One hundred days into President Trump’s historic second term, America is far safer than it was during Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency.
On January 20, President Donald Trump and his team inherited an open southern border, terrorist threats festering worldwide, American hostages languishing in captivity abroad, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which never would have happened if President Trump had remained in office. Additionally, China was continuing to run circles around a timid and clueless White House—no more. Today, we are putting America first in our national security policy and accomplishing what the voters returned President Trump to the White House to do.
President Trump recognizes that a strong border is essential to national security. The Biden administration invited in millions of illegal aliens with an open borders policy. However, the Trump administration has taken back control. Days into his administration, President Trump convinced Mexico to commit 10,000 of its National Guard forces to our southern border and Canada to send 10,000 personnel to our northern border to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl.
The results of this policy and our own maximum enforcement efforts are already evident. In March, there were fewer than 7,200 southwest border crossings, the lowest monthly number in history, and a 96 percent drop from under the Biden administration. And we formally designated six Mexican cartels and two transnational gangs—Tren de Aragua and MS-13—as the foreign terrorist organizations they are.
Additionally, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, countries across the Western Hemisphere have agreed to take back their citizens. We are also making enormous progress in removing the worst of the worst from inside our country, including through the arrest or deportation of 45,679 alien criminals. Those numbers include the apprehension, arrest, and removal of 1,154 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 foreign terrorist gang members.
Further away from our borders, President Trump remains ultra-vigilant against the scourge of terrorism. Since January 20, we’ve eliminated more than seventy-eight of the highest-value jihadi terrorists operating across Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, including Abu Khadijah, ISIS’ global second-in-command and the chief of the terrorist group’s most senior-decision-making body.
Later in March, we provided key intelligence to the Pakistani government that led to the arrest and extradition of the ISIS-K terrorist that orchestrated the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, which left thirteen brave American service members dead during Joe Biden’s incompetent pullout from Afghanistan.
President Trump also made the bold decision to launch strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, who were constantly attacking American and international ships in the Red Sea. So far, we’ve carried out more than 800 strikes, and they will continue until freedom of navigation is restored and attacks on U.S. vessels and personnel stop.
President Trump’s operations against the Houthis go hand-in-hand with a broader campaign of imposing maximum pressure on Iran—home of the regime that was responsible for killing more than 600 American troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. Our mission is to cut off the revenues Iran generates from selling oil to customers like China, which it then uses to build up its ballistic missile arsenal and fund terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
Additionally, President Trump is committed to ensuring that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Productive early-stage diplomacy toward that goal is happening right now, but the president has been clear that all options are on the table to prevent Iran from ever getting the bomb.
Additionally, President Trump is standing with our ally Israel after the Biden administration’s cold shoulder. Prime Minister Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to visit the White House under the new administration, and we have expedited billions in arms sales to Israel and stopped all funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which funneled money to Hamas.
President Trump has also made historic progress in bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained around the world. The Biden administration facilitated the release of over seventy of them in four years—and we are grateful that those Americans have been reunited with their loved ones. But we have already secured the release of forty-six Americans held abroad, including hostages from the dungeons of Gaza and those wrongfully detained in prisons of Afghanistan. Fighting for every last American unjustly held against his or her will is the essence of an America-First foreign policy—and we will not rest until all of them come home.
In his inaugural address, President Trump stated that his proudest legacy would be as a “peacemaker and a unifier.” Nowhere has this desire been more evident than in his leadership to end the senseless bloodshed in Ukraine. After years of the Biden administration’s incoherent strategy, only President Trump could have brought both Russia and Ukraine to the table for negotiations. Weeks of diplomacy have produced an understanding from both sides of what it will take to achieve peace. Now, both Russia and Ukraine must move quickly to come to an agreement before President Trump loses patience.
Finally, President Trump is clear-eyed on the threat of China—and not just its constant cheating, intellectual property theft, and economic warfare against the United States, which our tariffs are designed to combat. Consistent with our focus on the Western Hemisphere, we cannot allow China to control the Panama Canal, the region’s most crucial waterway.
Our diplomatic pressure has caused Panama to abandon its participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and begin the process of ejecting a Chinese company from controlling the management of the canal. Even more broadly on China, our America First Investment Policy has made clear to American businesses that the U.S. government will use all necessary legal means to stop American companies from investing in China’s military-industrial sector.
Keeping Americans safe is a never-ending effort, and there is still much work to be done. But President Trump has returned our nation to a common sense, America-First national security policy, and Americans are already safer for it.
About the Author: Mike Waltz
Mike Waltz is the U.S. National Security Advisor under President Trump.
Image: Joey Sussman / Shutterstock.com.