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

President Donald Trump was driving in his procession through Washington DC last Sunday on the way to his golf club when he saw something that clearly thwarted him – a homeless tents camp on a plot of grass.

“The homeless must move, immediately,” he posted on Truth Social that morning, as well as four photos.

One of them showed a man sitting on a campsite by his tent, whom I would finally learn was Bill Theodie. Four days later, Mr. Theodie was forced to move after the president announced a repression against roaming in the national capital.

“It’s me,” he said when I showed him the photo that Trump published, which was the first time he had seen it.

“It is crazy that he just bends through the window and takes a photo of me, then publishes it on social networks in a negative way, using it as its political tool.”

Trump on Monday announced that his administration “would withdraw homeless camps from all over our parks, our magnificent and beautiful parks”.

“We have slums here, we get rid of them,” he said behind the podium in the White House press room.

After the announcement, the BBC will verify investigating the photos that the president had published.

We have equaled visual clues to the photos of the tents – including a turn on the road along the grassy area where they were launched – at a location on Google StreetView.

The camp was about 10 minutes by car from the White House, and less than that of the BBC office in Washington – so I headed there to see what had happened to the site that had attracted the president’s attention.

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

I also found Mr. Theodie, a 66 year old Missouri man, sitting in the same camping chair.

He had already seen Trump pass before.

“The president’s procession is quite long,” said Theodie. “I saw him coming here three times.”

“You know, I understand that he does not want to see disorder, that is why we hear ourselves to keep it clean. We do not try to lack respect for the president or any other person who passes.”

He told me that he had lived on the site for years and has been working in construction, although he has been out of work full time since 2018. Normally, he can resume a few quarters of work per month.

Thursday, Mr. Theodie and the other residents, he was told to make his luggage and leave immediately.

A local journalist filmed as a bulldozer was sent to dismantle tents and other personal effects that people have left.

“They said that you had to pack it or that they go to the bulldozer. They did not come to speak, it was gone, go, go,” said Theodie.

Wayne Turnage, the deputy mayor of the DC Department of Health and Human Services, said that the city authorities had already suppressed the camps in the capital.

This is usually done with at least a week notice, he said, but the process was accelerated after Trump’s announcement.

The homeless camp was the largest in the city, according to the local authority – with 11 people living next to one of the main routes of Washington DC.

Before the last repression, 97 people living in homeless camps in the city this year, a big drop compared to 294 in 2023, according to figures.

The estimated number of people experiencing roaming is 5,138 this year, compared to 5,613 in 2024, according to the annual snapshot of the city.

The latest Community Partnership data, an organization that strives to reduce homelessness, shows that around 800 people are not insulted, while around 4,300 others have a kind of temporary housing.

The White House said it would propose to place people sleeping in the street in homeless shelters and would give access to dependence or mental health services – but if they refuse, they will risk fines or prison.

“You can’t just tear off people and threaten them with arrest or force people to go to a refuge,” said Theodie. “I don’t want to go to a refuge – these are bad places.”

Organizations working with homeless people say that the system is defective because shelter is often limited.

Since leaving the site, Mr. Theodie has spent three nights in a motel in Virginia after someone who saw the dismissal gave him money to cover him.

“If I was not blessed by this person, I don’t know what I would have done. I would probably have sat on the sidewalk all day,” he said.

“This room is stuck full of things, my tent and my goods … But it’s so good to sleep in a bed, take a shower, use a private bathroom is absolutely incredible.”

Mr. Theodie said he would try to find a new place when he got out of the motel: “My best option is to try to find a safe place to install my tent. I don’t know where it will be, but I would like to stay at DC.”

I also met George Morgan, a 65 year old man from Washington DC, during the camp. He said he had only lived there for two months, after having had to leave an apartment that he could no longer afford.

When I called to see what had happened to him after the camp camp, he was in a motel reception area with his dog, Blue, after someone has covered the cost of one night there too.

“We are sitting here to see if we are able to get another night. I had to pay dog fees of $ 15 – which was the last money I had.”

When I spoke for the last time to Mr. Morgan, he had been able to extend his stay at the motel throughout the weekend – but said that he did not know what next week would bring.

“I have to play it in the ear because I have no money. God has always spent, so I’m going to see what God sets up afterwards.”