CULTURE

Who Is Jacob Frey, Hot Mayor of Minneapolis?

Jacob Frey is the subject of Donald Trump’s ire–and the internet’s thirst.

by Jocelyn Silver

Senate
Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Jacob Frey, who became the mayor of Minneapolis in 2018, was recently subjected to every Democratic politician’s greatest fear (or biggest dream, depending on how savvy they are): President Donald Trump tweeted about him. The Donald was angry that Frey put a $530,000 bill on an arena set to host a “Keep America Great Again” rally on Thursday, and called him a “lightweight mayor,” adding that Minnesota should “dump Omar and Frey!” in his trademark bombastic style.

Frey tweeted that “Minneapolis taxpayers should not have to bear the brunt of operating costs resulting from the president’s visit” in response. And he was suddenly thrust into the public eye. And so the American public began to wonder: is this mayor, like, hot? We say yes.

Mayor Frey is a 38-year-old lawyer and former professional runner (damn) who moved from Virginia to Minneapolis after running a marathon there, becoming a city councilmember in 2013. As he told Politico, he had just gone for a run and was either “just getting out of the shower or getting into it” (thirsty) when he heard that the President had gone after him online.

“To say the least, it’s a strange feeling to wake up in the morning to the president of the United States tweeting about our city and me as the mayor,” Frey added. He did not comment on whether or not it feels weird to be objectified on the internet, though Politico did shadily add that Frey has only received one small bit of press before, in Men’s Health, and that he seems, in Trump parlance, to be “straight out of central casting.”

[#twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahclazarus/status/1182346108187496455]

Frey is a liberal, and according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, his campaign “promised to dramatically boost funding for affordable housing, work to reduce residential segregation and push for higher housing density across the city. He also pledged to address downtown safety and argued that a police officer’s failure to turn on a body camera should be presumed misconduct.”

He was recently met with protests for proposing the hiring of fourteen new police officers in his 2020 budget plan. And protestors from the other side of the aisle swarmed his office on Wednesday, siding with the President. But Frey was home observing Yom Kippur. The Kushners have yet to weigh in.