Hatred and fear of cities has been an underrated aspect of the right-wing mind in the Trump era. Republican state-level politicians will often run against the big cities in their states. And that was even before cities like Detroit, Atlanta, and Philadelphia put Joe Biden over the top in the 2020 election, leading to many disproven conspiracy theories about urban vote-counting shenanigans.
But it’s still rare for a politician to simultaneously visit a specific city and insult it.
That happened Thursday when Donald Trump visited the Detroit Economic Club in the crucial swing state of Michigan and gave a speech.
Trump said in the speech, “You wanna know the truth? Our whole country will be like Detroit if Kamala Harris wins the election,” Trump said to the assembled business leaders from… Detroit.
Trump in Detroit: The whole country will be like Detroit if Kamala Harris is your president pic.twitter.com/KW3nqtuSd9
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2024
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Trump has more traditionally said that Harris will make the country more like California, should she win the election.
Now, it’s possible that some of the people present for the speech are Michigan-based Trump supporters who share the former president’s feelings about the city of Detroit. But it’s also easy to imagine an ad for Harris, featuring the footage of Trump insulting Detroit.
A Democratic member of Congress, from Detroit, answered quickly :
I represent Detroit in Congress. Detroit is a city with a booming economy, diverse culture, and some of the best people in America.
Donald Trump: keep Detroit and our people out of your mouth. We will elect Kamala Harris. https://t.co/wAOhD20E73
— Shri Thanedar (@ShriThanedar) October 10, 2024
Insulting Detroit coming back to haunt Republican presidential candidates has a precedent.
In 2008, Mitt Romney authored an op-ed titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” in reference not to the city itself, but rather the auto industry that had traditionally been headquartered there, and in which Romney’s father had served as an executive. When Romney ran for president four years later, the op-ed was used against him, and despite his long family ties to the state, he lost Michigan to Barack Obama, who had agreed to bail out General Motors. This was why Joe Biden, in 2012, used the famous line “Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”
The city of Detroit did enter municipal bankruptcy in 2013, but it has since emerged in much better shape.
Trump has also claimed many times, over the years, to have once been named “Michigan Man of the Year,” but such award does not appear to exist.
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune image library.
