While defending his deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Donald Trump told reporters that residents in the affluent city of Beverly Hills often leave their cars unlocked to avoid being vandalized, despite the area having one of the lowest rates of car theft in California. Residents in Beverly Hills, a city that went for Trump in 2024 over Kamala Harris, are baffled by his remarks.
But I guess they're realizing that Trump will throw even cities that voted for him under the bus to push his authoritarian move to deploy the military into areas that have hurt his feelings. And Beverly Hills is in California's Los Angeles County. Oh, and Gavin Newsom is the Governor.
“I have friends, they leave their trunk open for their car because they know they’re going to be vandalized," Trump said. "They don’t want the trunk ripped off in order for them to steal what’s in the back. So the criminals, when they go and open the door, they don’t have to break the windows and kill the car door to steal whatever it is in the car that they’re looking for.”
Trump added that another friend of his leaves his garage door open, “so that people can just walk into his garage and take whatever they want and leave.” I wonder if this "friend" was a big, strong man with tears in his eyes.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Still some strolling Rodeo Drive this week were taken aback by the president’s comments.
Ian Campbell, a Rodeo Drive regular in a yellow-tinted pair of Louis Vuitton shades and leather designer bag, said Beverly Hills isn’t and has never been a place known for crime.
“I’m here all the time, and it’s always been safe and mostly calm,” Campbell said. “Nothing has changed recently…. I’ve never felt unsafe here.”Jason Trucco, a former resident of Beverly Hills who now lives in New York on the Lower East Side, said he believed Beverly Hills was still relatively safe compared with other places where he stayed.
“I lived in a lot of more dangerous neighborhoods than this,” Trucco said.
Noah Margo, president of the West Hollywood-Beverly Hills Democratic Club, called Trump's remarks one of his “publicity stunts that are used to divide us.” She added, "I find it ironic that he picked one of the least crime-affected cities in Los Angeles County.”
