CHICAGO — President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a blistering order for the city and state to come up with a safety plan to boost police on the Chicago Transit Authority and take other steps or once again risk vital federal funding.

In letters Monday to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Trump’s Federal Transit Administrator Marc Molinaro threatened to withhold funds if the CTA does not comply with the demands of a “special directive” issued by the feds by the start of next week.

The renewed federal order comes after last month’s gruesome attack on 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on the CTA’s Blue Line in downtown Chicago.

The Trump administration once again invoked MaGee, who was doused with gasoline and lit on fire while riding the train in an apparently random attack, in unveiling its Monday directive.

“It’s the responsibility of leaders at every level to create a safe system for all riders and workers on transit,” Molinaro wrote. “Chicago’s local leaders have neglected that responsibility — and given Chicago’s crime rate in its transit system, this isn’t an isolated incident.”

It was an apparent reference to Johnson’s initial remarks after the attack declining to address whether the suspect should have been out on the streets given his extensive criminal record. The mayor hours later walked back his answer saying the attack against MaGee was an “isolated incident,” and said the criminal justice system “failed” her.

Molinaro’s statement continued, “If CTA does not take immediate action to increase its law enforcement presence, we will withhold federal funds.” His directive contended the federal government had authority to freeze up to 25% of its federal grants to the CTA, citing a U.S. law outlining the Urbanized Area Formula Funding program.

The CTA must submit a “security enhancement plan” by Dec. 15 and implement it by Dec. 19, per the FTA’s order. That plan must include a commitment to “significantly” increase security or law enforcement on the system, according to the directive.

In a statement Monday evening, the CTA said it had received notice. “We have reviewed the document and will respond within the requested timeframe,” an agency spokesperson wrote.

Meanwhile, Johnson said during his Tuesday City Hall news conference that his team will respond to the letter but did not specify whether he will comply with the FTA’s demands beyond affirming “we take those threats absolutely seriously.”

“As I’ve said repeatedly, we do have to look at what the security apparatus looks like for public transportation. CPD plays a role in that,” the mayor told reporters. “I don’t need a letter from the Trump administration to tell me what my priorities are.”

Pritzker’s spokesperson confirmed Tuesday his office received the letter.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at a news conference in Little Village, the governor defended Springfield’s recent measures to beef up CTA security in the fall veto session and did not confirm whether he would meet the Trump administration’s demands.

“This is the federal government threatening state and local government with taking away federal funds for a purpose that they’re not allowed to,” Pritzker said. “There’s no reason why the president of the United States or the Department of Transportation should be sending a threatening letter to the state when they know full well, if they, jeez, if they read anything and read the newspapers, they would know that action has been taken, is being taken.”

The CTA, the nation’s third-largest public transit agency, is currently under mayoral control — but that’s about to change thanks to a new bill in Springfield that passed this fall. Regardless, the Trump administration has set its sights this year on targeting Chicago for various issues, CTA safety concerns among them.

The new federal directive alleges the transit agency is suffering from a “failure to implement adequate mitigations to address a years-long pattern of elevated worker assaults, customer assaults, and serious violent crime.” The order doesn’t specify a numerical target for how much law enforcement presence must be boosted beyond demanding a “plan that significantly increases security” from baseline levels.

There are 154 Chicago police officers assigned to its public transit detail under Johnson’s 2025 budget, but the CTA also contracts with private security companies who provide additional K-9 units.

The Trump administration has repeatedly used violence on public transit as a political cudgel against blue cities, having threatened to withhold funding from Chicago’s mass transit system before last month’s Blue Line attack as well. CTA leadership has disputed federal statistics on crime trends.

Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote a letter in September to the CTA asking it to lay out plans to reduce crime and fare evasion on the system or risk losing funding. The Trump administration has made similar threats to mass transit agencies in the Democratic-led cities of New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

The CTA’s acting president, Nora Leerhsen, defended the agency’s safety practices in a response to Duffy at the time. Leerhsen claimed crime on the Blue Line specifically had dropped 30% over last year, and said overall CTA crime was down 12% over 2022 levels.

Data analyzed by the Tribune showed that there were seven homicides and eight shootings on the CTA between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 this year, down from nine homicides and 14 shootings during the same time period in 2022.

Robberies dropped from 414 to 364 and thefts decreased from 725 in 2022 to 560 in 2025 for the first nine months of each year. The number of criminal sexual assaults logged on CTA property increased by one during the two reporting periods in 2022 and 2025.

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—The Tribune’s Jake Sheridan contributed reporting.

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