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Trump: "We'll Bring In The Military If Needed" Into D.C.; Trump: "We've Already Started" Removing Homeless People In D.C. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: With graffiti on our monuments. So they continue to do a great job, whether it's in their vehicles, on foot, or on the mounted police that you see around the National Mall. And, President Trump, they thank you.

[11:00:08]

The rank-and-file is so happy to be enforcing the law again. Thank you for your leadership. And they're -- they're excited about the announcement you're making today.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Very good. Great job you're doing. Thank you very much.

Pete, could you say something about the military, if you would?

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, Mr. President, it's an honor to be here. And at your direction this morning, we've mobilized the D.C. National Guard. It'll be operationalized by the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, through the D.C. Guard. You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.

At your direction as well, sir, there are other units we are prepared to bring in. Other National Guard units, other specialized units, they will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners.

This is nothing new for DOD. As the President noted, at the border, we've got 10,000 troops down there who have been operating in defense cooperation areas, defense zones, where there's zero, zero illegal crossings because of troops on strikers scanning the border. We've been protecting other people's borders for 20 years.

It's about time we protect our own. And we're working with ICE and CBP. In Los Angeles, we did the same thing, working with the California National Guard, working with ICE officers. ICE officers deserve to do their job and not be attacked. We will work alongside all D.C. police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe. This city is beautiful.

And as I always say about President Trump to the troops, he has their back. And my message to the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Washington is we have your back as well. Be tough. Be strong. We're right behind you. Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: President I'm going to ask Pam because she's now, as you heard me say, she's really in charge of a lot of what we're talking about. She's done an incredible job. People are going to start to see the fruits of her labor. And, Pam, maybe you could say a few words about what we're talking about here.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sure, President. Let me be crystal clear. Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today. We are going to use every power we have to fight criminals here. President, thank you for caring about our Capitol.

Families come here every summer. Our museums are free. We have the National Zoo. We have the National Gallery. D.C. should be a place where everyone can come and feel safe. Behind me and to my side, we have some of the best career law enforcement and prosecutors in the country who are ready to take this on.

As the President said, Terry Cole is going to be supervising the Metro Police Department. Gady Serralta, our U.S. Marshal, is going to be supervising command and control the entire operation. Our Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and I will be working with them closely, along with our great FBI Director Kash Patel.

Kash is going to talk to you in a minute about what we did in Virginia recently with Governor Youngkin. Many of you covered that, and it was tremendously successful. Not only that, our secret weapon here in D.C. is U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, one of the toughest prosecutors and a former judge.

And she is going to be talking about juvenile crime, how it's out of control here, and what she's going to do to fight back. No more. No more crime rampant in our beautiful Capitol. No more teenage girls beating a disabled man to death. No more of that. No more drive-bys.

We're going to do everything we can. And working with the ATF, ATF Director Driscoll and Commander of the Army, we're going to all work together. That's what we all do in this room. We work together. We fight. Do not underestimate one person in this room.

We're going to make D.C. beautiful. We're going to make D.C. safe again. One other thing, just at the wharf a few days ago, the area of the wharf, Terry Cole reached out to me, not even nightfall, on the weekend, where so many families in Turrisco (ph), a guy's overdosing from fentanyl on a park bench, in the middle of families around.

They administered Narcan and saved his life. No more of that. The President of the United States is going to clean up D.C., and we're going to be there to help him, and we're going to be successful. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you Pam. Can I ask you to talk about Northern Virginia, if you will? Northern Virginia, we had a big success. KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for your leadership, Deputy Attorney General and the rest of our interagency partners.

Mr. President, the following is what happens when you let good cops be cops, and I just want to highlight that before I get into Northern Virginia. This year alone, under President Trump's administration, we've had over 4,000 child victims identified and found. That's a 33 percent increase from the same time period last year, 33 percent increase.

[11:05:07]

We've had a seizure of 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl this -- up to this date. That is a 25 percent increase since the same time period last year. And just to put it in perspective, 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl is enough to kill 115 million Americans, 115 million Americans. Cops are getting after it.

The FBI has arrested 19,000 people this year alone. Thanks to President Trump's administration, that's double than where we were this time last year. And we have also arrested 1,600 people who have committed violent acts against children, children. Two hundred seventy of them are human traffickers of children.

Mr. President, this is what happens when you have great leadership at the Attorney General with Pam Bondi, your administration's priority of protecting the homeland and protecting American citizens and protecting our children. And the murder rates are plummeting.

