Donald Trump Speech LIVE: Trump Issues Urgent Warning, Nation on Edge — Trump's Emergency Address

[0:00] But we did it in Venezuela. That was amazing. [0:03] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial. [0:06] I mean, he released, aside from the drugs, which he was terrible, [0:12] Maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country. [0:18] Drug dealers, murderers, the worst people in the world were released into our country [0:23] because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know. [0:27] And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents, right? [0:33] Not once, Kamala. She never called the border patrol. [0:36] She never said, how are we doing? I used to call the border patrol guys every day. [0:39] You can ask them. Paul, ask any one of them. [0:43] Brandon, ask them all the time. How are we doing? How are we doing? [0:46] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border. [0:49] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border. [0:51] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through. [0:53] So we don't have caravans anymore. [0:55] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done. [1:00] Mr. President, are you allowed to, or are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the street? [1:10] Us charging tolls? [1:11] Iran. [1:12] What about us charging tolls? [1:14] Is that something you're considering? [1:15] I'd rather do that than let them have them run. [1:18] Why shouldn't we? We're the winner. [1:20] We won, okay? [1:22] They are militarily defeated. [1:23] The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water, all right? [1:30] No, we, I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls, okay? [1:33] I thought you meant us. [1:36] Your question, your question would, your question would have been more accurate if you said us. [1:41] Go ahead. [1:41] Mr. President, thank you very much. [1:42] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have to make a deal, open the street, or both? [1:51] We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me. [1:54] And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else. [1:59] Mr. President, thank you very much. [2:05] You've said glory be to God in this conflict. [2:08] Do you believe that God supports the United States' actions in this war? [2:11] I do, because God is good, because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of. [2:18] God doesn't like what's happening. [2:20] I don't like what's happening. [2:21] Everyone says, I enjoy it. [2:22] I don't enjoy this. [2:23] I don't enjoy it. [2:24] These two guys don't enjoy it. [2:25] You know, people say, oh, boy, they're so tough. [2:28] They don't want, they don't like, I don't like seeing people killed. [2:30] I've ended eight wars. [2:33] Nobody's ever done it. [2:35] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize. [2:39] She announced that when they announced, they said, goes to Maria. [2:43] She's a great person, really a good person. [2:46] She said, no, no, no. [2:48] This is ridiculous. [2:50] They gave me the Nobel Prize. [2:52] President Trump ended eight wars. [2:54] I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the prime minister of [2:58] Pakistan said, President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives. [3:04] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now. [3:08] That makes me much happier. [3:09] We have one more to end, by the way. [3:16] President, you called the, yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy [3:21] bastards. [3:22] True. [3:23] What is your response to critics who say that it is? [3:26] I don't care about critics. [3:27] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps [3:30] be examined as this war continues? [3:31] I haven't heard that. [3:33] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me. [3:35] Because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until [3:42] I came along. [3:43] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people. [3:46] Dasha, go ahead. [3:47] Dasha, go. [3:48] You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power plants, [3:53] bridges. [3:54] You've mentioned those. [3:54] Very little is off limits. [3:55] Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though? [3:58] I'm thinking schools or hospitals that you want to take off? [4:00] I don't want to tell you that. [4:01] I don't want to tell you that. [4:01] We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will [4:10] be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out [4:19] of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. [4:23] I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock, and it'll happen over a period of four hours [4:28] if we wanted to. [4:30] We don't want that to happen. [4:32] We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. [4:36] And you know what? [4:37] If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are [4:41] among the most expensive things, and bridges. [4:43] You saw the bridge. [4:44] The bridge went. [4:45] We were very close to a deal. [4:47] And then I got a call from Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner, and J.D. [4:55] saying, I think they're breaking the deal. [4:58] I said, tell them that's okay. [5:00] Don't worry about it. [5:01] But tell them to look out their window and watch. [5:04] And within 45 minutes, I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge. [5:09] I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge in, I believe, the Middle East, but the biggest [5:14] bridge in Iran. [5:15] And within 10 minutes after I gave that order, that bridge was over. [5:21] So, do I want to do that? [5:25] No. [5:25] Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? [5:27] No. [5:28] It will take them 100 years to rebuild. [5:31] Right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and [5:37] it would never be as good as it was. [5:39] And the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius [5:43] of the United States of America. [5:45] The Press, I've voiced your displeasure with NATO in the past. [5:52] Is there a danger to the U.S. not being the de facto leader of the alliance and then other [5:58] powers within the alliance, then getting the decision-making when it comes to wars and [6:02] nuclear weapons? [6:03] No, it's not a danger. [6:04] NATO's — look, we went to NATO. [6:07] I didn't ask very strongly. [6:08] I just said, hey, if you want to help, great, no, no, no, we will not help. [6:12] I said, that's all right, you don't want to help? [6:15] Because I've always said NATO's a paper tiger. [6:18] See, NATO's a paper tiger. [6:20] Putin's not afraid of NATO. [6:22] Putin's afraid of us, very afraid of us. [6:24] And he's explained it to me a lot of times. [6:26] I got to know him very well. [6:27] I know him very well. [6:30] NATO's a paper tiger. [6:31] NATO is us. [6:33] And when we needed them — but we didn't need them, by the way. [6:36] We didn't need them, obviously, because they haven't helped at all. [6:40] It's the opposite. [6:41] They've actually gone out of their way not to help. [6:43] They didn't even want to give us landing strips. [6:45] He's great. [6:47] And Pete, all I can say is that he was treated very unfairly. [6:51] And now those same people that treated him unfairly, that fought against him, they called [6:55] me up saying, what a great choice he was. [6:57] They said, well, what happened during this nomination? [7:01] What happened to you? [7:02] I'm telling you, people that were not for him senators, friends of mine, sir, I don't think [7:07] you're doing the right thing. [7:09] Now they called me up, what a choice. [7:12] These two guys are fantastic. [7:14] And John Ratcliffe was incredible. [7:15] It was actually their genius that called us from — he was 40 miles away. [7:22] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain. [7:25] This is at night. [7:29] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes. [7:31] He wasn't moving. [7:32] And they said, you know, probably wrong. [7:35] We're seeing something moving. [7:37] This is a vast mountain, vast, thick, with bushes, trees. [7:43] He said, we see something moving, 40 miles away. [7:46] It was the head of a human being, I'm telling you, it's moving. [7:52] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot. [7:55] Stood up. [7:58] And they said, we have him. [7:59] And that was really the beginning of something incredible. [8:03] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically, and it's a big mountain. [8:08] So I want to thank the CIA, too. [8:12] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done. [8:15] Yes, please. [8:16] Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity. [8:22] Country, it has a super army. [8:25] You make a difference, Mr. President. [8:27] Thank you for your greatest leadership. [8:29] Thank you. [8:30] I have two quick questions, Mr. President. [8:33] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil [8:40] to the international market with your support as United States of America? [8:45] Well, I expected that. [8:47] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that. [8:52] Another question. [8:54] What would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against their regime during [9:03] a case fire, Mr. President? [9:04] Well, they should do it. [9:06] But again, the consequences are great. [9:08] I mean, they were told you, if you protest, you will be shot immediately. [9:12] You saw what happened to the young wrestler. [9:15] He was a great champion, by the way. [9:16] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world. [9:19] And he and his two friends were hung. [9:23] And all they did was say a little bit about liberty. [9:26] They wanted liberty. [9:27] And they were violently executed. [9:30] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed. [9:34] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house [9:38] to protest, they'll be immediately shot and killed. [9:42] And they issued that, you know, that was publicly issued. [9:44] It's not a secret. [9:46] That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this way? [9:48] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [9:52] You know, we got regime change. [9:55] We do. [9:56] We're dealing with a much different regime than before. [9:57] We're dealing with different people. [10:00] They're smarter. [10:02] I think they're sharper and far less radical. [10:06] We have regime change. [10:07] But we didn't do this for regime change. [10:10] We did it for the fact. [10:12] And my view was very simple. [10:14] I saw somebody who said, oh, he doesn't have a plan. [10:16] I have the best plan of all. [10:17] But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is. [10:19] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan. [10:22] We're going to attack at 9.47 in the morning. [10:24] And then we're going to do this. [10:25] And then we're going to — and if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan. [10:29] These people know what the plan is. [10:31] Everybody here knows what the plan is. [10:33] But it's very unfair to say — because I don't mind being insulted. [10:38] I've been insulted for many years by the fake news. [10:41] But you can't — it's so bad for the people that are so — you just saw two great — and [10:48] John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people. [10:50] They have a plan. [10:52] Every single thing has been thought out by all of us. [10:56] But I can't reveal the plan to the media. [10:59] So, you know — but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation. [11:02] Yes, please. [11:03] Thank you, Mr. President. [11:04] You've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks. [11:07] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power? [11:12] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime? [11:15] They would be willing to — they would be — and it's suffering. [11:18] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom. [11:22] The Iranians have — and we've had numerous intercepts. [11:27] Please keep bombing. [11:28] Bombs that are dropping near their homes. [11:31] Please keep bombing. [11:33] Do it. [11:34] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. [11:37] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, please come back, [11:42] come back, come back. [11:43] These are the people — I don't know what they do. [11:47] All I can tell you is they want freedom. [11:50] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about. [11:54] It's a violent, horrible world, where if you protest, you are shot. [12:00] Remember the great woman protest, where they had 400,000, 500,000 women, and they were all [12:04] enthused, and they were going to protest, and everybody said, oh, the regime is going [12:09] to come to an end. [12:10] And then, all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas, a woman would go down right [12:19] between the eyes. [12:20] They had snipers. [12:21] That's all it took. [12:24] And those 400,000 or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that? [12:29] Oh, look over there. [12:30] What's that? [12:31] A woman shot right between the eyes. [12:35] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr through the vast [12:41] number of people. [12:44] And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that? [12:48] And they're incredible people. [12:50] But they've lived so horribly. [12:52] They've lived so horribly. [12:53] You know, Iran was a great country. [12:55] If you go back 25 years ago or so, the Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant [13:02] actually. [13:03] And I know so many. [13:04] I know coming from New York, originally, I know so many people from Iran. [13:08] They're incredible people, incredible energy and very, very brilliant people. [13:14] And but when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman in the case of a woman, [13:19] remember the great woman march. [13:21] Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country. [13:24] And then snipers selectively picked. [13:28] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance. [13:31] They were on top of buildings. [13:33] Nobody even knew where they were, where they coming from. [13:36] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad. [13:38] They've done that, too. [13:39] They did that recently. [13:41] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women. [13:48] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction [13:53] and they never came out again. [13:55] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that. [13:58] They talk about, oh, women's rights. [14:01] You want to see women's rights, you're not going to see it there. [14:03] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people, like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group. [14:09] They talk about, oh, freedom for Iran. [14:13] They don't tell you the real facts, women, men, gays. [14:18] How about gays for Iran? [14:21] They kill the gays, they throw them off buildings. [14:24] So I wonder what what's going on. [14:26] I can only say this. [14:28] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger. [14:34] They want freedom for Iran, but it's very hard for them to protest. [14:38] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out, I fully understand. [14:41] Nobody in this room would go out. [14:42] I don't think there's any, because frankly, it's not a question of bravery. [14:45] We're all brave, right? [14:46] You're brave, I'm brave, we're all brave. [14:49] But we're also intelligent. [14:51] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting [14:58] you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing [15:03] and you're looking here, you're out of there, I don't care who it is. [15:07] Mark Meredith, Fox News. [15:09] I know that. [15:10] Oh, thank you. [15:11] Go ahead. [15:12] America's watching. [15:13] No. [15:14] Good job. [15:15] Can we go back to the weekend? [15:16] First off, was everyone on board with the operation, or were there people that were trying [15:20] to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend? [15:23] Not everybody was on board. [15:24] Somebody else within you? [15:25] No, there was military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it. [15:30] These two were totally important, which was very important. [15:34] If they weren't, it would have had a little difficulty. [15:37] But no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this. [15:41] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military. [15:45] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries. [15:47] You have some countries where military is not their wrong suit. [15:51] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before. [15:55] Half the people are wearing uniforms. [15:58] You know, we had people within the military, usually it's not done. [16:03] That's one of the reasons. [16:04] You know, I was surprised. [16:05] Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done. [16:07] I said, that's not possible. [16:08] But it is possible. [16:10] Because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. [16:15] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit. [16:20] So yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise. [16:23] And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately, for the operation? [16:27] I'd love to keep that a secret, Mr. President. [16:30] Okay, well, we are. [16:31] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds [16:38] of these people. [16:39] That's pretty good. [16:40] Is he central? [16:41] Is he central casting? [16:43] But hundreds of people went into this journey. [16:48] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [16:49] Forget about the equipment. [16:50] A lot of equipment. [16:51] Nobody cares. [16:52] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [16:55] So we had people that were within the military. [16:57] That said, this is not a wise. [16:59] And I understood that. [17:00] But I decided to do it. [17:02] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking, there's too much [17:06] on the line, and somebody was saying, maybe we abort this now and wait? [17:10] I mean, given the resources like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the [17:14] line here. [17:15] You must have been thinking, this could have completely changed the next three years. [17:17] The first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, because we're [17:24] flying over daylight. [17:26] You know, we're the best at the world at night. [17:28] We have goggles that nobody. [17:29] We have goggles. [17:30] I've tried them. [17:31] Unbelievable. [17:32] I think it's better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight. [17:36] I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day. [17:40] You see just as well with goggles. [17:42] In many ways, it's enhanced. [17:45] So we have the best in the world. [17:46] So it's much safer for us to do it at night, whereas other people, no other country has [17:52] that capability. [17:53] They don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do. [17:57] But when I was told, flying in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran, and that's [18:04] a long time, over unbelievably hostile territory, where they have nothing but weapons. [18:11] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great. [18:14] We took out their radar, which is great. [18:15] We took out a lot, but they still have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder, handheld [18:21] shoulder missile, heat-seeking missile. [18:23] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever. [18:27] But and they have probably a little luck, because you got to get lucky. [18:32] But they shot it, and it got sucked in right by the engine. [18:35] But these guys were out of there. [18:36] They were great. [18:37] Their timing was great. [18:39] But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission. [18:43] I understand. [18:44] They didn't say it's a foolish mission. [18:45] They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this. [18:49] This is I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that because the flight [18:54] was so long, they had to refuel. [18:57] It's a very dangerous mission. [18:59] I just felt it was worth it. [19:00] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both and nobody was [19:05] even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible. [19:08] Yeah. [19:09] Mr. President. [19:10] Thank you very much. [19:11] Thank you, sir. [19:12] I'll come back to you. [19:13] Okay. [19:14] Given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership [19:20] in Iran, what does that mean for the protesters for the human rights movement in that country [19:25] after this conflict? [19:26] What's your expectation? [19:27] If they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very positive. [19:32] It's a big step. [19:34] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last. [19:39] Look what happened. [19:40] I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say. [19:44] They're not properly clothed, and they execute the women. [19:47] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street. [19:52] No, you have a much different group of people. [19:54] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them. [19:58] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time, but we are dealing with [20:04] them. [20:05] I think it's going well. [20:06] Mr. Whitcoff is here, and J.D.'s involved in the dealing. [20:10] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here, and I think it's going fine, but we'll have to see. [20:14] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years. [20:19] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago, not anymore. [20:27] Right now, they are decapitated. [20:29] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point [20:34] during 47 years. [20:36] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents. [20:41] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them, to their friends, we should have [20:46] done this a long time ago. [20:48] So it's not something I like doing. [20:50] It's very dangerous. [20:51] And we're getting them at the height of their strength. [20:55] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had [21:01] a — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon, remember this. [21:05] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple. [21:10] How Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace [21:16] else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable. [21:21] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran. [21:26] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash? [21:29] Billions of dollars of cash. [21:31] And he sent it over to