In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that was conducted in Japan, President Trump ripped the Democratic politicians that run major cities in America for soaring homelessness that plagues their cities, asserting, “This is the liberal establishment; this is what I’m fighting.” He pointed out that many of the cities Carlson cited for becoming repositories for urine on the street and needles from junkies are sanctuary cities, adding, “They’re run by very liberal people and the states are run by very liberal people … Do they really think this is okay? Because it’s not. It’s destroying their city and it’s destroying a whole way of life.” Trump said bluntly, “We may intercede.”
The exchange began with Carlson noting, “You come to where we are now, Osaka, or Tokyo, and the cities are clean; there’s no graffiti; there’s no one going to the bathroom on the street; you don’t see junkies … ”
Trump replied, “It’s very nice, isn’t it.”
Carlson pointed out, “It’s very different from our cities.”
Trump agreed, “Yup. Some of our cities.”
Carlson repeated, “Some of our cities. But New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles; they’ve got a major problem with filth.”
Trump said, “It’s very sad. It’s very sad.”
Carlson then prompted Trump, asking, “Why is that?”
Trump answered:
It’s a phenomenon that started two years ago; it’s disgraceful; I’m gonna maybe — and I’m looking at it very seriously— we’re doing some other things, as you probably notice, like some of the very important things we’re doing now; where but we’re looking at it very seriously because you can’t do that. You can’t have what’s happening, where police officers are getting sick just by walking the beat, I mean. They’re getting actually very sick, where people are getting sick; people living there are living in hell, too, although some of them have mental problems where they don’t even know they’re living that way, in fact, perhaps they like living that way. They can’ do that. They cannot ruin our cities.
And you have people who work in those cities; they work in office buildings and to get into the building they have to walk though a scene that nobody would have believed possible three years ago. This is the liberal establishment; this is what I’m fighting. I don’t know if they’re afraid of votes; I don’t know if they really believe that this should be taking place, but it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place and we may be — you know, I had a situation when I first became president, we had certain areas in Washington, D.C. where that was starting to happen. And I ended it very quickly. I said, “You can’t do that. 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.”
I really believe that it hurts our country. They can’t be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco. San Francisco, I own property in San Francisco so I don’t care except it was so beautiful. And now areas that you used to think as being, really something very special, you take a look at what’s going on with San Francisco and it’s terrible. So we’re looking at it very seriously. We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It’s inappropriate. Now, we have to take the people and do something; we have to do something. And, you know, we’re really not very equipped as a government to be doing that kind of work; that’s not really the kind of work that the government probably should be doing — we’ve never had this in our lives before in our country, and it’s not only those few cities; it’s a couple of other cities
Carlson interjected, “No, it’s a lot.”
Trump concluded: “At the same time, most of our cities are doing great; but if you look at some of these; they’re usually sanctuary cities; they’re run by very liberal people and the states are run by very liberal people. But the thing that nobody can figure out is, are these governors or mayors, do they really think this is a positive? Do they really think this is okay? Because it’s not. It’s destroying their city and it’s destroying a whole way of life. And it’s not our country; it’s not what our country’s all about.”
Video below: