President Donald Trump slammed “blue cities” again during an Oval Office press gaggle on Monday, claiming that Democratic-dominant cities are “dirty” and filled with crime.
“The blue cities have something in common: crime, high crime, vicious, violent crime,” Trump said. “But what do they have in common? They’re all dirty. They’re filthy dirty.”
He went on to claim that blue cities “smell” with “broken” storefronts and “gross” trees. He never named a specific city.
“Everything about the place is dirty,” he said, adding that any city led by a Democratic official is “disgusting.”
Trump’s crime claim is contested. A 2024 Third Way analysis found red states had 33% higher murder rates than blue states in 2021 and 2022, and higher rates over the past two decades. (The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, has disputed these findings, and argues that, per county in blue states, the crime is higher than in red states.)
