Trump TARGETS cybercrime and fraud at high-stakes roundtable

[0:00] This is very important, and I want to thank everybody for being here. [0:07] The effort to stop cybercrime and cyberfraud has been ongoing for many years, [0:15] but I think we're closer to it than anyone's ever been. [0:19] We're working very hard on it. [0:21] For years, our nation has faced a growing menace of cybercrime, [0:26] perpetrated by fraudsters, hackers, and scammers who try to steal Americans' money, [0:32] prey on senior citizens, exploit children and young people through fraud, [0:37] ransomware, impersonalization, the schemes that they use for impersonalization, [0:45] and other illegal acts, and it's very, very severe. [0:50] When you see some of the things that we're finding in Minnesota, California, [0:54] we have crooked politicians running the places, it really gets bad. [1:00] Countless American victims have had their life savings, [1:04] bank accounts, college funds, and more, emptied by these thieves. [1:10] And that's exactly what they are, and they're often part of a sophisticated criminal syndicate [1:14] operating scam centers all around the world. [1:19] Almost three-quarters of American adults have been subjected to Internet scams, cyberattacks. [1:26] It's pretty amazing. [1:27] Americans reported losing more than $20 billion to cyber-enabled crimes, [1:33] and this is just what's reported, so the number would be probably many times that amount. [1:39] When I was just last year alone, the real number would be really, I think, quite a bit higher. [1:44] Every American who has an aging parent or a young son or daughter has felt the anxiety of knowing that those you love are using Internet service, [1:54] overrun by thieves and pirates, predators, and foreign criminals. [2:00] Under the Trump administration, we have marshaled the full force of the federal government to combat disgorge. [2:06] We have very talented people. [2:07] We have people that do nothing but this, and they're really good at it. [2:12] I've seen some examples. [2:14] Amazing, actually. [2:16] In March, I signed an executive order directing every relevant department and agency to work together [2:23] to combat predatory Internet schemes and establish a victim's restoration program to recover as much money [2:32] for the victims as possible. [2:34] I wish we could get it all, but it oftentimes doesn't work that way because they spend it. [2:39] They spend it before they get it. [2:41] In August, I signed a historic national security memorandum, unleashing the incredible talent, [2:48] tools, and resources of our private sector, and companies to undertake offensive and defensive [2:54] actions to stop the hackers and these horrible people that we talk about, predators, cyber criminals, [3:03] including industrial scam centers stealing from American families and American businesses. [3:09] I want to thank Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche. [3:16] These are great people, by the way. [3:17] Secretary of Homeland Security Mark Wayne Mullen, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, [3:25] FBI Director Cash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, [3:31] National Cyber Director Sean Cameron. [3:35] Where are you, Sean? [3:36] Where the hell is you? [3:37] I got to get this name so perfect. [3:40] Cairn Cross. [3:41] Is that good? [3:42] Cairn Cross. [3:44] I see you all the time, but I never heard your damn name. [3:47] I know him very simply as Sean. [3:53] Cairn Cross. [3:54] It's a nice name, actually. [3:55] And many others here in this panel. [3:58] And it's a great honor to have you in the national campaign to destroy this menace. [4:04] Federal law enforcement has been able to warn over 10,000 Americans targeted for [4:11] victimization, and we've prevented $1.6 billion in losses at least this year. [4:19] Federal law enforcement has also frozen nearly $1 billion of cyber currency and tied to foreign [4:26] scammers, shut down more than 500 fraudulent websites, and coordinated with technology companies [4:33] to disrupt millions and millions of online accounts used by foreign criminals. [4:37] It sounds so sinister. [4:39] I guess it is, but it sounds. [4:41] You know, as you're looking at this and you're reading what experts have largely written, [4:47] it sounds so sinister. [4:48] It's a terrible situation. [4:50] And we've engaged with international partners to arrest hundreds of [4:54] foreign scammers of all types, including scam call centers. [4:59] Our administration is also aggressively confronting the sexual extortion rackets that have [5:05] wrecked the lives of too many young people and, in some cases, even tragically led victims to take [5:11] their own lives, commit suicide. [5:13] This has been a top priority for our wonderful First Lady, who led a successful bipartisan effort [5:20] to pass the Take It Down Act, the big deal. [5:24] And it went almost, I think, unanimously through Congress. [5:27] We were very bipartisan. [5:29] Melania's continued leadership has been vital to helping us protect America's children and women [5:36] from online exploitation to any American who might find themselves a victim of online fraud, [5:45] extortion, scams, especially young people and our great seniors. [5:51] And we want to protect our seniors because the seniors, almost more than anybody, [5:55] are really victims of what we're talking about today. [5:58] I want you to know that the Trump administration is here to support you [6:03] and will bring the perpetrators to justice. [6:06] We will do it quickly, as quickly as anybody can