From business headaches and education funding cuts to mass federal worker layoffs and a wave of legal battles, President Donald Trump has left his mark on Chicago and beyond during a whirlwind first three months of his second term.<\/p>\n
U.S. presidents are thought to wield their most influence during their initial 100 days in office, and Trump has left many heads spinning in Democratic-controlled Illinois with a litany of executive orders and policy choices impacting everyday life.<\/p>\n
Gov. JB Pritzker has loudly sounded the alarm on the impacts of the Trump administration\u2019s actions, including in late January when he said the administration was \u201ceither lying to us or they are critically incompetent\u201d \u2014 amid a directive to temporarily freeze federal grants<\/a> and loans pending a spending analysis aimed at rooting out \u201cwokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, Pritzker has toured the state to highlight Trump cuts to healthcare, child care, infrastructure and Social Security. On Monday, the Democratic governor continued that message at the University of Illinois at Chicago to highlight what he called a \u201cslash and burn\u201d campaign affecting higher education.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to send a clear message to the federal government, to Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the rest,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cKeep your hands off our students.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an overview of how Chicago and the rest of Illinois have been affected in the early days of Trump\u2019s return to office \u2014 and what could happen in the administration\u2019s 1,300-plus days to come.<\/p>\n Long a political punching bag for Trump, Chicago was immediately targeted by the new administration with immigration raids<\/a>, a lawsuit against sanctuary policies<\/a> at the city, state and county levels \u2014 and the ever-looming threat of federal funding cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has enlisted the state in numerous lawsuits against the federal government along with other Democratic AGs pushing back against Trump executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as well as tariffs, research institution funding cuts and the mass firings of federal workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Last week, Raoul joined 11 other states in suing the administration in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York to stop its tariff policy, calling it unlawful and disruptive.<\/p>\n \u2014 Mitchell Armentrout and Tina Sfondeles<\/i><\/p>\n Members of Chicago and Illinois business associations are reeling from the impact of Trump\u2019s shifting policies on tariffs, immigration and more, with many experts stressing that tariffs disrupt operations and will result in higher prices for businesses and consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Current tariffs could result in up to 15,000 job cuts in the Chicago area and a $3 billion drop in its gross domestic product, according to World Business Chicago Research Center\u2019s latest projections. And they\u2019ll raise costs for American households by $4,600 to $4,700 annually, up from $3,800 under earlier plans, according to the Yale Budget Lab.<\/p>\n Industries expected to be most affected include electric vehicles, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and retail, WBC leaders said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a single manufacturer in our state that has not been impacted by the tariffs,\u201d said Mark Denzler, CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers\u2019 Association. \u201cWhile some will benefit, many more will face higher costs that will make it more expensive to produce goods in Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n An employee at Freedman Seating Co.’s Austin headquarters. Freedman Seating and many of its <\/b>domestic vendors are reeling from President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff policies. Sky-high tariffs on imports from China of up to 145% are particularly \u201cdevastating,\u201d said Craig Freedman, CEO of the fourth-generation family business.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Trump\u2019s policies put more pressure on the restaurant industry, which is still grappling with inflation and higher labor costs after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cTariffs on imported goods \u2026 combined with policies that jeopardize our immigrant workforce, create serious challenges for the hospitality industry,\u201d said Sam Toia, CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association. \u201cIndependent restaurants, especially in places like central Illinois, are already operating on razor-thin margins. These businesses don\u2019t have the same buying power as larger chains and are now facing higher costs and staffing shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Amy Yee<\/i><\/p>\n On his first day in office, Trump signed orders to roll back environmental protections and end initiatives aimed at fighting climate change.<\/p>\n Trump and his Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin boasted of scrapping air and water pollution rules they say will help boost the economy. The rule changes can take some time to go into effect.