Fox News' Tucker Carlson asked Trump about 'filth' in U.S. cities. Trump's answer, about homelessness, is a mess.

Trump talks to Tucker Carlson about homlessness

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Fox News)

published 2 July 2019

Homelessness is a serious problem, involving drug addiction, mental illness, stagnant wages, and rising housing costs, among other serious issues demanding serious solutions. In an interview from Osaka broadcast Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson appeared to ask President Trump about homelessness problems in major U.S. cities, contrasting New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles with the "clean" cities in Japan that have "no graffiti," no public urination, and no "junkies." Why do U.S. cities have "a major problem with filth?" Carlson asked. Here's part of Trump's response:

It's a phenomena that started two years ago. It's disgraceful. I'm going to maybe — and I'm looking at it very seriously, we're doing some other things that you probably noticed, like some of the very important things that we're doing now. 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, where the people living there living in hell, too. ...We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It's inappropriate. ... We've never had this in our lives before in our country. ... If you look at some of these, they are usually sanctuary cities run by very liberal people and the states are run by very liberal people. [President Trump, Fox News]

"Trump did not mention the word homeless during the segment, so it was difficult to glean his exact meaning or how he would address the issue," The Washington Post notes. "The numbers of homeless people in the United States has stayed relatively level in the three years between 2016 and 2018, ticking up from 550,000 to 553,000 last year. But these numbers represent a significant drop over the past decade." You can read Trump's entire response below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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