We are now able to report that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in U.S. history, in modern recorded U.S. history, thanks to this team behind me and President Trump's priorities. And how do we do it? And what are we going to bring to D.C.? What we did in Northern Virginia, thanks to Terry Cole and Governor Youngkin and the team, we stood up a task force out in my Northern Virginia field office, and we said, let's let good cops be cops, let's get them the intelligence and what they need, and let's get the red tape out of their way, and let's get DOJ partnered up with us to bring great prosecutions. And that's exactly what we did.

In one month, we arrested 545 violent felons, 545, in the state of Virginia, thanks to Governor Youngkin's partnership. And that simplicity in law enforcement is what's coming to Washington, D.C. When you let good cops be cops, when you give them the intel they need, when you work with our Homeland Security Task Force, when you work with Terry and Gady and I go way back to Miami, these guys are great leaders of their respective departments and law enforcement capacities.

And when you have the DOJ and President Trump driving behind this mission, we are going to clean up Washington, D.C., and we're going to do it the right way, the lawful way, and we're going to make sure Washington, D.C. is safe again. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you, Kash.

So the process begins right now. It actually started over the weekend. We confronted a lot of very bad people. But it's --it's going to be something that will be pretty amazing to you as you watch it. And I think most of you will say it's a beautiful thing to do it right.

We're going to be removing homeless and campers from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on. They've been very -- they're very dirty, very -- got a lot of problems. But we've already started that.

We're moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people. Some of those people, we don't know how they even got there. Some of those people are from different countries, different parts of the world. Nobody knows who they are. They have no idea. But they're there.

We're going to start getting rid of the people from underpasses and public spaces from all over the city. There are many places that they can go, and we're going to help them, as much as you can help. But they'll not be allowed to turn our Capitol into a wasteland for the world to see.

The Metropolitan Police Department and the federal authorities will be supported in the effort, a really big effort, the 800 D.C. National Guardsmen that we'll put on, and much more, if necessary, much more. It's -- you remember I said, I offered 10,000 once.

Remember I said to a certain person, a person who I thought always was highly overrated, not very competent? But I said, if you need them, we'll give you 10,000 of the military or the National Guard. They turned me down. But if necessary, we're going to move service members directly to joining the Guardsmen.

And that'll take place very rapidly, and that'll be done in conjunction with Pam and with Pete and everybody else. Washington, D.C. should be one of the safest, cleanest, and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world. And we're going to make it that. We're going to make it safe. We're going to make it smart. We're going to make it beautiful. So beautiful.

Some of the buildings, we're going to add to it. You see what we've done at the White House. The White House is a whole different building. I do that in my part-time because it's a natural instinct as a real estate person. I was very good at that. And I was very good at fixing things up. I like fixing things up. You see what's happening.

The marble floors are being reinstalled, renovated, fixed. The whole place is becoming very beautiful. We're going to be adding a magnificent ballroom, most beautiful ballroom, I think, anywhere. We need it. I would have certainly loved to have had it today.

[11:10:00]

I think we would have filled it up. A lot of you are standing outside, can't get in this room. I have never seen the room like this, which tells me that you want to talk about, I mean, this was a D.C. news conference. It tells me that you want to talk about crime in D.C. and beautification of D.C. But I'm going to put that. That's easy.

And I think, frankly, fixing the crime with the pros, fixing the crime is easy, too. A person who I've known for a long time and she's been incredible, she was a fantastic, one of the best-ever district attorneys in New York. She was in Westchester, and she became a judge, very successful judge.

And then she went into showbiz because she was such a good D.A. and such a good judge, tough judge, but fair, always fair. Nobody ever complained about that, but she was tough. And because of that and her reputation, she went into showbiz. So a lot of people don't, you know, they think of Jeanine as showbiz.

Actually, showbiz was not her thing. It was -- and she did great. She was on, along with a couple of other of my friends, on the number one show. And she did great. But this is what she -- she loves doing. This is really her -- her baby. What she's going to do is going to be incredible. And I'd like to introduce, to speak for just a few seconds on what she has in mind, what she wants to do. We're going to be appointing some judges.

You know, we have some open spots, and we're going to take people because the judges are letting killers out. They just say, go. That's OK. Don't worry about it. So we're putting some. Pam recommended, Todd recommended, some judges that are great, Jeanine recommended.

