Mice droppings are seen near a mouse trap and a glue trap in the kitchen of Davon Jones’ residence at the Commons at White Marsh apartments, Tuesday, July 30, 2019, in Baltimore. The apartment complex is owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump, who days earlier vilified Congressman Elijah Cummings’ majority-black Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)BALTIMORE (AP) – Davon Jones doesn’t have to look far to see the irony in President Donald Trump’s tweets that Baltimore is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” His apartment owned by the president’s son-in-law has been invaded by mice since he moved in a year ago.
“I don’t know how they come in,” Jones says. “Every time I catch them, they come right back.”
Jared Kushner’s family real estate firm owns thousands of apartments and townhomes in the Baltimore area, and some have been criticized for the same kind of disrepair and neglect that the president has accused local leaders of failing to address. Residents have complained about mold, bedbugs, leaks and, yes, mice – plenty of mice. And they say management appears in no hurry to fix the problems.
“They don’t care,” says Dezmond James, who says he has spotted as many as three mice a week since he moved in to the Commons at White Marsh in suburban Middle River four years ago.
James says he sees a massive contradiction in Trump’s much-publicized tweets laying the blame for Baltimore’s poverty, crime and rodent problems on frequent antagonist Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings. Trump, he said, should look more at what he – and specifically Kushner – could do about it.