Trump holds news conference capping off NATO summit — NBC News

[3:54] Turkey for the final event of the NATO summit. President Trump has been answering questions from reporters all day. Now he's holding a news conference come shortly after he met with Syria's president and the Ukraine's president Zelensky. The major headline this morning, the president declaring the ceasefire with Iran is over, saying the U.S. plans to attack Iran again tonight. The president warned the new round of strikes could briefly raise oil prices. So far this morning, oil prices are up, stocks are down. Let's listen to the president now. [4:23] Erdogan is really a great man. He's a great leader. He's a friend of mine, been a friend of mine for a long time. He's a strong person, a very strong personality. And that's why he runs such a successful and good company, country, and really a great, I would say a great country. Militarily, he's very powerful. People leave him alone. But he's really done a fantastic job. And from the moment we got off the plane, you look at the airports were beautiful. [4:54] They built a new terminal for our arrival. Everything was beautiful. And so I just want to thank President Erdogan, who's done a fantastic job in Turkey. [5:06] And I also want to thank NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta. Mark is an extraordinary person, smart, great leader. It's not easy leading so many leaders like that. [5:23] You've got a lot of leaders and their strong personalities, every one of them. And Mark, Mark does an unbelievable job. Couldn't find anybody better. [5:34] I just want to say there was tremendous love in that room. The press got to see the sitting, but they didn't get to see the speaking. And I actually said it's too bad the press couldn't see this because every one of them spoke for a little while. [5:47] And I spoke for a little while. And it's a big, it's a lot of speeches. We kept it short. But it's too bad the press couldn't have seen what we, what we were doing in that room because it was very smart people. [6:04] And they have a lot of good in their heart, not evil, good. And they're doing a great job for their country. The world is doing well. We have, as you know, the oil is down. We'll see whether or not we keep it down. We should keep it down. [6:19] We're doing things that should have been done 47 years ago with Iran. And I just want to say that throughout my first term and over the past 18 months, the United States has led a historic effort to dramatically increase the defense spending and to have equipment that no other country in the world has. [6:41] When you look at Venezuela, when you look at Iran, essentially demolished their military in a couple of weeks. They had a good military. They had a good Navy. They had 159 ships. Everyone's at the bottom of the sea. [6:55] They had hundreds of airplanes. They're all gone. They're all lying burned up on the runways. They were totally decimated. Their radar is gone. Their, everything's gone. Their leaders are gone, frankly. [7:09] And their combat capability is pretty low. They have a small percentage of missiles left. They have some of the launchers, missile launchers left. Call them launching pads. [7:23] But most of that's been destroyed, too. So we are, we have the strongest military in the world by far. Not even close. Everybody admits it. Last year's summit in the Netherlands was great also. [7:38] And we achieved an unprecedented agreement to increase the annual defense spending. And it's the benchmark, raising it from 2% to 5% of GDP, which everybody said was impossible. [7:51] And now they're all thanking me. And most of the countries have agreed to it. We have a couple of, a couple of that didn't. But I have a feeling they're going to. And pretty quickly. In fact, today they were very positive. [8:04] One of them in particular was, I didn't think a good team player. Today was a great team player. As all of the leaders understand very well, the United States remains by far the largest contributor to NATO, monetarily and maybe otherwise, and the strongest military anywhere in the world. [8:25] And they respect us as a country. Again, they didn't respect us two years ago. They laughed at us. NATO laughed at us. Everybody laughed at us. They don't laugh anymore. There's no more laughing. [8:37] This year we invested a record $1 trillion in our armed forces. And we're going to be asking for $1.5 trillion coming up. We have the money being spent on the best equipment anywhere in the world. [8:52] In the working session this morning, we discussed the progress other members are making toward the 5% target, and they're making great progress. Many of these countries are very rich, by the way. [9:05] We don't have to feel sorry for them. But it doesn't mean they're properly protected. There's a big difference. Some have truly answered the call, and others are making big changes and will be answering the call. [9:17] I think I can say in all cases, they're going to be answering the call. And we'll be taking in over a trillion dollars a year toward defense. And that's a tremendous amount of money. [9:30] It's a big up. It's a big up. They were at 2%. They were actually at 1%. I got them to 2%. Then I wanted to get them to 5%. And we got up to 5% the last time. [9:42] And they're, you know, just again, if you could have seen the respect and the love in the room, and it's love really for the country, for our country. I don't want to say me, because you'll say, oh, he's so conceited. [9:52] He's such a conceited person. But they do. I mean, you know, they like the job I'm doing. They said, we love, sure, we love you. These are grown people saying that. Isn't that nice? Maybe, I don't know, maybe they're trying to get to me. [10:07] And in a way, they did, because there was tremendous unity in that room. And I urge all nations to accelerate their plans to get the benchmark as quickly as possible. [10:20] The benchmark is going to be at 5% number. That's the number it should have been for years. [10:25] As a result of the commitment we achieved last year, defense spending, of other NATO members surged by more than almost $150 billion in 2025. [10:40] And much of that money is being spent on American-made equipment. They all want American-made equipment. [10:46] We're pushing very hard to have the defense companies. They're great. [10:54] We make the best equipment, the patriots and the tomahawks, and everything we have is considered to be the best. [10:59] Not by me. It's everybody wants it. I wish we made it faster, because we could sell as much as we could make. [11:06] And as you know, I had Lockheed and every one of the companies, all of the companies who are talking, Raytheon, as an example, Boeing. [11:14] So many of those great companies are now building plants. They had big plants, but they were using them 24-7. [11:23] And I said, that's not the way to do it. You have to build more plants. You don't have to just go overtime. [11:29] No tax on overtime. Remember that, please? No tax on overtime. Those people are happy. [11:35] But they were doing literally 24 hours to get the tomahawks done and the patriots done and all of the other defensive and offensive