By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is in Chicago Tuesday for his latest campaign stop. While neither Chicago nor Illinois is in play this election, count on him to hit Chicago’s leadership hard for their many self-inflicted crises when he addresses the Economic Club of Chicago.
Trump has been highly critical of Chicago in the past, calling crime in the city “embarrassing to us as a nation” and “worse than some of the places…in the Middle East where you have wars going on.” He’s also decried its migrant policies: “New York City and Chicago play the Sanctuary City card, where criminals are protected…”
His rhetoric on Chicago can often be nasty and over the top, but it’s not wrong. Too many Chicagoans experience the high-crime, low-literacy, high-tax, low-opportunity version of Chicago – which we detail below – and which Trump is likely to point at. But because it’s Trump talking, expect the media and connected class to deflect or even deny that the city’s problems exist.
Their denials should anger many of the ordinary Chicagoans who live with the impact of these problems every day. There are the residents who feel threatened living in the nation’s long-running homicide capital – polls show nearly two-thirds of Chicagoans don’t feel safe from crime. There are the black residents who’ve made their voices heard in multiple hearings, frustrated by the attention and billions in financial and healthcare resources directed towards the city’s illegal immigrants. And there are parents who feel their children’s education is secondary to the extreme demands of the Chicago Teachers Union – one reason why 110,000 black children have fled the public school system since 2000.
Most of these problems have been inflicted by the city’s political class. They’ve stopped prosecuting many criminals. Most students aren’t taught to read or do math proficiently. Fiscal failures have the city, CPS and the regional transit authority all stuck with near one-billion-dollar deficits. And all of that mess is wrapped up in endemic political corruption, of which former Ald. Ed Burke and former House Speaker Mike Madigan are just the latest examples.
Chicagoans’ concerns have merit, and the failures of the city’s politicians deserve to be discussed. If the Economic Club of Chicago was to have an open, honest conversation about the city with Trump, here are five key goals that should get deeper attention:
1. Start arresting, prosecuting and sentencing again. Protect victims, make crime criminal.
If not, Chicago will likely continue to lead the nation in total homicides as it has for the last 12 years. If this year’s murder trend stays on track, it will be 13 years in a row. Overall violent crime will also continue to threaten Chicagoans. Through August of this year, violent crimes were running at a six-year high, over and above the jump in violent crimes last year.
2. Bring back literacy and numeracy. Set ambitious proficiency targets, make those targets public, and then aggressively track and report progress to all Chicago parents. And begin the nation’s most ambitious school choice program.
If not, Chicago Public Schools will continue to fail the city’s children. Just 20% of minority children at CPS are proficient in reading and they all get moved along the system, grade after grade, until they’re pushed out via graduation. It’s been happening for decades.
The most recent years show that 70% to 80% of black students graduated from CPS, though just 10% to 15% were proficient on the SAT. It’s similar for the city’s Hispanics.
3. Obsess about economic growth and job creation. Reduce spending. Cut taxes. Tackle corruption with ethics reforms. Make Chicago attractive, affordable to job creators.
If not, Chicago will continue to suffer a poor jobs climate. Chicagoland, as recently as June, had the highest unemployment rate – 6.2% – out of all big metro areas nationwide.
For the city’s black community it’s far worse. Chicago’s black unemployment rate, at 12.3%, was the worst among the country’s biggest cities in 2023. And the poverty rate for Chicago’s black residents – 26.4% – was also the highest among big cities as well.
4. Support and prioritize Chicago’s citizens. End the city’s sanctuary status.
If not, Chicago will continue to spend hundreds of millions on the city’s illegal migrants each year, stretching the city’s finances and making it worse for citizens most in need. It’s simply not sustainable for a city that’s one notch away from a junk credit rating, and a school district that’s already junk.
Illinois has already spent more than $2 billion dollars on “welcoming” programs, including healthcare for recent arrivals. The costs are far larger when what’s spent on all illegal immigrants is included.
5. Obsess about attracting people to Chicago again. Fixing the problems of crime, education and jobs is just the start. Combined with reforms, Chicago can grow its way out of its many problems.
If not, the city will continue to lose people. Chicago and Detroit are the only major cities, among the 15 largest cities in 2000, to lose population since then.
Fewer residents means higher debts and taxes on the people who remain. Those higher costs – along with the city’s many other problems – in turn drive even more people out of the city in an ever-worsening downward spiral.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- No ShotSpotter and no cash bail in Chicago is a big mistake. 8 reasons why.
- Suddenly the school board cares about Chicago Public School debts?
- City of Chicago budget revenues have ballooned by $6 billion since 2019. Why the $1 billion deficit?
- Chicago Public Schools is in dire financial straits, yet Chicago Teachers Union blocks closing of near-empty, failing schools.
- Chicago’s worst-in-nation pension crisis strikes again
- An Open Letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson on the forthcoming recommendations of his Pension Working Group
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Sounds like a good agenda.
