Trump gives tour of White House ballroom site, takes questions on midterms

[0:00] many had graffiti in them for 50 years for the most part i would say doug maybe none of them [0:07] worked in all of washington and we beautified it we've got rid of the homeless encampments where [0:13] they took over all your parks and we're in the process of redoing all of the grass brand new [0:18] grass everything and so it will be graffiti you see that building right over there it had graffiti [0:24] all over it it was a disgrace we got rid of it it's not easy to give you know when you have [0:29] limestone especially it sort of sinks in a little bit bow not good right when you have labs and when [0:35] you have granite it's a lot easier but but so this is a special structure uh it's going to be uh not [0:43] only one of the biggest but it'll be the most beautiful ballroom i think anywhere in the world [0:47] and they've been trying to get it for 150 years and for the media these are the people that built it [0:52] this is about 525 people and they uh they really worked hard steel workers the steel it's just [0:59] almost being finished as i understand that this will be the last piece of steel everybody in the [1:05] room signed in all of the workers not just the steel workers the the plumbers the electricians [1:10] the painters everybody signed it and i'm going to be the last to sign it and i'm going to have doug [1:15] sign it jared did you sign it yeah and i want to thank you've done a fantastic job well let's get it [1:23] finish first okay but right now we're ahead of schedule under budget and it's moving very nicely [1:30] and everything should happen like that you know the federal reserve building is an example [1:34] is out of control i didn't do it but it's a shame what's going on you know with the waste and the [1:43] fraud and the stupidity but they're over three billion dollars for a small building three billion [1:50] and uh but this doesn't have those problems it has none of them what happens at the federal reserve [1:57] is a disgrace with it and then they tell you about interest rates right they can't build a simple [2:01] building they renovate they can't renovate a building but they tell you about interest rates [2:06] and uh and they tell you wrong unfortunately but i want to thank everybody your special people i grew [2:12] up with you you know every one of you i grew up with you maybe in a different form maybe [2:18] genetically maybe it was your fathers or your mothers but i grew up with construction sites and [2:24] uh a lot of your families are doing this for a long time and you're the best in the business [2:30] i heard in uh doing the beams you know these beams are among the heaviest beams ever set [2:35] and beau was telling me we're talking about it if you look at that roof that roof could [2:40] actually hold helicopters on it as big as the yard whereas normally as you know i say this with the [2:47] media uh a helicopter if it touched that roof would come right through the ceiling that can you could [2:52] put as many helicopters as you want on the roof it's a very powerful ceiling it's drone proof it's [2:58] missile proof it's bulletproof the side walls the glass is bulletproof and drone proof is no drone can [3:06] pierce it there's no bullet can pierce it no matter how big the glass when you see it you'll see it coming [3:12] it's starting to come now it's just thick and yet it's perfect vision now it's hard to believe you [3:18] can do that so it's heavy bulletproof glass it's also drone proof and small missile if you can believe [3:25] it's small missile and what happens is uh you can take a look at it put it in front of your face and [3:31] you can see through it just like i'm seeing you right now it's pretty amazing amazing stuff the technology [3:36] they have today so you have uh the ceilings are drone proof missile proof bulletproof before the [3:44] floor is very thick and all from underneath is totally uh designed in such a way it's the safest [3:51] this is the safest place in washington when when we're having a dinner this will be the safest place [3:57] so you can have world leaders you can have your president sitting here they've been wanting [4:02] a much bigger space a much better space than they've had for 150 years presidents you've heard me say [4:08] what they never intended was getting something like this this is going to be very safe you can [4:13] just sit here and let let people do whatever they want here nothing's going to happen this is the most [4:19] most powerful building structurally the most powerful building they say ever built and it was designed [4:26] that way so the president can have safety he's having the president of china russia or any place else [4:34] when they're having dinner when they have 2 000 guests 2 500 guests they're totally safe [4:41] it's impervious so i just uh want to tell you that what you've done is amazing what you what you're [4:47] building you're almost we're going to be finished pretty soon but the hard part is done and the one [4:53] thing that i'm most fascinated with is what they've done underneath because what you know this goes down [4:58] five stories it's five stories underneath and the military came to me and they