Trump posted a photo of me sitting by my tent - then a bulldozer arrived
On Monday, Trump announced his administration would be "removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks"."We have slums here, we're getting rid of them," he said from behind the podium in the White House press room.After the announcement, BBC Verify decided to investigate the photos that the president had posted.We matched visual clues in the pictures of the tents - including a bend in the road alongside the grassy area where they were pitched - to a location on Google streetview.
The encampment was about a 10-minute drive from the White House, and less than that from the BBC office in Washington - so I headed down there to see what had happened to the site that had caught the president's attention.When I arrived local officials were there warning people they could soon be forced to move.I also found Mr Theodie, a 66-year old from Missouri, sitting in the same camping chair.He had seen Trump drive by before."The president's motorcade is pretty long," Mr Theodie said. "I've seen it coming through here three times.""You know, I understand he doesn't want to see mess, that's why we go out of our way to maintain it clean. We're not trying to disrespect the president or any other person who comes by."He told me he had been living at the site for years and works in construction, though he's been out of full-time employment since 2018. Normally, he can pick up just a few shifts a month.On Thursday, Mr Theodie and the other residents there were told to pack up and leave immediately.A local reporter filmed as a bulldozer was sent in to dismantle tents and other belongings people left behind.
"They said you need to pack it up or they are going to bulldoze it. They didn't come for talking, it was go, go, go," Mr Theodie said.Wayne Turnage, the deputy mayor of the DC Department of Health and Human Services, said city authorities have removed encampments across the capital before.This is usually done with at least a weeks notice, he said, but the process has been fast-tracked following Trump's announcement.
The homeless encampment was the largest in the city, according to the local authority - with 11 people living next to one of the main routes out of Washington DC.Before the latest crackdown, there were 97 people living in homeless encampments in the city this year, a big drop from 294 in 2023, the figures show.The estimated amount of people experiencing homelessness is 5,138 this year, down from 5,613 in 2024, according to the city's yearly snapshot.The latest data from the Community Partnership, an organisation that works to reduce homelessness, shows about 800 people are unsheltered, while about 4,300 others have some sort of temporary housing. The White House said it will offer to place people sleeping on the streets in homeless shelters and provide access to addiction or mental health services - but if they refuse, they will face fines or jail time."You can't just snatch people up and threaten them with arrest or force people to go to a shelter," said Mr Theodie. "I don't want to go to a shelter - they're bad places."Organisations that work with homeless people say the system is flawed as shelter capacity is often limited.US Supreme Court allows cities to ban homeless campsSince leaving the site, Mr Theodie has spent three nights in a motel in Virginia after someone who saw the removal gave him money to cover it."If I wasn't blessed by that person, I don't know what I would have done. I probably would've sat down on the curb all day," he said."This room is jammed packed full of stuff, my tent and my belongings… but it's so good to sleep in a bed, to take a shower, to use a private bathroom, it feels absolutely amazing."
Mr Theodie said he will try to find a new spot when he checks out of the motel: "My best option is to try to find a safe place to set my tent up. I don't know where that's going to be, but I would like to stay in DC."I also met George Morgan, a 65-year old from Washington DC, at the encampment. He said he had only been living there for two months, after he had to move out of an apartment he could no longer afford.
When I called to see what had happened to him after the encampment was removed, he was in a motel reception area with his dog, Blue, after someone covered the cost of a night there for him too."We're sitting here to see if we're able to get another night. I had to pay $15 dog fee - which was the last money I had."When I last spoke to Mr Morgan, he had been able to extend his stay at the motel through the weekend - but said he didn't know what next week would bring."I have to play it by ear as I have no money. God has always come through, so I'll see what God sets up next."