them. [21:33] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars. [21:36] He chose Iran over Israel. [21:39] And really, the Arab world, if you look. [21:41] Because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE — I mean, you take a look. [21:46] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others. [21:51] He chose such an unlikely candidate. [21:56] Nobody could believe it. [21:57] And frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he [22:01] should have befriended Iraq. [22:03] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking. [22:09] And he made a terrible mistake. [22:10] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon. [22:14] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it. [22:18] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon. [22:21] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal. [22:24] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals. [22:27] Countries do hundreds of years. [22:29] You don't do a 10-year deal. [22:30] For a country, you need — this isn't you're a landlord, you're renting a store on a certain [22:35] street, and you give somebody a five-year or a 10-year lease. [22:38] This is a country. [22:39] It was a short-term deal. [22:41] It was ready to expire. [22:42] I terminated it before it expired. [22:44] Took a lot of heat, and it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would [22:48] have had a nuclear weapon. [22:49] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in [22:53] eight months ago, and obliterated that — and by the way, the word is obliteration. [22:59] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete. [23:02] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it. [23:05] It was obliteration. [23:06] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes [23:12] flying in at night with very little cover — unbelievable stealth planes. [23:18] And they were able to do their job. [23:20] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level — either [23:26] one of those two instances. [23:27] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would [23:34] have been extinguished. [23:37] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, [23:42] Qatar, UAE, or others. [23:45] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them. [23:48] They didn't think they were going to be hit. [23:50] They thought they'd be watching us fight. [23:52] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles. [23:56] He would have taken them out also. [23:59] And they were powerful. [24:01] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear [24:06] deal was a road to a nuclear weapon — a big one, unlimited, legally — I terminated it [24:13] without even much thought. [24:15] It was so easy. [24:17] I terminated that, and then the B-2 bombers. [24:20] And I did one other thing. [24:21] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius. [24:29] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases. [24:35] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now. [24:43] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know? [24:48] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up — Osama bin Laden. [24:54] If you read my book, I said you got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center [24:57] came down. [24:59] So I wish you'd read the book. [25:03] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts. [25:08] And a lot of this is instinct. [25:09] Yeah, please. [25:11] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President. [25:14] Mr. President, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the [25:19] Strait of Hormuz. [25:20] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum? [25:27] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and [25:31] the U.S.? [25:32] The President, I can't talk about ceasefire. [25:33] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side. [25:40] They would like to be able to make a deal. [25:42] I can't say any more than that. [25:43] The President, Mr. President, you've listed the goals. [25:48] Excuse me. [25:49] Please, go ahead. [25:50] You've listed the goals of — [25:51] The President, who you with? [25:52] Who you with? [25:53] Who you with? [25:54] My name is Diyar Kurda. [25:55] I'm with the largest Kurdish media outlet, Rudow Media Network. [25:56] It's based in Iran. [25:57] The President, Mr. Go ahead. [25:58] Mr. Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to enter Iran [26:03] and be harmed. [26:04] Do you still want them to stay away? [26:06] Or what role do you expect them to play now? [26:08] The President, I'd rather have them stay away. [26:10] The President, I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems [26:15] and some difficulties. [26:16] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves. [26:20] But I'd rather have them stay away. [26:22] Go ahead. [26:26] Thank you. [26:27] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question. [26:28] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law. [26:33] Who you with? [26:34] Who you with? [26:35] I'm with The New York Times. [26:36] Zolan from The New York Times. [26:37] Are you concerned — [26:38] The failing — [26:39] Are you concerned — [26:40] that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes? [26:45] No, not at all. [26:46] No, I'm not. [26:47] I hope I don't have to do it. [26:48] But, again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people. [26:53] They're great negotiators. [26:54] And — [26:55] Why would that act not by the international — [26:56] Because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. [26:58] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen, [27:05] Because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of Iran. [27:10] We're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [27:15] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart, and sick — [27:23] Really sick, ideal — [27:25] You know, from a policy standpoint, from a — [27:30] Any which way you want to say, mentally, these are disturbed people. [27:34] If you think I'm going to allow them, and powerful and rich, to have a nuclear weapon, [27:40] You can tell your friends at the New York Times, not going to happen. [27:43] It means violating international law. [27:47] It means violating international law. [27:48] Quiet, quiet, quiet. [27:49] You no longer have credibility at the New York Times. [27:52] Because the New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. [27:55] And I won in a landslide. [27:56] I won every swing state. [27:57] New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. [28:00] New York Times has no credibility. [28:02] The credibility they have is, it used to be all the news that's fit to print. [28:06] A great — the old gray lady. [28:08] It was great. [28:09] But they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that. [28:12] You have to be able to give the correct news. [28:15] And people like you, who I know, are fake. [28:18] You're fake. [28:19] Go ahead, please. [28:20] Mr. President, your messaging on the war has moved from — [28:23] The war is coming to an end, to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages. [28:27] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages. [28:30] Sure. [28:32] So are you — so which is it? [28:33] Are you winding this down? [28:34] I can't tell you. [28:35] Are you escalating it? [28:36] I can't tell you. [28:37] I don't know. [28:38] I can't tell you. [28:39] Depends what they do. [28:40] This is a critical period. [28:41] They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock. [28:45] I gave them an extension. [28:46] They asked for an extension of seven days, right? [28:49] I said, Steve, give them 10 days. [28:54] 10 days is up, actually, today. [28:56] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly. [28:58] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter. [29:02] I want to be a nice person. [29:04] They have till tomorrow. [29:06] Now, we'll see what happens. [29:08] I can tell you they're negotiating. [29:10] We think in good faith. [29:11] We're going to find out. [29:13] We're getting the help of some incredible countries [29:16] that want this to be ended because it affects them also. [29:20] A lot of people are affected by this. [29:22] But we're giving them, we're giving them till tomorrow, [29:26] 8 o'clock Eastern time. [29:28] And after that, they're going to have no bridges. [29:31] They're going to have no power plants. [29:33] Stone ages, yeah. [29:37] Stone ages. [29:38] The negotiation. [29:41] CNN fake. [29:42] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include [29:46] reopening the Strait of Hormuz, or is that now a top priority? [29:49] I would say it's a very big priority because, [29:52] see, that's one thing that's a little different than other things. [29:57] We can bomb the hell out of them. [29:59] We can knock them out for a loop. [30:01] But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist [30:05] that somehow has a truck loaded with, [30:08] because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks, [30:10] a water mine. [30:12] Drop them in the water. [30:13] And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars [30:16] to don't worry about the mine. [30:18] You can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water. [30:22] So it's not like the rest. [30:24] We can knock out their military. [30:25] We already have. [30:26] We've knocked out their Navy. [30:28] We've knocked out their Air Force completely. [30:30] We've knocked out 158 ships in three days. [30:33] We've knocked out even their mine droppers. [30:36] They don't have any mine droppers anymore, [30:38] but they put them on other boats and they could drop them. [30:40] I'm not even sure they have any mines there, by the way. [30:42] I'm not sure. [30:43] Personally, they say there might be eight. [30:46] I don't know. [30:47] I don't know. [30:48] I think there might be none because they're very good bullshit artists. [30:52] That's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents [30:55] and they haven't done the job. [30:57] And people are living in hell. [30:59] You live in that country. [31:01] They're living in hell. [31:02] No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough. [31:08] They're at the weakest point they've ever been. [31:12] They have no Navy. [31:13] They have no Air Force. [31:14] They have no anti-aircraft weaponry. [31:16] They have no radar. [31:17] They have no communication. [31:18] In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation [31:21] is that they can't communicate. [31:23] I said to Steve, what are they saying? [31:26] Sir, they can't communicate. [31:28] They have no method of communication. [31:30] So we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago [31:34] with children, bringing a note back and forth. [31:37] They have no communication. [31:39] But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world. [31:43] And you're not going to have a safe world. [31:45] Israel will be gone. [31:48] The Middle East will be gone. [31:49] And then they're coming for Europe. [31:51] And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO. [31:54] Very. [31:55] I think that NATO, I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear. [32:00] Never disappear in my mind. [32:01] You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday. [32:03] They're going to say, oh, we'll do this. [32:04] We'll do that. [32:05] Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know. [32:08] But they said it loud and clear at the beginning. [32:10] When I spoke to UK of all, I would have said they would have been there first [32:13] because they've been, they're the oldest. [32:15] And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help. [32:18] He said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win. [32:21] I said, I don't need help after we win. [32:23] They have two old broken aircraft carriers, barely work. [32:26] I said, I guess we can use them. [32:28] Who the hell knows? [32:29] I called the general. [32:30] He didn't even want to. [32:31] He said, we don't really need them. [32:33] We got, we got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir. [32:36] We don't need them. [32:37] You know, we have in terms of technology. [32:39] We had one day, 101 missiles going at 2,700 miles an hour aimed at the Abraham Lincoln. [32:48] 101 missiles. [32:51] Out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down. [32:56] Unbelievable technology. [32:58] Ten years ago, five years ago, I don't know if that would have been possible. [33:03] But 10 years ago, that wouldn't have been, that wouldn't have been possible. [33:07] 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast. [33:14] And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101. [33:19] We have weaponry. [33:21] The patriots are unbelievable. [33:22] We have weaponry. [33:24] That's unbelievable. [33:25] Yeah. [33:29] Go ahead, please. [33:30] Thank you, Mr. President. [33:31] You said earlier today during the egg roll that you would like to take Iran's oil, [33:36] but Americans want U.S. forces home. [33:39] Correct. [33:40] What's that tradeoff? [33:41] If I had my choice? [33:42] Does it take too much time? [33:43] If I had my choice? [33:44] Yeah. [33:45] Because I'm a businessman first. [33:46] With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes. [33:52] And we have great people running Venezuela, very good people. [33:56] I mean, the relationship is good. [33:58] And we are a partner with Venezuela. [34:01] And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions. [34:06] Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined and out. [34:12] And paid for that war many, many times over. [34:16] Many times. [34:17] You know, the old days, to the victim, okay? [34:20] You know that. [34:21] To the winner belong the spoils. [34:26] Go the spoils. [34:27] And I've said, why don't we use it? [34:29] To the victor, go the spoils. [34:31] And we don't have that. [34:32] We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years, [34:35] because even the Second World War. [34:36] You look at the Second World War. [34:38] We didn't have it with the Second World War. [34:39] We helped rebuild all those countries. [34:41] We rebuilt Germany. [34:42] How about Germany telling us? [34:44] Germany telling us that, well, it's not their war. [34:49] We had nothing to do with it. [34:50] They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing. [34:53] We didn't know anything about it. [34:55] Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it, [34:58] and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful, possibly, right? [35:01] But to the victor belong the spoils. [35:03] So we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years. [35:09] Now, with Venezuela, and just so you understand, [35:13] the people of Venezuela, they say if I ran for president of Venezuela, [35:17] I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela. [35:21] So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela. [35:24] I will quickly learn Spanish. [35:26] It won't take too long. [35:27] I'm good at language. [35:28] And I will go to Venezuela. [35:29] I'm going to run for president. [35:31] But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now, [35:35] the people that are running it. [35:38] If you remember Bush with Iraq, they fired the generals, [35:42] they fired the police, they fired the people that worked in there, [35:45] equivalent of the White House. [35:47] They fired everybody. [35:48] And you know what they had? [35:49] They had a mess. [35:50] And you know what happened? [35:51] ISIS formed. [35:52] Those generals and those soldiers got together. [35:55] The police got together. [35:56] They all got together. [35:57] They formed ISIS. [35:58] Not going to happen with us. [36:00] So Venezuela has been an incredible, it's been an incredible situation. [36:05] We went in. [36:06] We were very successful. [36:08] Military power like nobody's ever seen. [36:10] The general, Venezuelan general said, I was on that site. [36:14] I said, I've never seen ferocity like that. [36:17] I've been doing this for 40 years. [36:19] He said, I've never seen it. [36:20] They hit us from 17 different. [36:22] It was, they were all set. [36:24] They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier, the Ford in that case. [36:29] And planes were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning. [36:32] So typically when you see that late at night, you know, you could be in trouble. [36:39] Right? [36:40] And we were all ready. [36:41] They had their equipment. [36:42] It was Russian. [36:43] And they had Chinese equipment. [36:45] It was all set. [36:46] They were going to give us a fight. [36:47] He said, and then they came. [36:50] And they came at speeds like we've never seen. [36:53] And they came at 17 different angles. [36:56] The general and his people, that was a lot of angles. [36:59] They hit him from every angle. [37:00] He said, we knew it was over in three minutes. [37:05] We were waiting for them. [37:07] Their equipment didn't work. [37:08] And there's a reason it didn't work. [37:10] Someday we'll explain that to people. [37:12] They pressed the button. [37:14] Nothing happened. [37:15] They pressed it again and again. [37:16] Nothing happened. [37:17] And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes. [37:21] We've never seen any. [37:22] He used the word ferocity. [37:24] The ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles. [37:28] And it was over. [37:29] They went inside. [37:30] And remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers. [37:34] And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here. [37:38] Thousands. [37:39] We didn't have thousands. [37:40] We had like 200 people. [37:42] So we have a great military. [37:45] And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention. [37:50] More so than normally. [37:51] You're talking about two people. [37:54] But this rescue captured the world's attention. [37:58] But we did it in Venezuela. [38:00] That was amazing. [38:01] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial. [38:04] I mean, he released, aside from the drugs, which he was terrible, Maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country. [38:16] Drug dealers, murderers, the worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know. [38:25] And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents. [38:31] Right? [38:32] Not once, Kamala. [38:33] She never called the border patrol. [38:35] She never said, how are we doing? [38:36] I used to call the border patrol guys every day. [38:38] You can ask them. [38:39] Paul, ask any one of them. [38:41] Brandon, ask them all the time. [38:43] How are we doing? [38:44] How are we doing? [38:45] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border. [38:47] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border. [38:49] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through. [38:52] So we don't have caravans anymore. [38:54] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done. [38:58] Mr. President, are you allowed to, are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the strait? [39:07] Us charging tolls? [39:09] Iran. [39:10] What about us charging tolls? [39:12] Is that something you're considering? [39:14] I'd rather do that than let them have them running. [39:16] Why shouldn't we? [39:17] We're the winner. [39:18] We won. [39:19] Okay? [39:20] They are militarily defeated. [39:22] The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water. [39:27] All right? [39:28] No, we, I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls. [39:31] Okay? [39:32] I thought you meant us. [39:33] Your question, your question would, your question would have been more accurate if you said us. [39:39] Go ahead. [39:40] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have to make a deal, open the strait, or both? [39:49] We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me. [39:52] And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else. [39:57] Mr. President, thank you very much. [40:03] You've said glory be to God in this conflict. [40:06] Do you believe that God supports the United States actions in this world? [40:09] I do. [40:10] Because God is good. [40:11] And have you sought his direction? [40:12] Because God is good. [40:13] And God wants to see people taken care of. [40:16] God doesn't like what's happening. [40:18] I don't like what's happening. [40:19] Everyone says, I enjoy it. [40:20] I don't enjoy this. [40:21] I don't enjoy it. [40:22] These two guys don't enjoy it. [40:23] You know, people say, oh boy, they're so tough. [40:25] They don't want, they don't like, I don't like seeing people killed. [40:28] I've ended eight wars. [40:30] Nobody's ever done it. [40:32] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize. [40:37] She announced that. [40:38] When they announced, they said, goes to Maria. [40:40] She's a great person, really a good person. [40:44] She said, no, no, no. [40:46] This is ridiculous. [40:47] They gave me the Nobel Prize. [40:49] President Trump ended eight wars. [40:51] I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the prime minister [40:56] of Pakistan said, President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives. [41:02] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now. [41:05] That makes me much happier. [41:08] We have one more to end, by the way. [41:15] Mr. President, you called the, yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy bastards. [41:20] True. [41:21] What is your response to critics who say that it is? [41:24] I don't care about critics. [41:25] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues? [41:30] I haven't heard that. [41:31] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me, because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until I came along. [41:41] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people. [41:44] Joshi, go ahead. [41:45] Joshi, go ahead. [41:47] Joshi, go ahead. [41:48] You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power plants, bridges. [41:52] You've mentioned those. [41:53] Very little is off limits. [41:54] Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though? [41:56] I'm thinking schools or hospitals that you want to say is off limits? [41:57] I don't want to tell you that. [41:58] I don't want to tell you that. [41:59] We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, [42:13] where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. [42:21] I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock. [42:24] And it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to. [42:27] We don't want that to happen. [42:29] We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. [42:33] And you know