<\/p>\n However, one immediate result can be seen: EPA workers in Chicago and across the country who work on programs to protect poor communities<\/a> were recently told their jobs are being eliminated. Trump and Zeldin frame so-called environmental justice programs as \u201cleftist\u201d and refer to them as overreaching diversity efforts. But the movement \u2014 started in Chicago decades ago<\/a> \u2014 focuses on low-income areas across the U.S. regardless of race.<\/p>\n Through the president\u2019s \u201cefficiency\u201d programs, dozens of employees at the EPA\u2019s regional office in Chicago have been placed on administrative leave. Some workers are leaving and others have been reassigned jobs or ordered to not perform their duties, according to union officials.<\/p>\n Trump made U.S. \u201cenergy dominance\u201d a campaign promise but, so far, his administration has done little to promote renewable wind and solar energy key to helping Illinois meet its goals for fighting climate change.<\/p>\n In fact, Trump took aim at wind power, signing an order Jan. 20 that put restrictions on development. Wind and solar energy projects are already struggling to get connected<\/a> to the electric grid, adding pressure on Illinois to meet its goals of shedding older, dirtier forms of fossil fuel power sources of coal and natural gas that contribute to the climate crisis and threaten public health.<\/p>\n \u2014 Brett Chase<\/i><\/p>\n Days into Trump\u2019s second presidency, his so-called border czar Tom Homan flew to Chicago to oversee immigration arrests in the area. He was joined by a film crew and television personality Dr. Phil McGraw.<\/p>\n Television personality Dr. Phil McGraw, right, and Trump administration border czar Tom Homan, center, with a detainee in January in Chicago.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It remains unclear how many immigrants in the Chicago area have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the first months of Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n Across Chicago, community groups had been gearing up for the potential uptick in arrests by holding \u201cknow your rights\u201d training sessions and by creating networks to alert immigrants about the presence of ICE agents in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois say some of those arrests violate a 2022 federal court settlement that required ICE to adopt a nationwide policy on the arrests of people without warrants that are sometimes referred to as collateral arrests. That litigation remains pending.<\/p>\n Attorneys point to the arrest of Abel Orozco Ortega as an example of how federal immigration agents have violated the settlement. The Lyons man was arrested in January by ICE agents just as he was arriving home from buying tamales for his family, though officials were in the area searching for someone else<\/a>.<\/p>\n At least one U.S. citizen was detained for at least 10 hours by ICE earlier this year before he was released, attorneys say. Another man, Yeison Rodrigo Jaimes-Rincon, who had been living in Chicago is now imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, according to his family<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to the federal lawsuit filed in February over local sanctuary policies, Republicans called Mayor Brandon Johnson and other mayors of Democrat-led cities to testify before a congressional hearing in March about the policies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are ready to partner with you on the measures we know promote trust and create sustainable public safety,\u201d Johnson told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Elvia Malagon<\/i><\/p>\n Trump has followed through on a promise to gut the U.S. Department of Education, with dozens of federal education workers laid off<\/a> from their Chicago office and billions in future funding left in question.<\/p>\n Chicago Public Schools relied on $1.3 billion in federal money, or about 16% of the current year\u2019s operating budget.<\/p>\n Students look on as Gov. JB Pritzker speaks during a news conference Monday at the University of Illinois Chicago as part of his \u201cStanding Up for Illinois\u201d tour to criticize the first 100 days of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n While curriculum decisions are mostly local, that federal money could be in the balance pending Title IX investigations launched by Trump\u2019s Education Department into CPS and suburban Deerfield School District 109 for allowing transgender students<\/a> access to bathrooms and locker rooms \u2014 which is protected by state law.<\/p>\n The impact has been felt even more acutely in higher education as Trump has moved to cut off billions of dollars in federal funding to universities, as the administration seeks to root out DEI-related measures.<\/p>\n Financial aid is expected to be harder to obtain through the federal government under Trump, and any prospect of canceling student debt is almost certainly dashed.<\/p>\n \u2014 Mitchell Armentrout<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\nChicago in the crosshairs<\/h3>\n
Tariffs trouble business leaders<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nEnvironmental rollbacks<\/h3>\n
Chicago\u2019s immigrant community<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nEducation cuts<\/h3>\n
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