Trump unveils a deal with Regeneron to lower drug prices

[0:00] The President of the United States of America and you have a picture of him with President Trump when he was two years old. [0:42] The President, well, thank you very much. And today I'm thrilled to announce that one of the most respected pharmaceutical companies anywhere in the world, frankly, I know it very well as Regeneron, and it's agreed to offer their prescription medications at heavily discounted most favorite nation prices. [1:12] In other words, their numbers will come down at levels that nobody's ever seen before. [1:17] The whole most-favored-nation thing that we've been able to do with Bobby and Oz and everybody behind me, Marty, has been incredible. [1:26] It's the biggest price reduction in drugs in history. [1:29] By itself, we should win the midterms, but it doesn't work that way, unfortunately, you know? [1:35] It doesn't work that way. [1:36] People forget too quickly, but we'll have the biggest, it's the biggest cut in drug prices in the history of our country by many percentage points. [1:45] With this announcement, 17 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, representing 80% of the branded drug market, [1:52] have now agreed to sell their drugs to American patients at the lowest prices anywhere in the world. [1:58] We're going to have the lowest prices in the world. [2:00] This will result in the largest drop in prescription drug prices in the history of the United States of America. [2:06] I mean, it should be front-page news, but it won't be. [2:11] It'll be back on page 19, but the people get it. [2:15] That's why we're in the Oval Office, I guess. [2:17] I want to thank Regeneron CEO, a friend of mine for a long time, good guy, great guy, CEO Len Schleifer, [2:25] and Chief Scientific Officer George Yankopoulos, who are two fantastic people in the medical world, very respected. [2:34] We're also joined by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [2:37] Bobby, thank you. [2:39] Secretary Howard Lutnik, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, [2:45] Dr. Memenaz, who's doing a fantastic job. [2:48] They all are. [2:49] FDA Commissioner Monty McCary and Chief Counselor of Health and Human Services, Chris Klomp. [2:56] Thanks, Chris. [2:57] Great job you're doing, Chris, wherever you may be. [2:59] Thank you, sir. [2:59] For decades, Americans have been forced to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, by far. [3:09] Prices that were many, many times what the rest of the world was paying. [3:13] Because we had a president that didn't know what they were doing, [3:16] or they weren't able to get other countries to agree to it. [3:18] I was able to do that because I used tariffs. [3:22] I said, if you don't agree to it, we're going to put tariffs on your country. [3:26] And they said, we would be honored to do it, sir, after telling everybody no, including me. [3:31] But they agreed to do it. [3:33] The United States is just 4% of the world's population. [3:37] And consumers, only 13% of all prescription drugs. [3:41] Yet pharmaceutical companies have been making 75% of their profits from American customers. [3:46] So think of that, with 4% of the population and doing only 13% of all prescription drugs, [3:55] the companies make 75% made, I don't know, maybe, hopefully they continue, [4:00] because actually it's not as bad for them as it sounds. [4:03] In fact, many of their stocks are up because actually when the price goes up on the one end, [4:08] they make up for the price coming down in the United States. [4:12] So it really worked out pretty good. [4:13] To address this chronic unfairness, I signed an executive order instructing my administration [4:19] to do everything in our power to slash prescription drug prices for Americans [4:23] while getting other countries to pay more, in many cases much more. [4:29] But their other prices doubled and sometimes they tripled. [4:32] And ours would go down by 60, 70, 80% even more. [4:36] Today, we're building on our unprecedented success with Regeneron, [4:41] committing to offer all new drugs moving forward at most favored nations' prices. [4:47] They'll make their current drugs available to Medicaid and MFN. [4:53] That's most favored nation. [4:55] Additionally, they'll also offer their current drug, Praluent, [5:00] which is the lower cholesterol and fight heart disease to all consumers at dramatically lower costs. [5:07] It'll come down from $537 to $225. [5:13] It'll be available at TrumpRx.gov. [5:16] I didn't put the name. [5:17] Bobby did and Oz did. [5:20] It's true, actually. [5:22] Remember I came in, I said, what's this? [5:25] Do you like the name? [5:25] It'll be better. [5:27] It'll sell better. [5:27] Would you help us? [5:28] So, I now have my name on medication. [5:33] But it's doing great. [5:35] I hear it's setting records, actually. [5:36] I was watching the other day. [5:39] Mark Cuban, of all people, said, it's amazing what Trump has done with this. [5:45] I can't believe when I heard him say that I was sort of in a state of shock. [5:48] But others have said it, too. [5:50] This whole thing is, it's turned out to be hot. [5:53] So, that's TrumpRx.gov. [5:56] The company will also invest $27 billion to build up research and development [6:01] and pharmaceutical manufacturing here in America, which is a big thank you very much. [6:07] Today, I'm also announcing that the FDA has just approved a new drug from Regeneron called O-Tarmini, [6:13] a gene therapy curing a rare disease that causes deafness. [6:19] People are totally deaf, and it's amazing. [6:23] I've seen some work on it. [6:25] It's actually hard to believe we're going to talk about it in a minute. [6:28] Normally, cures for rare diseases can cost millions of dollars, [6:33] and really, the results aren't that good. [6:36] But in this case, I'm pleased to say that Regeneron will be giving this away for free, [6:41] for a period of time, for free. [6:44] And here with us is two-year-old Travis Smith. [6:47] He was born deaf. [6:49] Was he totally deaf? [6:50] Pretty much, right? [6:51] Yeah, 100%. [6:52] This is 100%. [6:54] He was 100% deaf, but he took this miracle cure, [6:57] and now he can hear his mom, Sierra, say, [7:01] I love you. [7:02] And Sierra, could you maybe say a few words? [7:05] That's really incredible. [7:07] It's absolutely incredible. [7:09] Regeneron works miracles. [7:12] Yeah, he didn't know his name. [7:14] He couldn't hear me tell him how much I love him. [7:17] And now with Regeneron and this amazing surgery, [7:20] he can listen to music, and he loves it, [7:22] and he loves to dance, and he loves instruments, [7:25] and I'm so proud of him. [7:27] He's been so brave through all of this. [7:29] And yeah, now he can hear, [7:31] and he has a bright future ahead of him, [7:33] and I'm so thankful to everybody on the Regeneron team. [7:35] Oh, that's incredible. [7:38] I mean, even the fake news has to be impressed with this. [7:42] They'll find a way to make it a bad story. [7:45] He doesn't hear perfectly, but he actually does. [7:48] It's about 1% off. [7:51] They'll figure a way. [7:52] How are you going to do it? [7:53] You've got to explain. [7:54] No, they're genius. [7:55] They are genius. [7:56] I respect them a lot. [7:58] But I just want to thank you, Sarah. [7:59] That's incredible. [8:00] Thank you for having us. [8:02] He's a beautiful person, too. [8:04] That's a beautiful boy. [8:05] Thank you. [8:06] Bye. [8:06] Thank you. [8:09] His life is a happier life? [8:11] Oh, yeah. [8:12] He is so full of energy and love now, [8:14] and he was such a serious baby. [8:15] So you see such a difference. [8:17] Yeah, he was such a serious baby. [8:18] And before that, it was his agent. [8:20] It's very tough for him. [8:21] Oh, for sure. [8:22] He can't tell me what he wants, [8:23] or what he wants to eat, or what he needs. [8:26] And now he'll be able to do that. [8:27] Wow. [8:28] It's life-changing. [8:29] That's a great job they've done. [8:31] I want to thank Regeneron and other companies [8:33] for doing their part to bring down the cost of health care [8:36] for all Americans under our most favored nation's agreement. [8:40] We've secured gigantic discounts with price differences [8:43] from 4 to 5 and even 600 percent. [8:47] 600 percent. [8:48] One of the most popular weight loss drugs [8:51] has gone from $1,350 a month [8:54] to as low as $199 a month. [8:58] So that's a price that's incredible. [9:01] So it used to sell in London for $87, [9:04] and they raised it to $199, [9:07] which is a big raise if you're, you know, [9:09] from $87 to $199. [9:12] But that's been going on. [9:14] Our country has been being ripped off for 30 years. [9:16] How long would you say it does? [9:17] Like 30, 40 years. [9:19] For years with drugs and drug prices. [9:22] So they're going up. [9:25] We're going way down. [9:26] And because the world is a bigger place than we are, [9:28] believe it or not, it's hard to believe that, [9:30] but they are, [9:32] that we go down much more than they go up. [9:34] So they don't go up as much as people would have thought. [9:37] So they're going from, [9:38] they're going to $199, [9:40] and we're going down all the way down. [9:43] Think of that. [9:44] We're going down from $1,350 a month to $199. [9:51] That's, nobody would believe