TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For decades before moving into the White House, President Trump lived in the heart of Manhattan but apparently never noticed that his hometown had a homelessness problem. Until now. In a puzzling series of comments during an interview over the weekend, Mr. Trump professed his concern about people living on the streets in America’s biggest cities, declaring that it is ‘a phenomenon that started two years ago.’ It did not. But in an interview for ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ broadcast on Fox News on Monday [7-1-19] night, the president seemed to be unaware of decades of struggles by governments, churches and nonprofit organizations to combat homelessness, especially in high-rent places like New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Mr. Carlson prompted the discussion by telling Mr. Trump that those three cities have ‘a major problem with filth.’ The president agreed, calling it ‘sad’ and saying, ‘We never had this in our lives before in this country.’”
–Michael D. Shear, “Trump Expresses Shock at Homelessness, ‘a Phenomenon That Started Two Years Ago’,” The New York Times online, July 2, 2019