Trump paints grim picture of US cities

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wants to address the crisis of people on the streets, saying his administration “may intercede” to clean up cities such as Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Trump made the remarks in an interview in Japan with Fox News host Tucker Carlson when Carlson noted that cities there are clean and free from graffiti and “junkies.” U.S. cities, by contrast, have a problem with “filth,” Carlson said.

“It’s a phenomena that started two years ago,” Trump said. “It’s disgraceful.”

He did not mention the word homeless, so it was difficult to glean his meaning or how he would address the issue. He blamed liberals and “sanctuary cities.”

“Police officers are getting sick just by walking the beat,” he said. “We cannot ruin our cities. And you have people that work in those cities. They work in office buildings, and to get into the building, they have to walk through a scene that nobody would have believed possible three years ago.”

Trump added: “When we have leaders of the world coming in to see the president of the United States, and they’re riding down a highway, they can’t be looking at that. They can’t be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco. … We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up.”

He said when the problem arose in Washington, “I ended it very quickly.”

But Michael Ferrell, executive director of the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless, said: “I don’t have a clue to what he’s referencing.”

The numbers of homeless people are down significantly from the past decade.