President-Elect Donald Trump met on Wednesday with Chicago’s most unpopular man, Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The same Rahm Emanuel who recently declared “Chicago will always be a sanctuary city” in defiance of Trump’s pledge to deport millions of illegal immigrants with criminal records.
The same Rahm Emanuel who has already set up a legal defense fund for illegal immigrants and refugees using millions of dollars that were, once upon a time, set aside for Chicago property tax relief. That was the little bone Rahmbo chucked at those silly Chicago taxpayers after he nailed them with a $600 million property tax increase while increasing his own mayoral budget in 2015. For years, he has mismanaged Chicago’s finances even after his “Never Trump” Republican pal, Gov. Bruce Rauner, endorsed his stellar “financial acumen” in his Rahm’s sorry bid for re-election.
The same Rahm Emanuel who launched a Chicago task force this week to” coordinate legal, health, and employment services for immigrants and refugees in the city.” Too bad there isn’t such a Chicago task force to coordinate legal, health, and employment services for legal citizens. So kind of Mayor Rahm Emanuel to spend the tax dollars of honest, hard-working Chicagoans this way, eh?
But that’s not really the point, is it? The point is that after he lied to Chicagoans, ignored Chicago’s murder rate, trumped up a fake TV documentary on CNN touting his spare accomplishments, buried the Laquan McDonald police shooting video, and quietly arranged a hush-money payment to McDonald’s family for fear that it would jeopardize his re-election, nobody trusts or likes Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Chicago’s black community certainly doesn’t. Fool me twice as they say.
That’s why Rahm needs fresh political meat and grandstanding on Chicago’s sanctuary cities is that meat. He thinks the issue of sanctuary cities will help him win a third term as Chicago’s mayor – I mean, it’s not as if he has a shot at being in Hillary’s cabinet back in the White House, right?
Rahm needs to save his political behind and using taxpayer dollars to defy Donald Trump is the way he plans to do it. Emanuel recently bragged that he had threatened Trump saying, “It can also be, if you do it wrong, the last phone call you have.”
So why is President-Elect Trump soliciting “transition advice” from Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanuel?
Since Trump’s election, mayors and police chiefs in more than 10 major cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. have pledged to defy authorities even at the risk of losing billions in federal funds. In his first 100 days in office, Trump has the constitutional power to cut off funds to cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials when it comes to searching for and detaining undocumented immigrants.
Fortunately, Donald Trump is a master of mainstream media manipulation. By parading the likes of Mitt Romney, Al Gore, and even Rahm Emanuel in front of reporters at Trump Tower, he is softening his image with his detractors. The optics are with him.
But, in the end, President Trump cannot cede America’s cities in the fight against illegal immigration.
He cannot break his promise to the millions of fed-up Americans who voted for him. He must restore the Rule of Law. He must take decisive action against employers who replace American workers with foreign ones. He must defund a system that rewards illegal immigrants with employment, heathcare, education, and taxpayer-funded welfare benefits. He must protect our borders and reject unfettered resettlement of foreign refugees who pose a threat to our safety and our way of life.
On Nov. 8, we took our country back. Now we have to have to reclaim our cities, including Rahm-occupied Chicago.
On January 20, President Trump has the opportunity to do just that.
Or not.
America will be watching.
William J. Kelly is the host of “The Citizen Kelly Show” on AM 1590 WCGO. In 2015, he busted the caps in the Chicago mayoral race, forcing Rahm Emanuel into a historic run-off election. Kelly is also an Emmy award-winning TV producer and frequent contributor to American Spectator, The Washington Times, Breitbart.com, and writes “The Chicago Rules,” a monthly column for Newsmax.