An Iraq war veteran protests near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on the day U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would send troops to Portland, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., September 27,
CNN journalist Nick Watt reports that President Donald Trump appears to have reneged on his Keeping Promises to Veterans executive order “establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence.”
The real-world purpose of the EO was to provide housing for sick and ailing U.S. veterans suffering from injuries — many of them battle-related — at a vast campus set aside for vets in the 1880s.
That land has instead been used to house parking lots, dog parks, oil wells, the UCLA baseball field and the Brentwood schools’ sports facilities, said Watts. And with no sign of change.
“The administration did just terminate that school's long-term lease on the property, but the key Trump promise in that order is to ‘restore the capacity to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans by January 1st, 2028,’” said Watt.
After the Trump administration lost a suit filed by needy veterans it eventually announced it was “working to fulfill the president's promise,” and laid out a “vague” plan to build around 2,500 units, added Watt.
“But I've done some math that will only bring the total capacity here to maybe 5,000 — and not until the fourth quarter of 2030. Could be later. So, about 1000 units short of the president's promise to veterans. And around three years late,” said Watt. “Remember: the executive order’s title is ‘keeping promises to veterans.’”
Veterans advocate Rob Reynolds told CNN that VA executive leadership have “all signed non-disclosure agreements, and they're not communicating with any of us.”
“Promises made have not been kept,” Reynolds added.
CNN reports there are more than 30,000 homeless veterans nationwide.
Air Force vet George Fleischmann claims officials told him he'd be stuck in and 8X8 shed for just for a few months before moving into a permanent home, but that hasn’t been the case.
“I'm familiar with the deed, but this land’s apparently not for us. They're not housing us and we're dying over here,” said Fleischmann, who says he was exposed to agent orange while stationed in Okinawa and has now been in this shed without running water for more than three years. “And if I wasn't a Christian, I'd kill myself. It's not worth living like this.”
“I reached out to the White House, but they punted to the VA,” Watt told CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “The VA declined. An interview eventually gave me a statement that reads in part: ‘what VA outlined in court relates only to issues in the case, which is narrower than President Trump's EO.’ So, what they're trying to say is they laid out a plan in court, but there's another plan that fulfills the executive order.”
“I asked to see it,” said Watt. “They never replied, Jake.”
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