NEWS: Trump Takes Questions From Reporters As Iran War Rages

[0:00] 14 months ago. Now it's a very safe city, so we're very proud of that. But it's also [0:05] become a beautiful city. The encampments, homeless are no longer sitting in the middle [0:10] of the park. The level of beauty of the city is incredible. We re-grassed many of the areas. [0:18] We're really doing a job at Lafayette Park, which is really the entrance to the White [0:22] House. And that's going to be completed very shortly, and it'll be incredible, as it was [0:28] originally envisioned. Most of it we're doing as originally envisioned. And if you walk [0:33] across the street to Lafayette Park, you'll see something that's incredible. It's going [0:37] to be — we'll have it open before July 4th. This we wanted to get it open before July 4th. [0:44] On the reflecting pond, or the reflecting pool as some people call it, very important to [0:51] us was the longevity, the, you know, having it so that it's not closed every day. All [0:58] these are — I just had this done. You're getting a first glimpse, but that's your size [1:05] compared. So those are compared to — those are among the tallest buildings in the world, [1:11] including the Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Sears Tower, Chicago. So if you [1:22] lay it on that side, you'd take two or three of them to fill it in, because the width is [1:26] almost 200 feet wide. And actually much more than 2,000, close to — including everything, [1:34] it's about 2,500 feet in length to the end. And it's going to be beautiful. It was a great [1:42] concept that never worked, because they couldn't hold the water. Now they hold the water. For [1:47] a tiny fraction of the cost, we did a fantastic job. And the Department of Interior was amazing. [1:53] Doug Burgum — really absolutely amazing. And you're going to have something you're going to be very proud of, [1:59] and it'll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything with it. A very strong, powerful [2:06] substance that we use. And we picked a color called American Flag Blue. We had color choices. [2:13] And before it was just gray. It was the color of concrete and stone. So it's going to be really [2:19] special. I thought you'd like to see it. And the work ends on the pool. We also did a lot more than we [2:27] anticipated. We did all of the sidewalks outside of the pool, where people walk or they stand. That's where [2:32] Martin Luther King made his great speech with a million people. I had the same amount of people. [2:40] Actually, I had a little bit tighter. It was a little bit tighter. They said he had a million [2:44] people and I had 25,000 people. And yet, if you look at the picture of comparison, the exact same [2:50] location, the exact same pool, except now the pool's clean. It was filthy dirty then. But it was amazing, [2:56] because that was my first glimpse into politics. I made a speech and I had more people. In other words, [3:01] you put the picture side by side, which we have. And he said, I had 25,000. He had a million, [3:06] but I had more people. They were tighter. My people were tighter. But these are minor details. [3:11] That's what I said. Well, wait a minute. There's something wrong. But this was a very famous place [3:17] and it should be treated properly. A person came to my office, a very substantial person from a foreign [3:23] country, another country, and said, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln. You know, [3:30] you take a look at the Washington Monument, beautiful Lincoln Memorial. He said, but [3:34] the walking in between was disgusting. The thing was loaded up. We took 11 or 12 dumpsters, trucks, [3:40] full of garbage out of there that they were shoveling. And it was there for, [3:44] it was there for years under the Biden administration. And again, Biden and Obama, [3:50] if you combine the money they spent, it was over 100, I think, $142 million. And they got nothing, [3:57] as usual. So I'm very proud of it. Uh, maybe I shouldn't say that before it opens. Maybe I'll [4:03] open it and it'll look like a sieve, but it's not going to do. I'm very good at building things and [4:09] constructing things. So I hope you're going to go take a look at it. The sidewalks are being sandblasted. [4:14] The granites on the outside, they're granite. And that last saw a strong stone. And that's being [4:21] sandblasted. It's going to look like really something beautiful. It's going to be brand new. It's got a lot of [4:25] life. So, uh, just enjoy it. Uh, Rodney Scott is, uh, here along with Peter Navarro. Peter's been [4:32] with me for a long time, knows more about China than any human being on earth, except for, I would [4:36] say, President Xi knows a lot more. But other than President Xi, Peter's probably in second place. [4:42] And certainly having to do with trade and, uh, but they're here to talk about something else. And [4:47] Rodney, if you would, please. [4:48] Sure. So we're talking about rolling out a customs EO. Why is that important? Basically, [4:54] it's America first in the trade environment, like we've been doing on the border. People are used to [4:58] the illegal immigration and the narcotics. We've locked that down. This is literally taking the [5:03] same principles and applying them to trade to protect American industry, uh, different countries [5:09] and different people are undercutting the, the, our import export rules, the tariffs to literally [5:15] undermine American businesses. And we're going to put a stop to it in the same way. We are going to [5:19] increase, increase the amount of data we have so that we can actually make conscious decisions [5:25] about who and what comes into this country. And we're going to start holding people accountable. [5:28] So there's a, we're literally going to use the rules that are in place to a certain extent and [5:32] then make some recommendations for legislation going forward. We're going to start holding trade [5:38] accountable for bringing threatening things and threatening, uh, products into our country, [5:44] just like we have on the rest of the border. So customs and border protection gets a lot of [5:47] attention for the border wall, everything else. This is going to be basically equivalent in the [5:51] trade environment. And sir, uh, you did a miracle when you came in, you shut that border down [5:59] in a matter of days to what event of flood of millions of illegal aliens and a secure America [6:06] is a safe America. What we're going to do here, EO, you're going to sign that's, that's about a 20 to [6:13] 30 billion dollar a year EO you're going to get, because we are going to crack down with this [6:18] detective border that CBP is putting in innovatively. We're going to crack down on the [6:25] fentanyl. We're going to crack down on the health unhealthy products, the counterfeits and all the [6:30] tariff evaders. So this is a message to the world today. When you sign this, there's nowhere to run, [6:36] nowhere to hide. And this is what Donald Trump does. He secures our borders and not just physically, [6:43] but in terms of trade. The new customs border is going to be awesome. Thank you. Thank you, [6:49] Peter. You know, we had millions of people pouring through our border. And when I got here, [6:55] and it happened twice, but the first time was a lot easier because it wasn't nearly as bad as this. But [7:02] in 2016, we had a bad border, really a bad border. And pretty quickly, we made it very good. We started [7:09] the wall. I built over a thousand miles of wall. Without that, you could have never done it, [7:13] no matter how good you do. The wall has been, remember the Democrats, the Democrats, I call them. [7:18] But the Democrats said, the wall doesn't do anything. I said, no. Walls work. Two things, [7:24] everything else is obsolete. It gets obsolete quickly. Two things, wheels and walls. They've [7:29] been here for a long time. A wheel and a wall, you'll always have. Other things, [7:34] your computer's going to be obsolete about two days after it's, after you buy it. But wheels and walls, [7:40] they work. And we built an incredible wall that stretches more than a thousand, think of it, [7:46] a thousand miles. And without that, we would not be as successful. We're actually, we're building [7:51] now additional areas because we need some additional wall in certain areas. But we, [7:58] we had millions of people, 25 million people. I think it's more than that. But 25 million people [8:03] came in during the Biden years, the Biden disasters. And we stopped that. We stopped it down to zero. [8:13] Hard to believe, but the numbers come out. Every month they come out zero, zero, zero. People don't [8:17] come anymore because they know they're not going to get through. So we had caravans with 10, 15, 20, [8:23] 25,000 people coming up from countries. And remember, I know these people, I know the leaders of the [8:28] countries are smart and they're cunning and they're street wise. And they would put their people that [8:36] were from prisons in there. They would put their murderers in there and they'd put a lot of bad [8:41] people. And they'd also put people that just didn't work. They put all of their welfare recipients in [8:46] there and they'd send them into our country. And all of that stopped. And many of those people are now [8:52] brought back. Many of the murderers, 11,888 were murderers. I say it all the time, 50% of them [9:00] were, they murdered, murdered more than one person, two, three, four, which when seven people murdered [9:07] into our country, they let them into our country. It's a sin that should never be forgotten. So it's a [9:15] much different country right now. We're respected by everybody. Everybody in the world respects. We just [9:19] got back from China, as you know, some of you were with us. And President Xi was great. And [9:26] he said, you're a respected country, respected all over the world. He was, he said, you did it so fast. [9:31] We did. We did it in a very short period of time. This country was a laughing stock all over the world. [9:37] For four years, we were a laughing stock. And now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. [9:42] We're the most successful country in the world. So this is very important what you're doing. And I'd like [9:47] to have Will just say a few words about it specifically, please. [9:50] Yes, sir. As Rodney and Councillor Navarro said, this is an executive order on strengthening customs [9:56] enforcement using new technologies and new approaches. The idea here is to ensure that [10:01] importers of record, other people moving goods across our border are accurately reporting what [10:07] they're bringing