Trump announces extension of ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon

[0:00] the people of Lebanon. The people of Lebanon deserve to live in a country that's peaceful [0:04] and prosperous. They have an opportunity to do that. They have a history of that. And [0:08] what's standing in the way is an organization that operates, a terrorist organization that [0:12] operates within their national territory, that needs to be, that threat needs to be eliminated. [0:17] And so thank you, Mr. President, for this gathering today and for convening it and being [0:21] a key part of it. And it buys this time to continue to work. I'm very optimistic that [0:26] in a few weeks we'll be even closer to the kind of permanent peace that the people of [0:29] Israel and Lebanon deserve. Thank you very much. [0:32] Michel, please. Well, I would like to thank the President, [0:35] the Vice President and Secretary to make this historical meeting today that bring two countries [0:42] that they never been next to each other more than today in a way. This is 60, 70 years in [0:47] the making and today is really a historical day. Thank you, Mr. President, Vice President, [0:52] Secretary. And we are going to keep going, working for a peace that hopefully will get [0:58] it as soon as possible. Thank you. You're a very successful man. [1:00] And when I asked him if he'd like to be ambassador to Lebanon, I said, could be a dangerous job. He [1:07] said, well, I'm Lebanese. I was born in Lebanon and I, your parents have a whole big history. He said, [1:14] danger doesn't matter to me really. It's something I want to do. He's very successful. He didn't need [1:18] this. And I think it's probably more dangerous than you even thought. But you've done a fantastic job. [1:23] So it is an honor for me to serve you, Mr. President. And then I'm going to go to the end. [1:29] Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And likewise, Mike Huckabee, we all know Mike, [1:34] and he didn't need it either, did he? But he's doing a fantastic job. Mike, go ahead, please. [1:39] I just want to say, Mr. President, what an amazing opportunity to be here at a moment of history. [1:45] The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel are neighbors, and they want to get along. They can [1:49] get along. But it's like neighbors who have a rough little kid living in the neighborhood who keeps [1:54] throwing rocks at everybody's window. And if the kid will quit throwing rocks, the neighbors can get [1:59] along and start actually working together. The president has initiated something that is truly [2:06] bringing the neighborhood back to a neighborhood and recognizing that the problem is not Lebanon and [2:11] the problem is not Israel. The problem is Hezbollah, the bad little kid throwing rocks. [2:17] That's what the president is getting launched today to get that little kid out of the neighborhood. [2:25] Thank you. Mr. Ambassador, please. [2:28] Thank you, Mr. President, for your hospitality, for bringing Israel and Lebanon together here in [2:33] the Oval Office. Israel wants peace with Lebanon, and Israel wants security for its citizens. [2:41] We're united with the Lebanese government and wanting to rid the country of this malign influence [2:46] called Hezbollah. And now that, Mr. President, under your leadership, Iran has been so degraded, [2:53] the possibility of degrading Hezbollah and liberating Lebanon from their occupation is real. So we hope that [3:01] together under your leadership, we can formalize peace between Israel and Lebanon in the very near future. [3:06] And we are just very thankful for the opportunity. Thank you. And I look forward to having the next [3:10] meeting with your great prime minister. He is. He's a wartime prime minister with Bibi and with the [3:17] president of Lebanon. It will be fantastic. I think a lot of – a lot's going to happen. Madam Ambassador. [3:24] Ambassador. Of course. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, President Trump. [3:28] Thank you for your leadership, for making sure to be presiding over this historic moment. [3:33] I want to really say thank you to the United States under your leadership for all your effort [3:38] to help and to support Lebanon. And I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon [3:43] great again. Thank you so much. Thank you. I like that phrase. [3:46] I know. Sounds nice. That's a good phrase. [3:48] MSGA. Thank you very much. [3:50] Thank you. I think we will. Any questions? Yeah, please. [3:53] President Trump, as you can talk from MTV Lebanon. First, thank you for having us in the White House for [3:58] the year and a half. This is historical for our audience as well. We would [4:03] like to ask you two, three questions. First question, the peace between Lebanon and Israel. [4:07] Do you think it will happen this year? I think it has a great chance. I mean, [4:12] you know, they're friends about the same things and they're enemies on the same things. And it has to [4:17] do with, I guess you could say a couple of countries, but certainly it's – if you look at Hezbollah, [4:23] that's where everybody seems to be united against them. So they are both very united in that way. [4:31] You know, I think there's a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one. [4:34] Relative to some of the things we're working on, it should be an easy one. But it's been so many [4:39] years because nobody focused on it. But Lebanon was a great country. It was a beautiful country, [4:45] smart people, very brilliant people, doctors, professors, economists, some of the smartest [4:51] people on the planet. But it got torn apart by different factions and nothing having to do with [4:58] them, outside factors. So, no, I think it can be brought back pretty quickly. [5:03] And when do you think our president will meet Netanyahu here at the White House? [5:07] I think we'll do it over the next – during this period of time, during the three-week period, [5:11] ideally. I mean, I'd like to suggest over the three-week ceasefire, if you can do that. [5:17] Well, we're here. We'll do it in the Oval Office. [5:20] And regarding Hezbollah, he's not responding to our government. He's doing whatever he wants. [5:26] What do you say for Hezbollah? [5:28] Well, look, Israel has to – I mean, we're just talking about it. Israel is going to have [5:32] to defend itself if they're shot at, and they will. I would never say that they can't. [5:40] It would be nice if they wouldn't have to bother with that. But if they – if something happens, [5:44] they're going to have to defend themselves, as you know. But they're going to do it carefully, [5:48] and they're going to be surgical as opposed to beyond surgical. And, you know, there's a lot [5:54] they can do. But Israel is going to have to defend itself. And regarding our Lebanese speaker, [6:00] let me very reportedly told Prince Yazid bin Farhan that Lebanon will not move forward with peace [6:06] unless Saudi Arabia is involved. What is your reaction to that statement? And do you believe [6:11] Saudi Arabia must play a central role in a potential Lebanon-Israel peace process? [6:17] Well, Saudi Arabia is great. And they have a great leader. And I think that they'd be very happy [6:23] with this. I haven't spoken to him. I will. This happened very quickly. But Saudi Arabia is going [6:29] to be – they're great people, a great place, incredible place. I know it very well. But I know [6:37] the leader very well. And he'd want to see something like this happen. He's a tremendous guy. Okay? [6:42] Sir, and make Lebanon great again. This is our slogan on MTV Lebanon. Make America [6:48] great again. About what? Make Lebanon great again. It's our slogan on MTV Lebanon that all the Lebanese [6:53] and our audience are putting hope on you, Mr. President. Make Lebanon great again. [6:57] Make Lebanon great again. It's a good slogan. It works for here. [7:00] I think it's maybe the greatest political slogan in the history of the world. Make America great again. [7:06] But, you know, we're great now. So I will never say that we won't use that slogan, MAGA. [7:12] But we have another one. America is back. Where's that hat? Does anybody have to do that? [7:17] No? Yeah, that's the old one. And then show them the new one. And we're never choosing – we're never [7:23] changing MAGA. I don't have the courage to change MAGA. Make America great again. But, you know, [7:30] we're really – we're great now. We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're the most [7:34] powerful country in the world by far. And we suffered years of abuse by people that were grossly [7:40] incompetent like Biden, like Obama. Obama was incompetent. He was a great divider. And we are [7:49] we're a great country. Again, we're respected all over the world. That's why this happened so fast. [7:53] I mean, it can happen fast. Thank you. The funding that Hezbollah gets from Iran, [7:59] is Iran going to have to cut that off to do a deal with you? Yeah, they'll have to cut that. [8:03] That's a must for you. Yeah, sure. That's a must, yeah. Mr. President, [8:06] apparently there was a special forces soldier who was involved in the capture of Venezuelan [8:12] President Maduro, who was arrested by federal authorities today on suspicion of insider trading [8:19] and betting on the poly market. Are you concerned that federal employees are betting on