What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
STV News
12 minutes ago
- STV News
Trump rules out Ukraine joining Nato as Zelenskyy heads to Washington
US President Donald Trump has ruled out Nato membership for Ukraine, hours ahead of a key meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a cohort of European allies on Monday. The meeting is the next stage of talks following Trump's landmark peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said Zelenskyy 'can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.' He added there would be 'no going into Nato by Ukraine' and 'no getting back' of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The US president appeared excited for Monday's meeting, adding 'big day at the White House tomorrow. Never had so many European Leaders at one time. My great honour to host them!!!' Zelenskyy appeared to respond to Trump, saying 'we all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably,' in a post on X. The Ukrainian president pushed back against the possibility of land trades, which Trump is expected to call for as part of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. 'Peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack,' he added. Donetsk and Luhansk, two mineral-rich regions of Ukraine that are mostly occupied by Russian forces, could be the proposed price for peace. In exchange, the Russian president would reportedly withdraw his forces from other areas of Ukraine and accept a Nato-like security guarantee that Ukraine would be protected from further incursion. Keir Starmer will be among the European leaders presenting a united front with Zelenskyy at the meeting. By arriving as a group, they hope to avoid any debacles like Zelenskyy's February meeting with Trump, where the Ukrainian president left early after being chastised by Trump and his Vice-President JD Vance in front of the press. The public spat, which saw Vance accuse Zelenskyy of not being thankful enough to the US, resulted in American aid to Ukraine being temporarily halted. The European leaders will also push to protect Ukraine from having to submit to Russian land grabs as a price for peace. Those joining Starmer include France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Alexander Stubb, president of Finland. Nato Chief Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are also attending. The European leaders have said it is up to Ukraine to decide how it wishes to end the war, and hailed Zelenskyy's commitment to a peace. US President Donald Trump appeared to drop calls for a ceasefire following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. / Credit: AP Trump has appeared to drop his calls for a ceasefire after his summit in Alaska with the Russian President. Putin has long refused to agree to a ceasefire as a precondition for talks to end the war, prompting fears that Russia could continue gaining ground in Ukraine as negotiations take place. The US president has instead said he wants to focus on a long-term peace deal, though his secretary of state Marco Rubio has signalled a deal is 'still a long way off'. There will be 'additional consequences' for Russia if it does not agree to a peace deal, Mr Rubio added, though he suggested fresh financial sanctions would be unlikely to force Putin to the negotiating table. Zelenskyy, however, had indicated that a ceasefire is his preference, telling reporters on Sunday 'it's impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So it's necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal.' European leaders are also keen to hear from Trump after he signalled he would provide a security guarantee to the Coalition of the Willing. The coalition, which is aimed at deterring future Russian aggression once peace is agreed, has argued it needs an American backstop, likely in the form of air support, to succeed. Starmer welcomed Zelenskyy to Downing Street ahead of Trump and Putin's Alaska summit / Credit: Ben Stansall/PA Over the weekend, Starmer was among the leaders who welcomed suggestions from Trump that he was open to providing a guarantee, but details of what support would be provided were scant. Following a meeting of the coalition on Sunday afternoon, a Downing Street spokesman said Starmer praised Zelenskyy's desire for a 'just and lasting peace' in Ukraine. Leaders of the coalition 'reaffirmed their continued support to Ukraine' at the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and Mr Macron, No 10 added. The French president, meanwhile, said the European delegation will ask Mr Trump to back its plans to bolster Ukraine's armed forces. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Starmer's coalition of the willing has been saved from itself
It is commonplace to accuse politicians of being out of touch. There is often some truth in the charge, and our elected representatives take it on the chin. One of the least likely politicians to face this charge has always been John Healey: the defence secretary has been one of the most sensible and pragmatic ministers in Sir Keir Starmer's cabinet – not a high bar, admittedly. And yet there are signs that he has succumbed to the Ministry of Defence's corrosive habit of dealing with the world as it wants it to be, not as it is. We all watched the news from Friday's summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Anchorage. However you try to frame the encounter, it was at best a huge disappointment for the US president. His Russian counterpart conceded nothing and his armed forces continue to pound Ukraine's cities. Meanwhile, his pre-conditions for any kind of negotiations remain the maximal aims with which he began the war: Ukraine must cede territory to Russia, rule out membership of Nato indefinitely and, in practice, allow the Kremlin a veto over its foreign policy. And yet, John Healey can't be accused of being a pessimist. 'In the circumstances of a ceasefire we're ready to put UK boots on the ground in Ukraine,' he told the BBC on Friday, shortly before the talks began. 'They are ready to go, they're ready to act from day one. The military plans are complete.' This is, of course, the 'coalition of the willing' which Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have worked so hard to assemble. But there is one problem: it may indeed be 'ready to go' – although this is doubtful – but there is no ceasefire nor any prospect of a ceasefire, and Russia has violated previous pauses in the fighting with impunity. Secretary of state Marco Rubio was downbeat in the wake of the summit. 