Donald Trump's 7-word verdict on ICE using tear gas and smashing car windows
"No I think they haven't gone far enough, because we've been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama," Trump said.
President Donald Trump sat down for his first interview with CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday evening since retaking the White House - and was grilled about public outrage over viral ICE arrests.
Trump was asked questions about immigration, foreign policy, his aggressive tariff policy and the ongoing government shutdown during the sit down. In seven words, he summed up his thoughts on whether ICE have gone too far with its tactics, including the use of tear gas and smashing of car windows. Trump said: "I think they haven't gone far enough."
With regards to his administration's ongoing aggressive, and often time chaotic, immigration policy, Trump said he doesn't believe Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have gone far enough — after being confronted with some of the tactics ICE has employed.
"I think they haven't gone far enough, because we've been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama," Trump said. "Many of them (the people targeted by ICE) are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals."
When pressed on his campaign promises to deport the "worst of the worst," Trump claimed that people without criminal records deported from the U.S. would have the opportunity to come back into the country legally, but did not offer specifics as to how that would happen.
Investigations have found that many of the people deported over the last year had no criminal record.
"We have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be, you came into the country illegally, you're going to go out; however, we're going to work with you, and you're going to come back into our country legally," Trump said.
With regards to his recent trip to Asia and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said Xi has given him assurances that Beijing would take no action toward its long-stated goal of unifying Taiwan with mainland China while the Republican leader is in office.
Trump said that the long-contentious issue of Taiwan did not come up in his talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea that largely focused on U.S.-China trade tensions. But the U.S. leader expressed certainty that China would not take action on Taiwan, while he’s in office.
“He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS’ program “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.
U.S. officials have long been concerned about the possibility of China using military force against Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.
The president also continued his ongoing attacks against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling the self-proclaimed democratic-socialist a "communist."
"He far worse than a socialist," Trump said. "I think I'm a much better looking person than him [Mamdani]," he added after being asked what he thought of people calling Mamdani a left-wing version of him.