it. [9:53] And this is true with all. [9:54] I mean, this is the weight loss drug. [9:57] But this is true with all drugs. [10:00] Sometimes even more of a difference than that. [10:02] Sometimes a little bit less. [10:03] But sometimes substantially more than even that difference. [10:06] And you see what that is. [10:07] So we cut the per cycle cost of IVF drugs by thousands of dollars, [10:13] and we reduced the price of the major COPD medication from $458 to $50. [10:23] What? [10:24] That must be a typo. [10:26] Is that a typo? [10:28] From $458 to $50. [10:32] If your boy was here, he'd go, wow. [10:34] He left. [10:35] He got bored. [10:36] I think he got bored. [10:37] He wants to go into bigger and better things. [10:40] But there's nothing bigger or better than this. [10:42] They'll all be available right now at TrumpRx.gov. [10:46] So it's, you know, that's why it's doing well. [10:47] It's not doing well for other reasons. [10:50] It's doing well. [10:50] Think of that. [10:51] That's some discount. [10:52] But we have others. [10:53] And these are all top companies and top medications. [10:57] And I think in the end, we're going to have every company involved. [10:59] We're almost there right now. [11:00] But we're going to have every company involved. [11:03] TrumpRx has already received more than 15 million visitors, [11:06] and every American should log on to check for massive discounts [11:10] before they go to the pharmacy. [11:12] It's setting a record. [11:13] Nobody's ever seen anything like this. [11:15] I've actually had many companies, I shouldn't tell you this, Bobby, [11:19] but there have been many companies. [11:20] They say, sir, we'd like to buy from you if you could. [11:23] What? [11:24] TrumpRx.com. [11:25] I said, it's not for sale. [11:26] It's not me. [11:26] It's the government. [11:27] The government owns it. [11:28] I don't own it. [11:29] But they're all impressed. [11:30] These pharmaceutical companies, [11:32] they said they've never seen anything like this. [11:34] So it's fantastic. [11:35] Now, I'd like to ask Secretary Kennedy to say for you a few words, [11:39] and then we'll have Dr. Raz, the team at Regeneron, and Sierra. [11:45] And Sierra, I'm so happy for you. [11:47] And Chris Klopp has been unbelievable, a real star. [11:50] You don't know his name as much as some of the others, [11:53] but he's a real star of the group. [11:56] So, Bobby, please, thank you. [11:58] Thank you, Mr. President. [12:00] I was reminded when the president was speaking of a conversation that I had yesterday with one of the Democratic senators who was questioning me during the hearing. [12:10] And she was ridiculing President Trump for his math. [12:13] And she was saying it's mathematically impossible to have a drug drop by 600 percent cost, which he had claimed. [12:22] And I said, well, if the drug was $100 and it raised the price to $600, that would be a 600 percent rise. [12:31] If it drops from 600 to 100, that's a 600 percent savings. [12:35] And the president used that mathematical device to illustrate the magnitude of the theft that has been happening against our country and our people. [12:48] As he said, we have 4.2 percent of the world's population. [12:52] We take 13 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs. [12:56] We spend 80 percent of the biotechnology research in our country. [13:01] And we provide 75 percent of the profits to the pharmaceutical industry. [13:05] This is a ripoff that has irked him for 20 years. [13:11] During his first term, he held the line on drug prices for the first time in history. [13:17] He came back on this term and he said, we're going to lower them this time, no matter what. [13:22] There's people in this room or a part of the White House staff who said, we can't do that. [13:27] Oz and I said, we probably can't do that. [13:30] But he harassed us. [13:31] We were beleaguered. [13:33] It was like Fort Apache. [13:35] Dr. Oz would not answer his phone because he was calling all night long with the president on the line saying, get this done. [13:45] And we brought in this amazing superstar, Chris Klomp. [13:48] And he negotiated these agreements that people said were impossible. [13:54] I want to thank him for his leadership, Chris. [13:57] And I want to thank George and Lynn, who are the co-founders of this country, this company of Regeneron, their generosity, their idealism, their love of this country and their compassion for these children who are injured. [14:12] Thank you. [14:12] Thank you. [14:13] Amazing. [14:14] It is amazing. [14:15] You're right. [14:15] I took a lot of heat and say 500, 600, 700, but we also say sometimes 50 percent, 60 percent, different kind of calculation, 70, 80, and 90 percent. [14:26] And people understand that better. [14:28] But there are two ways of calculating it. [14:30] But either way, it doesn't make any difference, whether it's 60, 70, or 80 percent. [14:35] Nobody's ever heard of it. [14:36] But it's also 500, 600, 700, depending on the way you want to look at it or the way you word the calculation. [14:44] It's either way. [14:45] But, Bobby, you're doing a fantastic job. [14:48] We wanted somebody out of the box, and we got him, right? [14:51] I'm sure. [14:51] I would say we got him in Bobby. [14:54] He's a great guy, actually. [14:56] So, Oz, how about saying a few words, please? [14:58] So, this has been an unprecedented process. [15:02] The president insisted we deal with one critical number you should all remember, which is that one in three Americans, when they go to the drugstore, after they've seen a doctor, will often leave empty-handed because they cannot afford the medications they're picking up. [15:14] So, affordability was the main word the president would use in many of those phone calls. [15:18] He wanted it to be done fairly. [15:20] We created a partnership with the pharmaceutical industry that was remarkable, [15:25] and that it pushed 17 massive companies into the fold to try to do deals, again, unprecedented, that would allow us to claim that they were giving the most favored nation pricing to this country, to the American people. [15:38] The president would not take no for an answer. [15:39] We got 16 companies in, but not the 17th. [15:44] How many times do you think we spoke about the 17th company? [15:46] Too much. [15:47] 17. [15:48] He said 17. [15:48] He wanted to be 17. [15:50] Whatever math you want to make, 16 is not 17. [15:52] There's a reason that the 17th company was delayed. [15:55] It's why they're here today. [15:56] It's that beautiful young boy you saw earlier, when you can save a child's hearing. [16:00] And, Mr. President, we talked about a lot of numbers. [16:02] Secretary Kennedy quoted 100%, you know, 100%, 600%. [16:05] It's hard to beat free. [16:07] Free is the best price, and that's the starting price with the president oftentimes, and that's what this wonderful company has agreed to. [16:12] I want to applaud TrumpRx.gov, a remarkable site created by Joe Jebbia. [16:18] Ed Korstein has done a wonderful job with zero glitches, serving more than 10 million individual unique Americans so far. [16:26] And, Mr. President, it's the fastest website I've ever seen. [16:28] People love it because it works well. [16:30] There's all kinds of additional elements being added to it, which we'll be talking about. [16:34] But this website, as the president said, must be checked. [16:37] Must be checked if you're going to buy a medication to make sure your price is the right price. [16:42] It's a transparency site that is more rigorous than anything that I have seen. [16:46] And, Mr. President, your name is attached to it. [16:48] And, of course, that brings a tremendous amount of attention to it. [16:51] We wanted it to be perfect. [16:52] And the team that did that has accomplished that exactly. [16:54] I want to applaud Chris, because you cannot thank him enough. [16:57] But it was also John Brooks, Imba Hernandez. [16:59] I see Beth back there, Theo, Rujal, a bunch of people who have done a tremendous amount of work. [17:04] And what I keep hearing from the performance work industry, maybe my colleagues can address it in your comments. [17:08] They never expected to have a counterparty as qualified in the federal government. [17:12] If you're thinking of serving your nation, this is the right time to do it. [17:15] This is the right administration to serve in because the president makes it easy to do the right thing. [17:20] Gentlemen. [17:22] Thank you. [17:24] Mr. President, Secretary Kennelly, Secretary Lutnik, Commissioner Macri, Administrator Oz, and, I guess, Superstar Klum. [17:32] Yes. [17:32] Thanks for having us here on behalf of all of Regeneron. [17:36] For those of you who don't know me, I'm Dr. Len Schleifer, President and CEO of Regeneron. [17:40] And with me is Dr. Georgian Kappalos, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron. [17:46] And together, well, I should pause there. [17:48] I just realized something. [17:50] I'm a president. [17:51] He's a president. [17:52] He's a president. [17:53] And all three of us grew up in Queens, New York. [17:57] That's right. [17:57] So there's something maybe that was going on back then that was good. [18:02] I'm not sure about now. [18:04] So anyway. [18:07] Together, we founded, George and I founded Regeneron, and have built