Trump LIVE Speech Today: War with Iran, NATO Criticism & Middle East Future

[0:00] Left, right, center, all the way in the back there, Rich, too. [0:06] But I'm thrilled to be back with so many friends and partners, leaders, and innovators here at the Future Investment Initiative. [0:15] And it's a really great group of people, very smart group of people. [0:19] They know what's happening in the world. [0:22] It's my second address to the conference as President of the United States, and it's my honor to be here. [0:28] Thank you very much. [0:29] As you know, we're gathered at a moment of bold action, an historic decision to make America and our allies safer and stronger, more prosperous, more successful than ever before. [0:42] That's what's happening. [0:44] Tonight, we're closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East that is finally free at last from Iranian terror, aggression, and nuclear blackmail. [0:56] That's what's happened. [0:57] It was nuclear blackmail for years and years. [1:01] And beyond that, it was blackmail, period. [1:04] Under my leadership, America is ending the threat posed by this radical regime, decimating Iran's capabilities with Operation Epic Fury, something that nobody's ever seen anything quite like it. [1:20] We have the most powerful military in the world by far. [1:22] I built it in my first term. [1:25] Remember, I said a trillion dollars. [1:26] What do you mean a trillion dollars? [1:28] A trillion dollars. [1:30] Every year, another trillion the next. [1:32] Another trillion. [1:33] And we have the best people. [1:36] We have by far the best equipment. [1:38] We have weapons that nobody's ever seen before. [1:41] We have weapons that nobody even knows about, except for a few of us. [1:46] For 47 years, Iran has been known as the bully of the Middle East, but they are not the bully any longer. [1:54] They're on the run. [2:02] Last June, America's armed forces obliterated Iran's key nuclear facilities in one of the most spectacular military actions of all time. [2:11] There's nobody that's ever seen anything like it. [2:14] In the dead of night, no moon, one o'clock in the morning, we went in, it was called Operation Midnight Hammer, and every single one of those bombs hit their mark, air shafts, they will never build an air shaft again, I promise you that. [2:33] They went right down that granite mountain through air shafts, most incredible technology you've ever seen, a thing like that, and it was decimation, it was obliteration. [2:43] One of the networks said, well, man, we're going to do it. [2:44] We're going to do it. [2:44] We're going to do it. [2:44] Well, maybe it wasn't that bad. [2:46] It was that bad. [2:47] It turned out to be even more than we thought. [2:51] But after that attack, the Iranian lunatics refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons. [2:58] And I have to say, before that, Barack Hussein Obama, did you ever hear of him, Barack Hussein Obama? [3:03] He had the Iran nuclear deal. [3:05] He went to Iran. [3:07] He paid them. [3:08] Remember, he sent two 757, Boeing 757 jetliners. [3:13] They took the seats out and they piled it with cash. [3:16] Like 1.7. [3:17] 1.7 billion of cash. [3:20] That's when I realized the president is very powerful. [3:23] The presidency is a very powerful thing when you can do that. [3:26] I haven't done that yet. [3:27] I haven't found a reason to do that yet. [3:29] But that's big. [3:31] 1.7 billion in cash. [3:32] You know, there wasn't a bank in D.C., Virginia, or Maryland that had any money after that disaster. [3:39] But they sent the cash to Iran. [3:42] But more importantly, they signed an agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, which if I didn't terminate it in my first term, I'd terminate it. [3:50] I'd terminate it almost immediately. [3:53] If I didn't terminate it, they would have had a nuclear weapon long ago and they would have used it on the Middle East, Israel and the Middle East. [4:00] And you know, the Middle East, because when you look at all the missiles that got fired, UAE had 1500 missiles shot at it. [4:07] They didn't think they were going to have any. [4:10] Saudi Arabia didn't expect to have. [4:12] I mean, we have the most powerful Saudis. [4:15] Oh, yes. [4:16] You are so powerful. [4:18] But yes, sir, you didn't expect any missiles going to Saudi Arabia. [4:21] They didn't expect them in Qatar. [4:23] They didn't expect them in Qatar. [4:23] They didn't expect them in Kuwait, in Bahrain. [4:27] The missile rained down on you. [4:29] They were going to hit you with nuclear or whatever they had. [4:32] But we stopped it. [4:33] We stopped it. [4:34] We stopped it with him. [4:35] And then it was a big moment also in my first administration when I took out Soleimani. [4:41] And a lot of people think that might have been the biggest thing of all because he was a mad genius. [4:46] He was a vicious, horrible human being. [4:50] But he was a great general and a great leader, if you call, if you define a leader in a certain way. [4:55] A very, very powerful leader. [4:58] In fact, he was so powerful that I really think that the leadership of Iran was extremely happy when I took him out. [5:06] But they don't say that. [5:07] But nobody's going to be asking him anymore because they're not here either. [5:13] But getting the termination and terminating the Iran nuclear deal that was done by Biden and Obama, I would say mostly Obama. [5:25] Actually, I don't think Biden knew where he was then, too. [5:29] He had no idea. [5:30] If you said to him, the Iran nuclear deal, what's that? [5:34] But there was four years of hell we had with