President Trump addresses the nation with update on Iran, downed U.S. Airman

[0:00] Thank you. [0:30] Thank you. [1:00] Thank you. [1:30] Thank you. [2:00] Thank you. [2:30] Thank you. [3:00] Thank you. [3:30] Thank you. [3:32] Thank you. [3:34] Thank you. [4:04] Thank you. [4:06] Thank you very much. [4:22] it's a great honor to be with you and happy easter we had a great easter this is one of our better [4:43] easters i think in a lot of different ways i can say militarily it's been one of the best [4:49] so good afternoon we have quite a bit to discuss we'll go into a pretty good detail and we have [4:58] the people that are most involved will give you exactitude and we're here today to celebrate the [5:05] success of one of the largest most complex most harrowing combat searches i guess you would call [5:12] it a search and rescue mission ever attempted by the military generally when planes are knocked down [5:19] in war especially when you're fighting a strong group an evil group you can't really do this [5:27] because you send in 200 men to pick up one and it's something that's usually not attempted as much [5:35] as you want to attempt and bad things happen to that one or two and in this case we did too and [5:41] might not have been attempted before but we did and we got we had great talent we got a little luck too [5:48] i would say and uh we were helped by a lot of people a lot of great people and it was an honor to be [5:57] involved with it it's uh very historic this is a rescue that's very historic it'll go down to the [6:05] books late thursday night an american f-15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory in iran while [6:14] participating in operation epic fury where we're doing unbelievably well uh well at a level that [6:20] nobody's ever seen before the entire country could be taken out in one night and that night might be [6:28] tomorrow night both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on iranian soil [6:36] i immediately was asked to make a decision i ordered the u.s armed forces to do whatever was necessary to [6:45] bring our brave warriors back home a risky decision because we could have ended up with a hundred dead [6:52] as opposed to one or two it's a hard decision to make but in the united states military we leave no [7:00] american behind we don't do it within hours our armed forces deployed 21 military aircraft into [7:07] hostile airspace many flying at very low altitude being shot by bullets you bring rifles into play [7:15] when you're going that low but there are also certain advantages and in broad daylight over iran for seven [7:24] hours at times facing very very heavy enemy fire we have a helicopter that's got a lot of bullets in it [7:31] it's amazing we just realized how good those those weapons are those our machines are nobody has [7:39] nobody has the equipment that we have nobody has the military that we have not even close [7:44] the most powerful military anywhere in the world by far the flight crews and war fighters aboard those [7:51] aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members this first wave of search and [7:58] rescue forces successfully located the pilot of the f-15 and he was extracted from enemy territory by an [8:07] hh-60 jolly green two helicopter fabulous machine as our warriors faced gunfire at very close range it's [8:17] amazing that when you look at the machinery what happened that nobody was even injured meanwhile the [8:25] second crew member a weapon system officer highly respected colonel had landed a significant distance [8:32] away from the pilot when you're going at those speeds even if you go out two or three seconds later [8:38] it's miles it's miles and miles away because you're going fast he was injured quite badly and stranded in [8:46] an area teeming with terrorists from the islamic revolutionary guard corps rough group [8:52] as well as besieged military militia and local authorities many uh on top of everything else [9:02] they told the communities actually with inside of iran the people of iran they were given [9:09] a tremendous incentive to find this pilot despite the peril the officer followed his training and [9:16] climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude something [9:23] they were trained to do in order to evade capture they want to always go as far away from the site [9:32] of the shoot down you want to go as far away because they all head right to that site you want to be as [9:38] far away as you can and he was injured and he was an amazing amazing thing he scaled clip faces bleeding [9:49] rather profusely treated his own wounds and contacted american forces to transmit his location they have a [9:57] very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them at all times and when they when they go out on [10:08] these missions they make sure they have lots of battery space and they're in good shape and this one [10:14] worked really well amazingly saved his life we immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from [10:22] the mountain holdout and he kept going higher and higher the mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and [10:29] really very very hard to find the second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft including four bombers [10:38] 64 fighters 48 refueling tankers 13 rescue aircraft and more we were bringing them all over and a lot of it [10:47] was subterfuge we wanted to have them think he was in a different location because they had a vast [10:54] military force out there thousands thousands of people were looking so we wanted them to look in [11:01] different areas so we were scattered all over like we were right on top of them we had seven different [11:07] locations where they thought and they were very confused they said well wait a minute they've got groups [11:12] here they've got groups there it's an amazing thing i was listening to these great people these great [11:21] generals general raisin kane who's amazing and pete hegseth was amazing but i listened to the whole thing [11:27] it was pretty amazing so that all these different sites where everybody thought he was located we think [11:33] we have them over there because they have nine planes circling a little area that's 25 miles down the coast [11:42] so in a breathtaking show of skill and precision lethality and force america's military descended [11:49] on the area the real area engaged the enemy rescued the stranded officer destroyed all threats and [11:59] exited iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind the heroic f-15 weapon system officer had [12:08] evaded capture on the ground in iran for almost 48 hours that's a long time when you're in tough shape [12:16] and when you're bleeding it's a long time when uh when we left as you probably know we had two large [12:24] planes old pretty old planes it carried a lot we needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out [12:31] obviously because going in we needed to be able to scale mountains and we had a lot of equipment but the [12:39] sand was it was sandy wet sand so we thought there may be a problem taking off because of the weight [12:46] of the plane and then we also had all the men jumping back onto the planes and they got pretty well [12:52] bogged down and we had a contingency plan which was unbelievable where lighter faster aircraft came in [13:00] and they took them out we blew up the old planes we blew them up to smithereens because we had equipment [13:07] on the planes that frankly we'd like to take but i don't think it was worthwhile spending another four [13:12] hours there taking it off so we didn't want anybody to have we have the best best equipment anywhere in [13:17] the world we didn't want anybody examining our uh anti-aircraft and other equipment so these were large [13:25] planes that were old and pretty old and we blew them up and we had faster lighter planes come in and [13:33] they were able to land on the sand we needed the bigger planes because we had so much equipment that [13:37] we knew we took three helicopters over there which were very strongly used and couldn't have lived [13:43] without them they did and they performed unbelievably well and if you'd see it you wouldn't believe it [13:48] they came off the plane and these guys had them the the uh the rotors were off they rebuilt these [13:56] helicopters in less than 10 minutes and that was one of the more amazing things these are helicopters [14:04] uh small unbelievably powerful but small hell very small so it can get into certain areas [14:13] and they got them off the plane and they rebuilt all three of them in a matter of less than i would [14:20] say less than 10 minutes it's pretty amazing what the the genius of these people who would think that [14:26] you'd think it would take five days to build them and in some companies it would take five days [14:30] and they wouldn't do it well but they served us well they as commander in chief i never forget the [14:37] extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle and the genius i mean think of it [14:43] having a contingency of three planes waiting because we think the sand is so bad that we probably won't be [14:49] able to take off and the planes really got bogged sand was this was not much of a runway this was a farm [14:57] not a runway it's a farm but uh it did the trick but to have a contingency as opposed to having to [15:04] wait two days can you imagine right in the middle this was central this was right you would call it [15:10] central casting if you were doing a movie for location and probably the toughest area of iran [15:16] where we'd be sitting