it over the past four decades. [18:13] Today, we are here. [18:15] We were not pushed to be here. [18:17] We are happy to be here because it marks an important step to lower drug prices. [18:21] We've been arguing for more than a decade that other wealthy nations have been getting a free ride on American innovation, just like in defense. [18:31] But they've been getting, in health defense, a free ride. [18:35] And now, President Trump is putting policies in place to force these nations to pay their fair share, which will, in turn, lower prices for Americans. [18:44] It's a good deal. [18:46] But we have to remember this is just the beginning. [18:48] The most important battle we all face is disease itself. [18:52] We have to recognize how hard this fight is. [18:55] For most major diseases that you or your loved one might suffer from, like Alzheimer's disease to cancers to genetic diseases, we are very far away from a cure. [19:06] And we have to understand that discovering cures is perhaps the hardest scientific challenge humans undertake. [19:13] Much harder than getting to the moon, not that we don't like that, but much harder than even getting to Mars or making the next generation of cell phones or electric cars. [19:23] Hard like staring into the unknown for years, sometimes decades, with no guarantee that anything you're doing will ever make a difference for somebody like Travis. [19:34] Regeneron is a great example of both the difficulty of the challenge, but also of the potential reward. [19:41] We spent 25 years, 25 years and billions of dollars, not millions, billions of dollars, before we produced our first important medicine or even earned our first profit. [19:55] Maybe we should have been, or might have been fired, but we stuck with it. [20:00] Our relentless commitment to disruptive innovation ultimately turned us into one of the most productive biotechnology companies in history. [20:09] We have produced, thanks to George and his team, new medicines at the rate of about one important medicine a year for the last 15 years, including truly miraculous advances impacting millions of lives. [20:22] And we have two people here who are living proof. [20:26] Mr. President, when you were ill with COVID, it was Regeneron's monoclonal cocktail that you affectionately dubbed the Regeneron. [20:35] We love it. [20:36] And that helped save your life. [20:37] That was invented by George right here and his team. [20:41] George? [20:43] Well, in addition to the president we had a few minutes ago, Sierra's beautiful boy, Travis, who was born without the ability to hear, as you heard from Sierra. [20:54] And the same company and the same dedicated team of scientists that helped save the president's life, also delivered a first-of-its-kind gene therapy, known as Atarmini. [21:07] So Travis can now hear his mother, as she told you, tell him that she loves him. [21:13] Hard to think of a greater gift. [21:14] And just like you, Mr. President, who made our antibody treatment for COVID free for all Americans and thus saved many lives, we have made the decision, the unprecedented corporate commitment, to provide this first-of-its-kind gene therapy for hearing loss free to all the children in the United States who can benefit from it. [21:36] And we do this, why, to hopefully highlight the power of disruptive biotech innovation and all the good that it can bring to all of our lives and our health. [21:48] But we have to remember, despite the miraculous advances like Atarmini and like the regenerative COVID treatment, we also have to highlight how far we have yet to go to address the many diseases that lack effective treatments. [22:03] And the cures will not be coming unless we not only celebrate the advances of the biopharma industry to date, but we all work together, private sector, together with the government, to not only maintain America's position as world leaders in biotech innovation, but to actually bump up innovation and become even more disruptive. [22:25] Especially in a world where China is increasing investment and heavily subsidizing its biotech industry and reducing regulatory hurdles so as to try to displace America's leading position. [22:39] President Trump's efforts to make drugs more affordable, as well as new FDA programs, such as the Commissioner's Voucher Program, that bring safe and effective new medicines like Atarmini to patients more quickly, these are important steps. [22:56] One additional important way that I've been talking to the administration about to maintain our leading position in the world is to create catalysts and accelerants for our industry and for the healthcare system, such as developing a national healthcare database linked to molecular data, including human sequence data, where Regeneron once again is a world leader. [23:18] Without such big data sets, powerful new technologies such as AI, despite its potential, will not be as useful as it could be in the quest to develop new medicines and improve healthcare. [23:29] The biopharma industry of America has and will continue to deliver a miraculous breakthrough. [23:35] You, Mr. President, and young Travis are living testaments of that. [23:40] But many more lives need to be helped and saved. [23:43] We need to attain a new level of disruptive innovation. [23:46] We have to all work together to meet this challenge. [23:50] Why? Because lives are at stake. [23:53] Let me briefly say something. [23:56] I'm married to a lawyer, my son is a lawyer, but I'm going to talk about the Constitution and I'm not an expert. [24:01] But I know our Constitution lays out a vision on how America would out-innovate, out-produce, out-thrive every other nation on earth. [24:11] And in it, you will find a description of a system built on incentive and reward. [24:17] A system that says, take the risk, do the work, and you will share in what you create. [24:23] That is why they enshrined patent protection directly in the Constitution. [24:28] Not as an afterthought, but as a founding principle. [24:31] As Abraham Lincoln said, another great president, [24:35] Patents add the fuel of interest to the fire of genius. [24:40] We must keep that fire burning. [24:42] What we did here today will do that. [24:45] Little Travis can now hear for the first time and his potential is endless. [24:50] Let's make sure he grows up in a country that never stops reaching for the next miracle. [24:56] Thank you, Mr. President. [24:57] Thank you. [24:58] Great to be with you again. [24:59] Chris, could you say a few words, please? [25:01] Thanks, Mr. President. [25:03] It's not lost on me that this year is America 250. [25:07] And it's powerful, I think, to pause and remember that 250 years ago, a revolutionary free republic was born. [25:15] And with it, the greatest innovation engine in the history of humanity. [25:19] And we stand here today, 250 years later, getting to witness yet another groundbreaking innovation that doesn't just treat but cures deafness in children. [25:29] And because of this president and his policies around most favored nation will enable families who are struggling and suffering with this affliction to have access to that groundbreaking therapy for free. [25:40] Now, as the president mentioned, we've negotiated the 17th of 17 agreements. [25:45] This represents 86% of the branded pharmaceutical drug market in the United States. [25:51] But anyone who knows us knows that we're not done. [25:54] That's a milestone. [25:55] It's not the finish line. [25:56] And so we have three core objectives that are next up. [26:00] Number one, and this is already underway, we are negotiating with the many hundreds of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies representing that other 14% that are building the cures for tomorrow. [26:11] To all those who are listening, I hope that we have proven that we are credible and reliable and trustworthy partners. [26:18] We want to sit with you. [26:19] We will listen to you. [26:20] We will take the time to understand your businesses, not only as we negotiate on behalf of every American family for affordability, but also to ensure that you're best positioned to create the cures for tomorrow. [26:31] Second, we continue our work on negotiating international trade agreements. [26:36] Fifty-nine days after we stood in this office and President Trump, standing with Albert Bourla from Pfizer, announced the first of the 17 MFN deals, together with our colleagues from the Department of Commerce under Secretary Lutnik's leadership and from the U.S. Trade Representative's office under the leadership of Ambassador Greer, [26:53] we negotiated a landmark agreement with the government of the United Kingdom in which they agreed to increase significantly the amount that they spent on branded pharmaceuticals for the first time in 26 years. [27:03] That work continues with other countries. [27:06] And third, we will continue our work with our partners in Congress to codify the principles that underpin these most favored nation deals. [27:15] So that these savings for American families and this innovation that is unleashed at the same time persists for decades to come. [27:23] So that the one in three or four families that Dr. Oz mentioned standing at a pharmacy counter right now, wrestling with the decision that no family should have to make [27:32] of whether or not they