Donald Trump (00:00):
Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to have a friend of mine because we went through this together and got along very well for my entire period of time. So I knew him as a very young man. Now, he's just a young man and he's done a fantastic job. Mr. President, it's an honor to have you.
Nayib Bukele (00:23):
Thank you.
Donald Trump (00:24):
You're doing incredibly for your country, and we appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we, and it's very, very effective. And I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president. And I mean that, and I know him well. I know him as a very young man, Marco, even younger than you. You know, he started pretty young.
Marco Rubio (00:52):
I'll always be younger.
Donald Trump (00:54):
Young at heart. But I want to thank you for the great job you're doing. I appreciate it.
Nayib Bukele (01:00):
Thank you. Well, it's an honor to be here in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world. We're very happy and we're very eager to help. We know that you have a crime problem, a terrorism problem that you need help with, and we're a small country, but if we can help, we will do it. And we actually turned the murder capital of the world… That was the journalists call it, right? Murder capital of the world to the safest country in the the Western Hemisphere. And sometimes they say that we increase in thousands. I like to say that we actually liberated millions, so-
Donald Trump (01:44):
It's very good. Who gave him that line? Do you think I can use that?
Nayib Bukele (01:50):
Yes, you can use it.
Kristi Noem (01:51):
Yes.
Nayib Bukele (01:51):
And in fact, Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate. But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. That's the way it works, right? You cannot just free the criminals and think crimes are going to go down magically. You have to imprison them, so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorists. I mean, it can be done. I mean, you're doing it already. And I am sure that people have seen the change in the streets. A long way to go because you're just initiating your second term, but it's clear that with the numbers at the border, even in Democrat run cities, they get help from the work you're doing. So I'm really happy to be here, honored and eager to help.
Donald Trump (02:43):
Well, we had a terrible thing happen. We had an administration that allowed people to come in freely into our country from not only South America, but from all over the world. Many from the Congo and Africa, Asia, all over the world. Europe, rough parts of Europe. And they came from prisons and they came from mental institutions and they came from gangs and the gangs of Venezuela and other places, and hundreds of thousands, and even millions of them came. 21 million people altogether. But many of the people that came, just a tremendous percentage of them, were criminals. In some cases, violent criminals. We had 11,088 known murderers. Half of them murdered more than one person. This was allowed by a man who… What he did to our country is just unbelievable. So we're straightening it out. We're getting them out.
(03:41)
But what they did and what that party did to our country, open borders, anybody could come in. As soon as I heard that, I said, "Every prison's going to be emptied out into our country." That's what happened. And we're straightening it out. And we just had numbers. We had the highest recruiting numbers in the history of our country going into police departments. And a year ago, we had the lowest numbers. You couldn't hire a policeman.
Nayib Bukele (04:04):
Biggest change. From the lowest to the highest.
Donald Trump (04:06):
And the military now, Marines, the Army, air Force, Coast Guard, every slot is… I mean, we have the best numbers we've ever had. We call it recruitment numbers, and we've never had anything like it. We had records at every single level. But very important, the policemen. The policemen are joining forces now that we really were having a hard time with policemen because we weren't protecting our police. And we cherish our police. The police are great and the firemen and everybody else, but we have the highest numbers that we've ever had. The most enthusiasm, great enthusiasm, and on trade and other things we're doing great. We're taking in billions and billions of dollars. I gave them a little bit of a pause because you have to show a little flexibility. But we go back to what we have to do.
(05:02)
The markets have been very strong once they got used to it, but we were losing $2 billion a day. There's no company big like this. This is the biggest deal ever made. Now we're making $3 billion a day. We're a great country, but we had stupid people running this country, and I can say it, but what they've done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten. It's a sin what they did, and you are helping us out, and we appreciate it.
Nayib Bukele (05:36):
Thanks. Thank you. Actually, what you're doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped what? 95%? It's incredible.
Donald Trump (05:46):
As this morning, 99.1% to be exact.
Marco Rubio (05:51):
Why are those numbers not in the media?
Donald Trump (05:54):
Well, they get out with the fake news like CNN. CNN over here doesn't want to put them out because they don't like putting out good numbers. They only like putting out… because I think they hate our country, actually, but it's a shame. You're right. Isn't that a great question? Why doesn't the media… Why don't they put out numbers?
Nayib Bukele (06:11):
Yeah, I mean 99%. I mean, it's crazy, right?
Donald Trump (06:14):
We're doing a great-
Nayib Bukele (06:15):
It's a crazy turnaround.
Donald Trump (06:16):
Kristi, could you maybe say a couple of words about the border, how we do it?
