President Donald Trump praised the FBI in a Truth Social post last month, saying the agency is doing an “incredible job” after arresting thousands of suspects and disrupting criminal activity nationwide. The president also encouraged the bureau to continue cleaning up the country.
“We are bringing LAW AND ORDER back to America. Kash, Dan, Andrew, and the men and women of the FBI, are doing a tremendous job, MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”
He was referring to FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and Co–Deputy Director Andrew Bailey.
A central component of the FBI’s recent enforcement efforts has been Operation Summer Heat, a nationwide initiative that ran from June through September and focused on apprehending violent offenders.
Also last month, Trump and Patel announced that the operation led to the arrests of more than 8,700 violent criminals across major U.S. cities. They said roughly 11,000 homicide suspects were taken into custody, about half of whom were wanted in connection with more than one killing.
Cities including Nashville and New Orleans recorded increases of up to 250 percent in arrests of individuals described by the administration as the most violent offenders.
Nationally, violent crime fell 20 percent compared with the same period in 2024, according to Trump, who characterized the summer as “the safest and most peaceful summer in two decades.”
“There’s still much more work to be done, which is why the FBI continues to work alongside the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], and the Department of War to defend law and order and combat violent crime, arrest illegal aliens, and make American cities the safest in the world,” the president said.
“Every American deserves to live in a community where they’re not afraid of being mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted, or shot. And that’s exactly what our administration is working to deliver,” he added.
Democrats, for some reason, remain opposed to Trump’s crime crackdown in blue cities. In October, Democratic senators issued a joint statement criticizing his deployment of National Guard units to multiple U.S. cities, arguing the moves overstepped presidential authority.
In the statement released by Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-Calif.) office, the lawmakers warned that what they described as “illegal deployments” risked pushing the boundaries of executive power “beyond their breaking point” and raised concerns about the nation moving toward authoritarian governance.
“Whether in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Portland, the Trump Administration continues fabricating claims of chaos and crime on American streets to justify his false assertions that there is a ‘need’ to deploy troops into our cities—all while literally defunding our police by cutting funding that helps local law enforcement make our cities safer,” the senators claimed.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also targeting the millions of people who are in the country illegally.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an Oct. 20 post on X that the administration’s efforts have resulted in the arrest of more than 480,000 criminal noncitizens over a nine-month period.
According to Noem, roughly 70 percent of those taken into custody have either prior convictions or pending criminal charges.
Noem described law enforcement’s progress under President Trump as “nothing short of extraordinary.”
In a separate Oct. 20 announcement, the Department of Homeland Security outlined a new border security initiative. The effort, known as Operation River Wall, is designed to fortify the Rio Grande region and deter illegal crossings, as well as disrupt narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity along the southern border, the agency said.
President Donald Trump signed a broad pardon order that included Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Tyler Bowyer, who were all charged with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
President Trump said in the proclamation that the measure is meant to fix what he deems a “grave national injustice” that happened because of investigations and lawsuits that came up after the election.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 presidential election and continues the process of national reconciliation.”
The president added in the proclamation that he was granting “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official in connection with the 2020 presidential election, as well as for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 presidential election.”
The declaration mentioned Rudy Giuliani, who used to be Trump’s personal lawyer and mayor of New York; John Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers who worked on legal strategy after the election; and Tyler Bowyer, a high-ranking member of Turning Point USA.
There are over 70 people listed on the proclamation including; Mark Amick, Kathy Berden, Christina Bobb, Joseph Brannan, Carol Brunner, Mary Buestrin, Darryl Carlson, James “Ken” Carroll, Brad Carver, Robert Cheeley, Kenneth Chesebro, Hank Choate, Jeffrey Clark, Vikki Consiglio, Nancy Cottle, James DeGraffenreid, John Downey, Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn, Amy Facchinello, Bill Feehan, Carolyn Fisher, Harrison Floyd, Clifford Frost, Kay Godwin, Edward Scott Grabins, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton, David G. Hanna, Mark Hennessy, Mari-Ann Henry, Durward James Hindle III, Andrew Hitt, Jake Hoffman, Burt Jones, Anthony T. Kern, Kathy Kiernen, Timothy King, Trevian Kutti, James Lamon, Cathleen Latham, Jesse Law, Stephen Lee, Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, Michael McDonald, Mark Meadows, Shawn Meehan, Robert Montgomery, Daryl Moody, Samuel I. Moorhead, Loraine Pellegrino, Sidney Powell, James Renner, Eileen Rice, Mayra Rodriguez, Mike Roman, Rose Rook, Kelly Ruh, Greg Safsten, David Shafer, Marian Sheridan, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert F. Spindell Jr., Shawn Still, Ken Thompson, Pam Travis, James Troupis, Kent Vanderwood, Kelli Ward, Michael Ward, and C.B. Yadav.
In response to the announcement, Bowyer wrote on X that he was “very grateful” for the support of the President and his pardon attorney, Ed Martin, and “the many who have looked out for us since this expensive injustice has taken place in the swing states. We were targeted to sideline many of us politically. It has nearly bankrupted and caused severe trauma to many good people on this list— this is why it is important to get to the bottom of what was carried out against good faith and active citizens who took to the courts to ask questions about the 2020 election.”
The proclamation specifies that the sweeping pardon does not apply to Trump personally.
According to the text, “This pardon does not apply to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
That means any current or future legal issues involving Trump are not included in this pardon, but it does protect others who were involved with elector slates or efforts to challenge or investigate the 2020 election results.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes appeared ready on Monday morning to drop the so-called “fake electors” case in the state, stemming from the 2020 election in which a group of 18 people were indicted after they signed a document as an alternative slate of electors.
After a lower court decided to send the case back to a grand jury, Mayes, who has been prosecuting the case, tried to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, but they turned him down.
This also comes after President Donald Trump signed a pardon for people who were being prosecuted in the case. These people include Tyler Bowyer, the Chief Operating Officer of Turning Point USA; John Eastman, a former lawyer for Donald Trump; Robert Montgomery, a former chair of the Cochise County Republican Committee; and others.
In an interview, Mayes declined to announce if she would drop the case, but appeared to be in a position to drop it, per 12 News. In May, the Maricopa County judge also ruled that if she does not decide to keep going by November 21, the case will be tossed out.
When asked about the case, she said, “The one thing I do know for sure … is that I am so proud of the prosecutors and investigators in the Attorney General’s office, and I’m proud of the work we did on that case.”
The 2020 election was not stolen. President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. States certified the results, Congress accepted the results, and Biden was inaugurated in January 2021.