there so these planes came in those pilots came in so fast and so quick [15:21] and got out of there everybody got aboard and just got 15 minute intervals one load out one load out [15:31] one load out the three it happened and we were watching and we said that's amazing it's in many [15:37] ways i was i was almost more impressed by the contingency that we had than the fact that you know [15:45] if we would have had a runway or decent soil but it was an amazing thing but we thank god for every [15:51] single one of them and the talent the genius is not even talent it's genius it's the whole ball game [15:58] every one of them if you look at what we did with maduro we went into a military compound a massive with [16:06] thousands and thousands of soldiers and within a matter of minutes and he lived behind iron doors [16:11] there were steel doors broke them down so quickly and within almost minutes he was in the back of [16:17] these planes it was a similar group incredible we have incredibly talented people and if the time [16:24] comes we move heaven and earth to bring them home safely we're going to bring our people home safely [16:30] i want to thank every member of the u.s armed forces involved in these historic operations they [16:36] really were historic it's just not something that's done and you'd understand it not that they don't want [16:41] to do it but when you're going into areas when you look at these helicopters when you look at the [16:46] amount of bullets and everything else that they took when you go into these areas you don't come [16:51] out like we came out god was watching us tell you well it was the easter we were in an easter [17:00] territory i guess but god was watching us amazing because when you look at the machinery they took [17:05] they took damage tells you first thing i said is these are unbelievable machines how they flew back and [17:12] not even much of a problem but these two extraordinary rescues because it was two and as you probably [17:19] know we didn't talk about the first one for an hour then somebody leaked something which will hopefully [17:25] find that leaker we're looking very hard to find that leaker and talked about there's somebody missing [17:33] they basically said that we have one and there's somebody missing well they didn't know there was [17:38] somebody missing until this leaker gave the information so whoever it was we think we'll be able to find it [17:43] out because we're going to go to the media company that released it and we're going to say [17:51] national security give it up or go to jail and we know who and you know who we're talking about [17:59] because some things you can't do because when they did that all of a sudden the entire country of [18:05] iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life [18:11] and it also made it much more difficult for the pilots and for the people going in to search for [18:20] him all of a sudden uh they know that there's somebody out there they see all these planes coming in [18:25] it became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked that we have one we've rescued one [18:34] but there's another one out there that we're trying to get so actually the country iran put out a major [18:44] notice you all saw it offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot so in addition to [18:51] a hostile very talented very good very evil military we had millions of people trying to get an award so [19:02] when you add that to it but we have to find that leaker because that's a sick person probably didn't [19:08] realize the extent of how bad it was i can't imagine that the person did but we're going to find out [19:14] it's national security and the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn't say and that [19:22] doesn't last long and i think everybody would understand that they put this mission at great risk [19:26] they put that man at great risk and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him [19:31] because everyone now knows that we're going in over the past 37 days america's armed forces have [19:39] carried out more than 10 000 combat flights over iran unheard of striking more than 13 000 targets [19:47] the f-15 we lost last week was the first manned aircraft down by the enemy in this entire operation [19:55] with thousands and thousands of flights they got lucky it was a lucky hit you know eventually you get [20:00] lucky but we got lucky too because we got both of them back but it's a record that is unparalleled in [20:07] the history of military air operations nobody's ever seen anything like it it's such an honor to be [20:15] involved with it we were up late at night and then we were waiting for those contingent planes to come [20:24] in and we say come on let's go get in because they're waiting out on this uh farm without a runway with wet [20:34] crummy soil sand mostly sand wet sand and it eats planes alive and we're waiting and we're saying [20:42] i hope that one can land and take off and they came in like magic boom boom boom one after another it was [20:49] like genius i'm so impressed by that because we were a little concerned we said boy if they don't get in [20:56] and get up fast we're sitting in them and that's called iran prime right general that's that's where the [21:04] whole bed is and here we are sitting there waiting for a plane but they came in so fast and so hard [21:10] and these guys knew exactly what let's go come on get in let's go they came one right after another [21:17] not at the same time they don't want to come at the same time they had to come right after each [21:22] other they didn't have any room there was barely any room to land tiny little patch of very wet earth [21:29] and sand so i just i'm so proud of the people that i have standing up here with me and many others [21:36] that worked i mean so many steve whitkoff's over here he's doing fantastically jared kushner [21:42] but the people that are here the job they did is amazing and i think i'm going to introduce the head [21:49] of the cia and he is a man who he's central casting okay if we cast a movie he's going to play [21:56] the head of the cia he's one of the few john ratcliffe he um he did a phenomenal job that [22:03] night he did something that i don't know if you want to talk about it if you want you can i'm not [22:07] sure he's supposed to i'm not going to talk about it but he really the cia was very responsible for [22:12] finding this little speck it's like they used an expression on one of the shows the general was [22:17] talking about it's like finding a needle in a haystack finding this pilot and the cia was unbelievable [22:24] and you may if you can you'll talk it might be classified in which case i'd have to put him in [22:29] jail if he talks about it and i don't want to put him in jail he doesn't deserve that so john do you [22:35] want to say a few words thank you thank you mr president it's a privilege to be here with you today [22:42] to share what we can about this exceptional mission and to recognize the ingenuity and bravery of those [22:50] who executed it as well as the leadership and resolve of the president who ordered it one thing that [22:58] has been clear to me in this role is that the flawless military operations that the department [23:03] of war is known for are hostage to flawless intelligence we saw that in the skies over iran [23:11] in operation midnight hammer last summer we witnessed it in venezuela during operation absolute resolve [23:18] we've seen it against the cartels in the western hemisphere and we're seeing it every day in operation [23:25] epic fury including this mission to rescue an aviator buried deep behind [23:30] enemy lines because it is the unique tradition of the u.s armed forces that we leave no man or woman [23:38] behind this was a no-fail mission that was the spirit in which the president put us to work [23:46] and we were determined not to let him down or our airmen down as an agency the cia possesses unique [23:55] capabilities that only the president can deploy some of these capabilities fall under covert action [24:02] authorities and because covert means exactly that i'm not going to be able to tell you everything [24:09] that you want to know at the president's direction we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies [24:17] that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting [24:24] for a single saint of grain of sand in the middle of a desert this was also a race against the clock [24:32] as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible while at the same time [24:39] keeping our enemies misdirected for that reason in addition to the human and technical assets [24:47] deployed by the president to find our airmen cia executed a deception campaign to confuse the iranians [24:55] who were desperately hunting for our airmen on saturday morning we achieved our primary objective [25:03] by finding and providing confirmation that one of america's best and bravest was alive and concealed [25:11] in a mountain crevice still invisible to the enemy but not to the cia that confirmation was relayed [25:20] by secretary hegseth to the president and the operation quickly moved to the execution phase [25:27] following the successful exfiltration on saturday night our intelligence reflects that the iranians were [25:33] embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission when the president [25:42] asked me to lead the cia he made it clear get back to basics no politics no agendas tackle the hardest [25:50] problems and execute the toughest missions this president is about results and now that's what his cia [25:59] is