DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump criticized Detroit while delivering remarks to an economic group there on Thursday, saying the whole country would end up like the city if his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected.

“The whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”

Trump’s remarks came as he addressed the Detroit Economic Club in a speech appealing to the auto industry, a key segment of the population in battleground Michigan’s largest city. But he made conflicting remarks about Detroit throughout the speech, saying it was a “developing” city in an apparent compliment.

Democrats in the state were quick to criticize Trump for his comments. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan lauded the city’s recent drop in crime and growing population.

“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” he said on social media.

U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, who represents Detroit, said on social media that Trump should “keep Detroit and our people out of your mouth.” Referring to Trump’s efforts to win Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel said on X, “This guy is calling us ugly and then asking us out on a date.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been a major surrogate for the Democratic presidential ticket, shot back at Trump, saying on X, “And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”

Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, hasn’t been kind to Trump in previous elections. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump got about 30% of the vote in Wayne, losing the county by huge margins.

Trump’s comments come as many in the city feel that Detroit has turned the corner from national joke to national attraction. Nearly a decade from exiting its embarrassing bankruptcy, the Motor City has stabilized its finances, improved city services, stanched the population losses that saw more than a million people leave since the 1950s and made inroads in cleaning up blight across its 139 square miles.

Detroit is now a destination for conventions and meetings. In April, Detroit set an attendance record for the NFL draft when more than 775,000 fans poured into the city’s downtown for the three-day event. And just a few hours after Trump’s remarks, thousands of people were expected to pour into the same area as the city’s baseball team, the Tigers, aimed to win their AL Division Series.

Some event attendees understood Trump’s Detroit comment to be in reference to the city’s previous financial woes.

“I don’t think it was intentional on his part,” said Judy Moenck, 68. “There was blight. Now tremendous work has been done, and Detroiters will feel probably a little bit hurt by that.”

Her husband, Dean Moenck, 74, who said he no longer considers himself a Republican in Trump’s GOP, said the comment fits into his campaign rhetoric style, “bringing out the negative things of Detroit.”

This isn’t the first time Trump has insulted the city he’s campaigning in.

While in New York for his civil fraud and criminal trials, he routinely bashed the city, calling it dirty and crime-ridden and arguing that its overwhelmingly Democratic residents might be swayed to vote for him over concerns about migrants and safety.

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

Cappelletti covers politics and state government for The Associated Press in Michigan. He is based in Lansing. Volmert covers Michigan government and politics, with a focus on women in state government. She is based in Lansing.

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