Donald Trump maligned the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., in remarks on Truth Social from Thursday, the day of his arraignment in his criminal case that covers his attempts after the last presidential election to stay in power despite his documented loss to Joe Biden.
Washington, D.C., has more Black residents than those identified as white (and not Hispanic or Latino), the U.S. Census Bureau says. (The data was current as of July of last year.) After the last presidential race, some of the locales where Trump and his team raised their most intense complaints about the process and results also have large Black populations. Examples include Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. It was in the final area where then-election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter, became the named subjects of conspiracy theories from Trump and allies of his, and afterwards, Freeman and Moss faced threats to their safety and lives. A Georgia state investigation conducted with FBI support cleared them of wrongdoing.
“CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I HAD TO FLY TO A FILTHY, DIRTY, FALLING APART, & VERY UNSAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., TODAY, & THAT I WAS THEN ARRESTED BY MY POLITICAL OPPONENT, WHO IS LOSING BADLY TO ME IN THE POLLS, CROOKED JOE BIDEN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY!” Trump said Thursday evening.
It is also incorrect to assert that Biden has had any direct role in the charges that have been brought against Trump at the federal Justice Department, though he nominated its current leader, Attorney General Merrick Garland. And it is also incorrect to assert that Biden consistently loses to Trump in polling measuring a rematch between the two candidates in the 2024 general election, as anticipated.
Trump’s rhetoric about D.C. also mirrors other comments from prominent Republicans about prominent big cities around the country. After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) visited New York City to protest on Trump’s behalf after his first indictment, she complained similarly.
