About this transcript: This is a full AI-generated transcript of Trump Speech LIVE: Trump's Massive War Announcement ,Tensions Explode As World On Edge — US News from ET Now World, published April 25, 2026. The transcript contains 24,932 words with timestamps and was generated using Whisper AI.
"You know, we got regime change. We do. We're dealing with a much different regime than before. We're dealing with different people. They're smarter. I think they're sharper and far less radical. We have regime change, but we didn't do this for regime change. We did it for the fact. And my view was..."
[0:00] You know, we got regime change. We do. We're dealing with a much different regime than before. We're dealing with different people. They're smarter. I think they're sharper and far less radical. We have regime change, but we didn't do this for regime change. We did it for the fact. And my view was very simple. I saw somebody said, oh, he doesn't have a plan. I have the best plan of all, but I'm not going to tell you what my plan is. You know, they want me to say, here's my plan. We're going to attack it.
[0:31] 947 in the morning, and then we're going to do this, and then we're going to. And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan. These people know what the plan is. Everybody here knows what the plan is, but it's very unfair to say we're because I don't mind being insulted. I've been insulted for many years by the by the fake news, but you can't. It's so bad for the people that are sober. You just saw two great and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people. They have a plan. Every every single thing has been
[1:02] thought out by all of us, but I can't reveal the plan to the media. So, you know, but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation. Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. President. You've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure to cut off their power? Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime? They would be willing just they would be and it's suffering. They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
[1:32] We've had numerous intercepts. Please keep bombing bombs that are dropping near their homes. Please keep bombing. Do it. And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, please come back, come back, come back. These are the people. I don't know what they do. All I can tell you is they want freedom. They have lived in a world that you know nothing about.
[2:05] If you protest, if you protest, you are shot. Remember the great woman protests where they had 400,000, 500,000 women and they were all enthused and they were going to protest and everybody said, oh, the regime is going to come to an end.
[2:18] And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas. A woman would go down right between the eyes. They had snipers. They had five snipers. That's all it took. And those four or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that? Oh, look over there. What's that? A woman shot right between the eyes. And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of people.
[2:50] And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that? And they're incredible people. But they've lived so horribly. They've lived so horribly. You know, Iran was a great country. If you go back 25 years ago or so, the Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually. And I know so many. I know coming from New York, originally, I know so many people from Iran. They're incredible people, incredible energy and very, very brilliant people.
[3:22] But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of a woman, remember the great woman march. Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country.
[3:32] And then snipers selectively picked. Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance. They were on top of buildings. Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from.
[3:44] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad. They've done that, too. They did that recently. This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women.
[3:55] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction and they never came out again.
[4:03] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that. They talk about, oh, women's rights. You want to see women's rights? You're not going to see it there.
[4:11] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group. They talk about, oh, freedom for Iran.
[4:20] They don't tell you the real facts. Women, men, gays. How about gays for Iran? They kill the gays. They throw them off buildings.
[4:31] So I wonder what what's going on. I can only say this. They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger.
[4:42] They want freedom for Iran, but it's very hard for them to protest. I actually tell them, I said, don't go out. I fully understand.
[4:49] Nobody in this room would go out. I don't think there's any because, frankly, it's not a question of bravery. We're all brave, right?
[4:54] You're brave. I'm brave. We're all brave. But we're also intelligent. If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here, you're out of there. I don't care who.
[5:16] Mark Meredith, Fox News.
[5:18] I know that.
[5:18] Oh, thank you.
[5:20] Go ahead.
[5:21] America's watching.
[5:22] No, Jim.
[5:22] Can we go back to the weekend? First off, was everyone on board with the operation, or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend?
[5:31] Not everybody was on board.
[5:32] Somebody else within you?
[5:33] No, there was military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it. These two were totally on board, which was very important.
[5:43] They weren't. It would have had a little difficulty. But, no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this.
[5:48] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military. You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries. You have some countries where military is not there, so this whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before.
[6:03] Half the people are wearing uniforms. And we had people within the military. Usually it's not done. That's one of the reasons.
[6:12] You know, I was surprised. Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done. I said, that's not possible. But it is possible.
[6:18] Because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.
[6:27] So, yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise. And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately, for the operation?
[6:36] I'd love to keep that a secret. Okay, well, we are. But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret. But it was hundreds and hundreds of these people.
[6:48] That's pretty good. Is he central? Is he central casting? But hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[6:57] Forget about the equipment. A lot of equipment. Nobody cares. Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[7:03] So, we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise. And I understood that. But I decided to do it.
[7:10] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking, there's too much on the line, and somebody was saying, maybe we abort this now and wait?
[7:18] I mean, given the resources, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the line here. You must have been thinking, this could have completely changed the next three years.
[7:25] The first one, which was, in many ways, as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, because we're flying over daylight.
[7:34] You know, we're the best at the world at night. We have goggles that nobody, we have goggles. I've tried them, unbelievable.
[7:40] I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight. I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day.
[7:47] You see just as well with goggles. In many ways, it's enhanced. So, we have the best in the world. So, it's much safe for us to, for us to do it at night, whereas other people, no other country has that capability.
[8:01] They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do.
[8:04] But, when I was told, flying, and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran, and that's a long time, over unbelievably hostile territory, where they have nothing but weapons.
[8:18] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great. We took out their radar, which is great. We took out a lot, but they still have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder, handheld shoulder missile, heat-seeking missile.
[8:31] So, it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever. But, but, and they have probably a little luck, because you got to get lucky.
[8:40] But, they shot it, and it got sucked in right by the engine. But, these guys were out of there. They were great. Their timing was great.
[8:47] But, no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission. I understand. They didn't say it's a foolish mission. They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this.
[8:58] This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area, so that they, because the flight was so long, they had to refuel. It's a very dangerous mission.
[9:07] I just felt it was worth it. If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both, and nobody was even, essentially, injured, I would have said that would be impossible.
[9:17] Yeah, please.
[9:17] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[9:19] Thank you, sir.
[9:20] Well, I'll come back to you.
[9:21] Okay, thank you.
[9:21] Given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership in Iran, what does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict?
[9:34] What's your expectation?
[9:35] Well, I think it's positive.
[9:36] Yeah, if they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's a very positive, a big step.
[9:42] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last.
[9:47] Look what happened.
[9:48] I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say.
[9:53] They're not properly clothed, and they execute the women.
[9:56] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street.
[9:59] No, you have a much different group of people.
[10:02] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them.
[10:06] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time.
[10:11] But we are dealing with them.
[10:12] I think it's going well.
[10:13] Mr. Whitcoff is here, and J.D.'s involved in the dealing.
[10:17] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here, and I think it's going fine, but we'll have to see.
[10:22] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years.
[10:28] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago, not anymore.
[10:35] Right now, they are decapitated.
[10:36] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point
[10:42] during 47 years.
[10:44] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents.
[10:49] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them, to their friends, we should have
[10:54] done this a long time ago.
[10:55] So it's not something I like doing.
[10:58] It's very dangerous.
[10:59] And we're getting them at the height of their strength.
[11:03] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a — don't
[11:10] forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon.
[11:11] Remember this.
[11:13] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple.
[11:17] How in — how Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or any
[11:24] place else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable, because
[11:30] he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran.
[11:34] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash?
[11:37] Billions of dollars of cash.
[11:39] And he sent it over to them.
[11:41] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars.
[11:44] He chose Iran over Israel.
[11:47] And really, the Arab world, if you look, because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
[11:52] UAE.
[11:54] I mean, you take a look.
[11:55] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others.
[11:59] He chose such an unlikely candidate.
[12:04] Nobody could believe it.
[12:05] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he should
[12:09] have befriended Iraq.
[12:11] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking, and he made a terrible mistake.
[12:18] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
[12:22] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it.
[12:26] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon.
[12:29] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal.
[12:33] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals.
[12:35] Countries do hundreds of years.
[12:37] They don't do a 10-year deal.
[12:38] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord.
[12:41] You're renting a store on a certain street, and you give somebody a five-year or 10-year
[12:46] lease.
[12:47] This is a country.
[12:48] It was a short-term deal.
[12:49] It was ready to expire.
[12:51] I terminated it before it expired.
[12:53] It took a lot of heat.
[12:54] And it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would have had a nuclear weapon.
[12:57] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in
[13:02] eight months ago, and obliterated that — and by the way, the word is obliteration.
[13:07] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete.
[13:10] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it.
[13:13] It was obliteration.
[13:14] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes
[13:20] flying in at night with very little cover, unbelievable stealth planes.
[13:26] And they were able to do their job.
[13:28] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level, either one
[13:34] of those two instances.
[13:36] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would
[13:43] have been extinguished.
[13:45] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia,
[13:50] Qatar, UAE, or others.
[13:53] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them.
[13:56] They didn't think they were going to be hit.
[13:58] They thought they'd be watching us fight.
[14:00] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles.
[14:05] He would have taken them out also.
[14:07] And they were powerful.
[14:09] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear
[14:14] deal was a road to a nuclear weapon, a big one, unlimited, legally — I terminated it
[14:22] without even much thought.
[14:23] It was so easy.
[14:25] I terminated that.
[14:27] And then the B-2 bombers — and I did one other thing.
[14:30] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius.
[14:37] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases.
[14:44] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now.
[14:52] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know?
[14:56] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up.
[14:59] Osama bin Laden.
[15:00] Osama bin Laden, if you read my book, I said you've got to take him out one year before
[15:05] the World Trade Center came down.
[15:07] So I wish you'd read the book.
[15:11] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts.
[15:17] And a lot of this is instinct.
[15:18] Yeah, please.
[15:19] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President.
[15:23] Mr. President, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the
[15:27] Strait of Hormuz.
[15:28] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum?
[15:36] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and
[15:40] the U.S.?
[15:41] I can't talk about ceasefire.
[15:42] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side.
[15:48] They would like to be able to make a deal.
[15:50] I can't say any more than that, but I did a lot of —
[15:52] Mr. President, you've listed the goals — excuse me.
[15:57] Please go ahead.
[15:58] Thank you, Mr. President.
[15:59] Who are you with?
[16:00] Who are you with?
[16:01] Who are you with?
[16:02] My name is Diyar Kurda.
[16:03] I'm with the largest Kurdish media outlet, Rudow Media Network.
[16:04] It's based in Iran.
[16:05] Go ahead.
[16:06] Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to
[16:10] enter Iran and be harmed.
[16:12] Do you still want them to stay away, or what role do you expect them to play now?
[16:17] I'd rather have them stay away.
[16:19] And then —
[16:20] I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems
[16:23] and some difficulties.
[16:24] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves.
[16:28] But I'd rather have them stay away.
[16:30] Go ahead.
[16:31] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question.
[16:36] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international
[16:41] law.
[16:42] Who are you with?
[16:43] Who are you with?
[16:44] The New York Times.
[16:45] The New York Times.
[16:46] The failing.
[16:47] The failing.
[16:48] The disease circulation way down at the New York Times.
[16:50] What's going on at the New York Times?
[16:51] Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?
[16:54] No, not at all.
[16:55] No, I'm not.
[16:56] I hope I don't have to do it.
[16:57] But, again, I just said 47 years they've been negotiating with these people.
[17:01] They're great negotiators.
[17:02] But why would that, in fact, not lie to the international?
[17:03] And because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.
[17:07] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective — which, possibly,
[17:12] that will happen — because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and
[17:17] afraid of Iran — we're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[17:23] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind — that are tough, smart, and sick.
[17:32] Really sick.
[17:33] Ideal — you know, from a policy standpoint, from a — any which way you want to say.
[17:40] Mentally, these are disturbed people.
[17:43] If you think I'm going to allow them — and powerful and rich — to have a nuclear weapon,
[17:48] you can tell your friends at the New York Times, not going to happen.
[17:52] It means violating international law.
[17:56] Quiet, quiet, quiet.
[17:57] You no longer have credibility, the New York Times.
[18:00] Because the New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election, and I won in a landslide.
[18:04] I won every swing state.
[18:05] New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election.
[18:08] New York Times has no credibility.
