By Aaron Miller-
President Donald Trump has condemned the state of California during his first presidential visit there. In a damning criticism against the state, Trump said the Californian state was out of control.
“They have the highest taxes in the United States, Trump said. The place is totally out of control. You have sanctuary cities where you have criminals living in the sanctuary cities,” he said. “The governor’s doing a terrible job running the state of California.”
The Californian governor, Jerry Brown, would not have been impressed at the direct criticism. rump was out to win supporters as he pushed back against his critics of Californian Democrats
Trump’s first official visit to California comes later in his term than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. The U.S president was his usual vocal self, not slow to express any strong criticisms or condemnations he had for California.
Trump is not the first politician to be critical against California.
President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1984 denounced the “San Francisco Democrats” whose foreign policy had driven her from her longtime party. However, some believe Trump’s outright condemnation of California is a reflection of his popular vote loss to Hilary Clinton during the 2016 U.S elections. Trump at the time blamed “millions” of illegal votes in California for that outcome.