President Trump to visit Baltimore for first time since taking office

President Donald Trump will visit Baltimore Wednesday, his first trip to the city since taking office, the White House said Friday.

The trip is to promote “opportunity zones,” which were created by a Republican-backed tax law and are designed to encourage investment in and around struggling neighborhoods. The White House said the president will attend a roundtable with local leaders and mayors.

Greg Tucker, a spokesman for Mayor Catherine Pugh, said she had been told about the planned visit by the Baltimore Police Department and had not personally been notified by the White House.

A White House spokesman said Pugh was among a number of local leaders who have been or will be invited.

The opportunity zone program is one of the few aspects of the tax bill that has support from Democrats, and officials in Baltimore have said they hope to find ways to take advantage of it. Tucker said Pugh supports the special tax areas and called them “very important for Baltimore and her agenda of neighborhood investment and revitalization.”

State officials designated much of East and West Baltimore as opportunity zones this spring, along with neighborhoods such as Park Heights. The federal government has certified communities in every state and the District of Columbia as opportunity zones.

The details of the program are complex, but it involves giving investors significant tax advantages if they invest in special funds designed to steer money to projects and businesses in the zones.

The White House said the tax program is designed “to expand the economic boom to all Americans, especially those in distressed communities — both rural and urban.”

In December 2016, one of Pugh’s first actions in office was to press Trump for help with the city’s aging infrastructure. She met briefly with him at the annual Army-Navy football game, handing him a letter detailing the city’s needs, as well as a Baltimore pin.

“When he stepped out of his vehicle, I was the only elected official there,” Pugh recalled later. “He walked over to me and I said, ‘I am the mayor of Baltimore,’ and he said, ‘I know.’ ”

That interaction came after a new City Council, in one of its first acts since taking office, formally condemned the incoming president.

Trump also came to Baltimore in September 2016 as a presidential candidate — attending a National Guard Association conference.