It appears that even mayors have gotten wind of the newly-coined term Karen.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot referred to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany as “Karen” after she called Lightfoot a “derelict mayor” at a press briefing.
“Hey, Karen. Watch your mouth,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.
“Karen” has become an ubiquitous term for a disrespectful and often racist white woman who wields her privilege like a weapon. A source told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lightfoot was indeed using the term in this context.
According to HuffPost, McEnany slammed Lightfoot for failing to seek federal help to curtail gun violence in Chicago. The press secretary said the mayor was “doing a very poor job at protecting her streets,” in addition to calling her the city’s “derelict mayor.” The outlet reports that this year, Chicago recorded 385 murders through July 12, while in 2019, there were 260 murders logged during the same time period.
Trump is also a major critic of Chicago. Just this week, he said Chicago violence is “worse than Afghanistan,” a comparison he’s made before. His comments followed a letter he wrote to Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in June, where he denounced them as leaders.
The letter reads in part, “I write to you today to call your attention to and urge action on the devastating violence in Chicago. While I have been heartened to see crime reductions nationally the last few years, I have been horrified by the continued violence in this great American city.”
Lightfoot responded by saying, “I don’t need leadership lessons from Donald Trump.”
Back in May, Lightfoot had some more choice words for Trump: “I will encode what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words: It begins with ‘F’ and it ends with ‘U.’”
