Republican nominee interrupted mid-speech by pastor who asked him not to talk politics as residents elsewhere viewed trip as an opportunistic photo-op

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Donald Trump visited the beleaguered city of Flint, Michigan, on Thursday, for a campaign stop punctuated by a brief spat with a local pastor.



The Republican presidential nominee, whose visit followed a stop earlier this month in Detroit, was halfway through remarks at the Bethel United Methodist church that constituted more of a typical stump speech than anything tailored to focus on Flint’s two-year water crisis, when the Rev Faith Green Timmons interrupted.

“Mr Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done in Flint,” she said, “not give a political speech.”

“Oh, oh, OK,” Trump responded, as several in the audience applauded. “That’s good.”



Every Wednesday the church distributes water and filters to residents in the parking lot.

Trump’s brief stop in Flint was met elsewhere in the city with disdain by residents who viewed the visit as nothing more than an opportunistic photo-op, while the Republican nominee attempted to blame the water crisis on a myriad of issues.



Flint water crisis: governor's brand of corporate politics set stage for disaster Read more

“Flint’s pain is the result of so many failures,” Trump said at the church before about 50 attendees.

The visit was initially light on details. By the early afternoon on Thursday, only two stops were confirmed – a brief visit to the city’s water plant and the church, where Trump was expected to speak with local pastors about the community. Before his arrival at the church, Flint resident LaShonda Richmond said she came to “support our city – not to support him”.

“Shame on him,” Richmond, 46, said of the visit. “He don’t care about anyone but Trump.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump tours the Flint water plant with utilities administrator JoLisa McDay. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Following the speech at the church, Flint native Danielle Green said few in the audience were receptive to his remarks.

“It was a political pitch, completely,” Green, 46, said.

Anthony Paciorek, 33, said Trump was pandering to get votes.

“Pastor reminded him that we’re not here to talk about politics because he started to go into a Hillary-heavy rhetoric, and then … there was interruptions with some questions I don’t think Donald Trump was prepared to answer, or wanting to, frankly,” said Paciorek, also a Flint resident.

“I also saw five, maybe 10 people clap out of a room full of 60,” he added.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, protesters convened a brief press conference outside Flint’s water plant, where many expressed dismay at what they described as the nominee’s attempt to use the city’s public health crisis as a “campaign prop”.

Carrie Younger-Nelson, a Flint resident, said the city has been engulfed by the water crisis for two years and Trump “just sees an opportunity to get in here and get him some media”.

“Flint do not want him here, and he needs to keep it rolling,” she said.

Younger-Nelson, 65, said she experienced rashes, hair loss and sinus issues after the city switched its water source over two years ago. And still, months after state and federal officials declared it was safe to use filtered tap water, she refuses to rely on anything but bottled water.

“Everything you do, you’ve got to use bottled water,” she said. Asked what she’d say to Trump if she ran into him during Thursday’s stop, Younger-Nelson was direct: “I’d tell him to go to hell.”

Standing nearby, the state senate minority leader, Jim Ananich, a Flint resident himself, said the purpose of the protest early on Thursday was to send “a strong message that Flint’s not a photo-op”.

“Looking at the water plant doesn’t help us get new, clean pipes; it doesn’t help us get clean water,” Ananich said. “It’s not a policy position to make sure this doesn’t happen again. This was a failed policy and culture created by [Michigan governor Rick Snyder] and emergency managers, bottom line. That’s what happened. It was 100% avoidable.”

Jia Ireland, 23, also a Flint resident, said the public needed to know that Flint was still dealing with the effects of the water crisis, now well into its third year.

“People are still living off of water bottles and living off of filters,” she said. “Yes, pipes are being dug up, but it’s a slow progress. And we need to see things happen fast and now.”

“Also, I am not a supporter of Trump,” she continued. “I feel like Donald Trump is using this as a PR statement … so, you’re late. And then, also, it’s ironic that you’re coming to speak to a city that’s predominately African American, working class. There are high pockets of poverty here. And these are demographics of people you’ve been disrespecting your entire election … now all the sudden you want to come here and talk to a group of people that you’ve belittled this whole time. It just seems disingenuous.”

Trump’s stop came as Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, was in Washington DC to call attention to a bill before the US Senate that is expected to bring millions of dollars to aid the city’s recovery efforts.

The mayor initially said Trump’s request to visit the Flint water plant would be burdensome, adding that the facility’s staff “cannot afford the disruption of a last-minute visit”. But a spokesperson for the city said Trump would receive a tour if he decided to appear.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump at the Flint water plant on Wednesday. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

“If he shows up, a tour will be provided,” said the spokeswoman, Kristin Moore. “Not open to the public.” Asked if she had an indication of Trump’s itinerary, Moore simply said: “No.”

Trump eventually arrived, and was given a roughly 20-minute tour of the facility by the plant’s supervisor, JoLisa McDay. Trump observed as McDay pointed out basic operations of the facility, saying: “The water is coming, you open this gate, and the water is coming.”

“Right, right,” Trump responded. The water plant is currently not in operation.

Flint’s water supply became contaminated with lead in April 2014, when a state-appointed emergency manager running the city made a decision to switch its water source to a highly corrosive river. State environmental officials failed to require Flint to use corrosion controls to treat the water supply, thereby allowing lead to leach off pipes and flow into households across the city.

As part of an investigation by Michigan’s attorney general, Bill Schuette, nine state and local officials have been criminally charged for their role in the water crisis. The investigators have said additional individuals are expected to face charges. The crisis has also been blamed for an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease, which included 12 deaths, though health officials have yet to conclusively say the city’s water supply is to blame.

Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, who has been vehemently criticized by residents for his administration’s delayed response to addressing the water crisis, has refused to endorse a candidate in the presidential race.

“Governor Snyder has stayed out of presidential politics since before the primary election and intends on continuing to do so,” Snyder’s spokesman, Ari Adler, said in an email. “He is focused on the work that needs to be done in Michigan.”