Donald Trump's Rhetoric Could Cost Him the Election

Leave it to Donald Trump to insult the city that he’s speaking in. Trump is never short of disparaging references, but in dissing the motor city he broke new ground in presidential campaigns. In Detroit, a city on the comeback trail (it has a rising population) on Thursday, he waxed eloquent on one of his favorite themes—the decline of America, at least whenever he’s not president.

As he talked about China, Trump declared, “Well, we’re a developing nation too, just take a look at Detroit. Detroit’s a developing area more than most places in China.” He warmed to his topic. Should Kamala Harris win the presidency, economic calamity looms. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”

Seriously? The truth is that Trump left America in a parlous state when his presidency ended. Unemployment had soared. Covid-19 was running rampant. And the budget deficit increased. Add in January 6 and you have a real recipe for decline.

Anyway, bashing the city that you’re trying to solicit for electoral votes is definitely an unusual campaign tactic. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was not slow to pounce. She posted on X that Detorit is the “epitome of `grit,’ defined by winners willing to get their hands dirty to build up their city and create their communities—something Donald Trump could never understand. So keep Detroit out of your mouth. And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”

This episode is not an isolated event. The Trump campaign is planning to hold rallies in the next couple days in California, Colorado and New York city. The last is truly a testament to Trump’s Everest-like vanity. He should be able to fill Madison Square Garden with faithful followers from Staten Island who will roar their approbation for his serial denunciations of everything from windmills to CBS news.

For President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s stream of misinformation in particular about the storms in North Carolina and Florida are a source of vexation. Asked on Thursday if he had spoken with Trump, Biden responded, “Are you kidding me?” Biden’s dander was up. Federal workers are receiving death threats because of phony information about their efforts. “Get a life,” Biden snapped about Trump’s propensity for claiming that only paltry aid was forthcoming to the victims of the recent storms.

Trump himself seems ready to disburse lavish subsidies to Americans. In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club he vowed that he would make the interest on car loans tax-deductible. Overall, Trump’s tax proposals could add another $15 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade, according to the nonpartisan The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Trump, who has referred to himself as the king of debt, a sobriquet that he has justly earned, has not indicated who would finance his spending spree. It would seem to be at odds with his professed to desire to slap enormous tariffs on Beijing, which he would presumably count on to buy a good chunk of his proposed future debt.

Whether any of these proposals are actually influencing voters is an open question. The race appears to be a dead heat in Georgia and other battleground states. But as election day nears, Trump’s rhetoric is likely to become ever more virulent.

About the Author

Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of The National Interest and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He has written on both foreign and domestic issues for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Reuters, Washington Monthly, and The Weekly Standard. He has also written for German publications such as Cicero, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Der Tagesspiegel. In 2008, his book They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons was published by Doubleday. It was named one of the one hundred notable books of the year by The New York Times. He is the author of America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators.

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