Trump trades insults with Chicago leaders
CHICAGO — Donald Trump’s first visit to Chicago as president turned into a fusillade of insults Monday as he excoriated police Superintendent Eddie Johnson over gun violence while Mayor Lori Lightfoot backed her top cop and assailed the nation’s chief executive for bringing his “ignorant buffoonery” to the city.
In his five-hour visit, Trump used an international gathering of police chiefs at McCormick Place to make an absent Johnson his foil in restating a list of grievances against the city, its crime and its sanctuary status for immigrants. Chicago, he said, is “embarrassing to us as a nation” and that “Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison.”
Johnson boycotted the president’s address, saying it was not in line with his or the city’s values. That prompted a president known to get combative when he believes he’s been insulted to go on a highly personal attack against the police superintendent.
“There is one person who is not here today. We’re in Chicago. I said, ‘Where is he? I want to talk to him.’ In fact, more than anyone else, he should be here, because maybe he could learn something,” Trump said of Johnson before several hundred applauding convention attendees.
Trump called Johnson’s rationale for avoiding his speech “a very insulting statement after all I’ve done for the police. And I’ve done more than any other president has ever done for the police.”
“Here’s a man who could not bother to show up for a meeting of police chiefs, the most respected people in the country, in his hometown and with the president of the United States. And you know why? It’s because he’s not doing his job.”
Calling Chicago the “worst sanctuary city in America” and citing the refusal of local law enforcement to detain people based on their citizenship status for immigration officials, Trump said, “People like Johnson put criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago, and those are his values and frankly those values to me are a disgrace.”
Trump contended the police superintendent didn’t have his officers’ backs and said, “I want Eddie Johnson to change his values and change them fast.”
Johnson, who attended the conference’s opening day Saturday, wouldn’t return the criticism when he spoke later at a news conference at police headquarters. Instead, he defended his department and the “Chicago turnaround” by saying double-digit percentage declines in homicides and in shootings through mid-October, as well as in each of the past two years, were significant factors in a nationwide drop in violent crime.
“After today, I’m not even going to comment on this anymore because we have bigger challenges in this city than to be going back and forth, you know, on stuff like this,” Johnson said, adding that he didn’t watch Trump’s attacks. “Getting caught up in negativity is just never been something that I do, and I’m certainly not going to do it now.”
But Lightfoot, who was not mentioned by Trump in his 67-minute address and who also snubbed the presidential visit, stood up for Johnson on social media.
“President Trump knows as much about policing as he does running a fair and transparent government. I stand by the superintendent for living up to the values of this great city and its residents,” Lightfoot said on Twitter.
In an earlier tweet, she said, “It’s no surprise that (Trump) brought his insulting, ignorant buffoonery to Chicago. Luckily, in this city, we know the truth and we will not let anyone — no matter how high the office — denigrate who we are as a people or our status as a welcoming city.”