With both houses of Congress in Republican control, Donald Trump will have “more power than any president” in decades, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday, urging the president-elect not to “waste” that power by creating “upheaval and chaos.”
Johnson hosted the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris became her party’s presidential nominee, then crisscrossed the nation trying to propel her to victory.
Instead, Trump swept all of the battleground states, shattering the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that was to be Harris’ last line of defense. He’s the first president since Grover Cleveland elected to two nonconsecutive terms.
Since then, Johnson has vowed to maintain Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city. Trump has responded by saying he would declare a state of emergency to enlist the U.S. military to conduct the “largest deportation in the history of our country.”
On Tuesday, Johnson reiterated he would not allow Chicago police to be used essentially as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, saying it would “undermine” the “constitutional policing” reforms mandated by a federal consent decree .
“This is about restoring trust in the communities. You place police officers in a position where the local community can’t trust them? … It’s just not responsible,” the mayor said.
After grappling with the migrant crisis that has dominated his first 18 months in office, Johnson said he knows better than most that there is a “challenge with immigration policy in this country.” But, he argued, the way to solve it is to “pass laws,” not “make threats.”
“President-elect Donald Trump has the White House. He has the Senate. He has the House of Representatives. He has the judicial branch. Right now, President-elect Trump has literally more power than any president has had probably in — oh, my God. How far are we gonna go back? — decades and decades ,” Johnson said.
“With all of that power, he could change policy the moment he is sworn in. He could actually create investments for the people of Chicago the day that he is sworn in, appropriating billions of dollars for reparations across this country. … He has the power to fully fund our education system. To make sure that we are responding to the climate crisis. He has power to pass legislation that would strengthen our immigration policies so there’s a clear pathway for families to be able to experience freedom in this country.”
Instead, of doing any of those things, Johnson said the “first thing” Trump wants to do is mass deportations, causing “upheaval and chaos” in Chicago and across the country.
“It would be a waste of that power if he were to go down that route. In fact, it would be small and soft. The president-elect should get big and strong like we are in Chicago,” Johnson said.
The mayor was asked how concerned he is for the 52,000 migrants who have descended on Chicago, with roughly one-third resettled here.
“I’m concerned about everyone in this city,” Johnson said.
“He is a threat to everything that is sensible. … Stop playing games with the people of this country. We’re certainly not gonna let him play games with the people of this city. If he wants to work with us, he’ll have a partner. But if he wants to come and threaten us, [then] he has declared opposition to us.”
Johnson is not the first Chicago mayor to assume the role of chief antagonist to Donald Trump.
Rahm Emanuel, then Lori Lightfoot both did likewise. The war of words only succeeded in making Chicago an even bigger and more frequent political pinata for Trump, who portrayed the city as a crime-infested cesspool even thought he chose to build Trump Tower, with a huge sign bearing his name, on a prime riverfront site that once was home to the Chicago Sun-Times.