Less than 48 hours after council members formally denounced President-elect Donald Trump in City Hall, Mayor Catherine Pugh met up with him at M&T Bank Stadium to hand-deliver a message.
Trump caused quite a stir downtown this Saturday by showing up at the annual college football matchup between the West Point- and Annapolis-based military academies on Saturday. While many were excited to see Baltimore serve as host to the patriotic event once again, others were distracted or distraught to see Trump reappear in the city.
Outside M&T Bank Stadium, a couple hundred people gathered to voice their distaste for the president-elect. Inside, however, Trump got the standard presidential treatment, getting cheers from supportive military members and being invited into the broadcasters’ booth to do some announcing. The latter was admittedly a bit awkward, particularly when he opined after the first half that he didn’t know if the game is “necessarily the best football,” and when he suggested commentator Verne Lundquist would be a solid pick to be ambassador to Sweden.
At some point when Trump wasn’t announcing or sitting in his suite, Mayor Catherine Pugh found her way to him to deliver a handshake and a letter. In a tweet, Pugh said the letter was about the “importance of our infrastructure needs & need for investment of federal funds.”
With @realDonaldTrump in Baltimore I delivered a letter noting importance of our infrastructure needs & need for investment of federal funds pic.twitter.com/61OsajKvtQ
— Mayor Catherine Pugh (@MayorPugh50) December 10, 2016
The meet-up occurred less than two days after the City Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Trump for “divisive and scapegoating rhetoric” and his “economic argument…intertwined with racism,” as noted by newly minted Councilman Ryan Dorsey. Pugh hasn’t commented directly on the City Council’s bold choice in its first meeting, but the move appears not to have shaken her from trying to work with the new presidential administration. Trump also never issued a public response to the resolution.
Given the president-elect’s standing relationship with Baltimore based on his past public comments about its residents and recently departed mayor, it’ll be interesting to see if and when he responds to Pugh’s appeal once he takes office.