these [8:25] prediction markets and potentially getting rich? Well, I don't know about it, but was he [8:31] betting that they would get him or they wouldn't get him? It sounds like he was betting on his removal [8:36] from office, that Maduro would be removed. It sounds like he was involved in the operation. [8:40] That's like Pete Rose betting on his own team. It's a little like Pete Rose. Pete Rose, [8:44] he kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, [8:49] that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I'll look into it. Yeah. [8:52] Also, but I know they're being placed as well on the Iran conflict too, and there have been some [8:57] trackings where people suspect that there's insider trading happening on these prediction markets around the [9:02] war. Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino and you look at [9:11] what's going on all over the world in Europe and every place they're doing these betting things. [9:16] I was never much in favor of it. I don't like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that [9:23] I'm not happy with any of that stuff, but they have all these different sites. They have predictive [9:28] markets. It's a crazy world. It's a much different world than it was. Please. [9:33] We talked about the Fed's renovation. Can someone other than the Justice Department [9:37] find out the things you said he wanted to learn? Well, it could. I mean, look, it's pretty easy. [9:42] When you look up with Jerome too late, I have a real problem because he should have been lowering [9:50] interest rates a long time ago. And despite that, we fought through it and we have the greatest [9:55] economy we've ever had. You take a look. I mean, we just I don't know what the market is today, [9:59] but we've broken every record over the last few days. And this is doing a military operation or a [10:05] war, whatever you want to call it. It makes no difference as far as I'm concerned. But we have [10:10] this unbelievable economy. The S&P has a new record. The Dow is right at a new record. We already broke [10:16] the record with the Dow. People said it wouldn't happen in four years. They said in four years it won't be [10:22] able to be possible to break 50,000. And we broke it with the Dow. And I'm actually a little bit [10:27] surprised that we're breaking it constantly, even now, during this conflict. Because when we broke [10:33] it, I called a lot of the people here. I called JD. I called Marco. I called Howard. I called Scott. [10:40] I said, I hate to tell you, fellas, but we have to do a little bit of a detour. We have to go to Iran [10:44] and make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon. We had just broken every financial record. And the [10:50] amazing thing is we continue to break them, even during the war. Now, fuel went up, [10:54] but I thought it would have gone up much more. And a lot of ships are coming to the United States, [10:59] and they're using the United States instead of the Hormuz Strait. Amazing things are happening. [11:07] Our country is amazing. You know, we don't have an oil shortage. We have, we're drill baby drill. We, [11:11] we are right now producing more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. Did you know that? More, [11:20] and in about a year from now, we'll be doing double the, the level. And Venezuela has been [11:26] fantastic. We have a great relationship with that country and with the people that are running the [11:31] country. And we're taking out, we're taking in millions of barrels of oil, millions and millions [11:37] from Venezuela. It's been a great experience, to be honest with you. And they're doing a very good [11:43] job and they have our backing. Okay. Mr. President, can you just clarify again, [11:49] what exactly? Here we go. Listen to this. No, no, no. Just, just, just, just clarify. Here we go. [11:55] Here's his ball. What have the two sides agreed to here? Three weeks? Three weeks. Yeah, three weeks. [12:00] And the leaders will most likely be coming here during that time. And I think when they do, [12:04] that's a very historic meeting. They have never, they haven't met for many, many years, as I understand. [12:09] Never, they've never met. Think of that. They're next to each other. They're great people. And they've [12:16] never met. This should be an easy one. Okay. Good question. Thank you. [12:20] The Lebanese law, we can communicate with Israel. What we can do about this law? Like, if we talk to Israel, it would be a crime for us as the Lebanese. And this is a question on behalf of- [12:33] How is it a crime? [12:34] And the Lebanese law, it's a crime. [12:36] Well, I think we have to end that. [12:38] Yeah. Okay. That's