Attacking Black Mayors Will Cost the GOP Its Newest Supporters
Trump’s broadsides against cities like DC and LA are part of a pattern that’s eroding his support from Black voters.
One of many.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesSeven months into his second term, President Donald Trump is acting on his long-professed desire to use military force on the streets of Democratic-led American cities. The latest move is his decision to take over Washington’s police department, deploying an extraordinary number of National Guard troops to stop supposedly “out of control” street crime. Trump already did something similar in Los Angeles and, on far shakier legal ground, has threatened to do the same in equally blue Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and Oakland, California.
As Maya Wiley, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said recently: “He has always searched for excuses to assert might over places he does not have political support and that will not just do his bidding. Washington DC,” where Trump won a mere 6.6% of the vote in last year’s election, “has been one of those cities.”