in, that contraband, that illegal goods aren't being brought across the border, [10:12] and that goods being brought in are being accurately accounted for for purposes of duties and tariffs [10:17] and all of the other things we require of importers of record. But this, this executive order [10:22] will launch a series of bold new steps that I think we as an administration believe will result [10:28] in the tightest, most controlled border in American history, following on obviously your success in [10:34] closing the southern border and stopping the scourge of illegal immigration into the country as well, sir. [10:39] So, Peter, what kind of money do you think this involves in terms of savings to our country? [10:45] I will guarantee you the first year would be at least 15 billion, the next year 25, and out there [10:51] there's 80 to 100 billion that the tariff evaders are doing. Plus, sir, we're going to stop more of [10:56] the fentanyl coming in and we're going to crack down on counterfeits. This is good for America. This is [11:01] good for the people that elected you. It's good for the country. And we have fentanyl coming in 59% less, [11:07] cut it by a number that nobody thought was even possible. We're going to get it a lot lower than that, [11:12] but we haven't. And we did this in a very short period of time. This is going to be a great one, sir. [11:16] You didn't have the same thing. This is a money maker for us. And CBP has been doing a really great job [11:20] innovating on this, sir. You've done a fantastic job. Thank you. Appreciate it, sir. [11:25] Okay. We'll stand one. Oh, that's a good one. That's a nice one. Okay. What else do you have? [11:47] This is another executive order on reforms to the federal workforce, sir. Currently, with respect to many [11:53] policymaking positions in the departments and agencies across government, we lack the ability, [11:58] because of existing personnel rules, to effectively discipline or promote people who are in policymaking [12:05] roles. This executive order follows on a number of previous executive orders. The end goal is making [12:11] the federal workforce more accountable and ensuring that people, particularly in policymaking roles, [12:17] aren't unaccountable to the wishes of the administration. [12:21] And the reason for this was what? Whose idea was that? [12:24] James Shirk, who's here from the Domestic Policy Council. [12:28] Wouldn't you like to say something? Come on. You did a great job on this. Go ahead. [12:32] Thank you, sir. It's been a longstanding problem that is almost impossible to fire a federal [12:36] employee, even in cases of serious misconduct. And as a result, if you have employees who are [12:43] trying to undermine the wishes of the American people by pushing their own agenda or just being [12:46] competent at what they're doing, agencies have a longstanding difficult time getting rid of them. [12:50] And that's a particular problem if you're in a senior policy influencing role where you're [12:53] controlling the policy of the entire agency. What this does is basically treats those employees [12:59] like private sector workers. They're going to be hired on the basis of merit and confidence, [13:05] but if they're messing up, then they can be removed quickly rather than taken a year or longer [13:09] to get rid of them. [13:10] That's great. And you were very much involved, didn't you? [13:13] I was, sir. [13:13] Is this guy central casting? [13:15] He's a baby, sir. [13:15] I'm telling you. He's like perfectly casting. You couldn't have done that any better. [13:22] Were you nervous? [13:22] No. A little. [13:25] Thank you, sir. [13:26] Would anybody else like to say anything about either one? What about you? Come on over here. Come on. [13:33] Can you doubt that? You don't have to. Thank you very much. Great job. Go ahead, please. [13:40] Yeah, this Customs Reform EO is a long time coming for us. It helps us solve problems that have [13:46] plagued the custom system for many years. We've got a system where people will basically be able to [13:51] hide behind shell companies. They move from one to the next, and then we can't go after them. This [13:58] EO really enables us to crack down and hold people accountable. It's so important. I know you took it [14:04] so seriously. See how serious they are? I mean, there's a love of the country. This isn't like normal [14:10] stuff. These are the smartest people in the world. They can do anything they want. They [14:13] can have any job, and they love this country. They just want to be here, and they hate what [14:19] you saw, and you fixed it. Thank you very much, all of you. Anybody else? Anybody? Only if you want. [14:25] I'm not going to call anybody. Anybody? You don't have to. They covered you well, right? I don't know if [14:31] you could do any better. Thank you very much. It's a great job, fellas. [14:34] The big one. Okay, thank you. Pulitzer Prize winner over there. I got the great Pulitzer Prize winner. [14:56] Thank you very much. It's great. Thank you, Mr. President. Do you have any questions on this? [15:04] Mr. President, yes, yes, yes. [15:05] Mr. President, that's great. Mr. President. Thank you, Peter. [15:08] Mr. President, given Iran's attacks on Kuwait, [15:14] his latest attack on Kuwait, is the ceasefire with Iran still on? [15:18] Mr. President, well, you