equipment done. [11:46] It's the most sought-after equipment in the world. [11:47] You saw that with Venezuela, where they had a lot of great equipment. It wasn't ours, and it didn't work. [11:56] Our equipment works, but we have to produce it faster for other countries, for everybody, including ourselves. [12:02] We have to produce it faster. So we think within a year, year and a half max, we'll be, instead of waiting for a year or two years, [12:10] we'll be having it on a two-week wait, maybe a one-week wait. That's what I want. [12:17] And it'll do really well. A lot of people are, you know, just waiting. They're waiting. [12:22] You want to get this defensive equipment, maybe in particular the defensive equipment, but offensive and defense. [12:30] As much of that money is being spent on American-made equipment, that's the money that the European and Canada [12:39] are spending, European countries mostly, and Canada. And they're spending that with the United States, largely. [12:49] And it's American-made, made in the USA, as we say. Weapons, munitions, supporting thousands of American jobs. [12:57] This will increase. We have the highest number of jobs. Right now, we have the most people working in the United States [13:03] that we've ever had in the history of our country. We have the biggest investment ever made, $19.2 trillion. [13:11] That's six times more than we've ever had. Think of it six times. And what did that were tariffs. [13:17] Without the tariffs, I think we would have done fine, like at about two or three. [13:23] The last administration had much less than $1 trillion invested for four years. [13:28] We have $19.2 trillion invested in one year. We haven't gone into the extra almost a half a year, one and a half years. [13:38] Those numbers won't come out for a little while. [13:40] So we have $19.2 trillion, not billion, not million, trillion, with a T, invested in plants and equipment that's being built all over the country. [13:52] Eli Lilly is building plants, big drug, Merck, all of them, the drug companies are building. [13:59] The car companies are building like crazy. [14:01] In fact, as you probably saw a big announcement yesterday, Toyota is leaving Mexico, [14:07] and they're going to build one of the biggest car manufacturing plants in the world in Texas. [14:12] That's because of the tariffs, because we don't mind if you build in Mexico, but if you build in Mexico, you have to pay 25% tariff. [14:21] If you build in Japan or if you build in any place, China is a much higher tariff. [14:27] It's just 100% tariff because we don't want to lose our jobs. [14:31] We don't want to have our workers lose their jobs. [14:34] We have the largest number of plants being built for the most money ever in the history of our country. [14:42] Car plants, AI plants, and all other plants, pharmaceutical plants, chips. [14:47] We're not giving anything. [14:49] All we're saying is if you don't start, we'll give them a year and a half to two years to build their plant. [14:55] If they don't have that, they have to pay 100%, 200%, even 250% if they make a chip or if they make a car, if they make pharmaceuticals. [15:05] So the pharmaceutical companies are moving in at record levels. [15:09] There's never been anything like what's happening. [15:12] Let me put it a different way, put it here in a more broad fashion. [15:16] There has never been anything like has happened with this country or any other country in the history of the world. [15:23] There has never been growth. [15:27] There's never been manufacturing plants being built. [15:30] We have so many being built. [15:32] And in the big ones, like AI, some of the AI, we let them build their own electric plants. [15:37] We force them to build. [15:38] We don't want it because the old grid that we have wouldn't be able to supply. [15:42] They need, just as an industry, more energy than the entire country produces right now, when you think of it, which is incredible. [15:50] So take all of the energy that the United States produces and that one industry, which is so big, so powerful, it needs more than that. [16:00] In fact, some people say almost double. [16:03] So this was my idea. [16:05] I said, you can never service that. [16:08] You can't reinvigorate the grid. [16:10] You can make it better, but nothing like that. [16:12] You wouldn't be able to build. [16:13] We're leading China in AI, in most, just about everything, but we're leading China in AI. [16:21] Even in TikTok, you know, I was watching somebody say, oh, the TikTok deal. [16:25] It's so bad for, well, because they say the deal was incredible, but they think the word that gets out is bad, except the numbers just came out. [16:35] And I'm number one on TikTok, and all I do is talk about communism, right? [16:39] So it's sort of good. [16:41] I use it to get elected, too, but, you know, you have to get your word out. [16:46] But it just, the numbers came out just a little while ago, and I was number one, some ridiculous number. [16:51] I'd never heard of numbers like that, but number one. [16:55] And all these entertainers, they're number 27, 29. [16:58] It's crazy. [16:58] I don't even understand myself, but that means that my word's getting out about how great our country is, how successful our country is, and how bad communism is, and how bad these lunatics are that are running for election that don't sound good, don't think good, and don't look good. [17:17] I don't see any looker. [17:19] I don't see anybody with the look. [17:20] You know, you need the look, I guess. [17:22] You need something, but they don't have it, and I think they'll fade fast. [17:27] And it's not social democrats. [17:29] This is not a social democrats. [17:30] These are communists that are running, and they don't want God. [17:36] They don't want successful things to happen for our country. [17:39] They don't want to have a successful country. [17:42] I think they're sort of crazy. [17:44] As European nations rebuild their militaries, American equipment will be the largest beneficiary. [17:52] The defense companies are going to be making most of that equipment. [17:56] They want the American equipment because it works better. [17:58] It's not a question of anything else. [18:00] We make the best equipment in the world. [18:02] And to that end, I provided other leaders with an update on the steps we're taking to rapidly scale up production in the United States. [18:10] And they wanted to hear that because they don't really want to get it in four years, five years. [18:15] They want to get it, like, in a week. [18:18] And we'll actually be at a point like that in the not-too-distant future with the plants that are being built. [18:23] The defense plants, it's incredible. [18:25] Lockheed is building, I think, five. [18:30] Some of them are building three, four, or five, and they're big ones. [18:35] It's going to quadruple the output we have with the munitions and the basic equipment itself, whether it's a Patriot or Tomahawk missile or any of the missiles that we make. [18:47] We make many missiles, different types, for different occasions. [18:51] And just today at the summit, we announced $3 billion of new defense investments with