Trump ‘border czar’ tells ABC military planes will deport migrants every day
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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is planning to use military aircraft every day to help carry out what President Donald Trump and his “border czar,” Tom Homan, have promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, Homan told ABC News.
In an interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Homan said that only days after Trump took office, the U.S. government for the first time ever used military aircraft to transport migrants back to their home country, and it will now be a daily occurrence.
According to U.S. officials, the U.S. military on Thursday flew more than 150 migrants to Guatemala on two separate flights. But Homan made clear that the military flights are just one part of a much broader plan.
He claimed that – unlike under the Biden administration – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are now free to arrest any of the estimated more than 11 million immigrants in the country without legal status, not just those identified as priorities for deportation for being convicted criminals or other public safety threats.
Watch more of Martha Raddatz’ interview with Tom Homan Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week’
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re on the table because it’s not okay to, you know, violate the laws of this country,” he said.
Homan said that while the Trump administration’s enforcement actions are currently prioritizing public safety and national security threats, they’re going to “open up the aperture” in the weeks and months ahead.
“As that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide,” he said.
Homan also offered another possible solution for “those who are in the country illegally”: They “should leave” on their own, he said.
Early in the Biden administration, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued guidance to immigration enforcement officers discouraging them from “spending resources to remove those who do not pose a threat” and noting that many undocumented immigrants inside the country “have been here for generations and contributed to our country’s well-being,” as he put it in a statement at the time.
Homan, however, noted that the nation’s immigration laws were passed by Congress to be enforced, and said immigrants without legal status are violating those laws.
More of Homan’s interview with Raddatz will air Sunday on “This Week.”
(WASHINGTON) — In the span of eight days, former Rep. Matt Gaetz went from a reelected House member to an attorney general pick in President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration to ultimately bowing out before a Senate confirmation.
Here is a timeline of the roller coaster of events for the embattled ex-congressman.
Nov. 13, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump announces that Gaetz, who had won reelection for Florida’s 1st district on Election Day, was his nominee for attorney general.
Gaetz resigns from Congress that day, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Several House Republicans meeting behind closed doors said there was an audible gasp in the room when they heard Trump had picked Gaetz, sources told ABC News.
Gaetz was investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the Justice Department, however, no charges were ultimately brought.
The House Ethics Committee has also been probing Gaetz on those allegations, which he has repeatedly denied.
Nov. 14, 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces he will hold a special election to fill the Gaetz’s seat but doesn’t immediately provide details.
Sen. John Thune, the incoming Senate majority leader, tells reporters he doesn’t know if Gaetz can get confirmed until they start the confirmation process.
Senators on both sides of the aisle call for the release of details from the Ethics Committee’s investigation into the former congressman.
ABC News reports the woman who was at the center of the Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the former congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old.
Nov. 15, 2024
Johnson tells reporters that he would urge the Ethics Committee not to release their report on their probe into Gaetz.
The speaker says he didn’t think it was “relevant” for the public to know what’s in the report.
An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation tells ABC News one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.
Nov. 18, 2024
In an interview with ABC News’ Juju Chang, Florida attorney Joel Leppard reveals new details regarding his clients’ closed-door testimony before the Ethics Committee — including that his clients told congressional investigators that Gaetz allegedly paid for them to travel across state lines to have sex on at least two occasions.
Nov. 19, 2024
Trump backer and Tesla/SpaceX/X CEO Elon Musk backs Gaetz despite more stories about his scandals coming to light. Musk said the scandals were “worth less than nothing” and called the former congressman “our Hammer of Justice,” in a post on X.
Johnson denied that he discussed the details of the draft ethics report on the Gaetz matter with House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, and further denied that Trump or Gaetz pressured him to bury the report.
A hacker gained access to an online secure document-sharing file between attorneys involved in a civil lawsuit brought by a close friend to Gaetz, and potentially revealed documents, including unredacted depositions from key witnesses in the case, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
During a Space X launch, Trump tells reporters he is not reconsidering his pick for attorney general.
ABC News reports the Ethics Committee obtained records, including a check and records of Venmo payments, that appear to show that Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who were later witnesses in sexual misconduct probes conducted by both the House and the Justice Department, according to documents.