this guy as our leader, I'll tell you. [5:40] And then we hit him with the B-2 bomber. [5:41] So we did it twice. [5:43] But if they would have had a nuclear weapon, it would have been a whole big deal. [5:46] And I wouldn't be here right now. [5:47] And probably you guys wouldn't be too happy. [5:49] You might be in an area who knows where you would have been. [5:53] But we did it twice. [5:54] And I think I really believe we saved the Middle East. [5:57] We saved not just Israel. [5:59] We saved the Middle East. [6:01] And it was proven by all those rockets that fired down upon you. [6:05] Saudi Arabia got hit a lot. [6:07] You all got hit. [6:09] And nobody expected any missiles to be wasted. [6:12] You would have thought they were only going at Israel. [6:15] They weren't. [6:15] As president of the United States, I would never allow the world's number one state sponsor of terror to obtain a nuclear weapon. [6:22] I said that for a long time. [6:24] And I didn't. [6:25] And to defend America and our allies over the past 27 days, the U.S. Armed Forces, most powerful in the world, [6:32] have been annihilating. [6:33] Iran's military capacity with force, precision, skill like the world has never seen. [6:41] It was violence, actually, really violence. [6:46] We're crushing Iran's. [6:47] Currently, as we speak, I just looked. [6:49] We had another big day. [6:50] We hit them. [6:52] They don't know what's happening. [6:54] Remember this. [6:55] They lied about three days ago. [6:57] I said, yeah, we're negotiating with Israel. [6:59] We are not negotiating. [7:01] They're being hit so hard. [7:04] Anybody would be negotiating. [7:07] They are negotiating. [7:07] They're begging to make a deal. [7:09] They're begging to make a deal. [7:11] Turned out I was right. [7:12] They were negotiating, which they admitted two days later. [7:16] And in order to make up for their misstatement, they said, we're going to send you eight ships of oil. [7:26] And the following day, I saw on this is two days ago, I saw on one of the networks, very strange. [7:32] There were eight ships of oil coming out of Iran. [7:36] And then they actually said, we're going to add an extra two and they added an extra two. [7:41] So we had 10 ships. [7:42] And then people realized we were actually negotiating. [7:44] We're negotiating now. [7:45] And it would be great if we could do something. [7:47] But they have to open it up. [7:49] They have to open up the strait of Trump. [7:53] I mean, Hormuz. [7:55] Excuse me. [7:59] I'm so sorry. [8:02] Such a terrible mistake. [8:03] The fake news will say, he accidentally said that. [8:06] There's no accidents with me. [8:08] Not too many. [8:10] If there were, we'd have a major story. [8:14] Well, we had that with the Gulf of Mexico. [8:16] Remember the Gulf of Mexico? [8:18] And one day I said, why is it the Gulf of Mexico? [8:20] We have 92% of the area around it. [8:24] They have 8%, really less than 8%. [8:26] But for 350 years, it was good. [8:29] You know, they were there 100 years longer than us. [8:31] Mexico, they're at 350. [8:34] We're at 250. [8:36] And I said, I've said often, asked myself, why don't we call it the Gulf of Mexico? [8:41] It seems like we dominate. [8:42] Well, when I checked, it was more than 92%. [8:44] So I announced, I wouldn't say Mexico was thrilled. [8:49] I announced it. [8:50] From now on, the Gulf of Mexico is going to be called the Gulf of America. [8:57] And it took about one hour, and it was done. [8:59] Everybody, I mean, the president called me. [9:02] She's really a nice person, too. [9:03] I like her a lot. [9:04] She called up. [9:06] She's the most beautiful voice. [9:07] She's a very elegant woman, has a beautiful, beautiful voice. [9:10] She goes, president, president, president, tell me, this is not so. [9:16] No, no, it's so. [9:18] And then Google Maps changed it. [9:22] We won the court case in about one hour. [9:25] Google Maps changed the name, and it's now the Gulf of America, which it should be, in all fairness. [9:31] We're crushing Iran's weapons stockpiles, destroying their missile and drone factories [9:37] at levels nobody ever thought was possible, and turning their defense industrial base [9:42] into nothing. [9:45] Iran's Navy is gone. [9:47] It's all sunk at the bottom of the Gulf and elsewhere. [9:53] Did you see the attack submarine that we have went after one of their boats? [9:55] It was called the Soleimani. [9:58] It was the pride of their fleet. [10:00] But this attack submarine goes like 60 miles an hour, I'd never saw anything. [10:06] And it caught them in about two minutes. [10:09] And that was the end of the Soleimani. [10:11] Now, they're 100 percent dead. [10:14] They have 22 mine droppers. [10:15] They're gone, mine droppers. [10:17] And the mine droppers, 22, all 22 are gone. [10:20] So I guess they can drop mines, but they're going to have to take them out by a rowboat [10:23] because they don't have any boats. [10:25] Their air force is dead, totally, completely dead. [10:28] It's out of business. [10:29] No planes. [10:30] No planes left at all. [10:31] Their anti-aircraft and communications capabilities are totally dismantled and dead. [10:39] And their leaders are all dead. [10:40] Other than that, I think they're doing quite well. [10:42] No, their leaders are dead. [10:47] Their supreme leader is no longer supreme. [10:51] He's dead. [10:53] His son is either dead or in very bad shape because nobody's heard from him. [10:58] I think he says, just keep me out of this. [11:01] This is the only country where nobody wants to lead. [11:04] There's nobody. [11:05] Who would like to lead? [11:06] I