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Trump Signs Order For Hegseth To Set Up Specialized Nat'l Guard Units Around The Country To "Deal With Public Order Issues". Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were gone. You have -- this is one of the safest cities right now in the world, as crazy as that sounds. And it took seven days, took really three days, but we're now in our 11th day.

So I want to thank you. So we had all of these things, 439 illegal alien criminals have been removed. And we have six known gang members, some of the worst leaders of gangs anywhere in the country, MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.

We have two missing children that have been recovered. They thought they were gone. We brought them back to the family. The family started crying. They couldn't believe that they saw their child again. Forty- nine homeless encampments -- encampments have been removed.

Like we have the head of South Korea coming in in a little while, the president, and he drives down the street. Already his people have told me, he said, what happened? It's so clean. We always came here. It was filthy, dirty with homeless and papers all over the road. That's the other thing.

Those roads are swept immaculate, but they're going to be much better in a few months when we put a topping on them, they're going to look like they're brand new. We'll get rid of those rusty old medians that have been crashed into a thousand times and they don't fix them. They just let them, they put them, they lay them down on the road and they sit there for months, but we don't do that.

We don't run things. We run things like we run this. We like clean. We like beautiful. We like safe. And that's what we're getting. So I'll start signing the executive orders. To me, there's a very, very big deal. One of the executive orders has to do with cashless bail.

That was when the big crime in this country started. And I can tell you who did it when, but I don't want to do that because others followed pretty quickly. But that was when it happened. Somebody kills somebody. They go in, don't worry about it. No cash.

Come back in a couple of months. We'll give you a trial. You never see the person again. And I mean, they kill people and they get out, cashless bail. They thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money because they just killed three people lying on a street, any street all over the country, cashless bail. We're ending it, but we're starting by ending it in D.C. and that we have the right to do through federalization.

OK, let's go. Could I ask you to say exactly what this is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. So as you've consistently identified, sir, cashless bail policies are a key driver of the disorder we see on city streets all over America. Catch and release system allows criminals to keep going back out onto the street and re-offending. What this executive order does, it charges your attorney general with identifying jurisdictions all over the country that have cashless bail policies, and then it withholds or revokes federal funds and grants that are flowing to those jurisdictions to ensure that we're only supporting the people who have reasonable common sense policies around crime.

TRUMP: So what area does it cover?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Potentially anywhere that has a cashless bail policy. So some of the largest cities, some of the most left-wing states in America have adopted.

TRUMP: Almost all of them, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Illinois would be a great example of that, sir.

TRUMP: Oh, they have a great cashless bail. You don't even have to go to court sometimes. No, Illinois, I love that state. It's a great state, but it's run so badly by Pritzker. They threw him out of the family business and he becomes governor. Now he wants to run for president. I don't think that's going to happen.

OK, we'll sign right here, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: So important. And this isn't Republican-Democrat. This is, and by the way, most Democrats agree with us. But this is just, we got to bring our country back. OK. That's a big one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also on the issue of cashless bail, sir, this is a D.C. specific executive order. In addition to the measures that we're taking that are quite similar to what we're doing around the country in D.C. in particular, the objective is holding as many criminal defendants in federal custody and subjecting them to federal charges as possible. That means that they'll be held pretrial in federal jail as opposed to just being cut back out on the streets due to a cashless bail policy.

TRUMP: OK. And we have the room. And by the way, the prison they have in D.C. is horrible. It's horrible. People were subjected to live in that dog trap for so long, so unfairly. I have stories. You'll be hearing about them. That prison is horrible. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an executive order that contains a number of additional measures relating to crime and law enforcement in Washington, D.C. It charges, for example, your secretary of defense with establishing specialized units in both the D.C. National Guard and the National Guard units around the country, specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues.

[11:05:02]

It charges all of your various federal law enforcement agencies with hiring additional personnel to allow them to surge personnel to -- to Washington, D.C. to deal with the current emergency here. It does a number of other things in that space. And it also asks the attorney general to look at D.C. Metropolitan Police general orders that have currently impeded law enforcement efforts in the city and to potentially look at unwinding those that are stopping the police from doing their job effectively.

