WASHINGTON (WDCW) – Former President Donald Trump caused a stir in the DC area after claiming the District is graffiti-riddled and filthy with “decay” and “broken buildings.”
Trump’s comments came after he arrived in Washington D.C. on Thursday to face arraignment for his third indictment case.
On Friday, Nexstar’s WDCW retraced the former president’s journey from Reagan National Airport to the federal courthouse, to see what he claimed he saw on the route.
Going over the 14th Street Bridge into D.C., with the Jefferson Memorial on the left, Trump would have seen isolated spots of graffiti on the sides of bridges heading into the Third Street Tunnel.
Other than the normal wear and tear of some aging infrastructure, there weren’t any broken buildings or walls on the route that the former president took.
“Basically, it sounds like a lot of lies,” D.C. resident Cornelius Scott said of Trump’s comments. “He lives in Mar-a-Lago [Florida], you know? So what is he talking about?”
On Thursday, after appearing in federal court to face charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump claimed it was “very sad driving through Washington, D.C.”
“Seeing the filth and the decay and all the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti, this is not the place that I left,” he said.
Scott vehemently disagreed.
“D.C. is not in that bad of a shape in my opinion, living here,” he said.
Lauren VonBechmann, also of D.C., said she doesn’t agree with Trump’s assessment, saying there’s often graffiti and trash “in any city.”
“I don’t really see as much of that when I’m walking around,” she said.
“In this specific area, I didn’t see any of those things. I rarely see any of those things,” added Richard Moore, a Maryland resident who works in D.C. “You may see a passing freight train with graffiti on it.”
Moore believes Trump’s comments were made for negative effect, and to stir his political base amid current legal troubles he’s blaming on Democrats.
“Some of the inciteful comments or what they were made for [is] to incite people who don’t live in D.C. or the DMV area,” Moore said.
