The Dictatorship

Transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress

Published

1 year ago

March 6, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — A transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, as transcribed by The Associated Press:

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the first lady of the United States, members of the United States Congress, thank you very much and to my fellow citizens: America is back. Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in 4 years, 8 years — and we are just getting started. I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back. And the American Dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.

The American Dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again. Never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an Electoral College victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican.

Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction — in fact it’s an astonishing record, 27-point swing — the most ever. Likewise, small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump. Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 Executive Orders and taken more than 400 Executive Actions, a record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency, it’s our presidency, is the most successful in the history of our nation. By many.

And what makes it even more impressive, is that you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that? I don’t know about that list but we’ll take it. Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country, and what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded, ever. They heard my words and they chose not to come. Much easier that way.

In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums, were released into our country. Who would want to do that?

This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud, nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what, five, five times I’ve been up here. It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way.

So, Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America, for the good of our nation? Let’s work together and let’s truly make America great again. Every day my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future America deserves and we’re doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action.

Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization, and I also withdrew from the anti-American U.N. Human Rights Council. We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction. To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term. And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before.

We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job. We have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me. How did that work out? Not too good, not too good. And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America, it’s back. And two days ago I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America.

I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And likewise, I renamed for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley, again. Beautiful Alaska. We love Alaska. We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.

We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. You should be hired based on merit, and the Supreme Court in a brave and very powerful decision has allowed us to do so. Thank you, thank you very much. We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools and I signed an order making the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports. Three years ago, Payton McNabb was an all-star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she’s never seen before. She’s never seen anything like it. Payton is here tonight in the gallery, and Payton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team or they will lose all federal funding.

And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling, where a male recently finished a long-distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours. Broke the record by five hours. It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer.

What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now because of us sweeping the entire world, common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back. Never, never going to let that happen. Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans, they’ve never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country, they’re not sure. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.

Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg prices out of control. And we are working hard to get it back down. Secretary, do a good job on that, you inherited a total mess from that administration. Do a good job. A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95%, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now. And frankly, we have never seen anything like it.

That’s why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency. As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on Earth. And by far, and now, I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It’s called drill, baby, drill.

My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. It’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go. The permitting has gotten and later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.

To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.

And to that end I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE! Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon, you’re working very hard. He didn’t need this, he didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.

Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified: $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens, $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma, $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQ+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of, $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. $60 m illion. $8 million for making mice transgender.

This is real. $32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab “Sesame Street” in the Middle East, it’s a program, $20 million for program. $1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee — headed up and we know she’s involved just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her? A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia, $14 million for social cohesion in Mali, $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City, real estate developers done very well. $250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia, $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda, $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia, $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning. You know what we’re doing? Should use it ourselves. A $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education. The most ever paid, nothing even like it. Under the Trump administration, all of these scams and there are far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them, they’re so bad. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon, and we appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.

And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things. Taking back a lot of that money, we got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it. We’re going to. We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.

Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139, 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149, and money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now. In fact, Pam, good luck, good luck. You’re going to find it. But a lot of money is paid out to people, because it just keeps getting paid and paid, and nobody does, and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country, 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.

Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229, one person between the age of 240 and 249 and one person is listed at 360 years of age — more than 100 years, more than 100 years older than our country. But we’re going to find out where that money is going, and it’s not going to be pretty, by slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft. And theft we can find. We will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families.

And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop. Big beautiful drop. It’s about time. And in the near future I want to do what has not been done in 24 years — balance the federal budget, we’re gonna balance it.

With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon. For $5 million we will allow the most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship. It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated. And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won’t have to pay tax from where they came, the money that they’ve made, you wouldn’t want to do that. But they have to pay tax, create jobs. They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country, instead of having them being forced out. Number one at the top school as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there.

So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking job-creating people. They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.

Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change. For nearly 100 years the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential in every possible way. The nation founded by pioneers and risk takers, now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt. Approvals that should take 10 days to get instead, take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years before you reject it. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.

Because we are draining the swamp, it’s very simple, and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. They’re in there, they’re waiting for you to vote. And I’m sure that the people on my right — I don’t mean the Republican right, but my right, right here — I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts, because otherwise I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office. So I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that. But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cut. A very, very big part of our plan, we had tremendous success in our first term with it, a very big part of our plan. We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board and to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation. I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax overtime and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors.