Trump (and Republicans in general) need to be much NASTIER in their attacks on Democrats. We need to just come out and say it: Democrats WANT Black people to be poor and angry, so the Democrats can run for re-election promising to solve their problems. But, of course, if they DO actually solve their problems, then they can’t run for re-election next time promising to solve their problems. So their INCENTIVE is to NEVER solve their problems. Their incentive is to PERPETUATE their problems FOREVER. Democrats ARE the Government, and Democrats need everybody to need their Government. Their jobs depend… Read more »
Yeah well, the truth sometimes hurts, and in the case of Chicago it is downright devastating. There isn’t one key metric of success that is top tier, or even moving in the right direction. Chicago has become the land of the blank stare, low aspirations and moral rot. During the day the IQ of Chicago raises dramatically as the trains from the suburbs deliver the people that still have office space in the Loop. At the end of the workday the IQ drops once again. There’s no saving the City, as they elect one fool after the other, and the… Read more »
Why am I not surprised to see you fighting hard for your right to give up and convince others to do the same? Move on if politics are no longer for you.
Dave, or do you prefer Pubis, I thought you were rallying the troops to overthrow Pritzker and then the world. You offer absolutely nothing to counter the points raised by many commenters, but ask that they go away. I think I’ll continue to point out the jet sled to hell that Illinois is on, which you have no way to stop. Prove me wrong.
Ha..love the train description. Could be a political cartoon.
Chicago is a dysfunctional city that attracts dysfunctional people. It’s got a high poverty rate, at 17% and, while I can’t the stats at the moment, the near poverty rate is far higher, given the median household income for a majority of Chicago’s communities is below the national rate. That’s why the city is such a mess because anybody with any common sense moves the heck out. The people who live there chose to do so, not despite the dysfunctionality, but because of it. The Chicago metropolitan region, as defined by the census is 9,441,957, and only 2.6 million of… Read more »
Anything proposed by Trump will be dismissed out of hand by the race pimp mayor, the Latino Marxist alder persons, the others pandering to keep their constituents on welfare and the simpering, complicit media.
It’s not about Trump, it’s about all of us and what we’re going to do about it.
The agenda presented is spot on but our local leaders are so beholden to the progressive agenda and political corruption that change will not occur until forced on them. Incremental change is not realistic. It requires an intervention and Trump is the one to enact it. Chicago and Illinois needs him to be elected.
I early voted for Trump and Vance.
Chicago politicians wouldn’t like what this downstater has to say about Chicagoland either but Pritzker, Raoul et al have stated our area can not separate from Chicago which is indicative of the kind of people that they are.
Chicago Leftists have full blown TDS. Chicago isn’t the city of ‘Broad Shoulders’, and definately not the ‘City that Works’. Chicago has become the city of Marxists and whiners, who only want taxpayer dole. WP’S suggestions are so common sense anyone should understand them, if they want to. But none of the suggestions support the Leftist Democrats agenda, and they will be met with a ‘word salad’ of complete nonsense and stupidity.
His rhetoric is wrong quite often. The election wasn’t stolen, and the Haitians in Springfield OH ore there legally and not eating pets. Not wrong about Chicago is another deal.
Who, exactly, stopped the vote count in 6 states on election night in 2020? And why?
And stopped cold. I sat there and watched my screen while it happened. It was like someone threw a switch.
Failure to understand what’s happening on the viewer’s part is no evidence of criminality on anyone else’s part. Numerous investigations and court cases have shown no legitimate evidence of fraud by Democrat.
I did.
and this is the most impt question. why did the vote counting stop? Nostradamus you have my vote!! thank you for keeping the plot alive.
I agree. His rhetoric is icky. I much prefer the clear and well thought out policies of diapers and heels up. They work so well. I mean do you want someone who is mean or do you prefer people with such obvious intellectual abilities as Biden and Harris. Their genius did wonders for the economy during covid. They perfectly solved inflation with their economic strategy of printing money and spreading it around. Their handling of the military in afghanistan was sheer brilliance. “Swallows” handling of the border crisis as border Czar was a masterpiece of appearing to do nothing while… Read more »
Haha…good one.
What does any of that have to do with Trump lying? He lied. Politicians lie quite often. He is a politician. He’s not a Saint, or a savior, or Superman. If he’s a liar, he’s a liar.
He lied? apart from the part that he has been spot on with most things, he definitely exaggerates and probably lied as well. He probably took his cue from the democrats. They are the masters of lying. Look at Illinois and Chicago. Those masters lie to you every day and you don’t seem to mind. As the old adage says, you can tell when a politician is lying because their mouth is open. That being said, are you saying that you were better off over the last 4 years than you were in the 4 years before that. Unless you… Read more »
I really enjoy the reasoning that because investigations showed no fraud and the judges did not enter a finding of fraud, that no fraud occurred. By that reasoning there is virtually no corruption among politicians in Illinois. I am absolutely positive that using that reasoning you would argue that old man Daly didn’t steal the election for Kennedy in 1960. I do like the idea that if you don’t get caught, it’s not illegal. Perfect Democrat morality. Have you ever spoken to any of the judges in Cook County? Unless their owners tell them otherwise, they wouldn’t find corruption in… Read more »
LOL. The election was stolen, the Haitians in Springfield are eating pets (even the city manager admits on tape he’s received complaints well before it became a national issue) and while the Haitians are technically ‘legal’, the TPS loophole exploited by the Harris-Biden administration to make otherwise illegal immigrants into ‘legal’ immigrants undermines the actual intent of the law.
