By Gerren Keith Gaynor | “They’re afraid of us uniting,” declared Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as he defiantly condemned President Donald Trump’s “war” on Chicago.
“If I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday when asked about the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy the U.S. military or National Guard troops nationally to quell what the president considers to be an insurrection against the United States.
In response to Trump’s threat, Mayor Johnson appeared to call out what he saw as hypocrisy during a Tuesday news conference.
“These are unprecedented times, and you’re talking about an individual who incited an insurrection,” said Johnson, referring to Trump’s role in encouraging thousands of his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol on the false pretense that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to voter fraud committed by Democrats.
Thousands of his supporters ultimately assaulted law enforcement officers and broke into and destroyed the Capitol. More than 1,500 were charged with federal crimes; however, Trump pardoned everyone on his first day in office on Jan. 20. Trump was criminally charged for his attempted actions to overturn the 2020 election, but charges were ultimately dropped when he won the 2024 election.
“His fixation on disrupting this democracy…it’s so outrageous,” said Mayor Johnson, who called Trump a “brittle man” and “incredibly fragile.”
The Chicago mayor continued, “That weakness of insecurity has created a great deal of rage.”
Johnson said, as a Christian, “I pray for Donald Trump,” adding, “His soul…he’s lost, and that’s why it’s important that we help find a way to protect our democracy and our humanity. That’s what I’m motivated by, not some brittle, insecure human being who has expressed a degree of lawlessness that would make [Russian President] Vladimir Putin blush.”
The mayor added, “Chicago, we’re going to stand strong.”
As federal agents execute ICE raids in Chicago and residents brace for the deployment of National Guard troops, Johnson urged Chicagoans not to give in to fear.
“Fear is real, and that’s what the president wants. He wants us to be afraid,” he said.
Johnson said that it is the president and the “ultra-rich” who are the ones who are actually scared in this moment.
“[They] are terrified of Black and brown and Asian people having more political power than we’ve ever had in the history of America. They want those families to be afraid because they see the tides are turning; that you have more conscientious people who understand our collective responsibility to one another,” said the Chicago mayor.
He continued, “It’s why they’re banning books. But this fear didn’t just start with immigration. It’s white men who are afraid of people being educated. That’s what they’re afraid of. It’s why they’re sowing seeds of division within communities. They’re afraid of us uniting.”
Johnson said that while he understands residents’ fear, he urged them “not to be afraid with everything inside of you.”
“It’s why we have put forth these sweeping executive orders to make sure that people know their rights and the role of local law enforcement. We have put forth another executive order to prevent these individuals from staging in public spaces,” he said. “And as a part of long-term strategy, will we have to look at other measures to make sure that families feel absolutely secure and safe.”
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