And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made like never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? That that along with our other policies will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It’s going to boom. Spoke to the majors today. All three, the top people and they’re so excited. In fact, already numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world. And this has taken place since a great victory on November 5th, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country. In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing. And just as we did before, we will provide 100% expensing. It will be retroactive to January 20th, 2025.

And it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country. First term, we had a great first term. And if you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and in some cases a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada. Have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair. India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that, four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea.

But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe. This system is not fair to the United States and never was. And so on April 2nd, I wanted to make an April 1st, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day. That’s what one day would cost us, a lot of money, but we’re going to do it in April. I’m a very superstitious person. April 2nd reciprocal tariffs kick in and whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.

If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. It’s a lot of that too. They don’t even allow us in that market. We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China and I did it with others and the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because there was so much money. They couldn’t do anything about it. We’ve been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer. Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people destroying families. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.

They are, in effect, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars. We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico, have hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States, will not be doing that any longer. We’re not going to do it any longer.

Thanks to our America First policies we’re putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks. The combination of the election and our economic policies that people love. SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment. OpenAI and Oracle, Larry Ellison, announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn’t have done if Kamala had won. Apple announced $500 billion investment. Tim Cook called me, said, I cannot spend it fast enough, it’s got to be much higher than that. I believe they’ll be building their plants here instead of in China. And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest in the world’s most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount — 97% of the market — announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on Earth right here in the U.S.A. And we’re not giving them any money.

Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money and they don’t spend it. All that meant to them. We’re giving them no money. All that was important to them was they didn’t want to pay the tariffs. So they came and they’re building. And many other companies are coming. We don’t have to give them money, we just want to protect our businesses and our people, and they will come because they won’t have to pay tariffs if they build in America. So it’s very amazing. You should get rid of the CHIPS Act and whatever’s left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.

A new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. I love the farmer. We’ll now be selling it to our home market in the U.S.A., because nobody is going to be able to compete with you. Because those goods that come in from other countries and companies, they’re really, really in a bad position in so many different ways. They’re uninspected. They may be very dirty and disgusting and they come in and they pour in and they hurt our American farmers.

The tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America and our farmers starting on April 2nd, it may be a little bit of an adjustment period, we had that before when I made the deal with China, $50 billion of purchases and I said, just bear with me. And they did, they did. You really have to bear with me again and this will be even better. That was great. The problem with it was that Biden didn’t enforce it. He didn’t enforce it. $50 billion of purchases. And we were doing great. But Biden did not enforce it, and it hurt our farmers. But our farmers are going to have a field day right now. So to our farmers, have a lot of fun. I love you, too. I love you too.

And I have also imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber and steel because if we don’t have, as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don’t have a military and frankly we just won’t have a country very long. Here today is a proud American steelworker, fantastic person from Decatur, Alabama. Jeff Denard has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years in a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department, raise seven children with his beautiful wife, Nicole, and over the years provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children. So great, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Stories like Jeff’s remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs.

They’re about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it’s happening. And it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much. No you’re not, oh. And look, look where Biden took us, it’s very low, the lowest we’ve ever been.

Jeff, I want to thank you very much. And I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community. She worked so hard on it, her very loving person, our magnificent first lady of the United States. Melania’s work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation’s future leaders as they enter the workforce.

Our first lady is joined by two impressive young women. Very impressive. Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the First Ladies Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education, become a teacher. And Allison Berry, who became a victim of an illicit, deepfake image produced by a peer. With Allison’s help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act, and this is so important. Thank you very much, John Thune. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, John. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

And thank you to John Thune and the Senate. Great job to criminalize the publication of such images online. Just terrible, terrible thing. And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law. Thank you. And I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind. There’s nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody. That’s great. Thank you very much to the Senate. Thank you.

But if we truly care about protecting America’s children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States, many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies. They are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out fast. And I want to thank Tom Homan and Kristi, I want to thank you, and Paul and Border Patrol. I want to thank you. What a job they’ve all done. Everybody. Border Patrol, ICE, law enforcement in general is incredible. We have to take care of our law enforcement.

Last year, a brilliant 22 year-old nursing student named Laken Riley, the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered. Lincoln was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden’s open southern border and then sent loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration. It was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat-run sanctuary city, a disaster, before ending the life of this beautiful young angel. With us this evening, our Laken’s beloved mother Allyson and her sister Lauren.

Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. Very strong, powerful act. It’s called the Laken Riley Act. So, Allyson and Lauren, America will never, ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley. Thank you very much.

Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded. Thank you. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders. He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody’s ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed. Now, just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America. But there still is much work to be done.

Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know, Alexis Nungaray from Houston. Wonderful woman. Last June, Alexis’ 12-year-old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge, and horrifically murdered. Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border.

The death of this beautiful 12-year-old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly. Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter, your magnificent daughter. And earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you. One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much. She loved nature. Across Galveston Bay, from where Jocelyn lived in Houston you will find a magnificent national wildlife refuge, a pristine, peaceful, 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God’s creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America.

Alexis. Moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn. Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order? Thank you very much. All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Laken’s murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang. The toughest gang, they say, in the world known as Tren de Aragua. Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. They are now officially in the same category as ISIS, and that’s not good for them. Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration. But now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country. Or, if they are too dangerous, put in jails, standing trial in this country because we don’t want them to come back ever.

With us this evening is a warrior on the frontline of that battle. Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz, great guy. In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande near an area known as Cartel Island. Doesn’t sound too nice to me. When heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them, Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed to great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety, and just barely. I have some of the prints of that event and it was not good. Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and your line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed. We honor you, and we will always honor you. Thank you, Roberto, very much. And I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border. He’s a great, great gentleman. The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation. posing a grave threat to our national security.

The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels. Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them, think of this, handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. That has never happened before. They want to make us happy. First time ever. But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the U.S.A. They’re going to stop it.

I have sent Congress a detailed funding request, laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history. Larger even than current record holder President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders. Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. So, Mr. Speaker, John Thune, both of you, I hope you’re going to be able to do that. Mr. Speaker, thank you, Mr. Leader, thank you. Thank you very much. And let’s get it to me. I’ll sign it so fast you won’t even believe it.

And as we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns. In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics.

Many jurisdictions virtually ceased enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. Starting at the FBI and the DOJ, Pam. Good luck. Kash, wherever you may be. Good luck, good luck. Pam Bondi. Good luck. So important. Gonna to do a great job. Kash. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kash.

They have already started very strong. They’re going to do a fantastic job. You’re going to be very proud of them. We’re also once again giving our police officers the support, protection and respect they show dearly deserve. They have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job. But we’re going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it.

This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country. Our firemen and women are unbelievable people, and I will never forget them. And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers. So I have no choice.

One year ago this month, 31-year-old New York police officer Jonathan Diller, unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer, was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island. I went to his funeral. A vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests — and they were rough arrests, too. He was a real bad one. The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests, and went by the name of Killer. He was Killer. He killed other people, they say, a lot of them. I attended Officer Tiller’s service, and when I met his wife and one-year-old son, Ryan, it was very inspirational, actually. His widow’s name is Stephanie and she is here tonight. Thank you very much Stephanie. Thank you very much.

Stephanie, we’re going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero. New York’s finest. And we’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets. And we’re going to do it fast. Gotta stop it. They get out with 28 arrests. They push people into subway trains. They hit people over the head, back of the head with baseball bats. We got to get him out of here .

I’ve already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. And tonight, I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law.

I’m also asking for a new crime bill getting tougher on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed. They don’t want to be killed. We’re not going to let them be killed.

Joining us to the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is D.J. Daniel. He is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months, at most, to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, D.J. and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true. And D.J. has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer. Actually, a number of times. The police love him. The police departments love him. And tonight, D.J., we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States secret Service. Thank you, D.J.

D.J.’s doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger. Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40%. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to Make America Healthy Again, chaired by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. With a name Kennedy, you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering. How quickly they forget.

Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago — and you can’t even believe these numbers — one in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000, and now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36. Think of that. So, we’re going to find out what it is, and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you. You have the best to figure out what is going on. Okay, Bobby. Good luck. It’s a very important job. Thank you.

My administration is also working to protect children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging their daughter to use a new name and pronouns–they/them pronouns, actually — or without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse. January, thank you. Thank you.

Stories like this are why, shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology. I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. And now, I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.

Because we’re getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military, and it’s already out, and it’s out of our society. We don’t want it. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It’s gone. It’s gone. And we feel so much better for it. Don’t we? Don’t we feel better? Our service members won’t be activists and ideologues. They will be fighters and warriors. They will fight for our country and Pete, congratulations, secretary of defense. And he’s not big into the woke movement, I can tell you. I know him well.

