In a wide-ranging interview with Newsmax, former President Donald Trump, who is the likely 2024 GOP presidential nominee, talked law and order and said the biggest challenge he foresees, should he return to the White House, is removing "all the criminals that are being allowed to come into our country."
"One of my great people was just killed – carjacked – who was one of the finest people you'll ever meet," Trump said. "He's sitting in his car, and they shot him and took his car, and he just died yesterday. His family is so devastated, but this is happening now all the time. They come in from Nebraska … they come in from Iowa and they say, 'Let's look at our capital,' and they end up getting killed."
Mike Gill, 56, who worked at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Trump was shot Jan. 29 during a Washington, D.C., carjacking spree. He died Saturday from his injuries, his wife said in a statement.
Gill, the father of three, was picking his wife up from work at her law office near Mount Vernon Square when Artell Cunningham, 28, climbed into his parked car and shot him in the head around 5:45 p.m. ET, police said.
"We have to take that capital over, we have to clean it," Trump said. "We have to have strong law enforcement. The people are good. They're not being allowed to do their job. The police are good there. I know the police – they're great."
"Washington, D.C., is a disaster," he continued. "We have to clean it up, fix it up, take the graffiti off the beautiful marble columns. Graffiti all over the place, the roads are filthy dirty. The medians and the asphalt is all rotted out. The medians are falling down into the road."
The former president also commented on the recent beating of two New York City police officers by a group of migrants. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg initially released the illegal aliens involved in the attack but is now reportedly preparing charges for them after a public outcry.
"They sent in 350,000 illegal aliens, migrants, call them whatever you want," Trump said, of the migrant situation in New York. "Then they start beating up our police force, these thugs. They're rough-looking guys, by the way. … You see them just pounding on our police, who are laying on the ground, and then they get out and they give everybody the finger. They give the finger and are cursing at everybody."
He lamented the state of law and order in the U.S., calling it "pathetic," and said that the police are being threatened with retribution if they actually do their jobs.
"We have the greatest police in the world but they're not allowed to do their jobs," he said. "When you have 200, usually young people, walk into a department store and totally strip it of everything – walk out with television sets – and the police are dying to do their work – just like Border Patrol – but they're not allowed to do anything. They have to stand there, and they're told if you do anything, you're fired, you lose your pension, you lose your family, you lose your house, you lose everything. The police want to do the job, and they're not allowed to do it."
MS-13 gang members are also being released back into the U.S., Trump said, after his administration worked to remove them from the country "by the thousands."
"The biggest problem we have is we're going to have to remove all the criminals that are being allowed to come into our country," he said. "We're going to have to get that out immediately, like fast. No country can sustain what we're going through."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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