Jeanine has given me three great candidates already. We have about 10 open spots, and we can probably create some more. We need them. Jeanine, would you say a few words, please?

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Thank you very much, Mr. President. And thank you, Madam Attorney General, and to all my partners here.

We all want the same thing. We all want a safe city. We want a safe Capitol. We want to be able to bring our families here. We want to be able to come and enjoy the history that makes this place great. And, unfortunately, we are not in that position right now.

And, Mr. President, I want to thank you for taking the step that we need right now to make criminals understand that they are not going to get away with it anymore. And I'm not going to stand here and go over and over the cases.

But what I can tell you is this. I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else. They don't care where they are. They can be in DuPont's circle. But they know that we can't touch them. Why? Because the laws are weak.

I can't touch you if you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, and you have a gun. I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest intent to kill. I convict him. And you know what the judge gives him? Probation. Says you should go to college. We need to go after the D.C. Council and their absurd laws. We need to get rid of this concept of, you know, no cash bail. We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens. And it starts today.

But it's not going to end today, because the President is going to do everything we need to do to make sure that these emboldened criminals understand we see you, we're watching you, and we're going to change the law to catch you.

And my final note is this. These kids understand that the jurisdiction is through the state attorney general, Brian Schwalb. I did a poster of the young man from DOGE who was beaten bloody with a severe concussion, a broken nose.

And then I did a poster of what happens to those kids, because I can't arrest them. I can't prosecute them. They go to family court, and they get to do yoga and arts and crafts. Enough. It changes today. Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you, Jeanine.

PIRRO: You're welcome.

TRUMP: Great job. Thank you.

If I could, I just signed some executive orders. I'd like to have Will please come up, and we'll let the people know what we signed. You want to put them down?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A short while ago in the Oval Office, President Trump signed two crucial executive actions to deal with the emergency crime conditions we currently face in the District of Columbia.

The first of these was an executive order, as President Trump said before, invoking his powers under Section 40 of the Home Rule Act to take federal control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Along with that executive order, President Trump signed the statutorily required notification letters to Mayor Bowser and to the relevant House and Senate Committee leaders.

[11:15:10]

The second major executive action that President Trump signed was a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to utilize the National Guard to address the conditions we see on -- on our -- our streets here in D.C. It also authorized the Secretary of Defense to work with state governors to utilize their National Guard units, if necessary, as well.

These are bold, decisive steps intended to combat the out-of-control crime conditions we've seen on D.C.'s streets for far too long, and I, for one, am deeply proud to be part of an administration that's finally coming to terms with these issues, sir.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir.

TRUMP: Thank you. So, just to conclude, Washington, D.C., should be one of the safest, cleanest, most beautiful places anywhere in the world. It was years ago. We had one problem that was a pretty big problem, the radical left got out of control, and they started trying to rip down statues.

And I said, let's go pass a law real fast. We're going to do it real fast. But we were blocked by the Democrats, who do not want safety. Nobody gets it. I don't get it. They don't get it, because they can't get votes. I don't know how they can win an election with this, but they don't want safety.

And I found an old statue, very old, early 1900s, that said, if you so much as touch or even think about destroying a statue or a monument in Washington, D.C., you go to jail for 10 years with no probation, no anything, in other words, slightly different than we have today.

Today we have cashless bail. Today you get jailed 10 years, no curtailed sentence, 10 years. And we -- we took it out. Nobody used it. It was never used because, you know, it's harsh. And you remember, they started to rip down the statue of Abraham Lincoln.

I said, that's a tough one to rip down. That's -- he was pretty good, Pam. I think he was pretty good. When they -- when the ropes started going around Abraham Lincoln to pull him down, Andrew Jackson, others and they were heading to the Jefferson Memorial, Thomas Jefferson. They're going to do a big number there.

I said, it's time. And I signed that statute immediately. We had it updated. We made it use the same language. All passed by Congress. And I announced it's 10 years in jail, no probation, no anything, 10 years, no curtailed sentence if you touch so much as touch a statue in Washington, D.C. And it was an amazing sight, beautiful sight.

Everybody just left. The ropes were hanging around Andrew Jackson. And there were two ropes around Abraham Lincoln. They left the rope. But everybody just left. And that was the last problem we ever had. You know, that was the last problem that we ever had with the statues. They were going wild.

