Trump’s Historic Border Crackdown, First 100 Days Media Tour, Eagles at White House: AM Update 4/29

Summary

Summary of "Trump’s Historic Border Crackdown, First 100 Days Media Tour, Eagles at White House: AM Update 4/29"

The Megyn Kelly Show hosted by SiriusXM brought forth an in-depth discussion on April 29, 2025, covering President Donald Trump's aggressive stance on U.S. immigration policies, his strategic media engagements in the first 100 days of his second administration, and notable events involving the Philadelphia Eagles at the White House. The episode featured expert insights from Todd Bensman, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, providing a comprehensive analysis of the administration's actions and their broader implications.

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1. Trump’s Historic Border Crackdown

Overview of Immigration Policy Revisions

President Trump launched a robust campaign to reverse the previous administration’s immigration policies within his first 100 days. Key measures included:

• Reinstating the Remain in Mexico Policy: This policy required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their court hearings, significantly reducing the influx of migrants at the Southern border.

• Terminating Title 42 Expulsions: This COVID-era policy allowed for the rapid removal of illegal entrants deemed a public health threat.

• Launching Mass Parole Programs: Facilitated the legal entry of hundreds of thousands of migrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti.

• Expanding Catch and Release Practices: Aimed to reduce the backlog of illegal immigrants awaiting court dates.

Expert Analysis with Todd Bensman

Todd Bensman highlighted the unprecedented effectiveness of these policies:

“This is probably his earliest signature achievement is closing the border and putting it to a place as close to operationally secure as we have ever seen. The numbers are down to historic levels. We have never seen numbers like this. If we stay on track, it'll break the national record that predates 1960.” [03:58]

Bensman emphasized that these changes were implemented swiftly without the need for comprehensive immigration reform or addressing root causes in Central America, contrasting sharply with the previous administration's approach.

Impact on Border Patrol and ICE

President Trump's policies revitalized the morale of Border Patrol and ICE agents:

“The morale of ICE and Border Patrol is at all time high because they're getting to uphold the oath they took and they're enforcing the law.” [05:28]

Bensman further explained how Biden-era policies had previously hampered agents' effectiveness:

“Border Patrol agents are trained to catch, tackle, arrest, detain, cuff, deport. That's their cops. They're border cops. That's what they do. And so imagine if you were to tell any cop that you have to release all the criminals and reward them for their criminal activity.” [05:59-06:40]

2. Public Opinion and Media Influence

Shifting Public Support

Initial polls indicated strong approval for Trump's immigration crackdown, with Pew Research showing 59% approval of his deportation efforts in February. However, recent polls from ABC-Washington Post revealed a decline, with 53% disapproving of his handling of immigration. Bensman attributes this shift to media narratives:

“They put sob stories. I call it injustice porn to fill the media with injustice porn stories that are mostly fraudulent, fake, untrue…” [08:56-10:06]

Controversial Deportation Cases

A high-profile case emerged where three U.S. citizen children were deported alongside their legally present mothers. Despite initial reports, officials clarified that the children were not deported and retain their citizenship:

“What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision.” [08:21]

Bensman criticized the media's portrayal of such incidents as exaggerated attempts to undermine the administration’s policies.

3. First 100 Days Media Tour and Political Strategy

Engagement with The Atlantic

President Trump engaged in a notable interview with The Atlantic, marking a significant media engagement aimed at reinforcing his political narrative post-Jan 6th. Key highlights include:

• Potential Third Term Consideration: Trump hinted at the possibility of running for a third term, reflecting his sustained political ambitions.

“No matter how you look at it, we got a long time to go… they love the job we do.” [14:33]

• Defense of Executive Actions: Addressed criticisms regarding executive power and judicial challenges, asserting confidence in his administration's legal standing.

“I think the judge is horrible… but I've had a lot of horrible judges and I won on appeal, right? I got immunity on appeal.” [14:21]

Internal Strategies and Staffing

The administration focused on consolidating a government aligned with Trump’s agenda, ensuring loyalty and commitment among new hires:

“Don’t hire anyone who wasn't committed to the agenda the last time.” [14:21]

4. Philadelphia Eagles at the White House

Saquon Barkley’s Golf Outing with Trump

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley was seen golfing with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, sparking varied reactions:

“LOL, some people are really upset because I played golf and flew to the White House with the president.” [07:49]

Barkley defended his actions by emphasizing respect for the office and his previous golf experiences with other presidents.

