In Interview With Tucker Carlson, Trump Claims Homelessness "Started Two Years Ago"

The president appeared to take credit for the "phenomenon" and pledged to look at it "very seriously."

President Donald Trump has seemingly claimed credit for homelessness, describing it as a "phenomenon that started two years ago."

During an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, which aired Monday, Trump covered a range of topics, including the G20 meeting in Japan and his historic trip to North Korea. But the sit-down with Carlson also veered into domestic matters and took a bizarre turn when the host brought up the issue of homelessness and “filth” in America’s cities in comparison to major Japanese cities.

“You come to where we are now, Osaka, or Tokyo and the cities are clean, there’s no graffiti, no one going to the bathroom on the streets,” Carlson said. “Very different than our cities.”

Carlson added: “New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles have a major problem with filth.”

“It’s very sad,” Trump said before adding, “It’s a phenomenon that started two years ago. It’s disgraceful. I’m going to maybe, and I’m looking at it very seriously. We’re doing some other things, as you’ve probably noticed, like some of the very important things we’re doing now.”

Trump then turned the discussion to police officers getting sick from walking their beat. “You can’t have what’s happening, where police officers are getting sick just by walking the beat. I mean, they’re actually getting very sick,” Trump claimed, without providing any evidence.

Returning to a familiar theme, Trump blamed the “liberal establishment” for rising homelessness and then claimed, without evidence, that he had “ended it very quickly” in the Washington D.C. when he became president.

See the video below.