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Donald Trump kicked off the week by taking the focus off his highly criticized Cabinet nominees and moving it to his highly controversial deportation plan. The President-elect acknowledged early Monday he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use “military assets” in his mass deportation program.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who was named last week White House Press Secretary for Trump’s second term, had announced the day after the election that Trump would deport “millions” starting on day one.

“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made,” Leavitt had said. “Which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.”

Leavitt also said that the “mass deportation operation” would include “millions of undocumented immigrants.”

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Trump has called immigrants “animals,” “monsters,” and “murderers,” and said they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He falsely claimed they are responsible for a “surge in crime,” because “it’s in their genes,” and claimed they’re “eating the pets.”

Back in 2018, Trump “complained about ‘having all these people from shithole countries come here’ — and singled out Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as examples — he also added that, ‘we should have more people from Norway’,” NPR reported at the time.

Just past 4 AM ET on Monday, Trump on his Truth Social website reposted a statement from right-wing anti-immigrant activist Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch and a senior member of the secretive organization the Council for National Policy. (CNP has been called the “scariest Christian nationalist group you’ve never heard of,” and “probably the most dangerous,” by Americans United.)

Fitton had written on November 8: “GOOD NEWS: Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

Trump responded: “TRUE!!!”

Attorney and immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick urged “caution” on Monday:

“I want to again emphasize caution here. Fitton mashed together two different things (the border and mass deportations). There is no National Emergency Act authority to use the military for deportations, while we know Trump used the [NEA] in the past for border wall construction.”

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Leavitt’s claim that Trump had been given a mandate has been deemed false by political experts, with one pundit calling it a “lie.”

According to the Cook Political Report, while winning the popular vote, Trump did not win a majority. He beat Vice President Harris by just over 1.6 million votes, or just 1.7%, with nearly 800,000 more votes in California alone still to be counted.

CNN’s Harry Enten on Monday confirmed Trump’s margin over Haris ranks just 44th out of 51, and called it “weak, weak, weak.”

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