But don’t worry, in several weeks, they’ll all be going home, and it will become a federal crime to hire an illegal immigrant. When the work dries up, they’ll mostly self-deport, and we’ll imprison the criminals who won’t voluntarily leave.
You evidently have knowledge that the rest of us lack. How know you that the election was not stolen?
Donald Trump received fewer votes than Joe Biden in both the popular vote and in the electoral college. Lawsuits he filed, and ruled upon by judges he himself appointed, have confirmed this. We gotta move on, people.
Don’t waste your breath, Bill. Most of us realize the ongoing Stolen Election crap is a way for Trump to sell us sneakers and Bibles. Problem is the admins of this site would rather give cover to various racists and conspiracy theorists than confront the fact that our Republican party has been overtaken by its lunatic fringe.
LOL I’m pretty sure the lunatic fringe defeated the Never Trumpers quite resoundingly, feel free to join Edgar, Cheney and another Bill, Bill Kristal, and vote for the lunatic left, Kamala Harris.
I know this, that my daughter an apartment dweller in an older Chicago apartment building. In 2020 she received an unrequested mail in ballot along with 7 other ballots, one for anyone who ever registered to vote out of that apartment. She asked me what to do and I told her give them back to the mail deliverer. She did but is a unionized mail carrier really a disinterested third party who will not vote those ballots for whom he/she supports? The gist of all the law suits amounts to this; the people of a State like Texas have no… Read more »
Ive lived in chicago 35 years and have always heard “Vote early. Vote often.” I take Democrats at their word. Apparently, elections can be stolen. So why is it not possible that these same Democrats didn’t steal the 2020 Presidential election?
Because there is zero evidence that they did. After numerous investigations and court cases.
Wow. Clearly you are uninformed. One of the biggest proven voter fraud cases – a massive FBI investigation – occurred right here in Chicago in the NW side. The FBI (back when the FBI was trusted and not Toadys of the Democrat Swamp) concluded that 15% of the votes cast in Chicago were fraudulent. If you think that this has changed then I have a bridge to sell you in Baltimore Harbor. Link is: https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/where-theres-smoke-theres-fire-100000-stolen-votes-chicago
Ah yes, respected, trusted, and totally independent organization The Heritage Foundation. Aim higher, Tom. That outfit hasn’t been worth a darn since Reagan’s day.
Typical non argument. Blame the source. Here’s a fact: 100,000 votes were fraudulent. Period. The real source of the article is the once respectable FBI. There are dozens of sources of this Democrat election fraud and even some books. Heritage Foundation just happens to be the most accessible. Sorry that real facts slap you in the face. Democrats knew how to steal elections then and have only gotten better at this perversion since then. For now though, sadly for you, Trump’s 2024 reelection numbers are getting so high that they are creeping past Democrat election thievery reach. Yet somehow I… Read more »
Because the FBI never lies? Maybe just admit defeat here and move on, Tom.
100K fraudulent votes. Democrats are experts at election fraud. Period. If you cant see that then you don’t deserve democracy. Shame on you and move to Cuba please.
You keep saying there’s zero evidence, but when evidence is presented to your face, you just dismiss it, saying it’s not evidence. The reality is that Trump lost the electoral college in 2020 under very, very shady electoral pretenses by a mere 40,000 votes in three swing states he won four years earlier. But you assure me that no shenanigans occurred. None. No evidence. The election deniers are the people who refuse to admit that the 2020 election was super shady with all sorts of weird shenanigans, shenanigans that likely gave Biden the 40,000 ballots he needed. After the 2020… Read more »
All the evidence you all bring up has been debunked. Repeatedly.
You did the meme. Here’s your link to the Deboonker meme:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/deboonker
Yeah, Trump’ll save us. Just like last time. LOL
I’m 54 years old and there has been exactly one president in my lifetime from either party who oversaw near-simultaneous rioting in every major city.
Being Republican used to mean standing for law and order. No more.
Says Never Trumper who doesn’t understand the concept of “Federalism”
As if it wasn’t Kamala and the left who were egging the rioters on and bailing them out.
Have you ever met a leftist? They’re idiots. All of them.
Thinking they could organize and prolong mass riots is giving them way, waaaaaay too much credit.
I’m ten years older than you and I saw another president who oversaw rioting in most major cities. He wasn’t Republican. Looks like a draw from my perspective.