Boston Mayor Michelle Wu largely dismissed a suggestion by President Donald Trump that he could pull World Cup games out of Massachusetts next year, saying the city would not back down in the face of ongoing threats from the federal government.
Trump suggested his administration could act if Boston doesn’t “clean up its act.”
“I love the people of Boston, I know the games are sold out,” Trump said, referring to the matches set to be hosted at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. “Your mayor is not good, there are worse than her, at least she’s intelligent. She’s intelligent but she’s radical left.”
Appearing on “Java with Jimmy” Wednesday morning, Wu dismissed Trump’s threat.
“Much of it is locked down by contract so that no single person, even if they live in the White House currently, can undo it,” Wu said. “We’re in a world where for drama, for control, for pushing the boundaries … ongoing threats … are issued to individuals and communities who refuse to back down and comply or be obedient to a hateful agenda.“
“We are going to continue to be who we are and that means, unfortunately, we are going to be in a conversation in a way that is targeting Boston’s values,” Wu continued. “10 toes down for Boston.”
Trump’s comments came after a reporter asked about recent violence in and around the city tied to street takeovers, including one in South Boston that saw a Boston Police cruiser set on fire.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that if “somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni — the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal — and I would say, ‘Let’s move into another location’ and they would do that.”
But Wu, who has been a staunch opponent of the administration, said, “There’s no ability to take away the World Cup games, there’s no real threat when it comes to saying cities are so unsafe they can’t host the game.”
“We know we have a lot of work to do everyday in our community and we also know that we have made so much progress in already starting from the starting point of being the safest major city, continuing to double down on what works, which is bringing people together, staying focused every single day of the year and also making the investments that bring together community safety,” Wu continued.
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