President Donald Trump and senior Justice Department officials on Wednesday championed the effect of Operation Summer Heat, a federal program cracking down on violent crime in cities, citing more than 8,700 arrests across the United States since June.
Standing beside Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel at a White House press conference, Trump touted the campaign as one of the most sweeping crackdowns on violent crime in recent years, involving FBI field offices in all 50 states and coordination with state and local partners.
“Over the past few months, FBI officers in all 50 states made crushing violent crime a top enforcement priority,” Trump said while speaking from the Oval Office. “That’s what they did. Rounding up and arresting thousands of the most violent and dangerous criminals. And these are among the most dangerous and violent people in the world.”
Trump said the arrests included 725 individuals wanted for violent crimes against children and dozens of suspected murderers, calling the effort proof that “we are making America safe again.” He credited federal task forces and the FBI for what he described as “an incredible job” removing some of the country’s most dangerous offenders from the streets.
Patel praised the FBI’s turnaround under Trump’s direction, saying the bureau’s success in Operation Summer Heat marked “the best numbers for fighting crime in U.S. history.” He credited the president’s “brave leadership” for empowering law enforcement to “crush violent crime” and end what he called “years of politicization and weaponization” inside the department.
“In just seven months, you have 28,600 arrests of violent felons,” Patel said, calling it a historic figure unmatched by any recent administration. Patel attributed the success to letting “good cops be cops and partner[ing] them with the right people at the Department of Justice.”
Patel also said the FBI and DOJ made 8,700 arrests in just three months, seized 2,200 firearms, and took 421 kilograms of fentanyl off the streets — “enough to kill 55 million Americans.” He also cited 45,000 kilograms of cocaine seized and 2,100 federal indictments from June through September alone.
He contrasted those numbers with what he said were Biden-era averages of roughly 15,000 to 17,000 violent felon arrests per year, adding that the Trump administration had nearly doubled that figure in less than half a year. “This is what happens,” Patel said, “when you take out the fangs of weaponization.”
The attorney general thanked the president for letting “cops be cops” under his administration amid a federal government shutdown. Bondi also pointed to the work law officials have done to rid the nation of illegal guns.
“ATF alone, since January 20, has removed over 25,000 illegal guns off our streets just since President Trump’s been in office,” Bondi told reporters after brief remarks from the leaders in the Oval Office.
The president’s crackdown on crime comes after he federalized the police force in Washington in the summer before attempting to deploy the National Guard to several other Democratic-run cities across the nation.
Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis at the behest of Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), but has faced a showdown with Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR), who have lambasted federal troops in Chicago and Portland, respectively.
“You can have a child walk right through the middle of Washington, D.C, and nothing’s going to happen,” Trump bragged. “We were losing more than one person a week … they’re being killed on an average of over one a week. The Make DC Safe Task Force has been incredible, and the Make Memphis Safe Task Force is having very similar results.”
TRUMP IS SENDING IN ICE, BORDER PATROL, AND TROOPS TO THESE BLUE CITIES
Over the weekend, Trump scored a partial legal victory after an appeals court allowed him to reassume control over the National Guard but blocked its deployment to Illinois, a half-step in the right direction for an administration hellbent on sending troops to protect federal immigration officers. But on Wednesday, he appeared to suggest that other cities could be next.
“This is an amazing thing, and we’re just at the start. We’re going to go into other cities that we’re not talking about purposely. We’re getting ready to go in,” said Trump.