Flying to California for two days of high-dollar fundraisers, President Trump deplored the state's homelessness problem on Tuesday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that "we will be doing something about it at the appropriate time." He did not provide specifics, and "it is unclear what legal authority the federal government has to clear the streets and how that might be accomplished," The Washington Post notes, but Trump said he has personally heard complaints from unidentified California residents who find homelessness distasteful and detrimental to property values.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco, homeless people are living on the "best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings," Trump said, "where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige." Trump's Council of Economic Advisers released a report on homelessness in America on Tuesday, faulting building codes, zoning, rent control, historic preservation laws, and other regulations, also apportioning some blame to homeless shelters.
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