OAN Staff Blake Wolf and Brooke Mallory
5:13 PM – Wednesday, October 15, 2025
President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel held a joint press conference in the Oval Office to announce the outcomes of “Operation Summer Heat,” a nationwide initiative aimed at curbing violent crime and enhancing public safety in American cities.
FBI Director Patel reported that the summer operation, conducted from June to September 2025, resulted in 8,629 arrests of individuals accused of violent crimes and the seizure of 2,281 illegally obtained firearms.
Thanks to Operation Summer Heat, along with the mass arrests, the FBI was reportedly able to seize “enough fentanyl to kill 55 million Americans.”
The initiative targeted violent offenders in cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, and Memphis, and was carried out in partnership with local and state law enforcement agencies.
After Patel emphasized that Operation Summer Heat was part of the administration’s broader effort to combat violent crime, Trump also noted that, since January this year, the FBI has arrested more than 23,000 individuals accused of heinous crimes — a figure that includes arrests made through other initiatives in addition to the summer operation.
“I hope the media takes a look at every one of these charts because these are the best numbers for fighting crime in U.S. history, and it’s only been seven months in,” Patel stated alongside data detailing the success of Operation Summer Heat.
“Our vehicle to do it of choice was Operation Summer Heat, which the FBI architected, to go after violent criminals. And in just a three-month span, you had 8,700 arrests of violent criminals. You had 2,200 firearms seized off the streets permanently to safeguard our communities. You had 421 kilograms of fentanyl seized. Just to put that in perspective, that’s enough to kill 55 million Americans alone,” Patel stated.
In addition to the fentanyl, the bureau was also able to seize “45,000 kilograms (99,208 pounds) of cocaine” and “2,100 indictments in three months, from June to September alone.”
“Mr. President, that in it of itself would be historic for a four-year presidency, you did that in seven months because you let good cops be cops and you partnered up with the right people at the Department of Justice to put the handcuffs on and bring them to court, and put them in prison,” he continued, speaking directly to President Trump.
The Trump administration has also since arrested 28,600 “violent felons in just seven months alone because of [the president’s] leadership and the dedication of the men and women at the FBI,” Patel added.
Meanwhile, President Trump has suggested a potential deployment of National Guard troops to San Francisco, California, similar to deployments several major U.S. cities have seen in recent months.
In the recent press conference, Trump described the city as “a mess,” and said he would “strongly recommend” that his administration begin considering San Francisco in its next round of deployments.
In 2023, when San Francisco hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) took steps to clean up SF streets, remove and relocate homeless encampments, and make other aesthetic improvements such as graffiti scrubbing, power washing and sidewalk cleanup.
However, many San Franciscans criticized Newsom for launching large-scale cleanup efforts only after learning of President Xi’s impending visit — arguing that the city’s longstanding homelessness and open drug-use problems should have been addressed long before an international event prompted action.
“These are great cities that could be fixed,” Trump said at the Wednesday press conference. “I’m going to be strongly recommending … [that we] start looking at San Francisco. I think we can make San Francisco one of our great cities. … It’s a mess, and we have great support in San Francisco. … Every American deserves to live in a community where they’re not afraid of being mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted, or shot.”
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