"It doesn't bother me that much; it bothers me that he's ignorant," Sara Ohadi-Hamadani, a 33-year-old medical student at the University of Kansas, said of Trump's now infamous gaffe, in which he congratulated the "Great State of Kansas" for the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory against the San Francisco 49ers.
There is a Kansas City in Kansas, but the Chiefs, as many Americans know, play on the Missouri side, the side with about three times the population (490,000) of the Kansas City in Kansas and where residents have no problem turning up their noses and proclaiming their dominance over their little sisters and brothers just to the west.
"Everything that's Kansas City is always in Missouri," said Keith Williams, 22, who lives in — where else — Kansas City, Missouri. "The stadium. Everything fun to do. There's nothing in Kansas."
Not everyone agrees.
"Kansas City, Kansas, within the metro area, we kind of have the underdog mentality," said David Alvey, mayor of Kansas City, Kansas. The Chiefs belong as much to Kansas City, Kansas, Alvey said, as to Kansas City, Missouri. "We're proud to be Dottes," he said, using shorthand for Wyandotte County, home to Kansas City, Kansas. "We like to share the glory as well."
Kansas and Missouri have had their fair share of arguments over the years, whether about slavery, tax breaks or politics. But they refuse to let a presidential misstep come between them. Not today.
"We've had our conflicts over the years, but there's no rivalry between Kansas and Missouri where the Chiefs are concerned," Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Trump certainly is not the first person to confuse what locals call "KCMO" for "KCK." Hunter Pence, a professional baseball player, admitted that he did not realize he was in Missouri when his former team, the San Francisco Giants, played the Royals in the 2014 World Series. At this point, however, locals are so used to the mistake that they greet it with a shrug.
Kansas City, Missouri, was incorporated in 1853, eight years before Kansas became the 34th state. The Missouri city took its name from the Kansas River — which was inspired by the Kanza People, Native Americans of the Kaw Nation — and was originally called the City of Kansas. It became Kansas City in 1889. (Possum Trot is said to have been among the names that settlers considered, so locals could have been dealing with something other than confusion over where their city is. See: Go Possum Trot Chiefs!)
Kansas City, Kansas, was established in 1872 when several smaller towns combined to form one city, a local history teacher explained in an article in the Kansas City (Missouri) Star. That new city intentionally took on the name of its neighbour in an effort to benefit from some of the boom happening on the Missouri side, according to the article.
Local legend has it, Alvey said, that the founders of Kansas City, Kansas, wanted to trick New York financiers into loaning money to their town. One could debate whether that actually worked, given that Kansas City, Kansas, is still dwarfed by its neighbour.
But for at least one night, 148 years after Kansas City, Kansas, was established, one New Yorker found himself fooled by the divide.
Written by: John Eligon
Photographs by: Chang W. Lee
© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES
