Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted President Donald Trump’s daughter and White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, on Tuesday for what she called “nonsense tweets” about the city’s gun violence.
In a series of Twitter comments on Tuesday, Ivanka Trump drew national attention to Chicago’s endemic shooting problem by writing, “As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its deadliest weekend of the year. With 7 dead and 52 wounded near a playground in the Windy City — and little national outrage or media coverage — we mustn’t become numb to the violence faced by inner city communities every day.”
But Lightfoot took exception to the remarks during a news conference following her so-called Accountability Tuesday meeting with Chicago police brass to review city violence, saying Trump got key facts wrong and implied that all the injuries happened in one incident. If Ivanka Trump cared, Lightfoot said, she should’ve reached out to city officials.
“It wasn’t a playground, it was a park. It wasn’t seven dead. It wasn’t 52 wounded in one incident, which is what this suggests. It’s misleading,” Lightfoot said. “It’s important when we’re talking about people’s lives to actually get the facts correct which one can easily do if you actually cared about getting it right.”
Asked about the tweet’s reach, which included thousands of retweets and likes, Lightfoot said, “That’s the danger of somebody with a platform and audience … that doesn’t know what they’re talking about and getting the fundamental facts wrong that they can easily figure out if they had the decency to actually reach out to us if they wanted to be a constructive and engaged partner.”
Lightfoot, who harshly criticized President Trump earlier this week, said she doesn’t know whether those remarks prompted Ivanka Trump’s tweets.
“What I’m focused on is actually helping run the city of Chicago and working hard every day with the superintendent and his leadership team to keep people in our city safe,” Lightfoot said. “I’m not going to be distracted by nonsense tweets from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”
