Trump LIVE — Trump Makes STUNNING Announcement in All-Important Press Conference — US News LIVE

[0:00] back you mean the new supreme leader you mean the sun how can there be an iran well i don't want to [0:05] i don't want to say that but you know i was disappointed because we think it's going to lead [0:10] to just more of the same problem for the country so i was disappointed to see their choice thank [0:18] you sir you've said you have someone in mind to be the new iranian leadership if not the ayatollah's [0:23] son what are you looking for in that person are you looking at someone internal given that you [0:27] just said that their leadership has been i like the idea of you know internal and eternal come to [0:34] think of it but i like the idea of internal because it works well i mean i think we've proven that so far [0:42] in venezuela we have a woman delcy who has been you know president of the country very respected very [0:50] she's doing a great job and it's you know no disruption we had as you remember iraq where [0:57] everybody got fired the military got fired the police got fired the politicians got fired there [1:03] was nobody and you know what they turned into isis and we don't want that we don't want that so uh i [1:11] would like to see people that are inside go now they talk about the son of the shah they talk about [1:18] other people but you know hasn't been there in many many years uh we have a formula that's been very good [1:26] so far and i think it'll continue to be good the relationship is extraordinary with venezuela [1:31] smart country we've taken out a hundred million barrels of oil it's right now in houston being uh [1:41] being taken care of and made so beautiful and you have to see this at work they have uh it's it's [1:48] brought to the refineries it's being refined in houston which is made exactly for that product [1:55] and so far but it's a hundred million barrels of oil and now they have another hundred million barrels [2:01] coming and it's like a partnership we're getting along so well with them it's great for venezuela and [2:08] it's great for the united states yeah please go ahead hi mr president you just suggested that iran [2:16] somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war but [2:21] you're the only person in your government saying this even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he [2:25] was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on saturday why are you the only person saying [2:30] this because i just don't know enough about it i think it's something that i was told is under [2:35] investigation but tomahawks are are used by others as you know numerous other nations have tomahawks [2:43] they buy them from us but i will certainly whatever the report shows i'm willing to live with that report [2:49] yeah please um you said earlier that we've already won in many ways but we haven't won enough what do [2:57] you consider enough what's your baseline where they're not going to be starting the following day [3:03] to develop a nuclear weapon where they'll look at that man and some other people from the administration [3:10] and say all right we're not going to do it they were not willing to say that and when steve called up [3:16] and he said that to me i said well here we go let's do it the hard way but the hard way i think is [3:22] probably the easy way when basically i can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever for [3:29] a very long period of time of developing weaponry that could be used against the united states israel [3:38] or any of our allies we have great allies in the middle east great countries that are allies and they [3:45] were staying out of it until they got hit someday they'll have to do a story why did he do that why [3:49] did they do that but they were going to hit them if i didn't hit them first they were going to hit our [3:55] allies first i believe upon information and belief but i believe that he was going to uh he was they were [4:05] going to take over the middle east they were looking to take over the middle east now had operation [4:11] midnight hammer not taken place that was definite because they would have had a nuclear weapon within [4:18] a matter of weeks but that took place that was a setback but look at the number of missiles they [4:24] were able to buy and make over the last six months and those missiles were aimed at various countries [4:32] and when you look at a thousand over a thousand missiles shot at like uae they were looking to take [4:38] over the middle east we got there first lucky i'll tell you what the middle east in those countries very [4:43] rich countries are very lucky that i was president instead of somebody else vice president when it [4:53] comes to u.s action in iran i don't think so no no we get along very well on on this he was uh i would [5:01] say philosophically a little bit different uh than me i think he was uh maybe less enthusiastic about [5:11] going but he was quite enthusiastic but uh i felt it was something we had to do i didn't feel we had a [5:18] choice if we didn't do it they would have done it to us i felt based on the negotiations that were [5:23] being had by steve whitkoff and jared kushner and marco and pete and everybody was involved i felt that [5:31] they were gonna that they were looking to tap us along before they hit and i thought they were gonna [5:35] hit and if they hit us first that would have been a very bad thing uh in the back place in the back [5:49] about the straight you mean yeah well i'm i want to keep it open i want to keep it good you know it [5:55] doesn't pertain to us so much as it does to china we're really helping china here and other countries [6:02] because they get a lot of their energy from the straits but hey look we have a good relationship [6:09] with china it's my honor to do it yeah later you have called him an unacceptable choice so does he [6:17] have a target on his back and how can you i don't want to say whether or not he does because that would [6:21] be inappropriate but hey look i had a target on my back because as you people wrote pretty well [6:28] they caught the assassin that was after me so we just got them first but they caught the assassin [6:35] they have him now in custody that was after me so you know but uh people don't like to mention that [6:41] but they they did catch him and i'd like to congratulate our military secret service [6:46] fbi all of the people that worked on that but they did yeah please go ahead no go ahead please thank [6:53] you mr president you promised the iranian people you would help them but it sounds like you're willing [6:57] to end this fight after your military objectives have wrapped up is that isn't that a betrayal will [7:02] i help them i'd like to if they can behave but they've been very menacing you know they're great [7:09] people they have an amazing population it's amazing smart brilliant energetic they have a great point i'd [7:18] love to help them but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped and right now they're in [7:23] a system that only allows failure and i don't want that and i want a system that's not going to be [7:30] attacking us we want a system that can lead to many years of peace and if we can't have that we might [7:36] as well get it over with right now yeah please mr president as of today there have been eight u.s [7:42] military fatalities associated with the war in iran how many american deaths are you willing to have [7:48] in this war well as i said before uh when you have conflict it's been a very big two days i have to [7:57] say and we'll be heading back to washington dc right after this and i'd like to wish everyone a very good [8:06] evening and over the weekend the united states military and the israeli defense forces continued [8:13] operation epic fury very successfully over the past nine days we've carried out some of the most powerful [8:19] and complex military strikes and maneuvers the world has ever seen now you add that up to [8:27] all of the other things midnight hammer getting rid of the nuclear threat from iran which was a big [8:34] moment in history in my opinion and uh the great success we've had in venezuela and all other places [8:41] every place we've gone we've had tremendous success but while we're doing all of these things we're [8:48] achieving major strides toward completing our military objective and some people could say [8:55] they're pretty well complete we've wiped every single force in iran out very completely most of [9:04] iran's naval power power has been sunk it's on the bottom of the sea it's almost 50 ships i was just [9:13] notified it's 51 ships i didn't know they had that many didn't last very long and these are fighting [9:20] vessels they're meant to fight but they're not meant to fight against us we continue to target [9:27] iran's drone and missile capabilities their drones are way down their drone manufacturing has been hit [9:35] starting today we know all of the places they manufacture the drones and they're being hit one [9:40] after another their missile capability is down to about 10 percent maybe less we're also hitting where [9:48] they make missiles and where they deliver missiles we've struck over 5 000 targets to date some of [9:56] them very major targets and we've left some of the most important targets for later in case we need to [10:01] do it if we hit them it's going to take many years for them to be rebuilt having to do with electricity [10:09] production and many other things so we're not looking to do that if we don't have to but they're the kind of [10:16] things that are very easy to hit but very devastating if they are hit we are waiting to see what happens [10:23] before we hit them we could take them all out in one day but it's all resulting in a 90 percent decline in [10:32] various things but in particular iranian missile launchers and 83 drop in drone launchers as you know [10:41] the drone launchers are are pretty well shot but we're at over 90 percent decline in the iranian [10:48] missile launchers which is very hard to reproduce and very hard to get and usually what we were able [10:56] to do through great uh equipment a lot of smart people as soon as they sent a missile up from a [11:04] launcher we were able to knock out that launcher within a period of five minutes or less accurately right [11:11] on the noggin so now we have low-cost interceptors effectively combating iranian drones and our b2 [11:19] bombers recently dropped dozens of two thousand pound bombs to destroy missile launchers all over [11:25] iran and buried deep under iranian soil in many cases the soil was no match and we're also annihilating [11:35] the manufacturing base that the regime uses to build drones and missiles at a rate that nobody thought [11:41] was possible we're knocking them out we know where they all are we're knocking them out very quickly [11:47] we're ahead of our initial timeline by a lot i would say that we probably would not have thought after [11:53] a month we'd be here in addition to the fact that we've taken out the leadership uh twice and maybe three [12:01] times and we as you know we want to be involved we don't want another president that maybe wouldn't be [12:09] willing to do what i'm willing to do for the good of the world for the good of our nation to be stuck [12:14] with the situation in five years or ten years from now so we think they should put a president in or [12:20] the head of the country in that's going to be able to do something peacefully for a change they've been [12:25] doing this for 47 years killing people for 47 years whether it's the barracks or even the ss coal [12:33] where they were involved very strongly they always denied it but where they were very strongly involved [12:39] and all of the people that died through the roadside bombs died and are right now walking [12:45] around with no legs no arms a face that's been so badly damaged the iranian regime has been attacking [12:53] americans and spreading terror for 47 years and despite these countless opportunities to renounce their [13:00] nuclear ambitions which they had just a short while ago they told mr whitkoff who is standing right over [13:08] here they said uh they actually said we want to keep building essentially in a real nutshell [13:15] we want to continue to build nuclear weapons if we didn't knock out midnight hammer if we didn't knock [13:21] out their iranian potential if we didn't do that with midnight hammer they would have had a nuclear [13:27] weapon they would have used it long before now and at a minimum israel would have been annihilated [13:34] i was very lucky that we had the courage to do that that we had the talented pilots and the great [13:40] equipment the b2 bombers are unbelievable we ordered 25 more by the way the newer better version it's uh [13:50] we have the greatest military in the world we have the greatest equipment in the world by far [13:55] you see that no matter where we go you still need the people though to operate it and to use it [14:01] and those are the people that we cherish even after we obliterated their key nuclear sites [14:08] in operation midnight hammer they never negotiated into good faith they still continued to say we want [14:14] to build nuclear we want enrichment at levels that were unacceptable and they even turned down an offer [14:21] for unlimited free nuclear fuel forever for civilian purposes we had people offering them free nuclear [14:30] fuel they weren't interested in that because they wanted to build a nuclear weapon so instead the [14:35] regime was trying to reconstitute its weapons program at a different site they couldn't go back to where [14:42] they were the three sites that we obliterated but they were starting work at another site a different [14:48] site different kind of a site and that was protected by granite they wanted it protected granite's pretty good [14:56] but they wanted it protected by a lot deeper they wanted to go a lot deeper and they started the [15:03] process while rapidly building conventional ballistic missiles they were going to do it all at the same [15:09] time that threatened our overseas bases and soon could have reached even our homeland the regime's [15:16] intention was to use this exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to [15:22] prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon so as you probably saw they had a tremendous number of [15:29] missiles most of which are now being used or destroyed and very unsuccessfully used because we have [15:38] been able for the most part to shoot them all down what incredible technology the patriots have been [15:44] unbelievable and other things and the laser technology that we have now is incredible it's coming out pretty [15:51] soon we're literally lasers we'll do the work of at a lot less cost do the work of what the patriots are [15:59] doing or what other things are doing the situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return [16:05] and the united states found it intolerable in my opinion based on what steve and jared and pete and others [16:14] were telling me marco so involved that i thought that they were going to attack us i thought they would if we [16:20] didn't do this at the time we did it i think they had in mind to attack us and if you notice they did [16:25] something which was very foolish very stupid i would say they attacked their neighbors and their [16:31] neighbors were largely neutral or at least weren't going to be involved and they got attacked and it [16:41] had the reverse effect the neighbors came onto our side and started attacking them and actually quite [16:48] successfully if you look at saudi arabia you look at uae qatar and others but they were strong and they [16:57] were smart but they got attacked nobody when i first heard it i said no somebody made a mistake [17:03] there was no mistake uae had over a thousand missiles shot at it knocked them almost all down [17:11] on the very first day i came down the escalator in 2015 i said quote i will stop iran from getting [17:18] nuclear weapons and all i'm doing is keeping my promise think of that that was in 2015 i said it [17:26] it was a threat then and a much bigger threat now but no longer a threat not for a long time anyway [17:32] we want to keep it that way as we continue operation epic fury we're also focused on keeping [17:39] energy and oil flowing to the world and i will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and [17:46] attempt to stop the globe's oil supply and if iran does anything to do that they'll get hit at a much [17:52] much harder level i will take out those targets that were easy and that i mentioned just before [17:58] we'll take them out so quickly they'll never be able to recover ever if they want to play that game [18:05] they better not play that game in the long run oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without [18:10] the threat of iranian ships drones missiles nuclear menace or anything so the strait of hormuz is going [18:20] to remain safe we have a lot of navy ships there we have the best equipment in the world inspecting for [18:27] mines again most of their ships are down at the bottom of the sea but we will uh we will hit them so [18:35] hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that [18:41] section of the world they do anything in recent years the regime and its terror proxies have [18:48] launched attacks on hundreds of commercial vessels we're putting an end to all of this threat once [18:54] and for all and the result will be lower oil prices oil and gas prices for american families we've done [19:02] that we've done it we brought it very low this was just an excursion into something that had to be done [19:08] we're getting very close to finishing that too in the meantime during this brief disruption the united [19:14] states is offering political risk insurance to any tankers operating in the gulf so we're putting up [19:19] risk insurance we'll perhaps go alongside of them for protection we don't think it'll be necessary if it [19:28] is and if they do anything the price will be incalculable it will be so great that they will have [19:37] wished they never did it because you have to keep the straits flowing with all of that it affects other [19:44] countries much more than it does the united states doesn't really affect us we have so much oil we [19:49] have tremendous oil and gas much more than we need we have venezuela now is our new partner great partner [19:56] they've worked out so wonderful we're working with the administration the president and it's a massive [20:04] source of oil gas everything but uh we're in a very good position but very unfair to other parts of [20:15] the world like china is an example i mean we're doing this for the other parts of the world including [20:20] countries like china they get a lot of their oil through the straits so we're doing this we have [20:26] a very good relationship with president chi and china i'm going there in a short period of time and [20:32] we're protecting the the world from what these lunatics are trying to do and very successfully [20:40] i might add we're also waving certain oil related sanctions to reduce prices so we have sanctions [20:47] on some countries we're going to take those sanctions off till this straightens out then who [20:52] knows maybe we won't have to put them on there'll be so much peace but when the time comes the u.s navy [20:57] and its partners will escort tankers through the strait if needed i hope it's not going to be needed but if [21:03] it's needed we'll escort them right through and we have the greatest mind sweeping ability we have [21:09] the greatest ships and all of the we know exactly where their place will get them out of there very [21:14] fast but we hope we don't have any of that and again if they do that if they play that game we're [21:19] going to hit them at a level that that they have not seen before so we're winning very decisively [21:26] we're way ahead of schedule uh it's our military is the greatest in the world with the greatest equipment [21:33] the greatest people in the world is nobody's ever seen anything like it iran's a very powerful [21:39] country they were going to take over the middle east if we did not hit them they were going to take [21:44] over the middle east they had thousands and thousands since their last hit they had thousands [21:50] and thousands of missiles and everything else most are now destroyed but they were going to take over [21:56] the middle east those weapons were aimed at middle eastern countries that had nothing to do with this [22:04] they were going to take over the middle east and they were going to try and destroy israel so we [22:08] stopped it with good timing and we're very proud to be involved in this and it's going to be ended soon [22:17] and if it starts up again they'll be they'll be hit even harder uh thank you very much for being here [22:23] go ahead any questions thank you so much do you approve of iran's new supreme leader and secondly can [22:33] you tell us more about your call with russian president vladimir putin today what did you discuss [22:38] yes i had a very good call with president putin we had a lot of people on the line from our side from [22:44] his side we were talking about ukraine which is just the never-ending fight and when look there's [22:53] tremendous hatred between president putin and president zelinski they can't seem to get it together [22:59] but i think it was a positive call on that subject and we obviously talked then about the middle east [23:05] and he wants to be helpful i said you could be more helpful by getting the ukraine russia war over [23:14] with that would be more helpful but we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive yeah [23:20] yeah please thank you mr president on iran you called it an excursion you said it would be over soon [23:28] are you thinking this week it will be over no but soon days i think so okay and and with respect very [23:33] soon look everything they have is gone including their leadership in fact there are two levels of [23:40] leadership and even actually as it turns out more than that but two levels of leadership are gone [23:46] most people have never even heard about the leaders that they're talking about so uh it's obviously been [23:51] very very powerful very effective to cuba you said that cuba wants to make a deal yes what would the [23:59] united states get in return for that and why should americans trust marco rubio to negotiate it well [24:05] marco rubio is doing a great job i think he's going to go down as the greatest secretary of state in [24:10] history look at what we've done as a as a presidency look at what we've done as an administration [24:18] they trust marco and so do the american people trust he's been successful no matter where he's been [24:26] he also speaks the language which is always nice and always helpful but he's dealing and it may be [24:33] a friendly takeover it may not be a friendly takeover it wouldn't matter because they're really in [24:37] they're down to uh as they say fumes they have no energy they have no uh money they're in deep trouble [24:49] on a humanitarian basis and uh we don't want to see that but they were very very bad to a lot of people [24:56] as you know and a lot of people living are the cuban american vote which i got at record levels [25:03] uh very important those people are very important to me i know i know what they went through they [25:07] went through hell some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the country [25:13] cuban american business people some of them are like the most successful in the country and a lot [25:19] of them are friends of mine because i've been fighting this battle with them for a long time [25:23] the castro regime was brutal but they lived off and as well and now they don't live off and [25:28] venezuela sends them no energy no fuel no oil no money no nothing they lived without venezuela they [25:35] couldn't have made it and we cut them off from everything else so uh yeah we're they're going to [25:41] make either a deal or we'll do it just as easy anyway yeah please go ahead a tomahawk missile likely [25:56] destroy that iranian girl school so will the americans will the u.s accept any responsibility [26:02] well i haven't seen it and i will say that the tomahawk which is one of the most powerful weapons [26:07] around is used by you know is sold and used by other countries you know that and whether it's iran who [26:15] also has some tomahawks they wish they had more but uh whether it's iran or somebody else the fact that [26:21] a tomahawk a tomahawk is very generic it's sold to other countries