something we're going to have to end. I've never heard of that. [12:43] But that's a good start. It's a crime to talk with Israel. Well, I'm pretty sure that that'll be ended [12:51] very quickly. Okay. I'll make sure of that. And I know Lebanon doesn't want that. We'll end up. [12:57] Will you work on that, please, everybody? That's crazy. [13:00] Mr. President. The ship that was captured on Monday, you said there was a gift for the Iranians in it. [13:05] What was that in that ship? The one from China? [13:09] Yeah. Well, we have that. It's very top secret. Yeah. There was stuff in there, but it's top secret. [13:16] I'd like to let you in. That's a good question. That's one of those little questions where, oh, this is not good. [13:22] No. We have a lot of things that we got. You know, the straight, what we've done with the blockade is amazing. [13:32] And nobody, nobody gets through. And nobody wants to get through. Nobody's trying. The one who tried, [13:37] they shot out the engine, but nobody's trying. We have complete control. Now, they can drop their [13:45] minds in there and do all those stupid things. It's just going to take longer for them to make [13:49] money because the minds are going to affect them much more than they're going to affect us. But [13:54] and we don't know that they're doing that, but they could be that if they're doing it, it's a very [13:58] foolish thing to do. Just like for Iran to shoot at Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar and Kuwait, Bahrain, [14:07] all the different places they they shot. Nobody expected that. They thought they'd shoot at Israel [14:13] at all fairs, but you didn't expect they'd be shooting at numerous other countries. I think [14:17] it was a big mistake. If they're putting minds down, it's a big mistake for them, I will say. [14:22] Are you angry at China, what they sent Iran? [14:25] No, no. No, I guess we do the same thing, don't we? With other countries. You know, it's like [14:34] one of those things, but nothing better. It wasn't earth shaking. Yeah. [14:41] There's some reports today, sir, that you're going to invite a recruitment to the G20 in Miami. Is that [14:46] the case? No, but if he came, it would be probably very helpful. You know, I've said a long time ago, [14:53] when they made the G8, the G7, they threw Russia out before my time. That was Obama and a [15:03] certain prime minister from a place called Canada, Strudeau. And I said, that that's a stupid thing [15:10] to do. And I was right. You know, they spent, I'd go to these meetings of the G7 and about 90% of the [15:18] meeting was talking about Russia and what's going on with Russia. And I said, why'd you throw them out? [15:24] You know, if they didn't throw them out, they would have been much better off, in my opinion. [15:30] You know, it should, it should have been the G8. But when they threw out President Putin, [15:36] he was very offended by that. He was rightfully, but he was very offended by that. [15:41] I venture to say you probably wouldn't be having these problems if you didn't throw them out. [15:44] Okay. So he's not coming to the G20? [15:47] Not that I know of, but... [15:49] Because there are senior administration officials being quoted in news reports this afternoon that [15:54] says they're being, the Russians are being invited to at least ministerial... [15:57] Well, yeah, you're saying being invited as opposed to coming. I don't know of the invitation, but [16:03] if he were invited, I don't know. [16:05] Would you like to... [16:05] Hey, I'm of the opinion that you talk to everybody. I'm not one of these guys, oh, [16:10] let's not talk to him. You know, there's a war going on. Let's not talk to him. I like talking to [16:14] everybody. If you're a smart person, if you have control over your emotions and all the other [16:20] things you need control of. I'm somebody that believes in talking. I don't know of that. [16:26] I don't know that he's coming. I doubt he'd come, to be honest with you. I sort of doubt he'd come. [16:31] But we're working on trying to get that one solved. That would be number nine. I've ended eight wars, [16:38] and that one is, but it's, they continue to fight. The hatred between him and President Zelenskyy is [16:48] extraordinary. I can tell you. [16:50] Can I ask you a FIFA question, sir? What do you think of this idea of replacing Iran with [16:55] Italy in the World Cup? [16:57] I don't think about it too much. [17:03] That's an interesting question. Let me, let me give it, you know what? Let me give that a little [17:09] question. That's a very, is that what they're doing? They're thinking about replacing Iran? [17:12] Apparently it's a proposal. Let