about too the professionals at the agency and at the department of war deserve immense credit for their [26:07] flawless execution during this daring mission their skill creativity and courage are unmatched on the [26:14] battlefield wherever they step but none of that matters and all of that is wasted without a president [26:23] with the political courage to put them into action mr president i've had the privilege of seeing you [26:32] act with political courage in the best interest of the united states up close on a daily basis and i'm [26:36] grateful that this successful mission has given the american people a window into that as well [26:43] the secretary and chairman will tell you that our service members convent the confidence is boosted [26:48] by a commander-in-chief who has their back the same way they have yours and i know that the confidence [26:56] of cia's officers is boosted by the knowledge that their work is informing a president who's not afraid [27:04] to make the hardest decisions when the stakes are highest and to the american people your confidence [27:13] should be boosted by knowing that the security of the nation is in the hands of a president who's [27:19] willing to take on problems that have confounded both sides of the political aisle for nearly half [27:25] a century it is an honor to serve under a leader who just proved that you can believe him when he says [27:33] no matter what we will leave no one behind we will come for you thank you well john thank you for the [27:50] collaboration the cia as well incredible and ongoing partnership ladies and gentlemen fellow americans [27:57] and especially the brave warriors in our armed forces over this easter weekend the united states [28:03] military has once again proved why we possess the greatest fighting force the world has ever known [28:10] in two extraordinary combat search and rescue operations deep inside enemy territory in iran our [28:17] warriors executed missions of breathtaking skill courage and precision when our warriors are unleashed as [28:26] this president has allowed them to be they are unstoppable when american airmen were down behind enemy [28:34] lines our forces and our president did not hesitate special operators supported by elite air crews and [28:40] intelligence professionals moved swiftly and decisively into treacherous mountain terrain under the constant [28:46] threat of iranian forces closing in ultimately it was an impotent iranian threat and today as the cia [28:55] director mentioned iran's military and we know this is embarrassed and humiliated and they should be [29:01] now these are not routine operations they were high risk high stakes missions conducted in the heart of [29:08] enemy territory this was not just barely into iran this was deep into iran involving coordinated strikes to [29:14] suppress threats deception tactics to protect our teams and full synchronization across air ground [29:21] and special operations the iranians are still asking themselves right now how did the americans [29:27] do this one downed airmen evaded capture for more than a day scaling rugged ridges while hunted [29:35] by the enemy when he was finally able to activate his emergency transponder his first message [29:43] was simple and it was powerful he sent a message god is good in that moment of isolation and danger his [29:53] faith and fighting spirit shown through you see shot down on a friday good friday hidden in a cave [30:02] a crevice all of saturday and rescued on sunday flown out of iran as the sun was rising on easter sunday a [30:15] pilot reborn all home and accounted for a nation rejoicing god is good despite incoming fire and [30:26] unforgiving conditions our troops brought every american home no american lives were lost we leave [30:33] no man behind and that is not luck it's the result of unmatched training superior technology an unbreakable [30:41] warrior ethos and sheer american grit our special operators pilots and support crews performed with [30:49] near perfection under fire and they were lethal just ask any iranian soldier who dared attempt to get [30:58] anywhere near that pilot before or during that mission death from above our troops turned a potential [31:07] tragedy into a resounding demonstration of american resolve and capability that's what excellence in [31:13] uniform looks like but make no mistake about it none of this would have been possible without the [31:21] courageous leadership and ironclad determination of president donald j trump from the moment our [31:28] airmen went down president trump made it clear we will leave no one behind the first mission the first [31:35] of two was an audacious daylight thunder run right up the middle it was authorized in less than two hours from [31:44] those that pilot going down when we knew where he was and it was authorized in the middle of the night [31:51] because anybody that's worked for miss this man knows he's up in the middle of the night [31:55] authorized immediately without hesitation audaciously the second mission as soon as we knew where that pilot [32:02] was john was certainly helpful in that also executed immediately you know i looked up at my screen when [32:09] the final mission was complete inside our skiff our secure facility and we have a running vtc a running [32:15] coordination cell and the top of it read 45 minutes and 45 hours and 56 minutes for 45 hours and 56 minutes we [32:27] held that call open for coordination from the moment our pilots went down our mission was [32:32] unblinking the call never dropped the meeting never stopped the planning never ceased the president [32:40] demanded rapid decisive action he backed our military with the full weight of his resolve refusing to [32:46] let enemy propaganda or tactical setbacks deter us his leadership ensured that every lethal and [32:53] non-lethal resource was brought to bear that our forces had the authorities and the support they needed [32:59] to succeed when the president says he has the backs of our war fighters he means it and it means a great [33:06] deal and it's a big difference on the battlefield president trump understands that peace through strength [33:12] is not a slogan it is a doctrine that saves american lives his unwavering commitment to rebuilding our [33:19] military and restoring the warrior spirit has paid dividends in missions just like this one under his [33:27] command america projects power with confidence and brings our people home with victory and that [33:33] continues today by the way per the president's direction today will be the largest volume of [33:38] strikes since day one of this operation tomorrow even more than today and then iran has a choice [33:46] choose wisely because this president does not play around you can ask soleimani you can ask maduro [33:55] you can ask khamenei to those heroes who planned and executed these rescues your nation stands in awe [34:03] i stand in awe the chairman stands in awe we all stand in awe of your professionalism and bravery we [34:09] serve for you you embody the very best of america to the rescued airmen and their families welcome home [34:16] your courage and endurance the quiet declaration of faith amid the storm inspires us all god is good [34:26] every day and to our adversaries watching from tehran let this be a clear message the united states [34:34] military will go anywhere at any time to protect our own and complete the mission we execute with [34:42] precision we control the skies you see we flew for seven hours in daylight over iran to get the first [34:50] pilot and we flew seven hours in the middle of the night to get the second and iran did nothing about [34:59] it we fight with honor and under president trump's leadership we win so god bless our troops god [35:06] bless president trump and god bless the united states of america well good afternoon everyone um [35:15] thank you mr president thank you mr secretary i know before i start i know many of you want specific [35:21] details uh in these briefings we will share what we can but i will retain what i must in the event that [35:29] we have to go do this again sometime and i cannot stress the importance as the president said around [35:35] operational security the secretary and i will do a more detailed briefing tomorrow morning and we look [35:41] forward to sharing the details that we can on thursday 2 april at 10 10 p.m eastern time 4 40 in the [35:48] morning local iran time the joint personnel recovery center which handles the central command area of [35:54] responsibility declared an isolated personnel recovery event for a u.s air force f-15e strike [36:01] eagle call sign dude 4 4 which was down in hostile iranian territory the pilot and weapons system [36:08] officer had both safely ejected and were isolated behind enemy lines following confirmation of active [36:15] rescue beacons and on the direction of the secretary and by order of the president a rescue operation [36:21] was launched with the stated purpose of bringing both americans home safely as the secretary said [36:28] several hours later on the morning after positively locating the front seater call sign dude 4 4 alpha [36:35] and aware of an aggressive ongoing search by the enemy a u.s central command plan was approved by the [36:43] secretary and the president shortly thereafter a u.s air force combat search and rescue task force [36:50] comprised of a-10 warthogs in their sandy role and i'll describe what that is in a minute hc-130 combat [36:58] king 2s hh-60 jolly green 2 helicopters and air force special warfare airmen a package comprised of combat [37:07] rescue officers and para-rescuement