Santos pitches himself to Trump for future administration role
Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was recently expelled from Congress, made a pitch on Tuesday to serve as former President Trump’s director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if Trump wins his bid to return to the White House in 2024.
“My new year resolution is that President Trump returns to the white house and in 2025 I can be appointed Director of ICE,” Santos wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Enough abuse and disregard for our sovereignty, we are the United States OF America and not a global dumping hub. ICE has had their hands tied for far too long with the sole exception of the great four years of DJT,” Santos wrote, referring to Donald J. Trump by his initials.
“The time is now,” Santos continued. “And that’s why I’m putting my name in the mix for a role that will take grit and a fearless person and not a coward that will fear media spin. Bring it on #MSM I’ll take you all on again with glee.”
Santos interacted with media frequently during his time in the House, as he faced numerous political scandals that ultimately led to his ouster last month, in a 311-114-2 vote. The New York Republican is the sixth lawmaker ever to be expelled from the lower chamber.
Santos faces 23 federal criminal charges related to allegations that he misled donors, fraudulently received unemployment benefits, lied on House financial disclosures, inflated his campaign finance reports and charged his donors’ credit cards without authorization. He pleaded to not guilty to all charges. The House Ethics Committee also released a scathing report finding that there is clear evidence Santos committed serious crimes, which helped compel some holdouts to vote for the embattled lawmaker's ouster after two previous attempts to expel him failed.
Santos initially pledged never to return to Congress, but recently said he would consider running again. He has not indicated whether he wants to stay in politics through his career.
In the post on X, however, Santos said he knew “exactly” what was needed to lead ICE properly and made an informal public bid for the hypothetical position.
“It’s time to reclaim our country and if you believe the nonsense numbers the media is giving you then you are accepting the big lie! We have over 50M+ people who have invaded our sovereignty over the years due to careless and neglectful immigration policy, if given the job I know exactly where to start and run the much needed raids of removals proceedings this country needs,” Santos wrote.