Trump rips Jussie Smollett at policing speech in Chicago

President Trump on Monday took a shot at Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” actor who cooked up a phony story about being assaulted by men he claimed told him that he was in “MAGA country.”

“You have the case of this wiseguy Jussie Smollett who beat up himself, and he said MAGA country did it. It’s a crime, a hate crime. That’s a scam, a real big scam just like the impeachment of your president is a scam,” Trump said at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago, the city where Smollet claimed the attack had taken place.

“And you look what’s going on, Smollett is still trying to get away with it. He would have been better off with his face on [a] $100,000 bill,” the president continued, a possible reference to the city slapping him with a lawsuit demanding $130,000 for the cost of the investigation into the phony hate crime.

In March, a judge denied a request from Smollett’s lawyers to dismiss the suit.

Prosecutors had decided not to pursue a criminal case against Smollet, who had been charged with filing a false police report, a move that enraged then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who boycotted the Trump speech, drawing scorn from the president.

Smollet, 37, had claimed that his Trump-loving attackers had doused him with bleach, threw a noose around his neck and beat him up while announcing, “This is MAGA country.”

But cops said Smollett set up the attack and paid two brothers — who both had small roles on “Empire” — to carry out the purported beating, which he blamed on his prior anti-Trump statements.