don't know. [11:07] I'm a big fan of Iran. [11:08] Please raise your hand, a big audience of distinguished. [11:11] Who would like to be our leader? [11:13] Dead silence. [11:14] Nobody wants to lead. [11:16] Now, we have an amazing military. [11:18] We have the greatest intelligence apparatus that anybody's ever seen. [11:22] We can tell you everything that's going on. [11:23] We know everything that's going on. [11:25] We're achieving each and every one of the military objectives. [11:31] Four weeks ago. [11:32] Four weeks ago. [11:34] And we're doing it. [11:36] We're really not into it. [11:38] Very long. [11:39] We wouldn't have thought we would have been. [11:40] We knew it. [11:41] It's going to be easy. [11:41] We call it a military operation. [11:44] We don't call it a war. [11:45] We call it a military. [11:46] We don't call it a war. [11:48] We call it a military operation. [11:50] We're very disappointed, by the way, with NATO. [11:52] They didn't come to our aid. [11:55] I didn't try too hard, actually, you know, because I wanted to prove a point. [11:58] I didn't sell. [11:59] They probably think I'm a lousy salesman. [12:01] You know, they said, I said, would you like to help us? [12:04] To President France Macron. [12:07] Nice guy. [12:07] He is a nice guy. [12:08] I said, before we start. [12:18] And UK. [12:19] The longest ally, you know, nobody ever thought this was possible. [12:23] They said to the prime minister, I said, Mr. [12:26] Prime Minister, we'd like you have two aircraft carriers, their little ones. [12:31] They're not very good. [12:32] I know they don't go fast and I know they don't work very well, but we could probably use them maybe for helicopters. [12:38] And they said, yes. [12:40] So. [12:41] And they said, yes. [12:43] So, yes, we are preparing them. [12:52] We will be there. [12:54] This is NATO. [12:56] And I've always said there's a paper tiger. [12:58] And I always said we help NATO, but they'll never help us. [13:03] And if the big one ever happened and I don't think it will. [13:06] But if the big one ever happened, I guarantee you they wouldn't be there. [13:11] And we learned from that. [13:12] And remember what I said, because they made a big mistake. [13:16] They were not there. [13:18] The chancellor of Germany. [13:19] These are all friends of mine. [13:20] Friedrich, the chancellor of Germany. [13:23] He said, this is not our war. [13:24] We have nothing to do. [13:25] Well, Ukraine's not our war, but we help them. [13:30] I wouldn't have had a help. [13:31] If I were president, that war would have never happened. [13:33] But we had a man who of a very low IQ as president, and he had no idea what the hell it was. [13:38] I was listening to him talk. [13:39] I said, he's forcing an issue that's going to be trouble. [13:43] And it turned out to be trouble. [13:45] Last week, twenty eight thousand soldiers died. [13:47] The week before that, thirty two thousand soldiers died. [13:49] I think we're going to get it settled. [13:51] But it's a terrible it's a terrible thing. [13:54] Worse since World War Two. [13:55] I settled eight wars and this should have been one of the easier ones, but the hatred between [14:00] President Putin and President Zelenskyy is extreme, never good. [14:06] Hatred is a bad thing when you're trying to settle a war. [14:09] I want to thank the entire kingdom of Saudi Arabia, been very helpful. [14:15] Unlike NATO, Saudi Arabia fought, Qatar fought, UAE fought, Bahrain fought, and Kuwait fought. [14:22] Even though they shot down three of our planes with the finest missiles, we could have done without that. [14:30] They didn't know they were our planes. [14:34] They wasted three. [14:37] Great Patriot missiles. [14:38] And you have to say there's nothing like these Patriots. [14:40] You know, we had an attack of a hundred and one a few days ago, a hundred and one missile shot at a very bad. [14:48] There's nothing like these Patriots. [14:50] You know, we had an attack of a hundred and one a few days ago, a hundred and one missile shot at a very valuable thing that we had floating on the water, namely an aircraft carry biggest in the world. [15:05] And they were shot hundred and one. [15:08] Going two thousand five hundred miles an hour. [15:11] And out of the hundred and one missiles shot, one hundred and one missiles were shot down and spread out all over the sea. [15:21] Pretty amazing. [15:22] That's called incredible technology, right, Steve? [15:27] That's called great tech. [15:28] Think of it. [15:29] A hundred and one missiles going two thousand five hundred miles an hour. [15:31] You don't have a lot of time. [15:33] And these aren't necessarily weightlifting shoulders. [15:36] These are very smart people doing that. [15:38] I mean, it's a great thing. [15:39] It's a great thing. [15:41] And I watched them. [15:42] I watched their performance. [15:43] Missiles launched. [15:44] Missiles launched. [15:45] It's almost like they're bored by it. [15:46] They have like nine seconds. [15:49] The head of FIFA, the most powerful man in sports, Johnny. [15:52] Johnny, you know, you never choked, right? [15:55] These guys can't choke, but they're very smart. [15:57] High IQs. [15:58] We need high IQs. [15:59] We have too many low IQ people. [16:01] But what happened is you have to see it. [16:04] It's very cool. [16:05] Missiles launched. [16:06] Missiles launched. [16:07] Missiles launching. [16:09] They're launching. [16:10] OK, we're ready. [16:11] Missiles. [16:12] Missiles. [16:13] 101 missiles coming at them. [16:15] All right. [16:16] We have to have like 11 seconds to make a determination. [16:19] And then at