Donald Trump And Reverend Al Sharpton Exchange Twitter Fire Over Baltimore

Dade Hayes

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President Donald Trump added the Rev. Al Sharpton to his Baltimore tirades after the MSNBC personality said Trump is singing a “different tune” as president than he did as a New York businessman.

The president called Baltimore, which is in Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ district, “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and said that “no human being would want to live there.” He went on to call Cummings, who is African-American, a “racist.”

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Sharpton, who appeared on MSNBC on Sunday and again on Morning Joe on Monday to hit back at Trump, tweeted a photo of himself standing with Trump, James Brown and Jesse Jackson. He said Trump in the 2006 photo was telling Sharpton “why he respects my work. Different tune now.”

Trump then hit back at Sharpton, a fellow New York figure whose renown began in the 1980s, and reprised his Baltimore jeremiad.

“Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action!” Trump posted. “So tired of listening to the same old Bull…Next, Reverend Al will show up to complain & protest. Nothing will get done for the people in need. Sad!”

Not long before that tweet, Trump wrote, “Democrats are going to defend the Radical Left ‘Squad’ and King Elijah’s Baltimore Fail, it will be a long road to 2020.” The “Squad” reference neatly tied the Baltimore/Sharpton comments to Trump’s previous battle, with a group of Democratic Congresswomen he told to “go back” to where they came from.

Sharpton and former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele headlined a Monday morning breakfast event in Baltimore to address Trump’s attacks on the city.

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