Donald Trump at C-SPAN claims immigrants—especially from Venezuela and Congo—are the "most violent criminals," despite a 94% drop in drug trafficking by sea under his administration, while framing fentanyl (linked to 200K–300K annual U.S. deaths) as a WMD and announcing an executive order. He defends border crackdowns, blames Biden’s policies for surges, and denies pressuring Netanyahu amid Middle East tensions, touting his removal of Iran’s nuclear threat and Syria’s Assad. Endorsing Chile’s Josante Cas as proof of global influence, Trump attacks Democratic-led SEC/CFTC appointments, opposes ACA subsidies, and praises tariffs like Toyota’s $10B investment for economic gains. The episode also highlights C-SPAN’s upcoming healthcare debates, including bills restricting Medicaid for gender transitions and banning minors’ gender-affirming care, framing his policies as both security-driven and economically transformative. [Automatically generated summary]
the most violent entities nobody's ever seen anywhere on the planet the most violent people on the planet remember when the democrats and others the radical left used to say that the people they're allowing into our country immigrants are nice people they're not violent like our people well they make our people look like babies these are some of the most violent criminals anywhere on earth from many countries,
not just Venezuela.
Venezuela emptied their jails into our country.
But others have also.
The Congo has.
So many other countries have.
And we don't put up with it.
I have to say the drugs coming in by sea are down 94%.
And we're trying to figure out who the other 6% are.
But they're down 94%, and we're going to start hitting them on land, which is a lot easier to do, frankly.
But these are a direct military threat to the United States of America.
They're trying to drug out our country.
And you can look throughout history.
Look at China when they were loaded up with drugs.
They were suffering greatly, and others were able to take them over.
And other countries also, they're trying to drug out our country, and we're reversing it rapidly, actually.
But with the help of our great service members, we've stopped the invasion and its tracks, and we're dismantling the cartels very rapidly.
And they are being declared enemies of the United States of America.
They have been so declared, legally declared, more than 25,000 warriors have served in this historic operation.
It is indeed an incredible and historic operation.
And we've never done anything so effectively.
We've had a lot of victories.
They've spent night and day enduring scorching hot and bitter cold, and they've given up their holidays and their weekends working with the officers of customs and border protection.
Our armed forces have already conducted nearly 13,000 patrols along the border.
And today we give these great warriors the recognition that they have earned.
And they have really earned it.
The military component of our border security efforts is just the beginning.
We're also designating the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a big deal from a legal standpoint and military standpoint.
We've ended catch and release and we endured and ensured that anyone who sets foot across our border illegally is intercepted, arrested, and immediately deported.
Or if they're really bad, they're put into prison because we don't want to ever take a chance if they come back.
As a result, illegal border crossings have plummeted to the lowest level ever recorded in the history of our country.
Think of that.
The history of our country.
You can all be very proud.
For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States of America.
We inherited the worst border in the history of our country, one of the worst borders, I would say, in the world.
I can't imagine any border in the world being worse when they allowed 25 million people to come in.
And again, many of these people are gang members from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.
And some of the worst people on earth they allowed to come into our country.
We're getting a lot of them out.
We've made a big dent.
And the self-deportation is something nobody talks about, but literally millions of people are self-deporting because they don't want to be captured.
Once they're captured, they don't have the chance to self-deport.
And they never have the chance to come back into our country.
We inherited that border from an incompetent administration and turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country.
So we took the worst border in the history of our country, and in a period of two months, we turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country.
During this time, we've also achieved a 50% drop in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border, and China is working with us very closely and bringing down the number and the amount of fentanyl that's being shipped.
You know, fentanyl is very bad when you mix it with certain ingredients, but it also is very important for medicine, for anesthesias, various other things.
I want people to understand that.
It's not made necessarily for bad.
When it's mixed with certain things, it becomes bad.
And that's what's taking place in Mexico.
And we've got it down to a much lower number, not satisfactory, but it will be satisfactory soon.
In May, we executed the largest fentanyl bust in the history of the U.S., seizing 3 million fentanyl pills all at one time.
Think of that.
3 million pills.
It amounted to billions of dollars worth of drugs.
And last month we seized another 1.7 million fentanyl pills in the state of Colorado, the poorly run state of Colorado, with a governor who's incompetent and frankly with a governor that won't allow our wonderful Tina to come out of a jail, in a high-intensity jail, because she caught people cheating on an election and they said she was cheating.
She wasn't cheating.
She went over, she looked at one of the election scams going on.
And because she did that, they put her in jail for nine years.
The governor of Colorado is a weak and pathetic man who was run by Trende Rock, the criminals from Venezuela, took over sections of Colorado.
And he was afraid to do anything.
But he puts Tina in jail for nine years because she caught people cheating.
And when she walked over and got involved in it, they said she was cheating.
She wasn't cheating.
She caught people cheating on the election, 2020, along with a lot of other people that cheated on that election.
You'll see that coming out more and more.
But there's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans.
If this were a war, that would be one of the worst wars.
I believe they killed over the last five or six years per year 200,000 to 300,000 people.
