In response to another bombastic comment coming from presidential hopeful Donald Trump, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman is barring him from entering his city.
“I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps,” Kriseman tweeted Monday night.
Asked whether his tweet was sarcasm, Kriseman responded that he was answering ridiculousness with ridiculousness.
Kriseman’s witty evening tweet came after Trump’s campaign issued a news release announcing that the U.S. should ban any Muslims from entering the United States.
While Trump supporters stood by The Donald’s latest gaffe, the assertion has left many others again dumbstruck by Trump’s consistently badgering rhetoric. The latest extreme assertion followed others that Mosques should be under surveillance and Muslims should have to register in a database.
And then, of course, there’s that wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico.
Kriseman has long been a voice for progressive policies. He’s rallied behind Planned Parenthood amid conservative criticism that the women’s health care provider was selling fetal remains.
He was and is a staunch defender of Obamacare. Kriseman has raised the minimum wage for city workers, implemented paid paternity leave and served as the first Mayor to be Grand Marshal of the annual Pride Parade.
His comments come as little surprise and, in a city that leans left, go a long way to boost is popularity.
Already Kriseman’s tweet has been “liked” 2,255 times as of 9:20 p.m. Monday and retweeted another 2,015.
And the comments have been overwhelmingly positive.
“The US need more politicians like you. Congrats!”
“We need a rigorous screening process with 100 percent accuracy and a 20 ft high Trump-proof fence around all of St. Petersburg.”
“Just decided I love this mayor!”
“Thank you Mr. Kriseman for standing up to that bully Donald Trump.”
But of course Kriseman’s tweets did reach some Trump supporters. One user wrote that Kriseman had overstepped his boundaries. When thrown to the wolves by more logical Twitter users, @SandraSnaidauf responded with a simply dimwitted statement.
“Please don’t tell me you support banning for any candidate No Mayor etc. has the right to ban How can u support that,” Sandra wrote, mistakes and all.
Just to be clear, even if Kriseman’s sarcasm wasn’t apparent to Miss I love The Donald Sandra, it’s also not actually possible for him to ban Trump from coming to the city. That’s not actually a thing.
It does not appear, so far, that Kriseman has elicited a response from Trump.
This isn’t the first time Kriseman as taken to Twitter to lament conservative extremism. Earlier this year when Glenn Beck placed St. Pete on his list of Godless cities, Kriseman took it as an honor.
