MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
President Trump paid a visit to the Justice Department today. Just a year ago, he was facing criminal charges from that department. Today, speaking to DOJ leaders, the FBI director, employees, invited guests, Trump vowed a renewed Justice Department and aggressive law enforcement. He also talked about retribution. And he noted how rare it is for a sitting president to make such an address.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This has been a great honor. I was asked to do it. And I said, is it appropriate that I do it? And then I realized it's not only appropriate, I think it's really important, and I may never do it again.
KELLY: NPR's senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is with me to discuss this. Hey, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hi.
KELLY: What struck out - struck you from the president's speech?
KEITH: You know, in many ways, this was a typical Trump campaign speech - long, meandering, full of attacks on his perceived enemies and complaints about how he's been mistreated. There was some 2020 election denialism sprinkled on top for good measure. But this wasn't a mid-sized arena in a swing state. This was the Department of Justice, a place that presidents have typically stayed away from to avoid even a whiff of politics interfering with the rule of law. But this is President Trump, who believes that the Justice Department was weaponized against him during the Biden administration, and now he is back in office and has scores to settle.
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TRUMP: So now as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred. The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible. We won every single swing state.
KEITH: At least twice in the speech he listed people - lawyers who appear on TV or work for Democratic politicians - who he called radicals, scum and really bad people. It was, in essence, an enemies list.
KELLY: Tam, you said the speech was long. It was meandering. Did he meander into any of the other subjects he likes to talk about, aside from law enforcement? - things like tariffs, immigration?
KEITH: Yep. Immigration and drugs is what the White House said he would talk about, and he did get to that. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who introduced him, stuck largely to immigration and drug enforcement, talking about the deadly and potent drug fentanyl.
And at one point, President Trump brought up to the microphone a mother whose son loved Donald Trump, she said, and who overdosed on fentanyl. Trump said it was families like hers that he's fighting for and tied this to his escalating trade wars with Mexico and Canada.
And at the very end, he announced he would be launching a new antidrug campaign that would emphasize the effects some drugs have on your physical appearance. He said he wished he could use the death penalty to fight drugs, like they do in China and Singapore, but said the American people aren't ready for that.
KELLY: Back to the setting that he was addressing, the nation's chief law enforcement agency - I was struck by the fact that he used the word illegal, and he used it more than once. Would you explain the significance?
KEITH: Yeah. He was suggesting that news coverage that includes criticism of the judges and justices he appointed, or even that quotes legal experts weighing in on cases, amounted to interference and said it should be illegal. He said it nearly a dozen times. He called out news organizations by name. Saying something should be illegal while at the Justice Department gives it a different weight. And this comes in the context of numerous moves by the Trump administration in his short time in office that raise serious First Amendment questions.
KELLY: That's NPR's Tamara Keith. Thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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