Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) blasted former President Donald Trump for his recent comments denigrating Detroit.
While delivering remarks to the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday, Trump told the audience that “the whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”
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Walz claimed that Trump’s comments were not “unexpected,” joining a growing chorus of Democrats who attacked the former president for his remarks.
“That’s exactly what he’s going to do, tear down America,” Walz said while campaigning Friday morning in Macomb County, Michigan. “But if the guy would have ever spent any time in the Midwest, like all of us know, we’d know Detroit’s experience in American comeback and renaissance.
“The city’s growing, crime’s down, factories are opening up,” Walz said before labor workers in hardhats. “But those guys, all they know about manufacturing is manufacturing bulls**t every time they show up.”
The brouhaha over Trump’s comments signifies the increasing fight over Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that Harris and Trump are battling to win.
Trump leads Harris by 0.9 percentage points, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average of the state. That could add to fears from some Democrats that she could lose the state particularly if not enough black men vote for her. The vice president deployed former President Barack Obama to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, another blue wall state, on Thursday to gin up support among black men.
The Minnesota governor’s campaign stop in Michigan is meant to counter Trump’s attempts to appeal to unionized workers and voters frustrated over the economy. Walz lambasted Trump over his friendship with billionaire and X owner Elon Musk.
“They caught him on tape,” Walz said. “Elon Musk and Donald Trump talking. They were laughing about the idea of firing striking workers. Meanwhile, Musk is building his new auto plant, not Michigan, in Mexico.
“So this is the guy that wants to be our economic czar for the country. The guy who wants to fire workers and bust unions, a guy who wants to take auto manufacturing to Mexico and source it with Chinese-made parts.”
Walz did not stop there in slamming Trump over his ties to China, a country the former president has repeatedly claimed he would be tough on.
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“Trump’s all talk when it comes being tough on China,” Walz said. “Some of you heard this. We just found out his Trump-branded Bibles, yeah, they’re printed in China. This dude even outsourced God to China.
“I’m going to try and be generous here. I don’t blame him. He didn’t notice the Made in China sticker because they put it inside a place he’s never looked in the Bible,” Walz added as the audience laughed.