Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Trump's threats to federal funding: 'We're not going to negotiate with terrorists'

Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune on Apr 15, 2025

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CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson lambasted President Donald Trump dangling the possibility of cutting federal funding over Democratic leaders as “terrorism” in a Tuesday news conference during which he offered few specifics on how he would fight back.

Speaking to reporters at City Hall, the mayor responded to a question about Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s now-viral visit to the Oval Office last week by flatly rejecting the possibility of stopping by the White House himself.

“I will just say, outside of a 2016 Cubs World Series ring, I’m not kissing a ring, OK?” Johnson said. “The president of the United States of America has an open invitation to the fifth floor of the greatest freakin’ city in the world, the city of Chicago. He can come talk to me.”

Then Johnson addressed the ongoing balancing act that politicians previously unfriendly to Trump have had to walk between flattering and antagonizing the president as he has threatened to withhold federal aid to blue states and cities — including Chicago. Last week, the president said he was moving to strip cities with sanctuary policies for immigrants of all federal aid, a threat he has made before.

“Trying to force your will to break the spirit of working people in order to have a conversation, that’s terrorism. We’re not going to negotiate with terrorists,” Johnson said.

Asked if he was calling Trump a terrorist, the mayor continued: “No. What I’m saying is trying to hold people hostage and manipulating them to succumb to his will and then hold up our tax dollars, that is how terrorists behave.”

Johnson’s assessment comes about three months after Trump assumed office for his second term and brought with him a host of fresh anxieties for Chicagoans to consider, from mass deportations to the revocation of up to $3.5 billion in federal aid for the city and sister agencies. Johnson had said a week before the inauguration that he was open to “a serious conversation about how we build a better, stronger, safer Chicago” with the Trump administration because he is not “mean-spirited,” but his Tuesday remarks signaled those prospects were dimmer than ever.

During Trump’s first term, Johnson’s predecessor Lori Lightfoot met with the president’s daughter Ivanka in the West Wing when she was mayor-elect, but she did not otherwise visit the White House. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel similarly skipped meeting with Trump while the two were in office, though they did huddle in 2016 before Trump was sworn in.

Emanuel on Tuesday also caught some scorn from Johnson in the news conference. “Our challenges in Chicago did not start with Donald Trump,” the mayor said. “One of the greatest, I believe, acts of terror that was ever administered by an administration was the Emanuel administration.”

Johnson was talking about Emanuel’s 2013 decision to close dozens of Chicago public schools. But he did not provide clarity on the subject he was asked about, the future of the school district’s “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies in the wake of White House threats against its $1.3 billion in federal funding.

And Johnson’s answer when he was asked Tuesday about his contingency plans should the city in fact lose its total $3.5 billion in total federal aid similarly lacked details.

“These aren’t threats anymore, right? These are real, adversarial attacks against working people,” the mayor said while nodding to his promise to start planning earlier for the city’s 2026 budget — which includes a projected $1.12 billion deficit.

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