said sir we've never [5:05] had this opportunity at the white house because it's fragile and going underneath the building would [5:11] it be possible we did we did everything they wanted and it's uh something this they said that's been their [5:17] dream for 50 years it's been the dream of presidents have a ballroom for 150 years so we have everything [5:24] and on top and you'll start to see it we're building a it's a drone port it holds as many drones as you [5:31] want can hold over 100 drones at the maximum size to weight weight is no problem and you see that when [5:39] you see the power of the structure when you look at steel normally that would just be light steel you [5:43] see it a lot when they build a plant where it's very light steel you can barely walk on it it's dangerous [5:49] it's just it's called a rain roof this is a roof that's a structural roof and rarely done because [5:55] the span is so long that it's very hard to do structurally we ordered the marble for the floor [6:02] the marble is a really magnificent marble it's a cut it's a vein that people have been after for 50 years [6:12] and the owner of the quarry didn't want to sell it but he liked me and he also was so honored to be doing [6:21] it for the country for the white house and the marble floor you'll see it is the most beautiful [6:28] marble you'll ever see it's a special vein this is a vein that everybody wanted for a long time [6:34] and i got it and i got it for the floor of the ballroom at the white house and it's going to be [6:40] beautiful the walls are going to be very you'll see a lot of glass a lot of you'll be looking at the [6:45] treasury building which is right there you'll be looking at the front of the white house and you see [6:51] if you look back there you're looking at the other side of the white house you have north and south [6:57] and the kitchen is underneath because i put the kitchen on top and we have large staircases coming [7:04] from the kitchen if i put the kitchen on top you would lose three walls because the kitchen takes [7:11] about 30 percent of the space so the kitchen is all the space that you have right underneath and it's [7:17] going to be top of the line so there has never been anything built like this and it's for the country [7:23] and it's free you got it free of charge thank you very much and uh some great patriots have devoted a [7:30] lot of money given a lot of money to get it built and so we didn't use taxpayers money to build this [7:36] ballroom and it's going to be uh when it's completed it'll be the best anywhere in the world you know when i [7:43] was in china we went to the great hall it's called the great hall of china and it's a you know it's [7:49] incredible but this is actually larger this is larger and it will be it'll be the most magnificent [7:55] when you see what we're doing between the marbles and the bronzes and all the different things that [8:01] we're doing top of the line great architects are top architects and uh we have another man that's [8:08] worked with me for a long time together we were the ones that not only cleaned up washington in terms [8:14] of graffiti and and open up uh you know the statues and the fountains and fixed everything up made it [8:22] beautiful and everybody's talking about it but a man that uh helped us a lot with crime because crime [8:29] is almost non-existent now in washington we went from one of the most unsafe cities in the country [8:36] to one of the safest cities in the country and people all day long and white house i walk in the [8:43] people that work there thank you thank you sir thank you thank you so we have a white house where [8:49] people can walk to work when i first came in two years ago my first term was it was different it [8:55] wasn't you didn't have the kind of crime it developed during the biden administration it may have had to [9:00] do with covet nobody knows exactly but it was a killing field washington dc and we worked together with [9:07] experts and we brought in the national guard which who were fantastic and we worked with washington [9:12] police and we have now one of the safest cities anywhere anywhere in the world but anywhere certainly [9:18] in the country and uh again this was a place where a young man would leave iowa come to see the lincoln [9:27] memorial the washington monument jefferson come to see whatever come to see the white house and they call [9:34] up the parents i'm sorry but your son has been killed and they send the son home in a casket or the [9:44] daughter in a casket three a week we're losing three people a week three murders a week by savages [9:52] and we moved them out we moved over 5 000 people out of washington dc they came in through the open [9:57] borders and they came in viciously and violently we had a lot of problems with democrats because they [10:04] wanted to protect killers i mean i don't understand it but who does who does makes no sense but we got [10:12] them out of here we moved them back some were so violent some killed many people that we didn't [10:17] want to send them even back to their country we hate to take the cost of having them in jail for the next [10:22] 50 years but we didn't want to take a chance that they'd be able to come back