I am pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services. What a difference. And, you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite. We couldn’t recruit anywhere. We couldn’t recruit. Now we’re having the best results.

And, you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite. We couldn’t recruit anywhere. We couldn’t recruit. Now we’re having the best results just about that we’ve ever had. What a tremendous turnaround. It’s really a beautiful thing to see. People love our country again. It’s very simple. They love our country and they love being in our military again. So it’s a great thing. And thank you very much. Great job.

We’re joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, when he was just a boy and now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six-letter varsity athlete — a really good athlete, they say. A brilliant student with a 4.46 — that’s good — GPA and his greatest dream is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

And Jason, that’s a very big deal getting in. That’s a hard one to get into. But I’m pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You’ll soon be joining the Corps of Cadets.

Thank you. Jason, you’re going to be on the Long Gray Line, Jason. As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state of the art “golden dome” missile defense shield to protect our homeland. All made in the U.S.A.

Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn’t there. Not even close. But now we have the technology. It’s incredible, actually.

And other place — they have it. Israel has it. Other places have it. And the United States should have it too, right? Kim. Right. They should have it too. So I want to thank you, but it’s a very, very important. This is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected and we’re going to protect our citizens like never before.

To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new office of shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs.

We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.

To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.

Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals. The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others. But others could use it.

But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure. 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria. They died of snakebites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work.

They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25% chance that they would die. The most expensive project also that was ever built in our country’s history if you bring it up to modern-day costs. It was given away by the Carter administration for $1. But that agreement has been violated very severely.

We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.

Now we have Marco Rubio in charge. Good luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong. Marco has been amazing, and he’s going to do a great job. Think of it. He got 100 votes. You know, he was approved with actually 99, but the 100th was this gentleman. And I feel very certain, so let’s assume we got 100 votes. And I’m either very, very happy about that or I’m very concerned about it.

But he’s already proven — I mean, he’s a great gentleman. He’s respected by everybody. And we appreciate you voting for Marco. He’s going to do a fantastic job. Thank you, thank you. He’s doing a great job. Great job.

And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.

We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.

We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.

It’s a very small population, but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.

America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism.

Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan. Not that they were withdrawing. It was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.

Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.

And I want to thank, especially, the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster. This was a very momentous day for those 13 families who I actually got to know very well, most of them, whose children were murdered, and the many people that were so badly, over 42 people so badly injured on that fateful day in Afghanistan.

What a horrible day. Such incompetence was shown that when Putin saw what happened, I guess he said, wow, maybe this is my chance. That’s how bad it was. Should have never happened. Grossly incompetent people.

I spoke to many of the parents and loved ones and they’re all in our hearts tonight. I spoke to them on the phone. We had a big call. Every one of them called and everybody was on the line and they did nothing but cry with happiness. They were very happy. It’s happy as you can be under those circumstances. Their child, brother, sister, son, daughter was killed for no reason whatsoever.

In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza. In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations: the Abraham Accords. And now we’re going to build on that foundation, to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region.

A lot of things are happening in the Middle East. People haven’t been talking about that so much lately, with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia, a lot of things are happening in the Middle East. A rough neighborhood actually.

I’m also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict, with no end in sight.

The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense, with no security, with no way. Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, yeah, you would say, “Pocahontas says yes.”

2000 people are being killed every single week. More than that. They are Russian young people. They’re Ukrainian young people. They’re not Americans. But I want it to stop.

Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine by far. Think of that. They’ve spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending.

And we’ve spent perhaps $350 billion. Like taking candy from a baby. That’s what happened. And they’ve spent $100 billion. What a difference that is. And we have an ocean sep arating us. And they don’t. But we’re getting along very well with them. And lots of good things are happening.

Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent by billions and billions of dollars. It’s hard to believe that they wouldn’t have stopped it and said at some point, come on, let’s equalize. You got to be equal to us. That didn’t happen.

Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The letter reads: ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” he said. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you.”

I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussion with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace.

Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war.

If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.

Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Mark Fogel was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years at a penal colony. Rough stuff. The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin.

But last summer, I promised his 95-year-old mother, Malphine, that we would bring her boy safely back home. After 22 days in office, I did just that. And they are here tonight.