can pick up their prescription because they can't afford it will no longer be the case. [27:36] And at the same time, we know that there are roughly 20,000 known diseases in the world and we have a treatment or a cure for fewer than a quarter of those. [27:44] And so this President and his policies is not only safeguarding affordability for American families, but is ensuring that we continue to bet on American exceptionalism. [27:53] We bet on innovation. [27:55] We bet on the principles that have taken us to this place in 250 years for the next 250 years. [28:00] Thank you, Mr. President. [28:01] Thank you, Chris. [28:02] Great job. [28:03] You do. [28:04] Maybe you want to talk about rescheduling while we're here and just say what you're doing and the progress that you've made. [28:10] Great. [28:11] Well, Mr. President, today is another promise made promise kept day. [28:15] On December 18th, you signed an executive order on increasing medical marijuana and cannabidiol research. [28:22] And today we delivered on that promise. [28:24] The acting attorney general this morning signed an order that moves into Schedule 3 medical marijuana products that are FDA approved or that are state licensed. [28:33] This is a giant move forward to implement your promise. [28:36] And it's actually a campaign promise that you made. [28:38] You said we're going to move into Schedule 3 to increase the research on these medical products. [28:43] And just wanted everyone to know that, one, you make promises, you keep them. [28:47] And, two, what does Schedule 3 mean for state licensed medical marijuana products? [28:52] We will begin implementation right away of this order. [28:55] It does not legalize marijuana. [28:57] It makes it easy for the researchers to actually study and understand medical marijuana, especially in populations that are using it. [29:06] We know that one in ten seniors right now used medical marijuana in the past year. [29:11] And they report that it really helps them. [29:14] But we don't have the science or the understanding to guide the patients and the doctors. [29:17] And so both patients and doctors are flying blind without knowing how they interact with other medications because the research has been difficult to do. [29:24] And so your promise today says those state licensed medical marijuana products are now in Schedule 3. [29:29] And we expect the research to significantly increase so that we can understand how to guide patients and doctors in this effort. [29:36] And there will be additional actions that will come this summer to do an expedited hearing for the administrative, [29:42] an administrative hearing at the Department of Justice for all of marijuana to move into Schedule 3. [29:48] And the military is very happy about it. [29:50] And a lot of people suffering from big problems, which seems to be the best answer. [29:55] They're very happy about it. [29:56] So the rescheduling is starting. [29:58] And that's a big thing, rescheduling. [30:00] They kept saying, what about the rescheduling? [30:02] And so great job. [30:03] I appreciate it. [30:04] I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Howard Kessler. [30:08] He's one of the most successful men in the world, actually. [30:12] And he had some medical difficulties. [30:15] And he came upon this by accident in a way. [30:19] And he said, well, he had to go through a lot of different, a lot of different medications. [30:24] And he said, this was the one that was much better than anything else. [30:29] And so he experienced it. [30:31] He didn't benefit by it other than from the standpoint that he lives a much better life now. [30:37] So hopefully you don't need it. [30:39] But if you do need it, I hear it's the best of all the alternatives. [30:43] But I want to thank Howard Kessler and Michelle Kessler. [30:47] They really pushed this very hard. [30:50] These are two people, very straight arrows. [30:52] They're not into marijuana. [30:54] They're not into anything. [30:55] But he found this answer. [30:57] And he said, he's doing it for other people. [31:00] And so Howard and Michelle, probably, they're watching or they'll be hearing about it. [31:04] But they worked very hard to get this done. [31:08] And it's an honor. [31:09] And you've done fantastically. [31:10] You all have. [31:11] And I appreciate it. [31:12] And a man who's doing an excellent job is Howard Lutnik. [31:15] He's in a little different sphere. [31:16] He's not in the medical sphere. [31:17] But he knows what it all means. [31:19] And from Commerce. [31:23] He's the Secretary of Commerce. [31:24] Howard, would you say a few words for us? [31:26] Sure. [31:27] So in partnership with Bobby Kennedy and Memonaz and the whole team, when they do most favored nation, we also ask the company to reassure and build their drugs here in America. [31:40] Because too many of our drugs, our key drugs for our health, are being made overseas. [31:46] And in a conflict, we can't rely upon them. [31:48] And I am honored to say that our partners from Regeneron have agreed to reassure their production of pharmaceutical drugs. [31:57] And this is exactly from your pharmaceutical tariffs. [32:00] That's the point. [32:01] So that means $448 billion of drug manufacturing is coming to America because of your tariffs, because of your pharmaceutical strategy. [32:14] And we are proud to invite Regeneron to do this giant build in America and all the rest of the pharmaceutical companies they've committed to build in America because of your tariff policy and your strategy. [32:27] And because of the tariffs we have, it's been amazing, actually. [32:30] We have Eli Lilly and Pfizer and all of the companies. [32:33] We had, I guess, seven of them here at one time, which was interesting to see. [32:37] But they actually got along with each other pretty well. [32:40] They stood right behind me, the biggest companies in the world. [32:42] And they're all building, Eli Lilly is building, I think, five major plants, which, without tariffs, they would have built none. [32:50] I said, how many would you build without them? [32:52] None. [32:53] They were all making these products in other countries, a lot of other countries, actually, not just China, but a lot of other countries. [32:59] And I think by the time I leave office, they'll be mostly operating these. [33:06] They have an incentive to do them quickly, big incentive, like the tariffs go up if they don't. [33:12] And remember, if they do them here, they don't have any tariffs to pay. [33:15] It's an incredible incentive. [33:16] And if they don't do them here, they have a very substantial tariff, so they get penalized. [33:21] And it's bringing countries, not only drug companies, but car companies. [33:25] AI is a different thing altogether, but even there. [33:28] But the AI is, we're leading China in AI. [33:30] We're leading everybody in AI. [33:32] We're leading now in car companies. [33:34] They're coming from Canada. [33:35] They're coming from Mexico, Germany, Japan. [33:38] They're pouring into our country because they're very smart. [33:41] Should have been done long ago by other presidents. [33:44] We were the car capital of the world 50 or 60 years ago, and then they just started taking them away. [33:50] We were the chip capital of the world. [33:52] And now, you know, Intel. [33:54] And now they're coming back. [33:57] All the chip companies are coming back. [33:59] You may say a word about that, Howard, real fast, because what we're doing with chips are incredible. [34:04] And what we're doing is saying at the end of a year and a half, two years, if you don't have your chip company, you're going to pay a tremendous tariff to put chips into this country. [34:12] And they are building, I think we'll have close to 50 percent of the chip market very soon. [34:17] Right now, we had nothing. [34:18] We had virtually nothing. [34:20] And they're coming in from Taiwan. [34:22] They're coming in mostly from Taiwan because that's where chips are made, but mostly from South Korea, Taiwan, various other countries. [34:28] But they're coming back to America. [34:29] We're bringing them all back. [34:31] It's a revolution. [34:32] Nobody's ever seen what we've done. [34:34] There's never been anything like what we've done. [34:36] We have $18 trillion being invested. [34:38] That's for 11 months. [34:39] And the last administration had less than $1 trillion in four years. [34:44] We have, in 11 months, over $18 trillion. [34:47] Howard, do you want to talk just for a second about the chip market because it's explosive? [34:53] Sure. [34:54] So you've got semiconductors. [34:55] You've got leading edge logic. [34:57] You've got high bandwidth memory. [34:59] And you have foundational chips. [35:01] And America had a couple of points, 3% or 4% market share. [35:06] And we are, of course, the biggest demand. [35:08] And the president gave the order, let's get these factories, these fabs built in America. [35:14] And our expectation is we will have $1 trillion of these fabs. [35:20] These are factories. [35:21] This is not the hyperscalers buying chips. [35:24] This is literally the making of the chips. [35:27] Right? [35:28] We had Micron, $200 billion. [35:30] TSMC, $165 billion. [35:32] The list goes on and on. [35:34] He negotiated a great deal with Taiwan. [35:36] $500 billion coming to