Trump Criticizes Johnson, Says Afghanistan Is Safer Than Chicago
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump was in Chicago Monday for the first time since his election nearly three years ago to appear at a police chiefs’ convention and a lunchtime fundraiser at his hotel.
The president was greeted at O’Hare International Airport by Kevin Graham, chief of the Chicago police union. Trump then traveled from O’Hare to Soldier Field by helicopter, so road closures centered around the South Loop convention center and his River North Hotel.
“The people of this country love you,” Trump told attendees as he addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police at McCormick Place Monday morning. “They love you. You don’t hear it from the fake news. The fake news doesn’t like talking about that, but they love you.”
During his speech, Trump signed an executive order to “address the root causes of crime and better train, recruit and retain law enforcement officers,” according to White House staff. The order will create a commission to study policing issues, consider best practices and present recommendations next year.
Trump’s visit came a day after he delivered a national address during press conference to announce the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. special operations raid.
Sunday night, Trump also attended Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., where he was greeted with cheers as well as boos and chants of “lock him up.” Protesters in Chicago could be heard repeating the same chant, which references Trump’s repeated calls for the imprisonment of his former political opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“It was a tremendous weekend for our country,” Trump said Monday in his address to the police chiefs association. “They’ve been looking for (al-Baghdadi) for many years. He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead as a doornail, and he didn’t die bravely either, I will tell you that. He should have been killed years ago. Another president should have gotten him.”
Trump criticizes Johnson
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s decision to skip Trump’s address to police chiefs stirred some controversy and prompted a vote of no confidence last week from the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.
“I can’t in good conscience stand by while racial insults and hatred are cast from the Oval Office,” Johnson said. “Or Chicago is held hostage because of our views on new Americans.”
Trump criticized Johnson for not attending his speech and blamed him for the city’s gun violence and “putting criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago.”
“I said, ‘Where is he? I want to talk to him.’ More than anyone else this person should be here because maybe he could learn something,” Trump said during his address to the police chiefs. “That’s a very insulting statement after all that I’ve done for the police, over 100 years, we can prove it, but probably since the beginning.”
Johnson responded Monday afternoon at Chicago police headquarters, saying Trump’s characterization of the city’s crime problem was false and slamming Trump’s comparison of Chicago to Afghanistan.
“Facts matter,” Johnson said.
During remarks that lasted just over an hour, Trump brought to the stage officers from California, Texas and Virginia who have been honored for on-duty bravery. Other speakers included acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Matt Albance.
The president repeated his assertion that “Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison” to Chicago and that an unidentified police officer told him he could end the city’s violence in one day if officers were allowed to do their job.
“It was to me, a great story, because you could fix this up so fast,” he said. “Good leadership would be pretty easy to find.”
While not mentioning her by name, Trump criticized Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for her policy of not charging retail thefts of under $1,000 in merchandise and some drug offenses as felonies.
“They just won’t charge them. This is a fundamental violation of their sworn duty,” Trump said. “The most dangerous and shameful attacks on the rule of law comes from, and in, sanctuary cities.”
Protesters take to the streets
Thousands of protesters gathered across from Trump Tower as Trump arrived for his lunchtime fundraising event at his namesake hotel. Tickets ranged from $2,800 to $100,000 for the private event, which was closed to press.
Demonstrators said they sought to get the president’s attention and express their displeasure with his presidency.
“He’s terrible for the country and the world,” Amy Parker of Chicago told Patch. “I can’t wait to see the last of him.”
As of 1:30 p.m., the Chicago Police Department estimated there were about 6,000 protesters downtown. One of the protests of Trump took place only a few blocks from where members of the Chicago Teachers Union were also holding a rally, as the union and its supporters gathered outside City Hall on the third week of the teachers’ strike entered. Some teachers and students made their way to the Trump rally, wearing red CTU apparel and carrying signs like “teachers against Trump.”
A small counter-protest made up of Trump supporters gathered outside the Trump Tower as well. The rally was peaceful, although police said there were four arrests on the first block of Wacker Drive around noon.
In one of two incidents, a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man were taken into custody after a 60-year-old man told police they came up behind him, took his hat off of his head, threw down the poster he was holding and pushed him to the group, according to a Chicago police spokesperson. Supporters of those arrested told Patch there were anti-Trump protesters who were apprehended by police after allegedly taking a sign from a Trump supporter.
In the other incidents, a 66-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman were arrested after a 60-year-old told police they hit her in the head repeatedly with their cardboard sign. Battery charges are pending for all four people arrested, police said.
About noon, police removed barriers that sought to keep one half of Wacker Drive free from marchers. The crowd was noisy, with protesters equipped with whistles, cow bells and drums. A drum line and a brass section even came out, playing songs like the Darth Vader theme from “Star Wars.”
“I don’t know any of these people,” said a west suburban man with a cow bell who asked not to be named as he joined a drum line. The man used a profanity when explaining why he came out. “We just want to make a lot of noise” to get Trump’s attention, he said.
Road closures were in place as multiple protest and hundreds of additional police were deployed around downtown.
After police closed off the State Street bridge to protesters, marchers headed south, at one point stopping to kneel at the intersection of State and Washington streets.
After his speech at McCormick Place, the president headed to Trump International Hotel and Tower to meet privately with six-figure donors and deliver remarks to a luncheon before departing for the White House around 2 p.m.
According to a White House pool reporter, the Trump Victory Committee raised $4 million from about 250 attendees at the luncheon. The committee is a joint fundraising effort of the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Groups organizing protests included Indivisible of Chicago across the river from Trump Tower at Wabash Avenue and Wacker Drive and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street.
A group of Christian demonstrators from Lincoln United Methodist Church and the Right to Family Campaign also held a candlelight vigil outside Trump’s hotel Sunday evening, according to WLS.
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