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Minneapolis Mayor Says Trump Supporters Made Him Feel Like a Woman

By Pluralist / October 14, 2019

Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, said Friday that backlash ensuing from his conflict with President Donald Trump gave him a glimpse into what it felt like to be a “woman on the internet.”

“Weird week. My DMs are trash, which gave me a small glimpse into what I assume it must be like for…any woman on the Internet?” Frey tweeted on Friday, linking to a Politico piece titled: “Minneapolis mayor reveals what it feels like to become Trump’s target.”

Trump slammed the progressive mayor ahead of a rally in downtown Minneapolis last week, shining a spotlight on a political figure few would recognize outside of Minnesota.

MORE: Minneapolis Charges Trump $500K, Obama $20K For Rally Security

“To say the least, it’s a strange feeling to wake up in the morning to the president of the United States tweeting about our city and me as the mayor,” Frey told Politico.

Frey said in September that while “no legal mechanism” could prevent Trump’s planned visit to the city, the president’s “message of hatred will never be welcome in Minneapolis.”

In the run-up to the rally, Trump called Frey a “lightweight” and a “Radical Left Mayor.”

At issue was an estimate the city provided to the Trump campaign, which the president and his team felt smacked of politically motivated bias.

Trump’s campaign threatened a lawsuit after Minneapolis city leaders charged it $530,000 for security at the president’s rally. The bill was 26 times what the city asked former president Barack Obama to pay in 2009.

The Minneapolis Police Department also prohibited officers from appearing in uniform at political events a week before Trump was set to appear for the rally.

The move was seen in some corners as a partisan attack on support for the president.

“For decades, the police federation has been allowed to appear in political ads [and] align themselves with political parties for our endorsement,” Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union, said on “Fox & Friends.”

“Our president has proven he stands with police and military. It’s self-explanatory. So my members are outraged,” Kroll added.

The police union protested last week by selling “Cops for Trump” T-shirts.

The rally itself ended up being marred by attacks on Trump supporters leaving the event.

Can Jacob Frey extend his 15 minutes of fame?

The attention sparked by Trump’s attacks led some commentators to wonder if “handsome-ish” Frey could parlay his “flavor-of-the-week” status into national recognition.

The 38-year-old mayor’s Twitter time-line is chock-full of effusive demonstrations of his progressive bonafides:

He promoted Latino Heritage Month on Tuesday. On Thursday, Frey defied the Trump line on immigration policy by making it clear “immigrants and refugees” were welcome in Minneapolis. For Columbus Day, Frey honored and recognized the “indigenous people who first called this land home.”

“Frey, 38, certainly appears equipped with the political trappings of a Democratic up-and-comer straight out of ‘central casting,’ as the president might say,” Politico’s Quint Forgey remarked.

Minneapolis’ police union chief expressed a sentiment along the same lines.

“He’s looking for the next step, obviously, and this is a way to get national recognition and get his name out there,” Kroll told Politico.

MORE: Anti-Trump Mobs Attack President’s Supporters After Minneapolis Rally — Burn Piles of MAGA Hats in Streets

Kroll also said that any objective observer of the sparring between Trump and Frey would come away with one conclusion:

“[T]he president gave the mayor a beat down.”

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