President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that federal law enforcement will next focus its efforts on San Francisco, praising the FBI for what he described as a sharp increase in violent crime arrests under his administration.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the FBI has made more than 23,000 arrests for violent crimes since he took office — more than double the number recorded in the final year of the Biden administration.
He added that agents have “destroyed or severely disrupted” over 170 organized criminal enterprises, targeted 1,600 violent gangs, and seized more than 6,000 illegal firearms.
Trump said his administration’s goal is to ensure “every city in America is safe,” adding that San Francisco will be the next major focus of federal law enforcement operations, Fox News reported.
“These are great cities that could be fixed,” the president said. “I’m going to be strongly recommending … [we] start looking at San Francisco. I think we can make San Francisco one of our great cities. … It’s a mess, and we have great support in San Francisco. … Every American deserves to live in a community where they’re not afraid of being mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted, or shot.”
During the news conference, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that “Operation Summer Heat,” a federal initiative targeting violent offenders, resulted in 8,700 arrests over a three-month period.
Patel said the operation also led to the seizure of more than 2,200 firearms and 421 kilograms of fentanyl — an amount he noted was sufficient to kill an estimated 55 million Americans.
To date, he said the FBI has seized 1900 kilograms of fentanyl—enough lethal doses to kill 127 million Americans.
“If you look at the past four years of the Biden administration, [there were] 16,000, 17,000, 15,000, 15,000 … arrests year over year of violent felons in this country,” Patel said, according to Fox. “You have 28,600 arrests of violent felons in just seven months alone because of your leadership and the dedication of the men and women at the FBI who want to go out there and do the job they were prevented from doing. … This number is historic by every metric.”
Patel also emphasized the FBI’s efforts to locate missing children, stating that 5,400 have been found since January.
“That is a 30% increase year to date over the last administration,” he said. “Violent crimes against children arrests alone are up 10% [and] gang arrests are up 210% in the last seven months alone. … Mr. President, you said we have to go after the worst of the worst. … This is just the beginning.”
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino announced significant results from Operation Summer Heat last month.
In a post on X, Bongino said the operation “continues to deliver results as we strive to protect the communities we serve,” he said.
“I want to provide you another update on your @FBI’s Operation Summer Heat, which continues to deliver results as we strive to protect the communities we serve. By uniting with our communities and law enforcement partners, we stay prepared and resilient together,” he added.
“In @NewYorkFBI, our teams arrested a subject involved in the robbery of a gas station where an elderly employee was manning the store,” the deputy FBI director said.
“The @FBISeattle office saw a major success as they investigated a large-scale street gang, which resulted in the collection of 23 firearms and over 9,800 grams in drug seizures. They are accused of using female couriers to transport pills in luggage from source in Arizona to Seattle and Baltimore airports,” Bongino said.
“@FBITampa with our partners at DEA, USPS, DOL, and the Lakeland Police Department targeted a violent street gang called the Hood Boys. Friday, Twelve Lakeland, FL-based gang members were charged with paycheck protection program fraud. According to the indictments, they devised a scheme to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration by submitting false and fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications,” Bongino noted.