Kristi Noem (06:20):
Yeah. It's just been absolutely phenomenal what a great leader can do. Clear direction. Our laws matter. We should only have people in our country that love us and the border patrol and our ICE officers and law enforcement officers have done fantastic work, so we're proud of them. Now we just need to get the criminals and murderers and rapists and dangerous gang members and terrorist organizations out of our country. So, Mr. President Bukele, we thank you very much for your partnership. It has been wonderful for us to be able to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst and someone to partner with. And we'd like to continue that partnership because it's been a powerful message of consequences. Mr. President, you wanted people to know that there was consequences if you break our laws and harm our people and endanger families, and this is a clear consequence for the worst of the worst that we have somewhere to put them.
Nayib Bukele (07:12):
Thank you very much. Yeah. We even had this gang member from Venezuela, from one of the ones you sent, and we interviewed him just to get some information, et cetera from them. And he said, "Oh, well, I got arrested six times, but they released me the six times, so I should be released again." And then I said, "Well, what's the last thing you do?" And he said, "Well, I shot a cop in the leg, but I didn't kill him. I just shot him in the leg." And we're like, "This guy was arrested six times here in the United States. Six times. He was released five times. And the last time he was sent to El Salvador, so he's not getting a release." But the last time he shot a cop, actually, and he shot him in the leg. So these are-
Donald Trump (07:57):
[inaudible 00:08:00]
Nayib Bukele (07:59):
Yeah, there's something broken.
Donald Trump (08:02):
The Liberal establishment, but they're not running things anymore in this country. And we're run by, and I don't say conservative, I don't say anything. We're run by people with great common sense.
Nayib Bukele (08:13):
Yeah, common sense.
Donald Trump (08:14):
'Cause it's all common sense. It's not liberal conservative. It's common sense.
Nayib Bukele (08:17):
Exactly, yeah.
Donald Trump (08:19):
Do you allow men to play in women's sports? Do you allow men to box your women and boxing? 'Cause I know you have a lot of boxers.
Nayib Bukele (08:26):
That's violence.
Donald Trump (08:29):
That's abuse of a woman.
Nayib Bukele (08:31):
Violence against women.
Donald Trump (08:31):
It's abuse of a woman. But we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women's sports. And some of those sports, it wouldn't matter much, but it still matters. But some of them are very dangerous for women.
Nayib Bukele (08:44):
Some years ago, like we said, a decade ago or so, women rights movements were pressuring so that we enact a specific laws to avoid men abusing women. And I think those laws were brave because there were a lot of men abusing women. But now some of the same people are trying to backtrack on that and actually trying to make new laws, allowing men to abuse women, women in sport. So actually that doesn't make sense.
Donald Trump (09:12):
We do it in sports.
Nayib Bukele (09:13):
It doesn't make sense.
Donald Trump (09:14):
It's crazy. They have weightlifting records, right?
Nayib Bukele (09:16):
Yeah.
Donald Trump (09:17):
A woman gets up this weight. She's incredible. A guy gets up and beats her by a hundred pounds. What are you going to do? A record that hadn't been broken in 18 years. They put on an ounce and an ounce, quarter of an ounce, eighth of an ounce for 18 years. Now they have a guy come up, ping. The whole thing is crazy. But they continue to fight. And I don't like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election. I said to my people, "Don't even talk about it because they'll change." But I watched this morning, there was a congressman fighting to the death for men to play against women in sports. And you say to yourself, "Why? What are they doing? What are they doing?" But your country's not too big on that.
Nayib Bukele (10:06):
No. No, of course not. We're big on protecting women.
Donald Trump (10:10):
That's a very important form of protection.
Nayib Bukele (10:13):
And as you can see, most of my cabinet are women.
Donald Trump (10:16):
That's impressive.
Nayib Bukele (10:17):
Yeah. Yeah.
Donald Trump (10:18):
That's why you bring them.
Nayib Bukele (10:18):
And they're not DEI hires or anything, they're just great at what they do, right?
Donald Trump (10:23):
That's right. This is very impressive. This is a first. We've had women, but we've never had three of them right here.
Nayib Bukele (10:30):
Four and three men.
Donald Trump (10:32):
Look at what you have. Do you guys feel a little bit mistreated? That's great. I like it. We've been advanced. I've been very advanced in that regard too. We have, Pam and Sue's been so fantastic.
Nayib Bukele (10:47):
Yes, I know. It's her birthday.
Donald Trump (10:49):
Kristi, and the most powerful woman they see in my office.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Exactly.
Donald Trump (10:53):
They're all afraid of Susie Wiles. They say, "Oh, she's tough." Most powerful woman in the world according to magazines. What do I know? But
(11:00)
Yeah. She probably is.
