Trump's Remarks on Homeless Make Cities an Ideological Battlefield

"President Trump said Monday that he wanted to address the crisis of people on the streets, telling Fox News in an interview that his administration 'may intercede' to clean up cities such as Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles," report Eli Rosenberg and Alex Horton.

"The president made the remarks in an interview he taped in Japan with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, after Carlson asked him about cities in Japan, which Carlson said are clean and free from graffiti and junkies.' U.S. cities, by comparison, have a problem with 'filth,' Carlson noted."

The rest of the interview raised a lot of eyebrows, and made some columnists question the extent of Trump's awareness about urban policies or the state of American cities, beyond scoring political points against the Liberal leadership of cities without much concern for the people, by his own description, suffering the ills of drug addiction, mental illness, or homelessness.

Michael D. Shear, for instance, described President Trump's remarks as "puzzling," especially the part where the president said the problem started two years ago. Not only does Shear say that President Trump is wrong in his description on the history of homelessness, he's also willing to point out the Trump administration's less-than-action-packed record on the issue. "As president, Mr. Trump has given little indication that homelessness in America is a priority for his administration," writes Shear. President Trump says in the administration "may intercede and do something to get that whole thing cleaned up," but, as noted by Shear, "he did not elaborate on what actions he or the government might take," and "Officials at the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development declined to comment on what the president was talking about."