U.S. companies. [18:57] And Lockheed Martin will establish a world-class Patriot missile sustainment facility, a big deal in Europe. [19:06] They're given a tremendous incentive by Europe to do that. [19:09] It all goes to the benefit of us and Europe because they're getting the best equipment. [19:14] Northrop Grumman is moving forward with the sale of advanced American drone technology. [19:20] We're actually the leader in drone tech. [19:22] A lot of people don't know that. [19:23] We have the most sophisticated drones in the world. [19:26] And we're a real, I guess we're the leader, but we'll soon be the leader by many times over. [19:35] And Lockheed and Rhein-Mittal are announcing a partnership to build the Army Tactical Missile Systems, which is a big deal. [19:46] And Anduril is announcing a deal to build their new Barracuda missiles, which is a very highly sophisticated, fast missile. [19:57] And we're doing that for Poland. [19:58] And Poland is doing very well, by the way, with a very, very good president, great president, I think. [20:05] All of these agreements directly benefit the U.S. defense industry base. [20:09] And what it really does is it means jobs. [20:13] And, again, I have to just say that when Toyota announced yesterday, I wasn't that surprised, but everybody wanted to get that. [20:21] That's the largest. [20:23] I think it's going to be the largest plant in the world, car plant. [20:26] And they're moving into the United States. [20:28] And, again, they're doing that to avoid paying the tariff, because if you build your product here, you pay no tariff. [20:34] If you don't, you pay a 25 percent tariff, depending, 35 percent sometimes, sometimes 100 percent, 200 percent, depending on what the product is. [20:43] As an example, we're doing great on steel because we charge tariffs. [20:46] So now all of a sudden the steel industry, which was absolutely dead a few years ago, I revived it in my first term pretty good. [20:53] And then they blew it in the Biden term. [20:59] And what a shame. [20:59] They just blew it right out the window. [21:01] They had no idea what they were doing. [21:02] And I quickly revived it at the beginning of my of this term, year and a half. [21:08] And we are the steel businesses through the roof. [21:13] We don't even make aluminum anymore. [21:15] Now we're going to have the largest aluminum plant in the world being built in Oklahoma. [21:19] I love Oklahoma. [21:20] 77 out of 77 counties, three times. [21:26] And it's great. [21:26] It's a great state. [21:27] They're going to be building the largest aluminum plant in the entire world in Oklahoma. [21:34] It's starting very soon. [21:35] Over the course of the past two days, I had a number of excellent discussions with other leaders at the summit [21:41] and held productive bilateral meetings with essentially all of them. [21:46] We had dinner last night. [21:47] Just about all of them were there. [21:48] President Erdogan of Turkey as well as President Zelensky. [21:53] And he just came in, as you probably saw, at a little press conference. [21:57] And also President al-Sharav of Syria, who's doing an unbelievable job in unifying Syria. [22:05] What a job he's doing. [22:07] Syria was a mess with what happened with the previous government. [22:12] Do you know that? [22:13] It's a very dangerous place. [22:15] And now it's just come together. [22:17] He's done a fantastic job. [22:19] People are talking about it. [22:21] In every conversation, it was clear that America is back. [22:24] And we're stronger and bigger and better than ever before. [22:29] We have more jobs, as I said, than ever before. [22:32] And we're respected again like maybe never before. [22:35] We are so respected as a country. [22:37] That's why I wish I told the Secretary General, Mark, I said, [22:42] it's too bad the press could not see what's happening in this room. [22:46] You saw the big round circle with all of the leaders of all of those countries. [22:51] And I don't know. [22:52] I think they should allow it. [22:54] The theory is that they won't be speaking quite as freely. [22:59] And it won't be quite as good. [23:00] But who knows? [23:01] It was amazing, actually. [23:03] The unity in that room was incredible. [23:06] The, you know, really a love. [23:09] It was sort of pretty wild. [23:11] There was a love in that room that was great. [23:13] So this was a tremendously successful summit. [23:16] And, again, I want to thank President Erdogan, Turkey, [23:21] and President, so many of the presidents, presidents, prime ministers. [23:28] They were all here from NATO, the NATO countries. [23:32] And, in particular, we have to thank the Secretary General, Mark Ruder, [23:37] for doing a fantastic job. [23:38] He really put on a tremendous – his was just something he just – [23:43] he's a unifier. [23:45] He's a tremendous unifier. [23:47] So I could take a few questions. [23:49] We've done a few of these already today, [23:51] so I don't think we should take too many. [23:53] I don't think we should take – right. [23:55] So we're going to keep it a little bit short. [23:57] And I know a lot of you are going home. [23:58] Some are going with me. [24:00] So go ahead, please, sir. [24:03] Yes. [24:03] Yes. [24:05] No, no, no. [24:06] The gentleman right here. [24:08] The very tall gentleman who's very insecure. [24:10] He doesn't want to ask that question. [24:13] He's a handsome guy, but he's very insecure. [24:15] Go ahead. [24:17] Do you want to shout it out? [24:17] Give him a mic. [24:19] How about giving him a mic? [24:19] You shout it out. [24:20] The war seems to be a strategic dead end for you. [24:33] Why are you apparently unable to end the Iran war? [24:37] So I think we're doing just the opposite. [24:40] The Iran war has been a tremendous military success. [24:43] And, you know, I can only answer the question by saying they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. [24:48] I think it's been – I was there for one reason that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. [24:53] I call it – we denuclearize Iran. [24:58] And that's happened. [24:59] They will never have a nuclear weapon. [25:00] That stuff is so far down under a mountain. [25:02] It's a granite mountain that collapsed on top of it. [25:05] Take months to get it out. [25:08] I think it's a tremendous success, Iran. [25:11] And you see the oil prices are lower than they were when I started. [25:15] And people like to say that. [25:16] But, look, they have no military left. [25:18] Their air force is gone. [25:20] As I said, their ships are gone. [25:22] 159 ships are gone. [25:23] They're at the bottom of the sea. [25:25] Their radar is gone. [25:26] Everything's gone. [25:27] So when you say not a success, it's a tremendous success. [25:30] The fake news likes to say how well they're doing. [25:32] They're doing terribly. [25:33] They have 350 percent inflation. [25:36] When the war started, they had like 6 percent, 5 percent. [25:40] They have – they want to make a deal, but they don't know how to make a deal. [25:44] And then they go around shooting ships at night. [25:46] I don't like that. [25:47] You know, they're dealing with very fine people. [25:49] They're