And we -- somebody came to me and said, sir, in 1910, I don't want to give you an exact because you'll say, Donald Trump gave us rope that's around, like, early on. You know, if I'm slightly off, they make you sound a little bad. So I won't be -- I won't put myself in that position. I won't put you in that position.

Because I think everybody agrees with what we're doing today. But when I signed that thing, it was like a miracle. Everybody left. They were gone. They were starting to march down. They started the march toward Thomas Jefferson. And I figured he was always going to be safe. But they found something with him, and they found something with Abraham Lincoln. And even in the name George Washington in California, numerous places changed the name of George Washington High School and various other places. They took George Washington's name.

This was a sick, woke culture that I think we've largely ended. And a lot of those people that were woke are now turning out to be the opposite. I won't go so far as to say MAGA. It's a very special category. But they've gotten out of that.

But we have -- we have people that love this country, and they love this -- this really beautiful Capitol. It is. I flew over it the other day, and I said, what a beautiful place. But what -- if there's crime all over the streets, when you get there, it doesn't look so beautiful. But we're going to make it beautiful again.

We're going to fix it with crime, and we're going to also -- as we're doing that, we're going to start doing things that we know how to do, that I know how to do better than anybody, I guess, because of my experience from previous life.

[11:20:02]

But not only are we stopping the crime, we're going to clean up the trash and the graffiti and the grime and the dirt from previous life. But not only are we stopping the crime, we're going to clean up the trash and the graffiti and the grime and the dirt and the broken marble panels and all of the things they've done to hurt this city.

And we're going to restore the city back to the gleaming Capitol that everybody wants it to be. It's going to be something very special. All of these people are really -- can I shake your hand, Gady, please? You're going to be so important here. You're going to be -- you're going to be that guy.

I hope I don't have to fire him in two weeks because he's too soft. I don't think he's too soft. If I do, I will, though. Is it OK? If you're -- if you're soft, weak, and pathetic, like so many people, I will fire you so fast. You're not going to have to worry about that. No, I think you're going to do a fantastic job.

And everybody in this room, they may not express it, but they all want that to happen. You know, they want to be safe, and they have families, too. So, it's an honor to have such a large group. I've done this for years now, hard to believe. I've never seen this room so packed.

In fact, I'm sure it's a violation of every fire code. But we'll let you stay anyway. You take it a chance. And with that, we'll say, maybe if you could, oh, wow. We could be here all day long. If you could -- if we could keep the first questions, perhaps, to this subject, and then we'll go on to a few others. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you so much. Can you talk about how personal of an issue this is? You talked about flying over the Washington Monument and seeing the pride of what D.C. is. Do you believe that the status of the city, the cleanliness, the -- the way that crime is low, is a direct reflection on how the country is run?

TRUMP: Yes, I do. I think the Capitol, look, everyone comes here. They all -- they're all coming. All the leaders, they're all wanting to come. And I say it. I've said it again, but I'm really just quoting other leaders from NATO, from the Middle East, King of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE. I was over there. We brought back $5.1 trillion of investment into our country. But I was -- a month and a half ago, I was at NATO. We had a great -- I think they agreed to put up 5 percent instead of 2 percent, 2 percent they didn't pay, 5 percent is already paid. We had a great meeting. And they all said the same thing.

They said our country was dead. They thought our country was gone. One year ago, they said your country was dead. And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We do. We have the hottest country in the world right now.

The tariffs have helped. It's given us not only the money, it's billions, trillions of dollars of money, but it gives us great power over enemies. We solved five wars with Pakistan and India, with -- we just solved one, Azerbaijan and, as you know, and Armenia.

It was -- a war was raging for 37 years. And the two leaders got up and they said, we never thought this would be solved. Russia tried to solve it. They all tried to solve it. It was a very tough situation, but we got it done and got it done. And then I said to the two men, I said, are you guys friends? And they had a hard time.

You know, they've been killing each other for 37 years, right? One was there five years, one was there for 22 years. He said, my whole life, I've been fighting this war, and you got it solved. But we did many of those. We did -- in the Congo and Rwanda. That's been going on for 30 years, 8 to 9 million people killed that they know of. But it was raging, and we got that solved.

We got a lot of them done. It's a great honor. But you want to have -- when they come, the leaders come to our country to sign documents that the war is over or whatever, or for other reasons. They come for trade. And you want them to come through so beautifully. You ride down those roads, everything should be perfect.

