“I Removed Homeless People’s Tents in Washington to Keep the City Beautiful” Boasts Trump

William FurneyOct 22, 2023

Minute Read

Donald Trump has spoken about how he cleared the streets of the US capital of homeless people during his time at the White House by ordering their tents be immediately removed, so that the city remained “beautiful.”

Big Boast

Editorial credit: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.

The 45th president was speaking at an event organized by conservative educational non-profit Turning Point USA when he told attendees of his attempts to keep Washington, DC, looking good.

‘Take Them Down’

Trump said: “I kept it beautiful. If I saw one tent or two tents or three tents as I was coming in from the airport, I’d have them taken down immediately because I knew that you’d have 100 tents and 1,000 tents if you don’t do it.”

Proper Management Call

And the former president said that because he felt the capital was now looking worse, since he departed the White House following his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, the federal government should manage the city.

“It’s about time for the federal government to take over Washington, DC, and run it properly. Run it with sense,” he said.

‘Ban on Urban Camps’

Trump proposed a solution to homeless people pitching tents on the streets of the capital by banning “urban camping”, arresting those who kept putting up tents and then dispatching them to special tented areas where they would be looked after.

‘Rights and Safety of Others’

He told attendees that “our first consideration should be the rights and safety of the hardworking, law-abiding citizens who make our society function.” He said allowing people to sleep in tents in cities resulted in “making many suffer for the whims of a deeply unwell few.”

Trump Plan Backlash

Some were quick to criticize Trump’s suggestion that people sleeping rough be rounded up and put into camps.

“It is blatant in the Constitution that you can’t arrest people just because they don’t have a home,” the executive director of residential non-profit Uptown People’s Law Center, Alan Mills, said.

‘Homeless Because No Home’

Mills said in an interview with Newsweek magazine: “But more importantly, it doesn’t work. People are not homeless because they’re afraid of punishment. People are homeless because they don’t have a home.”

‘Internment Camps’

National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, blasted Trump’s idea and branded it “alarming” and “dangerous.” Its chief, Ann Oliva, said: “The way to end homelessness is not to arrest people and move them out of sight into internment camps.”

Biden Bash

Trump also singled out the current president as the focus of his ire, calling him not by his usual slur “Sleepy Joe” but “Crooked Biden,” and saying “Maybe he’s less sleepy than we thought.”

Biden and Trump in 2024?

Trump may battle Biden for the presidency in next year’s election, if both men are voted their respective Republican and Democratic party candidates in primaries in early 2024. It would be a replay of the 2020 election, the results of which Trump refused to accept, insisting it was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. His urging of supporters to protest at the US Capitol in January the following year led to violence in which five people were killed. Dozens were arrested and many have been sentenced to lengthy spells in prison.

Trump’s Indictments

The former president is fighting four federal indictments that carry a total of 91 charges, potentially complicating a White House run. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted in an indictment alleging that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Other charges relate to removing confidential government files from the White House and storing them in rooms in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Prosecutors allege Trump also shared some of the top-secret information with others, potentially posing a risk to US national security.

Trump Leading the Republican Field

Image Credit: danielfela / Shutterstock.

Voter support for Trump remains high among Republicans, despite his legal difficulties, at least according to recent polls. He is currently polling at just over 57 percent of those who say they will vote for Trump, leaving the rest of the Republican field far behind. Main rival Ron DeSantis’ campaign has virtually imploded, due to a raft of issues, and the Florida governor has plummeted to 13.4%, from a high of around 40 percent, the latest polls show.