Scott Jennings Tries to Defend Trump Ripping Detroit During Speech in the City: ‘I Think the Point He Was Making Is…’

Former President Donald Trump had some harsh words for Detroit on Thursday as he delivered remarks in [checks notes] Detroit.

Once again, Michigan is shaping up to be a crucial swing state this election, with Trump running neck and neck with Vice President Kamala Harris .

Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump predicted that if Harris wins, the entire U.S. will become “like Detroit.”

“The whole country’s gonna be like– you wanna know the truth?” he said . “It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president aware… We’re a developing nation, too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit’s a developing– Detroit’s a developing area, hell of a lot more than most places in China.”

Trump’s comments demeaning the largest city in a key swing state puzzled political analysts. Hours later on CNN’s The Source, Kaitlan Collins played the clip and asked GOP strategist Scott Jennings to weigh in.

“I can’t imagine if Harris said that in Wisconsin, rural Wisconsin [and] was that critical, it would kind of just pass by,” Collins said. “But Michigan, obviously, is a state that Trump needs. Won it in 2016, lost it in 2020. He could be getting votes in the area that he’s criticizing.”

Jennings attempted to explain what Trump meant.

“It is a constant Republican refrain for many years that these large American cities that have decades of history of electing Democrats and that have poor economic outcomes, or poor crime outcomes, or poor education outcomes, it’s because of the local leadership,” Jennings said. “And so I think the point he was making is maybe we can do something different than just keep electing the same Democrats who’ve hurt these cities.

CNN commentator Ashley Allison had a markedly different take.

“Donald Trump wanted to say, ‘Detroit equals Black.’ That was a code word that he just did. And I would say, if you go to the city of Detroit, the revitalization of downtown Detroit, Detroit has been pretty substantial. Is it all the way back to where it was when it was booming? No, but the investment and local Detroit is real.”

Watch above via CNN.