TRUMP: And are we going to ask this to be codified by Congress? All of these things?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we could potentially. Yes, sir.

TRUMP: I think so. I think we should. I think we'll get it. I think Democrats will vote. Well, it's hard. It's hard to believe they might not. But I think Democrats will actually vote for this. There's no auto pen that can do that, right? Look at that Pam. Is that a good thing? Seriously, is that a good signature? Who can -- who can write like that? Nobody.

I don't know. That's the other thing. I assume we're looking at the whole auto pen scam because the person that read it said he spoke to briefly twice about nothing. That means that all those pardons that he gave to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people. It looks to me like those partners are worthless. Because number one, you shouldn't use an auto pen very specifically.

But if you do, it has to be a very good reason. And they have to know that the President wanted it. The President didn't want this. The President didn't know he was alive, OK? He never approved any of this stuff. He wasn't for open borders and all the other things. He was never for open borders. I've known Biden a long time. He was never very sharp, but he was never in favor of open borders and all of the other things he did to destroy our country. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lastly, sir, this is an executive order on flag burning that charges your attorney general.

TRUMP: Would you listen to this? This is very appalling. Flag burning all over the country, they're burning flags. All over the world, they burn the American flag. And as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a five to four decision. They called it freedom of speech. But there's another reason, which is perhaps much more important, it's called death, because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.

If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You could do other things. You can burn this piece of paper. You can -- and it's -- but when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before. People go crazy in a way, both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.

Do you want to discuss that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure, sir. What the executive order does, sir, it charges your Department of Justice with investigating instances of flag burning and then where there's evidence of -- of criminal activity that where prosecution wouldn't fall afoul of the First Amendment and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.

TRUMP: And what the penalty is going to be if you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. If you burn a flag, you get -- and what it does is incite to right. I hope they use that language, by the way, did they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incite --

TRUMP: Incite to riot and you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don't get 10 years. You don't get one month. You get one year in jail and it goes on your record and you will see flag burning stopping immediately, just like when I signed the Statute and Monument Act. Ten years in jail. Have you heard any of our beautiful monuments? Everybody left town. They were gone. Never had a problem after that. It's pretty amazing. We stopped it.

But this is something that's, I don't know, in a certain way, it's equally as important. Some people would say it's more important because the people in this country don't want to see our American flag burned and spit on. And by people that are, in many cases, paid agitators, they're paid by the radical left to do it.

You talk to these people, they don't even know half of them don't even know what they're doing. They say, I don't know. They gave me money to do this. I see the same things that you do. They're bad people. They're trying to destroy our nation. That's not working because I think our nation now is the most respected nation anywhere in the world by far. You saw that with the European leaders on Friday. You saw that with NATO, where they agreed to go from 2 percent no pay to 5 percent fully paid up, trillions of dollars paid, where they respect your president to a level that they jokingly call me the president of Europe.

They call me president of Europe, which is an honor. I like Europe and I like those people. They're good people. They're great leaders. And we've never had a case where, seven plus really 28, essentially 35, 38 countries were leaders. And we've never had a case where, uh, seven plus really 28, essentially 35 -- 38 countries were represented here the other day, 38 European countries were. European and other countries were represented. And it was a great meeting, but your country is respected again.

[11:10:21] I say it all the time. One year ago, our country was dead. Everybody said it. We had a dead country. We were not going to survive. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So it's an honor to be involved. And this group has a lot to do with it right behind me.

Does anybody behind me have anything? Pam, would you like to say something?

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sure. President, thank you for keeping D.C. safe. You know, just a couple examples of a mother, a single mom whose house was burglarized and the defendant got out on cashless bail, went back the next night and burglarized her house again. That's why this is so important.

A man got in a fight with another guy. He had a gun. He was let out next night. He got up, went back and killed him. So that's why it's so important, President, what you're doing. And thank you. And thank you for protecting the American flag. And we'll do that without running a foul of the First Amendment as well.

TRUMP: Good.

BONDI: And President, I think Terry Cole, excuse me, I think Gady Serralta had something he wanted to give you on behalf of all the law enforcement who are out there every single night

GADY SERRALTA, DIRECTOR, USMS: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes.