You hear about 100,000, which is a lot of people, but the number is much higher than that.
That's been proven.
And they've destroyed a lot of families.
Because when they lose a child, or even if their child is heavily addicted, you lose that family.
The family will never be the same.
That's why today I'm taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country.
With this historic executive order I will sign today, we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is.
No bomb does what this is doing.
200,000 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of.
So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
But before I sign the fentanyl order, we will pin these great service members with their medals.
And here today are the first 13 warriors who will receive the Mexican Border Defense Medal, which is a big deal.
First, I'd like to ask Secretary Hegseth and Chairman Kane to say a few words.
I'd like to have Tom Homan come up, please, if you would say a few words.
And I want to thank all of the people, Pam and everybody, Stephen Miller, great Stephen Miller, what a job he's doing for being here.
Well, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, I want to echo your thanks and gratitude for the joint force.
I also want to highlight General Guillot, General Nauman, and Command Sergeant Major Johnson, but also leaders at every level that came together, not just in our joint force, but in the interagency.
And I want to specifically highlight our Border Patrol teammates and our Office of Air and Marine teammates, who when I went down to the southern border and visited were right there next to the joint force.
I also want to thank not just these 13 individuals, but the joint force that was also down there and your families who poured in to make this deployment possible on the southern border.
And of course, this time of the year, I'm always thinking about our currently deployed forces who are out there around the world doing our nation's business.
And of course, our fallen and their families who show what courage and tenacity really are as they move forward after the loss of a service member.
And the job they've done on the border is unthinkable.
What they left us with, that they would have open borders with millions of people, 25 million people, probably more than that, pouring into our border, totally unchecked and unvetted.
Now we have the opposite.
unidentified
And we want people in our country, but they have to come in legally.
So all of the death that Tom Holman talked about, the rape and the death and all the problem, doesn't have really happened because the caravans, the name I think I came up with, maybe, maybe not, but the caravans are very small.
In fact, for the most part, they don't even exist anymore because they know they're not going to get through.
In a little while, you'll be seeing I'm suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth, literally.
They put words in my mouth.
They had me saying things that I never said.
Coming out, I guess they used AI or something.
So we'll be bringing that lawsuit.
A lot of people were asking, when are you bringing that lawsuit?
Even the media can't believe that one.
They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn't say.
And the beautiful words that I said, right?
They're beautiful words.
Talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said, they didn't say that, but they put terrible words.
They actually have me speaking with words that I never said.
And they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported.
That's all fake news.
So we'll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
I want to thank all of you for being here.
If you have any questions, I guess you could ask.
But this is really a day of celebration for these people.
The job they've done is really unprecedented.
So go ahead.
unidentified
I'm Brown University, Mr. President.
Do you know what the motive of the shooter was?
Is it put once?
No, that's moving along now.
And we don't, and we're going to see what happens.
Because a lot of people want to see it, the reclassification, because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can't be done unless you reclassify.
So we are looking at that very strongly.
unidentified
Mr. President, Mr. President, is it true that the reports that you rebuked the Israeli Prime Minister?
Are the reports that you rebuked the Israeli prime minister for the hit on the Hamas general true?
And is Israel undermining your efforts to be a peacemaker?
I endorsed somebody that was not leading, and he won the election.
And we had a good one just a little couple of hours ago, I found out in Chile the person I endorsed who was not leading ended up winning quite easily.
So I look forward to paying my respects to him.
I hear he's a very good person.
unidentified
Mr. President, thank you, Mr. President.
This year you fired Democrats from a number of federal agencies, and now going into 2026, there are some key regulators like the SEC, the CFTC that are going to have zero Democrats.
Do you plan to appoint Democrats to fill those empty spots, or do you think that federal agencies shouldn't have Democrat commissioners?
Well, I think they should get rid of blue slips because as a Republican president, I am unable to put anybody in office having to do with U.S. attorneys or having to do with judges.
In other words, if you have one, not two, you don't need two, just one.
If you have one Democrat senator, well we have a lot of them.
You have one Democrat senator in a state.
It is not possible to appoint, because of blue slips, a judge.
It's not possible to appoint a U.S. attorney.
You see that happening.
And I think it's a disgrace.
I think blue slips are a disgrace.
They've long since, I mean, they should not be relevant anymore.
This is a different world than it was 15, 20 years ago.
You know, that was a gentleman and gentlewoman world.
This is a little bit different, unfortunately.
Yeah, please.
unidentified
Mr. President, what do you want to see Congress do this week as it relates to health care and the expiring ADS?
I'd like to see all of the money that's going to the Democrat insurance companies.
You know, the insurance companies are making a fortune.
They're up 1,700 percent and more.
And they're taking in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars.
And Obamacare gives you terrible health care.
Just so you understand, Obamacare was set up, and I said it right from the beginning, for the benefit of the health insurance insurance companies, of the insurance companies.
They're making billions and billions of dollars.
Their stock is through the roof.
I don't want to give them anything.
I want all money going to the people and let the people buy their own health care.
