Newsmaker Interview: Trump open to reparations fund for victims of crimes committed by illegals

Gaining momentum two weeks from Election Day, Donald Trump is laser focused on voters’ top priority of making America safe and affordable again. But after spending hours comforting families victimized by murder, rape and other border crimes, the former president told Just the News he also is open to creating a federal compensation fund for Americans harmed by illegal immigrants let into the country under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The idea of a border crimes reparations fund like the one created for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks has been floating around conservative circles for months, including in Congress where Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., even introduced the concept before it stalled.

Asked Tuesday whether he was open to implementing the concept if voters on Nov. 5 returned him to the White House, Trump answered without ambiguity: “I am.”

“It was talked about, and then I guess people shut it down,” Trump said during a wide-ranging interview with the "Just the News, No Noise" television show, recounting his many visits with families victimized by such crimes.  “I've met so many of the families. They've been just decimated by these people that are allowed to come into our country. The murderers and drug dealers and the worst people are allowed to come into our country. And they're poisoning our country. … What Biden and Kamala have done to this country is unthinkable,” he said.

"Vibes" versus details

While his opponent Harris has avoided offering specific prescriptions, Trump has repeatedly pushed detailed proposals in the fall campaign. His ideas range from making tips and Social Security tax-free to naming tech entrepreneur Elon Musk to reimagine, reshape and resize a bloated federal government.

At the same time, Trump has stayed focused on addressing Americans’ concerns about the inflation hitting their wallets, the insecurity striking their communities and the world at large, and upside-down liberal agendas like men playing in women’s sports.

When asked Tuesday what his first actions will be on his first day in office, Trump clicked off three in rapid fashion: closing the border, tackling inflation starting with energy costs and reinvigorating a U.S. military facing a deeply destabilized world.

“I’d close the borders. I would absolutely, without question. We have to get those borders closed,” he told Just the News. “And we have to drill, baby drill, and we have to bring down costs, because it's not just the oil. We have to bring [down] the inflation that has just killed our seniors and people on a fixed incomes like nothing else." 

"And then we have to fix up our military again. I did it once, and now I have to do it again. And in all fairness, a smaller one,” he said.

COVID and China

Turning to the COVID-19 pandemic aftermath, Trump also said he is willing to consider a ban on scientific research known as gain on function, where researchers enhance deadly pathogens to make them more lethal and contagious to humans.

Former President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order banning such research but Congress has confirmed such research was restarted with taxpayer funding and most likely led to a leak at the Wuhan lab in China that is believed by some to have triggered the COVID pandemic. “I think that's something we would certainly discuss,” Trump said of reinstituting the ban.

Trump said he was shocked to learn as president that the U.S. National Institutes of Health was funding coronavirus research by China at the Wuhan virology lab. ”I’ll tell you what, I was the one that shut it down,” he said. “They were paying money to China. Now I shut it down, just saying, ‘Why are we paying money to China?’ Who would have known that they were doing [that at] Wuhan?”

"That's a hell of a thing to do"

Trump also called for the U.S. government to quickly identify and bring to justice those who leaked highly sensitive intelligence about Israel’s war plans for Iran and the rest of the region, saying it had created a grave national security risk for both countries and exposed further incompetence by the Biden-Harris administration.

“What happened with Israel, with the documents that were leaked, is not even fathomable,” he told Just the News. “And they better find that person, because that person hates our country. That's a hell of a thing to do. And you're talking about major stuff. You're talking about giving the Israeli plans having to do with Iraq and Iran, and not just Iran. You know, it's having to do with lots of different options and lots of different things, lots of different countries. I mean, they got everything I hear. It's really bad.

“Can you imagine being Israel and waking up to that news?” he added. “Our country is uniquely incompetent.”

Jabs at Harris

While most of the interview was focused on policy ideas, Trump took some jabs at Harris, starting with her decision Tuesday to take a full day off the trail to prepare for a news interview just two weeks from Election Day. “They're lazy. And you know what? She's not even campaigning for a couple of days because she doesn't have the stamina to do it. She's got no stamina,” he said. “She's got nothing. And can you imagine, you have 14 days, and you got to work every day. I've done 52 days now, and I have 14 more, and I'm not missing any days. I can tell you that.”

He also slammed Harris for several recent slights of Christian voters, including comments last week that two Christian men who went to her recent Wisconsin event and declared “Jesus is Lord” were “at the wrong rally.”

“Well, usually that would be the end of the campaign,” Trump said. “When you say something stupid, like she said, that would be the end of the campaign. And I saw the young men, and they made the statement, and she said, 'you're at the wrong rally.' You know, in the old days when a lot of things were different and values were different, John, that would be the end of a campaign. You just say, let's wrap it up. But you know, she's getting away with murder," he added.