‘Tattoos all over their face’: Donald Trump makes brutal call in first formal interview from Oval Office

The newly sworn-in president was quick to stir up fresh controversy in his first formal interview from the Oval Office. See the video

Donald Trump has defended his border crackdown saying there are people coming into the country “with tattoos all over their faces” and that they are “trouble”.

“Why would somebody say that open borders are good, where jails and mental institutions from other countries and gang members right off the streets of the toughest cities of the world are being brought to the United states of America and emptied out into our country,” Mr Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, in his first official interview since taking office.

“The reason it can be is two reasons; you’re stupid or you hate the country.

“There are people coming in with tattoos all over their face. You can look at them and you can say, could be trouble.”

Donald Trump also doubled down on releasing January 6 rioters who attacked police officers, claiming they were “very minor incidents” and that it would have been “very, very cumbersome” to issue case-by-case pardons instead.

In the face of criticism from police union chiefs and even top Republicans, the President defended the violent rioters involved in the attack on the US Capitol, complaining that they were “treated like the worst criminals in history”.

“They were protesting because they knew the election was rigged … You should be allowed to protest,” Mr Trump said.

“These people have served horribly a long time,” and added, “There was a lot of patriotism with those people.”

During the interview, Mr Trump also claimed he was given the option to pre-emptively pardon himself at the end of his first term but chose not to, adding it was “sad” that Mr Biden didn’t pardon himself at the end of his administration.

“This guy is running around giving everyone pardons,” Mr Trump said.

“The funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon.

“And if you look at it, it all had to do with him,” Mr Trump added.

It’s unclear if Mr Biden’s role in foreign dealings will be investigated by the Trump Justice Department, the New York Post reports, though some theoretical offences, such as possible infractions under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, have a five-year statute of limitations and would not be chargeable.

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