but that's being investigated [26:27] right now yeah please thank you uh mr president you've said the war is quote very complete but [26:36] your defense secretary says this is just the beginning so which is it and how long should [26:40] americans be well i think you could say both the beginning it's the beginning of building a new country [26:46] but they certainly they have no navy they have no air force they have no anti-aircraft [26:51] uh equipment it's all been blown up they have no radar they have no telecommunications [26:58] and they have no leadership it's all gone so you know you could look at that statement we could [27:05] we could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here i could call it [27:10] or we could go further and we're going to go further but uh the big risk on that war [27:19] has been over for three days we wiped them out the first in the first two days when you think about [27:25] it it's incredible we wiped out a big navy very powerful navy you know these were ships these were [27:32] serious ships these were ships that you buy when you want to win battles they're all they're all on [27:38] the bottom floor the sailors are all running off their ships they refuse to get on the ships [27:42] uh the air force is gone everything's gone the missiles are down to a trickle the drones are down to [27:49] probably 25 percent and they'll be soon be down to nothing we'll have the where they manufactured [27:55] the drones are under fire as we speak they're being hit so the rest is going to be determination as to [28:05] my attitude along with the people in the trump administration what we want to do thank you [28:09] yeah please can i ask you you mentioned you were going to waive certain additional oil [28:16] waivers or sanctions can you talk a little bit more about that and address in particular well we're [28:21] looking to keep the oil prices down we went artificially up because of this excursion into [28:27] a very positive thing i mean this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done [28:32] i knew oil prices would go up if i did this and they've gone up probably less than i thought they'd go [28:38] up but i don't think anybody thought we were going to be this quickly successful this was a military [28:44] success the likes of which uh people haven't seen we have the best military we have the best equipment [28:51] we have i believe the best generals we have the best and this went very quickly uh we talked about [29:00] that with president putin he was very impressed with what he saw because nobody's ever seen anything [29:06] quite like it you know iran was a very powerful uh military country a man with all of the missiles now [29:12] you had the double attack you had the original attack with us and israel and that knocked them [29:18] for a loop then you had the b2 bombers which took out their nuclear capability and they would have [29:23] had a nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks and they would have used it long before [29:28] this press conference and we might have had a much different press conference if we had a press [29:33] conference at all uh but it's been amazing the the military success that we've had [29:40] is truly unprecedented you said you've told your congressional colleagues that you will not sign [29:48] any piece of legislation until the save america act is passed does that include the confirmation of [29:54] senator mullen is your next dhs secretary does that mean a dhs funding bill and senator thune said today [29:59] it's not a matter of whether or not your republican colleagues agree with the policy it's about changing [30:04] the process in other words getting rid of the filibuster to get so in order to get it you're going to need [30:08] democrat votes and what we're saying is the save america not the save act which nobody knew what it [30:15] was the save america act the save america act and that's voter id we want voter id when a voter [30:24] we want to be able to see a picture of the voter we want to be able to see that the voter is legitimate [30:29] we want very importantly confirmation that this voter is a citizen of the united states of america [30:38] and we want no in no mail-in ballot scams so we have exceptions for the military for sick for disabled [30:47] and for people that are away business trips or whatever even vacations will be very liberal that [30:54] we've added two things to it no men and women's sports and no trans gender mutualization of our [31:01] children we don't want our the the it's mutualization of our children and we don't want that so we added [31:08] those two things that's the five points we have five very good points uh it polls at 86 percent with [31:16] democrats think of that the overall vote is 86 percent with republicans it's 98 percent and the only one [31:25] opposed to it is a democrat leadership because they cheat they want to cheat so we added those two [31:32] points we're going for the gold and we're going to have to fight like hell now certain things will [31:38] happen certain things will take place i'm here to do a great job for the country but we don't have a [31:43] country if we're going to have elections that are so corrupt and so dishonest like we've witnessed over [31:50] the last period of time you know as an example few i mean virtually nobody has like we nobody has a [32:02] system of mail-in ballots like we have no other country in the world france went away from it [32:07] they all went you know why because it's corrupt and jimmy carter when he had a commission frankly i [32:12] think it's probably the best thing jimmy carter did he said you can't have mail-in voting because it's [32:18] inherently dishonest and it's turned out to be totally dishonest so we're going to fight for it [32:24] yeah activated any sleeper cells inside the u.s there's reports that they have [32:32] pressed that trigger button to activate those cells at least abroad well we've been they've been trying [32:37] for a long time we've been very much on top of it uh one of the things we have to do is get the [32:42] democrats to stop the democrats shutdown because as you know the apparatus that looks into that [32:49] schumer and the democrats have shut it down which tells you they probably hate our country a lot [32:54] but the democrats have to open that up but we've got very very good uh intelligence into that we know [33:00] a lot of different things that have happened that have been very bad a lot of them came in during the [33:05] biden open border period but we have them under uh we we've got them we've we're watching every single [33:14] one of them yeah we know a lot about them the biggest problem we have is the democrat shutdown [33:21] we know a lot about them but the shutdown doesn't allow us to do what we have to do do you have to [33:29] take him out does he have a target on his back you mean the new supreme leader you mean the sun how can [33:34] there be an iran well i don't want to i don't want to say that but you know i was disappointed because [33:40] we think it's going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country so i was disappointed to [33:44] see their choice thank you sir you've said you have someone in mind to be the new iranian leadership [33:52] if not the ayatollah's son what are you looking for in that person are you looking at someone internal [33:57] given that you just said that their leadership has been i like the idea of you know internal and eternal [34:04] come to think of it but i like the idea of internal because it works well i mean i think we've proven that [34:12] so far in venezuela we have a woman delcy who has been you know president of the country very respected [34:20] very she's doing a great job and it's you know no disruption we had as you remember iraq everybody [34:28] got fired the military got fired the police got fired the politicians got fired there was nobody [34:36] and you know what they turned into isis and we don't want that we don't want that so uh i would [34:42] like to see people that are inside go now they talk about the son of the shah they talk about other [34:49] people but you know hasn't been there in many many years uh we have a formula that's been very good [34:56] so far and i think it'll continue to be good the relationship is extraordinary with venezuela [35:02] smart country we've taken out a hundred million barrels of oil it's right now in houston being uh being [35:12] taken care of and made so beautiful and you have to see this at work they have uh it's it's brought [35:19] to the refineries it's being refined in houston which is made exactly for that product and so far [35:26] but it's a hundred million barrels of oil and now they have another hundred million barrels coming [35:33] and it's like a partnership we're getting along so well with them [35:37] it's great for venezuela and it's great for the united states yeah please go ahead hi mr president [35:46] you just suggested that iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on [35:51] the first day of the war but you're the only person in your government saying this even your defense [35:55] secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on saturday [35:59] why are you the only person saying this because i just don't know enough about it i think it's [36:04] something that i was told is under investigation but tomahawks are are used by others as you know [36:11] numerous other nations have tomahawks they buy them from us but i will certainly whatever the [36:17] report shows i'm willing to live with that report yeah please um you said earlier that we've already [36:25] won in many ways but we haven't won enough what do you consider enough what's your baseline where they're [36:31] not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon where they'll look at [36:37] that man and some other people from the administration and say all right we're not [36:42] going to do it they were not willing to say that and when steve called up and he said that to me i said [36:48] well here we go let's do it the hard way but the hard way i think is probably the easy way when basically [36:55] i can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever for a very long period of time [37:03] of developing weaponry that could be used against the united states israel or any of our allies we [37:10] have great allies in the middle east great countries that are allies and they were staying out of it [37:16] until they got hit someday they'll have to do a story why did he do that why did they do that [37:22] but they were going to hit them if i didn't hit them first they were going to hit our allies first [37:27] i believe upon information and belief but i believe that he was going to uh he was they [37:36] were going to take over the middle east they were looking to take over the middle east [37:40] now had operation midnight hammer not taken place that was definite because they would have had a [37:48] nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks but that took place that was a setback but look at the number of [37:54] missiles they were able to buy and make over the last six months and those missiles were aimed at [38:01] various countries and when you look at a thousand over a thousand missiles shot at like uae they were [38:08] looking to take over the middle east we got there first lucky i'll tell you what the middle east and [38:13] those countries very rich countries are very lucky that i was president instead of somebody else [38:17] vice president when it comes to u.s action in iran i don't think so no no we get along very well on [38:29] on this he was uh i would say philosophically a little bit different uh than me i think he was [38:39] maybe less enthusiastic about going but he was quite enthusiastic but uh i felt it was something we had [38:47] to do i didn't feel we had a choice if we didn't do it they would have done it to us i felt based on the [38:52] negotiations that were being had by steve woodcoff and jared kushner and marco and pete and everybody [39:00] was involved i felt that they were gonna that they were looking to tap us along before they hit and [39:05] i thought they were gonna hit and if they hit us first that would have been a very bad thing [39:09] uh in the back please in the back about the straight you mean yeah well i'm i want to keep it open i [39:24] want