President Donald Trump delivered an unusual, campaign-style speech at Justice Department headquarters Friday, heavy with grievance and meandering from such topics as Al Capone to allegations of judicial corruption as he defied the distance that has traditionally existed between the White House and the federal law enforcement agency.
The president laid out his tough-on-crime vision, which includes mass deportations and prosecuting cartels to remove fentanyl from American streets. He repeated a hallmark mantra of his 2024 presidential campaign, vowing to end what he called the weaponization of the Justice Department.
But the speech — billed as one focused on law and order — was also sprinkled with tangents and misleading claims about immigration and crime in this country. Trump declared that he would keep FBI headquarters in downtown Washington instead of relocating it to a not-yet-constructed campus in suburban Maryland, a plan that has been in the works for decades and won final approval in 2023???
Standing in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, Trump spent much of his hour at the microphone laying out personal complaints about how “a corrupt group of hacks and radicals” wrongly prosecuted him during the Biden administration.
Trump mentioned the stymied federal cases against him repeatedly throughout the speech. At one point, he commended the Florida judge who dismissed the indictment accusing him of mishandling classified materials after he left the White House in 2021 and obstructing officials’ efforts to retrieve them — calling the entire indictment “bull---.”
That provocative line drew heavy applause from the crowd, which included elected officials, political appointees, allies and law enforcement officials.
Trump denounced the judges who oversaw his three other cases, including the state trial in New York where he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment.
“It’s not even imaginable how corrupt they were,” he said.
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The president made no major policy announcement in the speech, though he said his administration would soon begin a concerted campaign to combat fentanyl deaths, which have declined sharply in the past year after reaching record highs. He also touted his poll numbers, discussed rising egg prices, exaggerated his winning margin in the 2024 election and made discursive references to the famed basketball coach Bob Knight.
It is rare for a president to visit the Justice Department — which has kept safeguards between the White House and the law enforcement agency in the post-Watergate era to ensure that politics don’t interfere with law enforcement investigations. The Village People’s “YMCA” blared as he walked off the stage.
What message is Trump trying to send here (?) & to whom?
The president laid out his tough-on-crime vision, which includes mass deportations and prosecuting cartels to remove fentanyl from American streets. He repeated a hallmark mantra of his 2024 presidential campaign, vowing to end what he called the weaponization of the Justice Department.
But the speech — billed as one focused on law and order — was also sprinkled with tangents and misleading claims about immigration and crime in this country. Trump declared that he would keep FBI headquarters in downtown Washington instead of relocating it to a not-yet-constructed campus in suburban Maryland, a plan that has been in the works for decades and won final approval in 2023???
Standing in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, Trump spent much of his hour at the microphone laying out personal complaints about how “a corrupt group of hacks and radicals” wrongly prosecuted him during the Biden administration.
Trump mentioned the stymied federal cases against him repeatedly throughout the speech. At one point, he commended the Florida judge who dismissed the indictment accusing him of mishandling classified materials after he left the White House in 2021 and obstructing officials’ efforts to retrieve them — calling the entire indictment “bull---.”
That provocative line drew heavy applause from the crowd, which included elected officials, political appointees, allies and law enforcement officials.
Trump denounced the judges who oversaw his three other cases, including the state trial in New York where he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment.
“It’s not even imaginable how corrupt they were,” he said.
Trump visits Justice Department for speech that breaks all norms — The Washington Post
Donald Trump railed against the federal prosecutions he once faced during a rare presidential visit to the Justice Department.
It is rare for a president to visit the Justice Department — which has kept safeguards between the White House and the law enforcement agency in the post-Watergate era to ensure that politics don’t interfere with law enforcement investigations. The Village People’s “YMCA” blared as he walked off the stage.
What message is Trump trying to send here (?) & to whom?