know, there's a reason for everything, and we hit them pretty hard the night [15:24] before, and actually last night. And when it was explained to me, I said, all right, so we'll do that. [15:30] But we've been hitting them pretty hard a little bit, so there is a reason for certain things, [15:36] and there's usually a reason that sometimes makes sense to them. But they did something, not a big deal. [15:43] We got it. We nipped it in the bud very quickly, as we do. We're the greatest military in the world. [15:48] But some people would say they were slightly provoked, because we took a strong action for a different reason. [15:56] So they were reciprocating. Yeah. [15:58] Mr. President, can you explain? [16:00] Mr. I hear the negotiation itself has gone very well, actually. Very well. [16:05] Mr. President, yes, can you? [16:07] Mr. I mean, if it happens, and it might not happen, you know, who knows. [16:10] But if it happens, it could happen, like, over the weekend. [16:12] Mr. Mr. President, yes, can you? [16:14] How do you find ceasefire? [16:16] Mr. Pretty much the way it is. It's a different part of the world. You know, [16:20] I'd say in that part of the world, ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner. [16:24] Come on, Mr. President. [16:26] Mr. President, yesterday you signed the surprise. [16:28] Mr. It's not bad, but it's true. I mean, a ceasefire there is much different [16:33] than a ceasefire in other parts of the world. [16:35] Mr. Mr. President, can you explain why you decided to drop the anti-weaponization fund? [16:39] Mr. So, I love it. I think it's so important. People were, this is a victim right here, [16:47] but not only a victim, he was also a student of it. What happened to great people, great American [16:54] people, the way they were victimized, the way they were savaged, you have suicides, [16:59] they killed themselves, they went bankrupt, they were weaponized by the Biden administration, [17:06] by a bunch of thugs, including Obama people, and like nobody's probably ever been. I mean, [17:12] I can think of maybe two instances in this country where they've had it to somewhere to that extent. [17:18] I'm not even sure if it was so much. They were put in jail for long periods of time. They were [17:25] accused of things that never happened. They had prosecutors that were radical lunatics, [17:32] and their lives were destroyed. And frankly, we had a lawsuit that, against us on the, you know, [17:40] on the weaponization, where the judge, a radical left judge ruled against it. And we'll see how [17:48] that all works out. But a radical left judge ruled against it. But these people, their lives have been [17:53] destroyed. Their families have been destroyed. Many of them. And actually, I'm not just talking about a [17:58] few people. Many of them. I'm one of them. I look, they raided my house, Mar-a-Lago. That never happened. [18:07] Nobody ever thought of anything like that. It turned out that it was a total fake. Everything [18:11] about it was fake and corrupt. We have all the information here. The good advantage to sitting [18:16] here is we can get information that you wouldn't get by what we have and what we are going to be [18:20] showing over the coming weeks. And once you're not even going to believe, some of you will believe [18:25] it. Like CNN will believe it because they knew what was going on. They're crooked as hell. CNN's a very [18:31] corrupt organization. But with a corrupt reporter standing right there. Never smiles. She never [18:38] smiles. She's a young, beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her [18:43] standing there with hatred in her eyes. Like, she has hatred because we have borders, because we have a [18:49] strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted. And then we win [18:55] our election in a massive landslide. We win 87 percent of the counties in this country. Nobody's ever [19:02] heard of a thing like that. And that's because we're doing the right job. And we took a detour down [19:08] to Iran because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon under any circumstances. We can't let that [19:14] happen. So the reporters should be happy. They shouldn't be unhappy. They should be very happy. [19:19] Because you know what we're doing? We're saving our country. Yes. Two questions. One on Iran, [19:25] and then one on your birthday. The first one is, are you concerned at all that the IRGC could [19:32] sabotage any potential deal? And then the second one is, you have a birthday coming up. I won't say [19:37] which number, but it's a big birthday. So you're going to blow out some candles on a cake, [19:42] hopefully. What are your wishes that you'd like to see accomplish for the next year for the [19:47] presidency? Well, I'll go in your order. Anything can happen, you know, when you're dealing with [19:54] Iran. But when you're dealing with other countries, but that's a very volatile part of the world, [19:59] probably the most volatile part of the world. It's very, the people are volatile. The leadership, [20:05] you see what's going on. We've gone through three teams of leadership. It's been a, you know, [20:10] we're military. There's no, never been a military like what we had. We could go another two, [20:15] three weeks and just wipe everybody out. I'd rather not do that. Very easy to do. They're [20:20] ready to do it. They want to do it. They want to do it. But if we can get something down in writing, [20:26] which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I'd like to do that. Most of [20:30] my people, I think, would like to do that. Some people wouldn't, but most of them would. But we had [20:36] to take a detour as far as wishes for, and I'm very proud of that detour, you know. By the way, [20:42] just to finish off on that, we had the strongest stock market in history. And I said, we have no [20:47] choice. We have to do it. I knew it would affect it, but I was very happily surprised when I saw that [20:54] today we hit another stock market high. I mean, we have the highest stock market in history with [20:59] a military conflict going on or a war. Some people call it war. Some people call it a military. It's [21:04] not a big thing for us. We have a great military. It's not a big thing for us. But if I didn't do that, [21:10] I spoke to people like Peter, great financial people, Scott and Howard and lots of others. I [21:16] said, you know, we just hit the greatest stock market in history. Everyone's 401ks are the [21:21] highest they've ever been. Everybody's making a lot of money. Costs are coming down. You know, [21:26] we took over the highest cost and the highest inflation in the history of our country. Costs [21:30] are coming down. Everything's good. And I hate to tell you this, but we've got to take a little [21:34] detour and go down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we're going to have to [21:42] stop them from having a nuclear weapon. That's what we've done. And they've agreed to that. By the way, [21:46] they I mean, if they signed the agreement, they will have agreed to we will not have a nuclear weapon [21:54] or bomb. We will not develop one. We will not buy one. You know, originally it was we will not develop. [22:01] I said, what about if they buy that went into a two week negotiation. But in the end, we got that. [22:08] Now, we got it if they signed the paper. In theory, they're pretty close to signing a paper. [22:14] We've actually gotten along with them very well. And you know what you saw for the last few nights? [22:20] It takes two to tango. You understand that we hit them very hard on something else unrelated. [22:24] And so they were responding. But and not very strongly. As far as birthday, as far as wishes, [22:32] I want to just, you know, we have a phrase. I think it goes down. I would think in the history [22:36] of our country, maybe the history of the world is the greatest slogan or phrase ever. Make America [22:43] great again. That's all I want. I want to make America great again. I think we've come a long way. I think [22:48] we're the most respected country in the world right now. By far, the most respected. President Xi told [22:54] me I was talking about. He's a friend of mine. He's a good man. I hate to say it because the press goes [22:59] and they say, oh, he called him a good man. He is a good man. He's he's for China. I'm for the USA. [23:04] You know, it's like one of those things. But we do very well now with China. When I came here, we were not [23:10] doing well with China. My first term, when I inherited that, it was like what China was doing to us was [23:15] incredible. I don't blame China. They took advantage of stupid people, really stupid people. So [23:22] we're doing great. But the phrase make America great again. That's all I want. Very simple phrase [23:28] to think of. And I think it's the greatest in the history. I would say that's probably the greatest [23:33] phrase in the history of the world. Not only here, there's never been anything like it. [23:37] Make America great again. That's what I've done. And we've made it great. In fact, in a way, [23:41] I want to use it because I would never give it up. MAGA is too good. It's too good. It really is the [23:47] Republican Party. That's why we're doing so well. That's why we, you know, if you look at the [23:52] Republican Party from before I came till now, this is a much different party. It's a much bigger party. [23:57] We have many, many more people. And I think the thought, the mind, the thought is much different [24:05] than it was 10 years ago. It's been, it's amazing. A much more powerful party. A much [24:11] different party. And a much more impactful party. Thank you very much. [24:16] This morning, guys. Okay, I have two questions on Iran. [24:20] Go ahead. First, you said last week that the [24:23] U.S. would go in and dig out the buried nuclear material. [24:28] Yeah, with them. With them. [24:30] Right. That's possible. [24:32] And they don't actually agree to that. Well, it depends on what day you're talking about. [24:38] They did agree. And then sometimes they did, they agreed. Well, that's what I'm saying. That's one of [24:43] the things we talk about. It's very overrated. I'm the one that overrated it. I thought to me, [24:50] it was important to other people. It's not important because those beautiful B-2 right here, [24:54] the B-2 bombers, they obliterated, you know, when CNN said, maybe it was an obliteration. [25:03] They knew, I mean, before the pilots even came back home, before anybody saw the site. But then [25:07] the Atomic Energy Commission went, they said it was obliterated. That stuff is buried underneath [25:12] a mountain and virtually