seven seconds, fire. [16:23] Fire. [16:27] Fire. [16:28] Boom. [16:29] Fire. [16:31] Boom. [16:32] One at a time, just knocked them out like they were nothing. [16:33] Genius. [16:34] It's like unbelievable. [16:35] I mean, to think the... [16:36] And we have the technology nobody has. [16:38] Look at what happened in Venezuela. [16:40] They had other equipment, not ours. [16:43] They made the mistake of using other equipment. [16:45] Didn't work too well. [16:46] And Venezuela was, you know... [16:48] Targets. [16:59] And again, they have no anti-aircraft. [17:01] So we're just floating over the top. [17:03] Look, anti-aircraft. [17:04] So we're just floating over the top looking for whatever we want. [17:07] And we're hitting it. [17:08] And we have another 3,554 targets left. [17:13] And that'll be done pretty quickly. [17:16] And then, you know, at some point, we're going to have to determine what we do. [17:20] But they have... [17:21] They've never seen anything like it. [17:24] When we hit Venezuela, and, you know, that's a very strong military country. [17:29] They have soldiers. [17:31] If you've ever been there, been there. [17:33] They have a lot of soldiers walking around all over the place. [17:36] Everyone's a soldier. [17:37] Very military kind of a place. [17:39] Then the general, there was a general, a professional general, really good. [17:44] Then he said, we were all set for him. [17:46] We knew there was a problem when we noticed at 1 o'clock in the morning, every 32 seconds, [17:51] another airplane, a very fast plane, was coming off the deck of an aircraft carrier. [17:57] That's actually the biggest aircraft carrier in the world. [17:59] And every 32 seconds, vroom, vroom, vroom. [18:04] And it was 1 o'clock in the morning. [18:06] So we said, OK, I think we're in trouble. [18:08] But they were ready for us, Johnny. [18:10] And we were ready. [18:12] He said, we were ready. [18:14] And then they hit us. [18:15] And they came from 17 different angles. [18:18] They were here. [18:19] They were there. [18:20] We ran for our lives. [18:21] It was over. [18:22] And it was over. [18:26] And then we took this guy who was a very bad guy. [18:28] And within literally minutes, he was in the back of a helicopter. [18:31] In a house that was in a big military base with thousands and thousands of soldiers. [18:39] The house was all steel with steel doors, steel everything. [18:42] They had the small steel doors, the big storage. [18:45] We were equipped for anything. [18:47] Even the big, big one would have been opened within 30 seconds. [18:50] They walked in with blow torches. [18:52] And within minutes, he was out of the house being thrown into the helicopter, sailing away. [18:58] And the soldiers just looked. [19:01] Bye. [19:02] Bye. [19:03] Take care. [19:04] See you on your trip, sir. [19:05] It was amazing. [19:06] It was amazing. [19:07] But this is more amazing, what's happening now, because we took a very strong country. [19:11] I could see that, yes, sir, the problem you would have had. [19:13] I mean, this was not a weak country. [19:16] This was a strong country. [19:17] They had over 10,000 missiles that they accumulated since October 2nd, if you think. [19:24] Since the B-2s. [19:25] Really, since the B-2s, they accumulated them in a matter of months. [19:30] Six months. [19:32] But they had well over 10,000. [19:33] and they had rocket launchers. [19:35] You know, rocket launchers are more important than the rockets, [19:38] because you take a rocket launcher out, [19:39] that's the end of that. [19:41] People think you can take those big rockets [19:43] and throw them out your window, like when you were a child [19:45] with the paper airplanes. [19:46] You say, it doesn't work that way. [19:48] You need those launchers. [19:49] And we knocked out 97 percent of the launchers. [19:53] That's why you may be attacked, [19:54] but you're not being attacked with very heavy numbers [19:57] of missiles like at the beginning. [20:00] But in particular, I want to thank my friend, [20:03] the Crown Prince Mohammed, who is a fantastic man [20:08] and a great friend of mine [20:10] and a friend of all of yours, I think. [20:18] And he's a warrior. He's a warrior. [20:20] He was not afraid of this country that, frankly, [20:23] he should have been afraid of because they're very powerful. [20:26] I want to thank Tamim, because Tamim is — [20:29] these three people have been unbelievable, Tamim. [20:33] And then, UAE, Mohammed. These are three great people. [20:39] And they were under tremendous [20:40] attack, unexpected attack. [20:43] And they weren't thinking this was going to happen. [20:46] Nobody was. And they turned against them [20:48] and really became very powerfully aligned. [20:51] And they were with us, but they weren't with us very obliquely. [20:57] They were with us. [20:58] But I think that I have to acknowledge for their bravery, [21:02] because they were being hit pretty hard. [21:03] All three of them, they were being hit pretty hard. [21:07] The Amir, Mohammed, Mohammed. [21:13] And Tamim, and they're friends of mine. [21:16] And also, I have to say that Bahrain and Kuwait, [21:21] they were stand-up, more so than NATO. [21:25] I want to say more so than NATO. [21:28] Now, they're a little closer to the action than NATO, [21:30] in all fairness, but very disappointed with NATO. [21:34] But I wasn't disappointed with our allies in the Middle East. [21:38] And others. And others. [21:40] We had tremendous support from countries that were not in the general area. [21:44] But they were tremendously supportive. [21:47] I think Turkey was fantastic, actually