Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump found a hostile reception from the locals during his first trip to the eastern Michigan city dealing with a lead water crisis Wednesday.
Trump visited Flint, Mich. to tour the city’s water treatment plant and spoke briefly to a crowd at the Bethel Methodist Church. Videos from the trip showed Flint residents booing his motorcade, calling him a coward and at least one person told him to release his tax returns.
During his remarks at the church, Trump began hitting Hillary Clinton for her support of NAFTA when the church’s pastor interrupted him.
Hillary failed on the economy, just like she’s failed on foreign policy,” Trump said. “Everything she touched didn’t work out, nothing. Now Hillary Clinton…”
“Excuse me, Mr. Trump,” the pastor interrupted. “I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done in Flint, not to make a political speech.”
“Oh, oh, oh, OK,” Trump said. “That’s good, and I’m going to go back onto Flint.”
Clinton won Genesee County, where Flint is located, during the Michigan Democratic primary, which she lost overall to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Flint’s mayor has backed Clinton in the election and the former Secretary of State made the city’s plight a central theme of her primary campaign.
The 100,000 residents of the town have been unable to drink their water for about a year due to lead contamination. The problems stem from an April 2014 decision by the then-state-controlled city government deciding to switch water sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money.
The water from the river was so acidic that it caused the lead pipes running to people’s homes to break down, putting lead into the drinking water. The city was under a federal state of emergency from January to August and some government agencies remain in the city.
Trump began his speech at the church with a joke that tied together the city’s economic flailing with its drinking water troubles.
“Cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico,” he said. “And now, the cars are made in Mexico and you can’t drink the water in Flint. That’s not good!”
Trump spent the day at the water treatment plant and did a brief tour of the city. He said he was struck by the amount of economic devastation he saw in Flint, which contains blocks of burned out and abandoned homes not far from downtown.
A former industrial giant, Flint was the home of General Motors. Trump pointed to one of the company’s great rivals, Ford Motor Company, as an example of what’s wrong with the current American economy. Ford announced earlier Wednesday that it is moving production of all of its small cars to Mexico.
“We shouldn’t allow it to happen, we shouldn’t allow it to happen,” he said. “They’ll make their cars, they’ll employ thousands and thousands of people not from this country.”
Ford plans to open up a different plant in suburban Detroit that will offset the job loss, but that’s not enough, Trump said.
While the damage to the Flint’s pipes is catastrophic, the damage to its economy cause by decades of failed leadership is even worse, Trump said. He told the small crowd at the church to expect something different if he’s elected.
“We can fix this problem. It’s going to take time, it’s amazing the damage that’s been done,” he said. “It will be fixed quickly and effectively, and Flint will come back. Most importantly, we’ll bring jobs back.”
