By Tim Reid and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump marked the one‑year anniversary of his return to the White House on Tuesday with a wide-ranging news conference that meandered from crime mugshots and immigration raids to the Nile River, Nobel Peace Prize and biker gangs.
Speaking at the White House briefing room podium, Trump repeatedly veered off message. He mused about the Nile River being in Egypt, joked about renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Trump, made demeaning comments about Somali Americans, complained about not getting enough credit for his record and professed admiration for the controversial Hells Angels motorcycle club. “They voted for me,” Trump said.
The surprise appearance shortly before he was due to fly to Switzerland to join other world leaders at the World Economic Forum was meant to focus on Trump’s achievements during his first year back in office.
But in an 81-minute opening monologue full of superlatives, he veered between self-congratulatory and defensive, and his core message was often lost. He then took questions from reporters for 24 minutes, for a total time behind the podium of one hour and 45 minutes.
Immigration and crime dominated Trump’s remarks. He described U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, especially those currently involved in an immigration crackdown in Minnesota, as patriots and decried people protesting against them as paid agitators. A federal agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen there this month.
Trump this year has deployed the National Guard to Democratic-run cities, and he has threatened to deploy the regular military to Minnesota, moves that have drawn opposition from local officials. “To me a town, it looks better when you have military people,” Trump said.
Without providing data, he also said Washington had less crime since National Guard troops arrived in the U.S. capital last summer. “Your lover’s not going to be killed” walking through the city, Trump said.
In remarks that echoed a 2024 campaign speech, Trump repeated many talking points from the last election. He castigated his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, and again falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
TRUMP’S BINDER OF ACHIEVEMENTS
Trump paged through a thick wad of printouts entitled “365 Wins in 365 Days,” a compilation of what the administration cited as daily achievements since his second inauguration on January 20, 2025.
It pointed to accomplishments from drastically reducing the number of immigrants entering the country illegally to improving consumer choice for shower heads and toilets.
At one point, Trump took a large binder clip off the sheaf of papers and joked it could have taken his finger off, saying it had probably been meant to hurt him. “I wouldn’t have shown the pain,” he said.
He spent the first 15 minutes displaying mugshots of Minnesota residents who he said were in the country illegally and had been arrested for serious crimes. After he finished, he tossed the pictures onto the floor next to him.
Trump demonized Somali immigrants, calling them “very low IQ people” and repeated his false assertion that Somalia was not even a country. Trump has justified his Minnesota immigration crackdown partly as a response to fraud involving federal hunger programs by charities and organizations linked to the Somali community there.
Trump also reiterated his exaggerated claim that he has helped end eight foreign wars. He has repeatedly said that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, which he did not win in December, and has cited that omission as one reason for his push to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland.
He added on Tuesday he did not believe the Norwegian government’s statement that it does not control the Nobel Foundation, which awards the prize.
(Reporting by Tim Reid. Additional reporting by Bo Erickson, editing by Ross Colvin and Cynthia Osterman)
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