to keep it good you know it doesn't pertain to us so much as it does to china we're really helping [39:29] china here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the straits but hey look [39:38] we have a good relationship with china it's my honor to do it yeah you have called him an unacceptable [39:47] choice so does he have a target on his back and how can you i don't want to say whether or not he does [39:51] because that would be inappropriate but hey look i had a target on my back because as you people wrote [39:57] pretty well they caught the assassin that was after me so we just got them first but they caught the [40:04] assassin they have him now in custody that was after me so you know but uh people don't like to mention [40:11] that but they they did catch him and i'd like to congratulate our military secret service fbi all of [40:17] the people that worked on that but they did yeah please go ahead no go ahead please thank you mr [40:24] president you promised the iranian people you would help them but it sounds like you're willing to end [40:28] this fight after your military objectives have wrapped up is that isn't that a betrayal will i help [40:33] them i'd like to if they can behave but they've been very menacing you know they're great people [40:41] they have an amazing population it's amazing smart brilliant energetic they have a great point i'd love [40:49] to help them but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped and right now they're in [40:54] a system that only allows failure and i don't want that and i want a system that's not going to be [41:00] attacking us we want a system that can lead to many years of peace and if we can't have that we might [41:07] as well get it over with right now yeah please mr president as of today there have been eight u.s [41:12] military fatalities associated with the war in iran how many american deaths are you willing to have [41:18] in this war well as i said before uh when you have conflict it's been a very big two days i have to [41:27] say and we'll be heading back to washington dc right after this and i'd like to wish everyone a very good [41:37] evening and over the weekend the united states military and the israeli defense forces continued [41:43] operation epic fury very successfully over the past nine days we've carried out some of the most powerful [41:50] and complex military strikes and maneuvers the world has ever seen now you add that up to all of the [41:58] other things midnight hammer getting rid of the nuclear threat from iran which was a big moment in [42:05] history in my opinion and the great success we've had in venezuela and all other places every place [42:13] we've gone we've had tremendous success but while we're doing all of these things we're achieving [42:20] major strides toward completing our military objective and some people could say they're [42:27] pretty well complete we've wiped every single force in iran out very completely most of iran's naval [42:36] power power has been sunk it's on the bottom of the sea it's almost 50 ships i was just notified it's 51 [42:45] ships i didn't know they had that many didn't last very long and these are fighting vessels they're [42:52] they're meant to fight but they're not meant to fight against us we continue to target iran's drone [42:59] and missile capabilities their drones are way down their drone manufacturing has been hit starting today [43:07] we know all of the places they manufacture the drones and they're being hit one after another [43:12] uh their missile capability is down to about 10 percent maybe less we're also hitting where they [43:19] make missiles and where they deliver missiles we've struck over 5 000 targets to date some of them very [43:27] major targets and we've left some of the most important targets for later in case we need to do it [43:33] if we hit them it's going to take many years for them to be rebuilt uh having to do with [43:39] electricity production and many other things so we're not looking to do that if we don't have to [43:46] but they're the kind of things that are very easy to hit but very devastating if they are hit [43:51] we are waiting to see what happens before we hit them we could take them all out in one day [43:58] but it's all resulting in a 90 percent decline in various things but in particular iranian missile [44:06] launchers and uh 83 percent drop in drone launchers as you know the drone launchers are are pretty well [44:15] shot but we're at over 90 percent decline in the iranian missile launchers which is very hard to [44:22] reproduce and very hard to get and usually what we were able to do through great uh equipment a lot of [44:32] smart people as soon as they sent a missile up from a launcher we were able to knock out that launcher within [44:38] a period of five minutes or less accurately right on the noggin so now we have low-cost interceptors [44:46] effectively combating iranian drones and our b2 bombers recently dropped dozens of 2 000 pound [44:53] bombs to destroy missile launchers all over iran and very deep under iranian soil in many cases the soil [45:02] was no match and we're also annihilating the manufacturing base that the regime uses to build [45:09] drones and missiles at a rate that nobody thought was possible we're knocking them out we know where [45:15] they all are we're knocking them out very quickly we're ahead of our initial timeline by a lot i would [45:21] say that we probably would not have thought after a month we'd be here in addition to the fact that we've [45:27] taken out the leadership uh twice and maybe three times and we as you know we want to be involved [45:37] we don't want another president that maybe wouldn't be willing to do what i'm willing to do for the [45:42] good of the world for the good of our nation to be stuck with the situation in five years or ten years [45:47] from now so we think they should put a president in or the head of the country in that's going to be able to [45:54] do something peacefully for a change they've been doing this for 47 years killing people for 47 [46:00] years whether it's the barracks or even the ss coal where they were involved very strongly they always [46:07] denied it but where they were very strongly involved and all of the people that died through the roadside [46:13] bombs died and are right now walking around with no legs no arms a face that's been so badly damaged [46:21] the iranian regime has been attacking americans and spreading terror for 47 years and despite these [46:28] countless opportunities to renounce their nuclear ambitions which they had just a short while ago they [46:35] told mr whitkoff who is standing right over here they said uh they actually said we want to keep building [46:44] essentially in a real nutshell we want to continue to build nuclear weapons if we didn't knock out [46:51] midnight hammer if we didn't knock out their iranian potential if we didn't do that with midnight [46:56] hammer they would have had a nuclear weapon they would have used it long before now and at a minimum [47:02] israel would have been annihilated i was very lucky that we had the courage to do that that we had the [47:09] talented pilots and the great equipment the b2 bombers are unbelievable we ordered 25 more by the way [47:16] the newer better version it's uh we have the greatest military in the world we have the greatest [47:24] equipment in the world by far you see that no matter where we go you still need the people though to [47:30] operate it and to use it and those are the people that we cherish even after we obliterated their key [47:37] nuclear sites in operation midnight hammer they never negotiated in good faith they still continued to [47:44] say we want to build nuclear we want enrichment at levels that were unacceptable and they even turned [47:51] down an offer for unlimited free nuclear fuel forever for civilian purposes we had people offering them [47:59] free nuclear fuel they weren't interested in that because they wanted to build a nuclear weapon [48:05] so instead the regime was trying to reconstitute its weapons program at a different site they couldn't [48:12] go back to where they were the three sites that we obliterated but they were starting work at another [48:18] site a different site different kind of a site and that was protected by granite they wanted it protected [48:26] granite's pretty good but they wanted it protected by a lot deeper they wanted to go a lot deeper and [48:33] they started the process while rapidly building conventional ballistic missiles they were going to do it all at the [48:39] same time that threatened our overseas bases and soon could have reached even our homeland the regime's [48:47] intention was to use this exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible [48:53] to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon so as you probably saw they had a tremendous number of [49:00] missiles most of which have now been used or destroyed and very unsuccessfully used because we have [49:09] been able for the most part to shoot them all down what incredible technology the patriots have been [49:15] unbelievable and other things and the laser technology that we have now is incredible it's coming out pretty [49:21] soon we're literally lasers will do the work of at a lot less cost do the work of what the patriots are [49:29] doing or what other things are doing the situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return and the [49:36] united states found it intolerable in my opinion based on what steve and jared and pete and others were [49:45] telling me marco so involved that i thought that they were going to attack us i thought they would if we [49:50] didn't do this at the time we did it i think they had in mind to attack us and if you notice they did [49:56] something which was very foolish very stupid i would say they attacked their neighbors and their neighbors [50:02] were largely neutral or at least weren't going to be involved and they got attacked and it had the [50:12] reverse effect the neighbors came onto our side and started attacking them and actually quite [50:18] successfully if you look at saudi arabia you look at uae qatar and others but they were strong and they [50:28] were smart but they got attacked nobody when i first heard it i said no somebody made a mistake [50:34] there was no mistake uae had over a thousand missiles shot at it knocked them almost all down [50:42] on the very first day i came down the escalator in 2015 i said quote i will stop iran from getting [50:49] nuclear weapons and all i'm doing is keeping my promise think of that that was in 2015 i said it [50:56] it was a threat then and a much bigger threat now but no longer a threat not for a long time anyway we [51:04] want to keep it that way as we continue operation epic fury we're also focused on keeping energy and [51:11] oil flowing to the world and i will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and [51:17] attempt to stop the globe's oil supply and if iran does anything to do that they'll get hit at a much [51:23] much harder level i will take out those targets that were easy and that i mentioned just before we'll [51:29] take them out so quickly they'll never be able to recover ever if they want to play that game they [51:36] better not play that game in the long run oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without [51:41] the threat of iranian ships drones missiles nuclear menace or anything so the strait of hormuz is going to [51:52] remain safe we have a lot of navy ships there we have the best equipment in the world inspecting for [51:58] mines uh again most of their ships are down at the bottom of the sea but we will uh we will hit them [52:05] so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section [52:12] of the world they do anything in recent years the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks [52:19] on hundreds of commercial vessels we're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all and [52:26] the result will be lower oil prices oil and gas prices for american families we've done that we've [52:33] done it we brought it very low this was just an excursion into something that had to be done we're [52:39] getting very close to finishing that too in the meantime during this brief disruption the united [52:44] states is offering political risk insurance