain sight,” Johnson told reporters. “You have to fight and resist it with everything that’s in you. ... This is a fight that this generation has to show up for.”
Beatriz Ponce de Leon, deputy mayor of immigrant and refugee rights, began Tuesday’s presentation by talking about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have startedshowing up in immigration court.
As undocumented immigrants arrive for mandatory hearings, ICE agents have been there to “remove them on the spot” or serve orders for their “expedited removal,” de Leon said. The IRS has also started sharing information with ICE.
All of that and more is causing “fear and uncertainty” in Chicago neighborhoods — so much so that people are afraid to go to work, send their children to school or access emergency services for fear they will be deported, Ponce de Leon said.
Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry highlighted “more than 30” legal actions the city has taken — with “some areas of significant success” — to challenge the mass layoffs and frozen federal grants ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The challenges include Federal Emergency Management Agency cuts that threaten to undermine police, fire and 911 center responses to terrorist attacks and other local emergencies; cuts to a decimated National Weather Service that could deprive Chicago of the warning it needs to respond to flooding and other severe weather emergencies; frozen federal transportation grants that could slow the massive O’Hare Airport overhaul; and cuts to Head Start and emergency food programs that could leave children hungry and without supervision.
Community-based violence interrupters who have contributed to a 41% reduction in violence in some Englewood “hot spots” and helped deliver Chicago’s least violent Memorial Day weekend in recent memory could also lose funding.
Last week, Johnson’s remarks about the record number of African Americans he has hired to fill top city jobs opened a new front in his ongoing political war with Trump. The U.S. Justice Department on May 19 launched a federal civil rights investigation into Chicago’s hiring practices.
In an interview with Newsmax, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, chief of DOJ’s civil rights division, defended the move, saying that it is “not the 1960s” or the “fresh days of the Civil Rights Movement.”
“In 2025, the mayor of Chicago is proudly proclaiming name after name or job description of African Americans who he has hired, and then also made some remarks about how they do a better job or he’s trying to help their businesses ... because he’s from that background or because that’s what is politically demanded in his city,” Dhillon said.
“That’s illegal,” she said. “You might call it ordinary pandering of a retail politician. But the city of Chicago actually has a long and lurid history of ... favoritism and nepotism and all other kinds of discrimination, and particularly, racial discrimination.”
In her letter to Johnson, Dhillon said the investigation was only beginning and that she had reached no final conclusion about bias in city hiring.
But during her interview with Newsmax, Dhillon referred to it as “kind of an open-and-shut case really,” adding, “We’re doing an investigation to see how wide-ranging and how far back it goes.”
Last week, Johnson branded Trump a “monster” and demanded that the DOJ investigate the hiring practices that helped Trump assemble a “country club” administration dominated by white people at the expense of “marginalized groups.”
On Tuesday, Johnson stepped it up a notch by amplifying the Holocaust comparison that Gov. JB Pritzker made during his budget address.
“We’re also watching in plain sight the president of the United States of America carry out the playbook that was done against an entire people group, and he’s doing it right here in this country against working people, erasing Black folks from museums and the history and the culture — coming after leadership,” Johnson said.
“Other generational leadership responded in a forceful way, but if I could just be so bold here, they responded late, and too many lives were lost as result of the late response. We have to respond much earlier than our ancestors,” said Johnson.
He does not defend his own incompetence. Instead, he changes the subject.
ReplyDeleteWho is erasing culture? Head of a City where 21% of 8th graders CAN read adequately. Erasing possibilities for the future of the Black culture. First, clean up your own house.
ReplyDeleteRead that as cutting off money to grifters.
ReplyDeleteMedicare and Medicaid expenses are out of control because you have millions of people who are getting sick because of overeating foods with harmful chemicals. Food is medicine for the body and people must eat small portions to prevent overdosing. Nutrition education should be taught to all people to prevent illnesses caused by overeating. Millions of foreigners are unable to read food labels and may become ill as a result of ingesting the wrong chemicals.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor needs to hire highly qualified dietitians and nutritionists to prepare handouts to assist people about how to eat healthy. Tell them how many grams of protein to eat each day to prevent kidney problems. Inform them on how to prevent causing high and low blood pressure with lifestyle changes and diet, and so on.
Medicare and Medicaid expenses are out of control and continues to increase because there are millions of illegal aliens added to the list of sick people who are abusing their bodies with processed foods, sweets, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and so on. The health care system treats sick people with prescription drugs and vaccinations instead of teaching them how to eat healthy and change their inadequate lifestyles to prevent diseases and health problems.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor does not know how to hire qualified health professionals to address the serious health problems in the city, he only focuses on bashing Trump and protecting sanctuary cities and their illegal aliens.
The mayor needs to focus on summer training programs and employment for youth to prevent problems resulting from idle youth. Call on businesses to offer compensated training programs that teach how to make things. Teach gardening skills, culinary skills, sewing classes, music classes, math tutoring, crafts, carpentry, construction, home repairs, food science, programming languages, keyboarding for employment, etc.
ReplyDeleteLots of adults are diagnosed with blood clots and strokes. We were taught in biology and medical emergency classes that green vegetables have vitamin K and the purpose of vitamin K is to thicken the blood to prevent hemorrhages and bleeding to death. However if people eat excessive amounts of green vegetables, clots will form and will cause strokes and other problems. Doctors will prescribe blood thinners to thin the blood.
ReplyDeleteSchools used to teach students food science during the old days that helped them to eat correct amounts of foods for good health instead of early death.
Companies are getting rich selling chocolate candies, chocolate cakes and cookies, and the list goes on. However, chocolate contains the mineral magnesium that’s great for the body if you don’t eat too much magnesium plus magnesium is in numerous foods. Too much magnesium is toxic and causes low blood pressure, vomiting, retention of urine, muscle weakness, irregular heartbeat, fainting, etc.
ReplyDeleteChocolate is acidic and excess abuse of chocolate can cause ulcers. Be aware of the amounts of chocolate you are feeding children. Food is medicine and should not be used to entertain. Too much magnesium affects every organ in the body, especially the heart, muscles, and kidneys. Teach food science.