Marco make his probably. [17:15] Marco, could you make a statement of that, please? What do you think of? [17:17] Yeah, there's nothing from the U.S. has told them they can't come. I mean, [17:21] the problem with Iran, it would be not their athletes. It would be some of the other people [17:25] that we want to bring with them, some of whom have ties to the IRGC. We may not be able to let [17:29] them in, but not the athletes themselves. But no one's, I don't know where that's coming from, [17:33] other than speculation that Iran may decide not to come, and then Italy would fill their spot. [17:38] But that's, they decide not to come on their own because they decided not to come. What they can't [17:41] bring is a bunch of IRGC terrorists into our country and pretend that they're, you know, [17:45] journalists and athletic trainers. We would not want to affect the athletes. [17:51] Is the government going to buy a state in Spirit Airlines? [17:56] So Spirit is an airline that's had some trouble. They were going to merge with People Express, [18:07] or one of them, a number of years ago, and Barack Hussein Obama decided it was a bad idea. How did [18:12] that work out? It's bad for both of them. That would have been a natural merger. Not united and [18:17] American, but Spirit and the other. We're looking at helping them. We have 18,000 people that live [18:25] in this country that are great people and great employees. And we're thinking about doing it, [18:30] helping them out, meaning bailing them out, or buying it. I think we just buy it. We'd be getting [18:36] it virtually debt-free. They have some good aircraft, some good assets. And when the price of oil goes [18:43] down, we'll sell it for a profit. I'd love to be able to save those jobs. I'd love to be able to save [18:48] an airline. You know, I like having a lot of airlines, so it's competitive. So we are looking at Spirit. [18:55] It's in a bankruptcy. It's in bankruptcy court. And we're looking. If we could get it for the right [19:00] price, I'd do it to save the jobs. And we have somebody that wants to run it, do a good job, [19:06] smart person. And if they run it properly, and if prices come down, all of a sudden, it's a valuable [19:12] asset. And they have some very good slots too, which are pretty valuable. [19:17] You want to answer that? Well, we're working on it. It's not done yet. But once it's done, [19:35] I will ask the President to come and cut the ribbon. We'd love to have you, Mr. President. [19:40] I have no objection to that. Go ahead, please. In the UK today, they've just announced a total [19:46] of $1.3 billion in return from digital service tax, which you in the past have called it an unfair [19:53] tax on American companies. You know it very well. You previously called for investigations, [19:58] but so far as we can tell, there has been none. Would you call for that? [20:01] Let's say, what tax is this? The digital service tax is the kind of, [20:04] nicknamed it a tech tax or big tech tax that kind of- You mean they're going to put a tax on [20:08] basically American companies? It's already there, sir. Did you say the UK? [20:11] Yes, sir. And it made $1.3 billion last year. So is that something you would kind of investigate, [20:17] call for it to be scrapped, have a look at? We don't like it when they target American companies, [20:22] because basically you're talking about our great American companies. And whether we like those [20:26] companies or don't like them, they're American companies. They're the top companies in the world. [20:33] And we are looking at it. We've been looking at it. UK did it. A couple of other people did it. [20:38] They think they're going to make an easy buck. That's why they've [20:40] all taken advantage of our country. They don't take advantage of it. No, [20:43] we've been looking at it. And we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK. [20:48] So they better be careful. If they don't drop the tax, we'll probably put a big tariff in the UK. [20:52] What do they expect? 