Donald Trump (11:00):
I think she probably is.
Nayib Bukele (11:00):
Yeah, she probably is.
Donald Trump (11:00):
Yeah, she probably is.
Nayib Bukele (11:04):
Congratulations.
Donald Trump (11:05):
And Stephen has done such a great job. We have great people-
Nayib Bukele (11:10):
Very famous staff.
Donald Trump (11:11):
… but we love working with [inaudible 00:11:13]. He really lets him have it, right.
Nayib Bukele (11:14):
Yeah, exactly.
Donald Trump (11:15):
There's no games.
Nayib Bukele (11:16):
No, no. Very good.
Donald Trump (11:17):
He knows. Do you have any questions, please?
REPORTERS (11:20):
President Trump?
Donald Trump (11:21):
Go ahead. Let's not start with CNN because they're so, they're just so-
REPORTERS (11:25):
Mr. President?
Donald Trump (11:25):
… wrong. Yeah, please.
REPORTERS (11:27):
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. You repeatedly mentioned last night that Russia's attack on Ukraine was a mistake. What is the exact mistake? And had you given Putin a deadline to actually move toward a ceasefire?
Donald Trump (11:39):
The mistake was letting the war happen. If Biden were competent, and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don't know that he is. We had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more. That war should have never been allowed to happen. That war… I went four years and Putin wouldn't even bring it up. And as soon as the election was rigged and I wasn't here, that war started. There was no way that war should have been allowed to happen. And Biden should have stopped it.
(12:09)
And you take a look at Putin, I'm not saying anybody's an angel, but I will tell you I went four years and it wasn't even a question. He would never. And I told him, "Don't do it. You're not going to do it." And it was the apple of his eye, but there was no way that he would've done it.
(12:26)
All you had to do is lower oil prices. If you lowered oil prices… Biden kept the prices so high because he made it impossible to get it. If you lowered oil prices, you would've never had the war, but you wouldn't have had it with me anyway. That war would've never happened. And I think it's a great abuse.
(12:42)
So now what do you do? You get a country where 25% of its land is gone and the best locations. Where millions of people are killed, you haven't reported accurately the death. And this was Biden's war and I'm trying to stop it. And I think we're going to do a good job, I hope we're going to do it. They lose 2,500 young people a week, on average. Now they're Russians and they're Ukrainians, but it's 2000. We don't care. It's like whatever it is. They're not from your country, they're not from mine, but I want to stop it.
(13:17)
2,500, it's a killing field. It's like the Civil War. You take a look. I look at the satellite pictures. This should not be happening in our time. Of course, our time can be pretty violent as we know. But that's a war that should have never been allowed to start. And Biden could have stopped it and Zelenskyy could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it. Everybody's to blame.
REPORTERS (13:46):
Have you spoken to President Zelenskyy, sir, out his offer to purchase more Patriot missile batteries?
Donald Trump (13:51):
Oh, I don't know. He's always looking to purchase missiles. He's against… Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles. If we didn't give them what we gave, remember I gave them Javelins. That's how they won their first big battle. With the tanks that got stuck in the mud and they took them out with Javelins. They have an expression that Obama, at the time, Obama gave them sheets and Trump gave them Javelins. But just something that should have never happened. It's a really shame. The towns are destroyed. Towns and cities are largely destroyed.
(14:36)
They have the spires, the beautiful spires that go up. They say that we're the most beautiful in the world, in Ukraine for whatever reason, but the most beautiful in the world. They're mostly laying on their side, shattered and broken. And most importantly, you have millions of people dead. Millions of people dead because of three people, I would say three people. Let's say Putin, number one. But let's say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two and Zelenskyy. And all I can do is try and stop it. That's all I want to do. I want to stop the killing. And I think we're doing well in that regard. I think you'll have some very good proposals very soon.
REPORTERS (15:20):
Last question, sir, have you attributed a motive through the FBI investigation behind the attack on Governor Josh Shapiro over the weekend?
Donald Trump (15:29):
No, I haven't, but the attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand. Just from what I read and from what I've been told. The attacker basically wasn't a fan of anybody. It's probably just a whack job and certainly a thing like that can not be allowed to happen.
REPORTERS (15:45):
Is your good relations with President Bukele the best guarantee that this time you won't terminate the temporary protected status-
Donald Trump (15:54):
I have a great relationship with this man.
REPORTERS (15:55):
… [inaudible 00:15:56] nationals of El Salvador?
