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Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion With the Fraternal Order of Police

June 05, 2025

The President. It's an honor to be joined by the 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——

Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi. Thank you.

The President. ——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 has 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 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. [Laughter] 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 about—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. Then 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.

Attorney General 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.

[At this point, Attorney General Bondi continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]

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.

The President. Thank you. Thanks, Pam.

Fraternal Order of Police National President Patrick Yoes. Mr. President, first, thank you. And 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.

[Mr. Yoes continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

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 are—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——

The President. Thank you.

Mr. Yoes. ——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, revitalizing the city and making it safe again. And no one knows that better than the person who lives it every day and leads the officers in—the Metropolitan Police Department, in our labor union, than Gregg Pemberton.

And I'll ask Gregg to say a few words.

Fraternal Order of Police DC Police Union Chairman Greggory 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. Unfortunately, as of today, we only have 3,190—over 800 vacancies that we have here for this Metropolitan Police Department.

[Ofc. Pemberton continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

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.

Mr. Yoes. Great.

The President. Thank you very much.

Mr. Yoes. Mr. President, no—this has been 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——

The President. Yes.

Mr. Yoes. ——and all the problems that it has done for quality of life, it's done for our 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—I'll ask our Vice President, Joe Gamaldi, to touch on, you know.

Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President 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 refused 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.

[Mr. Gamaldi continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

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.

The President. Thank you very much. Very nice.

Mr. Yoes. This—sorry, go ahead.

The President. 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.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:13 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to H.R. 1.

Donald J. Trump (2nd Term), Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion With the Fraternal Order of Police Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/377861

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