Chicago’s Black lesbian mayor has one thing to say to Donald Trump: ‘It starts with F and ends with U’
Lori Lightfoot said Trump’s tweet was a “profoundly dangerous” effort to stoke racial tensions (Screenshot: CBS Chicago)
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot had some choice words for Donald Trump after he threatened to shoot protestors: “It starts with F and ends with U.”
Lightfoot, who’s fondly known as Chicago’s ‘angry auntie’, was asked in a press conference on Friday if she had anything to say to the president after his threats of violence towards those protesting the murder of George Floyd.
As always, she refused to pull her punches.
“Donald Trump’s comment last night was profoundly dangerous. We must stand firm in solidarity and say this is totally unacceptable no matter who the speaker is. We see the game he’s playing because it’s so transparent and he’s not very good at it,” Lightfoot said.
“He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders … his goal is to polarise, to destabilise local government and to enflame racist urges. And we can absolutely not let him prevail.
“And I will code what I want to say [to Trump] and it starts with F and ends with U.”
When a reporter referenced former first lady Michelle Obama’s famous words “When they go low, we go high,” Lightfoot replied: “Well, I’m not Michelle Obama.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has two words for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/kBNlsJi84s
— BallerAlert (@balleralert) May 29, 2020
Explaining why she needed to use such blunt language, she said: “I’m a Black woman and I’m a leader. I feel an obligation to speak out when something as offensive as that is said by anyone, but particularly the president.
“And I make no apologies whatsoever for my word choice and the way in which I’m calling him our for what he said. It was wrong. It was offensive. And he should retract it and apologise.”
Trump tweet violated Twitter rules for “glorifying violence”
Her fury came in response to Trump’s inflammatory tweets on Thursday which have since been flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence”.
Declaring the protestors to be “THUGS”, the president warned: “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Lightfoot fiercely condemned the president for using his “bully pulpit to foment violence” and declared her solidarity with those demonstrating their “righteous anger” through peaceful protests.
“Watching [George Floyd] begging for his life and for the ability to breathe and watching the life leave him there on the streets, I felt angry, I felt sick and and a range of other emotions all at once,” she said.
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence. We should not fear for the lives of our young ones, and mothers shouldn’t fear when their young men and women go out into the world that they’re gonna get that fateful call.”