Nov. 20, 2024
Gaetz meets with Republican senators ,who push for his nomination process to continue.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee write to FBI Director Christopher Wray to request the complete evidentiary file in the bureau’s closed investigation into Gaetz.
The Ethics Committee voted against releasing the report after multiple rounds of votes, with all Republicans on the committee voting against its release, during a closed-door, two-hour meeting. The committee schedules another meeting in December. Two Democrats introduce privileged resolutions to make the report public.
Nov. 21, 2024
Johnson says said the House will take up the privileged resolution to force the release of the Gaetz report after Thanksgiving break.
Gaetz announces on X that he is withdrawing his name from the nomination process.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” he said in the post.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Sean Casten suggests that he plans to still move forward with forcing the House to vote on compelling the Ethics Committee to release the Gaetz report.
White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer acknowledged “significant support” from President-elect Donald Trump’s team to secure the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”
The bulk of implementing the deal is expected after Trump takes office on Monday, which Finer said President Joe Biden’s administration was conscious of.
“They’re fully up to speed, and we have been as transparent and supportive as we can as we hand this off,” he said.
But while Finer praised the Trump team’s cooperation, he told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that it was his boss’ “persistence” that saw the deal through.
“But ultimately, at the end of the day, it was our team that was in the driver’s seat for the negotiations directed by President Biden with their support,” he said.
The interview came minutes before the first three Israeli hostages were released from captivity in Gaza, the first step in the implementation of a ceasefire deal that also involves the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.
“The attention of the world, of the press, of maybe even other governments around the world had moved on to other issues, but President Biden literally just about every day would call [national security adviser] Jake Sullivan or me or others on our team and ask for an update on the deal, what he could do to help push things forward, who he could deploy to the region, who he could call on the phone,” Finer said. “And he made, you know, dozens of calls to heads of state involved in negotiating this deal, to ultimately get it done.”
“It never escaped his attention and it really was his persistence that ultimately led to the day that we’re going to have today and the opportunity for a better future in the region that this unlocks,” Finer added.
“The Israeli government made a very difficult decision but I think had reached the same conclusion that we have reached over a long period of time, which is that ultimately, the only way to end this war, bring the hostages home, secure humanitarian relief for Gaza was some sort of exchange along the lines that was negotiated,” Finer told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen — who is expected to be one of the 33 hostages released — told Karl he was “thrilled” to hear of the first three hostages being released in the first phase of the ceasefire, and expressed his hope that the remaining hostages, including his son, return home safely.
It’s been over a year since Dekel-Chen received a “positive sign of life” of his son, he said.
His son’s wife was seven months pregnant with their third child on Oct. 7, Dekel-Chen said.
“She only knows her dad as a poster on the wall, and not the man himself,” he said.
Dekel-Chen plans to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday and expressed “immense gratitude” to the president-elect for his work on the deal.
“The Biden team absolutely did extraordinary work in getting the superstructure of this deal together,” he said. “However, it took a tweet, the subsequent statements from President-elect Trump, to get this home.”
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As President-elect Donald Trump fills out his Cabinet and chooses his closet advisers ahead of Inauguration Day, many African American leaders are asking why more Black people haven’t been appointed to key positions.
ABC News spoke to more than a half dozen longtime and new African American conservatives and Republicans within Trumpworld, in and outside of Washington.
Last month, the president-elect appointed Scott Turner, who was executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term, to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
One area of frustration for many Black Republicans was speculation that if Trump did nominate an African American to his administration, it would be at HUD, the department that has had the most Black secretary appointments of any.
One Black Southern Republican told ABC News, “Why is every Black person given HUD?” adding that it was “the literal Black job of the administration.”
ABC News reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment on his selections but did not get a reply.
Six African Americans have served as HUD secretaries, including Robert Weaver, the first. His appointment in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson also made him the first African American appointed to a Cabinet-level position.
The first African American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet was Patricia Roberts Harris, who was the first African American Health and Human Services director and later HUD secretary. She served under President Jimmy Carter.
