Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Slams Ivanka Trump For ‘Misleading’ Tweets About City Violence

On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke out against Ivanka Trump, a White House aide and President Donald Trump‘s daughter. Over the weekend, Chicago endured a series of tragic shootings, which left 52 people injured and seven dead. Mass shootings occurred at Ohio and Texas during the weekend too, reigniting Democrats’ drive to implement stricter gun control laws.

On Tuesday, Trump posted two tweets addressing the violence in Chicago. “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,” she wrote. “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.”

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.

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) August 6, 2019

Lightfoot called out Trump’s tweets during a press conference later that day. She criticized Trump for being “misleading” and misrepresenting what actually transpired. “It wasn’t a playground, it was a park,” Lightfoot explained. “It wasn’t seven dead, it wasn’t 52 wounded in one incident, which is what this suggests. And it’s misleading. 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.”

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A reporter commented how Trump’s tweets garnered thousands of retweets and likes on the social media platform, something that visibly displeased Lightfoot. “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.”

“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 concluded. “I’m not going to be distracted by nonsense tweets from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Continuing, the city mayor added how she contacted Trump, asking her why they failed to “reach out” to them. Trump has yet to respond. Speaking to CNN, a White House spokesperson said how “it remains important to note that there were seven deaths and 52 wounded across the city, resulting in one of the deadliest weekends in the city this year. Her point remains the same: We cannot ignore the gun violence that happens in cities across this country on a daily basis.”

The spokesperson added how Trump has “has appreciated getting to know Mayor Lightfoot (and) respects her commitment to addressing this issue.”