Former President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for dealing with big-city homelessness — promising if elected he will ban "urban camping," and suggesting the effort could be financed by diverting money from Ukraine's battle against Russia.
The agenda for issues related to homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction was posted by the Trump campaign site Make America Great Again — and in a video speech from the former president posted Monday on Rumble.
"Our first consideration should be the rights and safety of the hardworking, law-abiding citizens who make our society function," Trump said. "When I am back in the White House, we will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets. We want to take care of them, but they have to be off our streets."
"There is nothing compassionate about letting these individuals live in filth and squalor rather than getting them the help that they need," he continued. "We need professionals to help them. For a small fraction of what we spend upon Ukraine, we could take care of every homeless veteran in America.
"Our veterans are being treated horribly. Likewise, with all the money we will save by ending mass unskilled migration, we will have a huge dividend to address this crisis in our own country."
"Under my strategy, working with states, we will BAN urban camping wherever possible," he said.
According to the Trump campaign, the former president, if returned to the White House in 2024, would "open large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists, and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated and their problems identified" — and "bring back mental institutions to house and rehabilitate" the "severely mentally ill or dangerously deranged."
In his video, Trump declared "this strategy will be far better and also far less expensive than spending vast sums of taxpayer money to house the homeless in luxury hotels without addressing their underlying issue."
"This is how I will end the scourge of homelessness and make our cities clean, and safe, and beautiful once again," he vowed.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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