Team’s White House Ceremony Attendance

Despite initial reports of potential declines, the majority of the Eagles attended the White House ceremony honoring their Super Bowl victory. However, quarterback Jalen Hurts opted out, citing scheduling conflicts.

“The vast majority of the team is coming and those who cannot attend had scheduling conflicts.” [07:49]

5. Tax Enforcement and IRS Activities

Although briefly mentioned, the episode touched upon the IRS ramping up tax enforcement efforts, highlighting the increased filing of tax liens and enforcement actions post the April 15 deadline. Services like Tax Network USA were promoted as resources for individuals needing assistance with tax issues.

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Conclusion

The April 29, 2025, episode of The Megyn Kelly Show provided a thorough examination of President Trump's second administration's decisive actions on immigration, their immediate effects, and the shifting tides of public opinion influenced by media narratives. Additionally, the episode shed light on Trump's strategic media engagements and the political dynamics involving prominent figures like the Philadelphia Eagles. Expert analysis from Todd Bensman offered a critical perspective on the sustainability and public reception of these policies, painting a complex picture of Trump's ongoing political endeavors.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and this is your AM update.

[Todd Bensman]

The numbers are down to historic levels. We have never seen numbers like this. If we stay on track, it'll break the national record that predates 1960.

[Megyn Kelly]

In an exclusive interview, center for Immigration Studies fellow Todd Bensman breaks down the Trump administration's historic crackdown at the Southern.

[Donald Trump]

BO People are saying you've got to run again.

[Megyn Kelly]

President Trump speaks with the Atlantic about his first 100 days and what may be coming next. And which Philadelphia Eagles super bowl star spent a morning golfing with President Trump ahead of his team's visit to the White House and which didn't show up at all. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM upd. Are you a yo yo dieter? You diet, lose weight, then you gain it all back plus a few. Then later you lose it again and the same cycle continues. Well, that can be dangerous. Studies show that this could actually increase health problems. And breaking free of this yo yo diet diet pattern is not easy. But it's why doctors created Lean. Lean is a supplement and you don't need a prescription. Lean includes natural ingredients targeting weight loss and in three powerful ways, maintaining healthy blood sugar, controlling appetite and cravings. And it helps burn fat by converting fat into energy. Listen, if you're tired of losing weight and gaining it back and wanna lose meaningful weight at a healthy pace, lean could be something for you to consider. Let me get you started with 20% off when you enter [e-mail] that's code [e-mail] check it out in 100 days. The second Trump administration flipping US immigration policy on its head, dismantling four years of Biden era policies that effectively opened the southern border. President Biden taking a series of steps to reverse Trump era policies. Ending the Remain in Mexico program that required asylum seekers to wait outside the US for their court hearings. Trump terminating Title 42 expulsions, a Covid era policy that allowed the government to quickly remove illegal aliens as public health threats. Launching mass parole programs facilitating the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti and expanding catch and release practices leading to a tremendous backlog of illegal immigrants waiting for their never coming court dates. President Biden then asking Congress to pass an immigration reform bill, saying without their help, his hands were tied for much too long.

[Donald Trump]

As you all know, the immigration system has been broken and it's long past.

[Todd Bensman]

Time to fix it.

[Donald Trump]

That's why months ago I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to seriously and finally fix our immigration system.

[Megyn Kelly]

President Trump cruising to victory largely on a promise to lock down the border. On January 20, the second Trump administration getting right to work. President Trump signing a series of immigration related executive orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border. Reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, terminating the CBP1 app used by the Biden administration to make it easier for migrants to enter the country and many, many more. The result, a historic drop in illegal border crossings in March, total Border patrol encounters totaling 7100 and change representing a 95% decrease from the same time period in 2024. We spoke to Todd Bensman, fellow at the center for Immigration Studies and author of How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in US History, about the historic effort.

[Todd Bensman]

This is probably his earliest signature achievement is closing the border and putting it to a place as close to operationally secure as we have ever seen. The numbers are down to historic levels. We have never seen numbers like this. If we stay on track, it'll break the national record that predates 1960. That's when we first started keeping track of the numbers. So this is a major achievement. It took all of one hour on the first day of inauguration. The new President Trump just came in and used the tools that were always available to end catch and release and to begin detentions and deportations at 100%. And that was all it took. No comprehensive immigration reform necessary. No root causes had to be, you know, addressed in Central America or any of that stuff. That was all just a bunch of junk, nothing about it.