what? [42:35] If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are among the most expensive things, and bridges. [42:41] You saw the bridge. [42:42] The bridge one. [42:43] We were very close to a deal. [42:45] And then I got a call from Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner, and J.D. saying, I think they're breaking the deal. [42:56] I said, tell them that's okay. Don't worry about it. [42:59] But tell them to look out their window and watch. [43:01] And within 45 minutes, I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge. [43:07] I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge in, I believe, the Middle East, but the biggest bridge in Iran. [43:13] And within 10 minutes after I gave that order, that bridge was over. [43:20] So do I want to do that? No. [43:23] Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? No. [43:26] It will take them 100 years to rebuild. [43:29] Right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and it would never be as good as it was. [43:37] And the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius of the United States of America. [43:43] You voiced your displeasure with NATO in the past. [43:49] Is there a danger to the U.S. not being the de facto of the leader of the Alliance, [43:54] and then other powers within the Alliance, then getting the decision-making when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons? [44:00] Yeah, no, it's not a danger. [44:02] NATO's — look, we went to NATO. [44:04] I didn't ask very strongly. [44:06] I just said, hey, if you want to help, great. [44:08] No, no, no, we will not help. [44:09] I said, that's all right. You don't want to help? [44:11] Because I've always said NATO's a paper tiger. [44:16] See, NATO's a paper tiger. [44:18] Putin's not afraid of NATO. [44:19] Putin's afraid of us, very afraid of us. [44:22] And he's explained it to me a lot of times. [44:24] I got to know him very well. [44:25] I know him very well. [44:27] NATO's a paper tiger. [44:29] NATO is us. [44:30] And when we needed them — we didn't need them, by the way. [44:34] We didn't need them, obviously, because they haven't helped at all. [44:37] Just the opposite. [44:38] They've actually gone out of their way not to help. [44:40] They didn't even want to give us landing strips. [44:43] He's great. [44:44] And Pete, all I can say is that he was treated very unfairly. [44:48] And now those same people that treated him unfairly, that fought against him, they called me up saying, [44:53] what a great choice he was. [44:55] I said, well, what happened during this nomination? [44:59] What happened to you? [45:01] I'm telling you, people that were not forum senators, friends of mine, [45:05] sir, I don't think you're doing the right thing. [45:07] Now they're calling me up. [45:08] What a choice! [45:09] These two guys are fantastic. [45:11] And John Ratcliffe was incredible. [45:13] It was actually their genius that called us from — he was 40 miles away. [45:20] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain. [45:24] This is at night. [45:25] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes. [45:29] It wasn't moving. [45:30] And they said, you know, probably wrong, but we're seeing something moving. [45:34] This is a vast mountain, vast, thick, with bushes, trees. [45:42] He said, we see something moving, 40 miles away. [45:45] It was the head of a human being. [45:48] I'm telling you, it's moving. [45:50] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot. [45:53] Stood up. [45:56] And they stood way half of him. [45:58] And that was really the beginning of something incredible. [46:02] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically. [46:05] That's a big mountain. [46:06] So I want to thank the CIA, too. [46:10] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done. [46:13] Yes, please. [46:14] Yes. [46:16] Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity. [46:19] A country, it has a super army. [46:23] You make a difference, Mr. President. [46:25] Thank you for your greatest leadership. [46:27] Thank you. [46:28] I have two quick questions, Mr. President. [46:32] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil [46:39] to the international market with your support as United States of America? [46:44] Well, I expected that. [46:46] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that. [46:51] Another question, what would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against their [47:00] regime during a case fire, Mr. President? [47:03] Well, they should do it. [47:04] But, again, the consequences are great. [47:06] I mean, they were told, if you protest, you will be shot immediately. [47:10] You saw what happened to the young wrestler. [47:13] He was a great champion, by the way. [47:14] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world. [47:17] And he and his two friends were hung, and all they did was say a little bit about liberty. [47:24] They wanted liberty, and they were violently executed. [47:27] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed. [47:32] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house [47:36] to protest, they'll be immediately shot and killed. [47:40] And they issued that. [47:41] You know, that was publicly issued. [47:42] It's not a secret. [47:44] That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this way? [47:47] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [47:50] You know, we got regime change. [47:52] We do. [47:53] We're dealing with a much different regime than before. [47:55] We're dealing with different people. [47:57] They're smarter. [47:59] I think they're sharper and far less radical. [48:04] We have regime change. [48:06] But we didn't do this for regime change. [48:08] We did it for the fact. [48:10] And my view was very simple. [48:12] I saw somebody who said, oh, he doesn't have a plan. [48:14] I have the best plan of all, but I'm not going to tell you what my plan is. [48:17] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan. [48:20] We're going to attack at 947 in the morning, and then we're going to do this. [48:23] And then we're going to. [48:24] And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan. [48:27] These people know what the plan is. [48:29] Everybody here knows what the plan is. [48:31] But it's very unfair to say, you know, because I don't mind being insulted. [48:36] I've been insulted for many years by the fake news. [48:39] But you can't. [48:40] It's so bad for the people that are so pro. [48:43] You just saw two great and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people. [48:49] They have a plan. [48:50] Every single thing has been thought out by all of us. [48:53] But I can't reveal the plan to the media. [48:56] So, you know. [48:57] But we're just thrilled by the success of this operation. [49:00] Yes, please. [49:01] Thank you, Mr. President. [49:02] You've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks. [49:06] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power? [49:10] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime? [49:13] They would be willing to. [49:14] They would be willing. [49:15] And it's suffering. [49:16] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom. [49:20] The Iranians have, and we've had numerous intercepts. [49:24] Please keep bombing. [49:26] Bombs that are dropping near their homes. [49:28] Please keep bombing. [49:30] Do it. [49:31] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. [49:36] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, [49:39] Please come back. [49:40] Come back. [49:41] Come back. [49:42] These are the people. [49:44] I don't know what they do. [49:45] All I can tell you is they want freedom. [49:47] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about. [49:52] It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot. [49:57] Remember the great woman protest where they had 400,000, 500,000 women, [50:01] and they were all enthused and they were going to protest. [50:04] And everybody said, Oh, the regime is going to come to an end. [50:07] And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas. [50:16] A woman would go down right between the eyes. [50:18] They had snipers. [50:19] They had five snipers. [50:20] That's all it took. [50:21] And those four or 500,000 women said, Oh, my God, what's that? [50:27] Oh, look over there. [50:28] What's that? [50:29] A woman shot right between the eyes. [50:32] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr [50:38] through the vast number of people. [50:41] And then they said, Oh, my God, who would do that? [50:45] And they're incredible people. [50:48] But they've lived so horribly. [50:50] They've lived so horribly. [50:51] You know, Iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or so. [50:56] The Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually. [51:01] And I know so many. [51:02] I know coming from New York originally, I know so many people from Iran. [51:06] They're incredible people, incredible energy and very, very brilliant people. [51:12] But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, [51:16] in the case of the woman, remember the great woman march. [51:19] Everybody was like, Oh, this is the end of the country. [51:21] And then snipers selectively picked. [51:25] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance. [51:29] They were on top of buildings. [51:31] Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from. [51:34] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad. [51:37] They've done that too. [51:38] They did that recently. [51:39] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women. [51:46] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction. [51:51] And they never came out again. [51:52] And a lot of the, the news doesn't talk about that. [51:55] They talk about, Oh, women's rights. [51:58] You want to see women's rights. [51:59] You're not going to see it there. [52:00] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group. [52:06] They talk about, Oh, freedom for Iran. [52:10] They don't tell you the real facts. [52:12] Women, men, gays. [52:15] How about gays for Iran? [52:17] They kill the gays. [52:18] They throw them off buildings. [52:21] So I wonder what, what's going on. [52:23] I can only say this. [52:25] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger. [52:31] They want freedom for Iran, but it's very hard for them to protest. [52:35] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out. [52:37] I fully understand. [52:38] Nobody in this room would go out. [52:40] I don't think there's any, because frankly, it's not a question of bravery. [52:43] We're all brave, right? [52:44] You're brave. [52:45] I'm brave. [52:46] We're all brave. [52:47] But we're also intelligent. [52:50] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting [52:57] you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing [53:01] and you're looking here, you're out of there. [53:03] I don't care who it is. [53:06] Mark Meredith, Fox News. [53:08] I know that. [53:09] Oh, thank you. [53:10] Go ahead. [53:11] America's watching. [53:12] Good job. [53:13] Can we go back to the weekend? [53:15] First off, was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying [53:19] to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend? [53:21] Not everybody was on board. [53:22] Somebody else within you? [53:23] No. [53:24] There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it. [53:29] These two were totally on board, which was very important. [53:32] If they weren't, it would have had a little difficulty. [53:35] But, no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this. [53:38] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military. [53:43] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries. [53:46] You have some countries where military is not there as the wrong suit. [53:49] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before. [53:53] Half the people are wearing uniforms. [53:56] And we had people within the military. [53:59] Usually, it's not done. [54:01] That's one of the reasons. [54:02] You know, I was surprised. [54:03] Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done. [54:05] I said, that's not possible. [54:06] But it is possible. [54:08] Because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. [54:14] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit. [54:17] So, yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise. [54:21] And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately, for the operation? [54:26] I'd love to keep that a secret, Mr. President. [54:28] Okay, well, we are. [54:30] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret. [54:34] But it was hundreds and hundreds of these people. [54:37] That's pretty good. [54:38] Is he central? [54:39] Is he central casting? [54:41] But hundreds of people went into this journey. [54:45] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [54:47] Forget about the equipment. [54:48] A lot of equipment. [54:49] Nobody cares. [54:50] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [54:53] So we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise. [54:57] And I understood that. [54:58] But I decided to do it. [55:00] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking there's too much on the line [55:05] and somebody was saying, maybe we abort this now and wait? [55:08] I mean, given the resource, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the line here. [55:12] You must have been thinking this could have completely changed the next three years. [55:15] So, the first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, because we're flying over daylight. [55:23] You know, we're the best at the world at night. [55:25] We have goggles that nobody, we have goggles. [55:28] I've tried them. [55:29] Unbelievable. [55:30] I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight. [55:34] I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day. [55:37] You see just as well with goggles. [55:41] In many ways, it's enhanced. [55:42] So we have the best in the world. [55:44] So it's much safer for us to, for us to do it at night. [55:47] Whereas other people, no other country has that capability. [55:50] They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do. [55:54] But when I was told flying and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran. [56:02] And that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons. [56:08] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great. [56:11] We took out their radar, which is great. [56:13] We took out a lot, but they still have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder, [56:17] handheld shoulder missile, heat seeking missile. [56:21] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever. [56:24] But, but, and they have probably a little luck because you got to get lucky. [56:30] But they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine. [56:33] But these guys were out of there. [56:34] They were great. [56:35] Their timing was great. [56:37] But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission. [56:41] I understand. [56:42] They didn't say it's a foolish mission. [56:43] They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this. [56:47] This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they could, [56:52] because the flight was so long, they had to refuel. [56:54] It's a very dangerous mission. [56:56] I just felt it was worth it. [56:58] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both, [57:02] and nobody was even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible. [57:07] Yeah. [57:08] Mr. President, thank you very much. [57:09] Thank you, sir. [57:10] I'll come back to you. [57:11] Okay. [57:12] But given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership [57:18] in Iran, what does that mean for the protestors, for the human rights movement in that country [57:23] after this conflict? [57:24] What's your expectation? [57:25] Well, I think it's positive. [57:26] Yeah. [57:27] If they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very positive. [57:31] A big step. [57:32] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last. [57:37] Look what happened. [57:38] I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say. [57:43] They're not properly clothed. [57:44] And they execute the women. [57:46] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street. [57:50] No, you have a much different group of people. [57:52] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them. [57:56] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time. [58:00] But we are dealing with them. [58:02] I think it's going well. [58:03] Mr. Whitcoff is here. [58:04] And J.D.'s involved in the dealing. [58:07] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here. [58:10] And I think it's going fine. [58:11] But we'll have to see. [58:12] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years. [58:17] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago. [58:24] Not anymore. [58:25] Right now, they are decapitated. [58:26] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years. [58:34] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents. [58:40] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them, to their friends, we should have done this a long time ago. [58:46] So it's not something I like doing. [58:48] It's very dangerous. [58:49] And we're getting them at the height of their strength. [58:53] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon. [59:01] Remember this. [59:02] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple. [59:07] How Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable. [59:19] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran. [59:24] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash? [59:27] Billions of dollars of cash. [59:29] And he sent it over to them. [59:30] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars. [59:33] He chose Iran over Israel and, really, the Arab world, if you look. [59:39] Because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE — I mean, you take a look. [59:45] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others. [59:49] He chose such an unlikely candidate. [59:54] Nobody could believe it. [59:55] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he should have befriended Iraq. [1:00:01] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking. [1:00:07] And he made a terrible mistake. [1:00:08] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon. [1:00:11] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it. [1:00:15] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon. [1:00:18] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal. [1:00:21] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals. [1:00:24] Countries do hundreds of years. [1:00:26] You don't do a 10-year deal. [1:00:27] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord, you're renting a store on a certain street, [1:00:34] and you give somebody a 5-year or 10-year lease. [1:00:36] This is a country. [1:00:37] It was a short-term deal. [1:00:39] It was ready to expire. [1:00:41] I terminated it before it expired. [1:00:43] It took a lot of heat, and it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would have had a nuclear weapon. [1:00:47] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in eight months ago, [1:00:53] and obliterated that — and, by the way, the word is obliteration. [1:00:58] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete. [1:01:00] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it. [1:01:03] It was obliteration. [1:01:04] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, [1:01:08] because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover — unbelievable, stealth planes. [1:01:15] And they were able to do their job. [1:01:18] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level — either one of those two instances. [1:01:25] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would have been extinguished. [1:01:33] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, or others. [1:01:42] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them. [1:01:46] They didn't think they were going to be hit. [1:01:47] They thought they'd be watching us fight. [1:01:49] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles. [1:01:53] He would have taken them out also. [1:01:55] And they were powerful. [1:01:58] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear deal — [1:02:05] was a road to a nuclear weapon — a big one, unlimited. [1:02:10] Legally, I terminated it without even much thought. [1:02:13] It was so easy. [1:02:14] I terminated that. [1:02:17] And then the B-2 bombers — and I did one other thing. [1:02:20] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius. [1:02:26] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases. [1:02:33] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now. [1:02:42] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know? [1:02:46] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up. [1:02:49] Osama bin Laden. [1:02:51] If you read my book, I said you got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center came down. [1:02:57] So I wish you'd read the book. [1:02:59] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts. [1:03:06] And a lot of this is instinct. [1:03:07] Yeah, please. [1:03:08] The Press Press Secretary- Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President. [1:03:12] Mr. President, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. [1:03:18] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum? [1:03:26] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and the U.S.? [1:03:30] I can't talk about ceasefire. [1:03:31] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side. [1:03:39] They would like to be able to make a deal. [1:03:40] I can't say any more than that. [1:03:41] The Press Press Secretary- Mr. President, thank you so much. [1:03:45] The Press Press Secretary- You've listed the goals — excuse me. [1:03:47] The Press Press Secretary- Please, go ahead. [1:03:48] The Press Press Secretary- Thank you, Mr. President. [1:03:49] The Press Press Secretary- Who are you with? [1:03:50] Who are you with? [1:03:51] The Press Secretary- My name is Diak Kurda. [1:03:52] I'm with the largest Kurdish media out there, Trudeau Media Network. [1:03:54] It's based in Iran. [1:03:55] The Press Secretary- Go ahead. [1:03:56] The Press Press Secretary- Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish [1:04:00] forces to enter Iran and be harmed. [1:04:02] Do you still want them to stay away? [1:04:04] Or what role do you expect them to play now? [1:04:07] The Press Secretary- I'd rather have them stay away. [1:04:09] The Press Secretary- And then — The Press Secretary- I'd rather have them stay away, [1:04:11] because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulties. [1:04:14] The