fantastic. [21:52] And they stayed out of things that we asked them to. [21:55] And he's a great leader. He's a great leader. [22:00] And Indonesia was great. [22:03] So many — we had so many great — [22:05] you know, you learn who your friends are. [22:07] Really do. You learn who your friends are. [22:09] And — but Indonesia, Turkey, and so many other countries. [22:14] But the five were great. [22:17] But your dear friend and my dear friend was — [22:20] he was all manned. [22:22] He stood up, and he wasn't — he wasn't scared. [22:25] Maybe he was. I don't know. [22:26] Maybe he was, but he didn't show it. [22:28] He was great. A great leader. [22:30] You can be very — Saudi Arabia can be very proud of your — [22:33] because he's got a lot of titles. [22:35] He's the crown prince. [22:37] He's the prime minister. [22:39] He's the future king. [22:41] He's got about seven other titles. [22:42] I said, you have more titles than any human being on Earth. [22:45] He's everything. [22:47] And he deserves to be. [22:48] Because he's a winner. [22:50] So I just want to thank those people. [22:56] So the Middle East will be transformed, [22:58] and the future of that region is never — [23:01] I don't think it's ever looked brighter. [23:02] You couldn't have — you know, we did the Abraham Accords. [23:05] I hope you're going to be getting into the Abraham Accords finally. [23:08] Yeah, sir, will you please go back and explain? [23:10] It's time now. [23:12] You know, Mohammed said, oh, yes, as soon as we do this, [23:15] as soon as we do that. [23:18] I said, Mohammed, we did that. [23:19] Oh, yes, but we have a couple of other things. [23:22] It's now time. [23:24] We've now taken them out, and they are out bigly. [23:26] We got to get into the Abraham Accords. [23:29] And we hope all of the countries are going to be in the Abraham Accords. [23:33] We have some very brave countries that did it. [23:36] You know, years ago, they went in. [23:39] And you know who they are, the four, the early four. [23:42] And they did a great thing in doing it. [23:44] And it was great for them also economically. [23:47] But it was a great thing that they did it. [23:49] But I think all the Middle Eastern countries [23:50] are going to be joining now. [23:52] And in some cases, I would say, you know, in the Middle East, [23:54] I would say all the Middle Eastern countries [23:56] and beyond, you have people not in the Middle East [23:58] that want to be members. [24:00] You'll be seeing that soon. [24:02] In the meantime, the conflict in Iran [24:04] also makes it absolutely vital for the radical left Democrats [24:08] in Congress to immediately end their dangerous shutdown [24:11] of our Department of Homeland Security. [24:13] You know, they want to play games. [24:14] That's all they are. [24:15] These people are lunatics. [24:18] They sort of remind me of — [24:20] they remind me, actually, a little bit of Iran. [24:23] They're deranged. [24:25] They're deranged. [24:27] They're deranged Democrats. [24:30] For 42 days, they've tried to completely eliminate funding [24:34] for the number one duty of government, [24:35] which is keeping America safe. [24:38] And they want no ICE. [24:39] They want no Border Patrol. [24:42] They want no protection of any kind to be given, [24:44] reopening our borders [24:46] and stopping all immigration enforcement in our country. [24:48] They want to have our borders be open again. [24:52] We opened. We took in 25 million people. [24:54] We've gotten a lot of them out. [24:56] Tremendous numbers of people that should never have been here. [24:59] Over four long years before my election, [25:03] these same radical, lunatic Democrats [25:06] let 25 million people pour across our borders [25:09] like they were nothing, like they were nonexistent. [25:12] These people were totally unvetted, unchecked, [25:15] including murderers, drug dealers, gang members, [25:18] vicious criminals, even the criminally insane. [25:22] In 2024, the American people voted in a landslide [25:25] to stop the invasion of our country. [25:28] And I won all seven swing states [25:31] by millions and millions of votes. [25:32] We won the electoral college by a massive number. [25:37] We won the popular vote, millions and vote. [25:40] Just millions. This was a big election. [25:43] I loved every minute of it. [25:45] And for the first time, [25:47] no Republicans done anything like this in decades. [25:51] But for the first time, we won the counties of America. [25:54] That's a big one. 2,700 to 525. [25:58] 2,700 to 525. [26:00] Eighty-seven percent of the vote. [26:04] We won 87% of the counties. [26:06] In other words, it was a mandate [26:08] like our country has not seen in many decades. [26:11] It was a mandate for an ideology, which is an ide... [26:21] All right, so, well, we've just been hearing [26:23] from the U.S. President Donald Trump there. [26:25] He's at the Saudi Investors Forum. [26:27] That's in Miami, of course, [26:28] talking about the war in Iran. [26:31] But let me go straight to Teresa Bowe, [26:32] our correspondent in Washington, D.C. [26:34] Teresa, it's been a busy day of state, [26:37] and we've been hearing a lot of statements [26:39] coming from the U.S. administration. [26:41] And Donald Trump effectively going through [26:43] pretty much the same points that he talked about [26:45] just 24 hours ago [26:47] in terms of where they stand with Iran at the moment. [26:51] What is it that stood out for you this time? [26:55] Well, certainly, the U.S. President continues to say [26:59] that the United States is winning this war, [27:02] that it's annihilating Iran, [27:04] that the