Trump tells Am Fest crowd his upcoming plans regarding mass deportation, TikTok and Panama Canal

President-elect Donald Trump spoke to an enthusiastic “America Fest” gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, about his election victory and some of his plans for when he returns to the presidency in less than a month. 

Among the topics were his pledge to begin “the largest deportation operation in American history,” the possibility of keeping TikTok around though it is slated to be banned, and the possibility of the U.S. taking control of the Panama Canal. 

“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country,” Trump told the crowd, according to the New York Post. 

“And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D Eisenhower,” he added.

Regarding TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance has a Jan. 19, 2025 deadline to either divest or be banned on the Google and Apple app stores in the U.S., Trump said, “I think we’re going to have to start thinking about TikTok,” adding, “We did go on TikTok. We had a great response with billions of views…and it was so beautiful to see.”

“I said, we got to keep this sucker around a little while.”

As for the Panama Canal, “It was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven’t treated us fairly,” Trump said according to The Hill. 

“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly and without question,” he added, following up on a post he made on Truth Social the day before.