Press Secretary- And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves. [1:04:18] But I'd rather have them stay away. [1:04:20] The Press Secretary- Go ahead. [1:04:23] The Press Secretary- Thank you, Mr. President, for the question. [1:04:26] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva conventions and international law — [1:04:32] Who are you with? [1:04:33] The Press Secretary- I'm with the New York Times. [1:04:34] The Press Secretary- The Press Secretary- Zolan from the New York Times. [1:04:35] The Press Secretary- Are you concerned — The Press Secretary- Are you concerned — [1:04:37] The Press Secretary- Are you concerned — [1:04:38] The Press Secretary- There's circulation way down at the New York Times. [1:04:39] What's going on — [1:04:40] The Press Secretary- Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to — [1:04:44] The Press Secretary- No, no — I'm not — I hope I don't have to do it. [1:04:47] But, again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people. [1:04:52] They're great negotiators, because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. [1:04:58] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that [1:05:03] will happen, because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of [1:05:09] Iran, we're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [1:05:14] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart, and [1:05:21] sick, really sick, you know, from a policy standpoint, from a standpoint, any which way [1:05:30] you want to say, mentally, these are disturbed people. [1:05:33] If you think I'm going to allow them, and powerful and rich, to have a nuclear weapon, you can [1:05:39] tell your friends at the New York Times, not going to happen. [1:05:42] The New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election, and I won in a landslide, [1:05:55] I won every swing state. [1:05:56] New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. [1:05:59] New York Times has no credibility. [1:06:01] The credibility they have is, it used to be, all the news that's fit to print, a great, [1:06:06] the old gray lady, it was great. [1:06:08] But they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that. [1:06:11] You have to be able to give the correct news. [1:06:14] And people like you, who I know, are fake. [1:06:18] You're fake. [1:06:19] Go ahead, please. [1:06:20] Your messaging on the war has moved from, the war is coming to an end, to we're going [1:06:25] to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages. [1:06:27] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages. [1:06:29] So are you, so which is it? [1:06:32] Are you winding this down or are you escalating it? [1:06:34] I can't tell you. [1:06:35] I don't know. [1:06:36] I can't tell you. [1:06:37] They do. [1:06:38] This is a critical period. [1:06:39] They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at eight o'clock. [1:06:44] I gave them an extension. [1:06:45] They asked for an extension of seven days, right? [1:06:48] I said, Steve, give them 10 days. [1:06:53] 10 days is up actually today. [1:06:56] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly. [1:06:58] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter. [1:07:00] I want to be a nice person. [1:07:04] They have till tomorrow. [1:07:05] Now we'll see what happens. [1:07:07] I can tell you they're negotiating, we think, in good faith. [1:07:11] We're going to find out. [1:07:12] We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects [1:07:18] them also. [1:07:19] A lot of people are affected by this. [1:07:21] But we're giving them, we're giving them till tomorrow, eight o'clock Eastern time. [1:07:27] And after that, they're going to have no bridges. [1:07:31] They're going to have no power plants. [1:07:35] Stone Ages, yeah. [1:07:36] Stone Ages. [1:07:37] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, [1:07:47] or is that now a top priority? [1:07:48] I would say it's a very big priority because, see, that's one thing that's a little different [1:07:55] than other things. [1:07:56] We can bomb the hell out of them. [1:07:57] We can knock them out for a loop. [1:08:00] But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded [1:08:06] with, because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks, a water mine. [1:08:11] Drop them in the water. [1:08:13] And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to, don't worry about [1:08:17] the mine. [1:08:18] You can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water. [1:08:22] So it's not like the rest. [1:08:23] We can knock out their military. [1:08:25] We already have. [1:08:26] We've knocked out their Navy. [1:08:27] We've knocked out their Air Force completely. [1:08:29] We've knocked out 158 ships in three days. [1:08:33] We've knocked out even their mine droppers. [1:08:35] They don't have any mine droppers anymore. [1:08:37] But they put them on other boats and they could drop them. [1:08:39] I'm not even sure they have any mines there, by the way. [1:08:41] I'm not sure. [1:08:42] I'm personally, they say there might be eight. [1:08:45] I don't know. [1:08:46] I don't know. [1:08:47] I think there might be none because they're very good bullshit artists. [1:08:50] That's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't done the [1:08:55] job. [1:08:56] And people are living in hell. [1:08:58] You live in that country. [1:09:00] They're living in hell. [1:09:01] No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough. [1:09:08] They're at the weakest point they've ever been. [1:09:11] They have no Navy. [1:09:12] They have no Air Force. [1:09:13] They have no anti-aircraft weaponry. [1:09:16] They have no radar. [1:09:17] They have no communication. [1:09:18] In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate. [1:09:23] I said to Steve, what are they saying? [1:09:24] Sir, they can't communicate. [1:09:26] They have no method of communication. [1:09:29] So we're doing, we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago with [1:09:33] children bringing a note back and forth. [1:09:36] They have no communication. [1:09:39] But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world. [1:09:42] And you're not going to have a safe world. [1:09:44] Israel will be gone. [1:09:46] The Middle East will be gone. [1:09:48] And then they're coming for Europe. [1:09:50] And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO, very. [1:09:53] I think that NATO, I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear, never disappear [1:09:59] in my mind. [1:10:00] You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday. [1:10:01] They're going to say, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that. [1:10:04] Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know. [1:10:07] But they said it loud and clear at the beginning when I spoke to UK of all. [1:10:10] I would have said they would have been there first because they've been, they're the oldest. [1:10:14] And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help. [1:10:17] He said, no, sir. [1:10:18] We'd rather wait till you win. [1:10:20] I said, I don't need help after we win. [1:10:22] They have two old broken aircraft carriers, barely work. [1:10:25] I said, I guess we can use them. [1:10:27] Who the hell knows? [1:10:28] I called the general. [1:10:29] He didn't even want to. [1:10:30] He said, we don't really need them. [1:10:32] We got, we got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir. [1:10:35] We don't need them. [1:10:36] You know, we have in terms of technology, we had one day 101 missiles going at 2,700 miles [1:10:44] an hour aimed at the Abraham Lincoln, 101 missiles out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down. [1:10:55] Unbelievable technology. [1:10:57] Ten years ago, five years ago, I don't know if that would have been possible, but 10 years [1:11:02] ago, that wouldn't have been, that wouldn't have been possible, 101 missiles heading to [1:11:08] a ship that's not that far off the coast. [1:11:14] And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101. [1:11:18] We have weaponry. [1:11:19] The patriots are unbelievable. [1:11:21] We have weaponry. [1:11:23] That's unbelievable. [1:11:24] Yeah. [1:11:28] Go ahead, please. [1:11:29] Thank you, Mr. President. [1:11:31] You said earlier today, during the egg roll, that you would like to take Iran's oil, [1:11:36] but Americans want U.S. forces home. [1:11:38] Correct. [1:11:39] What's that tradeoff? [1:11:40] If I had my choice? [1:11:41] If I had my choice? [1:11:42] Yeah. [1:11:43] Because I'm a businessman first. [1:11:45] With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes. [1:11:52] And we have great people running Venezuela. [1:11:54] Very good people. [1:11:55] I mean, the relationship is good. [1:11:57] And we are a partner with Venezuela. [1:12:00] And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions. [1:12:05] Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined and out. [1:12:12] And paid for that war many, many times over. [1:12:15] Many times. [1:12:16] You know, the old days, to the victim. [1:12:19] Okay? [1:12:20] You know that. [1:12:21] To the winner belong the spoils. [1:12:25] Go the spoils. [1:12:26] And I've said, why don't we use it? [1:12:28] To the victor. [1:12:29] Go the spoils. [1:12:30] And we don't have that. [1:12:31] We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years. [1:12:34] Because even the Second World War. [1:12:35] You look at the Second World War. [1:12:37] We didn't have it with the Second World War. [1:12:39] We helped rebuild all those countries. [1:12:41] We rebuilt Germany. [1:12:42] How about Germany telling us? [1:12:44] Germany telling us that, well, it's not their war. [1:12:48] We had nothing to do with it. [1:12:49] They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing. [1:12:53] We didn't know anything about it. [1:12:54] Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it, and we wouldn't have been nearly [1:12:58] as successful, possibly, right? [1:13:01] But to the victor belong the spoils. [1:13:03] So we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years. [1:13:09] Now with Venezuela, and just so you understand, the people of Venezuela, they say if I ran for [1:13:14] president of Venezuela, I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela. [1:13:20] So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela. [1:13:23] I will quickly learn Spanish. [1:13:24] It won't take too long. [1:13:26] I'm good at language. [1:13:27] And I will go to Venezuela, and I'm going to run for president. [1:13:30] But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now, the people that are [1:13:35] running it. [1:13:37] If you remember Bush with Iraq, they fired the generals. [1:13:41] They fired the police. [1:13:42] They fired the people that worked in there, equivalent of the White House. [1:13:46] They fired everybody. [1:13:47] And you know what they had? [1:13:48] They had a mess. [1:13:49] And you know what happened? [1:13:50] ISIS formed. [1:13:51] Those generals and those soldiers got together. [1:13:54] The police got together. [1:13:55] They all got together. [1:13:56] They formed ISIS. [1:13:57] It's not going to happen with us. [1:13:59] So Venezuela has been an incredible, it's been an incredible situation. [1:14:04] We went in. [1:14:05] We were very successful. [1:14:06] Military power like nobody's ever seen. [1:14:09] The general, Venezuelan general said, I was on that site. [1:14:13] I said, I've never seen ferocity like that. [1:14:16] I've been doing this for 40 years. [1:14:18] He said, I've never seen it. [1:14:19] They hit us from 17 different. [1:14:21] It was, they were all set. [1:14:24] They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier, the Ford in that case, and planes were pouring [1:14:30] off it at one o'clock in the morning. [1:14:31] So typically, when you see that late at night, you know, you could be in trouble, right? [1:14:38] And we were all ready. [1:14:41] They had their equipment. [1:14:42] It was Russian. [1:14:43] And they had Chinese equipment. [1:14:44] It was all set. [1:14:45] They were going to give us a fight. [1:14:47] He said, and then they came. [1:14:49] And they came at speeds like we've never seen. [1:14:52] And they came at 17 different angles. [1:14:55] The general and his people, that was a lot of angles. [1:14:58] They hit him from every angle. [1:14:59] He said, we knew it was over in three minutes. [1:15:04] We were waiting for them. [1:15:06] Their equipment didn't work. [1:15:08] And there's a reason it didn't work. [1:15:09] Someday we'll explain that to people. [1:15:12] They pressed the button. [1:15:13] Nothing happened. [1:15:14] They pressed it again and again. [1:15:16] Nothing happened. [1:15:17] And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes. [1:15:20] We've never seen any, he used the word ferocity, the ferocity of these planes from 17 different [1:15:27] angles. [1:15:28] And it was over. [1:15:29] And remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers. [1:15:33] And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here. [1:15:37] Thousands. [1:15:38] We didn't have thousands. [1:15:39] We had like 200 people. [1:15:41] So we have a great military. [1:15:44] And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention. [1:15:49] More so than normally. [1:15:51] You're talking about two people. [1:15:53] But this rescue captured the world's attention. [1:15:57] But we did it in Venezuela. [1:15:59] That was amazing. [1:16:00] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial. [1:16:03] I mean, he released, aside from the drugs, which he was terrible, Maduro released hundreds [1:16:11] of thousands of people from jails into our country. [1:16:15] Drug dealers, murderers. [1:16:17] The worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president [1:16:23] who probably didn't know. [1:16:24] And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great [1:16:29] border patrol agents. [1:16:30] Right? [1:16:31] Not once. [1:16:32] Kamala. [1:16:33] We had a border patrol. [1:16:34] She never said, how are we doing? [1:16:35] I used to call the border patrol guys every day. [1:16:36] You can ask them. [1:16:37] Paul. [1:16:38] Ask any one of them. [1:16:39] Brandon. [1:16:40] Ask them all the time. [1:16:42] How are we doing? [1:16:43] How are we doing? [1:16:44] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border. [1:16:46] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border. [1:16:48] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through. [1:16:51] So we don't have caravans anymore. [1:16:54] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done. [1:16:56] Mr. President, are you allowed to, are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging [1:17:03] tolls for passengers through the strait? [1:17:06] Us charging tolls? [1:17:08] Iran. [1:17:09] What about us charging tolls? [1:17:10] Is that something you're considering? [1:17:12] I'd rather do that than let them have them running. [1:17:15] Why shouldn't we? [1:17:16] We're the winner. [1:17:17] We won. [1:17:18] Okay? [1:17:19] They are militarily defeated. [1:17:21] The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines [1:17:25] in the water. [1:17:26] All right? [1:17:27] No. [1:17:28] We, I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls. [1:17:29] Okay? [1:17:30] I thought you meant us. [1:17:31] Your question, your question would have, your question would have been more accurate [1:17:37] if you said us. [1:17:38] Go ahead. [1:17:39] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have [1:17:45] to make a deal, open the strait, or both? [1:17:48] We have to have a deal. [1:17:49] It's acceptable to me. [1:17:52] And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else. [1:17:56] Mr. President, thank you very much. [1:18:00] You've said glory be to God in this conflict. [1:18:05] Do you believe that God supports the United States actions in this war? [1:18:08] I do, because God is good. [1:18:09] And have you sought his direction? [1:18:10] Because God is good. [1:18:12] And God wants to see people taken care of. [1:18:15] God doesn't like what's happening. [1:18:16] I don't like what's happening. [1:18:18] Everyone says, I enjoy it. [1:18:19] I don't enjoy this. [1:18:20] I don't enjoy it. [1:18:21] These two guys don't enjoy it. [1:18:22] You know, people say, oh boy, they're so tough. [1:18:24] They don't want, they don't like, I don't like seeing people killed. [1:18:27] I've ended eight wars. [1:18:30] Nobody's ever done it. [1:18:31] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize. [1:18:37] She announced that. [1:18:38] When they announced, they said, it goes to Maria. [1:18:40] She's a great person, really a good person. [1:18:43] She said, no, no, no. [1:18:45] This is ridiculous. [1:18:47] They gave me the Nobel Prize. [1:18:49] President Trump ended eight wars. [1:18:50] I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the prime minister [1:18:55] of Pakistan said, President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives. [1:19:02] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now. [1:19:05] That makes me much happier. [1:19:07] We have one more to end, by the way. [1:19:13] President, you called the, yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy [1:19:18] bastards. [1:19:19] True. [1:19:20] What is your response to critics who say that it is? [1:19:23] I don't care about critics. [1:19:24] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps [1:19:27] be examined as this war continues? [1:19:28] I haven't heard that. [1:19:30] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me, because our country [1:19:34] was being ripped off on trade or everything for many years until I came along. [1:19:40] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people. [1:19:43] Dasha, go ahead. [1:19:44] Dasha, go ahead. [1:19:45] You said that very little is off-limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power [1:19:50] plants, bridges. [1:19:51] You've mentioned those. [1:19:52] Very little is off-limits. [1:19:53] Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though? [1:19:55] I'm thinking schools or hospitals that you want to say is off-limits? [1:19:56] I don't want to tell you that. [1:19:57] I don't want to tell you that. [1:19:58] We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will [1:20:07] be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out [1:20:15] of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. [1:20:20] I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock. [1:20:23] And it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to. [1:20:27] We don't want that to happen. [1:20:29] We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. [1:20:33] And you know what? [1:20:34] If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are [1:20:37] among the most expensive things, and bridges. [1:20:40] You saw the bridge. [1:20:41] The bridge one. [1:20:42] We were very close to a deal. [1:20:45] And then I got a call from Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner, and J.D. saying, I think they're [1:20:54] breaking the deal. [1:20:55] I said, tell them that's okay. [1:20:57] Don't worry about it. [1:20:58] But tell them to look out their window and watch. [1:21:01] And within 45 minutes, I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge. [1:21:06] I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge in, I believe, the Middle East, but [1:21:11] the biggest bridge in Iran. [1:21:13] And within 10 minutes after I gave that order, that bridge was over. [1:21:19] So, so do I want to do that? [1:21:21] No. [1:21:22] Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? [1:21:24] No. [1:21:25] It will take them 100 years to rebuild. [1:21:28] Right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and [1:21:34] it would never be as good as it was. [1:21:35] And the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius [1:21:41] of the United States of America. [1:21:42] The Press is pleasure with NATO in the past. [1:21:49] Is there a danger to the U.S. not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and [1:21:54] then other powers within the alliance, then getting the decision-making when it comes to [1:21:58] wars and nuclear weapons? [1:21:59] Yeah, no, it's not a danger. [1:22:01] NATO's — look, we went to NATO. [1:22:04] I didn't ask very strongly, I just said, hey, if you want to help, great. [1:22:07] No, no, no, we will not help. [1:22:09] I said, that's all right, you don't want to help? [1:22:12] Because I've always said NATO's a paper tiger. [1:22:14] See, NATO's a paper tiger. [1:22:17] Putin's not afraid of NATO. [1:22:19] Putin's afraid of us, very afraid of us. [1:22:21] And he's explained it to me a lot of times. [1:22:23] I got to know him very well, I know him very well. [1:22:27] NATO's a paper tiger. [1:22:28] NATO is us. [1:22:30] And when we needed them — but we didn't need them, by the way. [1:22:33] We didn't need them, obviously, because they haven't helped at all. [1:22:37] Just the opposite. [1:22:38] They've actually gone out of their way not to help. [1:22:40] They didn't even want to give us landing strips. [1:22:42] He's great. [1:22:44] And Pete, all I can say is that he was treated very unfairly. [1:22:48] And now those same people that treated him unfairly, that fought against him, they called [1:22:52] me up saying, what a great choice he was. [1:22:54] I said, well, what happened during this nomination? [1:22:58] What happened to you? [1:22:59] I'm telling you, people that were not forum senators, friends of mine, sir, I don't think [1:23:04] you're doing the right thing. [1:23:06] Now they're calling me up. [1:23:07] What a choice. [1:23:08] These two guys are fantastic. [1:23:10] And John Ratcliffe was incredible. [1:23:12] It was actually their genius that called us from — he was 40 miles away. [1:23:19] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain. [1:23:23] This is at night. [1:23:26] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes. [1:23:28] He wasn't moving. [1:23:29] And they said, you know, probably wrong. [1:23:31] We're seeing something moving. [1:23:33] This is a vast mountain, vast, thick, with bushes, trees. [1:23:39] He said, we see something moving, 40 miles away. [1:23:42] It was the head of a human being, I'm telling you, it's moving. [1:23:49] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot, stood up, and they said, we [1:23:55] have him. [1:23:56] And that was really the beginning of something incredible. [1:24:00] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically, and it's a big mountain. [1:24:05] So I want to thank the CIA, too. [1:24:08] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done. [1:24:12] Yes, please. [1:24:13] The