Ron DeSantis promises no poop on streets if China’s Xi Jinping visits

Assuming President Donald Trump^[1] and Chinese leader Xi Jinping^[2] have a summit at Mar-a-Lago^[3], Gov. Ron DeSantis^[4] is offering assurances that the two world leaders will be shielded from human excrement.

“We are not going to have to clean up all the homeless and all the poop off the street, like Newsom had to do in San Francisco and do that charade for him. And then it went back to being bad. It’s nice and people will enjoy it,” DeSantis promised Jesse Watters^[5] during a Fox News interview.

Trump said it was possible Xi may come to South Florida this week in comments made on his still-in-progress Asian trip, which is expected to lead to a trade deal between the U.S. and China.

DeSantis’ poop preoccupation^[6] is years in the making. During a TV debate^[7] with California Gov. Gavin Newsom^[8] in 2023, DeSantis held up a printout of a map that showed “human feces” all over San Francisco.

“This is a map of San Francisco. There’s a lot of plots on that. You may be asking, what is that plotting? Well, this is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco,” DeSantis said.

“And you see how almost the whole thing is covered, because that is what has happened. And one of the previous greatest cities this country’s ever had, human feces is now a fact of life, except when a communist dictator comes to town. Then they cleaned up the streets.”

During Monday night’s interview with Watters, DeSantis went on to suggest that Trump has put the U.S. in a good position for negotiations due to efforts to build coalitions with China’s neighbors.

“I think that one of the things that you’re seeing is strengthening ties with other Asian nations. You know, that helps to isolate China economically. It helps to strengthen the United States economically. And I think (it) adds to the President and the administration’s hand when it comes to brokering a deal with China,” DeSantis said.

“I think what you’re seeing develop is a very strong coalition, and I think it helps bolster the United States in the region. I think it helps weaken China,” he added.