America. [35:39] We'll have $1 trillion of semiconductors. [35:42] That's part of his $18 trillion. [35:44] But it's foundational for us to take care of ourselves. [35:47] Well, thank you very much, John. [35:49] I'll go off subject for a minute. [35:51] But it's, I think it's very interesting. [35:53] And I hope you go home and take a look because it's happening right now as we speak. [35:58] But first, if you look outside, so we had flooring outside. [36:03] We had a slate. [36:05] And it was coming to pieces. [36:07] It's been there since the early 1940s. [36:09] And it's a path to the Oval Office. [36:13] It's a path to the West Wing. [36:14] And it was terrible. [36:15] It was broken. [36:16] Bad shape. [36:17] The whole White House has been in bad shape. [36:19] It's been, it's right now in better shape than it is. [36:22] I think the day they built it, this is better right now. [36:25] But we're putting magnificent new granite. [36:29] It's called charcoal. [36:31] It's black granite against the white, beautiful white walls. [36:35] We've stripped all of the paints off. [36:37] We had 200 years of paint. [36:40] And we've redone it. [36:41] And it's beautiful. [36:42] And you can see the building. [36:43] But you can also see the columns, everything else. [36:45] But we're replacing it. [36:47] And they're working right outside if the press wants to go and take a look at what they do. [36:51] They're really pros. [36:52] You see the way large slabs of black granite. [36:55] Granite is rated as this particular granite over a million year life. [37:01] As an example, concrete gets rated for about 200 years if you get very high grade. [37:06] This is over. [37:07] It's rated over. [37:08] Can you imagine? [37:09] Nature produces something better than you can make. [37:11] So it's very interesting. [37:12] It's a beautiful job they're doing. [37:14] And it's highly polished granite in the areas you don't walk on. [37:18] And it's called flame-finished areas that you do walk on. [37:22] There's no slip. [37:23] So it's a beautiful job. [37:25] And it's going up nice. [37:26] And if you want to take a look outside the window, so that's replacing a stone that was [37:30] here from the early 1940s, a little before that. [37:34] And you'll see the ramp, too. [37:36] We're keeping the ramp. [37:37] And that was for FDR. [37:39] He needed a ramp, as some people would know. [37:43] And in his honor, we're leaving it. [37:45] I wanted to leave it. [37:46] It means something. [37:47] The other thing that we're doing that's taking place right now is the Lincoln Memorial [37:53] has a beautiful reflecting pond or lake. [37:57] They call it a pool, lake, and pond. [37:59] Every day is different. [38:00] But the word reflecting is a good term. [38:04] It was built in 1922. [38:06] And it was built out of granite and various stones on the bottom. [38:11] And it never looked great because it's not really meant to be a stone that's underwater for [38:16] that much of a period of time. [38:19] It's about a foot and a half to two feet deep. [38:21] You all know it well. [38:22] That's where Martin Luther King gave his great speech. [38:25] And he had a million people. [38:27] And I had the same exact crowd, maybe a little bit more. [38:30] But they said I had 25,000 people on July 4th. [38:33] A few years ago, first term. [38:34] So you have this reflecting lake pond. [38:36] It's incredible. [38:37] It's incredible. [38:38] It's incredible. [38:39] It's incredible. [38:40] It's incredible. [38:41] I have pictures of Martin Luther King's crowd. [38:42] I have pictures of Martin Luther King's crowd and my crowd. [38:43] The exact same everything, but it was 70 years difference. [38:44] The exact same crowd, but I actually had more people. [38:45] But that's okay. [38:46] They gave him a million people. [38:47] They said a million people. [38:48] And I had 25,000 people. [38:50] But these are the things that you get on July 4th, a few years ago, first term. [38:57] So you have this reflecting lake pond. [39:02] It's incredible. [39:04] But it was terrible. [39:06] The condition, you all know it. [39:08] A friend of mine came from Germany to see me and he said, [39:11] Oh, we went over it. [39:12] So sad. [39:13] What's sad? [39:14] This is a number of months ago. [39:15] He said it's filthy dirty. [39:17] The water is disgusting looking. [39:19] It's not representative of the country. [39:21] And I said, well, I'm going to have to go take a look because, you know, [39:24] Secret Service doesn't let you just walk around too freely, actually. [39:28] And I went over there with Secret Service in tow. [39:32] And I said, isn't that a shame? [39:33] It's terrible. [39:34] And so they had bids from the Biden administration, Sleepy Joe. [39:42] And they had bids for years that were going to do something to fix it, [39:45] but they never got it done. [39:47] And it's so important for our country. [39:51] Everybody knows this. [39:52] It covers the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial. [39:55] It's in between. [39:56] It's 2,200 feet. [39:59] That's taller than any building in the world if you lay it down on its side. [40:03] Think of it. [40:04] 2,000. [40:05] That's a long, over 2,000 feet long. [40:08] So it would be many swimming pools, many, many, many stacked up together. [40:12] But it would be the equivalent of the tallest building in the world, plus laid down on its side. [40:18] So it's very big. [40:19] It's very wide, actually. [40:20] It looks narrow because it's so long. [40:22] And so the pricing was coming in over the years. [40:26] But it came in sort of recently that it was going to cost $301 million to fix it. [40:34] It was going to take three and a half years. [40:36] So they had to take all the granite out, which is there again, 1922. [40:41] And it was leaking like a sieve. [40:43] You couldn't keep water. [40:44] Couldn't keep anything. [40:45] Granite's not the right stone for that. [40:47] Right stone for that, but not for that. [40:49] And I said, you know, I have an idea. [40:53] It's $301 million. [40:54] It was going to take three and a half years. [40:56] So remember those numbers. [40:57] $301 million. [40:58] This is a business study. [41:01] And it was going to take three to three and a half years. [41:04] And over the years as a developer, I have probably built more than 100 swimming pools in different buildings I built. [41:10] And I have some really good pool builders. [41:12] I also had some really bad ones, but we took care of them. [41:15] They didn't last too long, Howard. [41:18] But I've had some really good ones. [41:20] Some very talented people. [41:22] They're great people. [41:23] I have such great respect for contractors that are good. [41:26] And such disdain for contractors that are bad. [41:29] They charge you more money and they give you a bad job. [41:33] But we don't accept it. [41:35] But over the years, I've had three or four really good ones. [41:38] And I took the best of the three. [41:40] I had all three go, but I ended up taking the best. [41:43] And I said, would you take a look at this? [41:47] It's 2,200 feet long. [41:49] He said, what do you want me to look at? [41:51] I said, have a little swimming pool. [41:53] Think of it as a swimming pool. [41:54] I said, oh, how big is it? [41:56] I said, 2,200 feet. [41:57] By 167 feet wide. [42:00] He said, that's the biggest swimming pool. [42:02] He said, I've been doing this for a lot of years, sir. [42:04] I've never heard of a pool like that. [42:05] I said, well, you'll see it's a reflecting pool. [42:07] And very famous. [42:08] Very famous. [42:09] Very big signal and very important for Washington, D.C. [42:13] Where we, by the way, have almost no crime, I have to say. [42:16] That's maybe more important than talking about this. [42:18] We have a crime down from a tremendously high, one of the worst in the country. [42:22] We have almost no crime. [42:24] People are walking around. [42:25] Restaurants are opening all over the place. [42:27] The place is bustling. [42:28] But that makes this even more important. [42:30] So, instead of being a dirty, disgusting place where garbage was in it and everything else. [42:35] And I want to give Doug Burgum incredible credit because he was involved. [42:40] He's Secretary of the Interior. [42:41] He was involved right from the bay. [42:43] I called him. [42:44] I said, Doug, I'm getting a lot of complaints about the condition of this. [42:47] What do you think? [42:48] And he went over, he studied it, and he came back with some ideas. [42:51] But I said, you know, Doug, I have a guy who is unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road. [42:57] We have a club. [42:58] We have an Olympic-sized swimming pool. [43:00] He did it 20 years ago, and it's perfect to this day. [43:03] So, I asked him. [43:04] I said, I have an idea. [43:06] I'm going to send my contractor over and take a look. [43:11] He looked at it. [43:12] He called me up. [43:13] He said, sir, we can do something on it. [43:14] He said, it's perfect, actually. [43:16] He said, it's really decaying and it's a terrible condition. [43:20] But if you would, I'd like to work two weeks on cleaning it up, which is, if you see right here. [43:26] I'd like to repoint and fix some of the joints. [43:30] It won't matter because we're putting a substance