5%, 10%, something similar? [20:55] Whatever. I mean, more than what they're getting. They shouldn't be doing that. [21:00] That's all that's doing is really targeting. It's targeting great companies, but they're our companies. [21:06] It's like us targeting their companies, which we could do very easily. But you don't have big [21:11] companies like that. You don't have those great companies. Not fair. I have an obligation to [21:17] protect our companies. That's how they became great. And they become great during my administration. [21:23] My first four years, we had the best economy in history of my first four years. And this will [21:28] blow it away. Look at it. During a war, we have the highest stock market. During a war, it's not a big [21:36] war for us, but it's a war. And during a war, we have the highest stock market. I have to protect [21:41] this country. So if they'd want to do the service tax, France did it also and some others. And [21:48] I mean, literally, I have a meeting after this having to do with that exact question. [21:53] And what we'll do is we'll reciprocate by putting something on that's equal or greater than what [22:00] they're doing. And they won't be happy about that. No, that's enough. You've asked somebody. [22:04] Mr. President, I emailed the [22:07] Virginia Department of Elections earlier today and asked them if they had seen any evidence [22:11] of election tampering, of fraudulent mail ballots being cast in the Tuesday election, [22:15] or if there was any evidence of non-citizens voting in that election. Why did you say that that election [22:20] was rigged? Well, you have mail-in ballots and they found a lot of them at the end of the day. [22:24] They said that they have received no credible information related. Well, I know you'd say [22:28] that no matter what. You know, you've been saying that for years and now they're finding out that [22:31] the 2020 election was totally rigged. And when you look at what just, excuse me, [22:37] how do you defend what just happened where your Southern law, whatever it is, has given [22:41] money to KKK. They're supposed to protect people and they're paying all these people, [22:46] crooked as can be, millions of dollars, millions of dollars, going all to all these people that [22:51] they're supposed to be protecting from, but they're actually supporting them [22:55] because they want to have companies that they can protect and because they want to rig elections. [22:59] That was all a rigged election. All of the things with Charlottesville, all of the stuff that they [23:04] did. And you won't bring that up, but you'll bring up some nonsense. Let me tell you, the election we [23:09] were winning all day long. It's a totally horrible situation. Hopefully the courts will overturn it, [23:15] what they did in Virginia. You have a grossly incompetent governor, yet a very good governor. He did a [23:20] good job. You know, all those companies that want to move into Virginia now, they want to move out and [23:24] go to a different location. So that's my opinion. I believe it was a rigged election. Virginia's known [23:30] for it. It was a rigged election. They had a lot of ballots, mail-in ballots. Anytime you have mail-in [23:36] ballots, anytime you have mail-in ballots, you have cheating. Did you have something? [23:40] Yes. You said that the U.S. will work with Lebanon to protect itself from Hezbollah. What does that look [23:46] like exactly? What is it? You said that the U.S. will work with Lebanon to protect itself from... [23:51] Well, we're just going to work with them. I mean, we have a good relationship with Lebanon. It's amazing [23:56] that... But is it... You know, the amazing thing is they actually have sort of a good relationship with [24:00] Israel and they don't deal with each other, but now they're going to deal with each other. We're putting [24:04] them together. What's the material support that you intend to... We're going to help. We're just going [24:08] to help them. We're going to help them. They're great people. It can be a really good country again, [24:14] maybe a great country again. And I think you have all the ingredients. So we're going to work together. [24:19] And I think Israel is going to... I think Israel is going to be terrific. But they do have a common [24:24] problem. It's Hezbollah. Okay, a couple of more. Sometimes Republicans are saying that they don't [24:29] want to vote for a bill that just has the Homeland Security funding. Would you support them expanding that [24:33] to include other tax... Well, I'd love to see one thing. You know what that is? Save America. [24:41] I'd love to say the Save America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship, which is, [24:49] by the way, no mail-in voting, which is a fraud. Anytime you have mail-in voting, you're going to [24:54] have a fraudulent election. But I'd leave it for military, you know, mail-in voting for military, [25:01] for people that are sick, for people that are traveling, like business or whatever, different [25:06] things. But disability, where they have a problem. But no mail-in ballots. We added a couple of things. [25:13] No men playing in women's sports. It's unrelated, but it's a popular thing. And no transgender [25:20] mutilization of our children. So that's it. Thank you very much, everybody. [25:41] Keep going guys. Thank you.