It appears a violent “beautification” project for Washington, D.C., is underway right now as homeless people are being told to get out of sight or get out of President Trump’s way by the authorities. This incident followed soon after President Trump announced his plans to clear encampments all over the US capital. Now, the homeless in DC, believe it or not, are being threatened with eviction.
The particular incident where a homeless person was told to “get out of Trump’s sight” happened in the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, August 13, to a man known as Andrew S. 61-year-old Andrew S. was merely resting on Kennedy Center, which happened to be on Trump’s route; out of nowhere, a Department of Homeland Security agent told Andrew S. to leave, preferrably somewhere out of sight of the president.
“If the President sees you, he doesn’t want you here. We need to be out of the eyesight of the President. I didn’t really take it serious until today,” Andrew S. told Associated Press, transcript courtesy of The Mirror
What happened to Andrew S. apparently falls in line with what Trump mandated on Truth Social back on Monday, saying, “The homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.” Any homeless people caught and refusing to move to shelters or rehabilitation programs will be taken to jail or prison instead.
It’s not clear where the Trump administration plans to set up these shelters for the homeless, especially should the existing ones become overpopulated, but they simply want them out of Washington, DC. DC officials are planning to add more shelters around the city, though one of the biggest shelter buildings could only accommodate 200 people.
Are Homeless the New Deportees Now?
Many people have since questioned Trump’s motivation for trying to move the homeless out of DC streets. Some have since criticized the President for lacking the insight to understand why homeless people exist in the first place, with many mocking his post on Truth Social for its supposed shortsightedness:
“Trump: I demand people stop being poor! (while issuing tariffs to make everything more expensive),” says Steel-Tempered
“How many [homeless] are on the golf course anyway?” questions nayters
“Where they gonna go? That’s the definition of homeless,” asks Bill-Evans
Trump himself signed an executive order last month in order to end “endemic vagrancy”, aiming to rehouse homeless people. However, Andrew S.’s testimony and how the Homeland Security agent handled him paint a different picture of how this executive order is being enacted.
So far, the Department of Human Services has been cracking down on dozens of homeless encampments all over DC. One of the people whose homeless camps were demolished, named George Morgan, was even a Trump supporter; despite the National Guard taking his tent away, he’s still a homeless Trump supporter, “I try not to take offense…. [I’m] hopeful God will make a way.”