over the top, but it's nice to have a nice surface. [43:34] And he said, it'd take me two weeks. [43:36] And if you don't mind, then I'd like to pour the latest and greatest filament or material, [43:43] which is essentially a pool surface, but it's an industrial-grade pool. [43:48] And he said, what color would you like, sir? [43:52] I said, well, what about turquoise, like in the Bahamas? [43:56] He said, well, this is Washington, sir. [43:58] We can give you turquoise, but why don't you try, like, we have a color. [44:03] It's called American flag blue. [44:05] I said, that's the color I like. [44:07] He talked me into it very easily. [44:08] So, he said, that's the color I like. [44:10] So, he came in, and remember, three and a half years. [44:15] You have to take all the granite out. [44:18] Then you have to put all brand new granite in. [44:21] Take years to do it. [44:23] Over 300 million. [44:25] Our job will take one week. [44:29] It will cost about a million and a half dollars. [44:32] And people said, wow. [44:37] And here's the only difference, because somebody said, well, the difference is, you know, [44:42] the difference is, this is much better. [44:44] This will last 30, 40, 50 years. [44:46] And if it didn't, you'd do it again quickly, if you want. [44:50] So, it's being done now, and I think the, I think you'd find it really amazing to go take a look. [44:56] So, here it is. [44:57] You see the trucks. [44:58] He's got scrapers and, you know, all sorts of equipment to make the stone as good as possible without removing it. [45:06] So, we're using the existing surface, so we don't have to spend millions of dollars in demolition. [45:11] And he said, much better to leave the stone than it is what's underneath. [45:16] They're afraid to look. [45:17] And so, you see, it's beautiful, clean. [45:19] It's ready to be taken care of. [45:23] Here's a sign that we put. [45:25] And so, Doug Burgum and myself are involved in that. [45:28] And, but when you take a look at the surface, we have it in good shape. [45:35] And they just started today putting down the material. [45:39] It's a machine. [45:40] It lays it very evenly. [45:41] Beautiful. [45:42] It goes from one side to the other. [45:43] It'll take about three days. [45:44] And you're going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it's supposed [45:49] to be. [45:51] Much better than it ever was, actually. [45:53] It'll stay clean. [45:54] We even have robots that go in it, and they ride around the bottom, and they clean it like [45:59] your swimming pool. [46:00] But these are a much higher level. [46:02] This is industrial grade, and it's really beautiful. [46:05] So, you're going to have a beautiful pool, and you'll have it for July 4th, long before [46:11] July 4th. [46:12] Instead of taking three, three and a half years, we're taking a week. [46:17] And instead of spending $301 million, we're spending less than $2 million. [46:22] And I think it's a great business story, because there are many things like that that I see. [46:27] I mean, not maybe to that extent, but there are many things like that that I see. [46:33] I often talk about the pen. [46:34] This pen is better than the one that they used to give away for $2,000. [46:37] I won't go on a long story about that, because a couple of people said, he kept talking about [46:41] the pen. [46:42] I gave you the whole history of it. [46:43] Actually, many people found it interesting, and some people thought I was doing too much [46:48] of a weave, but actually using this pen for $3, $5, $2, whatever the hell it costs is better [46:56] than the one for $1,000 to $2,000 that they used to hand away. [47:01] So, that's the short version of it. [47:03] I like the short version better. [47:05] But the long version is this one. [47:07] So, this is an amazing thing that's happening, and this is a big, big beautification. [47:13] In addition to that, the sidewalk areas around it, which were done in granite, similar granite [47:18] to that, actually not as nice as we have here, to be honest with you. [47:23] But, you know, the people that did it weren't in the world of real estate like I am. [47:28] But they have good granite circling it, and we're going to repoint it, meaning we're going [47:33] to caulk it up and repoint it, make it good, and we're going to also sandblast it. [47:38] It'll be like Brenda. [47:39] So, we're going to have, in another couple of weeks, we're going to have the most beautiful [47:43] reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial that you've ever seen. [47:49] And I hope the media can go over and maybe watch them do it, because I think it's very exciting. [47:53] And so, a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time, and you get a better product than [47:57] you could ever get the other way, and it'll be beautiful. [48:00] And as he said, it will be American flag blue. [48:03] Any questions, please? [48:04] Yes, sir. [48:05] Could you talk a little bit about why your Navy Secretary was fired yesterday, sir? [48:10] He's a wonderful guy. [48:12] I just put out a statement about him. [48:14] He's a very good man. [48:15] I really liked him. [48:16] But he had some conflict with, not necessarily Pete, with some other — he's a hard charger. [48:22] And he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ships. [48:29] And somehow, he just didn't get along with them. [48:35] He's an excellent guy. [48:36] I think he would have gotten along great with me. [48:38] I didn't really deal with him too much. [48:39] But he's a — you know, I consider him to have done a very good job. [48:45] I put out a nice statement about him. [48:47] You've got to get along. [48:48] Especially in the military, you've got to get along, you know. [48:51] And some people liked him. [48:53] Some people didn't. [48:54] And that's usually the truth about everything. [48:57] But I found him to be a very good man. [48:59] And I liked him a lot. [49:03] On the war with Iran, how long are you willing to wait until you get a unified response? [49:08] Well, don't rush me. [49:09] Don't rush me, Jeff. [49:10] You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh — so we were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. [49:14] We were in Iraq for many, many years. [49:17] We were in for all the — I don't like to say World War II, because that was a biggie. [49:22] But we were four and a half, almost five years in World War II. [49:25] We were in the Korean War for seven years. [49:28] I've been doing this for six weeks. [49:32] And we're — their military is totally defeated. [49:34] They're — they're outside of the little wise guy ships — I call them the wise guy ships — [49:41] the little boats that they have running around with guns in them. [49:44] We'll take them out, too, when we see them. [49:47] But their Navy is gone. [49:50] Their Air Force is gone. [49:51] Their anti-aircraft is gone. [49:54] All of their anti-aircraft machinery is gone. [49:56] Maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus. [50:00] But we'll knock that out in about one day, if they did. [50:03] We've done an amazing job. [50:04] Their leaders are gone. [50:05] You know, their leaders are all gone. [50:07] Part of the problem is that — that's why I can't really answer your question — [50:12] they have all new leadership, and they're fighting like cats and dogs for who's going to control. [50:18] Because we've created a real mess for them, but they've created a mess for the world over the last 47 years. [50:26] They've killed a lot of our people. [50:27] When you see a soldier, a young person or now an older person, but a person without legs or without arms or with a face that got blown to pieces, [50:36] most likely it was from Iran. [50:38] It was Soleimani who I killed. [50:40] Soleimani loved the roadside bomb. [50:43] He was an evil genius. [50:44] He was a brilliant general. [50:45] Probably we wouldn't be as far advanced had I not taken him out. [50:49] That was the beginning of it all. [50:51] And then I ended the Obama horror show. [50:55] The nuclear transaction that he made was horror. [50:59] It gave him a road to the — you call it — I mean, the deal that he did, the Iran nuclear deal, was so bad. [51:06] It gave him a road to a nuclear weapon. [51:08] And I will tell you, I deal with him. [51:10] You cannot give Iran a nuclear weapon. [51:12] This is all about a nuclear weapon. [51:13] They cannot have the nuclear bomb, and they're not going to have the nuclear bomb. [51:16] So we've taken out their military. [51:20] We've hit about 75 percent of our targets. [51:23] We stopped a little early because they wanted to have some peace. [51:27] And we have a blockade that's 100 percent effective. [51:33] And they're getting no business. [51:36] And as you know, they're not doing well economically, financially. [51:41] They're not doing any business because of the blockade. [51:44] They want to make a deal. [51:45] We have been speaking to them. [51:47] But they don't even know who's leading the country. [51:50] They're in turmoil. [51:51] They're in turmoil. [51:52] So we thought we'd give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved. [51:56] But, you know, I hope the fake news, people like you, I hope the fake news are going to be able to write about it accurately. [52:03] Because when you say, oh, they're