collapsed. It's very, very hard to get it. One of the, but nevertheless, [25:19] I want to get it. We're the only ones, us and probably China are the only two countries that have [25:24] the equipment where you can do that. So, yeah, I want to get it. We have, [25:29] at different times, had different, I mean, they've changed your mind a couple of times. [25:33] But as it stands now, we will go in at some time in the not too distant future. It's, it's [25:39] very safe down there. You know, we have, with Space Force, we have cameras, every angle that [25:44] those three sites are being watched at all times. If anybody went there, we'll see exactly what's [25:50] happening. And we'll, we'll blow it up a little bit further. But as far as getting it is very, [25:56] the B-2 bombers did a job like nobody's ever seen. In the night, with no moon, dead darkness, [26:03] at one o'clock in the morning or so, they dropped those bombs, the biggest, just about as big a bomb [26:09] as you can ever find. And it hit, it went down air chutes. It's hard to believe that they can do the [26:13] technology. It followed a beam right into the air chutes, right, exploded. Very hard to get that [26:20] material. But I still nevertheless want it. And I don't want to do it if we're in conflict. I don't [26:26] want to put men in that kind of danger. I remember Jimmy Carter had some bad problems in Iran with [26:32] the hostages. I don't want to ever put our people in that kind of danger. But when it's over, as of this [26:38] moment, it's agreed that we will go in with them. We will get it and we will destroy it. It will be [26:43] destroyed. [26:44] I have a follow-up, Mr. Professor. My second question. Is it possible to get to a deal with Iran, [26:51] whether to go in and do that or to open up the Strait of Hormuz without seeing an Israeli [26:57] cessation of their hostilities in Lebanon? [27:00] I think we're trying to separate it. I mean, look, it's a very different kind of a thing. [27:07] We actually spoke with Hezbollah for the first time ever. We didn't know they spoke. [27:13] And they agreed yesterday. They're not going to shoot. Israel's not going to shoot. We're just going to [27:21] see. But I'd like to separate it. I'd like to have a separate thing because it is separate. [27:29] But Israel, hey, look, they've been a great partner. Bibi Netanyahu has been, for me, a great partner. [27:36] For other people, not so good. For me, he's been very good. We were very effective, what we've done. [27:41] And they needed us. They couldn't have done it without us. Couldn't have even come close. [27:45] And they needed us. And they got us to help them with a real problem. Because Iran was a real problem. [27:51] A big problem. A worldwide problem. Because they wouldn't have stopped with Israel. They would have [27:55] blown up the Middle East. And you saw that by the rockets. All those rockets that went to the [28:01] five, mostly for the most part, the five countries outside of Israel, those rockets were aimed there [28:06] before we hit them with the B-2 bombers. They were going to blow up the Middle East. [28:09] They were going to blow up Israel, but they were going to blow up the Middle East. [28:13] And I stopped it. And I'm very proud I stopped it. And we also stopped it when I get, when I term, [28:19] in the first term, when I terminated the Iran nuclear deal penned by Barack Hussein Obama. [28:25] It was one of the dumbest deals I've ever seen. And this has no relation. I like these [28:29] morons, these Democrats, D-U-M Democrats, that go on television and say, oh, well, this is just like [28:37] the Obama did. This is the exact opposite. This is no path to a nuclear weapon. That was a absolute [28:45] path to a nuclear weapon that you couldn't have done anything about. This is the exact opposite. [28:51] They gave billions and billions of dollars to Iran, including 1.7 billion, put into a Boeing 757 [29:00] with the seats taken out, because there wasn't enough room if you left the seats, with 1.7 billion [29:06] in cash taken from the banks in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and flown to Iran. 1.7 in green cash, [29:17] and then tens of billions of dollars given to Iran by our government. Frankly, they picked the wrong [29:24] country. But maybe we're going to be getting along with Iran. We're going to find out. You know, [29:29] there is a good possibility, I think, because without the bombing, that wouldn't have worked [29:33] without the blockade. The blockade is the most powerful thing. I think the blockade maybe has [29:37] more impact than the bombing has. But the blockade that we have, the naval blockade, is incredible. [29:42] Now, one ship has gotten through, unless we wanted it to. And people respect it a lot. And [29:48] we'll see. But, you know, there's a chance if this really worked out, they could rebuild. You know, [29:53] it used to be a very, very good nation. You go back. I have friends that used to, old-timers, [29:59] they used to go there, and they used to do well. They used to build in Iran. They built apartment [30:03] houses, and they built office buildings in Iran. Hard to believe, right? But there's a chance that maybe [30:09] that comes back. But whether it comes back or not, I think we have a very powerful deal that [30:15] we're negotiating. And the exact opposite as the Obama