Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Meets With Trump Aides Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus

Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel visited the White House Monday to discuss priorities for his city and to offer advice to Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, a White House official confirmed Monday.

President Donald Trump has promised a tougher response on crime in Chicago, threatening to “send in the Feds” if the city doesn’t get its murder rate under the control. “If they’re not going to solve the problem — and what you’re doing is the right thing — then we’re going to solve the problem for them because we’re going to have to do something about Chicago,” Trump told African-American leaders earlier this month. “Because what’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country.”

Emanuel also me with White House senior advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner about the situation in Chicago, the official confirmed.

It is routine for chiefs of staff to meet with their predecessors, but the timing of the meeting, coming after three weeks of back-biting and turmoil in the West Wing, most notably centered around Trump’s controversial executive order on immigration and refugees, was notable.”It was a current chief of staff, former chief of staff thing,” an official said. Emanuel and Priebus both took part in a luncheon for current and former chiefs of staff hosted by former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough at the White House last year.

An Emanuel spokesman indicated that the purpose of the meeting was about “Chicago priorities.”