In his Tuesday column, Washington Post columnist Max Boot couldn't help but notice that President Donald Trump has decided that former Vice President Joe Biden is the mayor of all urban areas and he is to blame for protests against police brutality.
Boot noted that by Trump's logic, no American should step outside their door because it's far too dangerous and Black Lives Matter will kill you. It might be news to anyone who went for a jog or grocery shopping over the weekend and managed to make it without being shot.
“Unfortunately, anarchy has recently beset some of our States and cities," said Trump, last week.
Trump's speech ended with a threat to eliminate federal funding for “anarchist jurisdictions” like Portland, Seattle, New York, Chicago and other places Trump doesn't like.
"This executive order has a convoluted bureaucratic title. It really should be headlined: 'Trump to cities: Drop dead,'” Boot decided.
"The president is campaigning for reelection by declaring war on America’s metropolitan areas — although 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, and 85 percent of gross domestic product is generated by large cities," Boot schooled the president.
He noted that it seems like a really stupid strategy, but it is one that Trump has employed his entire presidency talking about defunding cities that he doesn't like, attacking Baltimore, incorrectly citing Chicago crime data, and now lying about Black Lives Matter protesters.
"Trump acts as if Biden is currently the president of urban America and Trump is the president of everything else," said Boot. "Yes, big cities generally have Democratic mayors, but that doesn’t absolve Trump of responsibility for them, just as the Republican leadership of rural America didn’t absolve President Barack Obama of responsibility for those areas. Democrats don’t write off rural America. How dare Trump write off urban America?"
Trump always seems to forget that he is the president for all America, not just the places he likes or the people he likes. Most presidents care about all Americans, but Trump has taken a different approach, choosing to make U.S. voters his enemy.
"What we need from the federal government is help, not abuse. You would think that would be the least Trump could do, given that the primary responsibility for the scale of the pandemic and its economic fallout is his," Boot noted.
Instead, Trump appears to want to make things even more difficult for municipalities while demanding that they do things like send children back to school and reopen all businesses.
"It would be nice if we had a president who was working to help, rather than hinder, urban America. The president is supposed to lead the whole country, not just the portion of it that supports him politically," Boot closed.