United States and this war has saved the Middle East, [27:08] and it's an opportunity to reshape the region. [27:11] And he's speaking at what is known [27:13] as the Future Investment Initiative. [27:15] It is an event that is being hosted by Saudi Arabia. [27:19] There's high-ranking members present there, [27:22] a special envoy to the Middle East, [27:24] Dave Wieckoff, Jared Kushner, among others. [27:27] And Trump, again, he was talking about the cost of this war. [27:31] He said that we had a very good day today, [27:33] referring at this attack that happened in Iran today [27:37] as still factory. [27:38] And he's saying, and others probably, [27:40] that Iran is saying that the United States [27:43] is cooperating with Israel at this point. [27:46] And it's interesting to know that he spoke also once again [27:50] about NATO, criticizing NATO for not participating in the war. [27:54] Let's not forget that, initially, [27:56] the European Union and NATO [27:58] were reluctant to participate in this. [28:00] They say that this is a war that they did not start, [28:02] that they did not endorse, [28:03] many of them saying that this is not our war. [28:06] And Trump has been very critical of them. [28:08] In fact, he has even threatened to withdraw the United States [28:14] from NATO. [28:15] But let's hear what the U.S. President has to say. [28:18] We're crushing Iran. [28:20] Currently, as we speak, I just looked. [28:22] We had another big day. [28:23] We hit them. [28:24] They don't know what's happening. [28:26] Remember this. [28:27] They lied about three days ago. [28:29] I said, yeah, we're negotiating with Israel. [28:31] We are not negotiating. [28:33] They're being hit so hard. [28:36] Anybody would be negotiating. [28:39] They are negotiating. [28:40] They're begging to make a deal. [28:42] They're begging to make a deal. [28:44] Turned out I was right. [28:45] They were negotiating, [28:46] which they admitted two days later. [28:48] And in order to make up for their misstatement, [28:53] they said, we're going to send you eight ships of oil. [28:58] And the following day, I saw them. [29:01] This is two days ago. [29:02] I saw them on one of the networks. [29:04] Very strange. [29:05] There were eight ships of oil coming out of Iran. [29:08] And then they actually said, we're going to add an extra two. [29:11] And they added an extra two. [29:13] And, Theresa, we haven't only just heard from Donald Trump. [29:19] We've also been hearing from his Secretary of State, [29:22] as well as the Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff. [29:25] What did we hear from them earlier today? [29:27] Well, Secretary of State says that talks are underway, [29:31] that Iran is willing to talk. [29:33] And also Steve Witkoff, he was speaking at the same event [29:37] where Trump is present now, this event that Saudi Arabia is hosting. [29:42] And he was saying that, again, that these negotiations are underway, [29:46] that they have to be done. [29:47] They have presented this 15-point plan to Iran, [29:50] that they're waiting for an answer. [29:52] This plan includes ballistic missiles, [29:55] Iran's uranium enrichment program, the Strait of Hormuz, among others. [30:00] This is being mediated by Pakistan. [30:04] So suddenly, we've been listening to all high-ranking officials. [30:07] Many of them are in Florida with President Trump right now. [30:10] And it's interesting to know that, once again, [30:12] Trump was very critical of NATO, saying that they're not helping [30:16] the United States and Israel in this war, [30:19] that they're not helping to open the Strait of Hormuz, [30:22] that the United States once again has extended this ultimatum [30:26] that it had given Iran last Saturday. [30:29] Initially, it started with 48 hours to open the Strait of Hormuz. [30:32] It has now been extended until April 6th at 8 o'clock local time. [30:38] And once again, Trump was talking about NATO, [30:41] but also, in a way, congratulating the GCC countries, [30:45] saying that it was them who actually helped the United States fight this war, [30:49] that they helped the U.S. even more. [30:52] Well, they were at the front line of a war that they did not want, [30:56] that many of them did not want. [30:58] All right, thanks very much, Teresa Boda, in Washington, D.C. [31:01] Well, here in the studio with me is Ross Harrison, [31:04] a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., [31:07] and also author of Decoding Iran's Foreign Policy. [31:10] You've been listening to the Donald Trump speech just now. [31:14] And a lot of what he said we've heard multiple times, [31:18] certainly in the last few days. [31:20] He seems to insist that Iran does want to negotiate. [31:24] Now, what I did find interesting this time, though, [31:27] is he said, we saved the Middle East, not just Israel. [31:30] Tonight, we are closer to the rise of a free Middle East. [31:33] There was a nuclear blackmail for years and years. [31:36] Many in the Middle East would probably argue [31:38] that the biggest threat to them hasn't been Iran, [31:40] it's actually been Israel, for example. [31:42] That is, the U.S. has put a lot of pressure [31:45] on the Middle East and the Middle East, [31:47] which is a partner in attacking Iran. [31:49] Yes, Sarah, I mean, certainly that's been true [31:51] since the June war of 2025. [31:53] I think, listen, if you're sitting in Saudi Arabia [31:57] up until a few years ago, you would see Iran [32:00] as projecting influence into what we call the failed states [32:04] of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. [32:07] And so you would see Iranian