Lori Lightfoot Plans Trip to Washington Ahead of Inauguration

Before her inauguration as the city’s next mayor, Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot will head to Washington DC next week to meet with several top leaders, and to do some fundraising.

Lightfoot, who will be sworn in during a ceremony on May 20, will meet with some of the nation’s top Democrats, but is there a possibility that she could meet with President Donald Trump?

The president, who has often been critical of Chicago’s leadership and its handling of gun violence, called to congratulate Lightfoot after her victory in the April 2 run-off election against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Lightfoot has said that she would be willing to meet with the president during her trip, but didn’t confirm that she is actively seeking such a meeting.

“He is the president of the United States,” she said. “If it happens, it happens.”

University of Illinois-Chicago Political Science Professor, and former alderman, Dick Simpson is on the Lightfoot transition team, and says that the newly elected mayor will meet with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and will also attend several fundraising events during her trip to the nation’s capital.

“I’m sure she has a wish list (for the city),” Democratic strategist Delmarie Cobb said. “It wouldn’t take a lot for anyone who lives in Chicago to have a wishlist, and to know that we need to get federal funds back to the city.”

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