Trump starts a fight with Detroit

Detroit
CNN
—

Former President Donald Trump warned Thursday that the country would end up “like Detroit” if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected, his latest swipe at an urban center in a swing state he aims to win next month.

In a speech outlining his vision for the auto industry at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said, “Our whole country is going to end up like Detroit when (Harris) is your president.” You're going to have a mess on your hands. “

He claimed that Harris had “destroyed” San Francisco, later adding: “We will not let her do that to this country. We will not let her do that.”

In his speech, Trump also compared the embattled state's largest city to a developing country and accused China of abusing its status as a developing country in international trade.

“We are also a developing country. “Take a look at Detroit,” he said, calling the city a “developing area … a hell of a lot more so than most places in China.”

Although Detroit has still lost much of its size and economic strength compared to its heyday in the early 20th century, the recovery from bankruptcy in 2013 and the continued growth of the downtown area is a reason for Detroiters and many Michigan leaders to be proud. The day Trump spoke in the city, thousands of fans flocked to Detroit to attend a baseball playoff game and the Detroit Red Wings' home opener. The city recorded an increase in population between July 2022 and July 2023 for the first time since 1957, the city government announced earlier this year.

Trump has a history of insulting urban centers across the country, including in states he must win to return to the White House. Similar to his comments about San Francisco, he sparked controversy earlier this year when he told House Republicans that Milwaukee, a major city in Wisconsin, was “terrible” when it came to crime and voting concerns. He later assured Wisconsin voters, “I love Milwaukee” and said he had chosen the city to host the Republican National Convention.

Harris alluded to those earlier comments when she criticized Trump for his statement later Thursday.

“My opponent, Donald Trump, once again destroyed another great American city while in Detroit, which is just one more piece of evidence on a very long list of why he is unfit to be president of the United States,” Harris said told reporters in Las Vegas.

During his speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said he wanted the “triumph of the American auto industry” to be among his “greatest legacy” and promised a “rebirth” of Detroit if elected after laying out how He wants to strengthen the U.S. auto industry and manufacturing, including a proposal to make interest paid on auto loans fully tax deductible.

“I tell you now, as I stand here at the center of this once great city, that by the end of my term the whole world will be talking about the Michigan Miracle and the stunning rebirth of Detroit, that is what will happen,” he said.

Trump said he “has been reading about Detroit for so many years that it’s coming. It’s coming and it never really arrived.”

“If you make the auto industry bigger, better and stronger, you don’t have to worry about Detroit. It will be very good. “It will come back soon,” he said.

President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 in Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, by more than 30 points. Trump is trying to gain a foothold in blue areas this year, hoping to narrow Democratic margins and take votes away from constituencies such as Black and Arab Americans.

City leaders and Democrats from across the state supported Detroit after Trump's comments emerged.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan defended the city's resurgence, noting that Detroit hosted the NFL Draft and has seen a decline in violent crime and an increase in population in recent years.

“Many cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” he said.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes said Trump “always has something bad to say about places where there are a lot of hard-working black people.”

“But whatever Donald thinks, we are proud to be a city that recovers, no matter what comes our way. And we're going to be proud to be the place that shows this guy the door,” she said, alluding to Michigan's important electoral role as a battleground state.

A Trump campaign spokesman in Michigan said the former president “remembers when Detroit was hailed as the gold standard for success in automobile manufacturing and revolutionized the industry” and highlighted how the city “under the globalist climate represented by Kamala Harris.” Policies have suffered that shifted production “overseas.”

“As President Trump emphasized in his speech, his policies will usher in a new era of economic success and stability for Detroit and help the city reach its full potential,” Trump Michigan communications director Victoria LaCivita said in a statement.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance also campaigned in Detroit on Tuesday.

CNN's Alayna Treene contributed to this report.