Donald Trump used part of his Monday speech at General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground to say that cities run by Democrats are dirtier than those run by Republicans.He told the crowd that when “they take something over, it’s always dirty, the sidewalks are dirty, the people are, I hate to say this, not clean.”
He said that “the curbs are loaded with you know what” and that “the smell is terrible,” describing this as a pattern he has seen in what he called “blue cities.” He added, “We don’t have problems with the republican-run cities, I mean for the most part.
But they are dirty.”
The president said he had recently asked about conditions in an unnamed city he described as run by “the radical left,” and was told it was “filthy dirty, so dirty, they’ve never seen it like that.” He then said, “I’m sort of a clean freak.”
Trump used Washington, D.C., as an example of a city that was cleaned up under his leadership.
He claimed the capital was “filthy, graffiti all over the place” before his administration “fixed up 72 monuments and fountains” and removed graffiti from marble columns.He also claimed crime in the city is “down 88%” and that his administration had “moved out over 5,000 career criminals.”
These comments continue a message Trump has made since the start of his second term.
In August 2025, he announced a federal takeover of Washington’s police department, saying the city had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” and argued that “if our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty.” He named other cities he considered problematic at the time, including New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, and Chicago.
Trump has tied the idea of cleanliness to his own upbringing, recalling that his father told him, “Son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don’t go in, because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty.” He has repeated this story at different times during his second term when talking about D.C.
cleanup efforts.
The characterization of Washington’s crime levels has been questioned by independent reports.
When Trump announced the federal takeover in August 2025, his claim that the city was “overtaken” by crime did not match official statistics, which showed D.C.had its lowest violent crime rate in over 30 years the year before, with homicide, sexual abuse, assault, and robbery rates all down by at least 25% from 2023.By early 2026, crime data showed a mixed picture: murders had dropped sharply, but assaults with dangerous weapons had increased by about 20%, and independent reports noted that crime levels had already been falling before federal troops were deployed.
The beautification efforts Trump mentioned have been tracked separately from crime statistics.
In June 2026, National Park Service crews began refilling the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of a citywide beautification project that included reopening nine historic fountains, including a Columbus Plaza fountain that had been dry for 19 years due to a homeless encampment.This effort followed a March 2025 executive order creating a “D.C.Safe and Beautiful” task force aimed at clearing homeless encampments and graffiti from federal lands and restoring monuments, parks, and roadways.
Trump did not specifically mention Minnesota in his Monday comments, though he referenced the state elsewhere in his speech while talking about fraud uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency, calling Minnesota’s governor “so crooked.” California, which Trump has repeatedly criticized over homelessness in Los Angeles and San Francisco, was also not directly named in the Monday remarks, though the state has featured prominently in his earlier comments on the subject during his second term.
Democratic officials in cities Trump has targeted with similar statements have generally denied his claims as exaggerated or politically motivated.
Some, including mayors of Memphis and New Orleans, have accepted federal help with crime enforcement even as they disputed the president’s broader view of their cities as unsafe or unsanitary.
Trump’s Monday comments also included praise for crime reductions he credited to federal intervention in Memphis and New Orleans.
He told the crowd that crime in Memphis is “down 77%” and that New Orleans had “the safest Mardi Gras they’ve ever had” following federal aid before this year’s celebration.
Trump says blue cities are dirty and smell and the people are not clean: We don't have problems with the Republican-run cities. pic.twitter.com/K2BxrtEWiD
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 27, 2026
About the Author
