Chicago mayor calls DOGE 'an act of war,' compares second Trump term to Third Reich
Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson laid into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and President Donald Trump's economic policies during his weekly press availability, drawing parallels between the Third Reich in Germany and Trump's second term in the White House.
Johnson said the Windy City is the most "pro-worker" city in the U.S., but faces "hostility" from Washington.
"The fact that the President of the United States of America is cutting off food supply and medicine to working people and families across this country — that is an act of war," Johnson fumed.
"And we're going to need leaders who are prepared and willing to stand up for working people, because this battle has reached our front doors all across America where people are struggling and suffering. And in order to alleviate that pain and discomfort, it's going to require bold leadership. We can't tippy toe."
Proposed Chicago Police Resource Cuts Could Land City In Court, Top Officials Warn
Addressing a reporter who asked how to work with the Trump administration for the benefit of the city from such an adversarial position, Johnson cited Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's State of the State address in February, which referenced how it "took the Nazi's one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a Constitutional Republic."
Read On The Fox News App
"Governor Pritzker… offered up a warning," Johnson said. "You have a president that is cutting off medicine and food, a president that is working to erase culture. I mean, you can't make this up. He's doing it in plain sight."
Pritzker had compared the rise of former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to Trump's popularity, in that the eventual national-socialist dictator was seen as the answer to "inflation and [the public] looking for someone to blame."
Chicago Democrat Goes Off On City's Handling Of Migrant Crisis
In his remarks, Johnson noted how people have wondered how Germany could have descended into Nazism and anti-Semitism so quickly and dreadfully, saying that Trump is "carry[ing] out the playbook that was done against an entire people-group."
"He's doing it right here in this country, against working people, erasing Black folks from museums and the history and the culture. So, when you ask how we balance that, you have to fight it and resist it with everything that's in you," he said.
"The President of the United States of America is capturing the hopes and aspirations of working people and holding us hostage as he works to implement and annihilate democracy," Johnson said, returning to comment on lawsuits the city has joined to halt DOGE-type efforts.
Chicago is party to a lawsuit filed by several municipalities, including Baltimore; Santa Clara, California; and the county that encompasses Houston, which seeks to stop DOGE's slashing of the federal bureaucracy.
"Congress created these federal agencies. It funded them. But the president is trying to fire all these people and gut these agencies that Congress created," Chicago Deputy Corporation Counsel Steve Kane told the city's ABC affiliate, calling the situation unconstitutional.
DOGE-driven cuts affecting the Windy City have included the Energy Department's 2025 Small Business Expo, originally pinned for June.
The cut came as part of billions in spending reductions for cabinet agencies, and other closures of clean-energy-centric operations have affected the city, according to reports.
Earlier in May, Chicago hired Ernst & Young, an international consulting firm, to find ways to bridge its own budget gaps, according to Bloomberg. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold funding from sanctuary cities, a definition within which Chicago falls.
While city-specific data was not immediately available for DOGE-related cuts, the Trump administration saw the Department of Health & Human Services cut its regional office in Illinois, which served 28,000 low-income families.
Efforts to consolidate federal real estate and office space affected America's third-largest city as well. The Federal Transit Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, Labor Relations Authority and Civil Corps of Engineers all saw their offices there shut down. A federally-owned art collection in Chicago also sees some of its staffing on the chopping block, according to Axios.
