Donald Trump posted a photo of me on my tent. Then the bulldozer arrived

Last Sunday, US President Donald Trump was traveling on his motorcade via Washington, on his way to his golf -club when he saw something that was clearly annoyed by his homeless tents on the grass.

“The homeless people must move immediately,” he said in the same morning with four photos.

One of them showed a man sitting in a camping chair in his tent, which I eventually learned, Bill Theodi. Four days later, Mr. Theodi was forced to move after the president announced the repression of homelessness in the country’s capital.

“It’s me,” he said when I showed him a photo that Trump posted, and it was the first time he saw him.

“It’s insane that he just threw it out the window and photographed me, and then negatively places it on social media, using it as its political instrument.”

On Monday, Trump announced that his administration would “remove the camps from the homeless of all our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks.”

“We have slums, we get rid of them,” he said from the podium in the Press of the White House.

After the announcement of the BBC Verify decided to explore the photos posted by the president.

We were in line with the visual hints in the tents – including bend on the road next to the herbaceous zone where they were placed – to a place on Google Streetview.

The camp was about 10 minutes away from the White House, and less than the BBC office in Washington – so I went there to see what happened to the site that caught the attention of the president.

When I arrived, local officials were who warned people, they could soon be forced to move.

I also found Mr. Theodi, a 66-year-old from Missouri, who was sitting in the same camping chair.

He saw Trump riding before.

“The president’s monotic is quite long,” said Mr. Theodi. “I saw it going here three times.”

“You know, I understand that he doesn’t want to see a mess, so we leave our way to support him clean. We don’t try to respect the president or any other person passing.”

He told me he lived on this place for years and has been working in construction, although he has not been working full -time since 2018. Usually it can pick up just a few changes a month.

On Thursday, Mr. Theodi and other residents said there to collect and leave.

The local reporter, shot as a bulldozer, was sent to dismantle the tents and other things that people left behind.

“They said you needed to pack it or they are going to his bulldosis.

Wayne Term, Deputy Mayor of the DC Health and Human Services Department, said the city authorities had removed camps in the capital earlier.

This is usually done, at least with a message about a week, he said, but after Trump’s announcement, this process was quickly tracked.

According to local authorities, the homeless camp was the largest in the city – of 11 people living near one of the main routes from Washington.

To the latest repression this year there were 97 people who lived in homeless camps, and a large drop from 294 in 2023 shows figures.

The estimated number of people who feel homelessness this year is 5138, compared to 5613 in 2024, According to the annual shot of the city.

Recent community partnership dataAn organization that is working on a decline in homelessness shows that about 800 people do not pass, and about 4,300 others have some temporary housing.

The White House said it proposes to place people sleeping on the streets in the homeless shelters and provides access to addiction or mental health services – but if they refuse, they will face fines or prison times.

“You can’t just snatch people and threaten them or make people go to the shelter,” Mr. Theodi said. “I don’t want to go to the shelter – they are bad places.”

Organizations that work with homeless people say the system is not re -registered because the shelter’s power is often limited.

Based on the site, Mr. Theodi spent three nights in the motel in Virginia after someone who saw the removal gave him money to cover it.

“If I was not blessed by this man, I don’t know what I would do. I probably sat on a curb all day,” he said.

“In this room, it is killed, filled with things, my tent and my things … But it’s so good to sleep in bed, take a shower, use in a private bathroom, it feels absolutely weird.”

Mr. Theades said he would try to find a new place when he checks the motel: “My best option is to try to find a safe place to set up a tent. I don’t know where it will be, but I would like to stay in DC.”

I also met George Morgan, 65 years old from Washington, in camp. He said he lived there only two months after he had to move from the apartment, he could no longer afford.

When I called to see what happened to him after the camp was removed, he found himself in the reception of a sanatorium with his dog, blue, after someone covered the cost of the night there.

“We are sitting here to find out if we can get another night. I had to pay $ 15 for a dog – that I had the last money.”

When I was last talked to Mr. Morgan, he managed to extend his stay on the weekends – but said he did not know what he would bring next week.

“I have to play it in my ear because I have no money. God always experienced, so I will see that God is setting further.”