To Mark and his great mom: We are delighted to have you safe and sound and with us.

As fate would have it, Mark Fogel was born in a small, rural town in Butler, Pennsylvania. Have you heard of it? Where his mother has lived for the past 78 years. I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally.

That was not pleasant. And that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage. And I told her I would not forget what she said about her son. And I never did that, did I? Never forgot.

Less than 10 minutes later, at that same rally, gunfire rang out and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper’s perch into a crowd of many thousands of people.

My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky. Corey Comperatore was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and above all, a protector. When the sound of gunshots pierced the air, it was a horrible sound. Corey knew instantly what it was and what to do. He threw himself on top of his wife and daughters and shielded them from the bullets with his own body. Corey was hit really hard. You know the story from there. He sacrificed his life to save theirs. Two others, very fine people, were also seriously hit, but thankfully, with the help of two great country doctors- — we thought they were gone and they were saved — so those doctors had great talent. We’re joined by Corey’s wife, Helen, who was his high school sweetheart, and their two beloved daughters, Allison and Kaylee. Thank you.

To Helen, Allison and Kaylee: Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now, and he is cheering you on. He loves you. He is cheering you on. Corey was taken from us much too soon, but his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selfless devotion of a true American patriot. It was love like Corey’s that built our country and it’s love like Corey’s that is going to make our country more majestic than ever before.

I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that. Thank you very much.

From the patriots of Lexington and Concord, to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, from the warriors who crossed the Delaware, to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies, and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk, to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices, and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country, and our freedom.

As we have seen in this chamber tonight, that same strength, faith, love and spirit is still alive and thriving in the hearts of the American people. Despite the best efforts of those who would try to censor us, silence us, break us, destroy us, Americans are today a proud, free, sovereign and independent nation that will always be free, and we will fight for it ’til death. We will never let anything happen to our beloved country because we are a country of doers, dreamers, fighters and survivors.

Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into the unknown wilderness, and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier. They chased our destiny across a boundless continent. They built the railroads, laid the highways, and graced the world with American marvels like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam, and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communists, fascists and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass and steel. We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age, these workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities, these warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle and gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom.

Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty, and it is our turn to take America’s destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest era. With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this Earth.

We are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest and wealthiest and healthiest and most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars, and even far beyond.

And through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit. And we are going to renew unlimited promise of the American dream. Every single day we will stand up and we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve. My fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future, because the golden Age of America has only just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

___

This transcript has been corrected to show the speech was March 4, not May 4.

The Dictatorship

How Trump’s first-year blitzkrieg stalled out

Published

19 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

After President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2025, he signed a series of executive orders designed to reshape America’s political landscape. The waves of action from the White House deluged the press, put elected Democrats off balance and left liberal groups scrambling to respond. “When you’re winning, it’s like blitzkrieg,” longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon crowed to The Washington Post early last year. The president’s opponents, Bannon said, were “surrendering without a fight.”

By blowing up so many norms and taking on so many battles at once, the Trump administration created the very shrapnel that has slowed its efforts.

A year and a half later, what seemed like a relentless flood from the White House has weakened to a trickle. New reporting from The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan shows that fears of overreach expressed inside the administration proved prescient; the multifront assault has proved vulnerable to counterattack — and in many ways it has been abandoned by the commander in chief. By blowing up so many norms and taking on so many battles at once, the Trump administration created the very shrapnel that has slowed its efforts. The “blitzkrieg” has stalled out.

According to Haberman and Swan, at least one senior staffer worried about a White House strategy reminiscent of Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos. Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary and an archconservative lawyer, reportedly had misgivings about efforts within the administration to flex its muscles to further its anti-immigration agenda. Last spring, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller publicly suggested that Trump could suspend habeas corpus for migrants seeking hearings challenging their detention. Later, as protests raged against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s heavy-handed raids, internal debate bubbled up again over whether to invoke the Insurrection Act to shut down the demonstrations.

In each of these moments, Scharf drafted memos to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles explaining the ways that these aggressive moves might well backfire. (MS NOW has not independently confirmed Haberman and Swan’s reporting but has reviewed the memos that the Times published.) The memos themselves resemble anodyne briefing memos that any lawyer could produce for decision-makers. But the carefully worded drafts are a major departure from the bombastic phrasing in legal filings that we’ve come to expect from this administration.

