At his latest campaign rally, the same president who said at a 2016 campaign rally that he could turn inner cities around, that the poverty and violence would end under his leadership, and that he “alone could fix it,” slammed Democrats over homeless rates in inner cities.
Trump is depicting urban areas as overrun by criminals and homelessness — all part of a divisive reelection strategy heading into 2020. https://t.co/krSpkNTU56
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 2, 2019
After a week of bashing Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who just happens to be conducting oversight of the Trump family business, Trump then moved to bashing California for its homelessness rate, saying that more than half of the homeless population of the United States is in California. Of course, failed to mention that 10 million more people live in California than in the second-highest populated state (Texas); that urban areas, which are heavily Democratic, are 80.7 percent of the U.S. population; and that his own home state of New York has a far higher homelessness rate than the national average.
Of course he didn’t. It’s election season, which means it’s time for some shady semi-facts.
According to KTVU:
‘What they are doing to our beautiful California is a disgrace to our country. It’s a shame. The world is looking at it. Look at Los Angeles with the tents and the horrible, horrible conditions. Look at San Francisco, look at some of your other cities.
‘No one has paid a higher price for the far-left destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation’s inner cities. We send billions and billions and billions for years and years and it’s stolen money, and it’s wasted money.’
@realDonaldTrump claimed that homelessness started with him https://t.co/JFcB6V7Soj
— Deirdre Coval (@akdazed) August 3, 2019
For all the money Trump says the U.S. government has sent to these areas, he also didn’t mention that he alone is responsible for having taken billions of it away. Under Trump-appointed HUD secretary Ben Carson, massive cuts to transitional housing programs that give those leaving a homeless shelter time to get back on their feet and avoid the cycle of homelessness, have been cut. Billions more in cuts have been requested by the Trump administration in budget proposals, even after wealthy corporations got billions in tax cuts for themselves. Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition says that:
‘With this budget request, President Trump and [HUD] Secretary [Ben] Carson are making clear in no uncertain terms their willingness to increase evictions and homelessness—for the vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities and families with kids who will be unable to manage having to spend more of their very limited incomes to cover rent hikes. This is a cruel and unconscionable budget proposal, and it should be soundly rejected by Congress.’
Trump: I may tackle homelessness as world leaders 'can't be looking at that' https://t.co/4DyP30yR0o
— sharon stout (@sharons43746096) July 30, 2019
Also left out of the conversation with voters was mention of the efforts to address homelessness in California, particularly in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district. In San Francisco, homelessness has been a primary focus of local and state government officials.
‘Over the past 14 years, San Francisco has doubled the money it spends on homelessness — to more than $300 million — launched innovations including the nationally copied Navigation Center counseling-intensive shelter system, and created the city’s first unified Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.’
For Trump’s rally speech about California, see video below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
