The Dictatorship
Chicago mayor blasts ‘authoritarian’ Trump after SCOTUS blocks National Guard deployment
As National Guard troops touch down in New Orleans ahead of the city’s New Year’s celebrations, the Supreme Court has rebuffed President Donald Trump’s plans to send federal forces into another Democratic stronghold: Chicago. The order could put the administration’s troop deployment in other cities across the country into jeopardy.
On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared on MS NOW’s “The Last Word” to commend the court’s decision and told guest host Ali Velshi that his priority was defending the people of his city against Trump’s authoritarian overreach.
“This president has certainly worked outside of the confines of the Constitution. And I’ve maintained that position — and, you know, thankfully, the Supreme Court sees it our way,” Johnson said. “And what we’ve said from the very beginning, if this president was actually sincere about addressing violence in the city of Chicago and cities across America, he would work with mayors like myself to do the things that actually work.”
He added that the ruling was not just “a benefit for the people of Chicago, but it’s really a win for cities across America.”
Johnson said the Supreme Court’s decision helps ensure “that our Constitution is not being eroded by an authoritarian, quite frankly, that has demonstrated that he’s more committed to instituting terror than he is providing comfort for working people across this country.”
The mayor, who took office in 2023, said the president’s repeated attempts to exert control over Democratic-run cities have exposed the administration’s true priorities. “We saw the largest upward transfer of wealth into the hands of the ultrarich with his big, nasty, ugly bill,” Johnson said. “At the same time, he created funding for ICE that essentially has behaved as the Trump administration’s personal, privatized police force.”
“We know that this president has failed in every single aspect to provide real opportunities and hope for working people,” he added. “Whether it’s groceries, whether it’s health care, whether it’s jobs, this president has been a failure.”
Johnson said that by stepping in and blocking the deployment, the Supreme Court signaled “that there is at least another branch of government that recognizes that the overreach by the president is a real threat to our democracy.”
You can watch Johnson’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.