Donald Trump (15:55):
I have the best relationship with him. We've known each other. I've known him since he was a very young man. As I said, very, very young. And I was impressed. I said, "Look out, this guy is…" In fact, you sort of look like a teenager.
Nayib Bukele (16:08):
That's good.
Donald Trump (16:10):
You look like a teenager. I said what kind of a country is this?
Nayib Bukele (16:13):
I don't know if that's good or bad, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (16:16):
He grew up well in the last five years.
REPORTERS (16:19):
Do you support extension for nationals of El Salvador under temporary protected status?
Donald Trump (16:22):
I support him.
REPORTERS (16:22):
Do you plan to-
(16:22)
President Bukele?
(16:22)
President Trump?
Donald Trump (16:22):
Let's hear the question from this very low-rated anchor at CBS.
REPORTERS (16:34):
President Trump, do you plan to ask President Bukele to help return the man who your administration says was mistakenly deported?
Donald Trump (16:38):
Which one is it?
REPORTERS (16:39):
The man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador?
Donald Trump (16:41):
Well, let me ask. Pam, would you answer that question?
Pam Bondi (16:45):
Sure President. First and foremost, he was illegally in our country. He had been illegally in our country. And in 2019, 2 courts, an immigration court and an appellate immigration court ruled that he was a member of MS-13 and he was illegally in our country. Right now, it was a paperwork, it was additional paperwork had needed to be done. That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him, that's not up to us. The Supreme Court ruled President that if, as El Salvador wants to return him, this is international matters, foreign affairs. If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.
REPORTERS (17:28):
So will you return him President Bukele?
Donald Trump (17:30):
And you are doing a great job. Thank you.
Pam Bondi (17:32):
Thank you.
Donald Trump (17:32):
Wait a minute. Can you just also respond to that question? Because it's asked by CNN and they always ask it with a slant. Because they're totally slanting because they don't know what's happening. That's why nobody's watching them. But would you answer that question also, please?
Steve Miller (17:47):
Yes, gladly. So as Pam mentioned, there's an illegal alien from El Salvador. So with respect to you, he's a citizen of El Salvador. So it's very arrogant, even for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point, as two immigration courts found that he was a member of MS-13. When President Trump declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization, that meant that he was no longer eligible under federal law, which I'm sure you know, you're very familiar with the INA, that he was no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States.
(18:25)
So he had a deportation order that was valid. Which meant that under our law, he's not even allowed to be present in the United States and had to be returned because of the foreign terrorist designation. This issue was then, by a district court judge, completely inverted, and a district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and flying back here. That issue was raised with the Supreme Court.
(18:51)
And the Supreme Court said the District court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed 9-0 unanimously stating clearly that neither Secretary of State nor the President could be compelled by anybody to forcibly retrieve a citizen of El Salvador from El Salvador, who again is a member of MS-13. Which is, I'm sure you understand, rapes little girls, murders women, murders children, is engaged in the most barbaric activities in the world. And I can promise you, if he was your neighbor, you would move right away.
REPORTERS (19:22):
So you don't plan to ask for-
(19:22)
But the Supreme Court is asking to-
Donald Trump (19:24):
And what was the ruling in the Supreme Court, Steve? Was it nine to nothing?
Steve Miller (19:29):
Yes. It was a 9- 0-
Donald Trump (19:31):
In our favor?
Steve Miller (19:32):
In our favor against the District Court. Ruling saying that no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States. As Pam said, the ruling solely stated that if this individual, at El Salvador's sole discretion, was sent back to our country, that we could deport him a second time.
(19:49)
No version of this legally ends up with him ever living here because he's a citizen of El Salvador. That is the president of El Salvador. Your questions about it per the court can only be directed to him.
REPORTERS (20:02):
I ask, President Bukele, what is your… Can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return him?
Nayib Bukele (20:06):
Well, I'm supposed you're not suggested that I smuggle a terrorist in the United States, right?
Donald Trump (20:11):
It's only CNN.
Nayib Bukele (20:13):
How can I smuggle… How can I return him to the United States? Like I smuggle him into the United States, or whether do I do? Of course I'm not going to do it. It's like the question is preposterous. How can I smuggle the terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States.
REPORTERS (20:29):
But you can release him inside of El Salvador.
Nayib Bukele (20:31):
Yeah, but I'm not releasing… We're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country of the Western Hemisphere. And you want us to go back into releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That's not going to happen.
Donald Trump (20:46):
Well, they'd love to have a criminal released into our country.
Nayib Bukele (20:49):
I mean, there's a fascination-
Donald Trump (20:51):
They would love it.
Nayib Bukele (20:52):
Yeah.
Donald Trump (20:54):
These are sick people. Marco, do you have something to say about that?
Marco Rubio (20:57):
Yeah, I mean, Stephen, I don't understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That's where you deport people, back to their country of origin. Except for Venezuela that was refusing to take people back of places like that. I can tell you this, Mr. President. The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the President of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has a right to conduct a foreign policy of the United States. It's that simple. End of story.
REPORTERS (21:26):
More specifically-
Steve Miller (21:27):
And that's what the Supreme Court held, by the way. To Marco's Point, the Supreme Court said exactly what Marco said. That no court has the authority to compel the foreign policy function in the United States. We won a case 9-0. And people like CNN are portraying it as a loss, as usual, because they want foreign terrorists in the country who kidnap women and children. But President Trump, his policy is foreign terrorists that are here illegally get expelled from the country, which by the way is a 90/10 issue.
REPORTERS (21:52):
Well, Mr. President, you said that if the Supreme Court said someone needed to be returned, that you would abide by that. You said that on Air Force One just a few days ago. And they said-
Donald Trump (21:59):
How long do we have to answer this question today?
REPORTERS (21:59):
…
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It must be facilitated.
Donald Trump (22:02):
Why don't you just say, "Isn't it wonderful that we're keeping criminals out of our country?" Why can't you just say that?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, it's illegal to, so I just wanted some clarity on it.
Donald Trump (22:08):
Why do you go over and over? And that's why nobody watches you anymore. You have no credibility. Please, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
President Trump, thank you so much. How many illegal criminals are you planning on exporting to El Salvador? And, President Bukele, how many are you willing to take from the U.S.?
Donald Trump (22:25):
As many as possible. And I just asked the president … it's this massive complex that he built, jail complex. I said, "Can you build some more of them, please?" As many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden through open borders. Open borders. You probably hear open borders and you can't even understand it, because nobody can understand. Nobody smart or with common sense can understand it. So we have millions of people that should not be in this country that are dangerous. Not just people, because we have people, but we have millions of people that are murderers, drug dealers. They've been allowed to come into our country by other countries that were very smart.
(23:10)
When they heard that this very low IQ president … and by the way, I took my cognitive exam as part of my physical exam and I got the highest mark. And one of the doctors said, "Sir, I've never seen anybody get that kind of a … that was the highest mark." I hope you're happy with that. Although they haven't been bugging me too much to take a cognitive, but I did do my physical and it was released. I hope you're all happy with it. I noticed there's no question, so probably you are. But the cognitive, they said to me, "Sir, would you like to take a cognitive test?" I said, "Did Biden take one?" "No." "Did anybody take one?" "No, not too many people took them." I said, "What about Obama? Did he take one?" "No, he didn't take one either." I said, "Let me be the only one to take one." But I've actually taken them three times already. I like taking them, because they're sort of … they're not too tough for me to take.
(24:05)
But we had a great physical exam, so I know you're going to ask that. And the doctors who are total professionals, Walter Reed Medical Center, they're great people. And I visited a soldier that was badly wounded. Incredible soldier. Lost his leg. And … who I spent a lot of time with him, I mean, [inaudible 00:24:26] with his mother, and it was really a very great thing. They do a phenomenal job. I just want to say Walter Reed, I was there for, what? Five, six hours. You were there with me. But I took a full physical and it came out perfecto, so that's good. That means you've got me for a little longer.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Would the U.S. be willing pay for those facilities to be opened if new ones were going to be built [inaudible 00:24:45]?
Donald Trump (24:44):
I'd do something. We'd help them out. Yeah, we'd help them out. They're great facilities, very strong facilities, and they don't play games. I'd like to go a step further. I said it to Pam. I don't know what the laws are. We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters. I'd like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you'll have to be looking at the laws on that, Steve. Okay?
Speaker X (25:21):
[inaudible 00:25:22]
Speaker 4 (25:21):
[foreign language 00:25:22].
Speaker 5 (25:21):
How special is it for you guys to be locking up these prisoners, and do you think more presidents should follow suit, like you guys, in as far as taking a stand on crime here in the United States?
Donald Trump (25:31):
Well, I do. I think everybody has to. The president said it better than anybody. He said, "You have liberty and you have to have liberty. But to have liberty, you're going to … not everybody is going to be good." And some are bad, because they're sick. They're mentally deranged, they're bad. Then you have to take them … if you're going to have a country, you're going to have to take those people out. And we've been doing that. But this was like an unforced error, they would call it, where we had people that may hate our country or maybe they're just stupid people. I think they're probably stupid people more so. A lot of people said they did it for the vote, but I did better with Hispanic people than they did, because they always use Hispanic. I did better. Your people love me. I saw my poll numbers in your country, up through the roof, right? 91%. No, no. Some people think they do it for the vote. But they don't have to do it for the vote. They cheat. They're professional cheaters. That's about the only thing they do well.