Fox News' Remy Numa and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.Original article source: Chicago mayor calls DOGE 'an act of war,' compares second Trump term to Third Reich
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
23 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
JGBs Mixed; Trade, Geopolitical Tensions May Support
0014 GMT — JGBs are mixed in price terms in the early Tokyo session, but may be supported by trade and geopolitical tensions that typically enhance the safe-haven appeal of sovereign debt. U.S. President Trump said on Friday that he would increase tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to 50% from current 25%, effective June 4. Meanwhile, Ukraine launched drone attacks on four military airports inside Russia, destroying more than 40 warplanes. Five-year JGB yield is unchanged at 1.015%; 30-year yield is down 1.5 bps at 2.950%. (
24 minutes ago
GOP budget battle over ‘Big Beautiful Bill'
Republicans are squabbling over whether President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' will boost the economy, or add trillions to the nation's debt. ABC News' Selina Wang reports.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Small businesses struggle under Trump's tariff whiplash: ‘I'm so angry that my own government has done this to me'
For some small businesses, the last week brought even more twists and turns to the past two months of President Donald Trump's chaotic tariffs. The situation was already confusing, with stops and starts of tariffs at different levels. Then on Wednesday, a US court said Trump overstepped his authority in imposing most of those import levies – only for an appeals court on Thursday to pause the previous court's ruling. The confusion has made it challenging for some small companies to plan, business owners told CNN. In certain cases, they have had to consider changing their product strategy, looking into shifting their supply chains, reducing staff hours or delaying products. 'My fear is, if this continues, there's going to be like the mass extinction of small businesses,' Julie Robbins, CEO of Ohio-based guitar pedal maker EarthQuaker Devices, told CNN. Trump announced blanket tariffs across the globe on April 2, and since then, his plans have changed on a regular basis. In early April, he issued a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs almost everywhere except China. Then, after ratcheting up total tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%, he declared smartphones and certain other electronics would be exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. The US and China agreed in May to roll back reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. And in late May, he threatened smartphone makers like Apple with 25% tariffs if they don't make their phones in the US. He also agreed to push back levies on imports from the European Union until July 9. Those are only some of his changes, which can come at any time of day via the White House, social media posts or other avenues. The whiplash has been hard for companies to keep up with. Even major brands like apparel giant Gap are feeling the impact of tariffs, but small companies with far fewer resources are in an even tougher spot. The National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Optimism Index fell by 1.6 points in April, dipping below the 51-year average for the second consecutive month. The organization's chief economist, Bill Dunkelberg, cited uncertainty as a 'major impediment' for small business owners in a press release. 'It's the sort of more smaller, kind of more niche… brands that are going to really, really get hit by this,' Jack Leathem, an analyst at market research firm Canalys, told CNN in April. Some small business owners have had to make difficult decisions as they've grappled with the impact of tariffs. EveAnna Manley, whose company Manley Labs makes high-end electronics for recording studios, has had to cut her employees' hours by 25%. The reciprocal tariffs that China imposed on the US have been particularly challenging, she says, since China has become a major market for her business. Manley says it took 'decades' for her to 'get the best Chinese importers.' Overall, Manley Labs' sales are down more than 19% compared to last year, she told CNN, which has frozen the company's product development efforts. 'It's just a freaking mess right now,' she said in late May, before this past week's court rulings on Trump's tariffs. 'And I'm so angry that my own government has done this to me.' The best thing small businesses can do right now is to be flexible and diversify their sourcing and procurement strategies, says Tala Akhavan, chief operating officer of Pietra, a platform that helps brands with sourcing, production and logistics among other services. That's what Intuition Robotics, which makes a home robot designed to be a companion for older adults, is doing, according to chief strategy officer Assaf Gad. The company also makes money off its digital subscription accounts, according to Gad, giving it the flexibility to look into a 'plan B' outside of China for producing the company's hardware. Sudden changes in tariff policies haven't really impacted the company's decisions because it's planning for the next nine to 12 months rather than the short term, he said in mid-May. Trump's tariffs have encouraged Gad to think about expanding Intuition Robotics into international markets. 'Maybe this is also a good time to say, 'Let's not put all the eggs in one basket,'' he said, 'and, you know, start looking on other kind of territories that will reduce the risk for us going forward.' But for some companies, finding a plan B isn't so easy. That's the case for Sarah O'Leary, CEO of Willow, which makes wearable breast pumps and accessories. As a medical device company, Willow can't simply just move its manufacturing, O'Leary told CNN. The company had to pause exporting one product it produces in China for postpartum recovery at one point because it became too expensive. The ruling on Wednesday aiming to block many tariffs brought some relief, O'Leary said in an emailed statement on Thursday evening. But she acknowledged that there's still 'so much uncertainty,' adding that 'the chaos will persist.' Any tariffs, even low ones, would be difficult for a small company like hers to absorb, she said in mid-May. 'We don't build our products with that much margin,' she said. 'And so, unfortunately, we are in a position where we have to evaluate what we can do to survive in those contexts.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