dealing with Steve Whitcoff. [25:50] They're dealing with Jared Kushner and J.D. Vance. [25:54] And they're dealing with Marco and Scott. [25:57] They're dealing with great people. [25:58] But I don't know. [26:00] I think they're a little loco. [26:02] They're a little crazy. [26:03] But they told us they'd like to go to the funeral. [26:06] The funeral of a very – a person who has killed a lot of people. [26:15] Khomeini killed a lot of people over the years and there for a long time. [26:20] Don't forget, what we did should have been done 47 years ago. [26:24] It could have been done any time within 40. [26:26] If this had gone on for – they were the bully of the Middle East. [26:28] So they're a much different country. [26:31] Now, in one day, all of their anti-aircraft things are gone. [26:36] That doesn't mean they're not going to get a plane at some point. [26:39] But all of it's gone. [26:41] Everything's gone. [26:42] Their leaders are gone. [26:44] They had leaders. [26:44] They're gone. [26:45] And they had another set of leaders. [26:46] They're gone. [26:47] Now they have another set of leaders. [26:48] They may be gone. [26:50] Who knows? [26:51] And you know what? [26:52] I may be gone, too, because I'm their number one target. [26:56] It's out all over the place. [26:57] I'm their number – because they're scum. [26:59] That's the way they act. [27:00] And that's the way they've done it for 47 years. [27:03] But I'm doing what's right for the country. [27:05] I'm doing really what's right for the world. [27:07] They have to be stopped. [27:08] And they've killed thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. [27:12] They killed 52,000 protesters over the last three months. [27:16] So when you say we're not doing well, I think we're doing phenomenally well. [27:19] Our military has been incredible. [27:21] Plus, we had a blockade. [27:22] Did we have a blockade? [27:23] Did you ever see a blockade work that way? [27:25] You know, for you that said we're not doing well there. [27:27] We did great in Venezuela. [27:29] That was a one-day war. [27:32] And they're very good military. [27:33] You know, it's a very military country. [27:36] We took out one of the worst human beings in the world, Maduro. [27:40] And he's in jail waiting for trial. [27:42] But what he did to this country was incredible, including the fact not only the drugs, [27:47] but he had people pour into the country from prisons. [27:50] They opened up their prisons. [27:52] They allowed them to come in. [27:53] We're getting them out. [27:54] We're getting them all out. [27:56] But we have, with the Biden open border policy, with Kamala, as your borders are, remember? [28:02] She was a border's out, but she never called border patrol, never once. [28:04] And she never went to the border. [28:06] The border was a disaster. [28:07] Now it's fixed. [28:09] It's fixed where we have nobody. [28:11] And I don't do these numbers. [28:13] Zero people come in through our border, through our southern border. [28:17] Zero. [28:18] And that's been announced now every month for the last 12 months. [28:22] Zero. [28:23] We had millions of people come in under 25 million people. [28:26] I think more than that under Biden. [28:28] And they weren't people that you want. [28:30] And for the most part, they were drug dealers. [28:33] They were escaped from. [28:35] Think of it. [28:36] All the prisons. [28:37] And I'm not just talking about from South America. [28:39] I'm talking about from the Congo. [28:41] I'm talking about from all over the world. [28:42] The prisons were emptied out. [28:44] They were emptied out into our country. [28:47] But they had the worst murderers. [28:50] We had people allowed in our country that should never. [28:53] And they walked in through an open border policy. [28:57] And all I'm saying is that you're lucky we won this election. [29:01] Yeah, please. [29:01] Go ahead. [29:03] Go ahead. [29:04] No. [29:04] Yes, go ahead. [29:08] Who are you with? [29:09] Why don't you say your name and who are you with? [29:10] It's always helpful. [29:11] Thank you, Mr. President, for doing this. [29:13] Iris Tao with NTD, with the sister media, with the Epoch Times. [29:16] Okay. [29:16] On communism, you've been issuing a wake-up call to Americans at home about the dangers of communism. [29:23] And now you're speaking on the world stage. [29:25] What's your message to people both living under communist and socialist regimes, [29:30] but also people living under democracies like in Europe and America who might not have realized [29:35] how close communism has come to home? [29:37] Yeah, that's a great question, actually. [29:39] But, look, I want to get the word out because what's forming is communism in the country. [29:44] And communism's easy to sell. [29:47] I would be the greatest communist in history. [29:49] I'd be right up there with Lenin. [29:51] I'd be as good as anybody. [29:53] You've got free rent for the rest of your life. [29:56] What they don't say is that you'll be living in squalor in 12 months. [30:01] You've got a free house. [30:02] Would anybody like to have a free house? [30:03] We'll take it away from somebody. [30:05] We'll give it to you. [30:06] You'll have murders all over the place. [30:08] Communism's a disaster. [30:09] It's been proven to be for thousands of years under different names, but same thing. [30:15] It's very important. [30:17] And, you know, it's funny. [30:18] One of the reasons I do so well with Hispanic people, I set a record, Republicans. [30:24] I get great numbers for the election, helped me get elected in a landslide. [30:29] The Hispanics, because a lot of them came from countries that were essentially communists. [30:36] You know, whether you call them radical socialists or communists is not that much, but there's [30:40] a little difference. [30:41] When they say social democrats were social democrats, it sounds so nice. [30:45] It's not nice. [30:46] It's a very dangerous term. [30:48] So I do talk about it. [30:49] And I talk about it on TikTok, and I talk about it everywhere. [30:52] I talk about it here. [30:53] And you're right. [30:54] It has become international. [30:55] But it's never worked, and it's not going to work. [30:59] What is working is the United States. [31:00] So think of it. [31:01] We have more jobs than we've ever had. [31:03] People are making more money than they've ever made. [31:05] I'm talking about workers now. [31:07] I'm talking about workers. [31:08] They're making higher salaries than they've ever made before. [31:12] It's just the best system. [31:13] And it's got flaws, but everything's going to have a little flaw. [31:16] But it's been amazing. [31:19] And when I watch what's happening, and I see these lowlifes getting, I mean, they're lowlifes. [31:23] I watch them. [31:24] I know good people. [31:25] I know quality people. [31:26] These are essentially lowlifes. [31:29] And when I see what they're talking, I think they're very dangerous. [31:32] In many ways, and I've said it, and then I said, boy, that's a pretty big statement. [31:35] Then I realized, you know, a couple of people said, I think you're probably right. [31:38] I think this country, with