operators audaciously penetrated enemy territory in broad daylight [37:15] to find fix and recover dude 4 4 alpha from behind enemy lines this was an incredibly dangerous mission [37:26] an incredibly dangerous undertaking but a filled promise made to every american war fighter that you [37:35] will not be left behind we will always come find you and we will always bring you home over the next [37:43] hours the search and rescue task force crossed the beach entered into iranian airspace protected by a [37:50] fighter strike package and moved into the objective area all under fire in route as some of you have [37:57] seen on social media the helicopters took gas off the c-130s and pressed onward and forward up into the [38:04] objective area while this was ongoing and out in front of them the sandy flight of a-10s and other [38:11] remotely piloted aircraft drones and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging [38:18] the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep them away from the front seater and allow the pickup force [38:25] to get into the objective area during this engagement one of the sandy aircraft the one primarily responsible [38:33] for communicating with the downed pilot was hit by enemy fire this pilot continued to fight continued [38:41] the mission and then upon exit flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane [38:48] was not landable this was one of our a-10 sandy aircraft the pilot then made the decision to eject [38:55] over friendly territory and was quickly and rec safely recovered and is doing fine after picking up dude [39:03] four four alpha the hh-60 jolly green fight was engaged by every single person in iran who had a small arms [39:12] weapon and one of the aircraft the trailing aircraft took several hits the crew sustained minor injury and [39:19] they are going to be fine a note for those of you that do not know what a sandy does named after the flight [39:27] call sign that did this very mission in vietnam flying a1 sky raiders and a7 corsairs a sandy has one mission [39:38] get to the survivor bring the rescue force forward and put themselves between that survivor on the ground [39:46] and the enemy they are committed to this this is what they live for and this is what they've trained for [39:53] over many many years the a10 force and the rescue force did fantastic did a fantastic job rescuing dude [40:03] four four alpha he was recovered friday afternoon as i said and the nation needs to know this this was an [40:12] incredibly brave and courageous mission and a testament to the courage skill and tenacity of the joint force [40:22] and our leaders and especially a daylight option having the guts to try means so much to so many [40:30] meanwhile the backseater as the president the secretary have said had continued to work and survive [40:38] through the hours of daylight dude four four bravo the backseater evaded using every means available [40:46] the efforts of the united states military the central intelligence agency and others [40:51] we're attempting to find and locate with precision dude four four bravo the backseater a note on on [40:59] the backseater and the front seater the single most important contributor to a successful rescue [41:07] operation is the spirit of attack inside the heart of that downed aviator their will to survive [41:15] their will to evade their will to recover is everything in this case the backseater's absolute [41:22] commitment to surviving made much of our efforts possible on saturday 4 april after establishing [41:30] positive communications with the backseater we learned as the president said that he was injured and [41:37] actively evading enemy forces and thanks to our interagency partners we were able to get eyes on his [41:44] location and positively idm throughout this entire time the enemy force continued to search for 4 4 bravo [41:52] and the joint force continued to strike them over and over and over again fighting off marginal [41:59] weather in iran and the enemy search for a second time on saturday at the recommendation the centcom [42:06] commander and at the approval of the secretary and the president we launched a rescue task force to [42:11] recover dude 4 4 bravo again this came to the president and the secretary for approval this time with a much [42:19] larger force package based on the time that the enemy had to prepare to find 4 4 bravo again this force was [42:28] protected by a10 warthogs using the sandy call sign and this force had one single mission do everything [42:36] they can to bring an american home this meant having a plan being prepared to execute that plan and more [42:45] importantly being prepared for multiple simultaneous contingencies and because of this forces professionalism [42:54] grit and determination fight off two enemies at the same time the enemy searching for 4 4 bravo and [43:02] contingencies which anyone who has done these types of missions knows we run into every single time the [43:11] force fought off both of those enemies incredibly well during the period of darkness on saturday [43:17] and as the secretary said into easter sunday and into the daylight the force fought its way in [43:24] and rescued dude 4 4 bravo they were protected overhead by an air armada including tactical drones [43:33] strike aircraft strike aircraft and others the force fought through multiple simultaneous contingencies [43:40] something no other nation no other military can do and safely returned dude 4 4 bravo the backseater [43:49] home and all other americans home as well at midnight 12 local eastern time easter sunday more than 50 [44:00] hours after the start of this operation the joint personnel recovery center declared dude 4 4 bravo both the [44:09] front and backseater returned to friendly territory the courage demonstrated by both the pilot and the weapons [44:18] system officer while isolated and them invading the enemy cannot be overstated their grit and warfighting [44:26] tenacity is a direct result of the absolute trust they have in our rescue forces their training and [44:33] their will to survive in return they always knew that we would be ordered to go get them and they always [44:41] knew that we would be coming to get them these two operations reflect our nation's most sacred obligation [44:48] to our military service members we leave no one behind bless you it also perfectly captures the first [44:56] truth of our special operations forces that people are more important than hardware that is the [45:04] standard we live by and the rescue forces that executed these missions operate under under a clear motto [45:12] these things we do that others may live their actions were a direct embodiment of that commitment to [45:20] others and i could not be more proud of each and every one of them today as the secretary said to our [45:29] enemies this operation serves as a clear reminder of the capability and will of america's joint force [45:37] the united states of america will cover our war fighters anywhere in the world under any conditions [45:44] when we want to we will always bring overwhelming skill and firepower to every member of the joint force [45:51] our interagency partners the leadership at centcom and our leaders at the department and above thank [45:57] you i'm proud of each and every one of you and thankful to our deployed forces and their families [46:04] and lastly and most importantly to dude four four welcome home job well done thank you pretty amazing [46:18] pretty amazing and uh these two gentlemen have been from day one they've been perfecto you know i got [46:26] to know general kane in my first term because he was able to take out isis in four weeks instead of the [46:34] four-year projection that was given to me by other much lesser generals i said you know if i ever do this [46:40] again that's going to be the head of my joint chiefs of staff and we worked it that way didn't we [46:46] and it's amazing he took out isis we defeated isis in four weeks i was told it would take four years i [46:53] flew to iraq to find out with the greatest equipment in the world why would it take four years and he [47:00] told me sir it won't it'll take four weeks and you'll have time left over and that's exactly what [47:06] happened so he's great and pete all i can say is that he was treated very unfairly and now those same [47:14] people that treated him unfairly that fought against him they called me up saying what a great [47:19] choice he was they said well what happened uh during this nomination what happened to you i'm [47:25] telling you people that were not forum senators friends of mine sir i don't think you're doing the [47:30] right thing now they call me up what a choice these two guys are fantastic and john ratcliffe was [47:37] incredible it was actually their genius that called us from he was 40 miles away and he said you know [47:46] we're seeing something moving up in the mountain this is at night and they kept the camera on him [47:52] for 45 minutes he wasn't moving and they said you know probably wrong but we're seeing something [47:58] moving this is a vast mountain vast thick with bushes trees he said we see something moving 40 miles away [48:08] it was a the head of a human being i'm telling you it's moving and then all of a sudden 45 minutes [48:16] later he moved a lot stood up and they said we have him and that was really the beginning of something [48:25] incredible we had an idea where he was but not specifically that's a big mountain so uh i want [48:33] to thank the cia too i don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done yes please [48:39] thank you very much