Press- Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity. [1:24:18] The country, it has a super army. [1:24:22] You make a difference, Mr. President. [1:24:24] Thank you for your greatest leadership. [1:24:26] The President- Thank you. [1:24:27] The Press- I have two quick questions, Mr. President. [1:24:30] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil to the international [1:24:38] market with your support as United States of America? [1:24:42] The President- Well, I expected that. [1:24:44] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that. [1:24:49] The Press- Another question, what would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against [1:24:58] their regime during a case fire, Mr. President? [1:25:01] The President- Well, they should do it. [1:25:03] But again, the consequences are great. [1:25:05] I mean, they were told you, if you protest, you will be shot immediately. [1:25:09] You saw what happened to the young wrestler. [1:25:11] He was a great champion, by the way. [1:25:13] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world. [1:25:16] And he and his two friends were hung. [1:25:19] And all they did was say a little bit about liberty. [1:25:23] They wanted liberty, and they were violently executed. [1:25:27] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed. [1:25:31] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house [1:25:35] to protest, they'll be immediately shot and killed. [1:25:38] And they issued that. [1:25:39] You know, that was publicly issued. [1:25:41] It's not a secret. [1:25:43] That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this way? [1:25:45] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [1:25:48] You know, we got regime change. [1:25:51] We do. [1:25:52] We're dealing with a much different regime than before. [1:25:54] We're dealing with different people. [1:25:56] They're smarter. [1:25:58] I think they're sharper and far less radical. [1:26:03] We have regime change. [1:26:04] But we didn't do this for regime change. [1:26:07] We did it for the fact. [1:26:09] And my view was very simple. [1:26:11] I saw somebody who said, oh, he doesn't have a plan. [1:26:13] I have the best plan of all. [1:26:14] But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is. [1:26:16] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan. [1:26:19] We're going to attack at 9.47 in the morning. [1:26:21] And then we're going to do this. [1:26:22] And then we're going to ... And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan. [1:26:26] These people know what the plan is. [1:26:28] Everybody here knows what the plan is. [1:26:30] But it's very unfair to say ... Because I don't mind being insulted. [1:26:35] I've been insulted for many years by the fake news. [1:26:38] But you can't ... It's so bad for the people that are so pro ... You just saw two great [1:26:45] and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people. [1:26:47] They have a plan. [1:26:49] Every single thing has been thought out by all of us. [1:26:53] But I can't reveal the plan to the media. [1:26:56] So, you know. [1:26:57] But we're just thrilled by the success of this operation. [1:26:59] Yes, please. [1:27:00] The Press. [1:27:01] Thank you, Mr. President. [1:27:02] You said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks. [1:27:04] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power? [1:27:08] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime? [1:27:12] They would be willing to ... They would be ... And it's suffering. [1:27:15] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom. [1:27:19] The Iranians have ... And we've had numerous intercepts. [1:27:24] Please keep bombing. [1:27:25] The bombs that are dropping near their homes. [1:27:28] Please keep bombing. [1:27:30] Do it. [1:27:31] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. [1:27:34] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, please come back, come [1:27:39] back, come back. [1:27:40] These are the people. [1:27:43] I don't know what they do. [1:27:44] All I can tell you is they want freedom. [1:27:47] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about. [1:27:51] It's a violent, horrible world, where if you protest, you are shot. [1:27:57] Remember the great woman protest, where they had 400,000, 500,000 women, and they were all [1:28:01] enthused, and they were going to protest, and everybody said, oh, the regime's going to [1:28:06] come to an end. [1:28:07] And all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas, a woman would go down right [1:28:16] between the eyes. [1:28:17] They had snipers. [1:28:18] They had five snipers. [1:28:19] That's all it took. [1:28:21] And those 400,000 or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that? [1:28:25] Oh, look over there. [1:28:26] What's that? [1:28:27] A woman shot right between the eyes. [1:28:32] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr through the vast [1:28:38] number of people, and then they said, oh, my God, who would do that? [1:28:45] And they're incredible people. [1:28:47] But they've lived so horribly. [1:28:48] They've lived so horribly. [1:28:50] You know, Iran was a great country, if you go back 25 years ago or so. [1:28:55] The Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually. [1:29:00] And I know so many. [1:29:01] I know, coming from New York, originally, I know so many people from Iran. [1:29:05] They're incredible people, incredible energy and very, very brilliant people. [1:29:11] And but when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case [1:29:16] of the woman, remember the great woman march. [1:29:18] Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country. [1:29:21] And then snipers selectively picked. [1:29:25] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance. [1:29:28] They were on top of buildings. [1:29:31] Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from. [1:29:33] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad. [1:29:35] They've done that, too. [1:29:36] They did that recently. [1:29:38] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women. [1:29:45] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction [1:29:50] and they never came out again. [1:29:52] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that. [1:29:55] They talk about, oh, women's rights. [1:29:57] You want to see women's rights, you're not going to see it there. [1:30:00] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that [1:30:05] group, they talk about, oh, freedom for Iran. [1:30:09] They don't tell you the real facts, women, men, gays. [1:30:15] How about gays for Iran? [1:30:18] They kill the gays. [1:30:19] They throw them off buildings. [1:30:20] So I wonder what's going on. [1:30:23] I can only say this. [1:30:25] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes because their life is in much greater danger. [1:30:31] They want freedom for Iran. [1:30:33] But it's very hard for them to protest. [1:30:35] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out. [1:30:37] I fully understand. [1:30:38] Nobody in this room would go out. [1:30:39] I don't think there's any, because frankly, it's not a question of bravery. [1:30:42] We're all brave, right? [1:30:43] You're brave. [1:30:44] I'm brave. [1:30:45] We're all brave. [1:30:46] But we're also intelligent. [1:30:48] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots, with the best rifles you can get and [1:30:55] hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're [1:30:59] seeing and you're looking here, you're out of there. [1:31:02] I don't care who it is. [1:31:04] Mark Meredith, Fox News. [1:31:06] I know that. [1:31:07] Oh, thanks. [1:31:08] Go ahead. [1:31:09] America's watching. [1:31:10] No, can we go back to the weekend? [1:31:13] First off, was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying to talk [1:31:17] you out of going through with the operation this weekend? [1:31:20] Not everybody was on board. [1:31:21] Somebody else within you? [1:31:22] No, there was military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it. [1:31:27] These two were totally on board, which was very important. [1:31:31] If they weren't, it would have a little difficulty. [1:31:34] But no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this. [1:31:37] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military. [1:31:42] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries. [1:31:44] You have some countries where military is not there as the wrong suit. [1:31:48] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before. [1:31:51] Half the people are wearing uniforms. [1:31:55] And we had people within the military. [1:31:59] Usually it's not done. [1:32:00] That's one of the reasons. [1:32:01] You know, I was surprised. [1:32:02] Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done. [1:32:04] I said, that's not possible. [1:32:05] But it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the [1:32:11] path. [1:32:12] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit. [1:32:17] So yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise. [1:32:20] And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately, for the operation? [1:32:25] I'd love to keep that a secret. [1:32:27] Okay. [1:32:28] Well, we are. [1:32:29] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret. [1:32:33] But it was hundreds and hundreds of these people. [1:32:36] That's pretty good. [1:32:37] Is he central? [1:32:38] Is he central casting? [1:32:40] But hundreds of people went into this journey. [1:32:45] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [1:32:46] Forget about the equipment. [1:32:47] A lot of equipment. [1:32:48] Nobody cares. [1:32:49] Hundreds of people could have been killed. [1:32:52] So we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise, and I understood [1:32:56] that. [1:32:57] But I decided to do it. [1:32:58] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking, there's too much [1:33:03] on the line, and somebody was saying, maybe we abort this now and wait? [1:33:07] I mean, given the resource, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the [1:33:11] line here. [1:33:12] You must have been thinking, this could have completely changed the next three years. [1:33:14] So the first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, [1:33:21] because we're flying over daylight. [1:33:23] You know, we're the best at the world at night. [1:33:25] We have goggles that nobody. [1:33:26] We have goggles, I've tried them, they're unbelievable. [1:33:29] I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight. [1:33:33] I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day. [1:33:37] You see just as well with goggles. [1:33:39] In many ways, it's enhanced. [1:33:41] So we have the best in the world. [1:33:43] So it's much safer for us to, for us to do it at night, whereas other people, no other [1:33:48] country has that capability. [1:33:50] They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do. [1:33:54] But when I was told flying and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran, and [1:34:01] that's a long time, over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons. [1:34:08] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great. [1:34:11] We took out their radar, which is great. [1:34:12] We took out a lot. [1:34:13] People have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder, handheld shoulder missile, heat [1:34:19] seeking missile. [1:34:20] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever. [1:34:23] But, but, and they have probably a little luck because you got to get lucky. [1:34:29] But they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine. [1:34:32] But these guys were out of there. [1:34:33] They were great. [1:34:34] Their timing was great. [1:34:36] But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission. [1:34:40] They didn't say it's a foolish mission, they said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing [1:34:45] hundreds of people do this. [1:34:46] This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they, because [1:34:51] the flight was so long, they had to refuel. [1:34:53] It's a very dangerous mission. [1:34:56] I just felt it was worth it. [1:34:57] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both, and nobody was [1:35:02] even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible. [1:35:05] Yeah. [1:35:06] Mr. President. [1:35:07] Thank you very much. [1:35:08] Thank you, sir. [1:35:09] Mr. Okay, thank you. [1:35:10] The Press. [1:35:11] Given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership [1:35:17] in Iran, what does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country [1:35:22] after this conflict? [1:35:23] What's your expectation? [1:35:24] Mr. Well, I think positive. [1:35:25] Yeah. [1:35:26] If they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very [1:35:29] positive. [1:35:30] A big step. [1:35:31] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last. [1:35:36] Look what happened. [1:35:37] The women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say. [1:35:42] They're not properly clothed, and they execute the women. [1:35:44] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street. [1:35:47] No, you have a much different group of people. [1:35:51] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them. [1:35:56] Essentially, they have till eight o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern time. [1:35:59] But we are dealing with them. [1:36:01] I think it's going well. [1:36:02] Mr. Whitcoff is here, and J.D. is involved in the dealing. [1:36:07] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here, and I think it's going fine. [1:36:10] But we'll have to see. [1:36:11] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years. [1:36:15] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago. [1:36:22] Not anymore. [1:36:23] Right now, they are decapitated. [1:36:25] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any [1:36:30] point during 47 years. [1:36:32] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents. [1:36:36] A lot of presidents. [1:36:38] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them, to their friends, we should have [1:36:43] done this a long time ago. [1:36:45] So it's not something I like doing. [1:36:47] It's very dangerous. [1:36:48] And we're getting them at the height of their strength. [1:36:52] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had [1:36:58] a — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon, remember this. [1:37:02] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple. [1:37:07] How Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or any place [1:37:13] else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable. [1:37:18] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran. [1:37:23] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash? [1:37:26] Billions of dollars of cash. [1:37:28] And he sent it over to them. [1:37:30] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars. [1:37:33] He chose Iran over Israel. [1:37:36] And really, the Arab world, if you look, because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, [1:37:41] UAE. [1:37:42] I mean, you take a look. [1:37:43] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others. [1:37:48] He chose such an unlikely candidate. [1:37:53] Nobody could believe it. [1:37:54] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he [1:37:57] should have befriended Iraq. [1:38:00] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking, and he made a terrible mistake. [1:38:07] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon. [1:38:10] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it. [1:38:15] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon. [1:38:17] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal. [1:38:21] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals. [1:38:24] Countries do hundreds of years. [1:38:25] You don't do a 10-year deal. [1:38:27] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord, and you're renting a store on [1:38:31] a certain street, and you give somebody a five-year or a 10-year lease. [1:38:35] This is a country. [1:38:36] It was a short-term deal. [1:38:37] It was ready to expire. [1:38:39] I terminated it before it expired. [1:38:41] Took a lot of heat, and it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would [1:38:44] have had a nuclear weapon. [1:38:46] And he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in [1:38:50] eight months ago and obliterated that — and, by the way, the word is obliteration. [1:38:56] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete. [1:38:59] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it. [1:39:02] It was obliteration. [1:39:03] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes [1:39:09] flying in at night with very little cover — unbelievable, stealth planes. [1:39:15] And they were able to do their job. [1:39:17] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level, either one [1:39:23] of those two instances. [1:39:24] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would [1:39:31] have been extinguished. [1:39:34] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, [1:39:39] Qatar, UAE, or others. [1:39:42] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them. [1:39:45] They didn't think they were going to be hit. [1:39:47] They thought they'd be watching us fight. [1:39:49] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles. [1:39:53] He would have taken them out also. [1:39:56] And they were powerful. [1:39:58] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear [1:40:03] deal was a road to a nuclear weapon. [1:40:06] A big one. [1:40:07] Unlimited. [1:40:08] Legally, I terminated it without even much thought. [1:40:12] It was so easy. [1:40:14] I terminated that. [1:40:15] And then the B-2 bombers — and I did one other thing. [1:40:18] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius. [1:40:26] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases. [1:40:32] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now. [1:40:41] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know? [1:40:45] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up. [1:40:48] Osama bin Laden, if you read my book, I said, you got to take him out one year before the [1:40:54] World Trade Center came down. [1:40:56] So I wish you'd read the book. [1:41:00] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts. [1:41:05] And a lot of this is instinct. [1:41:06] Yeah, please. [1:41:07] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President. [1:41:10] Mr. President, last week — last week, you suggested that Europe should take the lead [1:41:15] on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. [1:41:17] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum? [1:41:24] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and [1:41:28] the U.S.? [1:41:29] I can't talk about ceasefire. [1:41:30] I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side. [1:41:37] They would like to be able to make a deal. [1:41:39] I can't say any more than that, but I get a real deal. [1:41:42] Mr. President, thank you so much. [1:41:44] You've listed the goals — excuse me. [1:41:45] Please, go ahead. [1:41:46] You've listed the goals of — [1:41:47] Thank you, Mr. President. [1:41:48] Who you with? [1:41:49] Who you with? [1:41:50] Who you with? [1:41:51] My name is Diyar Kurda. [1:41:52] I'm with the largest Kurdish media out there, Trudeau Media Network. [1:41:53] It's based in Iran. [1:41:54] Go ahead. [1:41:55] Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to enter Iran [1:42:00] and be harmed. [1:42:01] Do you still want them to stay away, or what role do you expect them to play now? [1:42:05] I'd rather have them stay away. [1:42:07] I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some [1:42:12] difficulties. [1:42:13] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves. [1:42:16] But I'd rather have them stay away. [1:42:18] Go ahead. [1:42:19] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question. [1:42:24] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international [1:42:30] law. [1:42:31] Who you with? [1:42:32] Who you with? [1:42:33] I'm with the New York Times. [1:42:34] Zolan from the New York Times. [1:42:35] Are you concerned — [1:42:36] Are you concerned — [1:42:37] Are you concerned — [1:42:38] Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes? [1:42:42] No, not at all. [1:42:43] No, I'm not. [1:42:44] I hope I don't have to do it. [1:42:46] But, again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people. [1:42:50] They're great negotiators. [1:42:51] And — [1:42:52] Why would that, in fact, not by the international — [1:42:53] And — [1:42:54] Because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. [1:42:56] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective — which, [1:43:01] possibly, that will happen — because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, [1:43:06] and afraid of Iran — we're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [1:43:12] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind — that are tough, smart, [1:43:19] and sick — really sick — ideal — you know, from — from a policy standpoint, from a [1:43:27] standpoint — any which way you want to say mentally — these are disturbed people. [1:43:32] If you think I'm going to allow them — and powerful and rich — to have a nuclear weapon, [1:43:37] you can tell your friends at The New York Times — not going to happen. [1:43:40] And if it means violating international law — [1:43:45] Quiet, quiet, quiet. [1:43:46] You no longer have credibility at The New York Times. [1:43:49] Because The New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. [1:43:52] And I won in a landslide. [1:43:53] I won every swing state. [1:43:54] The New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. [1:43:57] The New York Times has no credibility. [1:43:59] The credibility they have is — it used to be all the news that's fit to print. [1:44:03] A great — the old gray lady. [1:44:05] It was great. [1:44:06] But they're — they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that. [1:44:09] You have to be able to give the correct news. [1:44:12] And people like you, who I know, are fake. [1:44:15] You're fake. [1:44:16] Go ahead, please. [1:44:17] Mr. President, your messaging on the war has moved from — the war is coming to an end [1:44:22] to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages. [1:44:25] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages. [1:44:27] So are you — so which is it? [1:44:30] Are you winding this down? [1:44:31] I can't tell you. [1:44:32] Are you escalating it? [1:44:33] I don't know. [1:44:34] I can't tell