[18:10] The credibility they have is — it used to be all the news that's fit to print.
[18:14] A great — the old gray lady, it was great.
[18:17] But they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that.
[18:20] You have to be able to give the correct news.
[18:23] And people like you, who I know, are fake.
[18:27] You're fake.
[18:28] Go ahead, please.
[18:29] Mr. President, your messaging on the war has moved from — the war is coming to an end
[18:34] to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages.
[18:36] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages.
[18:39] So are you — so which is it?
[18:41] Are you winding this down or are you escalating it?
[18:43] I can't tell you.
[18:44] I don't know.
[18:45] It depends what they do.
[18:46] This is a critical period.
[18:48] They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock.
[18:53] I gave them an extension.
[18:55] They asked for an extension of seven days, right?
[18:57] I said, Steve, give them 10 days.
[19:01] 10 days is up actually today.
[19:05] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly.
[19:07] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter.
[19:09] I want to be a nice person.
[19:12] They have till tomorrow.
[19:14] Now, we'll see what happens.
[19:16] I can tell you they're negotiating.
[19:18] We think in good faith.
[19:19] We're going to find out.
[19:21] We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because
[19:27] it affects them also.
[19:28] A lot of people are affected by this.
[19:30] But we're giving them — we're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o'clock Eastern Time.
[19:36] And after that, they're going to have no bridges.
[19:40] They're going to have no power plants.
[19:42] Stone Ages.
[19:45] Yeah.
[19:46] Stone Ages.
[19:49] The negotiations.
[19:50] CNN fake.
[19:51] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz?
[19:56] Or is that now a top priority?
[19:58] I would say it's a very big priority because — see, that's one thing that's a little different
[20:04] than other things.
[20:05] We can bomb the hell out of them.
[20:07] We can knock them out for a loop.
[20:09] But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded
[20:15] with — because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks — a water mine.
[20:21] Drop them in the water.
[20:22] And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to — don't worry about
[20:26] the mine.
[20:27] You can do that even just by saying, we put mines in the water.
[20:31] So it's not like the rest.
[20:32] We can knock out their military.
[20:34] We already have.
[20:35] We've knocked out their Navy.
[20:36] We've knocked out their Air Force completely.
[20:38] We've knocked out 158 ships in three days.
[20:41] We've knocked out even their mine droppers.
[20:44] They don't have any mine droppers anymore.
[20:46] But they put them on other boats.
[20:47] And they could drop them.
[20:48] I'm not even sure they have any mines there, by the way.
[20:50] I'm not sure.
[20:51] I don't — I'm — personally, they say there might be eight.
[20:54] I don't know.
[20:55] I think there might be none, because they're very good bullshit artists.
[21:00] That's why, for 47 years, they've been bullshitting other presidents, and they haven't done the
[21:05] job.
[21:06] And people are living in hell.
[21:08] You live in that country.
[21:09] They're living in hell.
[21:11] No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough.
[21:17] They're at the weakest point they've ever been.
[21:19] They have no Navy.
[21:21] They have no Air Force.
[21:22] They have no anti-aircraft weaponry.
[21:24] They have no radar.
[21:25] They have no communication.
[21:27] In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate.
[21:31] I said to Steve, what are they saying?
[21:34] Sir, they can't communicate.
[21:36] They have no method of communication.
[21:38] So we're doing — we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago
[21:43] with children, bringing a note back and forth.
[21:46] They have no communication.
[21:48] But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world.
[21:51] And you're not going to have a safe world.
[21:53] Israel will be gone.
[21:55] The Middle East will be gone.
[21:57] And then they're coming for Europe.
[21:59] And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO.
[22:02] Very.
[22:03] I think that NATO — I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear.
[22:08] Never disappear, in my mind.
[22:09] You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday.
[22:11] They're going to say, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that.
[22:13] Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know.
[22:16] But they said it loud and clear at the beginning.
[22:18] When I spoke to UK of all, I would have said they would have been the first
[22:21] because they've been — they're the oldest.
[22:23] And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help.
[22:26] He said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win.
[22:30] I said, I don't need help after we win.
[22:32] They have two old, broken aircraft carriers, barely work.
[22:35] I said, I guess we can use them.
[22:37] Who the hell knows?
[22:38] I called the general.
[22:39] He didn't even want — he said, we don't really need them.
[22:41] We got — we got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir.
[22:44] We don't need them.
[22:45] You know, we have — in terms of technology, we had, one day,
[22:49] 101 missiles going at 2,700 miles an hour, aimed at the Abraham Lincoln.
[22:55] 101 missiles.
[22:58] Out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down.
[23:04] Unbelievable technology.
[23:06] Ten years ago — five years ago — I don't know if that would have been possible.
[23:10] But 10 years ago, that wouldn't have been — that wouldn't have been possible.
[23:15] 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast.
[23:21] And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101.
[23:26] We have weaponry — the patriots are unbelievable.
[23:30] We have weaponry that's unbelievable.
[23:33] Yeah.
[23:34] Go ahead, please.
[23:38] Yes.
[23:39] Thank you, Mr. President.
[23:40] You said earlier today, during the egg roll, that you would like to take Iran's oil,
[23:45] but Americans want U.S. forces home.
[23:47] Correct.
[23:48] What's that tradeoff?
[23:49] Does it take too much time?
[23:50] If I had my choice?
[23:51] If I had my choice?
[23:52] Yeah.
[23:53] Because I'm a businessman first.
[23:54] With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes.
[24:01] And we have great people running Venezuela — very good people.
[24:04] I mean, the relationship is good.
[24:06] And we are a partner with Venezuela.
[24:09] And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels — hundreds of millions.
[24:14] Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined and out.
[24:20] And paid for that war many, many times over.
[24:24] Many times over.
[24:25] You know, the old days, to the victim, okay?
[24:28] You know that — to the winner belong the spoils.
[24:34] Go the spoils.
[24:35] And I've said, why don't we use it?
[24:37] To the victor, go the spoils.
[24:39] And we don't have that.
[24:40] We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years,
[24:43] because even the Second World War — you look at the Second World War.
[24:46] We didn't have it with the Second World War.
[24:48] We helped rebuild all those countries.
[24:50] We rebuilt Germany.
[24:51] How about Germany telling us — Germany telling us that,
[24:54] well, it's not their war.
[24:56] We had nothing to do with —
[24:58] They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing.
[25:02] We didn't know anything about it.
[25:03] Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it,
[25:05] and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful, possibly, right?
[25:10] But to the victor belong the spoils.
[25:12] So we haven't heard — we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years.
[25:18] Now, with Venezuela — and we — just so you understand, the people of Venezuela —
[25:22] they say if I ran for president of Venezuela, I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela.
[25:29] So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela.
[25:32] I will quickly learn Spanish.
[25:33] It won't take too long.
[25:34] I'm good at language.
[25:35] And I will go to Venezuela.
[25:36] I'm going to run for president.
[25:38] But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now.
[25:42] The people that are running it — if you remember Bush with Iraq.
[25:48] They fired the generals.
[25:50] They fired the police.
[25:51] They fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the White House.
[25:55] They fired everybody.
[25:56] And you know what they had?
[25:57] They had a mess.
[25:58] And you know what happened?
[25:59] ISIS formed.
[26:00] Those generals and those soldiers got together.
[26:03] The police got together.
[26:04] They all got together.
[26:05] They formed ISIS.
[26:06] Not going to happen with us.
[26:08] So Venezuela's been an incredible — it's been an incredible situation.
[26:13] We went in.
[26:14] We were very successful.
[26:16] Military power like nobody's ever seen.
[26:18] The general — Venezuelan general — said, I was on that site.
[26:22] I said, I've never seen ferocity like that.
[26:25] I've been doing this for 40 years.
[26:26] He said, I've never seen anything.
[26:28] They hit us from 17 different — it was — it was — it was — it was —
[26:30] they were all set.
[26:33] They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier — the Ford, in that case —
[26:37] and planes were pouring off it at 1 o'clock in the morning.
[26:40] So typically, when you see that late at night, you know, you could be in trouble.
[26:46] Right?
[26:47] And we were all ready.
[26:49] They had their equipment.
[26:50] It was Russian.
[26:51] And they had Chinese equipment.
[26:52] It was all set.
[26:53] They were going to give us a fight, he said.
[26:57] And then they came.
[26:58] And they came at speeds like we've never seen.
[27:01] And they came at 17 different angles.
[27:04] The general and his people — that was a lot of angles.
[27:07] They hit him from every angle.
[27:09] He said, we knew it was over in three minutes.
[27:13] We were waiting for them.
[27:15] Their equipment didn't work.
[27:17] And there's a reason it didn't work.
[27:19] Someday we'll explain that to people.
[27:21] They pressed the button.
[27:22] Nothing happened.
[27:23] They pressed it again and again.
[27:25] Nothing happened.
[27:26] And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes.
[27:29] We've never seen any — he used the word ferocity.
[27:32] The ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles.
[27:36] And it was over.
[27:37] They went inside.
[27:38] And remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers.
[27:42] And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here.
[27:46] Thousands.
[27:47] We didn't have thousands.
[27:48] We had like 200 people.
[27:50] So, we have a great military.
[27:53] And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention.
[27:58] More so than normally.
[28:00] You're talking about two people.
[28:01] But this rescue captured the world's attention.
[28:06] But we did it in Venezuela.
[28:08] That was amazing.
[28:09] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial.
[28:13] I mean, he released — aside from the drugs, which he was terrible — Maduro released
[28:19] hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country.
[28:24] Drug dealers, murderers — the worst people in the world were released into our country
[28:29] because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know.
[28:34] And we had a border czar who never went to the border
[28:36] and never once called our great border patrol agents, right?
[28:39] Not once, Kamala.
[28:41] She never called the border patrol.
[28:43] She never said, how are we doing?
[28:44] I used to call the border patrol guys every day.
[28:46] You can ask them.
[28:47] Paul, ask any one of them.
[28:48] Brandon, ask them all the time.
[28:51] How are we doing?
[28:52] How are we doing?
[28:53] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border.
[28:56] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border.
[28:58] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through.
[29:00] So we don't have caravans anymore.
[29:02] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done.
[29:05] Mr. President, are you allowed to — are you willing to end this conflict
[29:11] with Iran charging tolls for passage through the street?
[29:15] Us charging tolls?
[29:16] Iran.
[29:17] What about us charging tolls?
[29:18] Is that something you're considering?
[29:22] I'd rather do that than let them have them running.
[29:24] Why shouldn't we?
[29:25] We're the winner.
[29:26] We won, okay?
[29:28] They are militarily defeated.
[29:30] The only thing they have is the psychology of,
[29:32] oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water, all right?
[29:35] No, we — I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls, okay?
[29:39] I thought you meant us.
[29:41] Your question — your question would have been more accurate if you said us.
[29:46] Go ahead.
[29:47] Thank you very much.
[29:48] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow,
[29:53] do they have to make a deal, open the street, or both?
[29:56] We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me.
[29:59] And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else.
[30:04] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[30:11] You've said glory be to God in this conflict.
[30:14] Do you believe that God supports the United States' actions in this world?
[30:17] I do, because God is good.
[30:18] And have you sought his direction?
[30:19] Because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of.
[30:24] God doesn't like what's happening.
[30:26] I don't like what's happening.
[30:27] Everyone says, I enjoy it.
[30:28] I don't enjoy this.
[30:29] I don't enjoy it.
[30:30] These two guys don't enjoy it.
[30:31] You know, people say, oh, boy, they're so tough.
[30:34] They don't want — they don't like — I don't like seeing people killed.
[30:36] I've ended eight wars.
[30:38] Nobody's ever done it.
[30:41] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said,
[30:44] you deserve the Nobel Prize.
[30:46] She announced that.
[30:47] When they announced, they said, it goes to Maria.
[30:50] She's a great person, really a good person.
[30:52] She said, no, no, no.
[30:54] This is ridiculous.
[30:56] They gave me the Nobel Prize.
[30:58] President Trump ended eight wars.
[30:59] I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan,
[31:03] where the Prime Minister of Pakistan said,
[31:05] President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives.