SERRALTA: Thank you for putting me in charge of this search as the director of the United States Marshal Service. It's the oldest law enforcement agency. It was created in 1789. So on behalf of all the federal law enforcement agencies that we're working with and those that have yet to join the team, we thought it was only appropriate to present you with an honorary United States Marshal Service badge.

And this -- this badge comes with this little item right here, which is a handcuff key, Mr. President, because you continue through your policies and your efforts with your staff to unhandcuff law enforcement officers all over this nation. And I can tell you personally that they thank you for that.

TRUMP: Thank you. That's beautiful.

SERRALTA: You can continue on handcuffing law enforcement.

TRUMP: That's a very great honor. I'll save that and put it someplace up, which is important. Thank you very much, Gady. Really appreciate it.

SERRALTA: Thank you very much.

TRUMP: Thank you. That's very nice. Thank you. Well, we love those people. They're brave and they love our country and they don't want to see -- they don't want to see it. You know how many people volunteered for this job? And before I ask the V.P. to say a few words, because he feels very strongly about it, I think it's very important, Pam, that when we do this, that a state requires -- they come and ask us. I mean, I see Pritzker say we don't want them.

In the meantime, a city is being shot to hell and they do that politically and they probably do want it. If we didn't go to Los Angeles, you would literally have had to call off the Olympics. It was so bad. And the sheriff and the law enforcement people. But the sheriff said and it came out very strongly. He said, if we didn't have these people, we were not able to control it.

Now, four days later, after we had it totally under control, we -- we did that quickly. He changes to a little bit. Well, I think we could have done it. Yes. He was -- they were dead. We didn't send in the troops, Los Angeles was dead. The Olympics was gone. The World Cup was gone. Everything was gone.

We did a great job. And Newsom, we got an economy -- he's an incompetent governor. But I think people should want us to be there because otherwise all they'll do is complain as we do our job. So we'll have to think about that. OK, we -- we go in like in Washington. We go in and the people that are here that have been doing I don't want to say terrible because she happens, you know, she's a nice woman. Yes.

I don't care about if she's nice. I really don't care. I wanted to do I'd -- I'd rather have it be horrible, but do the job. But we come into Washington and we have the 11 best days they've had here in two centuries. I mean, they've never seen anything like it. Let's go two decades. In over 20 years, they haven't seen anything like what happened. And now they're out there saying we don't have crime in Washington. Well, that's true.

For 11 days, you don't have crime. But before that, everybody was getting hit and mugged. And you people could not walk to your office without security. That's how unsafe it was. So I think we should really let them have their city, let their city go to hell. And when they come and beg us to help.

[11:15:00]

The only problem is we want to save it for the big because the people want us there. The people here, 95 percent of the people here want us, the real people, not the people you find. I don't know where you find these people. You have one person has a broken nose. Where do you get it? Well, I was mugged. Good.

Do you want to see Trump here with? No, I don't want. The woman has a broken nose. She got mugged. But she's saying she doesn't want any protection. It's all made up fake news. It's just fake news. I don't know where you find these people. Anyway, would you say a couple of words, please? And then I'm going to ask J.D. to say something. You have done an unbelievable job in a short period of time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Highly recommended by you know who, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Do you want to say his name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Youngkin, Gov. Youngkin. Yes, sir.

BONDI: We stole you from Gov. Youngkin.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's right.

TRUMP: He called me. He called me. Glenn Young called and he said, I have somebody who's really fantastic. And based on that recommendation, here you are. You've done a fantastic job. I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department are back. They enjoy doing their job again. They feel the ability to go out and be law enforcement officers. They feel that they're connected to their communities again. They are making a difference. Thanks to you, Mr. President and our federal task force, you are making D.C. safe once again. Thank you, sir.

TRUMP: It's going to get better and better. We can't get much better. There's no crime. I read where crime is down 89 percent. I said, really? Who are the 11 percent? OK, there's no crime. J.D., please.