[Megyn Kelly]

True, that last reference to root causes recalling Vice President Kamala Harris tenure as Biden's border czar, during which she was supposed to prioritize addressing migration through foreign aid initiatives in Central and South America rather than through direct enforcement at the US border. On Monday, President Trump's border czar Tom Homan, highlighting the dramatic turnaround in morale among Border Patrol and ICE agents under the Trump administration.

[Donald Trump]

The morale of ICE and Border Patrol is at all time high because they're getting to uphold the oath they took and they're enforcing the law. Border Patrol and the Biden administration. I met with hundreds of them. They felt like Uber drivers and tourist agents. These men and women joined the ranks of ICE and Borbatool to enforce the law and make the community safer and protect national security.

[Megyn Kelly]

Mr. Bensman saying the damage ran even deeper, describing how Biden era policies stripped agents of their core mission, crippling enforcement efforts at the border and inside the country as well.

[Todd Bensman]

Border Patrol agents are trained to catch, tackle, arrest, detain, cuff, deport. That's their, their cops. They're border cops. That's what they do. And so imagine if you were to tell any cop that you have to release all the criminals and reward them for their criminal activity. ICE agents who were by and large prohibited from arresting anyone in the interior without permission from Washington, go through this whole approval process and they were chained to their desks. They, they were not allowed to do their jobs at all.

[Megyn Kelly]

In the initial weeks of the second Trump administration, the president receiving strong public support for his handling of the border. February polling from Pew research showing 59% of U.S. adults approved of his efforts to deport individuals in the country illegally. However, a Friday poll from ABC Washington Post finding 53% of Americans now disapprove of President Trump's handling of immigration. The possible shift in public sentiment following intense and slanted media focus on emotional cases, stories Mr. Bensman says are designed to undercut support for the administration's enforcement policies. One such story now making headlines, claiming that the Trump administration deported three American citizen children from two families to Honduras on Friday. There were three American citizen children born here who were deported along with their mothers from Louisiana down to Honduras. A US District judge says the deportation.

[Todd Bensman]

Quote had no meaningful process.

[Megyn Kelly]

These children, ages 2, 4 and 7, are U.S. citizens and were sent with.

[Todd Bensman]

Their mothers who were deported Friday morning.

[Megyn Kelly]

This gets at the central question about whether the administration is moving too aggressively, too quickly to carry out these mass deportation operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and border czar Tom Homan dumping cold water on those reports on the headline. That's a misleading headline. Okay. Three US citizens ages 4, 7 and 2 were not deported. Their mothers who are legally in this country were deported. The children went with their mothers. If those children are US Citizens, they can come back into the United States if there's their father or someone here who wants to assume them.

[Donald Trump]

What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision. Parental, one parent, parenting 101. The mothers made that choice. And I tell you what, if we didn't do it, the story today be Trump administration separating families again. No, we're keeping families together. So when a parent says, I want my 2 year old baby to go with me, we made that happen. They weren't deported. We don't report US Citizens. The parents made that decision, not United States government.

[Megyn Kelly]

Mr. Benjamin saying the decrease in public support is part of a strategy by the president's detractors to stymie his agenda.

[Todd Bensman]

The public elected him on this, and the public, all the way up until relatively recently, was overwhelmingly in favor of mass deportations in the 50 percentile range, even for non criminals, but in the 80 percentile range for criminals. So the task and challenge for the pro criminal alien crowd and the pro illegal immigrant crowd is to put sob stories. I call it injustice porn to fill the media with injustice porn stories that are mostly fraudulent, fake, untrue, using narratives that are easily disproved but which make make make their way into multiple news cycles long enough that it can influence public opinion. And we've seen recently swings in public opinion away from the mass deportation program and some of the particular programs that Trump is doing.

[Megyn Kelly]