Scharf’s memos express concerns about, as the Times put it, “actions that promised Mr. Trump quick results but kept producing costly entanglements in court.” In a memo written last October, after the president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the National Guard to Illinois, Scharf’s warning was remarkably direct. He wrote that while the act provides broad powers to the president, “it is likely that any invocation of the Act would result in vigorous litigation potentially obviating any advantage to be gained in terms of the flexibility that it would provide to the President.”

Trump neither suspended habeas nor invoked the Insurrection Act. But time has shown that Scharf and other skeptics were right to worry about how bold moves could become self-inflicted wounds. The administration already has racked up a wild number of court losses on many of its most daring gambits, and dozens of cases remain open. The departures of thousands of experienced Justice Department lawyers certainly hasn’t helped matters, nor have the unconvincing slapdash efforts to twist the law’s meaning to fit the administration’s preferred narratives.

As the unpopularity of the Trump agenda grew, already bumpy terrain became a major slog, especially after the president launched a war against Iran in late February. The conflict has theoretically ended, but there are no details on what, if anything, has been gained, aside from a clear legacy of higher prices. Focus on the war has likewise sapped any political capital that the White House may have hoped to spend in preserving Republican majorities in Congress in this fall’s midterms.

Any remaining momentum in reshaping the government has ground to a near halt with the president’s focus on his own vanity projects.

Any remaining momentum in reshaping the government has ground to a near halt with the president’s focus on his own vanity projects. Although they’re still corrupt overreaches in their own way, Trump’s plans to gild equine statues around Washington and paint the bottom of the reflecting pool blue don’t rise to the same level as deploying the U.S. Army against protesters. As My colleague Zeeshan Aleem recently noted, “having started a disastrous, failed war of choice and holding record-low approval numbers, Trump has retreated to party planning and interior decorating.”

There are clearly portions of the initial “flood the zone” agenda that are still chugging forward. Mass deportation efforts remain ongoing in the background, though ICE has yet to release updated arrest data since scaling back its more attention-grabbing operations in late January. Likewise, the administration continues to undercut Congress and wage Trump’s retribution campaign against his enemies. Federal departments and agencies out of step with the MAGA ethos remain under threat, as new efforts to downsize the Education Department Tuesday show. And the Supreme Court is still due to weigh in on several cases that could further empower the executive branch.

But the radical period of transformation that those around Trump hoped to foster has not come to pass. There has been simply too much resistance for the administration to fully overwhelm the system. There is no time for Trump’s foes to let down their defenses, however. The retrenchment we’re seeing from the White House ahead of the midterms could precipitate a renewed campaign next year. But rather than simply accept the oncoming storm as inevitable, there is still time to ensure that in the long term Trump’s sound and fury signify nothing.

Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.

The Dictatorship

Markwayne Mullin’s investments in the kratom industry look like a clear conflict of interest

Published

19 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

ByDonald K. Sherman

What do gas station drugs, conflicts of interest and the Trump administration have in common? Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

A New York Times report earlier this week revealed the significant role Mullin has played in an influence campaign advocating for kratom, a supplement commonly sold at gas stations that allegedly relieves pain or boosts energy, but is linked to risk of liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder. Kratom has also been found in the system of thousands of people who died of drug overdoses.

As a senator from Oklahoma, Mullin endorsed proposed federal restrictions on kratom’s more potent competitors. He also reportedly urged officials in the Department of Health and Human Services to remove language from the Food and Drug Administration website about the possible dangers of using kratom, both as a senator and as DHS secretary. It is unclear why the homeland security secretary would be involved in such decisions. (Mullin hasn’t commented on the Times’ reporting, but DHS said in a statement that the secretary “follows all ethics and conflict of interest standards and has not lobbied for any individual or company.”)

Mullin has apparently gone out of his way to advocate for a supplement that is not regulated by the FDA and whose effects on the body are not well understood.

What we just learned from Mullin’s financial disclosure paperwork is that the secretary owns an investment worth as much as $1 million in a kratom company, Botanic Tonics. It’s not clear when he acquired this stake, but he has not filed paperwork to say he divested from it. Mullin has said in March that he would divest from dozens of potentially conflicting investments should he be confirmed as DHS secretary. Botanic Tonics does not appear to have been part of that list at the time, but given Mullin’s reported advocacy for kratom as part of the Trump administration, he should certainly divest now.