fighting very well, they're not fighting well. [52:06] They've been obliterated, Jeff, obliterated. [52:09] 159 ships are in the Navy. [52:12] You know how many ships are at the bottom of the sea, Jeff? [52:16] 159. [52:19] So, you know, and if you read the New York Times, the failing New York Times, subscriptions are way down, as you know. [52:27] That's because people don't believe this stuff anymore. [52:29] If you watch CNN, you'd think that they're doing well in the war. [52:33] They're not doing well. [52:34] They're getting absolutely decimated. [52:37] Now, with all of that being said, we'll see what happens. [52:40] You have a lot of — we have no pressure. [52:42] It's only guys like you with a question like that about, what's your time? [52:45] We've been doing it for five and a half weeks. [52:48] But, sir, it's been eight weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran. [52:53] You had initially said it would be four to six weeks. [52:55] Well, I hope that. [52:56] But I also took a little break. [52:58] I gave them a break. [52:59] And remember this, I want to make the best deal. [53:04] I could make a deal right now. [53:05] Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success. [53:09] It would take them 20 years to rebuild. [53:10] But I don't want to do that. [53:12] I want to have it everlasting. [53:13] I want to have it where they never get — they never have a chance to get — [53:17] I mean, the way you asked that question, you know, I did say it. [53:20] I thought it would take four to six weeks. [53:23] And I was right. [53:24] Because at the end of six weeks, at the end of four weeks, the military was decimated. [53:28] But now what I'm doing — I don't — I can't tell you that. [53:31] I don't want to put that kind of a timetable on it. [53:34] But it'll go pretty quickly. [53:35] And we'll have the strait opened up. [53:38] Now, right now, we have it closed. [53:40] We have total control of the strait. [53:42] And the fact that it's closed — you know, they would have opened it up three days ago. [53:45] They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. [53:49] And all my people are happy. [53:51] Everybody was happy except me. [53:52] I said, wait a minute. [53:53] If we open the strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. [53:56] I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. [54:02] So I'm the one that kept it closed. [54:04] We have total control of it. [54:06] And it'll open when they make a deal. [54:09] Or something else happens that's very positive. [54:11] But what is your question at the American public? [54:13] Excuse me. [54:14] What do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? [54:17] Obviously, you know that they are having — [54:19] You're such a disgrace. [54:20] Did you hear what I just said? [54:22] Vietnam. [54:23] How many years was Vietnam? [54:24] I understand, sir. [54:25] But you are past a six-week deadline. [54:26] How many years was Vietnam? [54:27] Well, I did my — [54:28] I took — I took — [54:29] I'm just wondering what you can say to the American people. [54:30] I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. [54:35] I took it out militarily. [54:38] Now, what we're doing is sitting back and seeing what deal. [54:41] And if they don't want to make a deal, then I'll finish it up militarily with the other 25 percent of the targets. [54:47] We've hit 78 percent of the targets that we've wanted to hit. [54:50] We've knocked out their manufacturing. [54:52] We've knocked out their missile production. [54:54] We've knocked out their drone production. [54:56] We've knocked out everything. [54:58] In some cases, when I say knocked it out — 70, 80, 90 percent — it's amazing what we've done. [55:05] So I've done that within that period of time that I mentioned. [55:08] But I don't want to rush myself. [55:10] You know, because every story says, oh, Trump is under time pressure. [55:13] I'm not — no, no. [55:14] You know who's under time pressure? [55:15] They are. [55:16] Because if they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode. [55:21] You know what that means? [55:23] Because they have no place to store it. [55:25] And because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens that only Len can explain. [55:31] Something happens underground that essentially renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover fully. [55:39] You can recover 50, 60 percent, but you can never have it like it is right now. [55:43] And they have a matter of days before that event takes place. [55:47] So I'm not under any pressure whatsoever. [55:50] We've never had so much ammunition. [55:52] Our ships are loaded. [55:54] I call them locked and loaded. [55:55] They're locked and loaded. [55:56] They're ready to go. [55:57] We have much higher quality equipment than we did when we first started the war, or the military operation, whatever you want to call it. [56:07] And they're coming to us. [56:10] The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now. [56:14] Now, yesterday, and I was very pleased with this, eight young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6 o'clock. [56:22] And I asked them, call it a favor or call it just a moral request that they not be executed. [56:30] And they came back with an answer that they won't be executed. [56:33] They're going to release. [56:34] It was protesting eight beautiful young women, very young women. [56:39] And they were the pictures in the paper. [56:41] And it's been a story for a little while. [56:44] And I saw that. [56:45] And I said, let's see if we can save them. [56:47] And they were, it was very nice what happened. [56:50] So, they're not going to be, what they're doing is, as you know, they're releasing four of them very shortly. [56:55] And they're going to keep four of them in jail for a period of one month and release them. [56:59] So, they won't be executed. [57:00] Yeah, please. [57:01] So, if you're asking for more time to sort out negotiations with Iran. [57:04] I'm not asking you for more time. [57:05] I'm not asking for them. [57:06] No. [57:07] If you need more time. [57:08] I'm not asking anybody for more time. [57:09] If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future? [57:17] For a little while. [57:18] And you know what they get for that? [57:19] You know what they get for that? [57:20] Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East. [57:26] You want to see what shock would be? [57:29] And I have to be honest. [57:30] The stock market is at an all-time high right now. [57:33] Right. [57:34] I thought it would have been down 20, 25 percent. [57:36] But you wanted to turn prices down. [57:37] Wait a minute. [57:38] Can I finish my question? [57:39] Sure. [57:40] Wise guy. [57:41] Stock market's at an all-time high right now. [57:44] I projected, and I'm pretty good at this, that the stock market, Howard, would drop maybe 20 percent, 20 percent. [57:50] 25 percent. [57:51] And I understood that. [57:52] And I said, hey, it's a bad thing, but I have to do what's right for the country. [57:56] Even the world, because you can't have them, you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. [58:01] So, the stock market, unlike what a lot of people were predicting, I thought they weren't necessarily wrong. [58:09] The stock market today hit an all-time high. [58:12] Hit an all-time high yesterday, the day before. [58:14] And it's staying there. [58:15] I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel. [58:19] And oil is a very different number than anyone thought. [58:24] In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use. [58:28] We're actually, ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska. [58:34] They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States, you know, while this is closed, the Hormones Strait. [58:40] So, if you look at what I said, I guess it was right, because I said I'd have it four to six weeks. [58:48] And in four weeks, we have totally defeated that military. [58:51] So, right now, I don't want to rush it because you guys are, you know, trying to make us look as bad as possible. [58:56] I don't want to rush it. [58:57] I want to take my time. [58:58] We have plenty of time. [58:59] And I want to get a great deal. [59:01] I want to get a deal where our nation and the world is safe from lunatics with nuclear weapons. [59:07] If it does go to 200, are you okay with that, sir? [59:11] I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities. [59:17] Or three. [59:18] I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. [59:23] I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under-attacked by people that have missiles now that reach Europe, as you know. [59:31] They don't reach us, but they reach Europe. [59:33] But they will reach us at some time. [59:35] Probably the not-too-distant future, unless we stop them now. [59:38] I think there would be nothing worse than having nuclear holocaust in Europe, London, Paris, various places in Europe. [59:47] Various places in Germany. [59:49] All targeted. [59:50] No. [59:52] What I say is you can't let them have. [59:55] I don't think it will happen, by the way. [59:57] I really think we actually, it turns out that we are Drill Baby Drill. [1:00:02] And it turns out we're producing a lot of oil, and they're buying the oil. [1:00:05] They're