to any tankers operating in the gulf so we're putting up [52:49] uh risk insurance will uh perhaps go alongside of them for protection we don't think it'll be necessary [52:59] if it is and if they do anything the price will be incalculable it will be so great that they will [53:08] have wished they never did it because you have to keep the straits flowing with all of that it affects [53:15] other countries much more than it does the united states doesn't really affect us we have so much oil [53:19] we have tremendous oil and gas much more than we need we have venezuela now as our new partner great [53:26] partner they've worked out so wonderful we're working with the administration the president [53:33] and it's a massive source of oil gas everything but uh we're in a very good position but very unfair to [53:45] other parts of the world like china is an example i mean we're doing this for the other parts of [53:49] the world including countries like china they get a lot of their oil through the straits so we're [53:56] doing this we have a very good relationship with president chi and china i'm going there in a short period [54:01] of time and we're protecting the the world from what these lunatics are trying to do and very successfully [54:11] i might add we're also waving certain oil related sanctions to reduce prices so we have sanctions on some [54:18] countries we're going to take those sanctions off until this straightens out then who knows maybe we [54:24] won't have to put them on there'll be so much peace but when the time comes the u.s navy and his partners [54:29] will escort tankers through the straight if needed i hope it's not going to be needed but if it's needed [54:34] we'll escort them right through and we have the greatest mind sweeping ability we have the greatest [54:40] ships and all of them we know exactly where their place will get them out of there very fast but [54:46] we hope we don't have any of that and again if they do that if they play that game we're going to [54:50] hit them at a level that that they have not seen before so we're winning very decisively we're way [54:58] ahead of schedule uh it's our military is the greatest in the world with the greatest equipment [55:04] and the greatest people in the world there's nobody's ever seen anything like it iran's a very [55:10] powerful country they were going to take over the middle east if we did not hit them they were going [55:15] to take over the middle east they had thousands and thousands since their last hit they had [55:20] thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else most are now destroyed but they were going to [55:27] take over the middle east those weapons were aimed at middle eastern countries that had nothing to do [55:34] with this they were going to take over the middle east and they were going to try and destroy israel [55:39] so we stopped it with good timing and we're very proud to be involved in this and it's going to be [55:46] ended soon and if it starts up again they'll be they'll be hit even harder uh thank you very much [55:54] for being here go ahead any questions thank you so much do you approve of iran's new supreme leader [56:03] and secondly can you tell us more about your call with russian president vladimir putin today what did [56:08] you discuss yes i had a very good call with president putin we had a lot of people on the line from [56:14] our side from his side we were talking about ukraine which is just the never-ending fight and when look [56:23] there's tremendous hatred between president putin and president zelinski they can't seem to get it [56:29] together but i think it was a positive call on that subject and we obviously talked then about the middle [56:35] east and he wants to be helpful i said you could be more helpful by getting the ukraine russia war over [56:44] with that would be more helpful but we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive [56:49] yeah please yeah please thank you mr president on iran you called it an excursion you said it would [56:58] be over soon are you thinking this week it will be over no but soon days i think so okay and and with [57:03] respect very soon look everything they have is gone including their leadership in fact there are two [57:10] levels of leadership and even actually as it turns out more than that but two levels of leadership are gone [57:16] most people have never even heard about the leaders that they're talking about so uh it's obviously [57:22] been very very powerful very effective with cuba you said that cuba wants to make a deal yes what would [57:30] the united states get in return for that and why should americans trust marco rubio to negotiate it [57:35] well marco rubio is doing a great job i think he's going to go down as the greatest secretary of state in [57:41] history look at what we've done as a as a presidency look at what we've done as an administration uh they [57:49] trust marco uh and so do the american people trust he's been successful no matter where he's been [57:57] he also speaks the language which is always nice and always helpful but he's dealing and it may be [58:04] a friendly takeover it may not be a friendly takeover it wouldn't matter because they're really in [58:08] and they're down to uh as they say fumes they have no energy they have no uh money they're in deep [58:19] trouble on a humanitarian basis and uh we don't want to see that but they were very very bad to a [58:26] lot of people as you know and a lot of people living are the cuban-american vote which i got at record [58:33] levels uh very important those people are very important to me i know i know what they went through [58:38] they went through hell some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the [58:43] country cuban-american business people some of them are like the most successful in the country [58:50] and a lot of them are friends of mine because i've been fighting this battle with them for a long time [58:54] the castro regime was brutal but they lived off and as well and now they don't live off and [58:59] venezuela sends them no energy no fuel no oil no money no nothing they lived without venezuela they [59:06] couldn't have made it and we cut them off from everything else so uh yeah we're they're going [59:11] to make either a deal or we'll do it just as easy anyway yeah please go ahead striking a tomahawk [59:25] missile likely destroy that iranian girls school so will the americans will the u.s accept any [59:32] responsibility well i haven't seen it and i will say that the tomahawk which is one of the most [59:37] powerful weapons around is used by you know is sold and used by other countries you know that [59:44] and whether it's iran who also has some tomahawks they wish they had more but uh whether it's iran or [59:51] somebody else the fact that a tomahawk a tomahawk is very generic it's sold to other countries [59:56] but that's being investigated right now yeah please thank you uh mr president you've said the war is [1:00:05] quote very complete but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning so which is it [1:00:10] and how long should americans be well i think you could say both the beginning it's the beginning [1:00:15] of building a new country but they certainly they have no navy they have no air force they have no [1:00:21] anti-aircraft equipment it's all been blown up they have no radar they have no telecommunications [1:00:29] and they have no leadership it's all gone so you know you could look at that statement we could we [1:00:36] could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here i could call it or we could go further [1:00:42] and we're going to go further but uh the big risk on that war has been over for three days we wiped them [1:00:52] out the first in the first two days when you think about it it's incredible we wiped out a big navy [1:00:59] very powerful navy you know these were ships these were serious ships these were ships that you buy [1:01:05] when you want to win battles they're all they're all on the bottom floor the sailors are all running [1:01:10] off their ships they refuse to get on the ships uh the air force is gone everything's gone the [1:01:16] missiles are down to a trickle the drones are down to probably 25 percent and they'll be soon be down to [1:01:24] nothing we'll have the where they manufactured the drones are under fire as we speak they're being hit [1:01:31] so the rest is going to be determination as to my attitude along with the people in the trump [1:01:38] administration what we want to do thank you yeah please can i ask you you mentioned you were going [1:01:45] to waive certain additional oil waivers or sanctions can you talk a little bit more about that [1:01:50] and address in particular well we're looking to keep the oil prices down we went artificially up because of [1:01:55] this excursion into a very positive thing i mean this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't [1:02:01] have done i knew oil prices would go up if i did this and they've gone up probably less than i thought [1:02:08] they'd go up but i don't think anybody thought we were going to be this quickly successful this was [1:02:14] a military success the likes of which uh people haven't seen we have the best military we have the [1:02:20] best equipment we have i believe the best generals we have the best and this went very quickly uh we talked [1:02:31] about that with president putin he was very impressed with what he saw because nobody's ever seen anything [1:02:37] quite like it you know iran was a very powerful uh military country with all of the missiles now [1:02:44] you had the double attack you had the original attack with us and israel and that knocked them for [1:02:48] a loop then you had the b2 bombers which took out their nuclear capability and they would have had a [1:02:54] nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks and they would have used it long before this press conference [1:03:00] and we might have had a much different press conference if we had a press conference at all [1:03:05] uh but it's been amazing the the military success that we've had is truly unprecedented [1:03:12] uh you said you've told your congressional colleagues that you will not sign any piece of legislation until [1:03:21] the save america act is passed does that include the confirmation of senator mullen is your next dhs [1:03:26] secretary does that mean a dhs funding bill and senator thune said today it's not a matter of whether or not [1:03:32] your republican colleagues agree with the policy it's about changing the process in other words [1:03:36] getting rid of the filibuster to get so in order to get it you're going to need democrat votes and [1:03:40] what we're saying is the save america not the save act which nobody knew what it was the save america act [1:03:48] the save america act and that's voter id we want voter id when a voter we want to be able to see a picture [1:03:56] of the voter we want to be able to see that the voter is legitimate we want very importantly confirmation [1:04:04] that this voter is a citizen of the united states of america and we want no in no mail-in ballot scams [1:04:13] so we have exceptions for the military for sick for disabled and for people that are away business [1:04:21] trips or whatever even vacations will be very liberal that we've added two things to it no men and [1:04:27] women's sports and no trans gender mutualization of our children we don't want our the the it's [1:04:35] mutualization of our children and we don't want that so we added those two things that's the five [1:04:40] points we have five very good points uh it polls at 86 percent with democrats think of that the overall [1:04:50] vote is 86 percent with republicans it's 98 percent and the only one opposed to it is a democrat leadership [1:04:59] because they cheat they want to cheat so we added those two points we're going for the gold and [1:05:05] we're going to have to fight like hell now certain things will happen certain things will take place [1:05:11] i'm here to do a great job for the country but we don't have a country if we're going to have elections [1:05:16] that are so corrupt and so dishonest like we've witnessed over the last period of time you know [1:05:25] as an example few i mean virtually nobody has like we nobody has a system of mail-in ballots like we [1:05:35] have no other country in the world france went away from it they all went you know why because it's [1:05:39] corrupt and jimmy carter when he had a commission frankly i think it's probably the best thing jimmy [1:05:44] carter did he said you can't have mail-in voting because it's inherently dishonest and it's turned out [1:05:51] to be totally dishonest so we're going to fight for it yeah activated any sleeper cells inside the [1:06:01] u.s there's reports that they have pressed that trigger button to activate those cells at least [1:06:06] abroad well we've been they've been trying for a long time we've been very much on top of it uh one of [1:06:12] the things we have to do is get the democrats to stop the democrats shutdown because as you know the [1:06:17] apparatus that looks into that schumer and the democrats have shut it down which tells you they [1:06:23] probably hate our country a lot but the democrats have to open that up but we've got very very good [1:06:29] intelligence into that we know a lot of different things that have happened that have been very bad [1:06:35] a lot of them came in during the biden open border period but we have them under uh we we've got them [1:06:43] we've we're watching every single one of them yeah we know a lot about them the biggest problem we have [1:06:50] is the democrat shutdown we know a lot about them but the shutdown doesn't allow us to do what we [1:06:56] have to do do do you have to take him out does he have a target on his back you mean the new supreme [1:07:03] leader you mean the sun how can there be an iran well i don't want to i don't want to say that but [1:07:08] you know i was disappointed because we think it's going to lead to just more of the same problem for [1:07:13] the country so i was disappointed to see their choice thank you sir you've said you have someone in [1:07:21] mind to be the new iranian leadership if not the ayatollah's son what are you looking for in that [1:07:27] person are you looking at someone internal given that you just said that their leadership has been [1:07:30] done i like the idea of you know internal and eternal come to think of it but i like the idea of [1:07:38] internal because it works well i mean i think we've proven that so far in venezuela we have a woman [1:07:47] delcy who has been you know president of the country very respected very she's doing a great job [1:07:53] and it's you know no disruption we had as you remember iraq everybody got fired the military [1:08:01] got fired the police got fired the politicians got fired there was nobody and you know what they [1:08:07] turned into isis and we don't want that we don't want that so uh i would like to see people that are [1:08:14] inside go now they talk about the son of the shah they talk about other people but you know hasn't [1:08:21] been there in many many years uh we have a formula that's been very good so far and i think it'll [1:08:29] continue to be good the relationship is extraordinary with venezuela smart country we've taken out a hundred [1:08:37] million barrels of oil it's right now in houston being uh being taken care of and made so beautiful [1:08:45] and you have to see this at work they have uh it's it's brought to the refineries it's being refined in [1:08:52] houston which is made exactly for that product and so far but it's a hundred million barrels of oil and [1:09:00] now they have another hundred million barrels coming and it's like a partnership we're getting along so well [1:09:07] with them it's great for venezuela and it's great for the united states yeah please go ahead hi mr [1:09:15] president you just suggested that iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary [1:09:21] school on the first day of the war but you're the only person in your government saying this even your [1:09:25] defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on [1:09:29] saturday why are you the only person saying this because i just don't know enough about it i think it's [1:09:34] something that i was told is under investigation but tomahawks are are used by others as you know [1:09:42] numerous other nations have tomahawks they buy them from us but i will certainly whatever the report [1:09:49] shows i'm willing to live with that report yeah please um you said earlier that we've already won in [1:09:56] many ways but we haven't won enough what do you consider enough what's your baseline where they're not [1:10:02] going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon where they'll look at that man and [1:10:09] some other people from the administration and say all right we're not going to do it they were not [1:10:14] willing to say that and when steve called up and he said that to me i said well here we go let's do it [1:10:21] the hard way but the hard way i think is probably the easy way when basically i can see that they will [1:10:28] no longer have any capacity whatsoever for a very long period of time of developing weaponry that [1:10:36] could be used against the united states israel or any of our allies we have great allies in the middle [1:10:43] east great countries that are allies and they were staying out of it until they got hit someday they'll [1:10:49] have to do a story why did he do that why did they do that but they were going to hit them if i didn't [1:10:54] hit them first they were going to hit our allies first i believe upon information and belief but i [1:11:02] believe that he was going to uh he was they were going to take over the middle east they were looking [1:11:08] to take over the middle east now had operation midnight hammer not taken place that was definite [1:11:18] because they would have had a nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks but that took place that was a [1:11:23] setback but look at the number of missiles they were able to buy and make over the last six months [1:11:30] and those missiles were aimed at various countries and when you look at a thousand over a thousand [1:11:36] missiles shot at like uae they were looking to take over the middle east we got there first lucky i'll [1:11:42] tell you what the middle east and those countries very rich countries are very lucky that i was president [1:11:47] instead of somebody else vice president when it comes to u.s action in iran i don't think so no no [1:11:58] we get along very well on on this he was uh i would say philosophically a little bit different [1:12:05] than me i think he was uh maybe less enthusiastic about going but he was quite enthusiastic but uh i [1:12:16] felt it was something we had to do i didn't feel we had a choice if we didn't do it they would have [1:12:21] done it to us i felt based on the negotiations that were being had by steve whitkoff and jared kushner and [1:12:28] marco and pete and everybody was involved i felt that they were gonna that they were looking to tap [1:12:35] us along before they hit and i thought they were gonna hit and if they hit us first that would have [1:12:39] been a very bad thing uh in the back place in the back about the straight you mean yeah well i'm i want [1:12:53] to keep it open i want to keep it good you know it doesn't pertain to us so much as it does to china [1:12:59] we're really helping china here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the [1:13:06] straits but hey look we have a good relationship with china it's my honor to do it yeah leader you [1:13:15] have called him an unacceptable choice so does he have a target on his back and how can you i don't [1:13:21] want to say whether or not he does because that would be inappropriate but hey look i had a target on [1:13:25] my back because as you people wrote pretty well they caught the assassin that was after me so we [1:13:33] just got them first but they caught the assassin they have him now in custody that was after me so [1:13:39] you know but uh people don't like to mention that but they they did catch him and i'd like to [1:13:44] congratulate our military secret service fbi all of the people that worked on that but they did yeah [1:13:50] please go ahead no go ahead please thank you mr president you promised the iranian people you would [1:13:57] help them but it sounds like you're willing to end this fight after your military objectives have [1:14:01] wrapped up is that isn't that a betrayal will i help them i'd like to if they can behave but they've [1:14:08] been very menacing you know they're great people they have an amazing population it's amazing smart [1:14:17] brilliant energetic they have a great point i'd love to help them but they have to be in a system [1:14:22] that allows them to be helped and right now they're in a system that only allows failure and i don't [1:14:29] want that and i want a system that's not going to be attacking us we want a system that can lead to [1:14:34] many years of peace and if we can't have that we might as well get it over with right now yeah please [1:14:40] mr president as of today there have been eight u.s military fatalities associated with the war in [1:14:46] iran how many american deaths are you willing to have in this war well as i said before uh when you have [1:14:54] conflict it's been a very big two days i have to say and we'll be heading back to washington dc right [1:15:03] after this and i'd like to wish everyone a very good evening and over the weekend the united states [1:15:11] military and the israeli defense forces continued operation epic fury very successfully over the past [1:15:18] nine days we've carried out some of the most powerful and complex military strikes and maneuvers the [1:15:24] world has ever seen now you add that up to all of the other things midnight hammer getting rid of the [1:15:32] nuclear threat from iran which was a big moment in history in my opinion and uh the great success [1:15:40] we've had in venezuela and all other places every place we've gone we've had tremendous success but [1:15:47] while we're doing all of these things we're achieving major strides toward completing our military [1:15:54] objective and some people could say they're pretty well complete we've wiped every single force in [1:16:02] iran out very completely most of iran's naval power power has been sunk it's on the bottom of the sea [1:16:11] it's almost 50 ships i was just notified it's 51 ships i didn't know they had that many didn't last [1:16:19] very long and these are fighting vessels they're they're meant to fight but they're not meant to fight [1:16:26] against us we continue to target iran's drone and missile capabilities their drones are way down [1:16:33] their drone manufacturing has been hit starting today we know all of the places they manufacture [1:16:40] the drones and they're being hit one after another their missile capability is down to about 10 percent [1:16:48] maybe less we're also hitting where they make missiles and where they deliver missiles we've struck over [1:16:55] five thousand targets to date some of them very major targets and we've left some of the most [1:17:01] important targets for later in case we need to do it if we hit them it's going to take many years for [1:17:06] them to be rebuilt having to do with electricity production and many other things so we're not [1:17:14] looking to do that if we don't have to but they're the kind of things that are very easy to hit but very [1:17:19] devastating if they are hit we are waiting to see what happens before we hit them we could take them [1:17:26] all out in one day but it's all resulting in a 90 percent decline in various things but in particular [1:17:36] iranian missile launchers and 83 drop in drone launchers as you know the drone launches are are pretty [1:17:45] well shot but we're at over 90 percent decline in the iranian missile launchers which is very hard to [1:17:53] reproduce and very hard to get and usually what we were able to do through great equipment a lot of [1:18:03] smart people as soon as they sent a missile up from a launcher we were able to knock out that launcher [1:18:08] within a period of five minutes or less accurately right on the noggin so now we have low cost [1:18:16] interceptors effectively combating iranian drones and our b2 bombers recently dropped dozens of two [1:18:23] thousand pound bombs to destroy missile launchers all over iran and buried deep under iranian soil in [1:18:32] many cases the soil was no match and we're also annihilating the manufacturing