'There remain some big areas of disagreement,' he admitted to ABC's This Week. 'We're not at the precipice of an agreement, we're not at the edge of one.' President Trump, for whom consistency is something that applies to other people, seems to have decided a ceasefire is no longer important, despite having previously stressed what a priority it was. He casually edited reality on his Truth Social platform in his characteristic and odd way: It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which often times do not hold up. Where does this leave the coalition of the willing? Starmer and Macron are now all dressed up with nowhere to go. They have made an enormous play of their genuinely tireless efforts in constructing the coalition, but its only purpose is to monitor, police or help implement a ceasefire in Ukraine. It is now plain to any rational observer that there will be no ceasefire in the foreseeable future, because it is not an approach which suits Putin and he now knows that Trump has little intention of putting pressure on him to bring it about. That may prove good fortune in a heavy disguise for Starmer because there is another consideration. Our armed forces are in no position to deploy significant numbers of troops in a safe and sustainable way to Ukraine. The size of the coalition's anticipated deployment is unknown but has been a moving target: in February, President Zelenskyy talked about needing a force of between 100,000 and 150,000. At the time, the Ministry of Defence carelessly allowed the idea to circulate that the UK might contribute 20,000 troops. In March, Starmer talked about 30,000 troops. The following month, the chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, consulted with his military colleagues in the coalition of the willing about generating a force of 64,000, and was told that not only was that utterly unrealistic, but that less than half that number, even 25,000, would be extremely challenging. Once again, UK ministers are trumpeting an idea that by definition cannot come to fruition. Without a ceasefire, putting boots on the ground in Ukraine is impossible; even if there were a ceasefire, the UK does not have the resources, especially in terms of artillery and logistics, to assemble anything more than a battlegroup of maybe 1,000 soldiers. Even our current commitments are stretching us. For context, Russia is estimated to have 600,000 soldiers in and around Ukraine. John Healey seems to have retreated into a comforting game of 'what if?', supposing that every eventuality he wants has come to pass and is then telling the media what the UK would do. Increasingly, though, he is talking not about potential outcomes but doors which have already closed. What if Russia agreed to a ceasefire, what if Putin moderated his demands, what if Russia and Ukraine could find an acceptable long-term settlement? As Jake says in the closing pages of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Trump's trade war puts US love for Scottish goods to the test
"Shortbread is America's second favourite cookie, after chocolate chip," says Anne Robinson, owner of Scottish Gourmet USA, a small business in North Carolina. She imports Scottish produce and sells it at her store in Greensboro and online. "But how much will consumers pay for their little pleasures?"Along with Andrew Hamilton, her Scottish husband, she's about to find out. They are putting up prices, partly due to the 10% tariff on imports into the US from are other reasons, including the weakened US dollar against the British pound, higher healthcare costs for her employees and higher employer costs for her suppliers of "bangers, bacon, pies, tablet, kippers, bannocks, cheese, shortbread, fudge, mugs and more"."We sell the luxury brands of shortbread, along with Walker's, the world's biggest maker of shortbread," Anne says. "All the prices are higher today than a year ago because butter costs have skyrocketed. Now add the tariff and every box of cookies has gone up by at least $1."At some point, consumers will not buy a box of Scottish shortbread at $10 when American-made Lorna Doone shortbread sells for $5-6." That may make Donald Trump's point for him. He wants to use tariffs to discourage Americans from importing, replacing those choices with American could put jobs at risk in Aberlour on Speyside, for instance, where Walker's makes shortbread in vast quantities, much of it for export, employing up to 1,700 people in peak pre-Christmas could boost jobs in the US bakeries where Lorna Doone Shortbread cookies are made by snacks goliath are the more straightforward effects of tariffs - the taxes paid by importers as goods arrive in the country imposing the charge, usually as a percentage of its with such uncertainty around tariffs because of Donald Trump's capricious policy-making, we've only recently begun to get an idea of the companies are beginning to put a price on US tariffs, led by car makers. Toyota says it looks like a full-year hit of £7.1bn. Honda, also facing 15% tariffs on Japanese-made cars being sold into the US, says the cost will be more than £ auto-makers are hard hit too, because they are international businesses and many of their vehicles have parts manufactured across national boundaries, including those with Canada and Motors expects the rise in tariffs to cost it between £3bn and £4bn annually. Ford forecasts tariffs will cost it £1.5bn this year. Caterpillar, maker of construction machinery, has an estimate of £ Americans are beginning to assess the impact on the goods they buy. Importers have absorbed most of the costs until have been surprised that they have not been passing costs on in prices, and pushing up inflation, but they continue to expect that will early sign is that wholesale prices took a big jump last month – up by 0.9% when the expectation was of only 0.2%. The next signs could come from the big retail chains led by Walmart, reporting to the markets this from Brazil will carry a 50% tariff. Cars from Germany, as with other EU exports of food and machinery, face a 15% charge at the point of import. Watches, cheese and gold from Switzerland will carry a 39% US smartphones are made in India, which is seeing a 25% tariff imposed on exports to the USA, and that could be doubled within three months as punishment for India buying Russian high rates could be negotiated down, if Brazil's or India's leaders are willing to plead. Neither sounds like they are. Along with South Africa, there could be a new alliance of large economies which are unwilling to accept US tariffs without Trump is yet to meet with China's leadership to discuss summit with Russia's President Putin in Alaska on Friday left yet more gone into the meeting threatening tougher measures against Russia, to punish it for aggression in Ukraine, as well as further tariffs on those, such as India, who buy goods from Russia, the US president has not commented on UK came off relatively lightly from the trade deals struck so far, with the 10% baseline tariff applied across the board, but uncertainty about steel and pharmaceuticals remains.A bottle of Scotch whisky will carry that 10% tariff. Diageo, owner of Johnnie Walker and several well-known single malts while also a distiller of spirits within the US, estimates the annual cost at £150m. 