mr president for this great opportunity country it has super army you make a [48:48] difference mr president thank you for your greatest leadership thank you i have two quick questions [48:54] mr president what was your reaction when you learned that kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil to [49:03] the international market with your support as united states of america well i expected that we've gotten [49:10] along with the kurds for a long time so i expected that another question what would what would be your [49:19] reaction if the iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire mr president well [49:27] they should do it but again the consequences are great i mean they were told you if you protest you [49:33] will be shot immediately you saw what happened to the young wrestler he was a great champion [49:38] by the way he was a great wrestler one of the top in the world and he and his two friends were hung [49:45] and all they did was say a little bit about liberty they wanted liberty and they were violently executed [49:52] but the number is up to probably 45 000 people were killed so you know when somebody stays in a house [49:59] when they know if they walk out of the house to protest they'll be immediately shot and killed [50:04] and they issued that you know that was publicly issued it's not a secret that's why so many people say [50:09] oh well why are you doing this way we can't let iran have a nuclear weapon you know we got regime [50:16] change we do we're dealing with a much different regime than before we're dealing with different [50:21] people they're smarter i think they're sharper uh and far less radical we have regime change but uh [50:31] we didn't do this for regime change we did it for the fact and my my view was very simple i saw [50:37] somebody said oh he doesn't have a plan i have the best plan of all but i'm not going to tell you [50:41] what my plan is you know they want me to say here's my plan we're going to attack at 9 47 in the [50:46] morning and then we're going to do this and then we're going to and if you don't do that they say [50:50] i have a plan these people know what the plan is everybody here knows what the plan is but uh [50:57] it's uh very unfair to say we don't because i don't mind being insulted i've been insulted for many [51:01] years by the by the fake news but you can't it's so bad for the for people that are so per you just [51:08] saw two great and john ratliff three unbelievable people they have a plan every every single thing [51:16] has been thought out by all of us but i can't reveal the plan to the media so you know but we're [51:23] just thrilled by the success of this operation yes please thank you mr president uh you've said [51:27] iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks but why would they want you to blow up their [51:32] infrastructure to cut off their power wouldn't that be punishing iranians for the actions of the [51:37] regime they would be willing just they would be and it's suffering they would be willing to suffer [51:42] that in order to have freedom uh the iranians have and we've had numerous intercepts please keep bombing [51:51] bombs that are dropping near their homes please keep bombing do it and these are people that are living [51:58] where the bombs are exploding and when we leave and we're not hitting those areas they're saying please [52:04] come back come back come back these are the people i don't know what they do all i can tell you is they [52:11] want freedom they have lived in a world that you know nothing about it's a violent horrible world where [52:20] if you protest you are shot remember the great woman protest where they had 400 000 500 000 women and [52:26] they were all in twos and they were gonna protest and everybody said oh the regime's gonna come to an [52:32] end and then all of a sudden boom boom five six different areas a woman would go down right between [52:42] the eyes they had snipers they had five snipers that's all it took and those four or five hundred [52:48] thousand women said oh my god what's that oh look over there what's that a woman shot right between the [52:56] eyes and after five or six of them go down then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of [53:04] people and then they said oh my god who would do that and they're incredible people but they've [53:13] lived so horribly they've lived so horribly you know iran was a great country if you go back 25 [53:18] years ago or so uh the persian people the they're incredible smart brilliant actually and i know so [53:26] many i know coming from new york originally i i know so many people from iran they're incredible people [53:32] incredible energy and and uh very very brilliant people and but when you're standing in a group [53:39] and protesting and you have a woman in the case of the woman remember the great woman march everybody [53:43] was like oh this is the end of the country and then snipers selectively picked every single one was [53:51] shot right between the eyes from a long distance they were on top of buildings nobody even knew where [53:57] they were where they're coming from this wasn't like a machine gun which is also very bad they've done [54:01] that too they did that recently this was snipers sitting on the top of buildings aiming and hitting [54:09] women and when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction and [54:16] they never came out again and a lot of the the news doesn't talk about that they talk about oh [54:22] women's rights you want to see women's rights you're not going to see it there [54:25] it's amazing when i see some of the stupid people like you know aoc plus three all that group they [54:31] talk about oh freedom for iran they don't tell you the real facts women men gays how about [54:41] gays for iran they kill the gays they throw them off buildings so i wonder what what's going on i can [54:49] only say this they want us to keep bombing even if it jeopardizes because their life is in much greater [54:56] danger they want freedom for iran but it's very hard for them to protest i actually tell them i [55:01] said don't go out i fully understand nobody in this room would go out i don't think there's any [55:05] because frankly it's not a question of bravery we're all brave right you're brave i'm brave we're all [55:10] brave but we're also intelligent if you have people shooting at you expert shots with the best rifles you [55:19] can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time and you're looking here and you're [55:25] seeing and you're looking here you're out of there i don't care who mark meredith fox news uh [55:32] i know that oh thank you go ahead america's watching uh no um can we go back to the weekend [55:39] first off was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying to talk you [55:43] out of going through with the operation this weekend not everybody was on board somebody else within no [55:48] there was military people very professional that preferred not doing it these two were totally on [55:54] board which was very important they weren't it had a little difficulty but uh no there were military [56:01] people that said you just don't do this you don't go into the heart of a very powerful military you [56:07] know this is hey you have countries and countries you have some countries where military is not there [56:13] so wrong so this whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before half the people are wearing [56:18] uniforms uh and we had we had people within the military usually it's not done that's one of the [56:26] reasons you know i was surprised somebody said it's the only time it's ever been done i said that's not [56:30] possible but it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path [56:38] i mean look at some of the helicopters how they got hit so yeah there were people within the military [56:44] that said it's a wise and don't forget how many men did you send all together approximately for the [56:50] operation i'd love to keep that a secret okay well we but i will tell you the number i'll keep it a [56:58] secret but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people that's pretty good is he central is he central [57:05] casting but hundreds of people went into this journey hundreds of people could have been killed [57:11] forget about the equipment a lot of equipment nobody cares hundreds of people could have been [57:17] killed so we had people that were within the military that said this is not a wise and i understood [57:22] that but i decided to do it was there a point that they were going to that you were thinking [57:28] there's too much on the line and somebody was saying maybe we abort this now and wait i mean [57:33] given the resources like the general said it seemed like there was so much on the line here [57:37] you must have been thinking well this could have completely changed so the first one [57:41] which was in many ways as dangerous as the second i guess it gets because we're flying over daylight [57:48] you know we're the best at the world at night we have goggles that nobody we have goggles i've tried [57:53] a minute unbelievable i see better with the goggles at night with than i see without them during daylight [57:59] i mean daylight today we have a beautiful day you see just as well with goggles in many ways it's enhanced [58:07] so we have the best in the world so it's much safer for us to for us to do it at night whereas other [58:13] people no other country has that capability they don't have the they don't have that particular [58:17] piece of equipment like we do but when i was told