this thing that's going around, is in more danger than it was during World War I, World War II. [31:49] If you talk about September 11th, if you talk about Pearl Harbor, that was big danger. [31:56] I think this is, I think the concept of us going communist, because one thing that happens when you go communist, you never come back. [32:02] Never comes back. [32:03] You die in squalor. [32:04] You die a horrible death. [32:07] You die in squalor. [32:08] And it gets very evil and very nasty. [32:10] Yeah, please, go ahead. [32:15] Mr. President, Tyler Pager with The New York Times. [32:18] Last month, you said Iranian leaders were very rational people, nice people to deal with, strong people, smart people. [32:25] Today, you said they were scum, sick people, and being led by sick people. [32:29] What changed, and do you think they're- [32:30] I got to know. [32:32] So- [32:32] I got to know now. [32:33] I've said that about a lot. [32:34] Now, when you say rational, I think they're much more rational than level one, level two. [32:38] Level one is gone. [32:40] Level two is gone. [32:41] This is level three. [32:43] I think they are more rational. [32:44] But based on their actions over the last week or two, they're not doing a service to the people. [32:52] And I think more than anything else is I got to know them. [32:55] And I'm not sure I want to make a deal with them. [32:58] We can play games, but I'm not sure I want to make a deal. [33:00] Let's just finish the job. [33:02] Yeah, please. [33:03] Go ahead. [33:04] Go ahead. [33:05] Go ahead. [33:05] Thank you, Mr. President. [33:10] Steve Sedgwick from CNBC. [33:12] The oil markets are up today around about 7% for WTI and Brent as well. [33:16] The world is taking you at your word, sir, that the MOU is over, that the ceasefire is over. [33:22] What happens next, sir? [33:23] Are we on the cusp of a full-scale return to full conflict? [33:27] I'll tell you what happens next. [33:29] We're never going to see Iran have a nuclear weapon, because that's much more important than the numbers you're talking about. [33:35] The prices of oil are dropping like a rock. [33:37] Now they'll be up a little bit, and this will end very quickly. [33:41] We have a tremendous—we have an oiled glut right now, because we've got all those votes out of the strait. [33:46] And it's going to drop, and I've predicted everything. [33:49] I've been right about everything, and I have been for a long time. [33:52] That's how I got to be president three times. [33:55] That's how we won three elections. [33:56] I did very well in the second one. [33:57] Won it. [33:58] It was a rigged election. [33:59] But I've been right, and oil's coming down. [34:03] Now, I have to make sure of one thing, that we don't have lunatics. [34:09] We don't have lunatics having control over nuclear weapons. [34:12] So we have that now. [34:14] There's no way they have a nuclear weapon. [34:16] We have cameras, as an example, on the site that does beautiful B2s at 1 o'clock in the morning 10 months ago. [34:22] Blew up. [34:23] They blew it up. [34:24] We have cameras—that's called Space Force, if they're in space—but we have cameras that can read the badge of the person going over to a site. [34:35] Mohammed something. [34:37] We say it's Mohammed something is there with shovels. [34:40] Well, shovels won't get you there. [34:41] The biggest machinery in the world probably won't get you there, if you want to know the truth. [34:48] It's way, way below. [34:50] But we're watching that, and if anybody goes there, they get blown up. [34:54] So nobody's going to touch that. [34:55] Eventually, we'll take it. [34:57] But what we do have is we have that that's gone. [35:00] If we wouldn't have had that, they would have had a nuclear weapon, and they would have wiped out Israel. [35:05] If I weren't president, Israel wouldn't exist. [35:07] Now, we did it two times. [35:09] When the JCPOA, the Obama deal, when that was originally conceived, everything went to Iran. [35:18] 1.7 billion in cash, hundreds of billions of dollars. [35:22] They thought they could buy peace with these people. [35:24] You can't do that. [35:25] So the big thing we have is more important than anything we can talk about is you can't let lunatics have nuclear weapons, and we've stopped that. [35:34] And that should have been stopped on a couple of other occasions, too, with different countries, but they didn't do that. [35:38] Yeah, please. [35:39] Steven Nelson from the New York Post. [35:48] I'd like you to address speculation that you're leaving Ankara not in the new Air Force One because of security concerns involving Iran. [35:58] You've spoken today twice about them possibly assassinating you and possibly being successful. [36:03] Did that concern have something to do with you? [36:05] Well, I speak about it a lot because, you know, the life of a president is very dangerous. [36:11] It's 5.2 percent. [36:13] You know what a race car driver is? [36:14] One-tenth of one percent. [36:16] A bull rider, that looks pretty dangerous to me. [36:18] It's one-tenth of one percent. [36:20] No, it's 5.2 percent is you don't make it. [36:25] You should have told me you're an excellent reporter. [36:27] You should have told me that years ago maybe I wouldn't have run. [36:30] It's a very dangerous profession. [36:31] No, I'm number one on the kill list for Iran. [36:36] They're lovely people. [36:37] I'm number one. [36:38] So I don't know. [36:38] I can't tell you that. [36:39] But I don't really care because I'm doing my job and I'm doing it, I hope, better than anybody's ever done it because we have a country that's hot and really, really successful. [36:49] But I mention it only because it's on the list. [36:52] I mean, it came out. [36:53] There was another list came out yesterday. [36:55] And I'm number one on – I like being number one on TikTok better. [37:00] But I'm number one on the list for killing. [37:09] Go ahead. [37:10] Hey, Sean McCreish, New York Times. [37:12] But why aren't you flying the new plane home? [37:15] Say what? [37:15] Why aren't you flying on the new Air Force One home? [37:17] It's flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases, where we can show it to the people and we'll be going home by normal methods. [37:28] But we have it going to Europe to a couple of bases, actually one in particular, but it's going to go to a couple of bases stop so the soldiers can see it because it's truly magnificent. [37:41] Yeah, please. [37:41] Go ahead. [37:43] Do you want to go? [37:45] Okay, go ahead. [37:46] Mr. President, it seems that the war with Iran may start again. [37:55] What do you expect from your European allies? [37:58] No, I don't think it's going to start again. [37:59] I think it's going to go very quickly. [38:02] They hit a couple of ships, and so we hit them much harder. [38:06] When they hit, we hit ten times harder. [38:07] You know, we hit much harder than they do. [38:09] We have a lot better equipment than they do. [38:13] We may even – somebody asked before, do you think you'll hit them tonight? [38:16] I said, we might. [38:16] Yeah, we might. [38:17] But when they hit, we hit. [38:19] You know, that's what they're – we use their language. [38:22] We speak their language. [38:23] No, I don't think so. [38:24] I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly. [38:28] And we'll only – and we'll only make it safer, including for oil. [38:32] Oil is going to be very free, very easy, and it's going to happen very fast. [38:38] We have the Harmo Street. [38:41] The boats have pulled out. [38:43] I mean, there's a – there's a gusher of oil right now. [38:45] We have a lot of oil. [38:47] And no, anything that happens is going to happen very fast. [38:50] We're not – we're not looking – we're not looking for long-term. [38:54] Okay. [38:54] Go ahead. [38:56] Red. [38:56] MSNOW. [39:00] You said today that country – [39:01] You're with who? [39:02] MSNOW. [39:03] MSNOW. [39:04] What a – that's a failing network. [39:06] Why would you want to work for them? [39:07] MSNOW. [39:08] Can you imagine? [39:09] They wanted to get away. [39:10] They took the name NBC because they were embarrassed by it. [39:13] Go ahead. [39:13] Let's go. [39:13] When did you hear this question? [39:16] You said today that countries like Spain, Italy, and the U.K. were not there for the U.S. in its war with Iran. [39:22] Should those countries be attacked, will the U.S. be there for that? [39:25] Well, I'll tell you what. [39:26] Number one, Spain has been very bad, but, you know, the – Italy has been good, and almost all of the countries have been good. [39:33] They just had a bad moment. [39:35] They didn't help us. [39:37] We didn't need the help. [39:38] But if we would have wanted the help – I said, by the way, if I want help, [39:41] I sure would rather remain on the sidelines, and I didn't like that answer. [39:45] U.K. gave an answer that was sort of weirder than that. [39:48] They went out. [39:50] I said, would you like to help? [39:51] They said, we do, but we want to wait until the war is over. [39:54] This was not in the spirit of Winston Churchill. [39:57] So, yeah, I mean, I'll tell you what. [40:01] I can only say if there's one word that comes out of today, it's unification. [40:06] I've never seen anything like it. [40:07] Every one of those countries, they love us. [40:10] They love each other. [40:12] That was tremendous unification. [40:14] It was a nice thing to say, and it was a very fair question, too. [40:18] Green? [40:19] Green? [40:20] Yeah. [40:20] You're wearing green, right? [40:22] Thank you, Mr. President. [40:25] Eda Turul from Haber Global TV, Turkey. [40:28] Mr. President, after your meeting with President Erdogan, [40:32] can you tell us whether you and President Erdogan reach an understanding on Turkey's return to the F-35 program [40:38] and the future of the U.S.-Turkey defense cooperation? [40:42] And do you believe U.S.-Turkey relations are entering a new chapter right now? [40:46] Well, I had a great relationship in my first term. [40:53] You remember Pastor Brunson, and he was put in jail for 35 years, and I called. [40:59] He was an evangelical hero, actually. [41:01] Very good man. [41:03] And I called President Erdogan, and he let him out. [41:06] I didn't pay anything like Obama and Biden, pay billions of dollars all the time. [41:11] I never paid any for anybody. [41:14] I just said, let him out. [41:16] Let him out. [41:17] But in this case, I didn't say it the second way. [41:20] I said it the first way. [41:21] I said, look, he's a good man. [41:23] He's highly respected, and the evangelical, and I'd like you to let him out. [41:26] And he was in my office, in the Oval Office, the following day, Pastor Brunson. [41:31] I had a great relationship. [41:32] When sleepy Joe Biden got in, bad things happened, with a lot of things between the border. [41:40] Everything was bad. [41:41] We were laughed at all over the world, and we had a very bad relationship with a lot of countries. [41:46] I think Turkey was one of those countries. [41:49] But that changed on November 5th, when we had the election. [41:54] And it's one of our best relationships. [41:57] We have a great relationship. [41:59] And they're talking about the F-35 airplane. [42:01] And it's the best plane, and everybody wants it. [42:05] And we have to make a decision who we give it to. [42:08] I mean, my inclination, because, again, he stayed out of – he's not a huge fan of Bibi, [42:14] and he's not a huge fan of Israel, but he stayed out of that war. [42:18] He could have gone into that war very easily. [42:19] And he didn't – at my request, he stayed out of that war. [42:22] He's been a very good ally. [42:24] I mean, Marco could tell you we have a very strong relationship with Turkey. [42:28] You know, it's a very big country. [42:30] It's a very powerful – militarily, it's a very – it's the second most powerful country in NATO. [42:35] It's a NATO country. [42:37] So whether or not we do that, I haven't totally made up my mind. [42:41] But my inclination is to say, look, he's done everything – he's helped us in so many different ways. [42:47] And, you know, who else has been good to is China. [42:50] China never came into the war. [42:53] They get 50 percent of their oil from Harmoor Strait. [42:56] They never came into the war. [42:57] They never said, I'm going to send a ship in five destroyers along each side of the ship. [43:03] They never did. [43:04] No, he was – he's been – President Xi has been great. [43:08] Everyone's been sort of great, to be honest. [43:09] You know why? [43:10] Because they respect our country again. [43:13] They laughed at our country. [43:14] They thought we were a bunch of fools. [43:15] They saw a president that couldn't talk. [43:19] He couldn't walk. [43:20] It was a disaster. [43:22] They lost respect for our country. [43:24] But now they have more respect for our country than they've ever had before. [43:27] Thank you all very much. [43:29] We'll see you back. [43:30] Thank you very much, everybody. [43:35] We've been listening to President Trump hold a press conference in Turkey on the final day of the high-stakes NATO summit, [43:41] which he called very successful, and adding there was tremendous unity among NATO members. [43:47] The president is speaking for more than 30 minutes there, describing the Iran war as a tremendous military success. [43:54] The president now saying he's not sure he wants to make a deal with Iranian leaders, [43:58] but that the action the U.S. does take with Iran will be over very quickly. [44:03] The comments coming just hours after he declared the ceasefire with Iran is over, [44:07] and announced the U.S. intends to strike Iran again tonight. [44:11] The president also saying oil prices will come down. [44:14] We will note oil prices are up sharply today after the U.S. launched new strikes. [44:19] Let's bring in NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Garrett Haake, who's at the press conference. [44:25] Garrett, let me just begin with a quick fact check here. [44:29] Oil prices right now are up very sharply. [44:32] They're at $75 a barrel. [44:34] They were 67 before the war began. [44:36] The president has said continually that oil prices have come way down. [44:40] We're going to keep them down. [44:41] They're lower today than before the war. [44:42] Just fact check, that is