Trump calls Chicago 'embarrassing to nation' during first visit as president
President calls city haven for criminals at event boycotted by mayor and police superintendent
On a visit to Chicago on Monday, his first time as president, Donald Trump disparaged the city as a haven for criminals that is “embarrassing to us as a nation”.
He lambasted the city’s top police officer, who had already announced he was shunning the event that Trump principally came to town for. Chicago’s mayor also stayed away from the president.
The Chicago police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, sat out Trump’s speech to a national convention of police officers that was being held in the city, in order to protest the president’s immigration policies and frequently divisive rhetoric, he had said.
Trump shot back at the event: “There is one person who is not here today.” He went on: “Where is he? I want to talk to him. In fact, more than anyone else, this person should be here because maybe he could learn something, and that’s the superintendent of the Chicago police, Eddie Johnson.”
Johnson’s decision to boycott the event angered the city’s chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which said in a Facebook post: “Such a gesture would be an insult to both President Trump and the office of the presidency itself and would be a mark of disgrace upon the city throughout the entire nation, including mayor Lori Lightfoot.”
But Lightfoot, a Democrat and the relatively newly elected mayor of the city, and Illinois’ Democratic governor stood in solidarity with Johnson.
“This is the land of Lincoln and when you come to the state of Illinois, you should respect all the people who live here in the state of Illinois,” said the governor, JB Pritzker.
“It’s no surprise that @realDonaldTrump brought his insulting, ignorant buffoonery to Chicago,” the mayor tweeted. “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.”
