Rob Saka: Collaborative With Trump; Combative with Others

After Trump’s reelection, Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka put out a post on Linkedin that turned more than a few heads.

This conciliatory and cooperative stance is a striking one to take with Donald Trump, whose appointees ended Roe, and who wants to prosecute his political enemies, round up millions of immigrants and has identified blue cities as a key target.

Look, I understand that the city cannot go to war with the federal government, and there are different ways of staking out negotiating positions.

But when your first announcement to your terrified residents reeks of appeasement toward the would-be autocrat that has promised to abuse your residents, that rightfully upsets some folks. And as a fair number of people pointed out on Bluesky, Rob’s use of the word “collaborate” in this context invokes an ugly history, even if inadvertently.

Note that in contrast our Governor and our Attorney General were decisive in making clear their intent to vigorously protect Washington residents from federal overreach. (The Harrell administration’s response was mostly a muted, boilerplate press release). Rob’s statement took the Trump friendliest thing said by Harrell and took it up a notch or two.

To top this all off, this sudden turn toward collaboration is a bit jarring for a guy known for his adversarial approach. Rob’s reputation for seeing everyone and everything as a battle is pervasive enough that I’ve been told by city insiders that they tell potential employees to avoid working for him. No one was surprised when he lost a key staffer, a well known talent with a lot of city-related expertise, just a few months after hiring her. He publicly shut down an SDOT professional for reporting on equity to the transportation committee. And just days ago, he slammed a colleague in the media. Collaboration is not Rob’s default.

Except, it seems, when it comes to Donald Trump.