Mayor Brandon Johnson to Labor Day crowd: 'No federal troops in the city of Chicago!'

Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Tribune on Sep 1, 2025

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CHICAGO — As President Donald Trump mulls sending the National Guard to occupy Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a defiant message to the White House at a spirited Labor Day rally Monday.

“No federal troops in the city of Chicago! No militarized force in the city of Chicago!” Johnson said in a short speech steps from the Haymarket memorial for the labor rally that was bombed in 1886.

“We’re going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago,” Johnson added. “We’re going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago.”

The mayor of America’s third-largest city spoke alongside a group of labor leaders as Trump administration officials have said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement blitz is set to take place in Chicago in coming days.

The Republican president has criticized Washington, D.C., and Chicago — Democratic bastions led by Black mayors — for out-of-control street crime, despite crime rates dropping in the two cities.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of sending military into city streets for domestic purposes, which Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker and legal experts have said is unconstitutional, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this weekend said it would be up to him whether National Guard troops are part of the Chicago operation.

The president recently sent the National Guard into Washington and has threatened to do so in Chicago. In both instances, it appears the White House’s main focus will be on ramping up immigration enforcement by utilizing an influx of federal forces to carry out aggressive tactics.

Hundreds of residents turned out Monday to oppose the president’s plans. They carried signs criticizing Trump and declaring “wake up and smell the fascism.”

Chicago Federation of Labor president Bob Reiter ripped Trump as a “bad dude” for failing to honor union contracts and scapegoating immigrants and diversity initiatives for the nation’s problems.

Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union and a close Johnson ally, credited working people for creating social change against slavery and fighting racist laws in the Jim Crow era. She said Chicago rejects “a billionaire’s tyranny on our city.”

“Solidarity is the antidote to white supremacy. Solidarity is the antidote to anti-immigrant fever. Solidarity is the antidote to homophobia and transphobia,” Davis Gates said. “Solidarity is the antidote to people not having and needing. It is solidarity that reunites us.”

After the rally, the labor groups protested outside entities allied with Trump or his initiatives, including Target and a Tesla dealership. Target has faced criticism for scaling back DEI efforts in what some say is an attempt to pander to Trump, while Tesla boss Elon Musk has been a close ally to the White House, although they have been in conflict of late.

Randi Weingarten, head of the national teachers union, summed up the rally with a question invoking the biblical story of Moses in ancient Egypt.

“Are we ready to fight Pharoah?” Weingarten asked. The crowd responded with cheers.