The White House criticized Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson after he accused President Donald Trump of favoring wealthy Americans while overlooking the interests of descendants of enslaved Black Americans. The remarks came during Johnson’s appearance on the “Native Land Pod,” where he also discussed crime prevention and city initiatives.
Johnson argued that public safety involves more than policing, citing city investments in mental and behavioral health care, detective staffing and community violence intervention. The podcast hosts then asked about an Oct. 6 Truth Social post in which Trump described Chicago’s crime situation as worsening and said federal help could address it if the mayor or Illinois governor requested assistance.
Johnson called Trump’s position disingenuous and said the president had overseen what Johnson characterized as a transfer of wealth to the very rich, at the expense of education, housing, health care, transportation and well-paying jobs. He also asserted that Trump had cut a violence-prevention budget by $800 million and reduced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives budget by 30%. Johnson said Chicago police had worked with the agency to remove nearly 9,000 illegal guns from city streets during the year. The supplied material does not independently substantiate those budget figures or the weapons count.
A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital that government programs distributing money on the basis of race are illegal, and said Chicago would be better served if Johnson concentrated on reducing homicides rather than pursuing what the spokesperson called divisive and unconstitutional policies. White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster also said Trump’s administration was committed to equal treatment under the law and opposed race-based initiatives. She criticized diversity, equity and inclusion policies adopted during the Biden administration, saying they had harmed workforce efficiency and raised costs.
Johnson’s office has credited his administration, which began in May 2023, with declines in violent crime. A mayoral spokesperson said the city recorded double-digit reductions in several crime measures in 2025 and reported that, compared with the same period a year earlier, homicides were down 3.8%, shootings 1.3% and robberies 20.9% in 2026. These figures were presented by the mayor’s office; the source material does not provide an independent assessment of the claims.
Johnson did not explicitly use the term “reparations” in the podcast discussion, but his spokesperson directed Fox News Digital to city initiatives on the subject. Johnson signed an executive order creating a 40-member reparations task force to address historical harms to Black Chicagoans and their ancestors. In March, he announced Repair Chicago, a public engagement effort intended to collect experiences from Black residents to inform city policy and equity measures.
The debate takes place as federal officials scrutinize some local reparations efforts. Evanston, Illinois, began a housing-focused program in 2021, offering eligible Black residents or their direct descendants grants of $25,000 for housing and home repairs. The program is funded through local taxes on recreational marijuana sales. The source reports that Evanston had distributed more than $7 million of a $20 million allocation and that its reparations committee approved another round for 44 residents earlier in the year.
The Justice Department has signaled it may challenge race-conscious funding models. In September 2025, the department warned officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina, of a possible civil-rights investigation if they approved recommendations from a local reparations commission. The source also reports that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon had previously criticized local officials pursuing such programs, describing their actions as an effort to win votes.
The White House response to Johnson framed the dispute as part of the administration’s broader opposition to race-based policies. Johnson’s comments, meanwhile, connected reparations to his criticism of Trump’s economic priorities and to his administration’s public-safety approach. The supplied material presents competing assertions from the mayor’s office and White House, without independently resolving their disputed claims.
