US Politics
Trump says ICE raids ‘haven’t gone far enough’ when confronted about brutal tactics in 60 Minutes interview
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President Donald Trump said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids “haven’t gone far enough” when confronted with questions about the agency’s aggressive tactics on CBS News program 60 Minutes.
During the interview, which is set to air in full on Sunday evening, the president was confronted by anchor Norah O’Donnell about ICE agents’ tactics, which over the past 10 months have included ramming cars in pursuit of suspects, sledgehammering windows, raiding churches, and getting heavy-handed with protesters.
“Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows,” O’Donnell said. “Have some of these raids gone too far?”
“No, I think they haven’t gone far enough,” Trump replied.
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O’Donnell referenced an incident where an ICE agent tackled a crying woman to the ground inside the halls of an immigration courthouse in downtown Manhattan in front of her two young children in September. The agent was relieved of his duties.
O’Donnell asked the president whether he was “okay with those tactics.”
“Yeah, because you have to get the people out,” Trump said. “Many of them are murderers.”
The president was pressed further by O’Donnell about how the administration has largely deported “landscapers, nannies, construction workers…”
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“Landscapers who are criminals,” Trump interrupted.
Trump went on to blame “liberal judges” appointed by his Democratic predecessors, former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“We’ve been held back by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump said.
According to a recent review by Politico, more than 100 federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport immigrants. The judges ruled at least 200 times that the administration’s actions violated people’s rights or were “just flatly illegal,” according to the outlet.
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In the sit-down, Trump also discussed China, Venezuela, Israel, the government shutdown, and his attempts to deploy the National Guard to cities around the country, according to CBS News.
It is the first time in five years that Trump is appearing on the program.
He sued CBS in November 2024, alleging 60 Minutes had deceptively edited an interview with his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The network initially fought the suit, calling it “meritless,” but in July CBS and its parent company, Paramount, settled with Trump for $16 million.
