Minneapolis mayor attempts to toy with Trump, gets fingers burned
We're getting an indication of what next year's campaign will be like thanks to radical mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis. According to the Donald Trump for President campaign, Frey is abusing the powers of his office in an attempt to shut down a MAGA rally:
The radical leftist mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is abusing the power of his office and attempting to extort President Trump's re-election campaign by conjuring a phony and outlandish bill for security in an effort to block a scheduled Keep America Great rally. Democrat Mayor Frey is using the bogus security charges to pressure the Target Center, site of the contracted October 10, 2019 rally, into preventing Minnesota residents from exercising their First Amendment rights in support of President Trump.
The Frey administration told the Target Center that it was responsible for security costs of $530,000, and the center tried to bill these to the Trump campaign, "under threat of withholding the use of the arena," which, needless to say, was the point of the whole exercise. The actual cost is closer to $20,000, with the bulk of security provided by the Secret Service.
The Trump campaign responded by informing the Target Center that it was flirting with a breach of contract, with the inevitable lawsuit following. The rally remains on schedule.
As might be expected of an organization associated with Donald Trump, the campaign pulled no punches in its response:
"This is an outrageous abuse of power by a liberal mayor trying to deny the rights of his own city's residents just because he hates the President," said Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. "People want to hear from their President, and no mayor looking to beef up his resume for a run for higher office should stand in the way."
This censorship through bureaucratic nitpicking has become a standard weapon of the Left across the country in recent years. We'll see how well it stands up to the Trump blowtorch in 2020.