[31:11] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now.
[31:14] That makes me much happier.
[31:15] We have one more to end, by the way.
[31:17] President, you called the — yesterday in your Truth Social,
[31:26] you called the Iranians crazy bastards.
[31:28] True.
[31:29] What is your response to critics who say that —
[31:31] I don't care about critics.
[31:32] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health
[31:35] that should perhaps be examined as this war continues?
[31:37] Well, I haven't heard that.
[31:38] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me,
[31:42] because our country was being ripped off on trade,
[31:46] on everything, for many years until I came along.
[31:50] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people.
[31:52] Josh, you go ahead.
[31:53] Josh, you go.
[31:54] You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as —
[31:57] What a great choice he was.
[31:59] I said, well, what happened during this nomination?
[32:02] What happened to you?
[32:04] I'm telling you, people that were not forum senators,
[32:07] friends of mine, sir, I don't think you're doing the right thing.
[32:11] Now they're calling me up.
[32:13] What a choice.
[32:14] These two guys are fantastic.
[32:16] And John Ratcliffe was incredible.
[32:18] It was actually their genius that called us from —
[32:23] he was 40 miles away.
[32:25] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain.
[32:28] This is at night.
[32:31] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes.
[32:33] He wasn't moving.
[32:34] And they said, you know, probably wrong, but we're seeing something moving.
[32:38] This is a vast mountain, vast, thick, with bushes, trees.
[32:45] He said, we see something moving, 40 miles away.
[32:48] It was the head of a human being.
[32:52] I'm telling you, it's moving.
[32:55] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot.
[32:58] Stood up, and they said, we have him.
[33:01] And that was really the beginning of something incredible.
[33:05] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically.
[33:08] And it's a big mountain.
[33:09] So I want to thank the CIA, too.
[33:14] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done.
[33:17] Yes, please.
[33:18] Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity.
[33:23] Country, it has a super army.
[33:27] You make a difference, Mr. President.
[33:29] Thank you for your greatest leadership.
[33:31] Thank you.
[33:32] I have two quick questions, Mr. President.
[33:35] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil
[33:43] to the international market with your support as United States of America?
[33:48] Well, I expected that.
[33:50] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that.
[33:55] Another question.
[33:56] What would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire,
[34:06] Mr. President?
[34:07] Well, they should do it.
[34:08] But, again, the consequences are great.
[34:10] I mean, they were told, if you protest, you will be shot immediately.
[34:14] You saw what happened to the young wrestler.
[34:17] He was a great champion, by the way.
[34:18] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world.
[34:20] And he and his two friends were hung, and all they did was say a little bit about liberty.
[34:28] They wanted liberty, and they were violently executed.
[34:32] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed.
[34:36] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house to protest,
[34:41] they'll be immediately shot and killed.
[34:43] And they issued that.
[34:45] You know, that was publicly issued.
[34:47] It's not a secret.
[34:48] That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this way?
[34:51] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[34:54] You know, we got regime change.
[34:56] We do.
[34:57] We're dealing with a much different regime than before.
[34:59] We're dealing with different people.
[35:01] They're smarter.
[35:02] I think they're sharper and far less radical.
[35:08] We have regime change.
[35:10] But we didn't do this for regime change.
[35:13] We did it for the fact, and my view is very simple.
[35:17] I saw somebody who said, oh, he doesn't have a plan.
[35:19] I have the best plan of all.
[35:20] But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is.
[35:22] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan.
[35:24] We're going to attack at 9.47 in the morning.
[35:27] And then we're going to do this.
[35:28] And then we're going to.
[35:29] And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan.
[35:31] These people know what the plan is.
[35:33] Everybody here knows what the plan is.
[35:35] But it's very unfair to say, you know, because I don't mind being insulted.
[35:40] I've been insulted for many years by the fake news.
[35:43] But you can't.
[35:44] It's so bad for the people that are so proud.
[35:48] You just saw two great and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people.
[35:53] They have a plan.
[35:54] Every single thing has been thought out by all of us.
[35:57] But I can't reveal the plan to the media.
[36:00] So, you know, but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation.
[36:05] Yes, please.
[36:06] Thank you, Mr. President.
[36:07] You've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks.
[36:10] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power?
[36:14] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
[36:17] They would be willing to.
[36:19] They would be willing.
[36:20] And it's suffering.
[36:21] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
[36:24] The Iranians have, and we've had numerous intercepts.
[36:29] Please keep bombing.
[36:31] Bombs that are dropping near their homes.
[36:33] Please keep bombing.
[36:35] Do it.
[36:36] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding.
[36:40] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying,
[36:44] please come back, come back, come back.
[36:46] These are the people.
[36:47] I don't know what they do.
[36:50] All I can tell you is they want freedom.
[36:52] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about.
[36:56] It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot.
[37:01] Remember the great woman protest where they had 400,000, 500,000 women,
[37:06] and they were all enthused, and they were going to protest,
[37:09] and everybody said, oh, the regime is going to come to an end.
[37:12] And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas,
[37:20] a woman would go down right between the eyes.
[37:22] They had snipers.
[37:23] They had five snipers.
[37:24] That's all it took.
[37:25] And those four or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that?
[37:31] Oh, look over there.
[37:32] What's that?
[37:34] A woman shot right between the eyes.
[37:37] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr
[37:42] through the vast number of people.
[37:45] And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that?
[37:50] And they're incredible people.
[37:52] But they've lived so horribly.
[37:54] They've lived so horribly.
[37:55] You know, Iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or so.
[38:00] The Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually.
[38:05] And I know so many.
[38:06] I know coming from New York originally, I know so many people from Iran.
[38:10] They're incredible people, incredible energy, and very, very brilliant people.
[38:16] But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of a woman,
[38:21] remember the great woman march.
[38:22] Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country.
[38:25] And then snipers selectively picked.
[38:29] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance.
[38:33] They were on top of buildings.
[38:35] Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from.
[38:38] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad.
[38:40] They've done that, too.
[38:41] They did that recently.
[38:43] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women.
[38:50] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction.
[38:56] And they never came out again.
[38:58] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that.
[39:01] They talk about, oh, women's rights.
[39:03] You want to see women's rights?
[39:04] You're not going to see it there.
[39:06] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group.
[39:11] They talk about, oh, freedom for Iran.
[39:14] They don't tell you the real facts.
[39:16] Women, men, gays.
[39:20] How about gays for Iran?
[39:22] They kill the gays.
[39:23] They throw them off buildings.
[39:25] So I wonder what's going on.
[39:27] I can only say this.
[39:29] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes because their life is in much greater danger.
[39:37] They want freedom for Iran.
[39:39] But it's very hard for them to protest.
[39:40] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out.
[39:42] I fully understand.
[39:43] Nobody in this room would go out.
[39:45] I don't think there's anything.
[39:46] Because frankly, it's not a question of bravery.
[39:48] We're all brave, right?
[39:49] You're brave.
[39:50] I'm brave.
[39:51] We're all brave.
[39:52] But we're also intelligent.
[39:54] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time.
[40:03] And you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here.
[40:06] You're out of there.
[40:08] I don't care who.
[40:09] Mark Meredith, Fox News.
[40:12] I know that.
[40:13] Oh, thank you.
[40:14] Go ahead.
[40:15] America's watching.
[40:16] Good job.
[40:17] Can we go back to the weekend?
[40:19] First off, was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through the operation this weekend?
[40:25] Not everybody was on board.
[40:26] Somebody else within you?
[40:27] No.
[40:28] There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it.
[40:33] These two were totally on board, which was very important.
[40:36] They weren't.
[40:37] It would have had a little difficulty.
[40:39] But, no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this.
[40:42] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military.
[40:47] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries.
[40:50] You have some countries where military is not there's the wrong suit.
[40:53] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before.
[40:57] Half the people are wearing uniforms.
[41:00] And we had people within the military.
[41:03] Usually it's not done.
[41:05] That's one of the reasons.
[41:06] You know, I was surprised.
[41:07] Somebody said it's the only time it's ever been done.
[41:09] I said, that's not possible.
[41:10] But it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path.
[41:18] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.
[41:21] So, yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise.
[41:25] And don't forget, how many men did you send all together approximately for the operation?
[41:30] I'd love to keep that a secret.
[41:31] Okay.
[41:32] Well, we are.
[41:33] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret.
[41:38] But it was hundreds and hundreds of these people.
[41:41] That's pretty good.
[41:42] Is he central?
[41:43] Is he central casting?
[41:45] But hundreds of people went into this journey.
[41:50] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[41:52] Forget about the equipment.
[41:53] A lot of equipment.
[41:54] Nobody cares.
[41:55] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[41:57] So we had people that were within the military that said this is not a wise.
[42:01] And I understood that.
[42:02] But I decided to do it.
[42:04] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking there's too much on
[42:09] the line and somebody was saying maybe we abort this now and wait?
[42:12] I mean, given the resource like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the
[42:16] line here.
[42:17] You must have been thinking this could have completely changed the next three years.
[42:19] So the first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets,
[42:26] because we're flying over daylight.
[42:28] You know, we're the best at the world at night.
[42:30] We have goggles that nobody, we have goggles.
[42:32] I've tried them.
[42:33] Unbelievable.
[42:34] I see better with the goggles at night with, than I see without them during daylight.
[42:39] I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day.
[42:41] You see just as well with goggles.
[42:45] In many ways it's enhanced.
[42:47] So we have the best in the world.
[42:49] So it's much safer for us to, for us to do it at night.
[42:52] Whereas other people, no other country has that capability.
[42:55] They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do.
[42:59] But when I was told flying and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran, and
[43:07] that's a long time, over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons.
[43:13] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great.
[43:16] We took out their radar, which is great.
[43:18] We took out a lot, but they still have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder,
[43:22] handheld shoulder missile, heat seeking missile.
[43:26] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever.
[43:29] But, but, and they have probably a little luck because you got to get lucky.
[43:34] But they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine.
[43:38] But these guys were out of there.
[43:39] They were great.
[43:40] Their timing was great.
[43:42] But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission.
[43:46] I understand.
[43:47] They didn't say it's a foolish mission.
[43:48] They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this.
[43:52] This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they could,
[43:57] because the flight was so long, they had to refuel.
[43:59] It's a very dangerous mission.
[44:01] I just felt it was worth it.
[44:03] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both,
[44:07] and nobody was even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible.
[44:11] Yeah.
[44:12] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[44:14] Thank you, sir.
[44:15] We'll come back to you.
[44:16] Okay.
[44:17] I mean, that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership
[44:23] in Iran.
[44:24] What does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country
[44:28] after this conflict?
[44:29] What's your expectation?
[44:30] Well, I think positive.
[44:31] Yeah.
[44:32] If they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very positive.
[44:36] A big step.
[44:37] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last.
[44:42] Look what happened.
[44:43] The women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say.
[44:48] They're not properly clothed.
[44:49] And they execute the women.
[44:50] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street.
[44:53] No, you have a much different group of people.
[44:57] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them.
[45:01] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time.
[45:05] But we are dealing with them.
[45:06] I think it's going well.
[45:07] Mr. Whitcoff is here.
[45:09] And J.D.'s involved in the dealing.
[45:12] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here.
[45:14] And I think it's going fine.
[45:15] But we'll have to see.
[45:16] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years.
[45:21] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago, not anymore.
[45:29] Right now, they are decapitated.
[45:31] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years.
[45:38] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents.
[45:43] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them, to their friends, we should have done this a long time ago.
[45:50] So it's not something I like doing.
[45:53] It's very dangerous.
[45:54] And we're getting them at the height of their strength.
[45:57] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon.
[46:06] Remember this.
[46:07] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple.
[46:11] How Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable.
[46:24] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran.
[46:28] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash?
[46:31] Billions of dollars of cash.
[46:33] And he sent it over to them.
[46:35] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars.
[46:38] He chose Iran over Israel.
[46:41] And really, the Arab world, if you look.
[46:43] Because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE.
[46:47] I mean, you take a look.
[46:49] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others.
[46:53] He chose such an unlikely candidate.
