Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called on his fellow Democrats on Saturday to “be a little meaner” and stand up to President Donald Trump, who he described as a “bully.”
Walz, a 2024 vice presidential candidate, was the keynote speaker at a Democratic Party state convention in Columbia, South Carolina, where he took jabs at the Republican president and sought to energize his party’s activists.
“Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner, a little bit more fierce, because we have to ferociously push back on this,” Walz told the crowd in the Palmetto State.
The comment came after he said he had been accused of being “mean” when he threw criticism in recent months at Trump administration officials, including billionaire Elon Musk, who has since left his role in the federal government.
“The thing that bothers a teacher more than anything is to watch a bully,” Walz, a former schoolteacher, said. “And when it’s a child, you talk to them and you tell them why bullying is wrong.”
“But when it’s an adult like Donald Trump, you bully the s–– out of him back… This is a… cruel man,” the governor added.
The Minnesota Democrat also criticized Trump as a “wannabe dictator” and an “existential threat.”
“Donald Trump is the existential threat that we knew was coming,” Walz said, noting that, for Democrats, “it is going to be a challenging few years here.”
“We’ve got the guts and we need to have it to push back on the bullies and the greed,” he said.
Walz also appeared Friday night, along with Maryland Democrat Gov. Wes Moore, at the party’s fundraising dinner and after-party fish fry hosted by South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn. Walz and Moore are on a long list of potential 2028 presidential candidates who have been traveling to early-voting states, although the Maryland governor said he would not run for the White House in the next election cycle.
Hellbound and Down 