This looks like a textbook conflict of interest, where it is impossible to know if Mullin is advocating for policies that are best for the public or if he is prioritizing his own bottom line at the expense of public health and safety.

Mullin’s history doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence. He did not come to DHS with an ethically clean slate, having violated the STOCK Act by failing to properly report years of stock and bond trades. Some of his activity involved stock trading closely tied to industries he regulated and may have had sensitive knowledge of. Even if Mullin has a third party managing his portfolio, as he claims, as an officeholder, he is legally responsible for avoiding and remediating his own conflicts of interest.

The public should never have to question whether government officials are using their power for their own benefit, but Mullin’s conduct is particularly galling because President Donald Trump fired his predecessor at DHS, Kristi Noemafter she faced serious ethics issues that often distracted from her critical government role. These included her apparent failure to report outside income from a dark money group earned while serving as governor of South Dakota, and a subcontractor tied to Noem secretly receiving a DHS ad contract, outside of the normal competitive bidding process. (Noem’s lawyer told ProPublica“Then-Governor Noem fully complied with the letter and the spirit of the law; and Noem said she followed proper procedures with regards to the DHS ad contract.”)

While this seemed like a rare moment of accountability and possibly correcting course, appointing and confirming Mullin appears to have been more of the same.

The public should never have to question whether government officials are using their power for their own benefit.

And then, there’s the kratom itself. Mullin has apparently gone out of his way to advocate for a supplement that is not regulated by the FDA and whose effects on the body are not well understood. As part of this effort, he has reportedly tried to downplay health concerns about kratom. The supplement’s health risks can include addiction and withdrawal, liver damage, anxiety, hallucinations and psychosis. (Botanic Tonics, the company Mullin invested in, insists its products are safe and says it “has consistently advocated for regulations that distinguish between authentic kratom leaf products and synthetic derivatives.”)

All of these facts together raise another important question: How can someone who did not proactively divest from an obvious and dangerous conflict of interest, and who could not effectively manage a third-party adviser overseeing his investments to ensure compliance with the STOCK Act, ethically lead a massive agency consisting of more than 260,000 people covering everything from aviation, election and border security, to emergency response?

It’s up to Mullin to start building trust with the public by divesting his interests in kratom, and if he does not, Congress must intervene.

Donald K. Sherman

Donald K. Sherman is executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Before joining CREW, he was an oversight and ethics lawyer in the House, the Senate and the Obama administration. He also was chief oversight counsel to the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings on the House Oversight Committee.

The Dictatorship

I love my father deeply — which is why I want him to die quickly

Published

19 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

My father is dying. I suppose we all are, but he is actively closer to death than anyone else I know.

My father began declining in 2020. First, his body started to give up on him. He has Parkinson’s disease. One day he tried to get out of bed and his legs didn’t work, so he fell out of bed, and ended up in the hospital. Another day, his right hand stopped working, so he could barely use his phone or computer, his only points of contact with the outside world (he’s almost entirely lost his ability to write), making him further isolated. A few years after his Parkinson’s diagnosis, my father’s mind started to give out on him, too. He developed dementia, a diagnosis he steadfastly refuses to admit or discuss, which makes taking care of him even more challenging.

As an academic and intellectual, this is a perceived humiliation my father cannot bear. He has fits of anger, confusion, fear, frustration and disorientation. I spoke to him last week while he was in the hospital for yet another issue (a now semi-regular occurrence) and he started shouting, “I don’t know why the hell I’m here! Get me out of here, talk to someone!”

This is an incredibly difficult piece to write — one I almost didn’t.

To make matters more complicated, he now lives in Pakistan, where he is from, while I live in the United States and my mother, who co-caretakes with me, is based in South Africa. He lived in the States for most of his adult life, but we simply could not afford the cost here of the full-time care he needs. Even with the privilege of being upper-middle class, the more than $20,000 a month for full-time care was way more than we could afford, and this is not even for any specialized care.

This is an incredibly difficult piece to write — one I almost didn’t. There are serious ethical implications to consider as I discuss my father’s health. But I have ultimately decided to share my experience because I think it’s important to have conversations about the isolation and inhumanity of the end-of-life care systems that fail us. These are conversations we too often turn away from out of fear and discomfort. The intention here is to honor my father because approaching death with dignity honors the dignity of his life, too.

So, as I watch my father’s body and mind slowly and increasingly fail him, and I see the fear and suffering he endures on a daily basis, I can only hope that the end of his life is not drawn out.

