President Trump made a jaw-dropping admission during his Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press that left many viewers stunned.
The bombshell moment came during a heated exchange with NBC host Kristen Welker.
But Justice Amy Coney Barrett was clearly among the targets Trump directed this one comment toward.
“Let’s talk about the border. Let’s talk about deportations. Border crossings are at their lowest level ever recorded. Is the border – ” Welker began before Trump interjected: “Is that good?”
Welker continued: “Is the border now secure?”
“Yeah, it’s really secure,” Trump confirmed without hesitation.
When Welker pressed further, asking if it’s “absolutely secure,” Trump doubled down on his assessment.
“Isn’t that good, though? When you say that, doesn’t that just sound good?” Trump responded. “After being abused for years by an incompetent president that allowed people to pour through an open border, criminals from all over the world, murderers and insane people from mental institutions and insane asylums, isn’t it – isn’t it a beautiful thing when you say, ‘It’s the most secure it’s ever been in the history of our country.’ Isn’t that a nice statement?”
The surprising admission immediately raised questions about why the Trump administration continues to maintain a national emergency declaration at the southern border if the crisis has been resolved.
Welker seized on this apparent contradiction.
“You declared a national emergency on the southern border. The order is still in place. Even though you’re saying the border is secure,” Welker noted pointedly.
When asked directly when he would lift the emergency declaration, Trump’s answer revealed the real reason behind the continued emergency powers.
“The border now is not the emergency,” Trump admitted plainly.
Instead, Trump shifted the focus to a new “emergency” – the legal obstacles to his mass deportation agenda.
“The big emergency right now is that we have thousands of people that we want to take out, and we have some judges that want everybody to go to court,” Trump explained.
Welker then reminded the President that many of those judges, including three Supreme Court justices, were his own appointees.
“That’s all right. I mean, you know, they change. I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable how that happens, but they do change,” Trump said, appearing frustrated by the legal hurdles to his deportation plans.
Trump’s admission raises serious questions about the continued use of emergency powers that were originally justified by a border crisis he now claims no longer exists.
When pressed again on whether he would lift the emergency declaration, Trump was adamant.
When Welker pressed again on whether he would lift the emergency declaration, Trump was adamant.
“No, no, no. We have an emergency. We have a massive emergency overall. It’s an overall emergency on immigration,” Trump insisted. “And the – if the courts don’t allow us to take people out, if we had to have a court case every single – think of it. Every single person, we have millions of people. If you have millions of court cases, figure two weeks a court case, it would be 300 years.”
This explosive interview comes as the administration faces mounting legal challenges to its deportation policies.
The Supreme Court recently heard arguments about the administration’s expedited removal procedures, with several justices expressing concerns about due process violations.
Trump’s admission that the border itself is no longer an emergency may complicate the legal justification for maintaining the extraordinary powers granted by the emergency declaration.
Legal experts have noted that emergency powers are meant to be temporary responses to actual crises, not permanent tools for implementing policy goals that face judicial resistance.
The White House has not responded to requests for clarification on how long the emergency declaration will remain in place now that the President has declared the border secure.
Critics argue that Trump’s own words undermine the legal basis for the emergency declaration, which has allowed the administration to redirect military resources to immigration enforcement.
Since taking office in January, Trump has made border security a centerpiece of his second administration.
The administration has reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy, restarted border wall construction, and significantly reduced illegal crossings.
With these initiatives already showing results, questions about the continued necessity of emergency powers will likely increase in the coming weeks.
