Ahead of a Chicago City Council vote unanimously rejecting Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax hike, local residents addressed the council and the mayor, criticizing Johnson to his face over trying to raise taxes while catering to illegal immigrants.
Among these angry locals were several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, who, while wearing MAGA gear, gloated about how Trump’s victory means Johnson’s liberal policies – particularly those assisting illegal immigrants – will face a reckoning.
“The feds need to address you! The DOJ needs to address you! And hopefully Donald Trump will address you, because you’re gonna protect the undocumented, while you’re gonna allow for the citizens in Chicago suffer under your, what? Three percent?” Chicago resident Tyjuan Sims told the mayor on Thursday night.
Clips of the council meeting can be viewed here.
Chicago residents have been angry with Johnson and other city officials for some time now, especially over policies allocating taxpayer money to benefit illegal immigrants that have flooded the city in recent years.
Locals blistered the Chicago City Council at a meeting in February after city and state officials had approved hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to feed, clothe and house more than 35,000 migrants who have been transported to Chicago and its suburbs in the prior year-and-a-half.
“They’re junking up our country. And yeah, we feel some kind of way about it because it’s our country,” one Chicago resident said at the time.
“We’re going to get them out of our communities because they don’t deserve to be there.”
The City Council convened the special meeting this week to vote on Johnson’s property tax hike proposal with less than two months before the city has to pass a new city budget.
In a historic repudiation, all 50 City Council members voted against Johnson’s $300 million tax hike that would have increased Chicago homeowners’ expenses by up to 4 percent.
The Chicago Sun-Times noted, however, “The unanimous vote was largely symbolic. Negotiations to reduce or eliminate the property tax increase and replace it with a mix of new revenue and reprogrammed federal pandemic relief funds began last weekend.”
As Illinois outlet “The Center Square” reported, Johnson “said the property tax hike was necessary to avoid laying off city workers like police officers and firefighters as Chicago faces a nearly $1 billion budget gap.”
Prior to the vote, the Council allowed locals to address the city government, including the mayor, who presided over the meeting.
Several frustrated Chicagoans took out their anger on the mayor and shared their satisfaction that the city was becoming redder.
Resident Dennis White stepped up to the mic wearing a black MAGA hat with red letters and asked the chamber, “How does it feel that Trump is in office right now?”
“You see, Mayor Brandon Johnson, you underestimate us. You underestimate the Black people and underestimate Chicago red,” he continued, referencing Republicans in the city.
“You know that Trump had pulled 45 percent of the voter in the state of Illinois, 37 percent in Chicago. That’s the statistic. That means that Illinois is turning purple. We gonna turn red,” he warned.
“You’re just like a schoolyard bully,” Jessica Jackson told Johnson. Wearing an all-red outfit, she blistered the mayor, adding, “But those of us who grew up on the south side and west side of Chicago, we all know at some point that bully gets cornered in an alley and everybody come at him. And he ain’t gonna have nobody to help him. That’s you!”
“So you and the rest of ‘em that know what time it is, y’all come on. You leave that loss where he is. He’s a loser! He’s a loser!”
Another local who marked herself down as Mrs. Lawrence for her comments, trashed the mayor while wearing a red “Make America Godly Again” shirt.
She brought up Johnson’s recent approval numbers from Change Research showing him at a woeful 14 percent approval rating.
“14 percent rating is what you appear to have, Brandon Johnson – across the United States – on how they see you. 14 percent rating.”
She blasted him for the tax hike proposal.
“What about our real estate? Because, see, we paid for these properties for a purpose and not for you to go touchin’ it with $300 million that you want to syphon out of the citizens’ pockets.”
She then yelled into the mic, “Get rid of the illegals! And that will take your money right back. Start it off with that!”
The mayor’s office did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.