Trump accused of racism in Baltimore row
President condemns black congressman for failing ‘rat-infested city’ where ‘no human would want to live’
DONALD TRUMP was last night embroiled in a new race row after accusing a black Democrat congressman of failing a “rat-infested” city where “no human would want to live”.
Just weeks after telling four leftwing Democrat congresswomen to “go home”, the US president turned his fire on Baltimore’s Elijah Cummings.
Last night Democrats, including the House speaker Nancy Pelosi, accused Mr Trump of making “disgusting and racist” remarks and of having a “hate agenda”.
Trump responded in a series of tweets, saying: “There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself.”
There was also anger in Baltimore itself. The local newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, declared: “Better to have some vermin living in your neighbourhood than to be one.”
Mr Trump said last night that it was Mr Cummings who was “racist”. The president wrote on Twitter: “If racist Elijah Cummings would focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district, and Baltimore itself, perhaps progress could be made in fixing the mess.”
The White House said it was fair for Mr Trump to attack the congressman, because he had been a vocal critic of the president’s immigration policies on the Us-mexico border, and had called for him to be impeached.
Mr Trump said: “The Democrats always play the race card, when in fact they have done so little for our nation’s great African American people. ”
Mr Cummings responded that it was his “constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch”.
Political analysts said the latest race row was a further attempt by Mr Trump to enthuse his supporters, and push the Democrat party to the Left, ahead of the 2020 election. It followed his recent attacks on the “Squad”, a group of four Left-wing Democrat congresswomen. Mr Trump’s poll ratings among Republicans rose after that row.
Baltimore, in Maryland, was the setting for the television series The Wire which, over a decade ago, shocked many with its gritty depiction of drugs and poverty. More than half of Mr Cumming’s district, which includes impoverished neighbourhoods in West Baltimore, is black. People there expressed anger at Mr Trump, but also at their own elected city officials.
“It’s worse here than it was 10 years ago. The police don’t do anything, they just watch and wait for somebody to get shot,” Kenneth Purnell, 52, a newspaper seller, told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Purnell said he was “proud to be Baltimore” and the president should “represent us”, but his anger was mainly directed at Bernard Young, the city’s mayor.
“The worst thing is the rats,” he said. “They’re more than a foot long and the tails longer than that. I’ve seen tens of them at a time. You call the city and no one comes.
“People are scared to come out of their homes at night. Even in the day, because they’re scared. You don’t see a lot of people walking around do you?”
For block after block the area is blighted by dilapidated houses, some overgrown with weeds. Rubbish piles up in alleyways. One enterprising resident had opened a streetside car wash using a burst water main.
Standing outside a ramshackle church with iron bars on the windows, Renard Saunders, 48, who spent years homeless on the streets, said: “It has got worse. It’s because drugs are so available. We could go across the street right now and it’s right there.”
Mr Young, the Democrat mayor of Baltimore, said on Twitter: “It’s unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American city like Baltimore. Mr Trump, you are a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world.”
David Simon, the writer who created
The Wire, also criticised Mr Trump. He said: “If this empty-suit, race-hating fraud had to actually visit West Baltimore for five minutes and meet any of the American citizens who endure there, he’d wet himself.”
♦ Dan Coats, the US director of national intelligence, who clashed repeatedly with Donald Trump, is to step down, it was reported last night.
Mr Coats, 76, had disagreements with the president over Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and was expected to leave in the coming days, The New York
Times reported.