(Washington) Donald Trump exhorted the homeless on Sunday from Washington “immediately”, assuring that the government would provide them with accommodation, but that it would be “far” from the American capital.
The American president must give a press conference on Monday on his project to make the city “safer and more beautiful than it has ever been”.
“The homeless must leave, immediately. We will give you places to sleep, but far from the capital, “he wrote on his social social platform, before addressing the” criminals “.
“You don’t need to leave. We are going to put you in prison, where you should find yourself, “said the Republican.
According to the annual report of the Housing Department, Washington ranked in 2024 at 15e Rank of major American cities with the most homeless, with more than 5,600 people identified.
Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to place Washington under the control of the federal authorities.
The city indeed has a special status in the United States. Established after the war of independence to serve as capital, it is not attached to any American state, and the Constitution provides that Congress has jurisdiction over its cases. Since a law of 1973, the inhabitants can however elect a municipal council, even if its decisions are still controlled by the congress.
At the end of February, the Republican billionaire assured that he was supporting a legislative project aimed at returning to this law, in particular to improve the fight against crime.
“Force”
“There is too much crime, graffiti, too many tents (of homeless, editor’s note) on lawns, these magnificent lawns,” he said to the press, emphasizing the importance of the appearance of the American capital where regular foreign dignitaries come.
And at the end of March, he signed a decree to increase the supervision of his government over the municipality, particularly in the fight against illegal immigration.
Washington is a historically democratic vote, and Donald Trump’s rival in the November election, Kamala Harris, had raised more than 90 % of the vote there.
The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, adopted a strategy of conciliation with Donald Trump.
Photo Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press Archives
The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser
The Democratic councilor notably decided in March to erase a painted fresco in 2020 in the colors of the Black Lives Matter anti -racist movement, which has been in the viewfinder of the Republicans since.
Asked about the MSNBC channel, before Donald Trump’s statements, the mayor said on Sunday that the president’s press conference the next day would probably relate to “an influx of the federal police” in the city.
Muriel Bowser also denied an increase in crime in Washington, stressing that statistics showed “trends in the right direction for each category. »»
The Department of Justice announced in early January that violent crime in Washington had reached their lowest level in 2024 in more than 30 years.
“Any comparison with a country ravaged by the war is exaggerated and wrong,” she added, responding to Stephen Miller, close advisor to Donald Trump to the White House, who said Thursday that Washington was “more violent than Baghdad”.