not true. [44:44] Oil prices are higher today than before the war he began. [44:51] Yeah, that's right, Christine. [44:52] And you heard the president, I think, try to, you know, affect those markets with his comments today, [44:57] essentially downplaying this resumption of some kind of up-tempo combat operations against Iran. [45:03] He suggested that this will be quick, that this will be sort of a short-term operation. [45:08] He really avoided directly answering whether he considers this a resumption of war. [45:13] And he never really gave an answer as to exactly how the U.S. gets out of this in his estimation, [45:19] only that it's not going to be, in his view, a massive disruption of the U.S. economy. [45:24] Obviously, that's not something he has control over, but it is something that he's trying to directly influence [45:31] with his remarks across all of his appearances today in front of reporters. [45:36] Garrett, just quickly, what did you hear from the president in those remarks there? [45:39] Does it sound as if we are on the verge of another big offensive against Iran? [45:45] You heard a couple of reporters ask him, is this war restarted? [45:48] Why isn't it over yet? [45:49] Yeah, and look, I think he avoided what would have been an easy answer to say yes. [45:56] I mean, the reality here is that the options for the president haven't gotten any better [45:59] than they were in June when he started this process of negotiating a peace deal with the Iranians. [46:05] I mean, they're not able to bomb the Strait of Hormuz open if Iran wants it closed. [46:11] They're not able to definitively remove the nuclear material that still exists and is buried in Iran. [46:15] And the president continues to describe that as buried in such a technically complicated way [46:20] that it could never get back out. [46:21] The only option for a long-term solution is still to talk. [46:25] And the talking, it seems like he is still blessing, even though he believes, [46:30] in his own words this morning, it's a waste of time. [46:32] And so we're in a situation where there are no good options. [46:36] And this kind of muddy status quo seems to be satisfactory to the president. [46:41] Garrett, there in the room, I want to jump quickly to NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby. [46:47] Courtney, what did you hear from the president there about militarily what the United States plans to do? [46:53] Yeah, there were two things that really stood out to me. [46:55] One was when he said that the U.S. hit Iran much harder than Iran did. [47:00] Now, of course, he's referring to Iran firing missiles and drones at three commercial ships around the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. [47:07] The U.S. military, though, he's right. [47:08] They responded at a much larger scale than Iran going after those three ships. [47:14] The U.S. striking at least 80 targets in Iran. [47:18] And keep in mind, Christine, 80 targets doesn't necessarily mean 80 munitions. [47:23] There could have been multiple bombs and multiple missiles fired at each of those 80 targets. [47:28] It was a tremendously, a much bigger response or retaliatory action by the U.S. military than what we have seen them in the past when there have been these back and forth over the Strait of Hormuz. [47:41] Another thing I was really struck by here is President Trump, since this war began in late February, he has repeatedly changed the goalposts of what the U.S. wants to accomplish strategically with Iran. [47:52] And today, he said that there is only one goal here, that the U.S. only has one goal with respect to Iran, and that is to ensure that they don't have a nuclear weapon. [48:01] Well, that is a real departure from what we have heard. [48:04] Yes, he has talked about the goal of Iran not having a nuclear weapon. [48:08] It's still not really clear how that has been accomplished. [48:11] He repeated, of course, that the U.S. struck three of those nuclear sites. [48:15] That was now more than a year ago. [48:16] There wasn't a lot of military action against the nuclear sites during this war over the last several months this year. [48:24] But notably, he didn't go back to that very first night, the five objectives that the president laid out on the first night of the U.S. and Israel striking in Iran. [48:34] It was not only to ensure they don't have a nuclear weapon, but also to ensure that their ballistic missile program was destroyed, to ensure that the proxies could no longer cause trouble and danger in the region, [48:46] to ensure that the Iranian Navy was completely destroyed, and also, notably, to set conditions so the Iranian people could rise up and overthrow the current regime. [48:57] He did talk about the now regime in Iran. [49:01] He described them somewhat inexplicably as the level three regime. [49:06] But once again, he didn't say that he was interested in going forward with some sort of an agreement. [49:12] He said, I'm not sure I want to make a deal with them. [49:15] Let's just finish the job. [49:16] So, Christine, what we should take out of this is it's not really clear whether the U.S. military is on the cusp of a resumption of major combat operations or not. [49:25] But it's definitely something that President Trump, according to what he was saying today, seems to be considering. [49:30] I think that's important, Courtney, that you mentioned those core military and political objectives in the very first hours of the war, [49:37] that now the president has saying all they wanted to do was make sure that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, and they have succeeded in that. [49:44] The flip side, though, for the Iranians is they now have shown that they do have a lever they didn't have before, [49:51] the ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz and drive up oil prices for the entire world. [49:57] And it has proven to be – remember, going into this war, the big concerns about Iran were – the two biggest concerns were, of course, [50:03] them having some sort of a – restarting some sort of a nuclear program that ultimately could get them a nuclear weapon. [50:09] But even bigger than that, military officials warned about their growing, expanding ballistic missile program. [50:14] Because it could not only threaten the region, it could threaten into Europe, and the worry was that they could really hold the world hostage [50:21] with a growing ballistic missile program. [50:24] And what they've learned is those ballistic missiles almost aren't as powerful as what they – the leverage that they have shown to have [50:31] over the Strait of Hormuz. [50:32] And so notably, there have been times, including one of the commercial ships that was attacked this week, [50:37] it was attacked by a small drone. [50:39] They launched off a fleet of them, the U.S. military fired down a number of them, but one of those drones got through. [50:45] And it proves that not only do they need to be able to fire at these ships in the Strait of Hormuz [50:50] to really shut down commercial traffic, they just need to have the threat there, Christine. [50:55] All right, Courtney, thank you. [50:56] I want to bring in NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel, who's in Tehran. [51:00] From your perch, sir, what did you hear from this press briefing from the president? [51:08] Well, quite a few things. [51:09] First of all, the situation here in Tehran is quite calm. [51:14] People are still out on the streets, even with this new threat from President Trump that he could attack this country, [51:20] hit it very hard tonight. [51:22] We're not seeing any panic in the streets. [51:26] Traffic is flowing as normal. [51:27] Businesses are open. [51:29] Iranian state media says that at least eight military personnel were killed in the U.S. strikes [51:36] that happened in the early hours here, overnight in the U.S. [51:40] So there was, as Courtney was describing, a major U.S. military operation. [51:45] But one of the things I heard was that President Trump is taking very seriously the threats [51:50] that we've been hearing on the streets of Tehran and across this country over the last several days [51:56] to target President Trump personally. [51:59] It was, after all, the United States and Israel about four months ago that killed the Iranian supreme leader. [52:06] And the Ayatollah's state funeral is still underway. [52:11] There were millions of people on the streets of Tehran and other cities over the last couple of days. [52:16] Now the supreme leader's body is in Iraq. [52:18] Ultimately, he'll be buried at the end of the week. [52:20] And in those protests, we saw many demonstrators, mourners, because this was both a mourning celebration, [52:31] because in Shi'a Islam, being a martyr is something to celebrate. [52:34] So they were mourning celebrations. [52:36] But they were also protests against the U.S. [52:39] There were also acts of defiance. [52:41] And in this mourning celebration, many of the Iranians were holding posters of President Trump [52:49] with a crossmark across his head indicating that he should be shot and killed. [52:55] We spoke to people on the street who said that President Trump should be targeted. [53:00] I spoke to a member of the Revolutionary Guard. [53:02] He said that the war will only be over when President Trump is delivered justice [53:06] for having killed the supreme leader. [53:09] So that message that we saw and heard so prominently on the streets here in Tehran [53:14] clearly was delivered and internalized by President Trump. [53:18] Another thing, he didn't talk very much about the Strait of Hormuz. [53:22] And that is why we are seeing this latest escalation. [53:26] Why we are in this position right now is because of the Strait of Hormuz, not the nuclear issue. [53:33] That is supposed to be discussed later in final status negotiations. [53:38] But what happened a couple of days ago was Iran fired three commercial ships that were transiting [53:44] through the Strait of Hormuz. [53:45] But those ships weren't following the routes that Iran says are the approved routes. [53:52] Iran wants to assert its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. [53:55] It is leverage that it gained during this war. [53:58] Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was open. [54:00] It was unblocked. [54:02] Passage was free. [54:03] Now Iran is saying that international ships must use specific Iranian sanctioned corridors. [54:10] And if they don't use them, like these three ships were not using them a couple of days ago, [54:14] Iran attacked them. [54:16] The U.S. retaliated. [54:17] Iran retaliated to that U.S. strike. [54:21] And now we're seeing if this escalation of violence will continue into the night. [54:26] But he didn't specifically address who controls the Strait of Hormuz. [54:30] For Iran, that is critical. [54:33] Iran discovered that it has this weapon, that it has a weapon that it considers to be almost [54:38] as powerful as a nuclear weapon, a weapon that it can use and is using. [54:43] So I think those are two of the key things that jumped out at me, his concern for his personal [54:48] safety and the sort of still very unresolved issue about the sovereignty in the Strait of Hormuz. [54:54] Fascinating. [54:55] All right, Richard, thank you. [54:56] Let's bring in NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba. [54:59] She is traveling with the president in Turkey. [55:01] And quickly, was this NATO meeting a success? [55:03] The president called it a tremendous success. [55:07] Well, it's interesting, Christine, because, of course, he's been railing against NATO repeatedly [55:11] for months. [55:12] He even came in yesterday and was extremely critical of some of the member countries here, [55:18] some European allies in particular. [55:20] But just now in this press conference, he said that if he had to pick one word to kind [55:24] of sum it all up, it would be unification and really heaped some praise on the NATO Secretary [55:29] General, Mark Ruta, who, of course, he does have a very close relationship with because [55:33] Mark Ruta has really used a form of flattery to continue to stay in the good graces of President [55:39] Trump. [55:39] But certainly it was notable that he sort of is ending this trip heading out of here, [55:44] leaving Turkey with a little bit more confidence, it sounds like, in the role that the U.S. [55:50] does play in the NATO alliance. [55:52] Remember that over the course of this war with Iran, he has even mused about withdrawing the [55:57] U.S. from NATO. [55:58] So that certainly was not the tone here in this ending newser. [56:02] And, Monica, there have been so many questions about why the president is not flying home on [56:06] his new Air Force One that he unveiled with such pomp and circumstance just a few days ago. [56:11] He says it's going to go on tour to soldiers, service members in the middle, in Europe. [56:17] What are we to make of all that? [56:19] Yeah, this was a real head scratcher because they even actually really made a big deal [56:26] of the plane landing here yesterday in Ankara. [56:29] And certainly the plan we thought and what was expected was that he would return [56:33] on that Qatari-donated luxury jet that has been converted into the new Air Force One. [56:39] The president has used it for a couple of trips so far. [56:42] He traveled to the Dakotas ahead of the 4th of July celebration. [56:46] And, of course, he made his way here. [56:47] But now he's announcing that he's actually going to be boarding the former Air Force One, [56:53] the one that he was just using up until a couple of weeks ago, [56:55] to fly to an air base known as Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall in the U.K., [57:02] where he says he decided to send the new jet early so that some Air Force members could take a tour of it. [57:09] We've asked the White House, though, for more information and more specifics [57:12] because this is pretty unusual, Christine. [57:14] I would say very unusual. [57:16] All right, Monica Alba, traveling with the president in Turkey. [57:19] Thank you so much for that. [57:20] Be sure to stay with us right here on NBC News Now. [57:23] We'll bring you the very latest from overseas throughout the day. [57:26] I'm Christine Romans. [57:27] NBC News Daily picks up now after this break.