(26:34)
So we just have had a great relationship and it's become bigger, because of a strange thing that's happened. I came back. We had no war in Ukraine. We had no war with … we had no October 7th, Middle East problem. We had nothing. We had no inflation. We didn't have the Afghanistan most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, the Afghanistan … not withdrawing, because I would have been out … I had it all set to bring people out with dignity and pride. That was the worst, most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Afghanistan. We didn't have any of that. You wouldn't have had the war with Russia-Ukraine. You wouldn't have had the Middle East problem, because Iran was broke. They had no money, because we had secondary sanctions on and lots of other sanctions.
(27:23)
And now every single thing. Got a problem with Iran, but I'll solve that problem. That's almost an easy one. We got to solve a war that should have never started, Ukraine and Russia, and we'll get that solved. And we have to solve problems. And we already solved inflation. If you look at the numbers, the numbers are incredible, actually. Stock markets up, and we're not letting other countries take advantage of this country like they have for the last 40 years, so thank you very much. Do you have a question, please?
Speaker 6 (27:55):
[inaudible 00:27:55], Mr. President. Thank you so much. You scored another major investment win this morning when NVIDIA pledged to build its AI supercomputer, for the first time, ever right here in the United States.
Donald Trump (28:05):
Thank you. Now that's a question I like. That's true.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
What is your reaction to this announcement, Sir, and how will this positively [inaudible 00:28:13] Americans across the entire country.
Donald Trump (28:17):
Well, it's one of the biggest announcements you'll ever hear, because NVIDIA, as you know, controls almost the entire sector, which is one of the most important sectors in the world, between chips and semiconductors and everything else, and they're the biggest. And the other biggest, we already have coming in and spending 300 million, as you know. They announced two weeks ago. But NVIDIA is so highly respected, and this was an announcement that a lot of people, I knew it was going to happen, but not to the extent that it happened. It's big. And the reason they did it is because of the election on November 5th, and because of a thing called tariffs. As I say, the most beautiful word in the dictionary, after love, God, relationship. The press actually hit me. I said, "Tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary." "What about family, love, God?"
(29:13)
So I got hit even on that. Do you understand? I said, "Okay." So now I say it's my fifth most favorite word, because they get you on anything. But no, it's one of the great companies of the world. Modern, super modern companies. It controls segments that nobody … it sort of control the world, in a sense. And they're coming in here, in the biggest way, with hundreds of billions of dollars. Not like millions of dollars. Hundreds of billions of dollars, and I'm honored by it. And want to thank Jensen and all the people that we deal with. They're great people. They're brilliant people. And without tariffs, they wouldn't be doing it. Thank you very much. That was a very good [inaudible 00:29:59]. Yeah, please. Go ahead.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
Are you considering additional sanctions against Russia after their latest attack? And do you have an update on the rate and when you might announce semiconductor tariffs?
Donald Trump (30:08):
Well, I already have sanctions on Russia. I put them there. If you remember Nord Stream 2, that's the big pipeline that goes through Europe, I stopped it. That's Russia's pipeline. The largest pipeline, I think, in the world. Goes to Germany. And I stopped it. And when Biden came in, he approved it, and then they say, "Oh, I'm friendly with Russia." No, no. Putin said, "If you're my friend, I'd hate to see you when you're my enemy." I stopped the biggest economic job they ever had. I stopped it cold. Right? It was dead. You know that, right? And Biden came in and he immediately approved it. What was that all about?
Speaker 7 (30:47):
What about additional sanctions, Sir?
Donald Trump (30:49):
And it's a pipeline that takes care of a lot of the needs. Now, it was a very controversial thing, but I stopped it and Biden approved it. Question?
Speaker 8 (31:01):
On tariffs, do you have an update-
Donald Trump (31:02):
No, not you?
Speaker 4 (31:02):
[foreign language 00:31:04].
Speaker X (31:02):
[inaudible 00:31:05].
Speaker 9 (31:05):
[inaudible 00:31:05] update today on [inaudible 00:31:06] semiconductor tariffs, and potentially pharmaceuticals?
Donald Trump (31:09):
What?
Speaker 9 (31:09):
Semiconductor tariffs, and potentially pharmaceuticals, any update on that?
