Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has gone and done it: he’s gone full stupid. That’s saying something from a Mayor known for constantly going so close to full stupid as to be indistinguishable from full stupid.
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There's dumb, and then there's whatever the Hell this is. We thought that JB Pritzker admitting that Chicago crime was a problem he hadn't been able to tackle was bad, but Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson absolutely out-stupided Pritzker.
That’s no small feat.
Not only does Johnson not want help with his violent city, where roughly 78 people are victims of a violent crime EVERY DAY, but he claims he and his people will RIOT if Trump tries to help his citizens.
No, really.
And Democrats wonder why their approval rating sits at 19%.
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Perhaps Johnson’s handling of Chicago’s budget has something to do with it?
Comments from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are raising concerns about the state of city finances ahead of contentious budget hearings.
At a question-and-answer session with reporters on Tuesday, Johnson said we have reached “a point of no return," and that the city is going to have to be creative to help address looming shortfalls.
Johnson said many key systems people rely upon, like education, health care. housing and transportation are “woefully underfunded.”
Currently, Chicago is facing a $1.1 billion budget gap for 2026.
And that’s going to get much worse. Governor J.B. Pritzger recently signed a pension bill that is adding more than $11 billion to Chicago’s pension obligations. Johnson’s “soak the rich” intentions have already driven tax-paying businesses out of Chicago and Illinois:
“I am committed to ensure that the ultra-rich and those with means put more skin in the game,” he said. “That is the pathway forward.”
Chicago’s budget shortfall for 2025 is already at $982 million. A hundred million here, a hundred million there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
Johnson and the usual Democrat suspects are, in the face of a federal takeover of Chicago policing, claiming violent crime, particularly homicide, is down. If one can believe Chicago’s statistics, which would be foolish indeed, that might be so. We know DC’s supposedly falling crime rates are almost certainly due to purposeful police manipulation of statistics and the on-the-spot reclassification of murder and other felonies to misdemeanors. It’s highly likely that time-honored Democrat tactic is standard operating procedure in Chicago, the city that has made it virtually impossible for the police to pursue fleeing criminals.
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Even better, the Chicago PD, like most blue city agencies, is badly understaffed:
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was elected in 2023, cut down the size of the CPD during his administration, removing 833 police jobs in his first year in office and having 1,600 fewer officers than at the start of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, according to the Illinois Policy Institute in May. He also recently let the city’s contract for ShotSpotter, a gunshot tracking device, expire despite most of the Chicago aldermen voting to keep it, according to ABC 7 on Sept. 23.
Those cuts have led to a massive increase in police overtime, which has contributed to Chicago’s budgeting woes. The CPD, which circa August of 2025 is down 2,103 officers, claims to have a ten-year low in homicides, which still amounted to 573 murders in 2024. That’s about 45 a month and about 1.6 per day. Factor in the reality the CPD arrest rate has dramatically declined, and Chicago and DC’s claims appear to be equally representative of the reality of crime in their representative cities.
Brandon Johnson, whose approval rate languishes at 26%, has a view of crime in Chicago not shared by most Chicagoans. Like the mayors of all blue cities, he fears Trump revealing in ways that can’t be hidden that out-of-control crime is a Democrat choice rather than an unchangeable destiny. He would also be wise to understand he’s facing a DOJ that actually enforces the law, even when the street thug threatening riot and insurrection is Chicago’s mayor.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.