Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

President Trump says his takeover of policing in Washington, D.C., will serve as an example of policies he hopes to enact in other major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. All the cities on his target list are led by Black mayors, and most have “sanctuary” policies limiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Responding to Trump’s threats, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tells Democracy Now! that his city will not “cower or bend or be intimidated by these attempts to divide and conquer our communities.” He says that unlike Trump’s militarized approach, Chicago has been investing in mental health services, raising wages and building affordable housing as part of a larger campaign to improve quality of life. Contrary to Trump’s claims, violent crime is down in Chicago.

“We’re building the safest, most affordable big city in America, the most pro-worker city in America, and we’re doing it in a very collective way,” says Johnson.

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: The Trump administration is escalating its takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force. Attorney General Pam Bondi has named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as D.C.’s emergency police commissioner, but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb have rejected the order. In addition, Bondi has ordered an end to Washington, D.C.’s sanctuary policies, which restricted D.C. police from aiding federal immigration enforcement. This comes days after Trump deployed 800 National Guard to Washington, D.C., as he declared a crime emergency in D.C., even though violent crime is at a 30-year low. Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Congress is continuing to withhold a billion dollars taken away from Washington, D.C.’s budget earlier this year.

President Trump is also threatening to take action against other Democratic cities.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. And we have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore. They’re so — they’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick. Very quickly.

AMY GOODMAN: All the cities Trump named are run by Black mayors. Trump singled out Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for criticism.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And if we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster. We have a mayor there who’s totally incompetent. He’s an incompetent man. And we have an incompetent governor there.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Chicago, where we’re joined by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who’s served as mayor since 2023.

Mayor, thank you for joining us. Well, why don’t you start off by responding directly to President Trump’s criticism of you, but also the takeover of D.C. and what Chicago is doing about it?

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Well, good morning.

There’s a clear, fundamental difference between the approach that President Trump is taking versus how we are handling the very complex social issues that have, unfortunately, plagued our cities and America for decades. It is very evident that we have a president that has incredible disdain for working people. It’s pretty straightforward for us here in the city of Chicago. I remember a time, you know, Amy, when presidents declared wars on poverty. This president has declared war on poor people. And the work that we’re doing in Chicago — and really, cities across America — we’re investing in people, right? The fundamental difference between the authoritarianism that’s coming from the White House versus the collective community approach that we’re leading here in Chicago is that the president is looking to resuscitate the sins and the evil of the past, and the city of Chicago is moving progressively forward.

And so, for instance, we are investing in mental health and behavioral health. I’m the first mayor since the first Black mayor in the history of Chicago to reopen mental health clinics and provide mental health treatment across the city. When people are having mental health crises, a paid professional mental health provider shows up to those crises, versus a police officer, to provide the necessary care there, and that frees up law enforcement to address some of the other critical issues that we are........

© Truthout