'We should be thriving, instead we're struggling' The risk for Americans is, first, that imported goods will go up in price and, second, that components for US manufacturers will become more expensive, pushing up prices of goods completed in the third effect is expected to be that such trade barriers act as an invitation to US producers to put up prices simply because they can. They are protected from overseas competition.A fourth impact could be that when Americans travel overseas, as both president and vice-president have been in doing in Scotland, the weakened dollar makes that so-called "invisible export" more expensive for them - by around 10% in the case of the UK than it was last Americans are employed in selling imported goods, their businesses and jobs are on the Robinson at Scottish Gourmet USA says: "Tariffs are a tax that benefits no-one. There is no service, no government program, nothing except this added cost."These are taxes on US companies that import anything - hurting small business and large, making planning and pricing nearly impossible as the possible tariffs change frequently."She lists the various opportunities being lost because of the Trump policy: "We are holding off hiring, raising wages for deserving employees, possible expansion of our warehouse space and many other possible purchases that could help our business grow because of the tariffs and resulting fall in the value of the dollar. "When we should be thriving, instead we are struggling." One response for US trading partners is to look elsewhere. The UK has reason to get closer again to the European Union. After years of delays and obstacles in talks between the EU and India, the Trump effect seemed to spark momentum into its talks with post-Brexit faces the biggest hit from tariffs, as its economy has become so integrated, so it is looking to a future with a lot less US in there's another economic effect from countries which have lost markets in the world's biggest economy, leaving them with surplus product and secondary effect will be felt as goods are re-directed into alternative markets. With steel already established as the Chinese export that was top of the list of US targets for tariffs, other countries, including the UK, have taken steps to stop China dumping its excess steel in other markets at prices that undercut domestic steel already established as the Chinese export that was top of the list of US targets for tariffs, other countries including the UK have taken steps to stop China dumping its excess steel in other markets at prices that undercut domestic many of us buy steel directly, so we will not feel the impact directly. We do buy salmon, however, and that is already seeing the effects of markets being distorted and trade has a premium product that sells into the US market. The trade figures for the first half of 2025, released on Thursday, showed exports to the US more than doubled since last £190m exports in six months, that puts US imports close to those of France, the biggest importer of Scottish salmon. However, that may be a temporary distortion of trade patterns, front-loading imports for freezing ahead of tariffs being a much longer shelf-life, Scotch whisky exporters have shifted stock into the US since Donald Trump's election victory last November. The trade figures released on Thursday showed a big surge across categories of goods in the first quarter of the year, and then a big slump since salmon exporters face that 10% US tariff, while Norway faces one at 15%. So Scottish salmon gets an advantage over Norwegian, a differential that will also distort other US produces its own salmon, but not much of the Atlantic species. Half of its consumption of that has come from a 10% tariff on this, the trade body for the Chilean aquaculture industry forecasts a trade loss of more than £1bn. What does this mean for Scotland? According to a well-placed source in the Scottish salmon industry, Chile, Canada and Norway are looking to "redirect more product into lower-tariff export markets like the EU to maintain sales"."This shift is already having an impact," they say. "Market studies have highlighted how other producing countries are treating Europe and parts of Asia as a 'safe haven' for diverted supply, which is adding to volumes in the European market."An industry analyst at Norwegian seafood data firm Kontali, Philip Scrase, recently published a note about salmon prospects, with production set to the US, he observed the effect of tariffs could be said: "The move may hurt US seafood processors and consumers more than it helps domestic producers, particularly in the retail sector, where price sensitivity is high, and substitutes are limited."Salmon producers' loss of US markets could be the European consumers' gain, Mr Scrase says, as an increased supply from Chile pushes down reporting from the seafood trade media pointed to sharply reduced prices for salmon from the dominant producer, Norway, at the same time as the sector expected a big 2025 harvest due to improved fish survival consequence is a rush to freeze as much salmon as possible. Another is that some are reported as having to sell at less than it cost to is explicitly why Salmon Scotland, the trade body, is stepping up its efforts to promote the third of Scottish salmon exports to France that qualify for the prestigious Label Rouge, a French marketing kitemark to signify food Scottish government is matching Salmon Scotland's £50,000 budget for the the consequences of this tariff war are being felt far from trade with the US, and will take time to feed through to new price levels in North Carolina and Scottish Gourmet USA, Anne Robinson remains hopeful."My fingers are crossed in the hopes that our loyal customers will continue to buy their favourite cookies, candy, jam or haggis," she says.
