Trump Is Right About 'Homelessness' Even If It Hurts to Admit

0:00Before we get to this story, I just want to explain something really quick. when you're a through and through both sides absolutely suck kind of person like I am. It truly hurts deep down to our core when we find it absolutely necessary to agree with any politician from either side of the aisle. And as a never Trump libertarian who leans conservative, I also find it extremely uncomfortable to agree with Agent Orange about anything. But it's also equally repugnant to me that many folks are unwilling or unable to agree with their political adversaries publicly, especially when they're doing so privately.

0:37That said, this looks like a step in the right direction for our country as much as it pains me to say that when it's coming from the current administration. Part of me would rather be hit on the big toe with a cold hammer than to admit that. So I truly hope you can appreciate this angle that I'm about to share with you now. Trump signed an executive order last week to redirect U.S. efforts on homelessness by mandating that more people living on the streets enter treatment centers. A new Trump executive order called Ending Vagrancy and Restoring Order will instruct Attorney General Pam Bondi to overturn judicial precedents and terminate consent decrees that currently restrict local and state authorities from relocating homeless people from streets and encampments or tense cities into rehabilitation, treatment, and other facilities.

1:25And I've got to say, this is the best thing that I've seen fall out of this clown car of an administration, and I'll explain why in just a minute. Not only does the executive order redirect federal funding to ensure homeless people are transferred to rehabilitation treatment and other facilities, it also aims to stop sex offenders receiving homelessness assistance from being housed with children and allows programs to house women and children exclusively. Who can honestly say that's a bad idea, regardless of where it's coming from. In 2024, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported 771 ,480 homeless people in the United States.

1:58The agency also reported 167 ,991 chronically homeless people. So let's pause right there. If you've listened to this show for any amount of time, you've probably heard me make this point, but I'm willing to make it a thousand times again as more and more people listen. We have got to stop calling people who openly and proudly embrace the street druggy lifestyle homeless. I'll say it again for the slow folks, we have got to stop calling people who openly and proudly embrace the street druggy lifestyle homeless. As a human being first and a U.S. citizen second, if you ever reach a point in your life where you find it impossible to avoid the temptation to slam heroin or fentanyl into your veins down by the river while you live in a tent and defecate into a bucket, then I've got news for you.

2:42You're a junkie and you need mandatory rehabilitation until you're able to get your shit together. How about a hard six months in a holding cell where we give the guards life in prison for smuggling in drugs, since that's how inmates usually get drugs? Imagine FEMA camps as far as the eye can see, filled to the brim with the gacked out tweakers who scream and flail in the street corners, foaming at the mouth and leaving a trail of used hypodermic needles littering the streets in their wake. Look, if you think this is a homeless problem, you probably shouldn't be allowed to vote because all nuance is absolutely lost on your incredibly smooth brain.

3:16I'm talking about these self-professed street juggalos with rap sheets longer than a CVS receipt who like to start fires and talk to lampposts when they get high, which is 24-7. Our parks aren't safe, our sidewalks are covered in tents and human waste, and our police departments have been reduced to Narcan nannies that enable the very toxic behavior their jobs were created to fight. And you think it's appropriate to call this a homeless problem, as if this kind of brazen, open, and proud drug culture is a result of the cost of living? Are you stupid? I meet an awful lot of the bleeding heart types and even centrists who don't even come close to grasping the logistics and the scope of this problem.

3:57The kind of people who think that handing out sandwiches and blankets is the solution. Now look, for some people, that helping hand is certainly the answer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a total jerk. What I'm saying is that if you group together the proud street urchin who doesn't want help with the poor old cat ladies, those poor old cat ladies are going to be ignored because you spent all your time catering to the moron 30-year-old men down by the river who can't seem to resist injecting drugs into their veins. These are the folks who give actual homeless folks a bad name and the insanity needs to stop yesterday.

4:27And a lot of us are starting to believe that the only way to accomplish this is to put street junkies into mandatory rehab camps. And I gotta tell you, I'm all for it. Even if it's coming from the Trump administration, it's about damn time. Under the order, Pam Bonney will work alongside the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation to prioritize federal grants to cities and states that enforce prohibitions on open, illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, urban squatting, and the tracking of the location of sex offenders. No, I'm all for it.

5:00Great work. Godspeed. And I wish you nothing but the best of luck. And let me know if I can assist in this vital effort to finally get help to the people among us who need it the most. Clean up your act or go to treatment until you can stay clean for a year. And if that doesn't do the trick, perhaps some long term institutionalization is your jam. Get lost. If we all have to play by the rules, then so do you, sweetheart. And to all you bleeding hearts out there who have enabled this catastrophe, shame on you. Shame on you for normalizing unchecked mental health in our streets. Where did this idea come from that mentally unstable people should be the ones who determine the kind of treatment they should get?

5:34Almost quite literally the insane running the asylum, wouldn't you say? Where did that great idea come from? Oh, I don't know, probably the same place all of our worst ideas come from. A cocktail of bad case law and Ivy League detachment, at a dash of industrial complex groupthink, stirred slowly over decades by judges and bureaucrats who've never once had to step over a screaming meth goblin to get to their car. You know, progress. Alright, now that I've said that, let me leave you with just one final thought for the day. While I greatly applaud this initiative and fully support its direction, I'm also deeply concerned that adults like Donald Trump will ultimately swing the pendulum too far in the opposite direction.

6:14Once he's back out of the White House again, let's not repeat the same mistakes we made after the asylum era. We cannot overcorrect in the wake of Trump on this or any other issue, even though I'm pretty sure we inevitably will, even as we try to undo the decades of inaction and euphemistic nonsense that got us here. What we need in the post-Trump world is extreme moderation, and I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I think it's the only thing that can counter the stupidity we're up against now. California blew$37 billion fighting so-called homelessness under Gavin Newsom, And the crisis only got worse.

6:49Dozens of overlapping programs, zero accountability, and billions funneled into a bureaucratic black hole. It's an industry now, and everybody knows it. And nobody is doing anything at the moment to stop it, except for, strangely enough, the Trump administration. $37 billion. Wow, I should get out of podcasting and into poverty pimping. I'll start a non-profit sandwich blanket and needle exchange program. Watch me retire in Maui in five years. In all seriousness, I totally sympathize with the beach bum lifestyle. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes I fantasize about leaving it all and just walking down to the beach with a guitar and a tarp just to sit there and drink beer all day and night without a care in the world.

7:27Not that I would do it, but I understand the romantic nature of giving up on a world that's too busy to slow down for you long enough to take a breath. I get it. I think many of us have thought about checking out of society and living in a van down by the river, but we can't because we're responsible adults and it would be incredibly rude to everybody else to simply check out like that. But if you are hell-bent on leaving society for a while, perhaps it's better to do that in an institution instead of Main Street. Medication time. Medication time. Until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio.

7:57I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye-bye!