you. [1:44:35] It depends what they do. [1:44:36] This is a critical period. [1:44:37] They have a period of — well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock. [1:44:42] I gave them an extension. [1:44:43] They asked for an extension of seven days, right? [1:44:46] I said, Steve, give them 10 days. [1:44:51] 10 days is up, actually, today. [1:44:53] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly. [1:44:55] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter. [1:44:58] I want to be a nice person. [1:45:01] They have till tomorrow. [1:45:03] Now we'll see what happens. [1:45:05] I can tell you they're negotiating. [1:45:06] We think in good faith. [1:45:08] We're going to find out. [1:45:09] We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because [1:45:16] it affects them also. [1:45:17] A lot of people are affected by this. [1:45:19] But we're giving them — we're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o'clock Eastern Time. [1:45:25] And after that, they're going to have no bridges. [1:45:28] They're going to have no power plants. [1:45:31] Stone Ages. [1:45:33] Yeah. [1:45:34] Stone Ages. [1:45:38] Stone Ages. [1:45:40] CNN fake. [1:45:41] Yes, sir. [1:45:42] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz? [1:45:45] Or is that now a top priority? [1:45:47] I would say it's a very big priority because — see, that's one thing that's a little different [1:45:53] than other things. [1:45:54] We can bomb the hell out of them. [1:45:55] We can knock them out for a loop. [1:45:57] but to close the strait all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded with [1:46:05] because you can carry them in trucks large trucks a water mine drop them in the water [1:46:10] and now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to don't worry about the mine [1:46:16] you can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water so it's not like the rest we can [1:46:22] knock out their military we already have we've knocked out their navy we've knocked out their [1:46:26] air force completely knocked out 158 ships in three days we've knocked out even their mine [1:46:32] droppers they don't have any mine droppers anymore but they put them on other boats and they could [1:46:37] drop them i'm not even sure they have any mines there by the way i'm not sure i'm personally [1:46:41] they say there might be eight i don't know i don't know i think there might be none [1:46:45] uh because they're very good bullshit artists that's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting [1:46:51] other presidents and they haven't done the job and people are living in hell you live in that [1:46:57] country they're living in hell no i think that uh 47 years of this stuff is long enough [1:47:05] they're at the weakest point they've ever been they have no navy they have no air force they have [1:47:11] no anti-aircraft weaponry they have no radar they have no communication in fact the biggest problem [1:47:17] we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate i said to steve what are they saying [1:47:23] sir they can't communicate they have no method of communication [1:47:27] so we're doing we're communicating like they used to communicate 2 000 years ago with children [1:47:32] bringing a note back and forth they have no communication but all i want to see is i want [1:47:39] to have a safe world and you're not going to have a safe world israel will be gone the middle east will [1:47:45] be gone and then they're coming for europe and i have to tell you i'm very disappointed in nato [1:47:51] very i think that nato i think it's a mark on nato that will never disappear never disappear in my [1:47:58] mind you know they're coming to see me on wednesday they're going to say oh we'll do this we'll do [1:48:01] that now they all of a sudden want to send things you know but they said it loud and clear at the [1:48:07] beginning when i spoke to uk of all i would have said they would have been there first because they've [1:48:11] been they're the oldest and i say yeah i'd love to have a little help said no sir we'd rather wait [1:48:17] till you win i said i don't need help after we win they have two old broken aircraft carriers barely [1:48:24] work i said i guess we can use them who the hell knows i called the general he didn't even want [1:48:28] he said we don't really need them we got we got the ss abraham lincoln sir we don't need them [1:48:34] you know we have in terms of technology we had one day 101 missiles going at 2 700 miles an hour [1:48:43] aimed at the abraham lincoln 101 missiles out of 101 missiles 101 missiles were shot down [1:48:54] unbelievable technology 10 years ago five years ago i don't know if that would have been possible [1:49:00] but 10 years ago that wouldn't have been that wouldn't have been possible uh 101 missiles heading [1:49:06] to a ship that's not that far off the coast and out of the 101 missiles we shot down all 101 we have [1:49:16] weaponry uh the patriots are unbelievable we have weaponry that's unbelievable yeah go ahead please [1:49:28] thank you mr president um you said earlier today during the egg roll that you would like to take [1:49:32] iran's oil but americans want u.s forces home correct what's that trade if i had my choice if i had my [1:49:40] choice yeah because i'm a businessman first with venezuela as you know the war was over in about 45 minutes [1:49:48] and we have great people running venezuela very good people i mean the relationship is good [1:49:55] and we are a partner with venezuela and we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels hundreds of millions [1:50:04] over 100 million barrels already is in houston refined and out and paid paid for that war many many [1:50:12] times over many times you know the old days to the victim okay you know that to the uh to the winner [1:50:21] belong the spoils go the spoils and i've said why don't we use it to the victor go the spoils and we [1:50:29] don't have that we haven't had that in this country probably in a hundred years because even the second [1:50:33] world war you look at the second world war we didn't have it with the second world we helped rebuild [1:50:38] all those countries we rebuilt germany how about germany telling us germany telling us that uh well [1:50:44] it's not their war we had nothing to do with it they wanted me to go and tell them everything i was [1:50:50] doing we didn't know anything about it well if i would have told them they would have leaked it [1:50:55] and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful possibly right but to the victor belong the spoils [1:51:01] so we haven't heard we haven't heard that in i think maybe hundreds of years now with venezuela [1:51:09] and we just so you understand the people of venezuela they say if i ran for president of [1:51:13] venezuela i'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in venezuela so after i'm finished with this [1:51:20] i can go to venezuela i will quickly learn spanish it won't take too long i'm good at language and i [1:51:25] will go to venezuela i'm going to run for president but we're very happy with the president-elect that we [1:51:31] have right now the the the people that are running it if you remember bush with iraq they fired the [1:51:39] generals they fired the police they fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the [1:51:43] white house they fired everybody and you know they had they had a mess and you know what happened [1:51:48] isis formed those generals and those soldiers got together the police got together they all got [1:51:54] together they formed isis not going to happen with us so uh venezuela has been an incredible [1:52:00] it's been an incredible situation we went in we were very successful military power like nobody's [1:52:07] ever seen the general uh venezuelan general said i was on that site i said i've never seen ferocity [1:52:14] like that i've been doing this for 40 years he said i've never seen it they they hit us from 17 [1:52:19] different it was they were all set they saw that big beautiful aircraft carrier the ford in that case [1:52:26] and planes were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning so typically when you see that late at [1:52:32] night you know you could be in trouble right and we're all ready they had their equipment it was [1:52:40] russian and they had chinese equipment it was all set they were going to give us a fight he said and [1:52:46] then they came and they came at speeds like we've never seen and they came at 17 different angles the [1:52:54] general and his people that was a lot of angles they hit him from every angle he said we knew it was [1:53:00] over in three minutes we were waiting for him their equipment didn't work and there's a reason it [1:53:07] didn't work someday we'll explain that to people they pressed the button nothing happened they pressed [1:53:13] it again and again nothing happened and he said we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes [1:53:18] we've never seen any he used the word ferocity the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles [1:53:25] and it was over they went inside and remember that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers [1:53:31] and those soldiers looked and they said get the hell out of here thousands we didn't have thousands [1:53:37] we had like 200 people so we have a great military and i'll tell you what somehow this rescue captured [1:53:46] the world's attention more so than normally you're talking about two people but this rescue [1:53:52] captured the world's attention but we did it in venezuela that was amazing and now we have a very [1:53:59] bad man in prison and going to trial i mean he he released aside from the drugs which he was terrible [1:54:07] maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country drug dealers murderers the [1:54:15] worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably [1:54:22] didn't know and we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great [1:54:27] border patrol agents right not once kamala she never called the border patrol she never said how [1:54:32] we doing i used to call the border patrol guys every day you can ask them paul ask any one of them [1:54:38] brandon ask them all the time how are we doing how are we doing and we now i'm proud to say have a [1:54:43] totally sealed border nine months nobody is coming through our but and nobody even tries because they [1:54:48] know they're not going to get through so we don't have caravans anymore all right so maybe one or two [1:54:53] more and we'll be done mr president are you allowed to or are you willing to end this conflict with [1:55:01] iran charging tolls for passage through the street uh us charging tolls iran what about us charging [1:55:09] tolls is that something you're considering i'd rather do that than let them have them run why shouldn't [1:55:13] we we're the winner we won okay they are militarily defeated the only thing they have is the psychology of [1:55:21] oh we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water all right no we i mean we have a concept [1:55:27] where we'll charge tolls okay i thought you meant your question your question would your question [1:55:34] would have been more accurate if you said us just to clarify in order for iran to successfully meet [1:55:41] your deadline tomorrow do they have to make a deal open the street or both we have to have a deal [1:55:47] that's acceptable to me and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and [1:55:54] everything thank you very much you've said glory be to god in this conflict do you believe that god [1:56:04] supports the united states actions and i do because god is good because god is good and god wants to see [1:56:11] people taken care of god doesn't like what's happening i don't like what's happening everyone [1:56:16] says i enjoy i don't enjoy this i don't enjoy these two guys don't enjoy it you know people [1:56:21] say oh boy they're so tough they don't want they don't like i don't like seeing people killed i've [1:56:26] ended eight wars nobody's ever done it the person who won the nobel prize came to me and said you [1:56:33] deserve the nobel prize she announced that when they announced they said goes to maria she's a great [1:56:39] person really a good person she said no no no this is ridiculous they gave me the nobel prize president [1:56:47] trump ended eight wars i could go over every one of them including india and pakistan where the [1:56:53] prime minister of pakistan said president trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives that makes me much [1:57:01] happier than what we're doing right now that makes me much happier we have one more to end by the way [1:57:12] you called the yesterday in your truth social you called the iranians crazy bastards true um what is [1:57:19] your response to critics who say that i don't care about what is your response to critics who say [1:57:23] that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues i haven't heard [1:57:27] that but if that's the case you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was [1:57:33] being ripped off on trade or everything for many years until i came along so if that's the case you're [1:57:40] going to have to have more people josh you go to josh you said that very little is off limits in iran [1:57:46] as far as targeting including power plants bridges you've mentioned those very little is offline are [1:57:51] there certain kinds of civilian targets though i'm thinking i don't want to tell you that i don't want [1:57:55] to tell you that we have we have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge [1:58:04] in iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night where every power plant in iran will be [1:58:14] out of business burning exploding and never to be used again i mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock [1:58:22] and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to we don't want that to happen we may [1:58:27] even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation and you know what if that's the case the last [1:58:33] thing we want to do is start with power plants which are among the most expensive thing and bridges [1:58:38] you saw the bridge the bridge one we were very close to a deal and then i got a call from mr witkoff [1:58:47] mr kushner and jd saying i think they're breaking the deal i said tell them that's okay don't worry about [1:58:56] it but tell them to look out their window and watch and within 45 minutes i gave the order to knock out [1:59:03] the biggest bridge i gave the order knock out the biggest bridge in i believe the middle east but [1:59:09] the biggest bridge in iran and within 10 minutes after i gave that order that bridge was was over [1:59:17] so so do i want to do that no do i want to destroy their infrastructure no it will take them a hundred [1:59:25] years to rebuild right now if we left today it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it [1:59:33] would never be as good as it was and the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country [1:59:37] is to utilize the genius of the united states of america voice your displeasure with nato [1:59:46] in the past is there a danger to the u.s not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and then [1:59:53] other powers within the alliance then getting the decision making when it comes to wars and nuclear [1:59:58] weapons no it's not a danger nato's look we went to nato i didn't ask very strongly i just said hey if [2:00:05] you want to help great no no no we will not help i said that's all right you don't want to help [2:00:10] because i've always said nato's a paper tiger see nato is a paper tiger putin's not afraid of nato [2:00:17] putin's afraid of us very afraid of us and he's explained it to me a lot of times i got to know [2:00:22] him very well i know very well uh nato is a paper tiger nato is us and when we needed them but we [2:00:30] didn't need them by the way we didn't need them obviously because they haven't helped at all just the [2:00:35] opposite they've actually gone out of their way not to help they didn't even want to give us landing [2:00:39] strips he's great and pete all i can say is that uh he was treated very unfairly and now those same [2:00:47] people that treated him unfairly that fought against him they called me up saying what a great choice he [2:00:52] was they said well what happened uh during this nomination what happened to you i'm telling you [2:00:58] people that were not forum senators friends of mine sir i don't think you're doing the right thing [2:01:04] now they're calling me up what a choice these two guys are fantastic and john ratcliffe was [2:01:10] incredible it was actually their genius that called us from he was 40 miles away and he said you know [2:01:19] we're seeing something moving up in the mountain this is at night and they kept the camera on him for [2:01:25] 45 minutes he wasn't moving and they said you know probably wrong but we're seeing something moving [2:01:31] this is a mass vast mountain vast thick with bushes trees he said we see something moving 40 miles away [2:01:41] it was a the head of a human being i'm telling you it's moving and then all of a sudden 45 minutes [2:01:49] later he moved a lot stood up and they stood way half of him and that was really the beginning of [2:01:58] something incredible we had an idea where he was but not specifically that's a big mountain so uh [2:02:04] i want to thank the cia too i don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done [2:02:10] yes please thank you very much mr president for this great opportunity country it has [2:02:19] super army you make a difference mr president thank you for your greatest leadership thank you [2:02:25] i have a two quick questions mr president what was your reaction when you learned that kurdistan region [2:02:33] had resumed exporting oil to the international market with your support as united states of america [2:02:41] well i expected that we've gotten along with the kurds for a long time so i expected that [2:02:48] another question what would what would be your reaction if the iranian people rise up against their [2:02:57] regime during a case fire mr president well they should do it but again the consequences are great [2:03:03] i mean they were told you if you protest you will be shot immediately you saw what happened to the [2:03:08] young wrestler he was a great champion by the way he was a great wrestler one of the top in the world [2:03:14] and he and his two friends were hung and all they did was say a little bit about liberty they wanted [2:03:21] liberty and they were violently executed but the number is up to probably 45 000 people were killed so [2:03:30] you know when somebody stays in a house when they know if they walk out of the house to protest [2:03:34] they'll be immediately shot and killed and they issued that you know that was publicly issued it's not [2:03:40] a secret that's why so many people say oh well why are you doing this way we can't let iran have a [2:03:46] nuclear weapon you know we got regime change we do we're dealing with a much different regime than [2:03:52] before we're dealing with different people they're smarter i think they're sharper uh and far less [2:04:00] radical we have regime change but uh we didn't do this for regime change we did it for the fact and [2:04:07] my my view is very simple i saw somebody said oh he doesn't have a plan i have the best plan of all but [2:04:13] i'm not going to tell you what my plan is you know they want me to say here's my plan we're going to [2:04:17] attack at 9 47 in the morning and then we're going to do this and then we're going to and if you don't do [2:04:22] that they say i have a plan these people know what the plan is everybody here does what the plan is [2:04:28] but uh it's uh very unfair to say we're because i don't mind being insulted i've been insulted [2:04:34] for many years by the by the fake news but you can't it's so bad for the for people that are so [2:04:41] per you just saw two great and john ratliff three unbelievable people they have a plan every every [2:04:48] single thing has been thought out by all of us but i can't reveal the plan to the media so you know [2:04:55] but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation yes please thank you mr [2:04:59] president uh you've said iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks but why would they [2:05:04] want you to blow up their infrastructure to cut off their power wouldn't that be punishing [2:05:09] iranians for the actions of the regime they would be willing just they would be and it's suffering [2:05:13] they would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom uh the iranians have and we've had [2:05:20] numerous intercepts please keep bombing bombs that are dropping near their homes please keep bombing [2:05:28] do it and these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding and when we leave and we're [2:05:34] not hitting those areas they're saying please come back come back come back these are the people [2:05:41] i don't know what they do all i can tell you is they want freedom they have lived in a world that [2:05:47] you know nothing about it's a violent horrible world where if you protest you are shot remember the [2:05:55] great woman protest where they had 400 000 500 000 women and they were all enthused and they were [2:06:00] going to protest and everybody said oh the regime is going to come to an end and then all of a sudden [2:06:07] boom boom five six different areas a woman would go down right between the eyes they had snipers they [2:06:16] had five snipers that's all it took and those four or five hundred thousand women said oh my god what's that [2:06:23] good oh look over there what's that a woman shot right between the eyes and after five or six of [2:06:32] them go down then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of people and then they said oh my [2:06:40] god who would do that and they're incredible people but they've lived so horribly they've lived [2:06:48] so horribly you know iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or so [2:06:53] uh the persian people the they're incredible smart brilliant actually and i know so many i know coming [2:07:00] from new york originally i i know so many people from around they're incredible people incredible energy [2:07:06] and and uh very very brilliant people and but when you're standing in a group and protesting and you [2:07:12] have a woman in the case of the woman remember the great woman march everybody was like oh this is the [2:07:17] end of the country and then snipers selectively picked every single one was shot right between [2:07:25] the eyes from a long distance they were on top of buildings nobody even knew where they