“Thanks for inviting me to your craphole city”
Perhaps you’ve met the type. There’s a certain kind of person so full of rottenness and enmity that they will condemn a member of your own family to your face and mistakenly think you’ll be okay about it, even take sides with them. It’s a misjudgment clueless people — and narcissists — commonly make. Donald Trump is both.
As an example of the phenomenon, while giving a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump took the opportunity to bash the city of Detroit itself. He warned that if he loses to Vice President Kamala Harris, all of America could end up looking like Detroit! “I don’t think anything that we’re talking about today is high on her list,” Trump said. “The whole country is going to be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit.”
As someone who once briefly lived in a suburb of Detroit (Bloomfield Hills) I know from personal experience how much alike the denizens of the Motor City are to the people of England: nobody bashes the place more than the people who live there. But they will emphatically NOT let an outsider join in that bashing. That is anathema. Trump crossed that line, and he will pay for it in votes. That, of course, is a good thing.
But the incident serves as another insight into the man himself. He presumes no one has loyalties because he has none to anything but himself. So it was a short step for him to think that Michiganders would value him above their own largest city. He’s wrong, of course, and the backlash in this very important swing state was swift and terrible.
“I represent Detroit in Congress,” said Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar, with unmistakable ire. “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.” Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer shared the same Will Smithian sentiment: “So keep Detroit out of your mouth.”
“Imagine standing in Detroit and saying ‘vote for me so you don’t end up like this place’ lmao,” wrote transit activist Hayden Clarkin. “As a proud elected representative of tens of thousands of Detroiters: F–k this guy. Don’t come back,” wrote Michigan state Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow.
Trump’s attack on Motown is reminiscent of when he referred to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a “horrible city” mere days before the GOP hosted its presidential convention there. Trump suffers from what my grandfather used to refer to as “foot in mouth disease.” He is so lacking in the ordinary courtesies of common sense that he forgets that his invective is a knife that frequently cuts too deep. It has led to an odd phenomenon that rarely happens in politics. Many people who are planning to vote for him actively hate him.
The good news is that this kind of lack of enthusiasm often leads to apathy so extreme that some reluctant voters simply forget to vote on the day. Or small inconveniences prevent them from voting at all.
For my part, I easily mailed my vote for Kamala and Tim on Saturday, but I would have eagerly crawled to the post office on streets paved with broken glass to cast my vote. And, in this, I know I speak for a majority of Kamala voters. We are the very definition of enthusiastic voters because we admire her, we believe in her and we need her. Trump doesn’t inspire that kind of enthusiasm anymore, except in the terminally stupid.
My favorite response to Trump’s derogation of Detroit was this parody from opinion columnist Rex Huppke: “‘Thanks for inviting me to your craphole city, I’m gonna use it as an example of what a failing nation would look like TO YOUR FACES. Anyhoo, vote for me, losers.'” And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.