VANCE: Yes, sir. Well, thanks. Thanks, Mr. President. Thanks to the incredible team here. You know, I was one of the something the President said where you say there haven't been murders in a couple of weeks in D.C. It doesn't sound good. But then you talk to local law enforcement and I didn't realize this, that this town averaged one murder every other day for the last 20, 30 years, which means that it's two short weeks, the President and the team have saved six or seven lives.

People who would have been killed on the streets of D.C. who are now living, breathing, spending time with their families because the President had the willpower to say no more. We're not going to give the streets of D.C. over to vagrants and robbers and murderers. And the last one I want to make, sir, to your point about we want people to welcome us, to ask us, because look at Governor Pritzker in Illinois or Governor Newsom in Los Angeles or Governor Moore in Maryland.

They are angrier about the fact that the President of the United States is offering to help them get their crime under control than they are about the fact that murderers are running roughshod over their cities and have been for decades. Why are Democrat governors angrier about federal law enforcement helping clean up their streets than they are about the fact that those streets need to be cleaned up to begin with? It shows a real sickness in the head. And I agree with the President of the United States. I think most Democrats rank and file. Nobody likes crime. Republicans don't like crime. Democrats don't like crime. Independents don't like crime. Why are Democratic governors doing everything in their power to make crime easier to do in their cities? It doesn't make an ounce of sense to me.

But, Mr. President, I appreciate you being willing to help. And I hope these governors take you up on the offer because we should clean up all of America's streets. It's the right of every American to live in safety and comfort in their community.

TRUMP: And we've got the people to do it. They're signing up like they've never signed up before. Our military, as you know, during the campaign, nobody was signing up. We were way short, short of their goal, short of their -- we were understaffed. We -- nobody wanted to be in the military. Nobody wanted to be a policeman. Nobody wanted to be a fireman. They didn't want anything to do with the country. We had an incompetent, grossly incompetent president who, frankly, should not have been there.

They should have never been there. What he -- the damage he done he -- he did to this country is incalculable. I mean, just what -- what he has done so much of our effort are getting murderers and jailbirds and people out of this country who are drug dealers at the highest level. So much of the energy of people that he led and it just -- it -- it was an unforced error. But I don't think they think it's an error. But I don't believe he believed it.

It was a radical lunatics that surrounded this guy at this desk who are brilliant people, but with the wrong philosophy. There was some brilliant people, but they're evil people and they're going to be brought down. They have to be brought down because they really hurt our country. But we're getting it back very quickly.

And I'll tell you something, our country's now it's stronger. I think we're more respected than we've been respected in 100 years. It's a whole different ballgame. J.D., could I ask you?

VANCE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: You gave a stat on murders here. What were the numbers you said in a short period of time, how many people were murdered?

VANCE: Local law enforcement told me, sir, that in the past 20 or 30 years, D.C. has averaged a murder every other day. That's, you know, 200 murders a year, 150, 250.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've been listening to President Trump and some of the officials in his administration as he signed several executive orders cracking down on flag burning, eliminating cashless bail, also extending the crime crackdown, giving new authorities to the DOD secretary for these specialized units in the National Guard for public order issues, as he said.

[11:20:22] I want to go to our Jeff Zeleny there at the White House to tell us more about what we just heard there in the Oval Office, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, as you said, these executive orders, there were several of them that the President signed. And the broad overview to all of them is a continuing focus and emphasis on law and order. This is something that the President really has made the central theme of the month of August. And he's signing these executive orders. Some have authority.

And, Keith, others do not. Some may be challenged in court, as many of his executive orders have. Others do not. But just walking through them very quickly, one of the perhaps most significant one is urging crimes that are committed here in the District of Columbia to be charged federally rather than locally. That is one of the underwriting issues here that has really been fueling the President's concern about the federalization of police here, that some crimes are charged locally, not federally, so the punishments aren't as severe, so going after that.

But also, as you said, an executive order, and we'll have to get more details on this, but effectively allowing the secretary of a defense to have a more normalized National Guard unit, both here in Washington as well as across the country, as he said, to rein in local law enforcement. So it effectively would have formalized the military presence on the streets, to bring law and order to the streets.

