Columnist Danny Westneat, in the Sunday Seattle Times, wrote a piece titled " What really led Trump to threaten Seattle’s World Cup". In it, he states that
[B]ack in September, during a press briefing in the Oval Office on an executive order about TikTok. A reporter said he wanted to ask instead about “immigration, crime and the World Cup.”
The reporter told Trump: “You have a number of cities that are pushing back against your immigration and deportation, as well as your crime initiatives.”
Trump surprisingly resisted.
“I don’t think they’re very much pushing back at all,” he said.
The reporter persisted: “But some of those cities have World Cup games. Seattle, San Francisco.”
Trump dismissed it: “They’re gonna be very secure.”
“Secure,” the reporter repeated, nodding. “But could those games move if they don’t cooperate with your crime initiatives and your immigration initiatives?”
This is where all the hubbub started. You can see in the video of the press briefing, it’s like a light bulb turns on for Trump. He realizes he’s being gifted a chance to ridicule and threaten blue cities like Seattle and San Francisco. What could be better?
So even though he’d just said the games would be secure, he went on a nearly three-minute detour, about how Seattle and San Francisco are “run by radical left lunatics that don’t know what they’re doing,” and also that, yes, maybe their World Cup games could be pulled due to safety concerns. Worldwide coverage ensued, followed by second-day stories cleaning up the mess.
See here, cued to start at 32:23
Then,
Fast forward to last week’s repeat. Again, it was a reporter feeding Trump the fictional notion that Seattle’s World Cup future is somehow in doubt.
“Mr. President, on the World Cup, if you would, Seattle and the World Cup, the new mayor-elect of Seattle is a Democratic Socialist,” the reporter began (falsely, as the Democratic Socialists of America group refused to endorse Wilson).
The president interrupted: “Or beyond. I watched her. That’s more than socialism.”
The reporter knew his fish was hooked: “Seattle has six World Cup games. How close are you going to be watching that city, with the crime in that city?”
This time, the president ripped into the mayors of Los Angeles and Seattle, calling the first “incompetent” and the second, Wilson, “a very, very liberal-slash-communist mayor.” He again agreed that maybe Seattle’s World Cup games could be moved, “if we think there’s going to be a problem.”
Guess what? It was the same reporter both times who prompted Trump into musing that Seattle might lose the World Cup. I don’t know who he is, but he appears to have a fetish for dangling Seattle like a piñata so Trump can take some whacks.
See here, cued to start at about 21:02
Who is this guy? What outlet is he from???