There\u2019s an old saying in war and in politics: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. For Mayor Brandon Johnson, understanding that might just be the secret to getting reelected\u2009\u2014\u2009something that once seemed unfathomable.<\/p>\n
When Johnson made a Sunday pulpit appearance in May at Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, he hadn\u2019t set out to become a target of Donald Trump. But when he boasted of having six Black officials in his cabinet and increasing opportunities for Black contractors, the MAGA outrage machine went into overdrive: End Wokeness, an anonymous account, posted Johnson\u2019s remarks on X, where they were viewed a million times, including by the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet K. Dhillon, who retweeted them with the comment \u201cNo bueno.\u201d The next day, Dhillon wrote a letter to Johnson, promising to investigate his administration for racial discrimination, even invoking the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<\/p>\n
It was an extraordinary escalation stemming entirely from social media outrage. But Johnson, for his part, didn\u2019t back down: He called Trump a \u201cmonster\u201d who \u201cwould much rather have administrations that reflect the country club, period.\u201d Clifford Zimmerman, a civil rights expert at Northwestern\u2019s Pritzker School of Law, tells Chicago that the Justice Department\u2019s probe has no chance of standing up in court: \u201cAll this is saying is you\u2019ve ID\u2019ed people who were Black in your administration. It doesn\u2019t say he hired them because they were Black.\u201d<\/p>\n
However flimsy the case, the clash served a purpose for both Trump and Johnson: It\u2019s red meat for their political bases. MAGA doesn\u2019t like Chicago and its lefty mayor. Johnson\u2019s voters don\u2019t like Trump. Win-win.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe question [in the next mayoral election] is going to be: Who is best positioned to push back on Donald Trump?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jake Lewis, political strategist<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For a mayor with an approval rating of less than 7 percent at the time, whose reelection had already been written off by many political observers, the chance to get on the president\u2019s bad side was a political gift. The only politician less popular among Chicago voters than Johnson may be Trump. By pursuing a decidedly anti-MAGA agenda\u2009\u2014\u2009openly promoting diversity efforts, standing up for undocumented immigrants, and firing back at the president\u2009\u2014\u2009Johnson is making himself an enemy of Chicago\u2019s enemy. As The Wall Street Journal\u2019s conservative editorial board asked after the kerfuffle over Johnson\u2019s comments: \u201cIs President Trump making an in-kind donation to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s re-election campaign?\u201d<\/p>\n
The city of Chicago, of course, has long been a foil for Trump. But Johnson hadn\u2019t personally been in his cross hairs as much as some other Democratic politicians, not least Governor JB Pritzker. Whether for reasons of principle or politics, Johnson hasn\u2019t backed down after the Trump administration\u2019s threats. In June, he went on the offensive, encouraging Chicagoans to demonstrate against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Calling Trump a \u201ctyrant,\u201d he urged \u201call of Chicago to resist in this moment,\u201d because \u201cwhatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next.\u201d Johnson also vowed to refuse ICE requests for data on immigrants who applied for benefits through the CityKey ID program. Chicagoans seem to be responding: A new poll, released in mid-June, showed the mayor\u2019s approval rating sharply higher, at 26 percent.<\/p>\n
Just as beating up on Chicago is good politics in Trump world, getting on Trump\u2019s bad side could boost Johnson\u2019s chances in the 2027 mayoral election, says local political strategist Jake Lewis: \u201c2026 is going to be all about Trump, 2027 is going to be all about Trump. The question is going to be: Who is best positioned to push back on Donald Trump? Whether it\u2019s immigration, attacks on environmental regulation, abortion, this mayor has shown his values are aligned with the city. Now, can he effectively use the levers of government to push back against the feds?\u201d<\/p>\n
That will be key. Every mayoral candidate in the 2027 race\u2009\u2014\u2009anyone who wants to win, anyway\u2009\u2014\u2009will be able to say they\u2019re anti-Trump. But if Johnson can point to specific policy wins, that would give him a much-needed edge.<\/p>\n
Just look at other states. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom, thought to be eyeing the White House in 2028, dared Trump to arrest him and sued the president over federalizing the National Guard in Los Angeles to crack down on protests over Trump\u2019s deportation efforts, calling it \u201can unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.\u201d That has raised Newsom\u2019s stock as a presidential contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s antics will help Brandon,\u201d says longtime political strategist Delmarie Cobb. What happened in Los Angeles is just one front in Trump\u2019s ongoing campaign against America\u2019s largest cities, which gives mayors the opportunity to step into the ring with Trump\u2009\u2014\u2009and into the spotlight with their constituents. \u201cThat puts Brandon in a more advantageous position,\u201d Cobb says. \u201cCan he elevate his profile just like Gavin Newsom and [Los Angeles Mayor] Karen Bass?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Becky Carroll, a public affairs and communications consultant who worked in Mayor Richard M. Daley\u2019s administration, is skeptical that picking fights now with Trump will benefit Johnson in an election two years away. She thinks that voters will ultimately focus on the totality of Johnson\u2019s four-year record. \u201cThis is going to be one moment in time of a hundred,\u201d Carroll says. \u201cI don\u2019t think people vote on a moment in time. Voter memories don\u2019t stick around too long. Using [a conflict with the president] for your own political gain is not a winning strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
And indeed, there\u2019s evidence that tangling with the Trump administration gets you only so far. In New Jersey, the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested during a protest at an immigration detention center. While it undoubtedly boosted Baraka\u2019s profile, even translating to a polling surge in the gubernatorial primary, it wasn\u2019t nearly enough to get him over the line: Baraka won 20 percent of the vote\u2009\u2014\u2009good for second place but 13 points behind the winner.<\/p>\n
Likewise, standing up to Trump isn\u2019t the only issue on which voters will judge Johnson. They care about crime, which is going down. They care about property taxes, which are going up. But now Johnson at least has a potential path to reelection, which he didn\u2019t have before.<\/p>\n
Good politics often consists of choosing the right enemies. Johnson didn\u2019t even have to do that. In this case, the right enemy chose him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s an old saying in war and in politics: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. For…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[5229,37217,37229,20174,276,960,37226,37221,37222,37228,69,37218,37227,37225,37220,5410,5386,1818,37224,15428,5413,224,7042,36234,37216,9764,7090,401,37230,22183,37223,37231,7623,37219,5223,21267,3893],"class_list":{"0":"post-48738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-apostolic-church-of-god","10":"tag-becky-carroll","11":"tag-brandon-johnson","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-chicago","14":"tag-citykey-id","15":"tag-civil-rights-act-of-1964","16":"tag-clifford-zimmerman","17":"tag-delmarie-cobb","18":"tag-donald-trump","19":"tag-end-wokeness","20":"tag-governor-gavin-newsom","21":"tag-governor-jb-pritzker","22":"tag-harmeet-k-dhillon","23":"tag-ice","24":"tag-il","25":"tag-illinois","26":"tag-jake-lewis","27":"tag-justice-department","28":"tag-karen-bass","29":"tag-los-angeles","30":"tag-maga","31":"tag-mayor-brandon-johnson","32":"tag-mayor-johnson","33":"tag-mayor-karen-bass","34":"tag-national-guard","35":"tag-new-jersey","36":"tag-newark","37":"tag-northwestern","38":"tag-pritzker-school-of-law","39":"tag-ras-baraka","40":"tag-the-wall-street-journal","41":"tag-u-s-attorney-general-for-civil-rights","42":"tag-white-house","43":"tag-woodlawn","44":"tag-x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}