base that the regime [1:18:39] uses to build drones and missiles at a rate that nobody thought was possible we're knocking them out [1:18:44] we know where they all are we're knocking them out very quickly we're ahead of our initial timeline [1:18:50] by a lot i would say that we probably would not have thought after a month we'd be here in addition [1:18:57] to the fact that we've taken out the leadership uh twice and maybe three times and uh we as you know [1:19:06] we want to be involved we don't want another president that maybe wouldn't be willing to do what i'm [1:19:11] willing to do for the good of the world for the good of our nation to be stuck with the situation in [1:19:16] five years or ten years from now so we think they should put a president in or the head of the [1:19:22] country in that's going to be able to do something peacefully for a change they've been doing this for [1:19:28] 47 years killing people for 47 years whether it's the barracks or even the ss coal where they were [1:19:35] involved very strongly they always denied it but where they were very strongly involved and all of the [1:19:42] people that died through the roadside bombs died and are right now walking around with no legs no arms [1:19:49] a face that's been so badly damaged the iranian regime has been attacking americans and spreading [1:19:55] terror for 47 years and despite these countless opportunities to renounce their nuclear ambitions [1:20:02] which they had just a short while ago they told mr whitkoff who is standing right over here they said [1:20:10] uh they actually said we want to keep building essentially in a real nutshell we want to continue [1:20:17] to build nuclear weapons if we didn't knock out midnight hammer if we didn't knock out their iranian [1:20:24] potential if we didn't do that with midnight hammer they would have had a nuclear weapon they would have [1:20:29] used it long before now and at a minimum israel would have been annihilated i was very lucky that we [1:20:37] had the courage to do that that we had the talented pilots and the great equipment the b2 bombers [1:20:43] are unbelievable we ordered 25 more by the way the newer better version it's uh we have the greatest [1:20:53] military in the world we have the greatest equipment in the world by far you see that no matter where we [1:20:59] go you still need the people though to operate it and to use it and those are the people that we cherish [1:21:05] even after we obliterated their key nuclear sites in operation midnight hammer they never negotiated in [1:21:13] good faith they still continued to say we want to build nuclear we want enrichment at levels that [1:21:19] were unacceptable and they even turned down an offer for unlimited free nuclear fuel forever [1:21:26] for civilian purposes we had people offering them free nuclear fuel they weren't interested in that [1:21:33] because they wanted to build a nuclear weapon so instead the regime was trying to reconstitute its [1:21:40] weapons program at a different site they couldn't go back to where they were the three sites that we [1:21:46] obliterated but they were starting work at another site a different site different kind of a site and [1:21:53] that was protected by granite they wanted it protected granite's pretty good but they wanted it protected by [1:22:01] a lot deeper they wanted to go a lot deeper and they started the process while rapidly building [1:22:07] conventional ballistic missiles they were going to do it all at the same time that threatened our [1:22:12] overseas bases and soon could have reached even our homeland the regime's intention was to use this [1:22:20] exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to prevent them from [1:22:25] obtaining a nuclear weapon so as you probably saw they had a tremendous number of missiles most of [1:22:33] which are now being used or destroyed and very unsuccessfully used because we have been able for [1:22:40] the most part to shoot them all down what incredible technology the patriots have been unbelievable and other [1:22:46] things and the laser technology that we have now is incredible it's coming out pretty soon we're literally [1:22:54] lasers will do the work of at a lot less cost do the work of what the patriots are doing or what other [1:23:01] things are doing the situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return and the united [1:23:07] states found it intolerable in my opinion based on what steve and jared and pete and others were telling [1:23:16] me marco so involved that i thought that they were going to attack us i thought they would if we didn't do [1:23:22] this at the time we did it i think they had in mind to attack us and if you notice they did something [1:23:27] which was very foolish very stupid i would say they attacked their neighbors and their neighbors were [1:23:34] largely neutral or at least weren't going to be involved and they got attacked and it had the [1:23:42] reverse effect the neighbors came onto our side and started attacking them and actually quite successfully [1:23:51] if you look at saudi arabia you look at uae qatar and others but they were strong and they were smart [1:23:59] but they got attacked nobody when i first heard it i said no somebody made a mistake there was no [1:24:05] mistake uae had over a thousand missiles shot at it knocked them almost all down on the very first day [1:24:14] i came down the escalator in 2015 i said quote i will stop iran from getting nuclear weapons [1:24:21] and all i'm doing is keeping my promise think of that that was in 2015 i said it it was a threat then [1:24:28] and a much bigger threat now but no longer a threat not for a long time anyway we want to keep it that [1:24:35] way as we continue operation epic fury we're also focused on keeping energy and oil flowing to the [1:24:43] world and i will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe's [1:24:49] oil supply and if iran does anything to do that they'll get hit at a much much harder level i will take [1:24:56] out those targets that were easy and that i mentioned just before we'll take them out so quickly [1:25:02] they'll never be able to recover ever if they want to play that game they better not play that game in [1:25:07] the long run oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat of iranian ships drones [1:25:14] missiles nuclear menace or anything so the strait of hormuz is going to remain safe we have a lot of navy [1:25:24] ships there we have the best equipment in the world inspecting for mines again most of their ships are [1:25:32] down at the bottom of the sea but we will uh we will hit them so hard that it will not be possible [1:25:39] for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world they do anything [1:25:45] in recent years the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks on hundreds of commercial [1:25:52] vessels we're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all and the result will be lower oil [1:25:58] prices oil and gas prices for american families we've done that we've done it we brought it very [1:26:05] low this was just an excursion into something that had to be done we're getting very close to finishing [1:26:11] that too in the meantime during this brief disruption the united states is offering political risk [1:26:17] insurance to any tankers operating in the gulf so we're putting up uh risk insurance we'll uh perhaps [1:26:25] go alongside of them for protection we don't think it'll be necessary if it is and if they do anything [1:26:32] the price will be incalculable it will be so great that they will have wished they never did it [1:26:40] because you have to keep the straits flowing with all of that it affects other countries much more [1:26:47] than it does the united states doesn't really affect us we have so much oil we have tremendous oil [1:26:52] and gas much more than we need we have venezuela now as our new partner great partner they've worked [1:26:59] out so wonderful we're working with the administration the president and it's a massive source of [1:27:07] oil gas everything but uh we're in a very good position but very unfair to other parts of the world [1:27:16] like china as an example i mean we're doing this for the other parts of the world including countries [1:27:21] like china they get a lot of their oil through the straits so we're doing this we have a very good [1:27:28] relationship with president chi and china i'm going there in a short period of time and we're protecting [1:27:34] the the world from what these lunatics are trying to do and very successfully i might add we're also [1:27:43] waiving certain oil related sanctions to reduce prices so we have sanctions on some countries [1:27:49] we're going to take those sanctions off till this straightens out then who knows maybe we won't have [1:27:55] to put them on there'll be so much peace but when the time comes the u.s navy and its partners will [1:28:00] escort tankers through the straight if needed i hope it's not going to be needed but if it's needed we'll [1:28:05] escort them right through and we have the greatest mind sweeping ability we have the greatest ships and [1:28:12] all of the we know exactly where their place will get them out of there very fast but we hope we [1:28:17] don't have any of that and again if they do that if they play that game we're going to hit them at a [1:28:21] level that that they have not seen before so we're winning very decisively we're way ahead of schedule [1:28:31] it's our military is the greatest in the world with the greatest equipment and the greatest people in [1:28:36] the world is nobody's ever seen anything like it iran's a very powerful country they were going to take [1:28:42] over the middle east if we did not hit them they were going to take over the middle east they had [1:28:47] thousands and thousands since their last hit they had thousands and thousands of missiles and everything [1:28:54] else most are now destroyed but they were going to take over the middle east those weapons were aimed [1:29:01] at middle eastern countries that had nothing to do with this they were going to take over the middle [1:29:07] east and they were going to try and destroy israel so we stopped it with good timing and we're very [1:29:14] proud to be involved in this and it's going to be ended soon and if it starts up again they'll be [1:29:21] they'll be hit even harder uh thank you very much for being here go ahead any questions thank you so [1:29:29] much do you approve of iran's new supreme leader and secondly can you tell us more about your call with [1:29:36] russian president vladimir putin today what did you discuss yes i had a very good call with president [1:29:43] putin we had a lot of people on the line from our side from his side we were talking about ukraine [1:29:49] which is just the never-ending fight and uh when look there's tremendous hatred between president [1:29:57] putin and president zelinski they can't seem to get it together but i think it was a positive call on [1:30:03] that subject and we obviously talked then about the middle east and he wants to be helpful i said you [1:30:11] could be more helpful by getting the ukraine russia war over with that would be more helpful but we [1:30:17] had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive yeah please yeah please thank you [1:30:25] mr president on iran you called it an excursion you said it would be over soon are you thinking this week [1:30:31] it will be over no but soon days i think so okay and and with respect very soon look everything they have [1:30:37] is gone including their leadership in fact there are two levels of leadership and even actually as it turns [1:30:44] out more than that but two levels of leadership are gone most people have never even heard about the [1:30:49] leaders that they're talking about so uh it's obviously been very very powerful very effective [1:30:55] to cuba you said that cuba wants to make a deal yes what would the united states get in return for [1:31:03] that and why should americans trust marco rubio to negotiate it well marco rubio is doing a great job [1:31:09] i think he's going to go down as the greatest secretary of state in history look at what we've done as a [1:31:14] uh as a presidency look at what we've done as an administration uh they trust marco uh and so do [1:31:24] the american people trust he's