You shouldn't have medians falling down into the roadway. Median, you know, the metal things that are always -- somebody had a great -- a great lobbyist, because I've never seen them look good. I've been looking at those things with a little -- right? They're always broken and bad.

But here, they're really bad. And we're going to either put new or fix it. And it's not expensive. It's not really expensive. And we're going to fix our roads a little bit. We're going to clean up our sidewalks. You have countries where, every Saturday, the people go out and they wash their sidewalks in front of their stores and their houses. They scrub. They scrub their sidewalks.

So we aren't quite at that level yet. I don't think, Gady, we're not quite there yet. But maybe we will. They go -- they go out and they scrub. I think it's so beautiful to hear that and to see those stories. But we're going to make it clean.

[11:24:57]

But just to finish with your question, it's a very, very strong reflection of our country. And when they see a bad city, you know, my father always used to tell me, I had a wonderful father, very smart. And he used to say, son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also. Same thing with the Capitol.

If our Capitol is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us. So, it's a very good question, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I'm fine. Sorry. Question for you. On the specific issue. Do you expect more cities to follow D.C.'s path if this goes through? So, the idea is that Chicago, L.A., San Francisco would they expect similar action what we see in D.C.? And other questions, sir, there's reporting that the administration is going to reclassify marijuana. Would that send mixed messages that if marijuana is OK, drugs are -- some drugs are OK, but we're trying to clean up crime? How do they go hand-in-hand?

TRUMP: We're only looking at that. That's early. But, you know, somebody reported it, which is fine. We're looking at it. Some people like it. Some people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children.

But we're looking at reclassification, and we'll make a determination over the next, I would say over the next few weeks. And that determination, hopefully, will be the right one. It's a very complicated subject, these -- you know, the subject of marijuana.

I've heard great things having to do with medical, and I've had bad things having to do with just about everything else. But medical and, you know, for pain and various things, I've heard some pretty good things. But for other things, I've heard some pretty bad things.

The other part of your question, I mean, we're just going to see what happens with -- with it all. You're going to have -- we're going to have a tremendous success in what we're doing. Other cities are hopefully watching this. They're all watching. Just like everyone is watching here, they're all watching. And maybe they'll self-clean up, and maybe they'll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem.

I mean, if you go back, this whole thing with cashless bail is a disaster. So many problems came that we -- we never had before. So they're watching us today. And if they don't learn their lesson, if they haven't studied us properly, because we're going to be very successful. I have zero doubt about that. It's going to be -- it's a question of will it be really fast, like the border.

And everyone said, they used to say, Biden used to say, I need legislation. I need -- you didn't need -- I didn't get any legislation. I called up our people, and we did a great job. Tom Homan was great. Our -- as you know, our Secretary did a great job. They did a great job.

There's no games. They didn't play games. And we're going to have the same thing here. But then I'm going to look at New York in a little while. Let's do this. Let's do this together. Let's see. It's going to go pretty quickly. And if we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster.

We have a mayor there who's totally incompetent. He's an incompetent man. And we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent. His family threw him out of the business, and he ran for governor. And now I understand he wants to be President.

But I noticed he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance, you know? You never know what happens. But Pritzker is a gross incompetent guy, thrown out of the family business.

But when I look at Chicago and I look at L.A. If we didn't go to L.A. three months ago, L.A. would be burning like the part that didn't burn. If he would have allowed the water to come down, which I told him about in my first term, I said, you're going to have problems. Let it come down.

We actually sent in our military to have the water come down into L.A. They still didn't want it to come down after the fires. But that was it. We have it coming down. But hopefully, L.A. is watching. That mayor also. The city is burning. They lost like 25,000 homes. I went there the day after the fire. You were there.

And I saw people standing in front of a burned down home. It was -- their homes were incinerated. They weren't like even the steel was literally, it was all warped and literally disintegrated because of the winds and the flame and the whole thing, like a blowtorch. They were standing on this beautiful day maybe a couple of days after.

He gave it a little time because what they had suffered, almost 25,000 homes. And you see what's happening now. They didn't give their permits. I went to a town hall meeting. I said, we're going to get you the federal permits, which are much harder. Almost immediately, Lee Zeldin is a star. He did an incredible job. They have all their federal permits. They don't have their city permits.

[11:29:56]

And the mayor said to me, we think we could have them in two years. I was walking down the street and I met with firemen and police, and I was saying hello to many people that were standing in front of their homes with yellow tape.