and you know speaking [10:29] about being able to come back for the last 17 months zero illegal migrants have been allowed into our [10:37] country zero which is something that nobody thought was possible so we're very happy about that [10:43] we're very happy about washington dc people are coming to washington uh all the restaurants were [10:49] closing because of crime and now all the restaurants you can't if you're a restaurateur you can't get a [10:54] space you can't get a space and people are dining and they're having a good time and they have a safe [11:00] it's the capital it's the capital of our country we have to make it beautiful and we have to make it [11:05] safe and this will be down this building when it's completed will be one of the great [11:10] one of the great buildings in washington dc and they'll understand that most people understand [11:14] it just this whole magnificent space will be a very important space in the future life of our country [11:22] so with that i'd like to have the secretary of the interior a great man a great success a fantastic [11:30] governor for eight years in north dakota a very successful businessman and he's done a really great [11:37] job running the interior and thank you very much doug bergam everybody thank you very much thank you [11:48] mr president uh today of course is a day of celebration and it's a day of gratitude it's a day of [11:53] celebration because there's our builder in chief uh the greatest builder that has ever been president [11:59] of the united states knows he like he said he grew up on construction sites when you get to this spot [12:04] the tradition is the workers have all signed the beam the president's going to sign the beam this is [12:09] the last beam that's going into place that's going to be raised up and that's what we're here to [12:12] celebrate but none of that would have happened without the great american worker america was built [12:17] by people that innovate built by people that build great things and build great things well and build [12:22] them quickly there's 512 of them here wearing their jackets out there let's hear it for all the great [12:27] american workers that are here today thank you thank you so much think of it just over a year ago this project [12:34] was just getting started and here we are today at a bean signing uh and of course that wouldn't have [12:40] happened without president trump the vision that he had for this city for safe and beautiful also [12:46] extends right here to this site the white house the national park service which is part of the [12:51] department of interior is responsible for the restoration at the white house president trump done [12:57] more to restore the beautiful historic white house than any president so when the teams are over [13:02] there and some of you have worked over there you're restoring history when you're working here [13:07] you're making history this is going to be a gift for the next 100 200 250 years this building will stand [13:13] the test of time historic events will happen here and they will look back to this day knowing that all [13:18] of you were part of it and it wouldn't have happened without president donald j trump thank you thank you [13:30] and jared we used to come up and say a couple of words they've done such a fantastic job of building they've [13:37] been our primary contractor please thank you sir it's a real honor to be able to work on this campus [13:48] every day be able to work under the leadership of the president i just want to thank everybody that's [13:52] been involved in the project it's really spectacular effort over the last year to get us to this point [13:57] i want to celebrate by raising the final dean thank you sir great great job and before you do that [14:07] you know we sort of mentioned a little bit during the campaign that uh about why does trump spend time [14:13] in the white house well first of all it's very little time second of all i like it it's good [14:18] for me it's relaxing for somebody else it's the opposite but for me it's real i love construction [14:24] but that beautiful white facade was half falling off and you know that because some of you helped us [14:30] with it it was in terrible shape the moldings were down in many cases probably 20 of the moldings were off [14:36] the building you'd have windows with a beautiful window and a molding on one side and the molding was [14:42] missing for many years on another and it bothered me very much because that's what i do i like [14:49] beautiful things and especially when it comes to the white house and we had a group of very talented [14:54] people work with me for the last year and we've totally redone the facade of the white house and the [15:00] finest uh exterior plaster the the place was falling apart it was cracked it was broken the windows were [15:08] broken and cracked we replaced numerous windows that were cracked in some cases were outright broken [15:14] and you'd look at it as a guest and when president she was here two weeks ago he said wow the condition [15:20] is so beautiful he said i remember it wasn't that way a long time ago but i will tell you that right now [15:28] it's flawless and it's beautiful and you know when i get