President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that he “didn’t sign” the proclamation bearing his signature, which designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” clearing the way for controversial mass deportations.
That inconsistency, which the White House disputes, was noted several times on CNN on Friday night, including by The Source anchor Kaitlan Collins, who first rolled the clip of Fox News’ Peter Doocy broaching the subject with Trump.
“It doesn’t sound like this judge, who the DOJ was arguing with today about the deportation flights, he wants to know why the proclamation was signed ‘in the dark’—his words—and why people were rushed onto planes,” Doocy said, referring to Judge James Boasberg’s questioning of government lawyers, whose answers he called “woefully insufficient.”
“I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it. Other people handled it,” Trump replied, before praising his secretary of state. “But Marco Rubio’s done a great job, and he wanted them out, and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”
One person who was deported came to the U.S. legally. His lawyer said the reason for his deportation was the mistaken interpretation of a soccer-related tattoo.
Collins relayed a White House statement claiming that Trump was “obviously” referring to the original 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the document he didn’t sign.
“The recent Executive Order was personally signed by President Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act that designated Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in order to apprehend and deport these heinous criminals,” the statement continued.
Trump’s distancing himself from the proclamation, which is in the federal register, also came up during Out Front, where anchor Erin Burnett seemed perplexed.
“He said he didn’t sign it,” she said. “I’m sorry, that is his signature, right?”
“Erin, that is his signature,” CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny confirmed. “And that is in the federal register. And that is where all of these executive orders that the president signs go. So, they did sign it last weekend. The White House talked about that openly on Saturday evening.”