I spoke about this with a dear friend recently, about how excruciating this process has been to witness and partake in, about our caretaker burnout, about the many, many systems that fail the sick and elderly, about how each week there is a new crisis. She gave me Atul Gawande’s book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.” Gawande’s central argument is that both the medical community and modern society are woefully ill-equipped to deal with mortality in a dignified way and that the most humane thing we can do is to focus on the quality of life of the elderly and terminally ill, rather than longevity.

As I explained to my friend, I’ve been sitting with an intense polarization around how I think about my father’s death: some parts of me wishing the end of his life is not drawn out, while others feel guilt and shame for wishing that my father dies quickly. Gawande’s book has been a profound balm in this process. “Our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying has increased the harm we inflict on people and denied them the basic comforts they most need,” he writes. “Lacking a coherent view of how people might live successfully all the way to their very end, we have allowed our fates to be controlled by the imperatives of medicine, technology, and strangers.”

Medicine, technology, and strangers. This trifecta now rules my father’s waning life. His full-time carers are strangers to him, and he to them. And some combination of technology and medicine is helping to prolong an existence full of fear and suffering.

What I have ultimately come to realize is that the only true solution here is not a medical one but a spiritual one. Death is too big for the human mind to hold. And grief, when we try to hold it alone, tears away at our lives. The only way any of this becomes manageable, in my experience, is if we hand these over to something bigger than ourselves. My faith is a big part of my life, so, for me, that something is god. For someone else, it might be a different spiritual belief or it might look like surrendering to the present. But the answer is certainly not in the illusion of control that medicine alone can create for patients and their families.

Mortality — our own and that of our loved ones — demands that we meet it with expansiveness in order to stay sane, otherwise our fear (an inherently constricting emotion) of death takes hold. Modern medicine tends to make everything smaller, with its hyperspecialization, its focus on how things are working at a cellular level. My father has a cadre of doctors, each focusing on a different part of his body.

I do not mean to dismiss the miracles of modern medicine, which have saved me and my body in so many ways over the course of my own life. But I invite us, like Gawande, to consider when the most loving thing we can do is to not interfere.

I wonder how different the end of my father’s life would feel to him if everyone around him was focused on offering him spiritual care rather than on the technical measures to keep him alive for as long as possible. I have tried in my own ways to reorient our approach to his care, but our collective resistance to mortality — sometimes my own included — and the concomitant systems that do exist to take care of the elderly make it feel impossible sometimes. And I can see his body and mind desperately attempt to prepare him for death even as parts of him, and everyone around him, resist it. This untended anxiety is leaking out of him. He calls me in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep to apologize for all the ways he failed my brother and me when we were children, his voice scared and desperate as he attempts to clean his fading conscience as much as he can, while he still can.

He calls me in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep to apologize for all the ways he failed my brother and me when we were children, his voice scared and desperate as he attempts to clean his fading conscience as much as he can, while he still can.

Interventions of modern medicine and carers to prevent falling (a common cause of death for people with Parkinson’s) could potentially prolong my father’s life for some time. He is in that precarious place that the elderly often find themselves in, where he could die in six months or in six years. But to what end are we prolonging his life? Our collective approach to end-of-life care is driven by distorted priorities, which come at great personal and financial cost. “The soaring cost of health care has become the greatest threat to the long-term solvency of most advanced nations, and the incurable account for a lot of it,” Gawande notes. “In the United States, 25 percent of all Medicare spending is for the 5 percent of patients who are in their final year of life, and most of that money goes for care in their last couple of months that is of little apparent benefit.”

In his book, Gawande anticipates criticisms of his argument, suggesting some might fear that it “raises the specter of a society readying itself to sacrifice its sick and aged.” He aptly responds, “But what if the sick and aged are already being sacrificed — victims of our refusal to accept the inexorability of our life cycle?”

There is a strange paradox to death. It is at once incredibly straightforward and deeply complicated. Maybe this is what separates the act, an uncomplicated one, from the process, which is almost always complex.

And if there is one thing I’ve learned watching my father disintegrate, it’s that our various approaches to end-of-life care are not working. The helplessness and fear is consuming him. It is out of a deep and abiding sense of love that I hope his suffering is minimized and his life is brought to a merciful end.

Noor Noman is a writer focused on culture, race and LGBTQ issues.