CNN anchor Brianna Keilar repeatedly asked former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Jonathan Fahey on Monday about the appropriateness of a meme President Donald Trump posted that hinted at a federal immigration crackdown in Chicago.
The meme, which Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday, was based on the movie “Apocalypse Now” and included the line, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” a reference to the quote “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” from the film. Fahey, on “CNN News Central,” argued that Democrats should not be so preoccupied with the meme.
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“I’ve seen ‘Apocalypse Now.’ They’re not going to be dropping napalm in Chicago,” Fahey said. “I think people need to take a step back. I mean, it is funny. He almost pushes the button and all the Democrats go into hysterics.”
“Do you think this is funny, what’s happening?” Keilar asked.
Fahey said he did not believe that the meme was not “funny.” He said it sent a message that the Trump administration was going to handle crime.
“Do you think the problem in Chicago and what we’re about to see is funny?” Keilar asked
“The problem in Chicago is so serious and it’s deadly serious,” Fahey responded. “And you have people like [Democratic Chicago Mayor] Brandon Johnson and [Democratic Illinois Gov.] JB Pritzker that have not been dealing with the crime problem, not been dealing with the illegal alien problem. And because it’s not politically viable for them within their party.”
The CNN host asked whether the situation merited “the funny treatment.” Fahey asked for clarification, prompting Keilar to show the meme again.
“I think it’s a good way to send a message that they’re going in and dealing with this,” Fahey said. “And if you want to say who treats crime more seriously, this administration or the prior administration, you just have to look at the numbers and look at what the [former President Joe] Biden administration did. It was a complete joke, particularly at the border.”
Keilar then asked twice if Trump’s post was “serious.”
“I think it’s meant to convey a message and meant to be funny in certain ways, but it’s conveying a very serious message,” Fahey asserted. “And again the Democratic Party will get spun up on memes and stuff like that. If they just spent maybe a tenth of their effort making their own cities safer, we’d all be better off.”
Democrats, including those from Illinois, also went ballistic and denounced the meme.
Moreover, Trump clashed with NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang while heading to watch the U.S. Open men’s final on Sunday. The president accused Alcindor of peddling “fake news” when she asked if he was “going to war with Chicago.”
“Listen. Be quiet. You don’t listen, you never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate,” Trump told Alcindor. “We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re gonna clean ’em up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense.”
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