Minneapolis mayor responds to Trump: I don't have time to be 'tweeting garbage out'

David Knowles
·Senior Editor
Updated

A dispute between the Trump campaign and the city of Minneapolis over the city’s request for an upfront payment for security at President Trump’s planned rally there turned personal, as Mayor Jacob Frey suggested Trump should spend more time doing his job and less time “tweeting garbage out.”

“I’m not one that gets overly excited about Twitter back-and-forths,” Frey said at a Tuesday press conference. “I woke up this morning to a little bit of a surprise, which is that the president of the United States was tweeting about our city and me as the mayor. You know, I wake up every single morning with not a lot of time on my hands because I’m doing things like filling potholes and making sure that our city has enough affordable housing and I don’t have time, with a city of 430,000 people, to be tweeting garbage out. So it’s kind of surprising when the president of the United States, a country with 325 million people, has the time to do this himself. So I don’t know where the guy gets the time, but I certainly don’t have it.”

Trump launched his Twitter war with Frey after the mayor sought a $530,000 deposit to defray expenses, mostly for security, ahead of Trump’s Thursday rally at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

The Trump campaign issued a statement on Monday accusing the mayor, a Democrat, of an “abuse of power” for threatening to withhold use of the city-owned Target Center unless the campaign made the advance payment.

Trump and his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, repeatedly went after Frey Tuesday morning, accusing him of overcharging the campaign for the venue, while noting that the mayor had previously stated that Trump’s “message of hatred will never be welcome in Minneapolis.”

Trump was also upset over a “Fox & Friends” segment Tuesday about a new Minneapolis Police Department policy banning officers from wearing their uniforms while attending political rallies or if they are featured in advertisements for candidates.

Frey took notice of the Twitter jabs and did, in fact, find the time to respond on the social media platform.

The Trump campaign has framed the issue as freedom of speech, but the city insists the issue is the cost to taxpayers. The Minneapolis Police Department has canceled days off this week, MPR News reported, and is paying for additional police from nearby departments to help secure the president’s reelection rally.

Trump’s campaign has a reputation for not repaying cities for costs associated with his rallies. A study by the Center for Public Integrity has found that the president has failed to reimburse numerous cities for expenses incurred in providing security at his rallies. One such city is El Paso, Texas, whose officials say the president still owes $470,000 in costs stemming from a February rally.

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