President Donald Trump kicked off the week driving a red Tesla on the White House South Lawn and closed out the week addressing the Department of Justice.
In his remarks Friday, Trump railed against former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice and accused the agency of turning into the “department of injustice.”
“Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the department of injustice,” Trump said Friday at the Department of Justice. “But I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back.”
Trump has regularly condemned the Justice Department and the FBI since his first administration after multiple investigations and lawsuits filed against him. For example, the FBI investigated Trump and his 2016 campaign for alleged collusion with Russia. The probe determined there was no evidence the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.
TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: ‘REALLY STAGGERING’
Under the Biden administration, Trump faced more legal scrutiny when former Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped former special counsel Jack Smith in 2020 to conduct investigations into alleged efforts by Trump to overturn the 2020 election results and Trump’s alleged efforts to preserve classified materials at Mar-a-Lago after his first term as president.
“They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and Third World country, but, in the end, the thugs failed, and the truth won,” Trump said. “Freedom won. Justice won. Democracy won. And, above all, the American people won.”
A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Here are some other key moments from the week:
Trump also met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Thursday, and the two discussed efforts to bolster NATO’s defense spending and the U.S. potentially acquiring Greenland.
Trump has long advocated for NATO allies to boost defense spending to between 2% and 5% of gross domestic product. He also has called for European nations to pick up more responsibility for defending their continent.
“You’re starting to hear the British prime minister and others all committing to much higher defense spending,” Rutte told reporters Thursday at the White House. “We’re not there. We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you … to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership. And we are getting there.
“When you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering.”
He made the remarks after an $841 billion proposal European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pitched March 4 for European Union nations to up their defense spending.
Additionally, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed in February to boost his country’s defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is up from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.
‘HYSTERIA’: WHITE HOUSE SHUTS DOWN CONCERNS ABOUT USAID DOCUMENT PURGE
Trump also expressed optimism during the meeting about the likelihood of the U.S. acquiring Greenland, even though the Danish territory has said it’s not interested in Trump’s offer.
“I think it’ll happen,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And I’m just thinking. I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security, international.”
In response, Rutte said he didn’t want to “drag NATO” into the discussions but said Arctic countries must work with the U.S. to preserve security in the region as Russian and Chinese vessels increase their activity there.
The White House shut down concerns Tuesday and Wednesday that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ordered employees to destroy classified documents amid efforts by the Trump administration to close the agency.
USAID acting Executive Secretary Erica Carr emailed employees, instructing them to begin shredding and burning documents, according to a motion that government labor unions filed in a federal court Tuesday.
But the documents remain available on computer systems, and Carr’s directive coincides with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s impending move into the USAID building, according to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
“This was sent to roughly three dozen employees,” Kelly said in an X post regarding Carr’s order Tuesday night. “The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems. More fake news hysteria!”
All involved in purging the documents had a secret security clearance or higher and were not among the USAID employees on administrative leave, an administration official told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
Those involved were familiar with the content they were handling and were specifically appointed by the agency to review and eliminate materials, the official said.
Thousands of employees at USAID were either fired or placed on administrative leave in February, following recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut wasteful spending.
Trump bought a red Tesla Tuesday and showed off the vehicle on the White House’s South Lawn with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who heads DOGE. The event coincided with Tesla’s stock dipping earlier in the week, but the share price rose after the White House event.
Democrats were quick to pass judgment on the move, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee labeled the Trump administration the “most corrupt administration in American history.”