criticized like why are you working on the white [15:34] house i'm doing it because the white house is the ultimate symbol of america and it's got to be [15:42] pristine it's got to be perfect and if you take a look at it that's what it is right now you have no [15:47] idea how much work we had to do would take fiberglass bowls of the other side of the of the molding that [15:55] was broken because they're very intricate and they'd take it back to shops and they'd remake moldings and [16:00] they'd put it up the way it used to be i mean you'd have windows with one-third of a molding left [16:05] and it looked like hell to anybody that knows i think to people that don't know it wouldn't have [16:10] looked good so we did that i'm just looking here and i'm looking at that beautiful facade how it's [16:14] gleaming and then we recalked it repainted it and it's it's good for another 200 years now you know it [16:24] opened in 1792 and it was it was in terrible embarrassing shape including the entrances you'd walk in [16:31] there were broken stones there were stones with big holes in them it was terrible so that's why i [16:37] did it because that's the ultimate symbol symbol of our country and this is now a part of that symbol [16:43] this will be something very special and so we're putting up the last piece of steel i thought it [16:49] would be appropriate to have the media here you're going to see something really great thank you all i [16:55] want to thank you all great job you've done and we'll see you again at the official opening which won't [17:01] be in too long a period of time you're all invited thank you very much everybody we're going to lift [18:35] this and then we'll do it ideally it won't fall on you if it does we'll call your family [19:14] we're going to go down this way this is safety reasons we're going to go get down the aisle [19:49] on top of that room in it but it'll be all drones why don't we ask uh if you want a couple of questions [20:47] while they're rigging it how about having that in the background [20:52] yeah we'll do this you let me know when they're ready okay [21:01] we'll stay out of it i mean you're going to be you know jim jim was i think he was really uh all of [21:10] them everybody everybody that we're we're dealing with but uh the speaker was fantastic the uh the people [21:18] under him were fantastic all good people i guess right now you have two candidates right [21:23] did you have to speak no no no mr president vice president vance says the reason republicans lost [21:30] the war lost last night was the war in iran well i think it's uh largely true because it drove the [21:38] gasoline up a little bit short term and probably that's uh probably it's true but at the same time [21:44] if i had it to do again i'd have to do it again because long term uh it's the only answer you can't [21:48] let iran have a nuclear weapon i do yeah i mean well you have no choice i mean i thought the oil [21:55] would go up a lot more and i did it on that basis you have no choice you have to do it you can't let [21:59] iran have a nuclear weapon or everything that you see here someday might not exist and uh maybe this [22:07] but this building might be the only one that does so yeah i i think that uh look i mean i'll get along [22:14] probably with the democrats unless they want to be destructive but they have the power of the veto so if we [22:19] don't like what they're doing or they'll they've already called and they want to talk about things [22:24] and that's fine but yeah people the iran thing we had to do and we continue to do it uh we have [22:31] tremendous oil flowing out of the almost right now at the beginning there was none and uh probably [22:38] that's the primary reason the the price not the war the price certainly rallies across the country [22:45] did your final speech you have any regrets about the way you closed out the campaign no look i mean [22:52] if i were on the ballot we would have won you saw the people there were packed thousands and thousands [22:57] of people at every rally and if i was on the ballot we would have won but they just you couldn't transfer [23:03] that love there was such love at those rallies it was incredible we weren't able to transfer the love to [23:09] candidates did you did any of your aides try to talk about that speech on london which one are we [23:16] talking about i heard it was a very good speech got great reviews that was only a speech on the [23:24] reflecting but that had nothing to do with anything else that was a speech very much like this is today on [23:31] this incredible place that we're building at the white house that's going to be here for [23:35] many many years and serving our country well that that was only a sort of a ribbon cutting because [23:40] the reflecting pool hasn't worked since 1922. it's uh you know over a hundred years it's never worked [23:47] it's always leaked and was always a mess and we fixed it we made it great that that was not a speech [23:53] that was just talking about the reflecting pool and then a couple of other comments i mean our speeches [23:59] were really the speeches made at the 30 rallies and those speeches were that was tremendous love [24:06] it was it was pretty amazing i can't