Donald Trump (31:12):
Pharmaceuticals, we're going to do. We don't make our own drugs, our own pharmaceuticals. We don't make our own drugs anymore. The drug companies are in Ireland and they're in lots of other places. China. And all they have to do is impose a tariff. The more, the faster they move in. The higher the tariff, it's very … it's inversely proportional. The higher the tariff, the faster they come. And, yeah, we're going to be doing that. That's going to be like we have on cars. We have, as you know, a 25% tariff on cars. We have a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. And that's what that category fits right now.
Speaker 9 (31:52):
Do you have a percentage in mind and the timeline?
Donald Trump (31:54):
I have a timeline. Not too distant future. We're doing it, because we want to make our own drugs. We're doing it, because we want to make our own steel and aluminum, lumber, other things. And they're all coming in. We have record numbers, $7 trillion since I announced, a month and a half ago. Since I came. Basically, since I came in, we have over $7 trillion being invested in the country. We didn't have 1 trillion, we didn't have a half a trillion dollars with some of these guys. I didn't know what the hell they were doing. So we have the largest investment that we've ever heard of, and we're only two months in. And that'll continue at levels that you've never seen before. It's going to happen. And even the stock market's up today. We also … a lot of people didn't say it the way it was. We had the largest gain in the stock market in history, on every single category, last week. That was a nice game, because we were getting a little hit, because people didn't understand the power
Donald Trump (33:00):
… power of our country economically, if you use it right. Do you have something to say on that, JD?
Steve Miller (33:09):
Yes, sir. I mean, look, for 40 years we have lost manufacturing capacity. Workers have seen their wages stagnate, and some of the most critical things that we need from the pharmaceuticals, the drugs that we give to our children, the antibiotics that we give to our kids, to the weapons that we actually need to fight a war if, God forbid, we had to fight a war, we don't make enough of that stuff. And so President Trump ran explicitly on changing that. Yes, as the president mentioned, it caused a little bit of disruption in the market. But I actually think over the long term, workers are going to benefit, stocks are going to go up. American businesses are going to benefit as we reinvest and re-industrialize our country.
Donald Trump (33:45):
And the autoworkers and the teamsters and all of the unions, not traditionally Republican, but I'm winning those unions by… We're up 40, 50 points on the Democrats. They're losing everything. And they're losing everything because they just have policies that are not believable. They fight for policies that are 5% popular, and nobody knows who the 5% are. I mean, nobody can find the 5%. But if you go back to Ohio… And by the way, we have the great championship team from Ohio coming in today. Right?
Steve Miller (34:20):
Very big day.
Donald Trump (34:21):
And that's going to be a little bit later. And if you want to stick around, I'll introduce you to some nice people. You'll see some very large people. You'll see some people that… Even you have not seen people like this. These are 6'7, 380 pounds, with no fat. That's pretty good. But the national championship team is being honored today at the White House. So that'll be exciting. If you want to stay around, I'll have you up there. You can tell them all about your prison, how you have to behave.
Speaker 10 (35:00):
Mr. President, for businesses that want clarity-
Donald Trump (35:01):
Who else?
Speaker 10 (35:01):
… how temporary are those exemptions on electronics?
Donald Trump (35:01):
Go ahead, please.
Speaker 11 (35:03):
You said yesterday that you're making a decision on Iran very quickly. What do you mean by that? Is that a decision to strike Iran?
Donald Trump (35:10):
Well, they have to solve to their problem very quickly. Iran wants to deal with us, but they don't know how. They really don't know how. We had a meeting with them on Saturday. We have another meeting scheduled next Saturday. I said, "That's a long time." That's a long time. So I think they might be tapping us along. But Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. He can't have a nuclear weapon. We can't have anybody having nuclear weapons. We can't have nuclear weapons. And I think they're tapping us along because they were so used to dealing with stupid people in this country. And I had Iran perfect. You had no attacks. You would've never had October 7th in Israel, the attack by Hamas, because Iran was broke. It was stone-cold broke when I was president. And I want them to be a rich, great nation. The only thing is… One thing, simple. It's really simple. They can't have a nuclear weapon. And they've got to go fast because they're fairly close to having one, and they're not going to have one. And if we have to do something very harsh, we'll do it. And I'm not doing it for us. I'm doing it for the world. These are radicalized people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 11 (36:27):
Does that include an eventual strike on Iranian nuclear facilities?
Donald Trump (36:30):
Of course it does.
Speaker 11 (36:32):
And just a follow-up question, a clarification. You mentioned that you're open to deporting individuals that aren't foreign aliens, criminals to El Salvador. Does that include potentially US citizens, fully [inaudible 00:36:45]?