[46:57] Nobody could believe it.
[46:59] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he should have befriended Iraq.
[47:06] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking.
[47:10] And he made a terrible mistake.
[47:12] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
[47:15] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it.
[47:20] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon.
[47:23] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal.
[47:26] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals.
[47:28] Countries do hundreds of years.
[47:30] You don't do a 10-year deal.
[47:31] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord, you're renting a store on a certain street, and you give somebody a five-year or a 10-year lease.
[47:40] This is a country.
[47:41] It was a short-term deal.
[47:43] It was ready to expire.
[47:44] I terminated it before it expired.
[47:46] It took a lot of heat.
[47:47] And it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would have had a nuclear weapon.
[47:51] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in eight months ago, and obliterated that — and by the way, the word is obliteration.
[48:01] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete.
[48:04] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it.
[48:07] It was obliteration.
[48:08] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover, unbelievable stealth planes.
[48:19] And they were able to do their job.
[48:21] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level, either one of those two instances.
[48:29] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would have been extinguished.
[48:40] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, or others.
[48:48] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them.
[48:51] They didn't think they were going to be hit.
[48:53] They thought they'd be watching us fight.
[48:55] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles.
[48:59] He would have taken them out also.
[49:01] And they were powerful.
[49:04] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear deal was a road to a nuclear weapon, a big one, unlimited.
[49:14] Legally, I terminated it without even much thought.
[49:18] It was so easy.
[49:20] I terminated that.
[49:21] And then the B-2 bombers.
[49:23] And I did one other thing.
[49:24] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius.
[49:30] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases.
[49:37] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now.
[49:46] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know?
[49:50] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up.
[49:53] Osama bin Laden.
[49:55] If you read my book, I said you've got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center came down.
[50:01] So I wish you'd read the book.
[50:03] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts.
[50:11] And a lot of this is instinct.
[50:12] Yeah, please.
[50:13] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President.
[50:16] Mr. President, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the
[50:22] Strait of Hormuz.
[50:23] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum?
[50:30] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and
[50:34] the U.S.?
[50:35] I can't talk about ceasefire.
[50:36] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side.
[50:43] They would like to be able to make a deal.
[50:44] I can't say any more than that.
[50:45] But I get it right for you.
[50:46] Mr. President, thank you so much.
[50:47] You've listed the goals.
[50:48] Excuse me.
[50:49] Please go ahead.
[50:50] Thank you, Mr. President.
[50:51] Who you with?
[50:52] Who you with?
[50:53] Who you with?
[50:54] My name is Diya Khurda.
[50:55] I'm with the largest Kurdish media outlet, Rudow Media Network.
[50:58] It's based in Iran.
[50:59] Go ahead.
[51:00] Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to enter Iran
[51:05] and be harmed.
[51:06] Do you still want them to stay away?
[51:08] Or what role do you expect them to play now?
[51:11] I'd rather have them stay away.
[51:13] I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some
[51:18] difficulties.
[51:19] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves.
[51:22] But I'd rather have them stay away.
[51:24] Go ahead.
[51:25] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question.
[51:30] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international
[51:35] law.
[51:36] Who you with?
[51:37] Who you with?
[51:38] I'm with the New York Times.
[51:39] Zolan from the New York Times.
[51:40] The failing — the failing —
[51:41] Are you concerned —
[51:42] The disease circulation way down at the New York Times.
[51:44] What's going on —
[51:45] Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?
[51:48] No, no, no.
[51:49] No, I'm not.
[51:50] I hope I don't have to do it.
[51:51] But, again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people.
[51:56] They're great negotiators.
[51:57] But why would that in fact not lie to the international —
[51:58] And because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.
[52:02] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective — which, possibly,
[52:07] that will happen — because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and
[52:12] afraid of Iran — we're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[52:17] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind — that are tough, smart,
[52:25] and sick.
[52:26] Really sick.
[52:27] Ideal — you know, from a policy standpoint, from a — any which way you want to say
[52:34] mentally, these are disturbed people.
[52:37] If you think I'm going to allow them — and powerful and rich — to have a nuclear weapon,
[52:43] you can tell your friends at the New York Times, it's not going to happen.
[52:50] Even if it means violating international law.
[52:52] Quiet, quiet, quiet.
[52:53] You no longer have credibility at the New York Times.
[52:55] Because the New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election, and I won in a landslide.
[52:59] I won every swing state.
[53:00] New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election.
[53:03] New York Times has no credibility.
[53:05] The credibility they have is, it used to be all the news that's fit to print.
[53:09] A great — the old gray lady.
[53:11] It was great.
[53:12] But they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that.
[53:15] You have to be able to give the correct news.
[53:18] And people like you, who I know, are fake.
[53:21] You're fake.
[53:22] Go ahead, please.
[53:23] Mr. President, your messaging on the war has moved from — the war is coming to an end
[53:28] to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages.
[53:31] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages.
[53:33] So are you — so which is it?
[53:36] Are you winding this down?
[53:37] I can't tell you.
[53:38] Are you escalating it?
[53:39] Are you — I don't know.
[53:40] I can't tell you.
[53:41] It depends what they do.
[53:42] This is a critical period.
[53:43] They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock.
[53:48] I gave them an extension.
[53:49] They asked for an extension of seven days, right?
[53:52] I said, Steve, give them 10 days.
[53:57] 10 days is up actually today.
[53:59] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly.
[54:01] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter.
[54:04] I want to be a nice person.
[54:07] They have till tomorrow.
[54:09] Now we'll see what happens.
[54:10] I can tell you they're negotiating.
[54:12] We think in good faith.
[54:14] We're going to find out.
[54:16] We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because
[54:22] it affects them also.
[54:23] A lot of people are affected by this.
[54:25] But we're giving them — we're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o'clock Eastern Time.
[54:31] And after that, they're going to have no bridges.
[54:34] They're going to have no power plants.
[54:39] Stone Ages, yeah.
[54:40] Stone Ages.
[54:41] Stone Ages.
[54:42] Stone Ages.
[54:44] CNN fake news.
[54:45] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz,
[54:51] or is that now a top priority?
[54:52] I would say it's a very big priority because — see, that's — that's one thing that's
[54:59] a little different than other things.
[55:00] We can bomb the hell out of them.
[55:02] We can knock them out for a loop.
[55:04] But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded
[55:10] with — because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks — a water mine.
[55:15] Drop them in the water.
[55:16] And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to — don't worry about
[55:21] the mine.
[55:22] You can do that even just by saying, we put mines in the water.
[55:25] So it's not like the rest.
[55:27] We can knock out their military.
[55:29] We already have.
[55:30] We've knocked out their Navy.
[55:31] We've knocked out their Air Force completely.
[55:33] We've knocked out 158 ships in three days.
[55:36] We've knocked out even their mine droppers.
[55:38] They don't have any mine droppers anymore.
[55:40] But they put them on other boats, and they could drop them.
[55:43] I'm not even sure they have any mines yet, by the way.
[55:45] I'm not sure.
[55:46] I don't — personally, they say there might be eight.
[55:49] I don't know.
[55:50] I don't know.
[55:51] I think there might be none because they're very good bullshit artists.
[55:55] That's why, for 47 years, they've been bullshitting other presidents,
[55:58] and they haven't done the job.
[56:00] And people are living in hell.
[56:02] You live in that country.
[56:04] They're living in hell.
[56:05] No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough.
[56:11] They're at the weakest point they've ever been.
[56:15] They have no Navy.
[56:16] They have no Air Force.
[56:17] They have no anti-aircraft weaponry.
[56:19] They have no radar.
[56:20] They have no communication.
[56:21] In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate.
[56:26] I said to Steve, what are they saying?
[56:29] Sir, they can't communicate.
[56:30] They have no method of communication.
[56:32] So we're doing — we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago,
[56:37] with children, bringing a note back and forth.
[56:40] They have no communication.
[56:42] But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world.
[56:46] And you're not going to have a safe world.
[56:48] Israel will be gone.
[56:49] The Middle East will be gone.
[56:52] And then they're coming for Europe.
[56:55] And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO.
[56:57] Very.
[56:58] I think that NATO — I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear — never disappear
[57:03] in my mind.
[57:04] You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday.
[57:05] They're going to say, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that.
[57:08] Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know.
[57:10] But they said it loud and clear at the beginning when I spoke to UK of all.
[57:14] I would have said they would have been there first because they've been — they're the oldest.
[57:18] And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help.
[57:21] He said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win.
[57:24] I said, I don't need help after we win.
[57:26] They have two old broken aircraft carriers, barely work.
[57:30] I said, I guess we can use them.
[57:32] Who the hell knows?
[57:33] I called the general.
[57:34] He didn't even want — he said, we don't really need them.
[57:36] We got — we got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir.
[57:39] We don't need them.
[57:40] You know, we have — in terms of technology, we had one day 101 missiles going at 2,700
[57:48] miles an hour aimed at the Abraham Lincoln.
[57:52] 101 missiles.
[57:53] Out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down.
[58:00] Unbelievable technology.
[58:02] Ten years ago — five years ago — I don't know if that would have been possible.
[58:06] But 10 years ago, that wouldn't have been — that wouldn't have been possible.
[58:10] 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast.
[58:18] And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101.
[58:22] We have weaponry — the patriots are unbelievable.
[58:25] We have weaponry — that's unbelievable.
[58:27] Yeah.
[58:28] Go ahead, please.
[58:33] Thank you, Mr. President.
[58:35] You said earlier today, during the egg roll, that you would like to take Iran's oil, but
[58:40] Americans want U.S. forces home.
[58:42] Correct.
[58:43] What's that tradeoff?
[58:44] Does it take too much time?
[58:45] If I had my choice?
[58:46] If I had my choice?
[58:47] Yeah.
[58:48] Because I'm a businessman first.
[58:49] With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes.
[58:56] And we have great people running Venezuela — very good people.
[58:59] I mean, the relationship is good.
[59:01] And we are a partner with Venezuela.
[59:04] And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels — hundreds of millions.
[59:09] Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined and out.
[59:15] And paid — paid for that war many, many times over.
[59:19] Many times over.
[59:20] You know, the old days, to the victim.
[59:22] Okay?
[59:23] You know that.
[59:24] To the — to the winner belong the spoils.
[59:29] Go the spoils.
[59:30] And I've said, why don't we use it?
[59:32] To the victor go the spoils.
[59:34] And we don't have that.
[59:35] We don't have that.
[59:36] We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years.
[59:38] Because even the Second World War — you look at the Second World War.
[59:41] We didn't have it with the Second World War.
[59:43] We helped rebuild all those countries.
[59:44] We rebuilt Germany.
[59:45] How about Germany telling us — Germany telling us that, well, it's not their war.
[59:51] We had nothing to do with — they wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing.
[59:57] We didn't know anything about it.
[59:58] Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it.
[1:00:00] And we wouldn't have been nearly as successful, possibly, right?
[1:00:04] But to the victor belong the spoils.
[1:00:06] So we haven't heard — we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years.
[1:00:12] Now, with Venezuela — and we — just so you understand, the people of Venezuela — they
[1:00:17] say if I ran for president of Venezuela, I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela.
[1:00:23] So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela.
[1:00:26] I'll go to Venezuela.
[1:00:27] I will quickly learn Spanish.
[1:00:28] It won't take too long.
[1:00:29] I'm good at language.
[1:00:31] And I will go to Venezuela.
[1:00:32] I'm going to run for president.
[1:00:34] But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now.
[1:00:38] The people that are running it — if you remember Bush with Iraq.
[1:00:43] They fired the generals.
[1:00:45] They fired the police.
[1:00:46] They fired the people that worked in there — equivalent of the White House.
[1:00:50] They fired everybody.
[1:00:51] And you know what they had?
[1:00:52] They had a mess.
[1:00:53] And you know what happened?
[1:00:54] ISIS formed.
[1:00:55] Those generals and those soldiers got together.
[1:00:58] The police got together.
[1:00:59] They all got together.
[1:01:00] They formed ISIS.
[1:01:01] Not going to happen with us.