Coming up, President Trump reveals to the Atlantic magazine just how seriously he's considering a run for a third term in office. And a star Philadelphia Eagles player snaps back at critics angered by his round of golf. With President Trump, Tax day may have passed, but for millions of Americans, the real trouble is is just the beginning. If you miss the April 15 deadline or still owe back taxes, the IRS is ramping up enforcement and every day you wait might make things worse. With over 5,000 new tax liens filed daily and tools like property seizures, bank levies and wage garnishments, you don't want to mess around. Okay, the good news is there's still time for Tax Network USA to help self employed or a business owner. Even if your books are a mess, they've got it covered. Tax Network USA specializes in cleaning up financial chaos and getting you back on track fast. Even after the deadline, it's not too late to regain control. Your consultation is completely free, and acting now could stop penalties, threatening letters and surprise levies before they escalate. Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com Megan you may have missed April 15, but you haven't run out of options. Let Tax Network USA help before the IRS makes the next move. On Monday, the Atlantic dropping a lengthy piece chronicling the president's political comeback from the lowest days in the aftermath of January 6th until now. The piece, which includes excerpts from an interview with the president coming as a shock given the Atlantic's contentious history with Mr. Trump, publishing the infamous suckers and losers story during Mr. Trump's first term, claiming he disparaged fallen troops during a 2018 trip to France. At least 21 Trump officials, including John Bolton, no friend to Mr. Trump, went on record denying that Claim more recently, the Atlantic triggering Trump 2.0's first major scandal after national security adviser Mike Walls mistakenly looped in Mr. Goldberg on a chat discussing attacks on Houthi rebels. Last Thursday, President Trump posting on Truth Social that he would be meeting with, quote, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me. Mr. Trump adding that Mr. Goldberg would be joined by Michael Sharer and Ashley Parker, quote, not exactly pro Trump writers, saying he was doing the interview, quote, out of curiosity to see if the Atlantic could be truthful, adding, the way I look at it, what can be so bad I won? President Trump telling the Atlantic, the second term feels much different from the first, saying, quote, the first time I had two things to do, run the country and survive. I had all these crooked guys. And the second time I run the country and the world. The president later saying, quote, I'm having a lot of fun considering what I do. He said, you know, what I do is such serious stuff. The report describes a 2024 team much more focused on building a government committed to the president's agenda. One staffer summing up the new strategy, telling the Atlantic, quote, don't hire anyone who wasn't committed to the agenda the last time. Despite the natural confidence boost of winning the popular vote, The Atlantic reporting President Trump recognizes and accepts certain limitations on his presidential power. From the piece, quote, in our March conversation, he seemed frustrated at the notion that a court might try to curb his ability to deport anyone he wanted, however he wanted. Yet when we asked if he would go so far as to actively disregard a judicial order, his answer suggested that he understood the Constitution would not allow that, quote, I think the judge is horrible, he said, referring to James Boasberg, the federal district court judge who had tried to stop deportations of Venezuela migrants to El Salvador. But Trump then referenced the Supreme Court's more congenial opinion in Trump v. US which had given him immunity from criminal prosecution for anything he does as part of his core official duties as president, quote, but I've had a lot of horrible judges and I won on appeal, right? I got immunity on appeal. He said. He told us that the court is going to do what's right. When reviewing his expansive use of executive power in recent weeks, the president publicly floating the idea of a third term.

[Donald Trump]

No matter how you look at it, we got a long time to go. You know, we have almost four years to go. But despite that, so many people are saying, you've got to run again. They love the job we do. Most importantly, they love the job we do.

[Megyn Kelly]

The president even selling Trump 2028 hats. The Atlantic asking directly if Mr. Trump tasked the DOJ with studying the feasibility of running again, The Atlantic writes he said he had not, but then seemed to leave open the possibility. Was this the rare Democratic norm he was unwilling to shatter? That would be a big shattering, wouldn't it? He mused, laughing, well, maybe I'm just trying to shatter. He noted twice that his supporters regularly shout for him to seek a third term, but concluded, it's not something that I'm looking to do and I think it would be a very hard thing to do. The president also addressing the fallout from the Atlantic's so called signal gate story in recent weeks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth facing a steady stream of media reports portraying the Pentagon as chaotic and out of control, President Trump once again standing by his team saying of Hegseth, quote, I think he's going to get it together. I had a talk with him. A positive talk, but I had a talk with him. Trump also said that Waltz was fine despite being beat up by accidentally adding Goldberg to the signal chat. What had Trump told his staff after the controversy? Maybe don't use signal okay? Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley spotted on Sunday golfing with President Trump at Mar A Lago. Critics of the president quickly sounding off on X. Mr. Barkley responding on X, writing, LOL, some people are really upset because I played golf and flew to the White House with the president. Maybe I just respect the office. Not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago and look forward to finishing my round with Trump. Now you get out of my mentions with all this politics and have an amazing day. The star running back and super bowl winner ending the post with a laughing, smiling emoji. On Monday, the Eagles attended a White House ceremony honoring their super bowl win, despite earlier reporting that the team might decline the invitation, as many players did during Trump 1.0, causing Mr. Trump to rescind that invitation. Quarterback Jalen Hurts, however, opting to skip the event. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt releasing a statement reading, quote, the vast majority of the team is coming and those who cannot attend had scheduling conflicts. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for the Megyn Kelly show live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at NoEast on YouTube.comMeganKelly and on all podcast platforms.