Lori Lightfoot, who served as Mayor of Chicago from 2019 – 2023, is being sued by J.P. Morgan Chase over “an unpaid MileagePlus United credit card balance of $11,078.01.” Her honor hasn’t made a payment to the card since August 2024. She’s been a cardholder for 20 years.
She has not made a payment since August 2024, 17 months ago. She has had the credit card since 2005. pic.twitter.com/DVIj8lpitM
— Frank Calabrese (@FrankCalabrese) January 13, 2026
Lightfoot, who failed to win re-election, has been working for consulting firm Charles River Associates and has had roles at the University of Michigan, Harvard, and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. She was served with this lawsuit at her home in October.
She’s hardly alone among celebrities failing to pay her credit card and getting sued. American Express filed suit against Bhad Bhabie this past summer over $674,452. They sued Armie Hammer in 2022, Lil Wayne in 2016, and they sued Ray J this year also. Tori Spelling was sued by American Express multiple times.
The former Chicago Mayor is noteworthy because she was equally irresponsible managing the public purse as her own. And she wasn’t even a good politician for instance the best she could do explaining getting a haircut during the Covid stay-at-home order was to say that she’s the “public face of the city” so it was necessary, “haircut hypocrisy.” She was also known for restricting interviews to “Black and Brown” journalists.
With American Airlines re-building their presence at O’Hare, and AAdvantage a generally better program than MileagePlus, she chose the wrong bank and card to pull a bust-out scheme with.
To be clear, though, being bad with credit cards isn’t a partisan issue. I wrote former Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker paying 27% interest on his credit cards rather than paying them off.
I’m here for the Lori Lightfoot apologists
Honestly, everyone’s personal debt is their own business, who knows what kind of financial situation they are in?…amd the fact is, is that the credit card companies took a calculated risk advancing the credit to them, in other words it’s a business decision which they understand they can win or lose at…however that doesn’t absolve the card holders from paying back the debt when they are able
You had to bring up a completely unrelated issue regarding Gov Walker from Wisconsin in some crazy attempt to show balance? Makes you seem silly.
Maybe add a line that she wasn’t able to accumulate the miles on the unpaid debt so we can tie this into “travel”. As it stands, this belongs in a rag near the cashier at my supermarket.
Not related to travel. Sorry. Politicians stiff people all the time, and not just taxpayers.