[1:01:03] So Venezuela has been an incredible — it's been an incredible situation.
[1:01:08] We went in.
[1:01:09] We were very successful.
[1:01:10] Military power like nobody's ever seen.
[1:01:13] The general — Venezuelan general said, I was on that site.
[1:01:17] I said, I've never seen ferocity like that.
[1:01:20] I've been doing this for 40 years.
[1:01:22] He said, I've never seen anything.
[1:01:23] They hit us from 17 different — it was — they were all set.
[1:01:27] They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier, the Ford in that case.
[1:01:31] And planes were pouring off at 1 o'clock in the morning.
[1:01:36] So typically, when you see that late at night, you know, you could be in trouble.
[1:01:41] Right?
[1:01:42] And we were all ready.
[1:01:45] They had their equipment.
[1:01:46] It was Russian.
[1:01:47] And they had Chinese equipment.
[1:01:48] It was all set.
[1:01:49] They were going to give us a fight.
[1:01:51] He said, and then they came.
[1:01:54] And they came at speeds like we've never seen.
[1:01:56] And they came at 17 different angles.
[1:01:59] The general and his people — that was a lot of angles.
[1:02:02] They hit them from every angle.
[1:02:04] He said, we knew it was over in three minutes.
[1:02:08] We were waiting for them.
[1:02:09] Their equipment didn't work.
[1:02:12] And there's a reason it didn't work.
[1:02:14] Someday we'll explain that to people.
[1:02:16] They pressed the button.
[1:02:17] Nothing happened.
[1:02:18] They pressed it again and again.
[1:02:20] Nothing happened.
[1:02:21] And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes.
[1:02:24] We've never seen any — he used the word ferocity — the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles.
[1:02:31] And it was over.
[1:02:32] They went inside.
[1:02:33] And remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers.
[1:02:37] And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here.
[1:02:41] Thousands.
[1:02:42] We didn't have thousands.
[1:02:43] We had like 200 people.
[1:02:44] So we have a great military.
[1:02:48] And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention.
[1:02:53] More so than normally.
[1:02:54] You're talking about two people.
[1:02:56] But this rescue captured the world's attention.
[1:03:01] But we did it in Venezuela.
[1:03:03] That was amazing.
[1:03:04] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial.
[1:03:07] I mean, he released — aside from the drugs, which he was terrible — Maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country.
[1:03:19] Drug dealers, murderers — the worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know.
[1:03:28] And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents, right?
[1:03:34] Not once, Kamala.
[1:03:35] She never called the border patrol.
[1:03:37] She never said, how are we doing?
[1:03:38] I used to call the border patrol guys every day.
[1:03:40] You can ask them.
[1:03:41] Paul, ask any one of them.
[1:03:44] Brandon, ask them all the time.
[1:03:46] How are we doing?
[1:03:47] How are we doing?
[1:03:48] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border.
[1:03:50] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border.
[1:03:52] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through.
[1:03:55] So we don't have caravans anymore.
[1:03:57] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done.
[1:04:01] Mr. President, are you allowed to — are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the strait?
[1:04:10] Us charging tolls?
[1:04:12] Iran.
[1:04:13] What about us charging tolls?
[1:04:15] Is that something you're considering?
[1:04:16] I'd rather do that than let them have them run.
[1:04:18] Why shouldn't we?
[1:04:19] We're the winner.
[1:04:20] We won.
[1:04:21] Okay?
[1:04:23] They are militarily defeated.
[1:04:25] The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water.
[1:04:30] All right?
[1:04:31] No, we — I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls.
[1:04:34] Okay?
[1:04:35] I thought you meant us.
[1:04:36] Mr. President?
[1:04:37] Your question — your question would have — your question would have been more accurate if you said us.
[1:04:42] Go ahead.
[1:04:43] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:04:44] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have to make a deal, open the strait, or both?
[1:04:52] We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me.
[1:04:55] And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else.
[1:05:00] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:05:06] You've said glory be to God in this conflict.
[1:05:09] Do you believe that God supports the United States' actions in this world?
[1:05:12] And have you sought his direction?
[1:05:13] I do, because God is good.
[1:05:14] And have you sought his direction?
[1:05:15] Because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of.
[1:05:19] God doesn't like what's happening.
[1:05:20] I don't like what's happening.
[1:05:22] Everyone says, I enjoy it.
[1:05:23] I don't enjoy this.
[1:05:24] I don't enjoy it.
[1:05:25] These two guys don't enjoy it.
[1:05:26] You know, people say, oh, boy, they're so tough.
[1:05:28] They don't want — they don't like — I don't like seeing people killed.
[1:05:31] I've ended eight wars.
[1:05:33] Nobody's ever done it.
[1:05:36] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize.
[1:05:40] She announced that.
[1:05:41] When they announced, they said, it goes to Maria.
[1:05:44] She's a great person, really a good person.
[1:05:47] She said, no, no, no.
[1:05:49] This is ridiculous.
[1:05:50] They gave me the Nobel Prize.
[1:05:52] President Trump ended eight wars.
[1:05:54] I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the Prime Minister
[1:05:59] of Pakistan said, President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives.
[1:06:05] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now.
[1:06:09] That makes me much happier.
[1:06:10] We have one more to end, by the way.
[1:06:12] Mr. President, you called the — yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians
[1:06:22] crazy bastards.
[1:06:23] True.
[1:06:24] And what is your response to critics who say that —
[1:06:27] I don't care about critics.
[1:06:28] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps
[1:06:31] be examined as this war continues?
[1:06:32] Well, I haven't heard that.
[1:06:33] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me, because our country
[1:06:38] was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until I came along.
[1:06:44] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people.
[1:06:46] Joshi, go ahead.
[1:06:47] Joshi, go ahead.
[1:06:49] Joshi, go ahead.
[1:06:50] You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as —
[1:06:52] They called me up saying, what a great choice he was.
[1:06:55] They said, well, what happened during this nomination?
[1:06:58] What happened to you?
[1:06:59] I'm telling you, people that were not forum senators, friends of mine, sir, I don't think
[1:07:04] you're doing the right thing.
[1:07:06] Now they called me up.
[1:07:07] What a choice.
[1:07:09] These two guys are fantastic.
[1:07:11] And John Ratcliffe was incredible.
[1:07:13] It was actually their genius that called us from — he was 40 miles away.
[1:07:19] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain.
[1:07:23] This is at night.
[1:07:24] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes.
[1:07:28] He wasn't moving.
[1:07:29] And they said, you know, probably wrong, but we're seeing something moving.
[1:07:33] This is a vast mountain, vast, thick, with bushes, trees.
[1:07:40] He said, we see something moving — 40 miles away.
[1:07:43] He was the head of a human being, I'm telling you.
[1:07:47] It's moving.
[1:07:48] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot.
[1:07:52] He stood up, and they said, we have him.
[1:07:56] And that was really the beginning of something incredible.
[1:08:00] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically.
[1:08:03] It's a big mountain.
[1:08:04] So I want to thank the CIA, too.
[1:08:09] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done.
[1:08:12] Yes, please.
[1:08:13] Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity.
[1:08:19] A country it has, a super army.
[1:08:22] You make a difference, Mr. President.
[1:08:24] Thank you for your greatest leadership.
[1:08:26] Thank you.
[1:08:27] I have two quick questions, Mr. President.
[1:08:29] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil
[1:08:37] to the international market with your support as United States of America?
[1:08:42] Well, I expected that.
[1:08:44] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that.
[1:08:49] Another question.
[1:08:50] What would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire, Mr. President?
[1:09:01] Well, they should do it, but again, the consequences are great.
[1:09:04] I mean, they were told you, if you protest, you will be shot immediately.
[1:09:08] You saw what happened to the young wrestler.
[1:09:12] He was a great champion, by the way.
[1:09:13] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world.
[1:09:15] And he and his two friends were hung, and all they did was say a little bit about liberty.
[1:09:22] They wanted liberty, and they were violently executed.
[1:09:26] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed.
[1:09:30] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house to protest,
[1:09:35] they'll be immediately shot and killed.
[1:09:37] And they issued that.
[1:09:39] You know, that was publicly issued.
[1:09:41] It's not a secret.
[1:09:42] That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this way?
[1:09:45] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[1:09:48] You know, we got regime change.
[1:09:51] We do.
[1:09:52] We deal with a much different regime than before.
[1:09:54] We're dealing with different people.
[1:09:56] They're smarter.
[1:09:57] I think they're sharper and far less radical.
[1:10:02] We have regime change.
[1:10:04] But we didn't do this for regime change.
[1:10:07] We did it for the fact.
[1:10:08] And my view was very simple.
[1:10:11] I saw somebody said, oh, he doesn't have a plan.
[1:10:13] I have the best plan of all.
[1:10:14] But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is.
[1:10:16] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan.
[1:10:18] We're going to attack at 9.47 in the morning.
[1:10:21] And then we're going to do this.
[1:10:22] And then we're going to.
[1:10:23] And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan.
[1:10:26] These people know what the plan is.
[1:10:27] Everybody here knows what the plan is.
[1:10:29] But it's very unfair to say, you know, because I don't mind being insulted.
[1:10:35] I've been insulted for many years by the by the fake news.
[1:10:38] But you can't.
[1:10:39] It's so bad for the people that are so pro.
[1:10:43] We just saw two great and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people.
[1:10:47] They have a plan.
[1:10:48] Every every single thing has been thought out by all of us.
[1:10:53] But I can't reveal the plan to the media.
[1:10:56] So, you know, but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation.
[1:11:00] Yes, please.
[1:11:01] Thank you, Mr. President.
[1:11:02] I think that Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks.
[1:11:05] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power?
[1:11:09] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
[1:11:12] They would be willing to.
[1:11:13] They would be willing.
[1:11:14] And it's suffering.
[1:11:15] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
[1:11:19] The Iranians have and we've had numerous intercepts.
[1:11:23] Please keep bombing.
[1:11:25] Bombs that are dropping near their homes.
[1:11:27] Please keep bombing.
[1:11:29] Do it.
[1:11:30] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding.
[1:11:35] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying,
[1:11:38] please come back, come back, come back.
[1:11:40] These are the people.
[1:11:41] I don't know what they do.
[1:11:44] All I can tell you is they want freedom.
[1:11:46] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about.
[1:11:51] It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot.
[1:11:56] Remember the great woman protest where they had 400,000, 500,000 women
[1:12:00] and they were all enthused and they were going to protest.
[1:12:03] And everybody said, oh, the regime is going to come to an end.
[1:12:06] And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas.
[1:12:15] A woman would go down right between the eyes.
[1:12:17] They had snipers.
[1:12:18] They had five snipers.
[1:12:19] That's all it took.
[1:12:20] And those four or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that?
[1:12:26] Oh, look over there.
[1:12:27] What's that?
[1:12:28] A woman shot right between the eyes.
[1:12:31] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of people.
[1:12:40] And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that?
[1:12:44] And they're incredible people.
[1:12:47] But they've lived so horribly.
[1:12:49] They've lived so horribly.
[1:12:50] You know, Iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or so.
[1:12:55] The Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually.
[1:13:00] And I know so many.
[1:13:01] I know coming from New York.
[1:13:03] Originally, I know so many people from Iran.
[1:13:05] They're incredible people.
[1:13:06] Incredible energy and very, very brilliant people.
[1:13:11] But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of a woman, remember the great woman march.
[1:13:17] Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country.
[1:13:20] And then snipers selectively picked.
[1:13:24] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance.
[1:13:28] They were on top of buildings.
[1:13:30] Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from.
[1:13:33] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad.
[1:13:35] They've done that, too.
[1:13:36] They did that recently.
[1:13:38] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women.
[1:13:44] And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction and they never came out again.
[1:13:51] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that.
[1:13:54] They talk about, oh, women's rights.
[1:13:57] You want to see women's rights?
[1:13:58] You're not going to see it there.
[1:13:59] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group.
[1:14:05] They talk about, oh, freedom for Iran.
[1:14:09] They don't tell you the real facts.
[1:14:11] Women, men, gays.
[1:14:14] How about gays for Iran?