tell you that they may tell you but i can't tell you [24:16] no no no are you concerned about it not even a little bit i think it would destroy i think it [24:23] would destroy the democrat party if they did that because impeachment for no reason what for having a [24:28] successful country our country is more successful now than at any time in its history watch the beam go up [24:34] you gotta slide back those i'm sorry back back back back back all the way back it's bigger than you [24:54] thought right and that's what we've up here chandeliers [25:01] okay okay okay i'll stay here sure [25:22] now envision chandeliers all over you see envision marble floor oh it's going to be this will be the most [25:28] beautiful bone probably july right right it's going to be great middle to end of next year but depending [25:51] on surfaces what's the still okay you know it's not steel that's used on a roof to hold back rain [26:18] and it's to hold helicopters did you guys see the helipad from uh up top how beautiful that is [26:32] it's incredible it's incredible this is going to be more incredible [26:41] so i thought the pressure would be this was a non-press event i said this is the greatest right [27:27] do you see the helipad from all of them yes well let's take a look [27:42] piece of art very talented people to do there very talented [28:16] steel up in three weeks can you believe it the whole thing was done in two and a half weeks [28:55] pretty amazing how are you good good job and that'll fit perfectly within a hundredth of an [29:18] inch can you believe it seriously yeah you rarely have they rarely have to do any chopping watch [29:29] pretty amazing the entire building every single hole was perfect which is rare but we had great people [29:39] the federal reserve done quite the others what a shame those guys are standing under [30:07] you know personally i'd pass on there because if one bolt if one bolt fell down that's it your [30:18] history pretty amazing would you like to move over there then right under that look what's right [30:26] under there we'll send margo let's send margo no if anything fell off there but they do it except [30:36] the secret service guy's not very well protected i don't think he has any idea what's going on about [30:43] see the way that fits it's like a glove see the the sprug that they put right through it [30:50] look at that it fits perfectly now they bolted in and that's the end of that pretty good right [31:00] that's pretty good go ahead did you have any other questions [31:08] talking so much about the results of the war and how it impacted it [31:11] well i don't knew i knew the war was going to impact it but whether it impacted or not iran [31:17] can't have a nuclear weapon no but the vice president wrote a very lengthy post about [31:23] how the war impacted the results last night well i knew he was i know how he feels about it i think [31:30] it was i think it was fine yeah i thought it was good uh we knew that i know that i knew that when i went [31:36] in and we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon and they will never have a nuclear weapon [31:41] have you spoken to vice president yeah yeah about 2028 what is i'm speaking about a lot of things [31:48] but uh i mean we'll see what happens everybody uh you don't know who's talking about running you can [31:56] have people running you can have a lot of people maybe a lot of people running maybe nobody's going [32:01] to run maybe he won't run i don't know who's going to run but i can tell you that as far as that war [32:07] is concerned i would have done nothing different we've totally broken their military the navy's gone [32:12] their air force is gone their anti-aircraft is gone job a dangerous job what well it's just there they [32:39] it's a thing that they do and here's the interesting thing somebody will walk after we're gone they'll [32:46] walk right across that pick up the tree and walk there aren't too many people can do that you need [32:51] very good balance no do you know that they'll leave that tree well we're gone a guy will walk right [32:56] and that beam take it well what did end no i didn't say that i said their nuclear weapons will be [33:09] destroyed that happened with midnight hammer pretty uh dangerous and you know what they fall sometimes [33:40] and when they fall it's terrible whenever i wanted to but it's got to be done right and we're never going [33:49] to let them have a nuclear weapons got to be done right but of course i knew that i knew fuel would [33:54] go up i thought it would go up two or three times higher than it is and now today it's coming down [34:01] and yesterday it dropped or the day before dropped 10 points uh no we uh we've done a great job the [34:07] homo strait is open it's uh producing wall street journal cover the wall street journal a couple of [34:13] days ago it's producing more oil right now than at any time prior to the war so no i think he's doing a [34:23] very good job well i think he i think he's doing a very good job and i i actually think he'd be very [34:32] popular if he did that but i haven't heard that at all no no look when i said fast we stopped them [34:43] from having a nuclear weapon very early on when we did the raid