deal. The Obama deal was a disgrace. [30:20] It gave them a nuclear weapon. We do the exact thing. We, under our deal, they will never, ever [30:26] have a nuclear weapon. One of the other things that happens, and this is important, but there's [30:31] nothing more important than taking away the capability of a nuclear weapon from Iran. [30:35] Mr. President, I want to add — The President, wait. But one of the other things that's important, [30:39] and very important, is that immediately upon signing the Memorandum of Understanding, [30:46] the Hormuz Strait will open. And it'll open up quickly. And we've already had our [30:52] minesweepers there. You know, we're sweeping, as you probably have heard. And these are underwater [30:57] minesweepers. They're great, amazing technology. They're underwater because usually when you're looking [31:02] for mines, that usually means you have some dangerous characters out there this way. So we're [31:07] underwater. But we've swept mines. And we've gotten most of them, we think. So, but the [31:15] the Hormuz Strait will open immediately upon signing. Now, that's subject to a couple of areas [31:21] being cleaned out also of mines, which we don't think there are any. So it'll happen very quickly. [31:26] And we'll take the southern route anyway. But immediately upon signing, we open up the Hormuz Strait. [31:32] Mr. President, just to clarify on what you said — Excuse me, Mr. President, just to clarify on what [31:39] you were asked earlier. Is the $1.8 billion DOJ fund dead, or is it on hold? [31:44] Mr. President, it's — I'd have to ask the lawyers. I don't know. I know one thing, [31:48] the weaponization — Are you talking about the weaponization fund? [31:51] The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing. It was something I was — I [32:00] didn't make it, but I was — I heard that. I thought that was the greatest thing, because [32:04] people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like the New York Times, [32:10] and like others, have abused our people — wait a minute, be quiet — have abused our people so badly. [32:15] And you should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative. [32:19] She was a conservative from Alabama. Can you believe it? But CNN — in particular, CNN — does such [32:26] false reporting. But now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten it out. I doubt it. [32:30] But it's hard to straighten garbage out. But CNN has abused — and others have abused so badly — people. [32:38] These are people that are great people that were destroyed. Their families have been destroyed. [32:43] Many suicides — they committed suicide. People that went there to — with love. They went there with love. [32:50] You know, when I made that speech early in the day — tremendous crowd. I hate to say because [32:56] they'll say, oh, I was wrong on the number, but I believe it's the largest crowd I've ever spoken to by [33:02] by twice. The biggest crowd, I think — bigger than the inaugurations, bigger than anything. And [33:07] there was so much love and friendship. It was the most amazing thing. People were crying. [33:13] They were like, wait a minute. Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. And those people have been [33:21] abused by you and by others and by the politicians, by the Democrats. They're dumb people. They want to [33:26] have open borders. They want to have transgender mutilization of your children. They want to have [33:31] men playing in women's sports. They want to have high taxes. They turned down — you know, they fought us on [33:36] the tax bill, and they fought us because they want people to pay high taxes, because they're crazy. There's [33:41] something wrong with them. There's something wrong with you. It's a shame. Yeah, go ahead. [33:45] Mr. President, thank you so much. On communism, today, you have some stirring words on communism. [33:50] I just wrote that. Did you like it? Did you think it was well-written? [33:52] Well, it's certainly very meaningful to some Americans. [33:55] Well, I'd read it. Do you want to read it? Do you have it? You could read it. It's on truth. [33:59] I just wrote it. I just felt — I've seen what's going on with communism, and I see this kind of — read it. [34:06] I'd love to have you thinking. [34:07] Well, you see it happening with New York. You see it happening with Los Angeles [34:34] and parts of California. And it's so easy, you know? I'd be the greatest in the world. [34:40] Nobody would be as good as me. I'd give away everything. I could be the greatest. I would [34:44] sell them. You're going to get free rent. You're going to get free houses. You're going to get free [34:48] food. You're going to get free everything. But eventually, that ends, and it leads to death, [34:55] destruction, and squalor. A hundred percent of the time. When I watched New York, and you know, [35:02] I liked him very much. He stood right here, and he's been in the office a couple of times. [35:06] The mayor of New York, I think he's a very nice person. But — and I don't know. He's a smart guy. [35:12] I don't understand why he thinks it's okay for all these companies that pay hundreds of millions [35:17] of dollars in taxes a year to leave. Because you're not going to have any tax base. And you're going to [35:23] end up in hunger, and squalor, and death, and destruction. I