De Blasio and Other Mayors Snubbed by Trump at Cities Forum
There was an audible sigh of disappointment and some laughter among the attendees of a bipartisan forum on the state of urban infrastructure when Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), announced that Donald Trump did not send a surrogate to represent him. The forum, organized by the USCM and NYU Wagner on October 13, promised an engaging discussion between mayors of New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Columbia, SC and surrogates representing the Clinton and Trump campaigns. With Trump’s surrogate missing in action, the event turned into a Q&A session with Clinton’s surrogate Ed Rendell — former governor of Pennsylvania and former mayor of Philadelphia — who presented the presidential nominee’s infrastructure plan.
Trump’s no-show at the event sent a number of important signals to the hosts, participating mayors, and the audience:
- First, Trump doesn’t think dealing with mayors is important. Since clinching the nomination, Trump have used anti-city rhetoric in order to appeal to the rural and suburban voter base and thus managed to alienate both democrat and republican mayors. Cities are home to more than 80 percent of U.S. population and mayors play an important role as so-called “policy entrepreneurs,” proposing and advocating for solutions to urban challenges. The upcoming change in administration opens a policy window for mayors to put issues on the presidential agenda. Trump’s absence at the forum signaled that he is neither interested in hearing mayors’ ideas nor willing to work with them on urban issues.
- Second, Trump doesn’t have a clear plan for upgrading urban infrastructure. Whereas Ed Rendell presented and then for almost an hour answered questions from the mayors about Clinton’s $275 billion infrastructure package, little is known of Trump’s plan. He has previously declared to at least double Clinton’s proposed spending — a plan very much at odds with the GOP’s long-term stance of reduced federal spending on infrastructure. By avoiding the public forum, Trump again confirmed that he has no clear vision nor detailed proposal on how to improve the state of U.S. infrastructure.
- Finally, Trump’s campaign is unraveling. The mayors forum took place the week after the infamous tape as well as new allegations of sexual assault against Trump emerged. As dozens of Republicans withdrew their support from the campaign over the course of the week, one can imagine a scenario where the campaign team either failed to find a Republican supporter who could authoritatively speak on urban infrastructure issues, or a previous surrogate refused to speak on behalf of Trump.
All of the signals above should be deeply troubling to anyone concerned with urban issues. With the estimated infrastructure gap of $3.6 trillion and crises like Flint water contamination caused by failing infrastructure, the U.S. cannot afford to have a president whose way of addressing difficult issues is by snubbing them.
