Putting American Security at the Center of U.S. Foreign Policy

0:01 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. What is today is a spokesman for the Department of State. His name is Tommy Pickett. And he joined the Department of State during the Trump-Vance administration in 2025. And previously you worked with the Republican National Committee at, I guess, working nationwide. Give us the pulse. Yeah, I was. Yep. Yep.

0:25 And Tommy Pickett, give us the pulse. What’s going on right now that you’re concerned about?

0:33 Speaker 2 Well, there’s a whole host of issues. I mean, one of the things that the State Department is focused on truly is worldwide. But what our priority is always is the safety and security of the American people, helping Americans that are abroad. That’s something that our entire workforce is always focused on. And right now, one of the most

0:49 pressing issues we see, of course, is the response to devastating floods in Nepal. We are actively coordinating with local authorities to try to locate Americans that need assistance to provide that assistance. We have immediately following the floods activated emergency assistance, including food, shelter, sanitation. And we’re also having a surge of consular resources to provide assistance to Americans

1:14 in that are in the region, Americans that are looking for loved ones. That’s our highest priority every single day to help the American people. And that’s why we’re acting in that regard to get as many resources as we can to help those that need it.

1:28 Speaker 1 Understood. And I understand there’s a lot of American citizens that are missing there. I mean, it was really bad. I saw pictures on it on television. And I mean, those waters were coming down like with a lot of strength.

1:46 They were.

1:47 Speaker 2 One of the things we’re seeing in this region is there’s a lot of tourism in this region. So we’re communicating with trekking companies that often have lists of clients in order to locate Americans who may be in the region.

1:57 That’s in addition to our conversations with local authorities. So you’re exactly right to say that there were dozens of Americans in in this area, according to our best estimates. We are seeing some Americans being safely evacuated, and we’re continuing to locate those Americans that are unaccounted for, both, like I said, working with trekking companies, working with local officials.

2:17 We have our embassies, both in Beijing and Kathmandu, that are working on this 24-7. And for those that may have family members and are looking for information or looking for the latest on what we’re doing, they can go to travel.state.gov, and there’s emergency contact information there. So if you have a loved one that you believe is in

2:35 the region, if you’re looking for information, if you want to reach out to us, please go to travel.state.gov for that information to reach out to the embassy, to reach us here at the State Department. We’re working on this 24-7.

2:46 Speaker 1 Tell us also, what else is bothering you of all the things going on this weekend?

2:53 Speaker 2 Well, one of the things that we’re focused on in addition is, of course, border security. And the way the State Department, of course, we think of the Southwest border with border security, but the way the State Department really plays a role in this is visa security. It’s something we’ve talked about quite a bit here from the State

3:08 Department under Secretary Rubio. Part of that is really cutting down on fraud in our visa system. What we are seeing worldwide, really, are these fraud networks that are coaching people how to lie to consular officers to access the United States under fraudulent means. And some of the most insidious examples we’re seeing of that is birth tourism, where

3:31 we see people networks profiting, where they put social media advertisements out advertising American citizenship as if it were for sale. And we see that worldwide. So what we’re doing is we launched this task force at the State Department where we are cutting down on these cases. We’re dismantling these cases.

3:49 And that includes working with law enforcement, working with counterparts overseas to to make sure that people know that if they lie to consular officers, if there’s fraud, you’re going to get your visa be revoked. We have revoked hundreds of thousands of visas already based off of criminal activity, based off of fraudulent activity, based off of people breaking

4:06 the terms of their visas. We are cutting down on this. And it’s essential to securing the border, because if you commit fraud, there will be consequences. We’re not going to allow it.

4:14 Speaker 1 And I understand not only they’re doing that with birth, they’re doing that with marriages in Brooklyn.

4:21 Speaker 2 There’s so many different fraudulent ways that this is happening. Of course, we saw recent announcements from the Department of Justice. That’s part of the entire whole of administration approach under President Trump, where under the previous administration, you saw in many ways a blind eye turn to this. You saw, quote unquote, legal pathways being, in our view, abused to

4:40 facilitate what was really an era of mass migration, which is inherently stabilizing. It’s damaging. And under the Trump administration, we’re putting an end to the era of mass migration, and we’re putting an end to the abuse of our immigration and visa system. It’s pretty simple to think we should have a visa system that is transparently applied, that

5:01 is fairly applied, and that upholds the law. That’s common sense. That’s what the American people want, and that’s exactly what we’re delivering.

5:08 Speaker 1 Um, Mr. Pickett, we got another minute or so left. What else would you like to add to the and keep the American people informed?

5:19 Speaker 2 One of the other initiatives we really have here at the State Department is to address what’s been a blind spot in our counterterrorism strategy, which is this surge and far left political terrorism we’ve seen worldwide. In the United States, that accounts for more attack, anti-government attacks and plots than any other ideological group. And in Europe, We see far

5:37 left driven terrorist attacks and plots on par with jihadist terrorist attacks and plots. So what we’ve done is first we had that ministerial a few weeks ago. This past week, we also had our first terrorist designations against these far left groups, including what was called AI Collective, an Italy based group that is the digital infrastructure for so many

5:57 of these antifa cells and violent extremists around the world to including domestically here in the United States. So by designating this group, we’ve actually seen these websites taking down, this digital infrastructure taking down, which was being used to plan attacks, to conceal illegal activity, even share information on how to build incendiary devices. So we’re taking concrete action.

6:17 We’re addressing this blind spot. We’re protecting the American people.

6:21 Speaker 1 Thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning. And Well, we pray for America, and at the end of the day, we win, as the president says. And thank you for communicating that to the American people.

6:36 Speaker 2 Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.