Unclear exactly the scope of that, but certainly the President has talked a lot about Chicago being the next place where he would like to send forces in. So this certainly seems to be a precursor for that. And, of course, the final one is flag burning, essentially wrapping all of in a patriotic bow, if you will. Flag burning is something that many presidents have tackled. It's hardly a new issue in the United States at all.

There are not many cases of prosecutions of it, but the President also talking about that as well. But by and large, Pamela, it's one more effort for the President to focus on law and order and crime as he goes through the summer. As we near the end of August here, it's quite notable that the President has spent very little, if any time, talking about his legislative accomplishments.

He simply now is talking often about crime here in Washington and across the country. And we should say that crime has been down. The Department of Justice has reported that. And he also talked about how there are 11 straight days without murders. He said that was for the first time this year. That's actually is not true.

In February and March, there was also a stretch of no homicides there as well. But the law enforcement presence is still here in Washington, even though he says his crackdown has cleaned it up. Pamela?

BROWN: Right. And we should note on the flag burning that in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that it was protected by the First Amendment. Now, there are exceptions to that. And it appears that what we heard from Attorney General Pam Bondi, that that's what they're going to be focused on. And the President said that those who engage in that activity will be prosecuted for a year.

I also want to ask you about this visit coming up from the president of South Korea to the White House. Tell us more about what's on the agenda there.

ZELENY: Well, Pamela, this is significant. Even as we stand and speak here, the Honor Guard is about to take their place for a scheduled noontime visit here in Washington of the new president of South Korea. It's the latest in a string of world leaders coming here to the White House. Of course, many issues are on the agenda. Tariffs, of course, are a first among them.

But the President is signaling that this could be a bit of a controversial and heated meeting. He sent out a message on social media just a short time ago before going to the Oval Office. Let's look at that together. The President writes, what's going on in South Korea? Seems like a purge or a revolution. We can't have that and do business there. I'm seeing the new president today at the White House.

So what this is, is just breaking it down for you, the American President weighing into South Korean politics with the new president. Some conservative leaders and movements in South Korea do not respect or like this president. So President Trump seems to be weighing into that. We will see how that Oval Office meeting goes, which is scheduled for early this afternoon, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Stay there. We're going to check back in with you as we continue to monitor this Oval Office gathering there. We do expect President Trump to take questions from reporters soon. A lot to ask him about. But in the meantime, I want to go to Mike Valerio in Seoul, South Korea. Mike, how significant is that social media post we just heard from Jeff Zeleny?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's huge, Pamela, and it's past midnight here. But I will tell you, the political class in this corner of the world in Seoul, South Korea, is wide awake, wondering how this Oval Office meeting could possibly be salvaged given this post on Truth. So when the President of the United States here is talking about, quote, a purge or revolution happening here in South Korea, political instability, the political instability, just to refresh the memories of our viewers in the United States and around the world, that -- that has happened over the past six months, is the former conservative president of South Korea being removed, Pamela, for declaring martial law in the United States.

[11:25:31]

And that is a huge in December of last year. And a refresher of what martial law is, that is when the military takes over law enforcement duties, not the police, but takes over law enforcement duties when political activity is outlawed across South Korea and the military is sent to the de facto Congress of South Korea to stop political activity there. That is why the former conservative president of South Korea was removed. The Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court of South Korea, unanimously said that was the right decision. There was no uprest. There was no revolution. There was no upheaval here. But I will tell you, Pamela, for months, conservative allies of this now ousted president have hoped that President Trump would come to a fellow conservative's defense. And the political class here in Seoul is wondering out loud if this post to Truth is a way to pressure the South Korean delegation to go along with what the U.S. President wants. They got to talk about how to deal with North Korea, how much South Korea is going to pay for U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula.

What will be the role of U.S. troops? Could they potentially be sent on missions to counter China in the future? How will they reinvigorate U.S. shipbuilding when South Korean shipbuilding is such a powerhouse in that industry? So was this Truth post a way to pressure South Korea's delegation into, you know, getting, allowing the U.S. to get what it wants? We will see. This meeting will be widely watched, even at this hour in East Asia, Pam.

BROWN: All right. Mike Valerio, Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thanks so much.

And still ahead, outrage over the Justice Department's interview with Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. One victim's family calling it a platform to rewrite history.

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