flying and in daylight i think we flew seven hours [58:25] over iran and that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons [58:33] we took out their anti-aircraft which is great we took out their radar which is great we took out a [58:38] lot but they still have you know what hit this one was a shoulder handheld shoulder missile heat [58:44] seeking missile so it's not like you know they're totally whatever but but and they have probably a [58:51] little luck because you got to get lucky but they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine but [58:58] these guys were out of there they were great their timing was great but no i was told that this is a [59:03] very uh dangerous mission i understand they didn't say it's a foolish mission they said you know we're [59:09] going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this this is i mean you have tankers that are flying over [59:15] this area so that they because the flight was so long they had to refuel it's a very dangerous mission [59:21] i just felt it was worth it if you would have told me that we would have been successful gotten both [59:27] and nobody was even essentially injured i would have said that would be impossible yeah mr president [59:33] thank you very much uh thank you sir well i'll come back to you okay uh given that you are now dealing [59:38] you say with a more reasonable um less uh extreme leadership in iran what does that mean for the [59:45] protesters for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict what's your [59:49] expectation yeah if they assume control if we do something and they assume control i think it's very [59:55] positive a big step uh i don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last [1:00:01] look what happened i mean women are being executed because they're not properly clothed [1:00:07] they say they're not properly clothed and they execute the women they absolutely they shoot them [1:00:11] right on the street uh no you have a much different group of people now i'm not saying [1:00:18] we are dealing with them uh essentially they have till eight o'clock tomorrow night eastern time [1:00:25] but we are dealing with them i think it's going well mr whitkoff is here and jd's involved in the [1:00:31] dealing mr whitkoff is sitting right here and i think it's going fine but we'll have to see you have [1:00:37] to understand we've been dealing with these people for 47 years i'm standing here with a much more [1:00:44] powerful iran as of a month ago not anymore right now they are decapitated but i'm standing here a month [1:00:53] ago with a much more powerful iran than it was at any point during 47 years this should have been [1:00:59] handled by seven presidents a lot of presidents and those presidents are saying now every one of them [1:01:07] to their friends we should have done this a long time ago so it's not something i like doing it's very [1:01:13] dangerous and we're getting them at the height of of their strength if i didn't terminate the barack [1:01:19] hussein obama iran nuclear deal they would have had a don't forget that was a path to a nuclear weapon [1:01:26] remember this he chose iran over israel pure and simple how and how israel can vote for a democrat is [1:01:36] if you're jewish in new york city or any place else in this country and how you can vote for a democrat [1:01:43] is in belief because he chose iran a very hostile iran remember when he filled up a 757 with cash [1:01:52] billions of dollars of cash and he sent it over to them then they gave them tens of billions of dollars [1:01:58] he chose iran over israel and really the arab world if you look because you know the other [1:02:05] saudi arabia qatar uae i mean you take a look i mean i can add kuwait and i can add bahrain [1:02:12] and you can add others he chose such an unlikely candidate nobody could believe it frankly if [1:02:19] you're going to choose between iraq and iran he should have chosen he should have befriended iraq [1:02:26] he went in the exact opposite direction of of all thinking and he made a terrible mistake but that was [1:02:33] a road to a nuclear weapon and when i terminated that everyone said oh he terminated it it was one [1:02:40] of the best things we ever did because he had a road to a nuclear weapon and it was going to it [1:02:45] was a very short-term deal you know countries don't do 10-year deals countries do hundreds of years [1:02:51] you don't do a 10-year deal for a country you need this isn't you're a landlord you're renting a store [1:02:56] on on a certain street and you give somebody a five-year or 10-year lease this is a country [1:03:01] it was a short-term deal it was ready to expire i terminated it before it expired took a lot of heat [1:03:08] and it was one of the best things they ever did because he would have had a nuclear weapon then [1:03:11] he would have had another nuclear weapon had those beautiful b2 bombers not gone in eight months ago [1:03:17] and obliterated that said and by the way the word is obliteration cnn said well maybe it wasn't [1:03:24] complete it was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it it was obliteration but if we [1:03:30] didn't hit them that was a courageous decision too because we had all those planes flying in at night [1:03:36] with very little cover unbelievable stealth planes and they were able to do their job if we didn't do [1:03:43] that iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level either one of those two instances and if they [1:03:51] did in my opinion i told this to bb netanyahu yesterday israel would have been extinguished large [1:04:00] portions of the middle east would have been extinguished whether it's saudi arabia qatar uae or others [1:04:07] and you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them they didn't think they were going [1:04:11] to be hit they thought they'd be watching us fight and all of a sudden uae got hit by 1500 missiles [1:04:19] he would have taken them out also and they were powerful if i didn't come along and terminate the [1:04:26] obama deal which was terrible the iran nuclear deal was a a road to a nuclear weapon a big one unlimited [1:04:33] legally i terminated it without even much thought it was so easy i terminated that and then the b2 [1:04:42] bombers and i did one other thing i had killed kassam solemini who was an evil genius and the reason i [1:04:52] did it i heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases and had he lived i believe we would [1:05:01] be fighting perhaps a different iran right now because because he's never he's never been replaced [1:05:10] you know and i also i did one other but that this one was not picked up osama bin laden if you read [1:05:16] my book i said you got to take him out one year before the world trade center came down [1:05:21] so i wish you'd read the book but you as a president to be a good president i believe you have to have [1:05:30] good instincts and a lot of this is instinct yeah please thank you so much mr president last week [1:05:39] last week you suggested that europe should take the lead on reopening the strait of harmuz [1:05:43] uh has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour i mean 48-hour ultimatum [1:05:50] and secondly would a new new ceasefire include israel or would it just be between iran i can't talk about [1:05:55] ceasefire but i can tell you that we have a active willing participant on the other side [1:06:03] they would like to be able to make a deal i can't say any more than that [1:06:09] you've listed you've listed goals excuse me please go ahead you've listed [1:06:12] thank you mr president who are you with who are you with my name is i'm with the largest [1:06:16] kurdish media out there through the media network it's based in iran go ahead mr president [1:06:21] you said before that you don't want the kurdish forces to enter iran and be harmed [1:06:27] do you still want them to stay away or what role do you expect them to play now i'd rather have them [1:06:32] stay away i'd rather have them stay away because i think they bring with them some problems and some [1:06:38] difficulties and i don't think they bring death i mean you know to themselves but i'd rather have them [1:06:44] stay away go ahead thank you mr president for the question um deliberate attacks on civilian [1:06:52] infrastructure violate the geneva conventions and international law who are you with i'm with the [1:06:57] new york times zolan from new york times are you failing the failing are you concerned circulation [1:07:03] way down at the new york times are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges [1:07:07] amount no no no i'm not i hope i don't have to do it but again i just said 47 years they've been [1:07:15] negotiating with these people they're great negotiators and because they're not going to have [1:07:20] a nuclear weapon and if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective which [1:07:27] possibly that will happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak ineffective and afraid [1:07:32] afraid of iran we're never going to let iran have a nuclear weapon and if you think it's okay for [1:07:39] people that are sick of mind that are tough smart and sick really sick ideal uh you know from from a [1:07:49] policy standpoint from a stamp any which way you want to say mentally these are disturbed people if [1:07:57] you think i'm going to allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon you can tell your [1:08:04] friends at the new york times not going to happen it means violating international law [1:08:12] you no longer have credibility the new york