The late Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings detailed the pain President Trump caused him with his tweets about him and the city of Baltimore in a book he wrote prior to his death.
Cummings, a Democrat, said he wanted to trust Trump at the beginning of his presidency but saw that faith dissipate. He wrote that he felt “pure pain” while being attacked online by Trump’s tweets, which often criticized Cummings for his role as chairman of the House Oversight Committee and condemned the city of Baltimore. Cummings represented Baltimore for 23 years.
“You can imagine it and try to dismiss it, saying he’s just a blowhard and schoolyard tough guy, using his thumbs on Twitter like fists,” Cummings wrote in the soon-to-be-released book, according to a report from the Baltimore Sun. “But the reality, the harsh cold onslaught, is just pure pain.”
Trump called Cummings’s district “rat and rodent-infested,” and he often blamed Cummings for the violence in Baltimore.
“Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!” Trump tweeted in July 2019.
Cummings died in October 2019 while he was still in office. His book, We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy, will be available on Tuesday.