were where [2:07:30] they're coming from this wasn't like a machine gun which is also very bad they've done that too [2:07:34] they did that recently this was snipers sitting on the top of buildings aiming and hitting women [2:07:43] and when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction [2:07:48] and they never came out again and a lot of the the news doesn't talk about that they talk about oh [2:07:55] women's rights you want to see women's rights you're not going to see it there [2:07:58] it's amazing when i see some of the stupid people like you know aoc plus three all that group [2:08:04] they talk about oh freedom for iran they don't tell you the real facts women men gays how about gays for [2:08:15] iran they kill the gays they throw them off buildings so i wonder what what's going on i can [2:08:21] only say this they want us to keep bombing even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater [2:08:29] danger they want freedom for iran but it's very hard for them to protest i actually tell them i said [2:08:34] don't go out i fully understand nobody in this room would go out i don't think there's any because [2:08:39] frankly it's not a question of bravery we're all brave right you're brave i'm brave we're all brave [2:08:44] but we're also intelligent if you have people shooting at you expert shots with the best [2:08:52] rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time and you're looking here [2:08:57] and you're seeing and you're looking here you're out of there i don't care who [2:09:03] mark meredith fox news uh i know that oh thank you [2:09:07] go ahead america's watching uh no um can we go back to the weekend first off was everyone on board with [2:09:14] the operation or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through with the [2:09:17] operation this weekend not everybody was on board somebody else within no there was military people [2:09:22] very professional that preferred not doing it these two were totally on board which was very [2:09:29] important they weren't it had a little difficulty but uh no there were military people that said you [2:09:34] just don't do this you don't go into the heart of a very powerful military you know this is [2:09:41] hey you have countries and countries you have some countries where military is not there so [2:09:46] wrong so this whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before half the people are wearing [2:09:51] uniforms uh and we had we had people within the military usually it's not done that's one of the [2:09:58] reasons you know i was surprised somebody said it's the only time it's ever been done i said that's not [2:10:03] possible but it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers [2:10:08] along the path i mean look at some of the helicopters how they got hit so yeah there [2:10:15] were people within the military that said it's a wise and don't forget how many men did you send [2:10:20] all together approximately for the operation i'd love to keep that a secret okay well [2:10:28] but i will tell you the number i'll keep it a secret but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people [2:10:35] that's pretty good is he central is he central casting but hundreds of people went into this [2:10:42] journey hundreds of people could have been killed forget about the equipment a lot of equipment nobody [2:10:46] cares hundreds of people could have been killed so we had people that were within the military that [2:10:53] said this is not a wise and i understood that but i decided to do it was there a point that they were [2:10:59] going to that you were thinking there's too much on the line and somebody was saying maybe we abort [2:11:04] this now and wait i mean given the resource like the general said it seemed like there was so much [2:11:09] on the line here you must have been thinking this could have completely changed so the first one [2:11:14] which was in many ways as dangerous as the second i guess it gets because we're flying over daylight [2:11:21] you know we're the best at the world at night we have goggles that nobody we have goggles i've tried [2:11:26] them unbelievable i see better with the goggles at night with it than i see without them during daylight [2:11:32] i mean day like today we have a beautiful day you see just as well with goggles in many ways it's [2:11:38] enhanced so we have the best in the world so it's much safe for us to for us to do it at night whereas [2:11:45] other people no other country has that capability they don't have the they don't have that particular [2:11:50] piece of equipment like we do but when i was told flying and in daylight i think we flew seven hours [2:11:58] over iran and that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but [2:12:05] weapons we took out their anti-aircraft which is great we took out their radar which is great we [2:12:11] took out a lot but they still have you know what hit this one was a shoulder handheld shoulder missile [2:12:17] heat-seeking missile so it's not like you know they're totally whatever but but and they probably a [2:12:24] little luck because you got to get lucky but they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine [2:12:30] but these guys were out of there they were great their timing was great but no i was told that this [2:12:36] is a very uh dangerous mission i understand they didn't say it's a foolish mission they said you know [2:12:42] we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this this is i mean you have tankers that are flying [2:12:47] over this area so that because the flight was so long they had to refuel it's a very dangerous mission [2:12:54] i just felt it was worth it if you would have told me that we would have been successful gotten both [2:12:59] and nobody was even essentially injured i would have said that would be impossible yeah mr president [2:13:05] thank you very much thank you sir we'll come back to you okay uh given that you are now dealing you [2:13:11] say with a more reasonable um less uh extreme leadership in iran what does that mean for the [2:13:18] protesters for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict what's your [2:13:22] expectation yeah if they assume control if we do something and they assume control i think it's [2:13:27] very positive a big step uh i don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the [2:13:33] last look what happened i mean women are being executed because they're not properly clothed they [2:13:39] say they're not properly clothed and they execute the women they absolutely they shoot them right on the [2:13:45] street uh no you have a much different group of people now i'm not saying we are dealing with them [2:13:54] essentially they have till eight o'clock tomorrow night eastern time but we are dealing with them i [2:13:59] think it's going well mr whitkoff is here and jd is involved in the dealing mr whitkoff is sitting right [2:14:07] here and i think it's going fine but we'll have to see you have to understand we've been dealing with [2:14:11] these people for 47 years i'm standing here with a much more powerful iran as of a month ago not [2:14:21] anymore right now they are decapitated but i'm standing here a month ago with a much [2:14:27] more powerful iran than it was at any point during 47 years this should have been handled by [2:14:33] seven presidents a lot of presidents and those presidents are saying now every one of them to their [2:14:40] friends we should have done this a long time ago so it's not something i like doing it's very dangerous [2:14:46] and we're getting them at the height of of their strength if i didn't terminate the barack hussein [2:14:52] obama iran nuclear deal they would have had a don't forget that was a path to a nuclear weapon remember [2:14:59] this he chose iran over israel pure and simple how and how israel can vote for a democrat is if you're [2:15:09] jewish in new york city or any place else in this country and how you can vote for a democrat is [2:15:16] unbelievable because he chose iran a very hostile iran remember when he filled up a 757 with cash [2:15:24] billions of dollars of cash and he sent it over to them then they gave them tens of billions of dollars [2:15:31] he chose iran over israel and really the arab world if you look because you know the other saudi arabia [2:15:39] qatar uae i mean you take a look i mean i could add kuwait and i can add bahrain and you can add [2:15:46] others he chose such an unlikely candidate nobody could believe it frankly if you're going to choose [2:15:53] between iraq and iran he should have chosen he should have befriended iraq he went in the exact [2:16:01] opposite direction of of all thinking and he made a terrible mistake but that was a road to a nuclear [2:16:08] weapon and when i terminated that everyone said oh he terminated it it was one of the best things [2:16:14] we ever did because he had a road to a nuclear weapon and it was gonna it was a very short-term [2:16:19] deal you know countries don't do 10-year deals countries do hundreds of years you don't do a 10-year [2:16:25] deal for a country you need this isn't you're a landlord you're renting a store on on a certain [2:16:30] street and you give somebody a five-year or ten-year lease this is a country it was a short-term deal [2:16:35] deal it was ready to expire i terminated it before it expired took a lot of heat and it was one of the [2:16:41] best things they ever did because he would have had a nuclear weapon then he would have had another [2:16:45] nuclear weapon had those beautiful b2 bombers not gone in eight months ago and obliterated that said [2:16:52] and by the way the word is obliteration cnn said well maybe it wasn't complete it was so complete that [2:16:58] they still haven't been able to get it it was obliteration but if we didn't hit them that was a [2:17:04] courageous decision too because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover [2:17:11] unbelievable stealth planes and they were able to do their job if we didn't do that iran would have [2:17:17] had a nuclear weapon at a high level either one of those two instances and if they did in my opinion [2:17:25] i told this to bb netanyahu yesterday israel would have been extinguished large portions of the middle [2:17:34] east would have been extinguished whether it's saudi arabia qatar uae or others and you saw that with [2:17:41] thousands of missiles raining down upon them they didn't think they were going to be hit they thought [2:17:45] they'd be watching us fight and all of a sudden uae got hit by 1500 missiles he would have taken them [2:17:52] out also and they were powerful if i didn't come along and terminate the obama deal which was terrible [2:18:01] the iran nuclear deal was a a road to a nuclear weapon a big one unlimited legally i terminated it [2:18:09] without even much thought it was so easy i terminated that and then the b2 bombers and i did one other [2:18:16] thing i had killed kassam solemini who was an evil genius and the reason i did it i heard he was going to [2:18:26] knock out five of our military bases and had he lived i believe we would be fighting perhaps a [2:18:36] different iran right now because because he's never he's never been replaced you know and i also i did [2:18:44] one other but that this one was not picked up osama bin laden if you read my book i said you got to take [2:18:51] him out one year before the world trade center came down so i wish you'd read the book [2:18:55] but you as a president to be a good president i believe you have to have good instincts [2:19:04] and a lot of this is instinct yeah please thank you so much mr president last week uh last week [2:19:12] you suggested that europe should take the lead on reopening the strait of harmuz [2:19:15] uh has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48 hour i mean 48 hour ultimatum [2:19:23] and secondly would a new new ceasefire include israel or would it just be between iran i can't talk [2:19:27] about ceasefire but i can tell you that we have a active willing participant on the other side [2:19:35] they would like to be able to make a deal i can't say any more than that [2:19:43] excuse me please thank you mr president who are you with who are you with [2:19:47] my name is dr kurda i'm with the largest kridish media out there through the media network [2:19:51] it's based in iran mr president you said before that you don't want the kurdish forces to enter [2:19:58] iran and be harmed do you still want them to stay away or what role do you expect them to play now [2:20:04] i'd rather have them stay away i'd rather have them stay away because i think they bring with them [2:20:10] some problems and some difficulties and i don't think they bring death i mean you know to themselves [2:20:15] but i'd rather have them stay away go ahead thank you mr president for the question um deliberate [2:20:24] attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the geneva kind of conventions and international law [2:20:29] who are you with i'm with the new york times zolan from the new york times are you feeling [2:20:33] they're failing are you concerned circulation way down at the new york times are you concerned that [2:20:38] your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount no no no no i hope i don't have to do it [2:20:45] but again i just said 47 years they've been negotiating with these people they're great negotiators [2:20:50] why would that and because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon and if somebody that takes [2:20:56] my place someday is weak and ineffective which possibly that will happen because we had numerous [2:21:02] presidents that were weak ineffective and afraid afraid of iran we're never going to let iran have a [2:21:09] nuclear weapon and if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind that are tough smart and [2:21:18] sick really sick ideal uh you know from from a policy standpoint from a stamp any which way you want [2:21:27] to say mentally these are disturbed people if you think i'm going to allow them and powerful and rich [2:21:33] to have a nuclear weapon you can tell your friends at the new york times not going to happen [2:21:39] it means violating international law quiet quiet you no longer have credibility the new york times [2:21:48] because the new york times said oh trump won't win the election and i won in a landslide i won every [2:21:52] swing state new york times said oh trump won't win the election new york times has no credibility [2:21:58] the credibility they have is it used to be all the news that's fit to print a great the old gray lady it [2:22:04] was great but they're they're running on past fumes and you can't keep doing that you have to be able [2:22:09] to give the correct news and people like you who i know are fake you're fake go ahead please [2:22:17] your messaging on the war has moved from the war is coming to an end to we're going to be bombing [2:22:22] iran to the stone ages and we've heard a range of those kind of messages so are you so which is it [2:22:29] are you winding this down are you i can't tell you i don't know i can't tell it depends what they do [2:22:34] this is a critical period they have a period of well till tomorrow at eight o'clock i gave them an [2:22:41] extension they asked for an extension of seven days right i said steve give them 10 days 10 days is [2:22:51] up actually today so i gave them 11 i guess indirectly i thought it was inappropriate the [2:22:56] day after easter i want to be a nice person uh they have till tomorrow now we'll see what happens [2:23:03] i can tell you they're negotiating we think in good faith we're going to find out we're getting [2:23:09] the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects them also a lot [2:23:16] of people are affected by this but we're giving them uh we're giving them till tomorrow eight o'clock [2:23:23] eastern time and after that they're going to have no bridges they're going to have no power plants [2:23:29] that's stone ages yeah stone ages cnn fake are you willing to make a deal that does not include [2:23:42] reopening the strait of hormuz or is that now a top priority i would say it's a very big priority because [2:23:49] see that's that's one thing that's a little different than other than we can bomb the hell [2:23:54] out of them we can knock them out for a loop but to close the strait all you need is one terrorist [2:24:01] that somehow has a truck loaded with because you can carry them in trucks large trucks a water mine [2:24:08] drop them in the water and now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to [2:24:13] don't worry about the mine you can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water [2:24:18] so it's not like the rest we can knock out their military we already have we've knocked out their navy [2:24:24] we've knocked out their air force completely knocked out 158 ships in three days we've knocked [2:24:30] out even their mind droppers they don't have any mind droppers anymore but they put them on other [2:24:35] boats and they could drop them i'm not even sure they have any mines there by the way i'm not sure i'm [2:24:39] personally they say there might be eight i don't know i don't know i think there might be none uh because [2:24:46] they're very good artists that's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents [2:24:51] and they haven't done the job and people are living in hell you live in that country they're living in [2:24:57] hell no i think that uh 47 years of this stuff is long enough they're at the weakest point they've ever [2:25:06] been they have no navy they have no air force they have no anti-aircraft weaponry they have no radar [2:25:13] they have no communication in fact the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they [2:25:18] can't communicate i said to steve what are they saying sir they can't communicate they have no [2:25:24] method of communication so we're doing we're communicating like they used to communicate [2:25:29] 2 000 years ago with children bringing a note back and forth they have no communication but all i want [2:25:37] to see is i want to have a safe world and you're not going to have a safe world israel will be gone [2:25:42] the middle east will be gone and then they're coming for europe and i have to tell you i'm very [2:25:48] disappointed in nato very i think that nato i think it's a mark on nato that will never disappear [2:25:55] never disappear in my mind you know they're coming to see me on wednesday they're going to say oh we'll [2:25:59] do this we'll do that now they all of a sudden want to send things you know but they said it loud and [2:26:05] clear at the beginning when i spoke to uk of all i would have said they would have been there first [2:26:09] because they've been they're the oldest and i say yeah i'd love to have a little help i said no sir [2:26:15] we'd rather wait till you win i said i don't need help after we win they have two old broken [2:26:21] aircraft carriers barely work i said i guess we can use them who the hell knows i called the general [2:26:26] he didn't even want he said we don't really need them we got we got the ss abraham lincoln sir we [2:26:32] don't need them you know we have in terms of technology we had one day 101 missiles going at [2:26:40] 2 700 miles an hour aimed at the abraham lincoln 101 missiles out of 101 missiles 101 missiles were [2:26:50] shot down unbelievable technology 10 years ago five years ago i don't know if that would have been [2:26:57] possible but 10 years ago that wouldn't have been that wouldn't have been possible uh 101 missiles [2:27:05] heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast and out of the 101 missiles we shot down [2:27:13] all 101 we have weaponry uh the patriots are unbelievable we have weaponry that's unbelievable [2:27:25] go ahead please thank you mr president um you said earlier today during the egg roll that you would [2:27:30] like to take iran's oil but americans want u.s forces home correct what's that trade if i had my choice [2:27:38] if i had my choice yeah because i'm a businessman first with venezuela as you know the war was over in [2:27:46] about 45 minutes and we have great people running venezuela very good people i mean the relationship [2:27:52] is good and we are a partner with venezuela and we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels hundreds [2:28:01] of millions over 100 million barrels already is in houston refined and out and paid paid for that war [2:28:10] many many times over many times you know the old days to the victim okay do you know that to the uh [2:28:19] to the winner belong the spoils go the spoils and i've said why don't we use it to the victor [2:28:26] go the spoils and we don't have that we haven't had that in this country probably in a hundred years [2:28:31] because even the second world war you look at the second world war we didn't have it with the second [2:28:35] world we helped rebuild all those countries we rebuilt germany how about germany telling us [2:28:41] germany telling us that uh well it's not their war we had nothing to do with getting they wanted me to [2:28:47] go and tell them everything i was doing we didn't know anything about it well if i would have told [2:28:52] them they would have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful possibly right but to the [2:28:58] victor belong the spoils so we haven't heard we haven't heard that in i think maybe hundreds of [2:29:05] years now with venezuela and we just so you understand the people of venezuela they say if i ran for [2:29:11] president of venezuela i'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in venezuela so after [2:29:17] i'm finished with this i can go to venezuela i will quickly learn spanish it won't take too long i'm [2:29:22] good at language and i will go to venezuela i'm going to run for president but we're very happy with the [2:29:28] president-elect that we have right now the the the people that are running it if you remember bush with [2:29:35] iraq they fired the generals they fired the police they fired the people that worked in there [2:29:41] equivalent of the white house they fired everybody and you know what they had they had a mess and you [2:29:46] know what happened isis formed those generals and those soldiers got together the police got together [2:29:52] they all got together they formed isis not going to happen with us so venezuela has been an incredible [2:29:59] it's been an incredible situation we went in we were very successful military power like nobody's ever [2:30:05] seen the general uh venezuelan general said i was on that site i said i've never seen ferocity like [2:30:13] that i've been doing this for 40 years he said i've never seen it they they hit us from 17 different it [2:30:18] was they were all set they saw that big beautiful aircraft