Did not want PM Modi, other world leaders to see tents, graffiti, potholes in Washington D.C.: President Trump  

President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on March 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not want Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders who visited him to see the tents and graffiti near federal buildings in Washington D.C. and has ordered the cleaning up of the American capital.

“We’re cleaning up our city. We’re cleaning up this great capital, and we’re not going to have crime, and we’re not going to stand for crime, and we’re going to take the graffiti down, and we’re already taking the tents down, and we’re working with the administration,” Mr. Trump said Friday (March 14, 2025) in remarks at the Department of Justice.

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He said so far the Mayor of Washington D.C. Muriel Bowser has been doing a good job cleaning up the capital.

“We said there are tents galore right opposite the State Department. They have to come down. And they took them down right away. And so so far, so good. We want to have a capital that can be the talk of the world,” Mr. Trump said.

“When Prime Minister Modi of India, the President of France, and all of these people… Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, they all came to see me over the last week and a half. And when they come in…I had the route run. I didn’t want to have them see tents. I didn’t want to have them see graffiti. I didn’t want to have them see broken barriers and potholes in the roads. And we had it looking beautiful,” Mr. Trump said.

“And we’re going to do that for the city, and we’re going to have a crime-free capital. When people come here, they’re not going to be mugged or shot or raped. They’re going to have a crime-free capital, again, it’s going to be cleaner and better and safer than it ever was and it’s not going to take us too long,” he said.

Also read: PM Modi U.S. visit in February 2025 highlights

PM Modi visited the White House for a bilateral meeting with Mr. Trump on February 13, the fourth foreign leader hosted by Mr. Trump in just weeks after his inauguration in January 2025.

Within less than a month of the start of Mr. Trump’s second term in the White House, he had hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer are among the other foreign leaders Mr. Trump has hosted in his second term so far.