TRANSCRIPT: Donald Trump Holds a Roundtable with the Fraternal Order of Police - June 5, 2025
TRANSCRIPT: Donald Trump Holds a Roundtable with the Fraternal Order of Police - June 5, 2025
[Video]
Donald Trump: [Inaudible] National Fraternal Order of Police Executive Board representing nearly 400,000 officers nationwide and they were with me right from the beginning and we appreciate it. We won't forget. Your members are the backbone of American law enforcement and we're deeply grateful for your service and you have done great service indeed. We're also joined by our great Attorney General Pam Bondi. Thank you, Pam.
Pam Bondi: Thank you.
Trump: Thank you for being here. For generations, this institution has served as a powerful voice for the brave men and women who risk their lives to protect communities all over our country and they do it as well as anybody or better. I was delighted to earn your endorsement in every one of my presidential campaigns, where we did very well, record-setting well. And I'm proud to stand with you today as the most police president, I would say without question, in the history of America. I don't think anybody's been more for the police than I am. In recent years, far left radicals have vilified and targeted our nation's police with Marxist prosecutors and soft on crime politicians, making it impossible for you to do your jobs and do them the way you want to do them and only you know how to do them. Under the Trump administration, those days are over. We're backing the men in blue and we're backing the blue. Very honestly, we have some of the greatest people in the country sitting right around this table. We've ended the use of lawfare against police officers and terminated unjustified federal consent decrees. I signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to provide legal protection and financial support for officers targeted by very frivolous lawsuits. Oh, I know about frivolous lawsuits better than you do. I can tell you. I had my share of them. I ordered other federal agencies to boost funding for police recruitment, retention and pay. And I've asked Attorney General Bondi to pursue the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a police officer, which is very appropriate. Upon taking office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border and we reduced the number of illegal border crossers released into the United States by 99.999 percent. You can't do much better than that. We've removed thousands of violent criminal, illegal aliens from our communities as part of the largest deportation effort in American history. And just a few months into office, the national murder rate has plummeted by 28 percent. It's going down because of, largely because of what you're doing. I'm also deeply grateful to the National Fraternal Order of Police for its resounding endorsement of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which is moving along very nicely with great support. It's a great bill. It's a bill that's going to cut taxes more than any bill we've ever put in the history of our country. It's going to cut costs and expenses by $1.6 trillion, which is the biggest cut in expenses ever. And it's going to do so many other things. You know, our country is doing record business right now. Record investment is coming in, close to $15 trillion is already committed to come in for building new plants and factories.
AI is big. Apple is investing $500 billion plus. They're all coming in. It also includes the largest investment in border security in our nation's history, equipping law enforcement with the tools to stop the invasion. I built a lot of wall, hundreds of miles of wall. Now we're going to build some additional wall, where we feel we probably should build it after a little trial and error. And we're going to end up building more wall than even I built and we built a lot. So I want to thank you for your support and now let's get the bill passed. We want to get it passed through Congress without delay. In everything we do, we will give our police the respect and the protection and all of the resources that you need. I did that. As you know, nobody wanted to do it before me where I gave you the military equipment that was excess, they called it excess military equipment. You know that very well. I think every one of you benefited by that. It was in warehouses, billions of dollars' worth in warehouses all over the country and other presidents didn't want to give it to you. I did and we gave it to you and it helped out a lot and saved a lot of police officers' lives. I'd now like to ask Attorney General, Pam Bondi to say a few words followed by FOP National President Patrick Yoes; and then Washington, DC FOP Trustee Gregg Pemberton and Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Joe Gamaldi. All great people. Thank you very much. Pam, thank you very much.
Bondi: Thank you, President, and thank you to the Fraternal Order of Police for being an unwavering voice for America's law enforcement. We all know there is no ordinary day in the life of a police officer. Each day you leave your homes with complete uncertainty as to who you will encounter and what happens each day. You also stand on the front lines against cartels and foreign terrorist organizations while fighting the horrors of illegal drug and human trafficking. I was just in Poland this morning and arrived back not even two hours ago and you have the respect of the entire world of law enforcement around this world. They respect all of you so much. Thank you for making all of us so proud on the worldwide stage. President Trump's Justice Department will do everything to protect you and to support all men and women who wear the badge in this country. We are fully committed to ensuring our local law enforcement officers have access to the resources, tools and manpower you need to do your jobs. That means boosting recruitment and retention. We want the best and brightest to join your ranks just like you and we want them to stay in your ranks. Last month, we announced $157 million in grant money available for law enforcement agencies to hire police officers. Through this funding, we anticipate nearly 1,200 new officers will be hired around the country. We're helping to pay for police officers' overtime and supporting President Trump's no tax on overtime. We've also made millions of dollars available for mental health and wellness programs for you around this country. We know how important that is. We're aggressively prosecuting criminals who assault law enforcement officers. We will not tolerate attacks on police officers. Since January, the department has brought 138 cases in 33 states against defendants who have assaulted our officers. Additionally, the DOJ will no longer target police departments with bogus lawsuits and bogus investigations. We are dismissing lawsuits filed by the Biden DOJ against police departments in Louisville, Minneapolis, Albuquerque and more. We're ending meritless investigations into Phoenix, Trenton, New York City, Oklahoma and elsewhere. We're also ending consent decrees that take control away from you, destroy morale and increase violence. Instead, we're working with local law enforcement to give you the tools that you need to make our streets safer. We believe in backing the blue, not just in word but in action, the Biden administration, slandered you, defunded you and undermined your service. But we stand with you, we honor you and we will not abandon you. Thank you on behalf of President Trump, the Department of Justice. We are 100 percent committed to standing with our nation's law enforcement. God bless you and God bless America.
