President Trump on Thursday declared that Democratic-run cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are following the same destructive path as communist countries — promising voters everything for free until the money runs out and chaos takes hold.
Mr. Trump framed his argument through an explicit contrast: giving away free housing, food, and services wins elections short-term but inevitably “leads to death, destruction and squalor 100% of the time.”
He warned that New York City’s tax base is eroding as companies paying “hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes a year” are leaving. He predicted it will end in “hunger and squalor and death and destruction.”
He also said the dramatic crime reductions in the District of Columbia, Memphis and New Orleans are proof that his federal intervention model works.
Mr. Trump asked a reporter in the Oval Office to read aloud a Truth Social post he said he personally wrote, which compared the trajectory of liberal-governed cities to communist regimes: initial popularity followed by “death and destruction.”
He cited Memphis, where he said crime is down approximately 72%, crediting his administration’s intervention, and noted the governor of Tennessee visited the White House to thank Trump for the results.
He also said the District of Columbia has been transformed in 14 months following the removal of “close to 5,000 hardline criminals,” many of whom he said entered through what he called “Biden’s open border” policy.
“Don’t forget, 2% of your people create 90% of your crime. That’s a great number because 2% of the people you can take care of. If it was 90% of the people. That’s not good,” he said.
Mr. Trump also cited federal intervention in New Orleans — including National Guard deployed at the request of Gov. Jeff Landry — as producing what he called the safest Mardi Gras the city has ever had.
He singled out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, calling him a “stupid governor” and “a slob,” and described Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as “a low-IQ person,” while saying Chicago could be “great again” if federal help were allowed.
The president said he told the mayor of San Francisco he could clean up the city “much faster” than the current administration but agreed to give the mayor more time at the request of prominent local figures.