going to Alaska. [1:00:06] They're going to Texas, Louisiana. [1:00:09] And our guys have done a fantastic job. [1:00:11] We're putting out, right now, more oil and gas than we ever have in the history of our country. [1:00:16] And one other thing. [1:00:17] There are more people employed today in the United States than ever in the history of our country. [1:00:22] Okay. [1:00:23] Mr. President, I have a question, sir. [1:00:24] Is it true that your administration is considering sending 1,100 Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo? [1:00:30] And if so, do you have a response? [1:00:31] I don't know. [1:00:32] I'd have to check that out. [1:00:33] Mr. President, do you plan to bring up? [1:00:35] Thank you, Mr. President. [1:00:36] Breitbart News' Matt Boyle just published an interview with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, [1:00:42] in which the Prime Minister said that he's rooting for you to succeed in getting a deal with Iran. [1:00:47] And he also said he looks forward to hosting you in Greece later this year. [1:00:50] Do you have any response? [1:00:51] No, it's really nice. [1:00:52] I mean, Greece has been very supportive, actually. [1:00:55] Greece has been terrific. [1:00:56] He's a terrific guy because he understands the importance of it. [1:01:00] You know, oil goes up a little bit. [1:01:02] I hate it. [1:01:03] You know, I was the one that had it down to $60 a barrel. [1:01:07] And I looked at guys like Howard Lutnick. [1:01:09] Howard, you remember it well. [1:01:10] I said, well, we just hit an all-time high in the history of the market. [1:01:15] Think of this. [1:01:16] When we hit 50,000, I was told, everybody was told, when I won the election, November 5th, [1:01:22] they said, well, during the four-year period, it'll be impossible for the Dow to ever reach 50,000. [1:01:29] It'll be impossible for the S&P to ever hit 7,000. [1:01:32] Impossible. [1:01:33] And you remember that, Howard, right? [1:01:35] It was going to hit maybe six, seven years, eight years. [1:01:38] But I did it in my first year. [1:01:40] Hit 50,000. [1:01:41] Now it's just about at 50,000. [1:01:43] And S&P is higher than it was when we started. [1:01:46] And S&P hit over 7,000. [1:01:48] And that was before the year ended up, one year. [1:01:51] So I can only tell you this. [1:01:53] It'll end. [1:01:54] I don't think it'll be very long, by the way. [1:01:56] They're delaying it because we don't know who to deal with. [1:02:00] They are in, you know, they know who the leader is in this country. [1:02:03] We don't know who the leader is in Iran. [1:02:06] Because remember regime change. [1:02:09] Khomeini is gone. [1:02:10] He's gone to greener pastures. [1:02:13] He's gone and all of his team is gone. [1:02:15] Then a second group came in. [1:02:17] They're all gone. [1:02:18] And now you have the third group. [1:02:20] And they're a little concerned about being gone, too. [1:02:22] Sir, would you use a nuclear weapon against Iran? [1:02:24] You posted on Truth Social a few weeks ago. [1:02:26] No, I wouldn't. [1:02:27] We don't need it. [1:02:28] Why do I need it? [1:02:29] Why would a stupid question like that be asked? [1:02:31] Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've totally, [1:02:35] in a very conventional way, decimated them without it? [1:02:38] No, I wouldn't use it. [1:02:41] A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody. [1:02:44] Sir, have you planned to be? [1:02:45] I was given a timeline of when they could give you a proposal. [1:02:47] Sir, which we're all very much looking forward to. [1:02:49] Prince Harry today has said that he would like to see you do more [1:02:52] to end the war in Ukraine. [1:02:53] Do you think it's appropriate for a royal to make those comments [1:02:56] ahead of the visit on Monday? [1:02:57] Prince Harry? [1:02:58] Yes, sir. [1:02:59] What are you doing? [1:03:00] How's his wife? [1:03:01] Please give him my regards, okay? [1:03:02] No? [1:03:03] No? [1:03:04] I don't know. [1:03:05] I know one thing. [1:03:06] Prince Harry is not speaking for the UK. [1:03:09] That's for sure. [1:03:10] I think I'm speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry. [1:03:14] But I appreciate his advice very much. [1:03:17] Great advice. [1:03:18] To the dinner and to the state visit? [1:03:20] I look forward to the dinner. [1:03:21] We're having King Charles come. [1:03:22] He's a friend of mine. [1:03:23] We're really looking forward to it. [1:03:25] We've spoken. [1:03:26] And we're going to have a great time. [1:03:27] I tell you, if I had that ballroom built, it would be full. [1:03:30] I wish we had more seats. [1:03:32] You know, they've wanted a new ballroom for 150 years. [1:03:35] Now they're getting the best in the world. [1:03:36] We're going to have the best in the world. [1:03:38] But, you know, we have a little room that's not big enough to handle what would be a big crowd. [1:03:44] But we're going to have very great people that love the UK. [1:03:48] I love the UK. [1:03:49] I think they made a big mistake on energy. [1:03:52] You should open up the North Sea in Aberdeen. [1:03:55] You should open it up. [1:03:57] And the other thing is they made a big mistake on immigration. [1:04:00] Sir, on Trump Rx, on Trump Rx. [1:04:03] What do you hope to learn from Janine Pirro's investigation into the Fed's renovation that you did not? [1:04:07] What do you hope to learn from Janine Pirro's investigation into the Federal Reserve's reservation [1:04:13] that you did not learn when you visited the site yourself last year? [1:04:16] Well, look, you know, the Federal Reserve Building is a small building. [1:04:21] They're going to be in there by the time it opens, in my opinion, for $4 billion. [1:04:27] I built a hotel down the road for $201 million that I believe is bigger than the Federal Reserve Building. [1:04:32] $201 million. [1:04:34] At the ballroom, I'm going to have the ballroom from $300 to $400 million, depending on finishes, [1:04:40] like marbles to quality and quality finishes. [1:04:43] We'll go top of the line. [1:04:45] But that's a much bigger project. [1:04:48] When you look at the fact that they've taken this beautiful building and destroyed it, [1:04:54] they've taken down the beautiful ceilings with eagles, [1:04:57] they've taken down the walls that are a foot and a half thick, masonry. [1:05:01] You couldn't hear from office to office. [1:05:03] They ripped it all down? [1:05:05] They did. [1:05:06] They ripped down, because Kevin Warsh, who's terrific, said to you, [1:05:10] the saddest thing is they ripped down the nicest building in Washington for boardrooms and all. [1:05:14] Did you know about that building? [1:05:15] They ripped it down. [1:05:16] It was beautiful. [1:05:17] The boardroom building. [1:05:18] It was beautiful. [1:05:19] And they ripped it down. [1:05:20] And probably because it cost so much to fix it. [1:05:23] So I would have done that job for $25 million, had money left over. [1:05:27] It's going to cost more than, in my opinion. [1:05:30] It's not going to open for a long time. [1:05:32] You know, Kevin may not be able to have an office. [1:05:34] I'm going to have to get him an office. [1:05:35] Can you give him an office? [1:05:36] Yes. [1:05:37] We have space. [1:05:38] Bobby, do you have some space over there, please? [1:05:39] Yeah, we have a lot of space. [1:05:40] But it's more than you think. [1:05:43] But we're going to have Kevin sitting right next to you, Bobby. [1:05:46] But it may not open for a long time. [1:05:49] I looked at it the other day. [1:05:50] It's a see-through. [1:05:51] See-through. [1:05:52] You know, that means the walls aren't even up yet. [1:05:53] This is after years and years of construction. [1:05:56] And somehow, you have to find out what went wrong. [1:06:00] That a small building, I could have done it for $25 million and had money left over. [1:06:05] It would have been beautiful. [1:06:06] That a small building can cost $4 billion? [1:06:10] It may never open. [1:06:12] It may never open. [1:06:13] And we have to get to that. [1:06:15] On top of that, he's been terrible on interest rates because he should have lowered interest rates. [1:06:19] That's why I call him Jerome Too Late. [1:06:21] Too Late is his nickname. [1:06:23] Jerome Too Late, pal. [1:06:24] He likes me a lot. [1:06:25] Thank you very much. [1:06:26] Thank you, guys. [1:06:27] Thank you, press. [1:06:28] Keep moving, guys. [1:06:29] Thank you, press. [1:06:30] Out that door. [1:06:31] Sir? [1:06:32] Keep moving, guys. [1:06:33] Thank you, press. [1:06:34] Have you been in contact, press? [1:06:35] Have you wanted to be a swimming? [1:06:36] Thank you, press. [1:06:37] Keep moving. [1:06:38] And where did the granite come from? [1:06:39] Thank you, guys. [1:06:40] Where did the granite come from? [1:06:41] Keep moving. [1:06:42] Where did the granite come from? [1:06:43] It came from Italy. [1:06:44] From Italy, so it's Italian granite. [1:06:45] Well, it came from Italy. [1:06:47] It was carved. [1:06:52] Do you have African and Italian granite outside of the whole world? [1:06:54] Sir, please keep moving. [1:06:55] Thank you. [1:06:56] I'm just asking. [1:06:57] Thank you, guys. [1:06:58] Keep moving. [1:06:59] Thank you. [1:07:00] Keep going. [1:07:01] Thanks, Mr. President. [1:07:08] Thank you, guys.