(CNN) Most of Donald Trump's political career has been spent promising to protect American citizens from immigrants, so it was odd to hear him stand up for foreign real estate investors Tuesday as he considers a crackdown on American homelessness.

"We can't let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what's happening. And I'm speaking to tenants -- in some cases foreign people, foreign tenants -- but they have where they're tenants in buildings throughout various cities in California, and other places ... where they want to leave the country. They can't believe what's happening," Trump told reporters traveling with him on his way to a fundraiser in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Homelessness is a huge problem, particularly on the West Coast. It's also where the Trump Organization owns real estate, including a share of 555 California Street, one of the tallest buildings in San Francisco. Trump said Tuesday that homelessness is hurting real estate investment because, he said, foreign investors want to leave the US.

"We have people living in our ... best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings and pay tremendous taxes, where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige," he said.

But what exactly he'll do remains something of a mystery, although there are some clues.