times because the new york times said oh trump won't win [1:08:17] the election and i won in a landslide i won every swing state new york times said oh trump won't win the [1:08:22] election new york times has no credibility the credibility they have is it used to be all the [1:08:28] news that's fit to print a great the old gray lady it was great but they're they're running on past fumes [1:08:34] and you can't keep doing that you have to be able to give the correct news and people like you who i [1:08:39] know are fake you're fake go ahead please your messaging on the war has moved from the war is coming to [1:08:48] an end to we're going to be bombing iran to the stone ages and we've heard a range of those kind [1:08:53] of messages so are you so which is it are you winding this down are you escalating i can't tell you [1:08:59] i don't know i can't tell it depends what they do this is a critical period they have a period of well [1:09:05] till tomorrow at eight o'clock i gave them an extension they asked for an extension of seven days right [1:09:12] i said steve give them 10 days 10 days is up actually today so i gave him 11 i guess indirectly [1:09:22] i thought it was inappropriate the day after easter i want to be a nice person uh they have till [1:09:28] tomorrow now we'll see what happens i can tell you they're negotiating we think in good faith [1:09:35] we're going to find out we're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be [1:09:41] ended because it affects them also a lot of people are affected by this [1:09:45] but we're giving them uh we're giving them till tomorrow eight o'clock eastern time and after that [1:09:53] they're going to have no bridges they're going to have no power plants stone ages yeah [1:10:04] cnn fake are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the strait of [1:10:10] bormuz or is that now a top priority i would say it's a very big priority because um see that's [1:10:17] that's one thing that's a little different than other than we can bomb the hell out of them we can [1:10:22] knock them out for a loop but to close the strait all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck [1:10:30] loaded with because you can carry them in trucks large trucks a water mine drop them in the water [1:10:36] and now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to don't worry about the mine [1:10:42] you can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water so it's not like the rest we can knock [1:10:48] out their military we already have we've knocked out their navy we've knocked out their air force [1:10:52] completely knocked out 158 ships in three days we've knocked out even their mine droppers they don't [1:10:59] have any mine droppers anymore but they put them on other boats and they could drop them i'm not even sure [1:11:04] they have any mines there by the way i'm not sure i'm personally they say there might be eight i don't [1:11:09] know i don't know i think there might be none uh because they're very good bullshit artists that's why [1:11:15] for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't done the job and people are living [1:11:21] in hell you live in that country they're living in hell no i think that uh 47 years of this stuff is long [1:11:30] enough they're at the weakest point they've ever been they have no navy they have no air force they [1:11:37] have no anti-aircraft weaponry they have no radar they have no communication in fact the biggest problem [1:11:43] we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate i said to steve what are they saying [1:11:49] sir they can't communicate they have no method of communication so we're doing we're communicating [1:11:55] like they used to communicate 2 000 years ago with children bringing a note back and forth they have no [1:12:01] communication but all i want to see is i want to have a safe world and you're not going to have a [1:12:07] safe world israel will be gone the middle east will be gone and then they're coming for europe [1:12:14] and i have to tell you i'm very disappointed in nato very i think that nato i think it's a mark on [1:12:21] nato that will never disappear never disappear in my mind you know they're coming to see me on wednesday [1:12:25] they're going to say oh we'll do this we'll do that now they all of a sudden want to send things you [1:12:30] know but they said it loud and clear at the beginning when i spoke to uk of all i would [1:12:35] have said they would have been there first because they've been they're the oldest and i say yeah i'd [1:12:40] love to have a little help he said no sir we'd rather wait till you win i said i don't need help [1:12:46] after we win they have two old broken aircraft carriers barely work i said i guess we can use them [1:12:52] who the hell knows i called the general he didn't even want he said we don't really need them we got [1:12:57] we got the ss abraham lincoln sir we don't need them you know we have in terms of technology we had [1:13:04] one day 101 missiles going at 2 700 miles an hour aimed at the abraham lincoln 101 missiles out of 101 [1:13:14] missiles 101 missiles were shot down unbelievable technology 10 years ago five years ago i don't [1:13:24] know that would have been possible but 10 years ago that wouldn't have been that wouldn't have been [1:13:29] possible uh 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast and out of the 101 missiles [1:13:39] we shot down all 101 we have weaponry uh the patriots are unbelievable we have weaponry that's [1:13:47] unbelievable yeah go ahead please thank you mr president um you said earlier today during the egg roll [1:13:57] that you would like to take iran's oil but americans want u.s forces home correct what's that trade [1:14:03] off i had my choice if i had my choice yeah because i'm a businessman first with venezuela [1:14:11] as you know the war was over in about 45 minutes and we have great people running venezuela very good [1:14:18] people i mean the relationship is good and we are a partner with venezuela and we've taken hundreds of [1:14:26] millions of barrels hundreds of millions over 100 million barrels already is in houston refined and [1:14:34] out and paid paid for that war many many times over many times you know the old days to the victim [1:14:43] okay you know that to the uh to the winner belong the spoils go the spoils and i've said why don't we [1:14:51] use it to the victor go the spoils and we don't have that we haven't had that in this country probably in [1:14:57] 100 years because even the second world war you look at the second world war we didn't have it with [1:15:02] the second world we helped rebuild all those countries we rebuilt germany how about germany [1:15:06] telling us germany telling us that uh well it's not their war we had nothing to do with it they [1:15:14] wanted me to go and tell them everything i was doing we didn't know anything about it well if i would [1:15:19] have told them they would have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful possibly right [1:15:24] but to the victor belong the spoils so we haven't heard we haven't heard that in i think maybe [1:15:31] hundreds of years now with venezuela and we just so you understand the people of venezuela they say [1:15:38] if i ran for president of venezuela i'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in venezuela so [1:15:44] after i'm finished with this i can go to venezuela i will quickly learn spanish it won't take too long [1:15:49] i'm good at language and i will go to venezuela i'm going to run for president [1:15:54] but we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now the the the people that [1:15:59] are running it if you remember bush with iraq they fired the generals they fired the police [1:16:06] they fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the white house they fired everybody [1:16:11] and you know what they had they had a mess and you know what happened isis formed those generals and [1:16:16] those soldiers got together the police got together they all got together they formed isis not going to [1:16:22] happen with us so uh venezuela has been an incredible it's been an incredible situation we went in [1:16:29] we were very successful military power like nobody's ever seen the general uh venezuelan general said i [1:16:36] was on that site i said i've never seen ferocity like that i've been doing this for 40 years he said [1:16:42] i've never seen it they they hit us from 17 different it was they were all set they saw that big beautiful [1:16:49] aircraft carrier the ford in that case and planes were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning [1:16:56] so typically when you see that late at night you know you could be in trouble right and we were [1:17:04] all ready they had their equipment it was russian and they had chinese equipment it was all set they [1:17:09] were going to give us a fight he said and then they came and they came at speeds like we've never seen [1:17:16] and they came at 17 different angles the general and his people that was a lot of angles they hit [1:17:22] him from every angle he said we knew it was over in three minutes we were waiting for him their equipment [1:17:30] didn't work and there's a reason it didn't work someday we'll explain that to people they pressed [1:17:36] the button nothing happened they pressed it again and again nothing happened and he said we knew this [1:17:42] whole thing was over in three minutes we've never seen any he used the word ferocity the ferocity of [1:17:49] these planes from 17 different angles and it was over they went inside and remember that was on a