believe. [6:10] And if you think you may be a victim, seek out help from trusted family members. [6:14] And oftentimes, they're going to know exactly where to go. [6:17] But you start heading for law enforcement. [6:21] So we will work tirelessly to help recover what has been stolen and dismantle the criminal networks [6:27] that prey on our people. [6:29] And now I'd like to ask a man who's done an incredible job, Attorney General Todd Blanche, [6:34] to say a few words. [6:35] Thank you very much. [6:36] Thank you very much, Mr. President. [6:38] I appreciate that. [6:39] Thank you for convening this discussion today and for the attention that you've given this issue, [6:45] which has affected, as you just said, far too many American families. [6:49] I also want to recognize our U.S. Attorney from D.C., Jeanine Pirro, who's here, [6:54] and our Chief of the Criminal Division, Tyson Duval, who's here. [6:58] Both of them have done a tremendous amount of work delivering justice for cybercrime victims. [7:03] So thank you both for your work. [7:05] At the Department of Justice, we are implementing your series, Mr. President, [7:10] of executive actions aimed at combating transnational criminal organizations [7:14] that for far too long have targeted the most vulnerable among us [7:18] with ransomware, malware, phishing, financial fraud, and deplorable extortion schemes. [7:26] As you just mentioned, Mr. President, your March executive order directed us at the Department [7:31] of Justice to work with DHS, Treasury, State, and the Department of War to build out a single plan [7:38] to dismantle organizations behind scam centers, predatory fraud, and extortion. [7:43] And in your August National Security Memorandum, you directed the Department of Justice and the [7:48] Department of Homeland Security to jointly oversee vetted American companies taking cyber operations [7:55] against these criminal networks. [7:57] Through the Homeland Security Task Force and the new scam center cell and the National [8:02] Coordination Center, our prosecutors are working alongside FBI and HSI agents, the Secret Service, [8:09] Treasury, and State on the same targets so that every case is built to take down not just one scammer, [8:17] but the whole network. And because of the magnitude of this issue, it demands a nationwide response. [8:24] We have evolved from delegating these cases to single U.S. attorney's offices to leveraging our [8:29] newly established cyber-enabled scam initiative, which is led by our criminal division at the [8:34] Department of Justice and deploys dozens of prosecutors across all 94 U.S. attorney's offices [8:40] offices to continue driving prosecutions and helping victims. Mr. President, thanks to your leadership [8:47] and our partners here today, this coordinator response is working. There are private companies [8:54] helping as well. Meta has been an incredible partner to law enforcement, as has X and Elon Musk. [9:01] In April, FBI and the Dubai Police announced the arrests of at least 276 individuals and the [9:10] dismantlement of at least nine scam centers that targeted Americans who suffered millions and [9:16] millions of dollars in losses. At the same time, our prosecutors unsealed charges against their managers [9:23] and their recruiters, and in a similar operation just last month, we seized Shinbi criminal marketplace [9:31] and restrained $52 million on the same day that Treasury sanctioned it. Scam centers like these are the [9:39] ones sending your grandmother fraudulent links. They're the ones emailing your mom with fake emergencies [9:46] that don't really exist. And they're the ones impersonating law enforcement officers on the phone [9:51] with fictitious arrests. But we are stopping them. Together, prosecutors and agents across government [9:58] have restrained nearly a billion dollars stolen from Americans. We're also meeting the serious threat of [10:05] sextortion head on. I'll say, Mr. President, there is no corner of government from which [10:12] these predators can hide. Arrests at HSI agents at HSI and FBI are identifying them. The State [10:20] Department is denying them visas, and our prosecutors are charging them. We are increasing our effort to [10:26] block funds that unsuspecting victims send to fraudsters. And thanks to our partnerships, and we do [10:31] have partnerships with the financial industry, we have protected Americans from losing millions of [10:37] dollars. Mr. President, while we still have a lot of work to do, our strategy to combat cybercrime is [10:44] delivering for the American people. And that's because of your leadership and the commitment of the [10:49] people in this room and at this table to my left and right to protecting the financial security of [10:56] every single American. Thank you, Mr. President. [10:58] Great job. Thank you very much, Todd. And Mark Wayne, please. [11:05] Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us the opportunity to go after these bad actors. [11:11] Mr. President, DHS is leading the way by serving as a co-lead on the Homeland Security Task Force, [11:16] working with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies across the country in fight [11:21] to dismantle the cyber syndicates and secure our communities. Most critically, we are protecting our [11:29] families through what is known as Know to Protect. HSI, which the director of HSI is with us, Tony [11:36] Salisbury, who does a wonderful job on leading. HSI, the Cybercrime Center, we are educating families on [11:44] how to protect themselves from digital extortion. Since just March of this year, Know