President Donald Trump revealed during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C., on Saturday that former President Joe Biden’s lax border policy more than any other issue motivated him to run for a second term.

“I couldn’t stand it!” Trump said clenching his teeth, and then joked saying to himself, “Don’t get angry, Donald. Don’t get angry, please.”

“I couldn’t stand it, watching these people come in from jails and mental institutions and the worst criminals and the street gang members being dropped off in buses and bust into our country. I couldn’t stand it,” he said.

“So I said, ‘I’m going to run for President again.’ And now we don’t have that problem,” Trump proudly announced to the applause of the CPAC crowd.

President @realDonaldTrump at @CPAC : “I had 4 years, I don’t know if you had this, I couldn’t stand it…so I said I’m going to run for President again.” pic.twitter.com/NzzuWYgIsR

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) February 23, 2025

Days after winning November’s election, the president named former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tom Homan as his border czar.

Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved aggressively to secure the U.S. southern border with Mexico and ramp up deportation operations, particularly of illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Our Southern Border is a warzone.

When I visited the border over the summer, I saw just how much Joe Biden has deteriorated our national security.

I will continue to support @GregAbbott_TX in his fight to secure our Southern Border. pic.twitter.com/93JF5D9g0P

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) January 25, 2024

Noem told CPAC attendees on Saturday that Border Patrol recruitment has been through the roof since Trump became president last month.

Trump laid out the steps at CPAC his administration has taken to secure the border since taking office.

They included declaring a national emergency at the southern border and deploying active-duty troops to “repel the invasion of our country.”

“Now we have the best numbers we’ve ever had” in terms of illegal border crossings Trump said. “We’ve done it all in four weeks.”

It took President Trump, Tom Homan, and Kristi Noem just FOUR weeks to end the border invasion Biden spent four years creating.⁩ pic.twitter.com/HNxNbhXi0m

— CPAC (@CPAC) February 22, 2025

During the last three years that Biden was in office, the number of illegal border crossings per year ranged between 2.1 and 2.4 million, more on an annual basis than any other president going back to 1925, according to U.S. Border Patrol.

By comparison, the worst year under Trump was 859,000 in 2019, with his other years ranging between 310,000 and 405,000.

Last month, the total illegal crossings was approximately 61,000, while under Biden 150,000 to 250,000 per month was typical.

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