Donald Trump (36:45):
If they're criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over their head that happen to be 90 years old, if they rape eighty-seven-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah. Yeah, that includes them. Do you think they're a special category of person? They're as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones too. And I'm all for it, because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security. And we have a huge prison population. We have a huge number of prisons. And then we have the private prisons. And some are operated well, I guess, and some aren't. But he does a great job with that. We have others that we're negotiating with too. But no, if it's a homegrown criminal, I have no problem.
(37:38)
Now, we're studying the laws right now. Pam is studying. If we can do that, that's good. And I'm talking about violent people. I'm talking about really bad people, really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in. And I made the statement when I heard about this a long time ago now, four years ago, when I heard that this guy was having open borders, I said, "Every single criminal from all over the world is going to be dumped into our country." And that's what happened. The jails of the Congo were emptied out. The jails of Venezuela were emptied out. And you know what happened? Their crime went way down. But now Venezuela has other problems. You know what the problem is? They have no money because I shut off their oil and we put secondary tariffs because they're not doing what's right over there. They know what to do. We spoke to them. I spoke to them. They know what to do. But they have no money. Venezuela has no money. But Iran had no money, and Iran behaved so beautifully. And then Biden took all those secondary tariffs on. I told China, "You can't buy oil. If you buy oil from Iran…" China. I told it to President Xi… "then we no longer want you to do business with the United States of America." And those ships disappeared from that harbor so quickly. China. Get along great with China.
Speaker 10 (39:05):
Are the talks with Iran productive? Do you want to continue that?
Donald Trump (39:07):
What?
Speaker 10 (39:09):
The talks with Iran, do you believe those are productive? Do you want to continue that?
Donald Trump (39:12):
I think Iran could be a great country as long as it doesn't have nuclear weapons. If they have nuclear weapons, they'll never get a chance to be a great country. They will never get a chance. It won't even come close.
Speaker 12 (39:24):
Sir, on tariffs.
Donald Trump (39:24):
Yeah. Please.
Speaker 12 (39:25):
Yeah. Thank you. Yesterday, you mentioned short-lived product exemptions. Which specific products are you considering and how long is short-lived? Weeks, months?
Donald Trump (39:34):
I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies where they're switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico, and other places. And they need a little bit of time because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that.
Speaker 12 (39:51):
What about any Apple products, other cell phones?
Donald Trump (39:55):
Look, I'm a very flexible person. I don't change my mind, but I'm flexible. And you have to be. You just can't have a wall. No, sometimes you have to go around it, under it or above it. There'll be maybe things coming up. I speak to Tim Cook. I helped Tim Cook recently, that whole business. I don't want to hurt anybody, but the end result is, we're going to get to the position of greatness for our country. We're the greatest economic power in the world if we're smart. If we're not smart, we're going to hurt our country very badly. We lost, with China, over the Biden years, trillions of dollars on trade, trillions of dollars. He let them fleece us. And we can't do that anymore. And you know what? I don't blame China at all. I don't blame President Xi. I like him. He likes me. I mean, who knows? Who the hell cares?
Speaker 12 (40:54):
Do you have any updates on talks with China?
Donald Trump (40:55):
What?
Speaker 12 (40:55):
Do you have any updates with talks with China?
Donald Trump (40:56):
No. Let me just tell you this. I don't blame China. I don't blame Vietnam. I see their meeting today. Isn't that wonderful? That's a lovely meeting. The meeting trying to figure out, "How do we screw the United States of America?" Don't forget, the European Union was formed to do just that. The European Union was formed to hurt the United States on trade, and they get us on NATO because they don't pay their bills. But now, since I got involved, they have been paying their bills. I took in over $600 billion for NATO. Nobody took in anything. I mean, they were all delinquent. Eight nations out of 28 paid their bills. The rest of them were way delinquent. And I said, "If you don't pay your bills, we're not going to protect you anymore." And the money poured in. The Secretary General last week made that statement. He said, "I've never seen anything like it. We couldn't get anybody to pay," because the United States was footing the bill for NATO.
(41:53)
Well, we got hurt there and we got hurt on trade likewise, European Union. And they've got to come to the table, and they're trying to, they're trying to. But the European Union is taking terrible advantage. They don't take our food products. They don't take our cars. We have millions of their cars. BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, many others. They come in by the millions. There were no Chevrolets in Munich, I can tell you that. I said to Angela Merkel when she was there as she was letting millions of people infiltrate Germany, which was not so good from… We would call them illegal immigrants, but she made them legal. But I said to her… And I get along with her very well. I said, "How many Chevrolets do we have in Munich or Frankfurt?" "None, Donald. None." I said, "You're right." And yet we take in millions and millions of cars. No, those days are over.
(42:54)
Okay. Thank you very much everybody.
