Politics

Trump calls deportations ‘a military operation’

President Trump on Thursday likened the removal of illegal immigrants in the United States to a “military operation” — a comment quickly walked back by White House officials.

“You see what’s happening at the border: All of the 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 told the CEOs of manufacturing companies at a White House meeting.

“And at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before, and they’re the bad ones, and it’s a military operation because that has been allowed to come into our country. And you see gang violence that you’ve read about like never before, all of the things, much of that is people that are here illegally. And they’re rough and they’re tough but they’re not tough like our people,” he added.

The comments came as the United States’ top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were in Mexico meeting with their counterparts.

Kelly immediately set about to reassure Mexico that there would be “no mass deportations” and “no use of military forces.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer later tried to walk back Trump’s comments.

“The president was using that as an adjective. It is happening with precision,” Spicer said of Trump’s military-operation comment.

But the spokesman insisted that immigration enforcement would be carried out.

“We have untied the hands of ICE and border agents,” Spicer told reporters.

Trump had the business leaders introduce themselves, and when it was the turn of GE’s Jeff Immelt, the president asked the CEO to tell the assemblage of the commander in chief’s golf prowess.

“Jeff actually watched me make a hole in one. Should you tell that story?” Trump said.

Immelt said the two had golfed during negotiations for the NBC show “The Apprentice,” with Trump boasting he was the best “richest” golfer in the world.

“I actually said I was the best golfer of all the rich people,” Trump said, correcting the CEO.

Other biz titans at Thursday’s meeting included Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, Inge Thulin of 3M, Mark Fields of Ford and Mario Longhi of US Steel.

Trump is expected to clarify his immigration plans in a speech next week to a joint session of Congress.

Also next week, the president is expected to sign an executive order implementing a new travel ban blocking US entry from seven Muslim-majority countries after his earlier order was blocked by the courts.

Spicer said the delay with the new order was because of due diligence in making sure the effort would be carried out “in a flawless manner.”