influence as a disruptor. [32:10] Now, Iran was not the only disruptor. [32:12] Saudi Arabia was involved in Yemen, [32:13] Israel was involved in Syria. [32:15] Iran was the major threat to regional stability [32:18] and not Israel. [32:20] But what happened since October of 2023, [32:22] the October 7th attacks, [32:24] is Israel has its own sort of forward-leaning strategy. [32:27] And right now, when I was here in October... [32:30] I mean, I'm sorry, last December, [32:32] you're absolutely right. [32:33] For the Doha Security Forum, [32:35] the notion was that Israel was the biggest threat [32:37] to regional stability and not Iran. [32:39] And so how that's going to play out in the next... [32:42] over this conflict, we'll see. [32:44] All right, Ros, I'll just hold your thought there [32:47] because we are going to go back to Donald Trump [32:49] that we now have a connection to hearing him. [32:51] Amen. [32:53] Thank you very much. [32:55] Great honour. [32:56] Chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, [32:59] His Royal Highness Prince Faisal. [33:01] And, of course, please, thank you. [33:07] And, of course, the kingdom's wonderful ambassador [33:10] to the United States, [33:11] Her Royal Highness Princess Rima, [33:14] who's great. [33:23] She's great. [33:24] Also, I want to thank the President [33:27] of Sierra Leone, Julius Madabeyo. [33:32] Madabeyo, I love that name. [33:34] Thank you. [33:35] Great honour to have you. [33:38] And Chairman of the FII Institute Executive Committee, [33:41] Richard Attias. [33:43] Thank you, Richard. [33:48] As well as Special Envoy, [33:50] I call him Henry Kissinger, who doesn't leak. [33:53] Because Henry's a big leaker. [33:56] Richard Nixon would beat him. [33:58] Henry, somebody's leaking on us. [34:00] There's somebody leaking. [34:02] Henry would say, we'll get to the bottom. [34:04] It was Henry that was leaking. [34:06] That wasn't good. [34:08] So, we have Henry Kissinger, better than Henry Kissinger, [34:11] and he doesn't leak. [34:13] Special Envoy, Steve Whitcough. [34:15] Thank you, Steve. [34:16] All right. [34:19] Well, that was Donald Trump there [34:20] at the Saudi Investors Forum in Miami. [34:23] Back to Ross Harrison here in the studio. [34:26] You know, perhaps this was a forum that was already pre-planned, [34:29] but we do know that the US has had good relations [34:32] with the GCC region, [34:33] but they're stuck. [34:34] They're stuck in a rut somehow. [34:36] It was a war that they didn't want. [34:38] They had pre-warned the US that it was important [34:41] to go down the diplomatic path. [34:44] The US and Israel didn't heed that advice, let's say, [34:47] but here we are now. [34:49] What do you think is going to change, perhaps, [34:51] in terms of the relationship between the GCC and the US [34:54] and also neighbouring Iran moving forward? [34:57] Yeah, well, I think, Sarah, [34:58] it depends on what happens after the war, [35:01] how long this is prolonged [35:02] and how much damage is being done [35:04] to the Gulf Arab states. [35:05] But I can tell you that I think Iran's calculation [35:10] is that as difficult of a decision [35:13] as this probably was for them to attack, [35:16] particularly the Gulf Arab states, [35:18] they assiduously built improving relations with [35:22] over the last couple of years. [35:24] I think they did this [35:25] because they believed they needed to do it. [35:27] It doesn't feel good if you're sitting here, [35:29] if you're from Qatar or Emirates or Saudi Arabia, [35:33] you're obviously angry at Iran right now. [35:35] But I think the calculation is that the tyranny [35:37] of geography will ultimately prevail [35:39] and that over time there'll be an understanding [35:43] that really it was Israel and the United States [35:45] that basically ultimately launched an attack [35:47] when there was a diplomatic possibility. [35:51] And I think that was the calculation [35:53] that the Iranians had [35:54] in going into the negotiations in Geneva. [35:56] They knew that the Americans were not serious. [35:59] The negotiators themselves did not really, [36:01] were not trained in the nuclear file [36:03] or had no experience with Iran. [36:05] They did that, I believe, [36:06] to convince the Gulf Arab states [36:08] that they were actually negotiating. [36:10] And then if there was a follow-on attack, [36:12] there would be some blowback ultimately to the United States. [36:15] Now, I have to say that they don't have this... [36:17] Gulf Arab states don't have a lot of options [36:19] in terms of security. [36:20] But down the road, I think there will be consequences [36:23] to US-Gulf Arab states' relations [36:26] and certainly Israeli-Gulf Arab relations. [36:28] I mean, certainly what this war has done [36:30] is it's completely changed the calculus [36:33] of what's going on in the United States. [36:35] I mean, if not now, then moving forward, [36:37] you know, countries that were comfortable with each other [36:39] may rethink, alignments may change. [36:41] But I want to go back to references that he made. [36:44] He referenced Barack Obama, the former US president. [36:47] And, of course, he was referencing the nuclear deal [36:50] back in 2015, the JCPOA. [36:53] Can you take us back to that period? [36:55] That was ten years ago now. [36:57] 11 years ago now. [36:59] And how much has changed or hasn't changed? [37:01] Because there was a deal on the table. [37:03] What are your views of what that was exactly? [37:05] Well, I don't mean to be glib, Sara, [37:07] but one way to think about this is Donald Trump [37:09] is both the arsonist and the