[1:14:17] They kill the gays.
[1:14:18] They throw them off buildings.
[1:14:20] So I wonder what's going on.
[1:14:22] I can only say this.
[1:14:24] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes because their life is in much greater danger.
[1:14:31] They want freedom for Iran.
[1:14:33] But it's very hard for them to protest.
[1:14:35] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out.
[1:14:37] I fully understand.
[1:14:38] Nobody in this room would go out.
[1:14:40] I don't think there's any, because frankly, it's not a question of bravery.
[1:14:43] We're all brave, right?
[1:14:44] You're brave.
[1:14:45] I'm brave.
[1:14:46] We're all brave.
[1:14:47] We're all so intelligent.
[1:14:48] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here, you're out of there.
[1:15:03] I don't care who.
[1:15:04] I don't care who's going forward.
[1:15:05] I don't care who's going forward.
[1:15:06] Mark Meredith, Fox News.
[1:15:07] I know that.
[1:15:08] Oh, thank you.
[1:15:09] Go ahead.
[1:15:10] America's watching.
[1:15:11] No.
[1:15:12] Can we go back to the weekend?
[1:15:14] First off, was everyone on board with the operation, or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through the operation this weekend?
[1:15:20] Not everybody was on board.
[1:15:21] Somebody else within you?
[1:15:22] No.
[1:15:23] There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it.
[1:15:27] These two were totally on board, which was very important.
[1:15:31] If they weren't, it would have had a little difficulty.
[1:15:34] But, no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this.
[1:15:38] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military.
[1:15:42] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries.
[1:15:44] You have some countries where military is not there as the wrong suit.
[1:15:48] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before.
[1:15:51] Half the people are wearing uniforms.
[1:15:55] And we had people within the military.
[1:15:58] Usually it's not done.
[1:15:59] That's one of the reasons.
[1:16:00] You know, I was surprised.
[1:16:01] Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done.
[1:16:03] I said, that's not possible.
[1:16:05] But it is possible.
[1:16:06] Because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path.
[1:16:12] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.
[1:16:16] So, yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise.
[1:16:20] And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately, for the operation?
[1:16:25] I'd love to keep that a secret, Mr. President.
[1:16:27] Okay, well, we are.
[1:16:28] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret.
[1:16:33] But it was hundreds.
[1:16:35] And hundreds of these people — that's pretty good.
[1:16:38] Is he central casting?
[1:16:40] But hundreds of people went into this journey.
[1:16:44] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[1:16:46] Forget about the equipment.
[1:16:47] A lot of equipment.
[1:16:48] Nobody cares about them.
[1:16:49] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[1:16:52] So we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise — and I understood that.
[1:16:57] But I decided to do it.
[1:16:59] Was there a point that they were going to — that you were thinking there's too much on the line and somebody was saying,
[1:17:04] maybe we abort this now and wait?
[1:17:06] I mean, given the resource, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the line here.
[1:17:11] You must have been thinking, this could have completely changed the next three years.
[1:17:13] Well, so the first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, because we're flying over daylight.
[1:17:22] You know, we're the best at the world at night.
[1:17:25] We have goggles that nobody — we have goggles.
[1:17:27] I've tried them.
[1:17:28] Unbelievable.
[1:17:29] I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight.
[1:17:34] I mean, daylight today, we have a beautiful day.
[1:17:37] You see just as well with goggles.
[1:17:39] In many ways, it's enhanced.
[1:17:41] So we have the best in the world.
[1:17:43] So it's much safe for us to — for us to do it at night, whereas other people — no other country has that capability.
[1:17:50] They don't have the — they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do.
[1:17:54] But when I was told, flying — and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran — and that's a long time — over unbelievably hostile territory,
[1:18:04] where they have nothing but weapons.
[1:18:06] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great.
[1:18:10] We took out their radar, which is great.
[1:18:12] We took out a lot.
[1:18:13] But they still have — you know, what hit this one was a shoulder — handheld shoulder missile.
[1:18:18] Heat-seeking missile.
[1:18:19] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever.
[1:18:22] But — but — and they had probably a little luck, because you've got to get lucky.
[1:18:28] But they shot it, and it got sucked in right by the engine.
[1:18:32] But these guys were out of there.
[1:18:33] They were great.
[1:18:34] Their timing was great.
[1:18:35] But, no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission.
[1:18:40] I understand.
[1:18:41] They didn't say it's a foolish mission.
[1:18:42] They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing — hundreds of people do this.
[1:18:46] This is — I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that — because
[1:18:50] the flight was so long, they had to refuel.
[1:18:53] It's a very dangerous mission.
[1:18:55] I just felt it was worth it.
[1:18:57] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both, and nobody
[1:19:01] was even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible.
[1:19:05] Yeah, please.
[1:19:06] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:19:08] Thank you, sir.
[1:19:09] I'll come back to you.
[1:19:10] Okay, thank you.
[1:19:11] I think that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership
[1:19:17] in Iran.
[1:19:18] What does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country
[1:19:22] after this conflict?
[1:19:23] What's your expectation?
[1:19:24] Well, I think it's positive.
[1:19:25] Yeah, if they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's
[1:19:29] very positive — a big step.
[1:19:31] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last — look what happened.
[1:19:36] I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed.
[1:19:40] They say.
[1:19:41] They're not properly clothed.
[1:19:43] And they execute the women.
[1:19:44] They absolutely — they shoot them right on the street.
[1:19:48] No, you have a much different group of people.
[1:19:51] Now, I'm not saying — we are dealing with them.
[1:19:55] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time.
[1:20:00] But we are dealing with them.
[1:20:01] I think it's going well.
[1:20:02] Mr. Whitcoff is here, and J.D.'s involved in the dealing.
[1:20:07] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here, and I think it's going fine, but we'll have to see.
[1:20:11] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years.
[1:20:16] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran — as of a month ago, not anymore.
[1:20:23] Right now, they are decapitated.
[1:20:25] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years.
[1:20:32] This should have been handled by seven presidents — a lot of presidents.
[1:20:38] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them to their friends,
[1:20:42] we should have done this a long time ago.
[1:20:44] So it's not something I like doing.
[1:20:46] It's very dangerous.
[1:20:47] And we're getting them at the height of their strength.
[1:20:51] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon.
[1:21:00] Remember this.
[1:21:01] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple.
[1:21:06] For example, how Israel can vote for a Democrat is — if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace else in this country,
[1:21:15] and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable.
[1:21:18] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran.
[1:21:24] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash?
[1:21:27] Billions of dollars of cash.
[1:21:29] And he sent it over to them.
[1:21:30] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars.
[1:21:33] He chose Iran over Israel and, really, the Arab world, if you look.
[1:21:38] Because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE — I mean, you take a look.
[1:21:43] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others.
[1:21:49] He chose such an unlikely candidate.
[1:21:52] Nobody could believe it.
[1:21:53] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he should have befriended Iraq.
[1:22:01] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking, and he made a terrible mistake.
[1:22:07] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
[1:22:10] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it.
[1:22:14] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon.
[1:22:17] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal.
[1:22:21] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals.
[1:22:24] Countries do hundreds of years.
[1:22:26] You don't do a 10-year deal.
[1:22:27] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord.
[1:22:30] You're renting a store on a certain street, and you give somebody a 5-year or 10-year lease.
[1:22:35] This is a country.
[1:22:36] It was a short-term deal.
[1:22:37] It was ready to expire.
[1:22:39] I terminated it before it expired.
[1:22:41] It took a lot of heat.
[1:22:42] And it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would have had a nuclear weapon.
[1:22:46] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in eight months ago, and obliterated that — and by the way, the word is obliteration.
[1:22:56] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete.
[1:22:59] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it.
[1:23:02] It was obliteration.
[1:23:03] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover, unbelievable stealth planes.
[1:23:14] And they were able to do their job.
[1:23:16] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level, either one of those two instances.
[1:23:24] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would have been extinguished.
[1:23:33] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, or others.
[1:23:42] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them.
[1:23:45] They didn't think they were going to be hit.
[1:23:47] They thought they'd be watching us fight.
[1:23:49] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles.
[1:23:53] He would have taken them out also.
[1:23:56] And they were powerful.
[1:23:57] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear deal was a road to a nuclear weapon, a big one, unlimited.
[1:24:08] Legally, I terminated it without even much thought.
[1:24:12] It was so easy.
[1:24:13] I terminated that.
[1:24:16] And then the B-2 bombers.
[1:24:17] And I did one other thing.
[1:24:19] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius.
[1:24:25] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases.
[1:24:32] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now.
[1:24:41] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know?
[1:24:45] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up — Osama bin Laden.
[1:24:51] If you read my book, I said you got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center came down.
[1:24:56] So I wish you'd read the book.
[1:24:58] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts.
[1:25:05] And a lot of this is instinct.
[1:25:07] Yeah, please.
[1:25:08] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President.
[1:25:11] Mr. President, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
[1:25:17] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum?
[1:25:24] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and the U.S.?
[1:25:28] I can't talk about ceasefire.
[1:25:30] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side.
[1:25:37] They would like to be able to make a deal.
[1:25:38] I can't say any more than that if I get a real deal.
[1:25:42] Mr. President, thank you so much.
[1:25:44] You've listed the goals.
[1:25:45] Excuse me.
[1:25:46] Please go ahead.
[1:25:47] You've listed the goals of —
[1:25:48] Who you with?
[1:25:49] Who you with?
[1:25:50] My name is Diyar Kurda.
[1:25:51] I'm with the largest Kurdish media outlet, Rudow Media Network.
[1:25:53] It's based in Iran.
[1:25:54] Go ahead.
[1:25:55] Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to enter Iran and be harmed.
[1:26:01] Do you still want them to stay away?
[1:26:03] Or what role do you expect them to play now?
[1:26:06] I'd rather have them stay away.
[1:26:08] I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulties.
[1:26:13] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves.
[1:26:17] But I'd rather have them stay away.
[1:26:19] Go ahead.
[1:26:23] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question.
[1:26:25] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law.
[1:26:30] Who you with?
[1:26:31] Who you with?
[1:26:32] I'm with the New York Times.
[1:26:33] Zolan from the New York Times.
[1:26:34] Are you —
[1:26:35] The failing — the failing —
[1:26:36] Are you concerned —
[1:26:37] The circulation way down at the New York Times.
[1:26:38] What's going on —
[1:26:39] Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?
[1:26:42] No, not at all.
[1:26:43] No, no, no.
[1:26:44] I hope I don't have to do it.
[1:26:45] But, again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people.
[1:26:51] They're great negotiators.
[1:26:52] And —
[1:26:53] And —
[1:26:54] Because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.
[1:26:57] And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective — which, possibly,
[1:27:02] that will happen — because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid
[1:27:07] of Iran — we're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[1:27:12] And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart, and sick — really
[1:27:21] sick ideal — you know, from a policy standpoint, from a — any which way you want to say mentally,
[1:27:29] these are disturbed people.
[1:27:31] If you think I'm going to allow them — and powerful and rich — to have a nuclear weapon,
[1:27:37] you can tell your friends at the New York Times, not going to happen.
[1:27:40] It means violating international law.
[1:27:45] Quiet, quiet, quiet.
[1:27:46] You no longer have credibility at the New York Times because the New York Times said,
[1:27:50] Oh, Trump won't win the election, and I won in a landslide.
[1:27:53] I won every swing state.
[1:27:54] New York Times said, Oh, Trump won't win the election.
[1:27:57] New York Times has no credibility.
[1:27:59] The credibility they have is — it used to be all the news that's fit to print.
[1:28:03] A great — the old gray lady.
[1:28:05] It was great.
[1:28:06] But they're running on past fumes, and you can't keep doing that.
[1:28:09] You have to be able to give the correct news.
[1:28:12] And people like you, who I know, are fake.
[1:28:16] You're fake.
[1:28:17] Go ahead, please.
[1:28:18] Mr. President, your messaging on the war has moved from — the war is coming to an end
[1:28:23] to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages.
[1:28:26] And we've heard a range of those kind of messages.
