“We’re cleaning up our city. We’re cleaning up this great capital, and we’re not going to have crime, and we’re not going to stand for crime, and we’re going to take the graffiti down, and we’re already taking the tents down, and we’re working with the administration,” Trump said on Friday during remarks at the Department of Justice.
He noted that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had been making progress in improving the capital’s condition.
“We said there are tents galore right opposite the State Department. They have to come down. And they took them down right away. And so, so far, so good. We want to have a capital that can be the talk of the world,” Trump said.
Referring to recent high-profile visits, he added, “When Prime Minister Modi of India, the President of France, and all of these people… Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, they all came to see me over the last week and a half. And when they come in… I had the route run. I didn’t want to have them see tents. I didn’t want to have them see graffiti. I didn’t want to have them see broken barriers and potholes in the roads. And we had it looking beautiful.”
Trump reiterated his commitment to making the city safer. “And we’re going to do that for the city, and we’re going to have a crime-free capital. When people come here, they’re not going to be mugged or shot or raped. They’re going to have a crime-free capital, again, it’s going to be cleaner and better and safer than it ever was, and it’s not going to take us too long.”
Modi visited the White House for a bilateral meeting with Trump on February 13, becoming the fourth foreign leader to be hosted by the U.S. president since his inauguration in January.
Within a month of assuming office for his second term, Trump had already welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are among the other global leaders he has hosted so far in his second term.