to Protect has made [11:51] over 5,500 media impressions, which has led to over 600,000 websites and over 13,000 online leads to [12:00] report on online abuse. Behind every statistic is a human life and a campaign that has led to [12:08] actionable results under, Mr. President, your leadership. We are working with countries around [12:14] the world to arrest criminals. I want to brag just a second also on Secret Service. Secret Service is [12:21] known for protecting you and many of us along the way, but what they don't realize is what else they [12:29] also do. Underneath their Internet Crimes Against Children, which is called ICAC, just Secret Service. [12:37] That doesn't include CISA. That is in which we got our acting director, Nick, here too. Appreciate it. [12:42] And our Deputy Secretary, Troy Edgar, who is in this fight every single day, leading the charge for DHS. [12:51] Underneath Secret Service alone, they have recovered 14,600 child abuse videos, as the First Lady has [13:00] so eloquently said, take it down, and over 35,600 images. That's just Secret Service alone. When you get [13:10] in to what is going on, the elderly population over 60 has just in 2025 through cyber crimes lost 7.7 [13:21] billion in their income. That's retirements that are completely wiped away. And because, Mr. President, [13:27] you have made this elite, you have made this a staple part of your administration, [13:34] your executive order has given us a clear mission to confront the criminals that are taking advantage [13:42] of Americans every single day. We're disrupting their network. We're enabling, we're taking away [13:48] the networks that enable them to work. And DHS, Department of Homeland Security, will continue to do just that. [13:54] I believe now I'm turning it to Secretary Higsa. Mr. President, thank you for your leadership. [14:00] Well, Mr. President, thank you. I'm just struck sitting here, yet again, you're taking the lead on [14:07] real issues that affect real people, that have been ignored for far too long, and using the entirety of [14:13] the government to attack that problem. And that's why we're proud to be here with the Chief, with Cash, [14:18] with Todd, with Mark Wayne, with Steven, with Sean, and everybody at this table, who's working shoulder [14:25] to shoulder to address this. I mean, at the War Department, we've done the same on the southwest [14:28] border with our interagency partners, on law enforcement in cities all across America, in mass [14:34] deportations of illegals, who we're proud to have the assets to be able to support that directly. And [14:39] now with CyberCom and NSA, and the exquisite capabilities that the War Department has. So in March, [14:45] when you issued that executive order, Mr. President, we immediately started working with the Justice [14:49] Department and Homeland Security and Treasury and State to get after transnational criminal [14:54] organizations. Because your directive is clear that attacks on our people or our infrastructure will [15:00] be met with decisive action. And the War Department has the kind of specialized intelligence and [15:05] technical capabilities that we can use to directly support the Attorney General and the Secretary of [15:10] Homeland Security. So we're feeding our deep intelligence and tracking data on overseas cyber [15:17] networks directly to the National Coordination Center and Homeland Security Task Force. And this [15:21] ensures that law enforcement has what it needs as we do so well at the Department of War to map, [15:26] disrupt, and dismantle these criminal enterprises into criminal networks. Because we've also seen [15:32] there's a very clear connection between transnational cyber syndicates and enemy militaries, [15:37] and how they fund themselves, how they support their activities. So if they can't match us or beat [15:41] us on the battlefield, which they can't, then of course they try to move to the realm of cyberspace to [15:47] attack. And by taking on these cyber criminals on offense and defense, we watch out for our warriors, [15:53] we watch out for American citizens, and we secure the homeland. So we're proud to be a part of, [15:57] work with the Homeland Security Task Force and get after this problem set, Mr. President. Thank you. [16:01] Thank you very much, John. Stephen? Thank you, Mr. President. This is another example of you solving a [16:09] problem that has gone on for decades that nobody else had the vision, courage, team, leadership to [16:17] solve before. Everybody knows the stories. It's affected almost every family in America. Your grandmother, [16:25] your grandfather, your parents, they get a phone call saying a loved one has been arrested, [16:30] wired $10,000 right away to get them out of jail, except nobody was arrested, nobody's in jail, [16:36] and the money goes to a foreign scam center. And then that pension, that retirement account, [16:41] that senior citizen has saved for their entire lives is gone. And then you have senior citizens [16:46] who are going to be living their golden years are now living in poverty. And for years and years and [16:50] years, this went unmet and unanswered. With the executive order that you signed, for the first time ever, [16:57] we are using offensive cyber capabilities to dismantle, disrupt, and disable these foreign scam [17:04] centers. That has never been done before. And then we're working with foreign governments and the [17:09] Department of Justice to bring these individuals into our prison system to face real jail time here in [17:17] the United States for the crimes against the