[1:28:28] So are you — so which is it?
[1:28:30] Are you winding this down?
[1:28:31] I can't tell you.
[1:28:32] Are you escalating it?
[1:28:33] I can't tell you.
[1:28:34] I don't know.
[1:28:35] I can't tell you.
[1:28:36] Depends what they do.
[1:28:37] This is a critical period.
[1:28:38] They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock.
[1:28:42] I gave them an extension.
[1:28:44] They asked for an extension of seven days, right?
[1:28:47] I said, Steve, give them 10 days.
[1:28:50] 10 days is up, actually, today.
[1:28:54] So I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly.
[1:28:56] I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter.
[1:28:58] I want to be a nice person.
[1:29:00] They have till tomorrow.
[1:29:03] Now, we'll see what happens.
[1:29:05] I can tell you they're negotiating.
[1:29:07] We think in good faith.
[1:29:08] We're going to find out.
[1:29:09] We're getting the help of some incredible countries
[1:29:12] that want this to be ended because it affects them also.
[1:29:17] A lot of people are affected by this.
[1:29:19] But we're giving them — we're giving them till tomorrow,
[1:29:23] 8 o'clock Eastern Time.
[1:29:25] And after that, they're going to have no bridges.
[1:29:29] They're going to have no power plants.
[1:29:31] Stone Ages, yeah.
[1:29:34] Stone Ages.
[1:29:35] CNN fake news.
[1:29:39] Are you willing to make a deal that does not include
[1:29:43] reopening the Strait of Hormuz, or is that now a top priority?
[1:29:46] I would say it's a very big priority because —
[1:29:49] see, that's one thing that's a little different than other things.
[1:29:54] We can bomb the hell out of them.
[1:29:56] We can knock them out for a loop.
[1:29:58] But to close the strait, all you need is one terrorist
[1:30:02] that somehow has a truck loaded with —
[1:30:05] because you can carry them in trucks — large trucks.
[1:30:07] A water mine.
[1:30:09] Drop them in the water.
[1:30:10] And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to —
[1:30:15] don't worry about the mine.
[1:30:17] You can do that even just by saying, we put mines in the water.
[1:30:20] So it's not like the rest.
[1:30:22] We can knock out their military.
[1:30:23] We already have.
[1:30:24] We've knocked out their Navy.
[1:30:25] We've knocked out their Air Force completely.
[1:30:27] We've knocked out 158 ships.
[1:30:29] In three days, we've knocked out even their mine droppers.
[1:30:33] They don't have any mine droppers anymore.
[1:30:35] But they put them on other boats, and they could drop them.
[1:30:38] I'm not even sure they have any mines yet, by the way.
[1:30:40] I'm not sure.
[1:30:41] Personally, they say there might be eight.
[1:30:43] I don't know.
[1:30:44] I don't know.
[1:30:45] I think there might be none, because they're very good bullshit artists.
[1:30:49] That's why, for 47 years, they've been bullshitting other presidents, and they haven't done the job.
[1:30:54] And people are living in hell.
[1:30:56] You live in that country.
[1:30:58] They're living in hell.
[1:30:59] No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough.
[1:31:06] They're at the weakest point they've ever been.
[1:31:09] They have no Navy.
[1:31:10] They have no Air Force.
[1:31:11] They have no anti-aircraft weaponry.
[1:31:14] They have no radar.
[1:31:15] They have no communication.
[1:31:16] In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate.
[1:31:21] I said to Steve, what are they saying?
[1:31:23] Sir, they can't communicate.
[1:31:25] They have no method of communication.
[1:31:27] So we're doing, we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago with
[1:31:32] children, bringing a note back and forth.
[1:31:35] They have no communication.
[1:31:37] But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world.
[1:31:40] And you're not going to have a safe world.
[1:31:42] Israel will be gone.
[1:31:44] The Middle East will be gone.
[1:31:46] And then they're coming for Europe.
[1:31:48] And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO.
[1:31:52] Very.
[1:31:53] I think that NATO, I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear.
[1:31:57] Never disappear in my mind.
[1:31:58] You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday.
[1:32:00] They're going to say, oh, we'll do this.
[1:32:01] We'll do that.
[1:32:02] Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know.
[1:32:05] But they said it loud and clear at the beginning when I spoke to UK of all.
[1:32:09] I would have said they would have been there first because they've been, they're the oldest.
[1:32:12] And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help.
[1:32:16] He said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win.
[1:32:18] I said, I don't need help after we win.
[1:32:21] They have two old broken aircraft carriers, barely work.
[1:32:25] I said, I guess we can use them.
[1:32:26] Who the hell knows?
[1:32:27] I called the general.
[1:32:28] He didn't even want to.
[1:32:29] He said, we don't really need them.
[1:32:31] We got, we got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir.
[1:32:34] We don't need them.
[1:32:35] You know, we have, in terms of technology, we had one day 101 missiles going at 2,700 miles
[1:32:43] an hour aimed at the Abraham Lincoln.
[1:32:47] 101 missiles.
[1:32:48] Out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down.
[1:32:54] Unbelievable technology.
[1:32:55] Ten years ago, five years ago, I don't know if that would have been possible.
[1:33:00] But ten years ago, that wouldn't have been, that wouldn't have been possible.
[1:33:04] 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast.
[1:33:11] And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101.
[1:33:16] We have weaponry.
[1:33:18] The patriots are unbelievable.
[1:33:20] We have weaponry.
[1:33:21] That's unbelievable.
[1:33:22] Yeah.
[1:33:23] Go ahead, please.
[1:33:27] Thank you, Mr. President.
[1:33:29] You said earlier today during the egg roll that you would like to take Iran's oil,
[1:33:33] but Americans want U.S. forces home.
[1:33:36] Correct.
[1:33:37] What's that tradeoff?
[1:33:38] Have I had my choice?
[1:33:39] Does it take too much time?
[1:33:40] Have I had my choice?
[1:33:42] Yeah.
[1:33:43] Because I'm a businessman first.
[1:33:44] With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes.
[1:33:50] And we have great people running Venezuela, very good people.
[1:33:53] I mean, the relationship is good.
[1:33:55] And we are a partner with Venezuela.
[1:33:59] And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions.
[1:34:04] Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined and out.
[1:34:10] And paid for that war many, many times over.
[1:34:13] Many times.
[1:34:14] In the old days.
[1:34:15] To the victim.
[1:34:16] Okay?
[1:34:18] You know that.
[1:34:19] To the winner belong the spoils.
[1:34:23] Go the spoils.
[1:34:25] And I've said, why don't we use it?
[1:34:27] To the victor.
[1:34:28] Go the spoils.
[1:34:29] And we don't have that.
[1:34:30] We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years.
[1:34:33] Because even the Second World War.
[1:34:34] You look at the Second World War.
[1:34:36] We didn't have it with the Second World War.
[1:34:37] We helped rebuild all those countries.
[1:34:39] We rebuilt Germany.
[1:34:40] How about Germany telling us?
[1:34:42] Germany telling us that, well, it's not their war.
[1:34:47] We had nothing to do with it.
[1:34:48] They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing.
[1:34:51] We didn't know anything about it.
[1:34:52] Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it.
[1:34:55] And we wouldn't have been nearly as successful, possibly, right?
[1:34:58] But to the victor belong the spoils.
[1:35:01] So we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years.
[1:35:07] Now, with Venezuela, and just so you understand, the people of Venezuela,
[1:35:11] they say if I ran for president of Venezuela,
[1:35:14] I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela.
[1:35:18] So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela.
[1:35:21] I will quickly learn Spanish.
[1:35:23] It won't take too long.
[1:35:24] I'm good at language.
[1:35:25] And I will go to Venezuela.
[1:35:26] I'm going to run for president.
[1:35:28] But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now.
[1:35:31] The people that are running it.
[1:35:35] If you remember Bush with Iraq, they fired the generals.
[1:35:39] They fired the police.
[1:35:40] They fired the people that worked in there, equivalent of the White House.
[1:35:44] They fired everybody.
[1:35:45] And you know what they had?
[1:35:46] They had a mess.
[1:35:47] And you know what happened?
[1:35:48] ISIS formed.
[1:35:49] Those generals and those soldiers got together.
[1:35:52] The police got together.
[1:35:53] They all got together.
[1:35:54] They formed ISIS.
[1:35:55] Not going to happen with us.
[1:35:56] So Venezuela has been an incredible, it's been an incredible situation.
[1:36:02] We went in.
[1:36:03] We were very successful.
[1:36:05] Military power like nobody's ever seen.
[1:36:07] The general, Venezuelan general said, I was on that site.
[1:36:11] I said, I've never seen ferocity like that.
[1:36:14] I've been doing this for 40 years.
[1:36:16] He said, I've never seen it.
[1:36:17] They hit us from 17 different.
[1:36:19] It was, they were all set.
[1:36:22] They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier, the Ford in that case.
[1:36:27] And planes were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning.
[1:36:30] So typically when you see that late at night, you know, you could be in trouble.
[1:36:36] Right?
[1:36:37] And we were all ready.
[1:36:39] They had their equipment.
[1:36:40] It was Russian.
[1:36:41] And they had Chinese equipment.
[1:36:42] It was all set.
[1:36:43] They were going to give us a fight.
[1:36:45] He said, and then they came.
[1:36:48] And they came at speeds like we've never seen.
[1:36:50] And they came at 17 different angles.
[1:36:53] The general and his people, that was a lot of angles.
[1:36:56] They hit him from every angle.
[1:36:57] He said, we knew it was over in three minutes.
[1:37:02] We were waiting for them.
[1:37:04] Their equipment didn't work.
[1:37:06] And there's a reason it didn't work.
[1:37:08] Someday we'll explain that to people.
[1:37:10] They pressed the button.
[1:37:11] Nothing happened.
[1:37:12] They pressed it again and again.
[1:37:14] Nothing happened.
[1:37:15] And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes.
[1:37:19] We've never seen any.
[1:37:20] He used the word ferocity.
[1:37:23] The ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles.
[1:37:26] And it was over.
[1:37:27] They went inside.
[1:37:28] And remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers.
[1:37:32] And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here.
[1:37:35] Thousands.
[1:37:36] We didn't have thousands.
[1:37:37] We had like 200 people.
[1:37:39] So we have a great military.
[1:37:42] And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention.
[1:37:48] More so than normally.
[1:37:49] You're talking about two people.
[1:37:51] But this rescue captured the world's attention.
[1:37:55] But we did it in Venezuela.
[1:37:57] That was amazing.
[1:37:58] And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial.
[1:38:01] I mean, he released, aside from the drugs, which he was terrible, Maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country.
[1:38:13] Drug dealers, murderers, the worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know.
[1:38:22] And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents.
[1:38:28] Right?
[1:38:29] Not once, Kamala.
[1:38:30] She never called the border patrol.
[1:38:32] She never said, how are we doing?
[1:38:33] I used to call the border patrol guys every day.
[1:38:35] You can ask them.
[1:38:36] Paul.
[1:38:37] Ask any one of them.
[1:38:38] Brandon.
[1:38:39] Ask them all the time.
[1:38:40] How are we doing?
[1:38:41] How are we doing?
[1:38:42] And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border.
[1:38:45] Nine months, nobody is coming through our border.
[1:38:47] And nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through.
[1:38:49] So we don't have caravans anymore.
[1:38:53] So maybe one or two more and we'll be done.
[1:38:55] Mr. President, are you allowed to, are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the street?
[1:39:05] Us charging tolls?
[1:39:06] Iran.
[1:39:07] What about us charging tolls?
[1:39:09] Is that something you're considering?
[1:39:10] I'd rather do that than let them have them running.
[1:39:13] Why shouldn't we?
[1:39:14] We're the winner.
[1:39:15] We won.
[1:39:17] Okay?
[1:39:18] They are militarily defeated.
[1:39:19] The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water.
[1:39:24] All right?
[1:39:25] No, we, I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls.
[1:39:28] Okay?
[1:39:29] I thought you meant us.
[1:39:30] Mr. President?
[1:39:31] Your question, your question would, your question would have been more accurate if you said us.