been successful no matter where he's been he also speaks the language [1:31:29] which is always nice and always helpful but he's dealing and it may be a friendly takeover it may not [1:31:36] be a friendly takeover it wouldn't matter because they're really in they're down to uh as they say fumes [1:31:44] they have no energy they have no uh money they're in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis and uh we [1:31:54] don't want to see that but they were very very bad to a lot of people as you know and a lot of people [1:31:59] living are the cuban american vote which i got at record levels uh very important those people are [1:32:07] very important to me i know i know what they went through they went through hell some of them have gone [1:32:11] on to be some of the most successful people in the country cuban american business people some of [1:32:17] them are like the most successful in the country and a lot of them are friends of mine because i've [1:32:22] been fighting this battle with them for a long time the castro regime was brutal but they lived off [1:32:28] venezuela now they don't live off in venezuela sends them no energy no fuel no oil no money no nothing [1:32:35] they lived without venezuela they couldn't have made it and we cut them off from everything else so [1:32:41] yeah we're they're going to make either a deal or we'll do it just as easy anyway yeah please go [1:32:50] ahead striking a tomahawk missile likely destroyed that iranian girl's school so will the americans [1:33:01] will the u.s accept any responsibility well i haven't seen it and i will say that the tomahawk which is one [1:33:07] of the most powerful weapons around is used by you know is sold and used by other countries you know [1:33:13] that and whether it's iran who also has some tomahawks they wish they had more but uh whether [1:33:21] it's iran or somebody else the fact that a tomahawk a tomahawk is very generic it's sold to other [1:33:25] countries but that's being investigated right now yeah please thank you uh mr president you've said [1:33:35] the war is quote very complete but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning so which [1:33:41] is it and how long should americans be well i think you could say both the beginning it's the [1:33:45] beginning of building a new country but they certainly they have no navy they have no air force [1:33:51] they have no anti-aircraft equipment it's all been blown up they have no radar they have no [1:33:58] telecommunications and they have no leadership it's all gone so you know you could look at that [1:34:05] statement we could we could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here i could call it [1:34:11] or we could go further and we're going to go further but uh the big risk on that war has been [1:34:21] over for three days we wiped them out the first in the first two days when you think about it it's [1:34:27] incredible we wiped out a big navy very powerful navy you know these were ships these were serious ships [1:34:34] these were ships that you buy when you want to win battles they're all they're all on the bottom [1:34:40] floor the sailors are all running off their ships they refuse to get on the ships uh the air force [1:34:45] is gone everything's gone the missiles are down to a trickle the drones are down to probably 25 percent [1:34:53] and they'll be soon be down to nothing we'll have the where they manufactured the drones are [1:34:58] under fire as we speak they're being hit so the rest is going to be determination as to [1:35:06] my attitude along with the people in the trump administration what we want to do thank you [1:35:11] yeah please can i ask you you mentioned you were going to waive certain additional oil [1:35:18] waivers or sanctions can you talk a little bit more about that and address in particular well [1:35:22] we're looking to keep the oil prices down we went artificially up because of this excursion into [1:35:29] a very positive thing i mean this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done [1:35:33] i knew oil prices would go up if i did this and they've gone up probably less than i thought they'd [1:35:39] go up but i don't think anybody thought we were going to be this quickly successful this was [1:35:44] a military success the likes of which uh people haven't seen we have the best military we have the [1:35:51] best equipment we have i believe the best generals we have the best and this went very quickly uh we [1:36:01] talked about that with president putin he was very impressed with what he saw because nobody's ever [1:36:07] seen anything quite like it you know iran was a very powerful uh military country a man with all of [1:36:13] the missiles now you had the double attack you had the original attack with us and israel and that [1:36:19] knocked them for a loop then you had the b2 bombers which took out their nuclear capability and they [1:36:24] would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks and they would have used it long before [1:36:29] this press conference and we might have had a much different press conference if we had a press [1:36:34] conference at all uh but it's been amazing the the military success that we've had is truly unprecedented [1:36:46] you said you've told your congressional colleagues that you will not sign any piece of legislation [1:36:51] until the save america act is passed does that include the confirmation of senator mullen is your next [1:36:56] dhs secretary does that mean a dhs funding bill and senator thune said today it's not a matter of whether [1:37:02] or not your republican colleagues agree with the policy it's about changing the process in other [1:37:07] words getting rid of the filibuster to get so in order to get it you're going to need democrat votes [1:37:11] and what we're saying is the save america not the save act which nobody knew what it was the save america [1:37:17] act the save america act and that's voter id we want voter id when a voter we want to be able to see [1:37:26] a picture of the voter we want to be able to see that the voter is legitimate we want very importantly [1:37:33] confirmation that this voter is a citizen of the united states of america and we want no in [1:37:41] no mail-in ballot scams so we have exceptions for the military for sick for disabled and for people that [1:37:49] are away business trips or whatever even vacations will be very liberal that we've added two things to [1:37:57] it no men and women's sports and no trans gender mutualization of our children we don't want our [1:38:05] the the it's mutualization of our children and we don't want that so we added those two things that's [1:38:11] the five points we have five very good points uh it polls at 86 percent with democrats think of that [1:38:20] the overall vote is 86 percent with republicans it's 98 percent and the only one opposed to it is a [1:38:28] democrat leadership because they cheat they want to cheat so we added those two points we're going [1:38:34] for the gold and we're going to have to fight like hell now certain things will happen certain things [1:38:40] will take place i'm here to do a great job for the country but we don't have a country if we're going [1:38:46] to have elections that are so corrupt and so dishonest like we've witnessed over the last period of time [1:38:53] you know as an example few i mean virtually nobody has like we nobody has a system of mail-in ballots [1:39:05] like we have no other country in the world france went away from it they all went you know why because [1:39:10] it's corrupt and jimmy carter when he had a commission frankly i think it's probably the best [1:39:14] thing jimmy carter did he said you can't have mail-in voting because it's inherently dishonest and it's [1:39:21] turned out to be totally dishonest so we're going to fight for it yeah activated any sleeper cells [1:39:31] inside the u.s there's reports that they have pressed that trigger button to activate those [1:39:36] cells at least abroad well we've been they've been trying for a long time we've been very much on top [1:39:41] of it uh one of the things we have to do is get the democrats to stop the democrat shutdown because as [1:39:47] you know the apparatus that looks into that schumer and the democrats have shut it down which tells you [1:39:54] they probably hate our country a lot but the democrats have to open that up but we've got very [1:39:59] very good uh intelligence into that we know a lot of different things that have happened that have [1:40:04] been very bad a lot of them came in during the biden open border period but we have them under uh we [1:40:13] we've got them we've we're watching every single one of them yeah we know a lot about them the biggest [1:40:20] problem we have is the democrat shutdown we know a lot about them but the shutdown doesn't allow us [1:40:26] to do what we have to do do you have to take him out does he have a target on his back you mean the [1:40:33] new supreme leader you mean the sun how can there be an iran well i don't want to i don't want to say [1:40:38] that but you know i was disappointed because we think it's going to lead to just more of the same [1:40:44] problem for the country so i was disappointed to see their choice thank you thank you sir you've said [1:40:51] you have someone in mind to be the new iranian leadership if not the ayatollah's son what are [1:40:57] you looking for in that person are you looking at someone internal given that you just said that [1:41:00] their leadership has been i like the idea of you know internal and eternal come to think of it but i [1:41:07] like the idea of internal because it works well i mean i think we've proven that so far in venezuela we [1:41:15] have a woman delcy who has been you know president of the country very respected very she's doing a [1:41:23] great job and it's you know no disruption we had as you remember iraq everybody got fired the military [1:41:31] got fired the police got fired the politicians got fired there was nobody and you know what they turned [1:41:38] into isis and we don't want that we don't want that so uh i would like to see people that are inside [1:41:46] go now they talk about the son of the shah they talk about other people but you know hasn't been [1:41:52] there in many many years uh we have a formula that's been very good so far and i think it'll continue to [1:42:00] be good the relationship is extraordinary with venezuela smart country we've taken out a hundred [1:42:08] million barrels of oil it's right now in houston being uh being taken care of and made so beautiful [1:42:16] and you have to see this at work they have uh it's it's brought to the refineries it's being refined [1:42:22] in houston which is made exactly for that product and so far but it's a hundred million barrels of oil [1:42:31] and now they have another hundred million barrels coming and it's like a partnership we're getting [1:42:37] along so well with them it's great for venezuela and it's great for the united states yeah please go ahead [1:42:45] hi mr president you just suggested that iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed [1:42:51] its own elementary school on the first day of the war but you're the only person in your government [1:42:55] saying this even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder [1:42:59] on your plane on saturday why are you the only person saying this because i just don't know enough [1:43:04] about it i think it's something that i was told is under investigation but tomahawks are are used by [1:43:11] others as you know numerous other nations have tomahawks they buy them from us but i will certainly [1:43:18] whatever the report shows i'm willing to live with that report yeah please um you said earlier that [1:43:26] we've already won in many ways but we haven't won enough what do you consider enough what's your [1:43:31] baseline where they're not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon where [1:43:38] they'll look at that man and some other people from the administration and say all right we're not [1:43:44] going to do it they were not willing to say that and when steve called up and he said that to me i said [1:43:50] well here we go let's do it the hard way but the hard way i think is probably the easy way when basically [1:43:57] the hard way i can see that they will no longer have [1:44:08] you