American people. So you have effectively declared cyber warfare [17:24] against the cyber criminals. And that is saving the pensions, the life savings, the retirement accounts, [17:30] the earnings of countless American citizens, not to mention protecting people from sextortion, [17:36] from child trafficking, from human trafficking. So we've talked so much, Mr. President, about how you've [17:41] brought crime to record lows, violent crime to record lows, the murder rate to the lowest in 125 years, [17:48] but now you're bringing cyber crime to the lowest level since this has existed as an industry. It's [17:53] just one more example of how you have put the American people first. You've put the American [17:58] people's safety first. I'll make one more point on this. There's a common theme in all of the challenges [18:03] that you have systemically tackled and solved. Whether it's the trade deficit, where we're getting [18:08] ripped off by foreign countries. Whether it's welfare fraud, where we're getting ripped off by these [18:13] refugees and foreign scammers or cyber crime, where you have entire foreign economies that are propped [18:19] up on stealing from American seniors. What you're saying is America is not a pile of treasure for [18:25] other countries and other people and other scammers all around the world to loot for themselves. You're [18:32] protecting American wealth for American people and American families in a way no leader has ever done [18:36] before. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Cash, please. Thank you, Mr. President. [18:43] And first and foremost, thank you for your leadership here. As Steven said, this problem has existed for [18:49] decades, but no president in the history of the United States put pen to paper and put this team [18:55] together and gave us these authorities to go after these cyber criminals around the world. [18:59] The FBI is leading out through Operation Blackout under President Trump's initiative here. And what does [19:04] that mean for scam centers around the world? Scam centers for the American public in the world are [19:08] literally towns and ecosystems with traffic victims, with cities and housing, that they built an empire [19:15] for criminal syndicates to fleece American citizens. They're in Southeast Asia. They're in Africa. [19:20] They're in the Middle East. And the FBI's Operation Blackout with our interagency partners has gone to [19:24] each one of these separate continents and dismantled and destroyed and demolished over 20 compounds. [19:31] The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with our partners at DOJ and the United [19:34] States Attorney's offices, have seized over $17 billion from these scam compound fraud centers. [19:40] Seized it. That means that's money we got back. We're going to use it with our DOJ partners to [19:44] prosecute these individuals and then get that money back to the American people from which it was stolen. [19:50] That is us going on offense to annihilate these scam centers through FBI's Operation Blackout. [19:55] And it's also putting everyone on notice. They thought they could get away with it in Southeast Asia and [19:59] the cross-border regions. Because of your relationship with the leaders of those countries, we were able to [20:03] work there with immediacy and efficacy. They moved to Africa. We got them there too. Just two weeks ago, [20:08] we were in Ghana, Nigeria, and we arrested another 300 individuals and seized another $15 million being fleeced [20:15] from American senior citizens through these scam center operations. And just the other week, [20:19] we partnered with our UK forces in England to have a disruption week to further work with the private sector. [20:25] And again, because of your relationship with these private sector companies in America, [20:29] Meta, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and so forth, they have immediately come to the table and shut down [20:35] internet trafficking and domain networks across the cybersecurity space that participate in this [20:41] global scam center enterprise. So the whole of government effort you're seeing here under President [20:46] Trump's leadership, with everyone up here and everyone here in the front row in the private sector has [20:51] never, ever happened before because there's never been a president who has brought us together like [20:57] President Trump has. We are going to continue to go on offense, Mr. President. And lastly, on our [21:02] Operation Blackout, we are not waiting for the scammers to hit our citizens. We are going out there in full [21:09] force. Mr. President, to date, your administration has prevented 11,000 Americans from being fleeced of $675 [21:16] million. That means they were not scammed. We went out to them through our interagency partners and [21:21] our relationships, and we said, we think you are being scammed. And we shut it down before it even [21:27] happened. So the American public that's listening, we have an internet crimes complaint center at the [21:32] FBI, 1-800-CALL-FBI. Let us know. No piece of information is too small. Every piece of information you [21:39] give us allows us to cripple this global criminal syndicate and destroy and demolish global scam [21:45] center operations. And the FBI's Operation Blackout is a small part of it. Mr. President, [21:49] we thank you for your leadership. Well, thank you very much. And thank you to everybody. It's been [21:55] an amazing period of time in so many different ways. But this is one of them. This is one of the, [22:01] I would say it is a very