would be better than him if I wanted to [35:31] go that route. Ladies and gentlemen, you'll no longer pay rent. You'll no longer have to pay [35:38] interest on your mortgage. In fact, I'll end your mortgage. I'm going to cut everything. You're no [35:44] longer going to have to pay for food. I'm going to give you a grocery store, and I'm going to give [35:48] you free food. You're no longer going to have — you're going to have the greatest life ever. [35:53] Follow me. You're going to have the greatest life. And you know what? For a couple of years, [35:56] that's such a powerful — I would be the best ever at giving it. Nobody would ever be. I had to sell [36:02] free enterprise. Free enterprise is tougher to sell, but that's what's made our country great. [36:08] And that's why it's great again now. If I didn't get elected, we wouldn't have a country. We really [36:12] wouldn't have a country. This country would be finished. But I see what's happening in Los Angeles. [36:17] I see what's happening in New York, where — look at Chicago. You have a stupid governor, a dumb governor, [36:23] a really dumb guy. I know him well. He's a failure in his family. Pritzker. I know the [36:27] family. I have partners in a deal with them. I made a lot of money. They made money. We had a good [36:31] partnership. But he was like an outcast in the family. He was a slob. And the mayor is a low IQ [36:39] person. I mean, he's a stupid person in Chicago. Chicago has a real chance to become great again. [36:47] There's a case great again. If we were allowed to do what we did in Washington or Memphis — you [36:54] know, I was with the governor of Tennessee yesterday, and he said, [36:57] I want to come in — he came in to thank me. I said, for what? He said, [37:01] what you did for Memphis. Memphis, the crime is down about 72 percent. And it's going — he said, [37:08] it's like a different city. Washington is even more so. We started a little bit earlier. [37:13] In Washington, you walk down the streets and people feel safe here again. It's a safe city. [37:20] If I were — oh, by the way, in Louisiana, what I've done there is unbelievable, [37:27] because the governor, Jeff Landry, called. He said, you've got to help me with New Orleans. [37:32] We have a tremendous crime problem. And I sent in our really talented people, including [37:38] National Guardsmen, and they did an unbelievable — they had the safest — they said they had the [37:43] safe — it just ended about three weeks ago. They had the safest Mardi Gras they've ever had. [37:49] I could do that in Chicago, but you have to have the support of a governor. You can't have a slob [37:54] that says, you know, we don't want it. People get murdered. And he says, it's fine. They lost [37:58] five or six people last week. And they said, it's fine. They're not going to lose five or six people. [38:04] And I would make Chicago so good and so safe. It's got potential. The longer it goes, the harder it is to fix. [38:10] And San Francisco, we could do such a good job. My friend said, please let the mayor — he's a liberal [38:17] guy. Nice guy. I talked to him. He wants to make San Francisco good. And he's trying very hard. [38:25] I said, look, I can do it much faster than you. Please let me have a time. I mean, I spoke to the [38:30] mayor. And some very important people asked me to give him a chance, because they'd like to see if he [38:35] could do it. And he's doing okay, but I could do it much faster, much better. And we can remove — don't [38:41] forget, 2 percent of your people create 90 percent of your crime. That's a great number, [38:46] because 2 percent of the people you can take care of. It was 90 percent of the people. That's [38:51] no good. But 2 percent. In Washington, right here in D.C., we removed close to 5,000 hard-line [38:59] criminals. Many came in through the Biden open border. We removed them from Washington, D.C. [39:05] D.C., and it's one of the reasons that we're so safe now. We have a great, beautiful place. [39:11] Again, the fountains are almost all open. You're going to have the reflecting pool opened within [39:17] hours — I mean, literally within hours. The water starts pouring in tonight. It's going to be [39:22] beautiful. You haven't seen that since 1922. Think of that. 1922. It hasn't worked. Never worked. [39:28] From the day they built it, it never worked. But you're going to see that. And people are all [39:32] thanking me because Washington's beautiful again. The parks are open. We changed the grass. You know, [39:37] grass has a life also. Like people, grass has a life. And that grass hasn't been changed in 70, 80 years. [39:46] It died many times over. We have beautiful grass, beautiful parks, beautiful everything. We don't [39:51] have people living on it. And Washington, D.C., in a matter of 14 months, Washington, D.C. is like a [40:01] different place. If people are coming here — you know, you — the restaurants are all going out of [40:06] business, as you know, because you use the restaurants. And now the restaurants are hot as a — in fact, [40:12] if anything, we don't have enough restaurant space. They're all reopening. It's become vibrant. It's a [40:18] beautiful thing to watch. And I am honored that I've been able to do it to our nation's capital. [40:22] Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you guys. Thank you guys.