Remarks at a Swearing-in Ceremony for Pamela J. Bondi as Attorney General

The President. Hello, everybody. This is a great honor and a real privilege. I'm thrilled to be here today with our Nation's next incredible—and she will be incredible—Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi.

And I want to congratulate Pam. She's worked hard—so hard and unbelievably fair and unbelievably good at law enforcement. I just want to——

Attorney General Bondi. Thank you.

The President. ——congratulate you.

Attorney General Bondi. Thank you.

The President. A very special person.

And I'd also like to thank Justice Clarence Thomas and his incredible wife, who is here someplace. There she is. Incredible, highly respected wife too, I will say.

I remember, a couple of years ago—a little bit more than that, during—toward the end of my first term, I was introducing a lot of people at a big event—about 5,000 people—in your biggest ballroom—you know what that is—and they were getting a nice smattering of applause. They were very important people. And then I introduced Justice Clarence Thomas. The place went crazy. [Laughter] And it was then that I realized that you are a very popular guy and respected guy.

So thank you for being here.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Well, thank you, Mr. President.

The President. It's an honor and——

Justice Thomas. Thank you.

The President. ——a great honor for Pam. Thank you very much.

Justice Thomas. Thank you.

The President. Pam was a career prosecutor for nearly 20 years and was one of the toughest and smartest and best and most successful attorney generals in the history of Florida. And I think—I put it out this morning, I think she's going to end up going down as the most successful—as, certainly, one of the most successful Attorney Generals that this country has ever had. I really believe that.

I know—I know her well. A lot of people in Florida—if you're in Florida, you know her well. And it was all good. It was never a problem. No problem.

As a prosecutor, she locked up drug dealers and gang members and human traffickers and was waging war all the time on the pill mills—they called them—that fueled the deadly opioid crisis, and she did better than anybody else. There was nobody like her in the country.

She also won over $50 billion in lawsuits for the victims of financial fraud in devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which was brutal, and she was the leader of that whole deal, getting that—people taken care of.

As Attorney General of the United States, Pam has a historic and urgently needed task ahead of her. And probably there's never been a time, Clarence, that's more important than right now.

We went through 4 years of not such good—not such good work in many ways. Not just—not just with the President, at other levels also—with the President, obviously.

She's going to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice and restore the constitutional rule of law in America. She will lead the Democrats. You know where they're going to—she's going to lead them right down. But I think she's going to be as impartial as you can possibly be.

I know I'm supposed to say she's going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats, and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be. I'm not sure if there's a possibility of totally, but she's going to be as total as you can get, Ginni, right? [Laughter]

But she's going to be fair, and she'll lead the Department of Justice in crushing violent crime, demolishing the gangs, which are all over the place, if you look at New York, if you look at Chicago, if you look at Los Angeles—which is half burned down, unfortunately, because they didn't have the water, and they didn't have what they were supposed to have.

Destroying the terrorist cartels is going to be a very big priority for Pam. And that leads to crime, and it leads to a lot of drugs. So she's going to take care of it, and she'll stop the invasion of our country and get fentanyl off our streets.

And we're going to be working with her very closely. Kristi Noem and Tom Homan and all of the people are going to be working very closely with Pam.

She's going to end the weaponization of Federal law enforcement and restore honesty and integrity at the DOJ and the FBI. And she's going to be working with Kash, and she's going to be working with a lot of other people that you've been reading about, writing about over the last few weeks.

The role of attorney general comes with immense responsibility, but I have absolute confidence that Pam will fulfill her duties with honor and courage and strength and fairness. She's going to be fair. She's going to be very fair.

And now I'd like to invite Justice Thomas to administer the oath of office.

And thank you all for being here. It's a great—it's a very important day, I believe, in our country's history.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Pam.

Justice Thomas. I do solemnly swear.

Attorney General Bondi. I, Pamela Bondi, do solemnly swear.

Justice Thomas. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Attorney General Bondi. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Justice Thomas. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Attorney General Bondi. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Justice Thomas. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

Attorney General Bondi. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

Justice Thomas. That I take this obligation freely.

Attorney General Bondi. That I take this obligation freely.

Justice Thomas. Without any mental reservation.

Attorney General Bondi. Without any mental reservation.

Justice Thomas. Or purpose of evasion.

Attorney General Bondi. Or purpose of evasion.

Justice Thomas. And that I will well and faithfully.

Attorney General Bondi. And that I will well and faithfully.

Justice Thomas. Discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.

Attorney General Bondi. Discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

Justice Thomas. So help me God.

Attorney General Bondi. So help me God.

Justice Thomas. Congratulations.

The President. And before Pam says—I just want to introduce her very, very handsome husband. [Laughter] I hate being around him. He looks too good. And he's been a tremendous factor with Pam, and they have just a beautiful relationship—who's here.

And, Mother, look how good you look, huh? [Laughter] Look how good.

So I just wanted to introduce them.

And, Pam, have fun.

Attorney General Bondi. Thank you, President.

The President. Please.

Attorney General Bondi. Thank you.

Thank you, President Trump. I've known you for many, many years, and I will not let you down. I am truly honored—honored that you have asked me to take on this role, and I will make you proud, and I will make this country proud.

The President. Thank you.

Attorney General Bondi. And I just want to thank all of my friends who are here today—my dear friends—and my family: my mom, my husband. My pastor, Aaron Burke, is here. So many of my good friends and my colleagues. So thank you all so much.

And I will restore integrity to the Justice Department, and I will fight violent crime throughout this country and throughout this world and make America safe again.

Thank you. Thank you, President.

[At this point, the President and Attorney General Bondi posed for a photograph.]

The President. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. It's a great——

Gaza, Palestinian Territories

Q. Mr. President, can I ask about your Gaza——

The President. It was a great day.

Q. Can we ask about your Gaza proposal? A lot of people are talking about it. Obviously, it got a lot of attention.

The President. Everybody loves it, but this is just not the right time. But we'll maybe do something later. This is a very important and, in my opinion, solemn occasion. So I don't think we want to talk about other—

Q. Understood. We'll ask you later.

Q. Mr. President——

The President. ——other subjects.

The President's Agenda

Q. Mr. President, what is your top priority? What is your top priority, Madam Attorney General, for this new position that you've now been sworn into?

The President. Well, I can just say, very simply, for me, overall—very simple—make America great again. That's what we're going to do. We're going to make America great again.

And she's going to take crime out of the system. As much as anybody can do that, she's going to do it.

Attorney General Bondi. We're going to make America safe again.

[Several reporters began speaking at once.]

The President. Thank you, everybody. We'll—[inaudible]. Thank you.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Thank you very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Thank you very much.