Trump grabs cash, offers state no help
No answers, but plenty of criticism, over homelessness
President Trump made his first visit to the Bay Area on Tuesday since taking office, raising money, dodging protesters and, shortly before landing, warning that San Francisco and other California cities were “destroying themselves” with homelessness.
The president arrived in California fresh from a campaign visit to New Mexico, where he spoke to a large and enthusiastic crowd at a rally outside Albuquerque. By contrast, his fourhour stop on the Peninsula was a stealth visit. Even the people who paid thousands to attend a soldout fundraiser for Trump’s reelection campaign were not told in advance where the event would be held.
However, en route, aboard Air Force One, Trump had plenty to tell reporters about one of the state’s biggest problems, homelessness.
“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” the president said.
“We have people living in our ... best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings ... where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige.
“In many cases they came from other countries and they moved to Los Angeles or they moved to San Francisco because of the prestige of the city, and all of a sudden they have tents. Hundreds and hundreds of tents and people living at the entrance to their office building. And they want to leave.
“And the people of San Francisco are fed up, and the people of Los Angeles are fed up. And we’re looking at it, and we’ll be doing something about it.”
Trump didn’t venture what that might be, other than to say he was looking into the creation of an “individual task force” and talking with his Housing and Urban Development secretary, Ben Carson, “in terms of the housing element.” Carson was in San Francisco on Tuesday, touring the Potrero Hill public housing project.
San Francisco officials declined to challenge Trump’s newest statement on homelessness, saying only that the president’s promise of any federal help was welcome.
“We will continue to act locally to address homelessness, but we can’t do it alone,” Jeff Cretan, a spokesman for Mayor London Breed, said in a statement. “We need more support from our federal government.”
Trump’s visit came a week after a White House task force paid a muchpublicized visit to Los Angeles to talk about that city’s homelessness problem, amid speculation that the administration was pondering unspecified ways of intervening in California.
Trump attended no Bay Area events Tuesday other than his private fundraiser at the Portola Valley home of Scott McNealy, cofounder and longtime CEO of Sun Microsystems.
About 60 supporters waited on the runway at Moffett Field for an hour to greet Trump, who landed shortly after 11 a.m. As he stepped down from Air Force One, the president waved to them and pumped his fists a few times, then was greeted by Harmeet Dhillon, a GOP committeewoman from California, and her husband, Sarvjit Randhawa. They were joined by Robin AubeWarren, acting associate director of NASA Ames Research Center, which operates the former naval air station.
Trump then left for his fundraiser, which was expected to raise $3 million for his reelection campaign.
Reporters were not allowed into the fundraiser, but members of the president’s traveling press pool spotted what appeared to be a golf hole in the backyard that featured a flag with a Stanford logo.
Lunch was salmon and vegetables. According to a Trump aide, the president participated in a roundtable with about 25 supporters, then moved to a larger area and spoke to a couple of hundred backers about the accomplishments of his administration.
Mary and Steve Shambaugh from Newark were at Moffett Field for Trump’s arrival. They had hoped for more interaction with the president, but were happy to at least catch a glimpse.
“We want to encourage him and let him know that there are people behind him in California, believe it or not,” said Mary Shambaugh, 56.
Vanila Singh, 48, former chief medical officer in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, brought her mother, father and two children to see Trump.
“He understands a lot of the issues that California is going through, mainly economic issues, homelessness and the need for economic opportunity for all groups,” Singh said.
Also eager to see Trump, though for different reasons, were protesters near McNealy’s home. The president’s motorcade arrived at the fundraiser at 11:43 a.m. and left about 2:30 p.m. Trump was back on his plane by 3 p.m. for the short flight to Los Angeles and an evening fundraiser in Beverly Hills.
Several dozen protesters with a large “Chicken Trump” balloon and a number of anti-Trump signs were visible from the president’s motorcade.
Vigil for Democracy was holding a protest near McNealy’s home, with the “Giant Baby Trump” balloon in attendance. Kira Od held up a large drawing that depicted Trump with a long nose.
“I don’t want Donald Trump to avoid seeing some people are so upset by his behavior that they are willing to spend hundreds of hours to express their dismay,” she said.
Rob Samudio of Pacifica was one of the last people to hold onto the floating “Baby Trump.”
“He is a racist Nazi and not welcomed here — even for a cash grab,” Samudio said, holding on to the massive balloon with a rope that was weighed down by a concrete box. “He needs to hear this. People need to make their voices heard. … The worst thing people can do is be silent.”
After Los Angeles, the president planned a fundraising stop in San Diego on Wednesday before his return to Washington, D.C.