firefighter. [37:12] The arsonist in 2018, so the nuclear deal was 2015. [37:16] It was working. [37:18] Now, it was working in terms of Iran was complying [37:21] with the tenets of the deal, [37:23] and the United States, there were some imperfections, [37:26] but the United States and what we call the P5-plus-1, [37:29] the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, [37:31] were also complying with the deal. [37:33] And what happened is in 2018, [37:35] Trump unilaterally walked out of the deal, [37:38] betraying our allies, U.S. allies, [37:42] the European states, and also Russia and China, [37:44] and plus the Iranian people. [37:46] And then slowly what happened is the Iranians, [37:48] actually the Iranians complied with the deal for another year, [37:51] stayed in the deal, tried to get the Europeans [37:53] to compensate for what the U.S., [37:55] the maximum pressure campaign the U.S. was waging upon. [37:58] And after 2019, after the administration, [38:01] I had met with the Iranian leaders in April of 2019, [38:03] they said, the U.S. has been waging economic warfare against us, [38:07] so we're going to slowly show that we have some leverage. [38:11] And they attacked the Quraish and Abqaiq Aramco facilities [38:15] in Saudi Arabia, and they started mining some ships, [38:18] and they started enriching uranium. [38:20] And that brought us to where we are today. [38:22] So in many ways, I mean, it's a counterfactual, [38:24] but we could make the argument that if Donald Trump [38:27] had not walked away from a nuclear deal that was working, [38:30] it was not a perfect deal, but it was a bet, Sara, [38:32] on a better future. [38:34] And he walked away from it, [38:36] and we have now a catastrophic future facing us. [38:39] You've dealt with, as you were saying, Iranian leadership before. [38:42] At least you understand them very well. [38:44] Do you think this war really is about the nuclear facilities [38:49] that Iran has, its nuclear capabilities? [38:51] And how much of this, if we look beyond that, [38:53] perhaps is about oil? [38:55] I mean, Trump referenced once again, [38:57] he did this yesterday and he's done this today, [38:59] look, he said, look at what happened in Venezuela, [39:01] making comparisons to how easy it was [39:03] to take Nicolas Maduro and arrest him. [39:06] And now, when you look at Venezuela, [39:08] the US oil companies are back in there [39:10] and they'll make sure, it seems, [39:12] that they'll receive some of those profits. [39:14] Is that what this is really about? [39:16] And I say that because the Israeli Prime Minister, [39:18] Benjamin Netanyahu, just a few days ago, [39:20] when he was asked, where are we, [39:22] what is your vision after this war? [39:24] And he talked about the fact that there would be control [39:27] of the Strait of Hormuz, Bab Mandeb, [39:29] pipelines would go from the east to the west, [39:31] via Israel, effectively. [39:33] Well, I mean, that certainly is, I guess, [39:35] is a dream of what this region is going to look like. [39:38] It reminds me of when the United States went into Iraq in 2003 [39:43] with very similar bravado. [39:45] A little more, a more dignified president, frankly, but... [39:49] And here we are today where the US still has involvement, [39:52] my understanding is, in the oil fields in Iraq. [39:55] Yeah, but I don't, I mean, listen, [39:57] we're dealing, I'm not an oil expert, [39:59] but we're looking at global markets. [40:01] So I'm not sure where the actual US interest would be. [40:04] But I think when we went in there, [40:06] and the idea was, the vision was, [40:08] that we would basically bring down a regime in Iraq, [40:12] Saddam Hussein, [40:13] and that it was somehow that would, [40:15] a thousand flowers would bloom, [40:17] and we would have democracy in Iraq, [40:19] and that that would spread to the entire region. [40:21] It sounds like a similar kind of vision for the Middle East. [40:24] And there's too many moving parts, frankly, [40:27] in order to see how we can get from the destruction [40:30] that we're seeing today, [40:31] to that kind of a nirvana future [40:33] from the standpoint of the Israelis. [40:35] But, because I think one thing, Sara, [40:37] is that, you know, military means are designed [40:41] to be combined with diplomacy [40:44] in a very subtle, clear way [40:47] to try to shape the behavior of a regime. [40:50] That may not be a pretty picture, [40:52] but that's the way states operate. [40:54] They use the threat of force in order to create leverage, [40:57] to get diplomatic maneuverings, [40:59] to create up diplomatic patterns, [41:01] to create a path. [41:02] But this is not what's going on here. [41:04] They're talking about diplomacy, [41:05] but you heard the president's words [41:07] about belittling the leadership of Iran, [41:09] basically trying for them to submit. [41:11] It seems like this is designed [41:13] to get the Iranian regime to submit. [41:15] Why? Because I believe, [41:16] because the belief was that the regime would be gone by now. [41:20] And that hasn't happened. [41:21] It has not happened. [41:22] And any military objective has to have a clear political, [41:26] any military means have to be married up [41:29] with a political objective. [41:30] And that political objective has been a moving target [41:32] from the U.S. standpoint. [41:33] And it's not clear what that would be in Iran [41:37] or for the region or, frankly, for the United States. [41:39] Yeah, exactly. [41:40] All right. [41:41] Thank you very much for your thoughts on all of this, [41:43] as always. [41:44] Ross Harrison, then.