Trump: Thank you. Thanks, Pam.
Patrick Yoes: Mr. President, first, thank you. Thank you for not only your support for law enforcement as the 45th president, but also your support as the 47th president and all the years in between. You've always been steadfast supporter of the Fraternal Order of Police and law enforcement across this country. I want you to know on behalf of our nearly 400,000 members, we appreciate all that you do for us. With us today is the members of our executive board, but we also have members of FOP unions in major cities across this country which have some very serious problems that we're working with. And we appreciate the opportunity to share with you some of our views and work together on this. You know, you made a promise to us, and I want to start by saying this. You made a promise that you were going to address overtime -- tax on overtime, and that was a promise made in a new big -- one big new bill is certainly making good on that promise. We thank you for that. You know, law enforcement officers, we find ourselves in a very difficult position where we're having a serious problem with recruiting and retention, as you pointed out. The problem is the people who are working right now are working so many hours and they're forced to work overtime. And now they have the tax liabilities that are associated with being pushed into different tax brackets because of being forced to work. Not only that, they're not getting to keep the money they earn. So, you -- in a recruiting and retention standpoint, you show appreciation for what we do, recognize what we do in the community. And I want you to know that we're proud to support the bill. This is something that needs to be happening, a promise that you made, and we appreciate you carrying through with it and know that we're a partner in it. You also made a number of other promises to us and promises made that we appreciate. And I want to start with one of our first people I'd like to recognize. You promised, and here we are in our nation's capital, of revitalizing the city and making it safe again. And no one knows that better than a person who lives it every day and leads the officers in the Metropolitan Police Department and our labor union named Gregg Pemberton. And I'll ask Gregg to say a few words.
Gregg Pemberton: Thank you, Pat, and thank you, Mr. President, for having us. My name is Gregg Pemberton; I represent 3,000 police officers that work here for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC. The crisis that we're facing, which frankly is more of a calamity, is a staffing crisis. We are authorized to have 4,000 sworn police officers here in the nation's capital. And unfortunately, as of today, we only have 3,190; over 800 vacancies that we have here for this Metropolitan Police Department. And the worst part is that over the past five years, we've lost -- we've had a net loss of 600 police officers who've just left this agency in a mass exodus. And the reason for that is that our city council here in the District of Columbia has passed layers and layers and layers of legislation that prohibits our officers from being able to do their job. It exposes our members to administrative, civil and even criminal liability, even when they go out and do their job properly. It has also stripped our members of their labor protections to fight off these frivolous complaints and these erroneous allegations of misconduct. It all makes for an environment that is almost impossible to keep these staffing levels what they need to be. Frankly, Mr. President, I think the nation's capital, the District of Columbia is not just a city of 700,000 residents. This is the nation's capital, and it belongs to everybody. It belongs to every American. It should be a safe city. It should be a pinnacle of American society. It should represent the freedom and democracy that we all cherish so much. And anybody should be free to come here and experience that and see what it is that we are here in this country. And the sanctity and safety of the District of Columbia shouldn't be left in the hands of a city council that subscribes to these radical ideologies that we all know are failed and that we have the empirical data that it doesn't work. It only increases crime and makes cities more dangerous. I want to thank you for creating the Make DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
I've met with Orville Greene. I find him to be phenomenally qualified to help us out of this mess. I also want to thank you for the appointment of Jeanine Pirro for the USAO position of DC. I met with her recently and I found her plan to solve and tackle a number of these problems very promising and very optimistic. So, the 3,000 police officers stand at the ready, Mr. President, to help you make DC great again and hopefully we can solve some of these problems and fix crime here in the nation's capital.
Trump: Thank you very much.
Yoes: Mr. President, the topic of the day pretty much every day now is the unmitigated disaster that has created in cities across this country with the open borders. And all the problems that it has done for quality of life, it's done for safety within our communities. Safety of the officers that work in the communities. And you've been a great advocate of putting us back together and I'd like to ask our Vice President, Joe Gamaldi, to touch on.
Joe Gamaldi: President Trump, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't start by saying thank you. Thank you for the incredible efforts by you and your administration to deport these people who have come to our country illegally and then refuse to follow the very laws that we hold so sacred. Our officers, especially in sanctuary cities, are tired of arresting the same people over and over again who never should have been here in the first place. We have lost friends, coworkers, unimaginable trauma to American citizens and families, and the most frustrating part from a law enforcement perspective, it was 100 percent avoidable. And now we have judges who are standing up for gang members, murderers, robbers, rapists, blocking deportations, obstructing the very will of the American people. It's a disgrace. And if they had a shred of integrity, which I assume they don't, they would resign in shame for what they're doing right now. But I would just ask that you continue to work with us, continue to support with us so that we can partner with all of our great federal agencies out there, continue to carry out this mission. And again, thank you for securing the border and once again making our country one of law and order.
Trump: Thank you very much. Very nice. Yes. We're going to have a little discussion now, very private, and I just want to thank you all for being here. And thank you very much, media. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.