Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D-15th Ward) lashed out at Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago) and Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) during a recent appearance on NewsNation, saying that their insistence on engaging in a political battle with President Donald Trump over crime was sending a message to the people that the victims did not matter.

Lopez pressed Johnson and Pritzker to instead work with President Trump and get any help he might offer in order to make the streets of Chicago safer for the people who live there.

WATCH:

🚨NEW: Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez *TORCHES* Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov J.B. Pritzker for not collaborating with TRUMP to crack down on crime🚨

“How many victims are we comfortable with? Because that’s ultimately the subtext of what the mayor and the governor are saying is… pic.twitter.com/7WzOBG4Akr

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) September 1, 2025

“We should be working to make sure that we are in coordination with each other,” Lopez said. “There’s nothing stopping the mayor of the city of Chicago, the governor of the state of Illinois, from picking up the phone and reaching out to the President of the United States and saying, ‘What can we do to be on the same page?'”

“We should all be looking to continuously decrease the number of victims in our city and in our state, and instead we’re getting into this tit-for-tat social media back and forth nonsense, which is only putting the people of Chicago and the people of Illinois in the middle, in the crosshairs of criminals who are going to use this time to exploit and go crazy as we’re continuing to see this weekend where we’ve had multiple mass shootings,” he continued.

The outlet then showed a graphic recounting the crime stats from Labor Day weekend in Chicago, where there were 31 shootings, seven shooting deaths, 52 people shot, and only three persons of interest identified or arrested.

“I hear the governor talking about an ‘invasion,’ an ‘insurrection,’ I hear the mayor writing useless orders against the federal government,” he added. “But what no one is talking about is, if our crime stats are decreasing, why can’t we push with Donald Trump’s help and decrease them even more? How many victims are we comfortable with? Because that’s ultimately the subtext of what the mayor and the governor are saying is that we are comfortable with the amount of victims we have right now. We don’t need to improve on our numbers any further than that.”

Pritzker, just as Lopez suggested, had touted the progress made in Illinois as recently as Sunday morning during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

At the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, the leaders of two of America’s greatest foes, China and Russia, made a public display of affection with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hinting that India, long aligned with Russia but seemingly moving toward the United States, may be reconsidering its position.

Numerous countries attended the summit, but the most enduring image pushed by the media was the embrace shared by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Modi. India and China’s relations with each other had soured after they battled at their border in 2020. In addition, in 2025, when India and Pakistan were fighting, “Pakistan’s armed forces heavily used China-made equipment, including fighter jets and radar systems. A senior army officer in Delhi said Beijing also provided ‘live inputs’ to Pakistan on Indian positions,” as the BBC reported.

Modi had not traveled to China in seven years, but this visit followed President Trump’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on India, as he warned India against purchasing Russian oil.

Still, The Wall Street Journal opined, “Chinese analysts also don’t expect New Delhi to pull away from Washington, given the many intractable problems between the two neighbors—including the border dispute.”

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On August 6, Trump signed an executive order “imposing tariffs on India in response to its continued purchase of Russian Federation oil, and establishing a process for the potential imposition of similar tariffs on other countries that directly or indirectly import oil from the Russian Federation.” Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, effective August 27. “India’s importation of Russian Federation oil undermines U.S. efforts to counter Russia’s harmful activities,” the order stated. “India’s subsequent reselling of this oil on the open market, often at significant profit, further enables the Russian Federation’s economy to fund its aggression.”

On Monday, Trump responded to the news of the supposed rapprochement between India and China by writing on Truth Social that India had offered to cut their tariffs on American products to zero:

What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest “client,” but we sell them very little – Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades. The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S. They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!!!