Donald Trump declared during a White House meeting that there was a "military operation" underway to deport undocumented American immigrants. He said it quite plainly, though he appears from the actual arrests reported to be lying about just who was being targeted.
"All of a sudden for the first time we're getting gang members out, we're getting drug lords out, we're getting really bad dudes out of this country," Trump said during a listening session with manufacturing CEOs. "And it's a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country."
They’re pulling people out of hospitals and waiting for them to pick their kids up from school. Doesn’t sound like they’re targeting “bad dudes” to me.
But declaring this to be a "military operation" on American soil would appear to be, say, unconstitutional, which explains why now his team has to walk yet another of his outrageous statements back lest anyone believe the so-called sitting president actually meant the words that rolled out of his empty head. Here's "Press Secretary" Sean Spicer.
President Trump wasn’t speaking literally when he described his deportation push as a “military operation,” according to his top spokesman.
“The president was using that as an adjective. It is happening with precision,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Thursday.
Spicer added that “the president was clearly describing the manner in which this is being done.”
I wonder if there's ever been a public official—outside of Baghdad, anyway—whose tenure has been so dedicated to forever explaining why the thing Dear Leader said wasn't what Dear Leader meant and why you should all instead listen to the Dear Leader Whisperers to get your actual information on what the hell goes on in the man's brain.
And here's a very sensitive Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly yelling at the press for calling it "military" when it's not "military"—immediately after Trump called it that.
I repeat, no use of military forces in immigration ... at least half of you try to get that right. Because it continually comes up in the reporting.
Darn reporters, always reporting on what Donald Trump says out loud. You can see why the administration is so fed up with them.