Former HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce was the only Black Cabinet official in the Ronald Reagan administration. Dr. Ben Carson at HUD was Trump’s sole Black cabinet member in his first term.
In mid-November, Carson posted that he was “excited to speak with President Trump about how I will continue to advance the America First agenda, and I am meeting with him in the near future.”
“However, contrary to reports, I will not be serving as the Surgeon General,” he said.
The departments of Treasury and Interior remain the only departments that have never had a Black secretary.
Another key position Black conservatives believe needs to be filled by an African American is assistant to the president, a senior-level role within the White House. Trump previously appointed Omarosa Manigault Newman, a contestant on his “The Apprentice” TV series, as the sole Black assistant to the president.
“I do think if you’re really talking about Black influence inside the White House, does Trump want his only legacy of having the only AP for two terms be Omarosa” one Black Republican strategist asked.
After Newman’s departure, Ja’Ron Smith served as a special assistant on legislative affairs before rising to deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. Ashley Bell, a prominent Black Republican, served as a White House adviser on entrepreneurship and a regional administrator for the Small Business Administration. Bell’s former boss is former SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, who Trump announced as his pick for the Department of Education. McMahon also is co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team.
Some of the former president’s most ardent defenders have grown restless with the lack of Black appointees, as Trump selected several others who would be firsts in those positions. If confirmed, Sen. Marco Rubio would be the first Hispanic secretary of state; Scott Bessent would be the first openly gay Treasury secretary; and Tulsi Gabbard will be the first Asian American and youngest-ever director of national intelligence.
“I can’t tweet that we need more Black conservatives because the left will attack me saying it’s a DEI hire,” the southern Republican said.
However, one Black Republican operative told ABC News it is still very early when it comes to appointments.
“The Republican Party has never really fallen into the category of ‘representation matters.’ Our strength comes from diversity, but that is not our bumper sticker slogan. We’re not going to nominate Black folks for the sake of nominating Black people,” the Republican operative said.
The operative noted that Black Republicans have made strides in leadership across the country. Sen. Tim Scott will chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee; Rep. Byron Donald is speculated as possibly running for governor or U.S. Senate in Florida; and Winsome Sears is seeking to become the first Black female governor in the country in Virginia.
Donalds on CNN last month took aim at President Joe Biden’s focus on diversity within his administration when asked about the lack of diversity among Trump’s nominees, saying “if you look at how the Democrats filled Joe Biden’s cabinet, they wanted to have a piece of every identity. But did they get the job done? Did they actually serve the interest of the American people?”
“What Donald Trump’s election is about, is bringing competency and reality back to D.C. in the White House, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their creed.” the Florida congressman added.
Although some Black leaders inside and out of politics are highly qualified, another barrier that Black conservatives face is added scrutiny because of their dual identity.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-partisan organization that studies diversity in government and congressional staff, said that the Trump administration differs vastly from past Republican administrations.
“Trump isn’t a traditional Republican, he doesn’t use traditional Republican institutions in the same way that past presidential candidates have, so there isn’t a kind of pipeline, long-term relations,” Asante-Muhammad said.
“Being a part of Trumpworld isn’t easy. It is almost a personal blacklist thing in the outside world. So it is risky, in my opinion, to be a part of this organization for Black people that may want to be a part of the cause, but it’s not worth their bottom dollar,” one Black Republican strategist added.
“When Black people are put underneath this microscope of being Trump-affiliated, they look past your color and you are public enemy number one,” a Black Republican operative said.
The Republican strategist said Black Republicans face a different set of expectations — they don’t necessarily thrive in spaces that are massively disruptive, such as the second Trump term.
“I don’t think disruption really leans into our skillset the way things are currently set up, we have to play things a little bit differently. There’s no Black Republican version of Matt Gatez. They don’t last,” the strategist added.
“Those of us who have survived and been there for years and made it work have done so by being steady, consistent, reliable, and trustworthy, ” the strategist said.
The majority of Black Republicans who spoke to ABC News acknowledged that while the optics of Trump being surrounded by mostly white people aren’t ideal, they believe if Trump delivers on a better economy, securing the border, Second Step Act, and judicial reform it could be transformative for the Black community, but they do want the former president to hire more Black conservatives.
