Former President Donald Trump’s childhood home has been overrun by up to 30 feral cats and their smell is overwhelming, neighbors told New York Magazine’s Curbed on Thursday.
The animals are being fed by a volunteer while nearby residents try to figure out how to wrest the property from a mysterious absentee owner, according to the outlet.
The state of the former president’s first house at 85-15 Wareham Place in Queens ― a faux Tudor where he lived until age 4 before the family moved ― seems to reek with irony.
The Republican nominee has promoted lies that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were kidnapping and eating cats and dogs, culminating in a meme-worthy declaration to that effect during the debate against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“They’re eating the cats,” he said at one point.
His running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), has been criticized for declaring a few years ago that “childless cat ladies” like Harris were ruining the country.
A sign warns people not to take kittens from the property and bags of dog poop, thrown by passersby, occupied the front doorstep, Curbed wrote.
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A Zillow entry that is several years old estimated the home’s worth at $1.3 million. At times it has been an Airbnb and tourist attraction, but apparently not now.
“The pungent smell in the front yard is now as off-putting as the creaky gothic metaphor the place has become; the mailbox is stuffed with overdue bills, the doorknob is smashed, and cobwebs have taken over the windows,” Curbed reported.