negative thing, but what we're doing is very positive. And we'll put a dent, [22:06] a very big dent, hopefully, in what's been taking place for really many decades. And it's gone [22:13] totally unchecked. It should have been, they should have, they should have had this meeting 30 [22:17] years ago, 20 years ago. They should have had it a long time ago. So the team here and a lot of the [22:23] audience, most of the audience, I would say, are the top people in the business. And they are fantastic [22:29] people. Do you have a couple of questions, please? Anybody? Oh, they have no questions? Good. [22:36] Well, yeah, sure, sure. We had a wonderful man who, during the Biden administration, was taken [22:52] hostage in Russia. They claimed things. We won't get into that. But we thought he was a very high [22:59] quality, innocent man. And Stephen Hubbard, his name is. And he was, for the last number of years, [23:08] I would hear the name mostly when it happened. When it happened, I would watch his son on television. [23:15] I'd watch his family on television, begging virtually for him to come back, please. [23:22] And the other day, I was talking with, I set the stage earlier, but the other day, [23:29] I was talking to Vladimir Putin about settling his war with Ukraine, which I think we're getting closer to, [23:35] by the way. Maybe now the closest we've been. But I mentioned, could you let Stephen Hubbard out, [23:43] please? And he agreed to do it. So he was met today in Russia. And he's on his way back. He's on a [23:54] flight. Steve Witkoff is with him. His family is with him. His family went over to meet him. And so we [24:02] thank everybody involved. This was an amazing thing. They didn't think he'd come out for 20, 25 years. [24:09] So we appreciate the fact that we were able to get him. We gave nothing in exchange, [24:16] which is very rare. We never give anything in exchange. We have. We've taken, [24:21] we've gotten out hundreds of hostages. We don't give. Once you give, you'll end up quadrupling the [24:27] problem. The past administration gave massive amounts of money and other things. You can't do that. [24:34] And when you do that, the problem is greatly exacerbated. So he'll be landing soon, relatively [24:43] soon. And I hear he's in pretty good shape. He went through a lot. I spoke to him this morning. [24:50] He is the happiest man around. He didn't think this was going to be. This was very surprising to him. But [24:56] I did it. It really took place on a phone call at the end of last week with President Putin. So we [25:02] appreciate it very much. And his family is extremely happy. They can't believe it because it happened [25:08] so quickly. So that's the kind of things we do. Any other questions? [25:13] Go ahead. [25:17] Mr. President, you have to, you can't both speak. [25:24] Thank you, Mr. President, for following up on that question. While Mr. Rickoff was in St. Petersburg, [25:30] he described President Putin as a humanitarian. Would you describe him in that same way? [25:36] You mean Steve Woodcoff said he was a humanitarian? [25:39] Yes. [25:40] Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of [25:45] allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out. But, [25:52] you know, I wouldn't say anything one way or the other. You know, [25:56] we're negotiating with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine. And we have been pretty happy with Russia [26:04] that they have not gotten involved with Iran. We've taken Iran down to levels that they've never [26:10] seen before. They're very low. Their military is completely gone. Their anti-aircraft, just about [26:17] everything is gone, including their economy. The only thing not gone is inflation. They have 301 [26:23] percent as of this morning. Their money is gone. Everything is gone. So, and frankly, their leaders [26:30] are gone. The first set of leaders are gone. The second set of leaders are gone. Parts of the third [26:36] set of leaders are gone. And I would say that a very important element is the fact that Russia and China [26:46] have not participated or participated in a much smaller way than they could have. So I'm very happy about that. [26:55] So the last thing I want to do is upset an apple cart where we're getting close to settling a war. [27:03] The last thing you're going to do is let's let's do something horrendous. So let's say we did what [27:09] a lot of stupid people wanted me to do. A lot of really stupid people. I took a lot of heat. [27:14] Well, why don't you do this? They didn't even know what it was. They didn't even know what it was. [27:18] All they said is, oh, I think you should do. Oh, do you know what he's supposed to do? No, [27:22] we don't really know. It's just some one guy, one politician on television said, [27:27] we don't know exactly something. Well, I was in the midst of getting Steven out of Russia. [27:36] And if we did what these foolish people wanted me to do, [27:41] he wouldn't be coming out right now. He'd be in there for another 20 years. [27:44] So the last thing I was going to do is break up that. Also, [27:50] and whether people like it or not, Russia could have participated much more strongly with Iran. [27:57] And likewise, China. And as you know, President Xi was here a week ago. [28:01] Likewise, China could have participated a lot more. There is relatively little participation. [28:09] The fact is both of them would like to see the war settled. So we're in the process of doing that with Russia. [28:16] And we have China also that's involved. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.