Maryland News

Baltimore Mayor Says Trump Should 'Make America Great Again' By Sending Federal Assistance Rather Than Tweeting

July 29, 2019 / 11:37 AM EDT / CBS Baltimore

(CNN) -- Baltimore Mayor Bernard "Jack" Young said Monday that President Donald Trump should send federal assistance to the city instead of criticizing its conditions in "childish" tweets.

"If he really wants to, he needs to send us the federal assistance -- not only to Baltimore, to cities around this country that are in the same situation that Baltimore is in -- but he's so interested in childish tweets," Young told CNN's John Berman on "New Day."

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The comments come two days after Trump attacked Baltimore in a series of tweets, calling the Maryland city a "disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess" and a "very dangerous & filthy place," and saying conditions there are "FAR WORSE and more dangerous" than those at the US-Mexico border. Trump's tweet was part of a wider attack on House Oversight Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, an African-American Democrat who represents part of the city.

"I mean, if you want to help us, help us. Don't talk about it, send the resources we need to rebuild America. He's talking about he wants to 'make American great again.' Put the money in the cities that need it the most and that way you can make America great again," said Young, a Democrat.

Young, who became mayor after his predecessor, Catherine Pugh, resigned amid a book deal scandal, said Trump "has never" reached out to him since he took on the position in early May.

"And he had a pledge that he was going to do infrastructure -- we're still waiting on that," he said, referring to a Trump 2016 campaign promise.

"We have an aging infrastructure in the city of Baltimore, but for an unfunded mandate by the EPA for us to correct it and we have to constantly raise water rates on the poor people of the city of Baltimore," Young said.

On Monday, Trump tweeted, "When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval-shaped office waiting for your call!"

The tweets from Trump on Saturday were widely condemned by Democrats and progressives, who lambasted the President for lodging attacks on a majority black city.

Young, who said in a tweet on Saturday that Trump's comments were "completely unacceptable," said Monday that the President "has a pattern now of attacking people of color."

"He's the most powerful man on the face of the earth as President of the United States of America. And this is below the President to do these kinds of things. He should be uniting this country instead of racially dividing us," he said.