It'll be unbelievable.
They'll do a great job.
They'll get much better health care at a much lower cost.
unidentified
Would you like Republicans next year to just use reconciliation to do with health care exactly what you laid out?
And they wouldn't have to worry about if they don't have quotes.
You know, last month it was close to 27,000 soldiers were killed, mostly soldiers, but 27,000 people, but mostly soldiers were killed last month in Russia versus Ukraine.
It's more difficult than anybody could have thought.
I would have said that half of the wars that I got settled, some were going for over 30 years, that half of them should have been more difficult, and they actually haven't been.
There's a lot of dislike between the two leaders, you know that.
And so it probably makes it a little bit tough.
unidentified
Have you recently spoken directly to Putin?
Yeah, I have.
On Syria, Mr. President, on the U.S. troops killed in Syria over the weekend.
Because we're trying to make sure that there's going to be and remain peace in the Middle East, and Syria is a big part of it.
The new leader is a strong person, and that's what you need.
This is a rough part of the world.
And it's been amazing what's taken place in Syria.
We got rid of Assad.
We got rid of other people that were really bad people and that were in the way of peace in the Middle East.
You know, we have legitimate peace in the Middle East, first time in 3,000 years.
And we have 59 countries backing it.
And we'll see what happens with Hamas.
We'll see what happens with Hezbollah.
But regardless, I mean, we have countries that want to go in and clean that out if we want them to do it.
But they said, in the case of Hamas, they said that they're going to disarm, and we're going to find out whether or not that's true.
Hezbollah in Lebanon has been a problem.
We'll see what happens there.
But there is legitimate large-scale peace in the Middle East.
And if there weren't, we wouldn't have been able to make all of those deals that we've made with the various countries.
They would have never been able to do that.
If, for instance, if Iran, if we didn't, with that B-2 bomber right there on the desk, if we didn't, of which we just ordered a lot more of the newer version, totally stealth, they could not see it.
They knew it was coming.
They had no idea where it was.
It was pretty amazing, actually.
Every bomb hit its mark perfectly, despite CNN trying to say differently.
They didn't know.
They just, you know, hoped.
They hoped that we didn't, but it turned out that they did.
Atomic Energy Commission confirmed it.
So did, actually, so did Iran confirm it.
They got knocked to hell.
But if we didn't knock out their nuclear capability, we would have never had peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and all the other countries, and they would have never, ever been able to sign an agreement.
Yep, please.
unidentified
How soon do you expect that International Stabilization Force to be up and running in Gaza?
Well, we've had the greatest stock market in history, Brian.
We have a stock market that's gone up 52 times to new highs during a 10-month period.
My 10 months, my first 10 months, we set a record.
52 days, we had the highest stock market in history, including a day ago.
And I didn't look today.
Maybe it's up today.
I don't know.
But we had 52 all together, and there's never been anything like it.
And the reason are the tariffs have brought vast amounts of wealth into our country.
That countries that have taken our car companies, those car companies, are all coming back.
The AI is coming at levels that nobody's ever seen before.
That's going to be a massive industry.
Without the tariffs, we wouldn't have that.
Chips are coming in.
Chip companies are coming in from Taiwan and other places, but mostly from Taiwan, which has almost 100% of the market.
And we're now making chips.
And we're not paying anything.
It's not the CHIPS Act where they give billions of dollars to companies and then they just take the money and they run.
That was under Biden.
The fact that I set tariffs up and that if they don't make their chips here, they have to pay a big tariff.
In order to send them into the U.S., they have to be here.
You know, tariffs really work, in my opinion, almost only in the United States.
They've been used against us successfully because we had presidents that had no clue.
But tariffs really work.
We have taken in hundreds of billions of dollars with tariffs.
And more importantly, we've taken in countries and companies where, and even countries have sent their car-making people into the United States in order to avoid paying tariffs.
And they'll build a plant and they'll hire our people to make the cars.
But we now have, as you know, Toyota just approved $10 billion in manufacturing plants in the United States using our people.
Without tariffs, none of that would have happened.
Tariffs have given us great national security.
There's nothing like what's happened in the last 10 months.
Tariffs have given us tremendous national security and tremendous wealth.
Thank you all very much.
unidentified
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Press.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Press.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys.
Thanks for watching.
Okay, you guys can grab everything.
Thank you.
With Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the month, the House Rules Committee meets Tuesday to consider health care legislation aimed at lowering costs through employer-funded health reimbursement plans and cost-sharing reduction payments.
The committee will also look at two other bills related to gender transition procedures.
One barring the use of Medicaid for transition surgeries, and the other making it a felony to perform gender-affirming treatment or prescribe associated medication to anyone under the age of 18.
Watch the Rules Committee live at 2 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3.
C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, and online at c-SPAN.org.
Friday, on C-SPAN's Ceasefire.
At a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman and Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt come together for a bipartisan dialogue on the top issues facing the country.
They join host Dasha Burns.
Bridging the Divide in American Politics.
Watch Ceasefire Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series.
Sunday with our guest Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, who has authored several collections of poetry.