carrier the ford in that case and planes [2:30:26] were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning so typically when you see that late at night you know [2:30:32] you could be in trouble right and we were already they had their equipment it was russian and they [2:30:40] had chinese equipment it was all set they were going to give us a fight he said and then they came [2:30:46] and they came at speeds like we've never seen and they came at 17 different angles the general and his [2:30:53] people that was a lot of angles they hit him from every angle he said we knew it was over in three [2:31:00] minutes we were waiting for him their equipment didn't work and there's a reason it didn't work [2:31:06] someday we'll explain that to people they pressed the button nothing happened they pressed it again [2:31:12] and again nothing happened and he said we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes we've never [2:31:17] seen any he used the word ferocity the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles and it was [2:31:24] over they went inside and remember that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers and those [2:31:30] soldiers looked and they said get the hell out of here thousands we didn't have thousands we had [2:31:36] like 200 people so we have a great military and i'll tell you what somehow this rescue captured the [2:31:45] world's attention more so than normally you're talking about two people but this rescue captured the [2:31:52] world's attention but we did it in venezuela that was amazing and now we have a very bad man in [2:31:59] prison and going to trial i mean he he released aside from the drugs which he was terrible maduro [2:32:06] released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country drug dealers murderers the worst [2:32:14] people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't [2:32:21] know and we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border [2:32:26] patrol agents right not once kamala she never called the border patrol she never said how we [2:32:31] doing i used to call the border patrol guys every day you can ask them paul ask any one of them [2:32:36] brandon ask them all the time how are we doing how are we doing and we now i'm proud to say have [2:32:42] a totally sealed border nine months nobody is coming through our but and nobody even tries because [2:32:46] they know they're not going to get through so we don't have caravans anymore right so maybe one or two [2:32:52] more and we'll be done mr president are you allowed to or are you willing to end this conflict with [2:32:59] iran charging tolls for passage through the street uh us charging tolls iran what about us charging [2:33:07] tolls is that something you're considering i'd rather do that than let them have them run why shouldn't [2:33:12] we we're the winner we won okay they are militarily defeated the only thing they have is the psychology of [2:33:20] oh we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water all right no we i mean we have a concept [2:33:25] where we'll charge tolls okay i thought you meant your question your question would your question [2:33:32] would have been more accurate if you said us just to clarify in order for iran to successfully meet [2:33:40] your deadline tomorrow do they have to make a deal open the street or both we have to have a deal [2:33:46] that's acceptable to me and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything [2:33:57] mr president thank you very much you've said glory be to god in this conflict do you believe that god [2:34:03] supports the united states actions and i do because god is good because god is good and god wants to see [2:34:09] people taken care of god doesn't like what's happening i don't like what's happening everyone says i [2:34:15] enjoy i don't enjoy this i don't enjoy these two guys don't enjoy it you know people say oh boy [2:34:20] they're so tough they don't want they don't like i don't like seeing people killed i've ended eight [2:34:25] wars nobody's ever done it the person who won the nobel prize came to me and said you deserve the nobel [2:34:33] prize she announced that when they announced they said goes to maria she's a great person really a good [2:34:39] person she said no no no this is ridiculous they gave me the nobel prize president trump ended eight wars i [2:34:47] could go over every one of them including india and pakistan where the prime minister of pakistan [2:34:53] said president trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives that makes me much happier than what we're [2:35:01] doing right now that makes me much happier we have one more to end by the way you called the yesterday [2:35:12] in your truth social you called the iranians crazy bastards true um what is your response to critics [2:35:19] who say that i don't care about critics what is your response to critics who say that it is your [2:35:22] mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues i haven't heard that but if [2:35:27] that's the case you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped [2:35:32] off on trade or everything for many years until i came along so if that's the case you're going to [2:35:38] have to have more people dash you go you said that very little is off limits in iran as far as [2:35:45] targeting including power plants bridges you've mentioned those very little is offline are there [2:35:49] certain kinds of civilian targets though i'm thinking i don't want to tell you that i don't [2:35:54] want to tell you that we have we have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge [2:36:03] in iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night where every power plant in iran will be [2:36:12] out of business burning exploding and never to be used again i mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock [2:36:20] and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to we don't want that to happen we may [2:36:26] even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation and you know what if that's the case the last [2:36:32] thing we want to do is start with power plants which are among the most expensive thing and bridges [2:36:37] you saw the bridge the bridge one we were very close to a deal and then i got a call from mr witkoff [2:36:46] mr kushner and jd saying i think they're breaking the deal i said tell them that's okay don't worry [2:36:54] about it but tell them to look out their window and watch and within 45 minutes i gave the order to knock [2:37:01] out the biggest bridge i gave the order knock out the biggest bridge in i believe the middle east but the [2:37:08] biggest bridge in iran and within 10 minutes after i gave that order that bridge was was over so so do [2:37:17] i want to do that no do i want to destroy their infrastructure no it will take them a hundred years [2:37:24] to rebuild right now if we left today it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it would [2:37:31] never be as good as it was and the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to [2:37:36] utilize the genius of the united states of america pleasure with nato in the past is there a danger [2:37:46] to the u.s not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and then other powers within the [2:37:52] alliance then getting the decision making when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons no it's not a [2:37:57] danger nato's look we went to nato i didn't ask very strongly i just said hey if you want to help [2:38:04] great no no no we will not help i said that's all right you don't want to help because i've always [2:38:09] said nato's a paper tiger see nato's a paper tiger putin's not afraid of nato putin's afraid of us [2:38:16] very afraid of us and he's explained it to me a lot of times i got to know him very well i know him [2:38:22] very well uh nato's a paper tiger nato is us and when we needed them but we didn't need them by the [2:38:29] way we didn't need them obviously because they haven't helped at all just the opposite they've [2:38:34] actually gone out of their way not to help they didn't even want to give us landing strips he's great [2:38:39] and pete all i can say is that uh he was treated very unfairly and now those same people that [2:38:46] treated him unfairly that fought against him they called me up saying what a great choice he was [2:38:51] they said well what happened uh during this nomination what happened to you i'm telling you [2:38:57] people that were not forum senators friends of mine sir i don't think you're doing the right thing [2:39:03] now they call me up what a choice these two guys are fantastic and john ratcliffe was incredible i was [2:39:09] actually their genius that called us from he was 40 miles away and he said you know we're seeing [2:39:18] something moving up in the mountain this is at night and they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes [2:39:25] he wasn't moving and they said you know probably wrong but we're seeing something moving this is a [2:39:31] vast mountain vast thick with bushes trees he said we see something moving 40 miles away [2:39:40] he was uh the head of a human being i'm telling you it's moving and then all of a sudden 45 minutes [2:39:48] later he moved a lot stood up and they stood way half of him and that was really the beginning of [2:39:56] something incredible we had an idea where he was but not specifically that's a big mountain so uh i want [2:40:04] to thank the cia too i don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done yes please [2:40:09] yes thank you very much mr president for this great opportunity uh country it has super army [2:40:19] you make a difference mr president thank you for your greatest leadership thank you i have two quick [2:40:25] questions mr president what was your reaction when you learned that kurdistan region had resumed exporting [2:40:33] oil to the international market with your support as united states of america well i expected that [2:40:41] we've gotten along with the kurds for a long time so i expected that another question what we what would [2:40:49] be your reaction if the iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire mr president [2:40:58] well they should do it but again the consequences are great i mean they were told you if you protest you [2:41:04] will be shot immediately you saw what happened to the young wrestler he was a great champion by the [2:41:09] way he was a great wrestler one of the top in the world and he and his two friends were hung and all [2:41:17] they did was say a little bit about liberty they wanted liberty and they were violently executed but [2:41:24] the number is up to probably 45 000 people were killed so you know when somebody stays in a house when [2:41:30] they know if they walk out of the house to protest they'll be immediately shot and killed [2:41:35] and they issued that you know that was publicly issued it's not a secret that's why so many people say oh well [2:41:41] why are you doing this way we can't let iran have a nuclear weapon you know we got regime change we [2:41:48] do we're dealing with a much different regime than before we're dealing with different people [2:41:53] they're smarter i think they're sharper uh and far less radical we have regime change but uh we didn't [2:42:02] do this for regime change we did it for the fact and my my view is very simple i saw somebody said oh he [2:42:09] doesn't have a plan i have the best plan of all but i'm not going to tell you what my plan is you [2:42:13] know they want me to say here's my plan we're going to attack at 9 47 in the morning and then we're going [2:42:18] to do this and then we're going to and if you don't do that they say i have a plan these people know what [2:42:23] the plan is everybody here knows what the plan is but uh it's very unfair to say we're because i don't [2:42:30] mind being insulted i've been insulted for many years by the by the fake news but you can't it's so bad for the [2:42:37] the people that are sober you just saw two great and john ratliff three unbelievable people they have [2:42:44] a plan every every single thing has been thought out by all of us but i can't reveal the plan to the [2:42:52] media so you know but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation yes please thank you mr [2:42:57] president uh you've said iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks but why would they want [2:43:02] you to blow up their infrastructure to cut off their power wouldn't that be punishing iranians for the [2:43:08] actions of the regime they would be willing just they would be well and it's suffering they would [2:43:12] be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom uh the iranians have and we've had numerous [2:43:19] intercepts please keep bombing bombs that are dropping near their homes please keep bombing do it and these [2:43:28] are people that are living where the bombs are exploding and when we leave and we're not hitting those [2:43:34] areas they're saying please come back come back come back these are the people i don't know what [2:43:40] they do all i can tell you is they want freedom they have lived in a world that you know nothing [2:43:47] about it's a violent horrible world where if you protest you are shot remember the great woman protest [2:43:55] where they had 400 000 500 000 women and they were all enthused and they were gonna protest and everybody [2:44:01] said oh the regime is going to come to an end and then all of a sudden boom boom five six different areas [2:44:12] a woman would go down right between the eyes they had snipers they had five snipers that's all it took [2:44:17] and those four or five hundred thousand women said oh my god what's that oh look over there what's that [2:44:24] a woman shot right between the eyes and after five or six of them go down then you start hearing the purr [2:44:33] through the vast number of people and then they said oh my god who would do that and they're incredible [2:44:43] people but they've lived so horribly they've lived so horribly you know iran was a great country if you [2:44:48] go back 25 years ago or so uh the persian people the they're incredible smart brilliant actually [2:44:57] and i know so many i know coming from new york originally i i know so many people from [2:45:02] around they're incredible people incredible energy and and uh very very brilliant people and [2:45:08] but when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman in the case of the woman remember [2:45:13] the great woman march everybody was like oh this is the end of the country and then snipers selectively [2:45:20] picked every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance they were on top of [2:45:26] buildings nobody even knew where they were where they're coming from this wasn't like a machine gun [2:45:31] which is also very bad they've done that too they did that recently this was snipers sitting on the top [2:45:38] of buildings aiming and hitting women and when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a [2:45:44] riot in the reverse direction and they never came out again and a lot of the the news doesn't talk about [2:45:51] they talk about oh women's rights you want to see women's rights you're not going to see it there [2:45:57] it's amazing when i see some of the stupid people like you know aoc plus three all that group they [2:46:02] talk about oh freedom for iran they don't tell you the real facts women men gays how about gays for iran [2:46:14] they kill the gays they throw them off buildings so i wonder what what's going on i can only say this [2:46:22] they want us to keep bombing even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger [2:46:28] they want freedom for iran but it's very hard for them to protest i actually tell them i said don't go [2:46:33] out i fully understand nobody in this room would go out i don't think there's anything because [2:46:37] frankly it's not a question of bravery we're all brave right you're brave i'm brave we're all brave [2:46:42] but we're also intelligent if you have people shooting at you expert shots with the best rifles [2:46:51] you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time and you're looking here and [2:46:56] you're seeing and you're looking here you're out of there i don't care who [2:46:59] you're going forward mark meredith fox news uh i know that oh thank you go ahead america's watching [2:47:07] uh no um can we go back to the weekend first off was everyone on board with the operation or were [2:47:13] there people that were trying to talk you out of going through the operation this weekend not [2:47:16] everybody was on board somebody else within no there was military people very professional that [2:47:22] preferred not doing it these two were totally on board which was very important they weren't it [2:47:29] had a little difficulty but uh no there were military people that said you just don't do this [2:47:34] you don't go into the heart of a very powerful military you know this is hey you have countries [2:47:40] and countries you have some countries where military is not there's the wrong suit this whole thing is [2:47:46] militarized like nobody's ever seen before half the people are wearing uniforms uh and we had we had [2:47:53] people within the military usually it's not done that's one of the reasons you know i was surprised [2:47:58] somebody said it's the only time it's ever been done i said that's not possible but it is possible [2:48:03] because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path i mean look at some of [2:48:10] the helicopters how they got hit so yeah there were people within the military that said it's a wise [2:48:16] and don't forget how many men did you send all together approximately for the operation i'd love to [2:48:22] keep that a secret okay well we are but i will tell you the number i'll keep it a secret but it was [2:48:30] hundreds and hundreds of these people that's pretty good is he central is he central casting but [2:48:38] hundreds of people went into this journey hundreds of people could have been killed forget about the [2:48:43] equipment a lot of equipment nobody cares hundreds of people could have been killed so we had people that [2:48:50] were within the military that said this is not a wise and i understood that but i decided to do [2:48:57] was there a point that they were going to that you were thinking there's too much on the line and [2:49:01] somebody was saying maybe we abort this now and wait i mean given the resource like the general said [2:49:06] it seemed like there was so much on the line here you must have been thinking this could have [2:49:09] completely changed so the first one which was in many ways as dangerous as the second i guess it gets [2:49:17] because we're flying over daylight you know we're the best at the world at night we have goggles that [2:49:22] nobody we have goggles i've tried them unbelievable i see better with the goggles at night with it than [2:49:28] i see without them during daylight i mean daylight today we have a beautiful day you see just as well [2:49:35] with goggles in many ways it's enhanced so we have the best in the world so it's much safe for us to for [2:49:42] us to do it at night whereas other people no other country has that capability they don't have the [2:49:47] they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do but when i was told flying and in [2:49:54] daylight i think we flew seven hours over iran and that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory [2:50:02] where they have nothing but weapons we took out their anti-aircraft which is great we took out their [2:50:08] radar which is great we took out a lot but they still have you know what hit this one was a shoulder [2:50:14] handheld shoulder missile heat seeking missile so it's not like you know they're totally whatever [2:50:20] but but and they have probably a little luck because you got to get lucky but they shot it and [2:50:27] it got sucked in right by the engine but these guys were out of there they were great their timing [2:50:32] was great but no i was told that this is a very uh dangerous mission i understand they didn't say it's [2:50:38] a foolish mission they said you know we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this this is [2:50:43] i mean you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they because the flight was so long [2:50:48] they had to refuel it's a very dangerous mission uh i just felt it was worth it if you would have told [2:50:55] me that we would have been successful gotten both and nobody was even essentially injured i would have [2:51:01] said that would be impossible yeah thank you very much uh thank you sir we'll come back okay uh given that [2:51:08] you are now dealing you say with a more reasonable um less uh extreme leadership in iran what does that [2:51:15] mean for the protesters for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict what's your [2:51:20] expectation yeah if they assume control if we do something and they assume control i think it's very [2:51:26] positive a big step uh i don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last look [2:51:33] what happened i mean women are being executed because they're not properly clothed they say [2:51:39] they're not properly clothed and they execute the women they absolutely they shoot them right on the [2:51:43] street uh no you have a much different group of people now i'm not saying we are dealing with them [2:51:52] essentially they have till eight o'clock tomorrow night eastern time but we are dealing with them i think [2:51:58] it's going well mr whitkoff is here and jd is involved in the dealing mr whitkoff is sitting right [2:52:05] here and i think it's going fine but we'll have to see you have to understand we've been dealing with [2:52:10] these people for 47 years i'm standing here with a much more powerful iran as of a month ago not [2:52:20] anymore right now they are decapitated but i'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful iran [2:52:26] than it was at any point during 47 years this should have been handled by seven presidents a lot [2:52:33] of presidents and those presidents are saying now every one of them to their friends we should have [2:52:40] done this a long time ago so it's not something i like doing it's very dangerous and we're getting [2:52:45] them at the height of of their strength if i didn't terminate the barack hussein obama iran nuclear [2:52:53] deal they would have had a don't forget that was a path to a nuclear weapon remember this he chose iran [2:53:00] over israel pure and simple how and how israel can vote for a democrat is if you're jewish in new york [2:53:09] city or any place else in this country and how you can vote for a democrat is unbelievable because [2:53:16] he chose iran a very hostile iran