military [1:17:55] base with thousands of soldiers and those soldiers looked and they said get the hell out of here [1:18:01] thousands we didn't have thousands we had like 200 people so we have a great military and i'll tell you [1:18:09] what somehow this rescue captured the world's attention more so than normally you're talking [1:18:15] about two people but this rescue captured the world's attention but we did it in venezuela that was [1:18:23] amazing and now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial i mean he he released aside from [1:18:31] the drugs which he was terrible maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country [1:18:39] drug dealers murderers the worst people in the world were released into our country [1:18:44] because we had a stupid precedent who probably didn't know and we had a border czar who never [1:18:50] went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents right not once kamala [1:18:55] she never called the border patrol she never said how we doing i used to call the border patrol [1:19:00] guys every day you can ask him paul ask any one of them brandon ask him all the time how are we [1:19:06] doing how are we doing and we now i'm proud to say have a totally sealed border nine months nobody is [1:19:11] coming through up and nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through so we [1:19:15] don't have caravans anymore so maybe one or two more and we'll be done are you allowed to or are you [1:19:25] willing to end this conflict with iran charging tolls for passage through the street uh us charging tolls [1:19:32] iran what about us charging is that something you're considering i'd rather do that than let them have [1:19:38] them run why shouldn't we we're the winner we won okay they are militarily defeated the only thing [1:19:45] they have is the psychology of oh we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water all right [1:19:51] no we i mean we have a concept where we'll charge tolls okay i thought you meant [1:19:57] your question your question your question would your question would have been more accurate if you [1:20:01] said us just to clarify in order for iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow [1:20:08] do they have to make a deal open the street or vote we have to have a deal that's acceptable to me [1:20:15] and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything [1:20:22] thank you very much you've said glory be to god in this conflict do you believe that god supports [1:20:30] the united states actions and i do because god is good because god is good and god wants to see people [1:20:37] taken care of god doesn't like what's happening i don't like what's happening everyone says i [1:20:43] enjoy i don't enjoy this i don't enjoy these two guys don't enjoy it you know people say oh boy [1:20:47] they're so tough they don't want they don't like i don't like seeing people killed i've ended eight [1:20:52] wars nobody's ever done it the person who won the nobel prize came to me and said you deserve the nobel [1:21:00] prize she announced that when they announced they said goes to maria she's a great person really a good [1:21:06] person she said no no no this is ridiculous they gave me the nobel prize president trump ended eight [1:21:14] wars i could go over every one of them including india and pakistan where the prime minister of [1:21:19] pakistan said president trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives that makes me much happier than what [1:21:28] we're doing right now that makes me much happier we have one more to end by the way you called the [1:21:39] yesterday in your truth social you called the iranians crazy bastards true um what is your [1:21:45] response to critics who say that i don't care about critics what is your response to critics [1:21:49] who say that is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war i haven't heard [1:21:53] that but if that's the case you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was [1:21:58] being ripped off on trade or everything for many years until i came along so if that's the case you're [1:22:05] going to have to have more people dash you go you said that very little is off limits in iran as [1:22:12] far as targeting including power plants bridges you've mentioned those very little is often are [1:22:16] there certain kinds of civilian targets though i'm thinking i don't want to tell you that i don't want [1:22:21] to tell you that we have we have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge [1:22:30] in iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night where every power plant in iran will be [1:22:39] out of business burning exploding and never to be used again i mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock [1:22:47] and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to we don't want that to happen we may [1:22:53] even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation and you know what if that's the case the [1:22:59] last thing we want to do is start with power plants which are among the most expensive thing and bridges [1:23:04] you saw the bridge the bridge one we were very close to a deal and then i got a call from mr whitkov [1:23:13] mr kushner and jd saying i think they're breaking the deal i said tell them that's okay don't worry about [1:23:22] it but tell them to look out their window and watch and within 45 minutes i gave the order to knock out [1:23:29] the biggest bridge i gave the order knock out the biggest bridge in i believe the middle east but [1:23:35] the biggest bridge in iran and within 10 minutes after i gave that order that bridge was was over [1:23:43] so so do i want to do that no do i want to destroy their infrastructure no it will take them a hundred [1:23:51] years to rebuild right now if we left today it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it would [1:23:59] never be as good as it was and the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to [1:24:03] utilize the genius of the united states of america with nato in the past is there a danger to the u.s [1:24:14] not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and then other powers within the alliance then [1:24:20] getting the decision making when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons no it's not a danger nato's look [1:24:26] we went to nato i didn't ask very strongly i just said hey if you want to help great no no no we will [1:24:32] not help i said that's all right you don't want to help because i've always said nato's a paper tiger [1:24:38] see nato's a paper tiger putin's not afraid of nato putin's afraid of us very afraid of us [1:24:45] and he's explained it to me a lot of times i got to know him very well i know very well [1:24:49] uh nato's a paper tiger nato is us and when we needed them but we didn't need them by the way [1:24:57] we didn't need them obviously because they haven't helped at all just the opposite they've actually [1:25:02] gone out of their way not to help they didn't even want to give us landing strips think of it and it's [1:25:08] not just nato you know who else didn't help us south korea didn't help us you know who else didn't [1:25:13] help us australia didn't help us you know who else didn't help us japan we've got 50 000 soldiers in [1:25:22] japan to protect them from north korea we have 45 000 soldiers in south korea to protect us from [1:25:31] kim jong-un who i get along with very well as you know do you notice he said very nice things about [1:25:36] me he used to call joe biden a mentally retarded person okay so don't tell me about your stuff [1:25:44] joe biden he said he's a mentally retarded person he was so nasty to joe biden it was terrible but to [1:25:49] me he likes trump and do you notice how nice things are with north korea it's very nice [1:25:54] but we have 45 000 people soldiers in harm's way and right next to kim jong-un with a lot of nuclear [1:26:02] weapons 45 which should have never happened if a certain president i'm not going to mention this [1:26:08] president because i happen to like him believe it or not but if a certain president did his job [1:26:13] kim jong-un would not have nuclear weapons right now but they're all afraid to do their job properly [1:26:18] but just to conclude and just to finish japan didn't help us australia didn't help us south [1:26:26] korea didn't help us and then you get to nato nato didn't help us there were some countries that did [1:26:31] now countries that have been good now you could also say they're got to be a little bit more [1:26:36] involved because they're in the territory but saudi arabia has been excellent qatar has been excellent [1:26:42] uae has been excellent bahrain kuwait i mean kuwait did shoot down three of our planes [1:26:47] the only planes really that we lost with friendly fire they call it i call it unfriendly fire they [1:26:54] unfortunately didn't know how to use our our great patriots the pilot said what kind of a missile's [1:27:02] coming at us patriot boom they got out because they know a patriot never misses so they had beautiful [1:27:09] patriots there were planes heading in their direction unfortunately they decided to shoot those planes they [1:27:16] were our planes so uh you know nato is a paper tiger now he's coming to see me on wednesday as you know [1:27:24] he's a wonderful guy secretary general is great and mark ruta he's a great person but he's got and you [1:27:33] know it all began with if you want to know the truth greenland we want greenland they don't want [1:27:39] to give it to us and i said bye bye okay thank you very much everybody thank you