[1:39:36] Go ahead.
[1:39:37] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:39:38] Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have to make a deal, open the street, or both?
[1:39:46] We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me.
[1:39:49] And part of that deal is going to be, we want free traffic of oil and everything else.
[1:39:54] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:40:00] You've said glory be to God in this conflict.
[1:40:03] Do you believe that God supports the United States' actions in this world?
[1:40:06] I do.
[1:40:07] Because God is good.
[1:40:08] And have you sought his direction?
[1:40:09] Because God is good.
[1:40:10] And God wants to see people taken care of.
[1:40:13] God doesn't like what's happening.
[1:40:15] I don't like what's happening.
[1:40:16] Everyone says, I enjoy it.
[1:40:17] I don't enjoy this.
[1:40:18] I don't enjoy it.
[1:40:19] These two guys don't enjoy it.
[1:40:20] You know, people say, oh boy, they're so tough.
[1:40:22] They're so tough.
[1:40:23] They don't want, they don't like, I don't like seeing people killed.
[1:40:26] I've ended eight wars.
[1:40:29] Nobody's ever done it.
[1:40:30] The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize.
[1:40:35] She announced that.
[1:40:36] When they announced, they said, goes to Maria.
[1:40:39] She's a great person.
[1:40:40] Really a good person.
[1:40:41] She said, no, no, no.
[1:40:43] This is ridiculous.
[1:40:45] They gave me the Nobel Prize.
[1:40:48] When President Trump ended eight wars, I could go over every one of them, including India
[1:40:52] and Pakistan, where the Prime Minister of Pakistan said, President Trump saved from 30 to 50
[1:40:58] million lives.
[1:41:00] That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now.
[1:41:03] That makes me much happier.
[1:41:05] We have one more to end, by the way.
[1:41:07] Mr. President, you called the, yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians
[1:41:16] crazy bastards.
[1:41:17] True.
[1:41:18] What is your response to critics who say that?
[1:41:21] I don't care about critics.
[1:41:22] What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps
[1:41:25] be examined as this war continues?
[1:41:27] Well, I haven't heard that.
[1:41:28] But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me.
[1:41:31] Because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until
[1:41:37] I came along.
[1:41:38] So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people.
[1:41:41] Joshi, go ahead.
[1:41:42] Joshi, go ahead.
[1:41:44] You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as
[1:41:47] What a great choice he was.
[1:41:49] I said, well, what happened during this nomination?
[1:41:52] What happened to you?
[1:41:53] I'm telling you, people that were not forum senators.
[1:41:57] Friends of mine, sir, I don't think you're doing the right thing.
[1:42:00] Now they're calling me up.
[1:42:01] What a choice.
[1:42:02] These two guys are fantastic.
[1:42:05] And John Ratcliffe was incredible.
[1:42:07] It was actually their genius that called us from, he was 40 miles away.
[1:42:13] And he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain.
[1:42:18] This is at night.
[1:42:19] And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes.
[1:42:23] He wasn't moving.
[1:42:24] And they said, you know, probably wrong.
[1:42:26] But we're seeing something moving.
[1:42:28] This is a vast mountain.
[1:42:30] Vast.
[1:42:31] Thick.
[1:42:32] With bushes, trees.
[1:42:35] He said, we see something moving 40 miles away.
[1:42:38] It was the head of a human being.
[1:42:41] I'm telling you, it's moving.
[1:42:43] And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot.
[1:42:49] Stood up.
[1:42:50] And they stood way half of him.
[1:42:51] And that was really the beginning of something incredible.
[1:42:55] We had an idea where he was, but not specifically.
[1:42:58] That's a big mountain.
[1:42:59] So I want to thank the CIA, too.
[1:43:03] I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done.
[1:43:06] Yes, please.
[1:43:07] Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity.
[1:43:12] Country, it has a super army.
[1:43:16] You make a difference, Mr. President.
[1:43:18] Thank you for your greatest leadership.
[1:43:20] Thank you.
[1:43:22] I have two quick questions, Mr. President.
[1:43:24] What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region
[1:43:29] had resumed exporting oil to the international market
[1:43:34] with your support as United States of America?
[1:43:38] Well, I expected that.
[1:43:39] We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time.
[1:43:42] So I expected that.
[1:43:44] Another question.
[1:43:45] What would be your reaction if the Iranian people
[1:43:51] rise up against their regime during a case fire, Mr. President?
[1:43:56] Well, they should do it.
[1:43:57] But again, the consequences are great.
[1:43:59] I mean, they were told you, if you protest, you will be shot immediately.
[1:44:03] You saw what happened to the young wrestler.
[1:44:06] He was a great champion, by the way.
[1:44:07] He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world.
[1:44:10] And he and his two friends were hung.
[1:44:12] And all they did was say a little bit about liberty.
[1:44:18] They wanted liberty.
[1:44:19] And they were violently executed.
[1:44:21] But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed.
[1:44:25] So, you know, when somebody stays in a house,
[1:44:28] when they know if they walk out of the house to protest,
[1:44:30] they'll be immediately shot and killed.
[1:44:33] And they issued that.
[1:44:34] You know, that was publicly issued.
[1:44:35] It's not a secret.
[1:44:36] That's why so many people say,
[1:44:38] oh, well, why are you doing this way?
[1:44:40] We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[1:44:44] You know, we got regime change.
[1:44:46] We do.
[1:44:47] We're dealing with a much different regime than before.
[1:44:49] We're dealing with different people.
[1:44:51] They're smarter.
[1:44:52] I think they're sharper and far less radical.
[1:44:57] We have regime change.
[1:44:59] But we didn't do this for regime change.
[1:45:01] We did it for the fact.
[1:45:03] And my view was very simple.
[1:45:05] I saw somebody who said, oh, he doesn't have a plan.
[1:45:08] I have the best plan of all.
[1:45:09] But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is.
[1:45:11] You know, they want me to say, here's my plan.
[1:45:13] We're going to attack at 9.47 in the morning.
[1:45:16] And then we're going to do this.
[1:45:17] And then we're going to.
[1:45:18] And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan.
[1:45:20] These people know what the plan is.
[1:45:22] Everybody here knows what the plan is.
[1:45:24] But it's very unfair to say.
[1:45:28] Because I don't mind being insulted.
[1:45:30] I've been insulted for many years by the fake news.
[1:45:33] But you can't.
[1:45:34] It's so bad for the people that are so pro.
[1:45:37] You just saw two great and John Ratcliffe.
[1:45:40] Three unbelievable people.
[1:45:42] They have a plan.
[1:45:43] Every single thing has been thought out by all of us.
[1:45:46] But I can't reveal the plan to the media.
[1:45:50] So, you know.
[1:45:51] But we're just thrilled by the success of this operation.
[1:45:54] Yes, please.
[1:45:55] Thank you, Mr. President.
[1:45:56] You've said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks.
[1:45:59] But why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure?
[1:46:02] To cut off their power?
[1:46:03] Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
[1:46:06] Yeah.
[1:46:07] They would be willing to.
[1:46:08] They would be willing.
[1:46:09] And it's suffering.
[1:46:10] They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
[1:46:13] The Iranians have, and we've had numerous intercepts.
[1:46:18] Please keep bombing.
[1:46:19] Bombs that are dropping near their homes.
[1:46:22] Please keep bombing.
[1:46:24] Do it.
[1:46:25] And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding.
[1:46:28] And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas,
[1:46:32] they're saying, please come back, come back, come back.
[1:46:35] These are the people.
[1:46:36] I don't know what they do.
[1:46:38] All I can tell you is they want freedom.
[1:46:40] They have lived in a world that you know nothing about.
[1:46:44] It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot.
[1:46:50] Remember the great woman protest where they had 400,000, 500,000 women,
[1:46:55] and they were all enthused and they were going to protest,
[1:46:58] and everybody said, oh, the regime is going to come to an end.
[1:47:01] And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas,
[1:47:10] a woman would go down right between the eyes.
[1:47:12] They had snipers.
[1:47:13] They had five snipers.
[1:47:14] That's all it took.
[1:47:16] And those four or 500,000 women said, oh, my God, what's that?
[1:47:20] Oh, look over there.
[1:47:21] What's that?
[1:47:22] A woman shot right between the eyes.
[1:47:25] And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr
[1:47:31] through the vast number of people.
[1:47:36] And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that?
[1:47:40] And they're incredible people.
[1:47:42] But they've lived so horribly.
[1:47:43] They've lived so horribly.
[1:47:44] They've lived so horribly.
[1:47:45] You know, Iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or so.
[1:47:49] The Persian people, they're incredible, smart, brilliant, actually.
[1:47:54] And I know so many.
[1:47:55] I know coming from New York, originally I know so many people from Iran.
[1:48:00] They're incredible people, incredible energy and very, very brilliant people.
[1:48:05] But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of a woman,
[1:48:11] remember the great woman march.
[1:48:12] Everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country.
[1:48:15] And then snipers selectively picked.
[1:48:19] Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance.
[1:48:23] They were on top of buildings.
[1:48:25] Nobody even knew where they were, where they're coming from.
[1:48:27] This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad.
[1:48:29] They've done that, too.
[1:48:30] They did that recently.
[1:48:32] This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women.
[1:48:39] And when they see people go down, and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction.
[1:48:44] And they never came out again.
[1:48:46] And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that.
[1:48:49] They talk about, oh, women's rights.
[1:48:52] You want to see women's rights?
[1:48:53] You're not going to see it there.
[1:48:54] It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group.
[1:49:00] They talk about, oh, freedom for Iran.
[1:49:04] They don't tell you the real facts.
[1:49:06] Women, men, gays.
[1:49:09] How about gays for Iran?
[1:49:11] They kill the gays.
[1:49:13] They throw them off buildings.
[1:49:15] So I wonder what's going on.
[1:49:17] I can only say this.
[1:49:19] They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes because their life is in much greater danger.
[1:49:25] They want freedom for Iran.
[1:49:27] But it's very hard for them to protest.
[1:49:29] I actually tell them, I said, don't go out.
[1:49:31] I fully understand.
[1:49:32] Nobody in this room would go out.
[1:49:34] I don't think there's any, because frankly, it's not a question of bravery.
[1:49:37] We're all brave, right?
[1:49:38] You're brave.
[1:49:39] I'm brave.
[1:49:40] We're all brave.
[1:49:41] But we're also intelligent.
[1:49:42] If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here, you're out of there.
[1:49:56] I don't care who.
[1:49:57] Mark Meredith, Fox News.
[1:49:58] I know that.
[1:50:00] Oh, thank you.
[1:50:01] Go ahead.
[1:50:02] America's watching.
[1:50:03] No.
[1:50:04] Can we go back to the weekend?
[1:50:05] First off, was everyone on board with the operation, or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend?
[1:50:12] Not everybody was on board.
[1:50:13] Somebody else within you?
[1:50:14] No.
[1:50:15] There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it.
[1:50:17] These two were totally on board, which was very important.
[1:50:19] They weren't.
[1:50:20] I would have had a little difficulty.
[1:50:21] But no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this.
[1:50:23] You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military.
[1:50:37] You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries.
[1:50:39] You have some countries where military is not their wrong suit.
[1:50:42] This whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before.
[1:50:46] Half the people are wearing uniforms.
[1:50:49] And we had people within the military.
[1:50:52] Usually, it's not done.
[1:50:54] That's one of the reasons.
[1:50:55] You know, I was surprised.
[1:50:56] Somebody said, it's the only time it's ever been done.
[1:50:58] I said, that's not possible.
[1:50:59] But it is possible.
[1:51:01] Because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path.
[1:51:07] I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.
[1:51:11] So, yeah, there were people within the military that said it's a wise.
[1:51:14] And don't forget, how many men did you send altogether, approximately, for the operation?
[1:51:19] I'd love to keep that a secret.
[1:51:21] Okay.
[1:51:22] Well, we are.
[1:51:23] But I will tell you, the number, I'll keep it a secret.
[1:51:27] But it was hundreds.
[1:51:29] And hundreds of these people.
[1:51:31] That's pretty good.
[1:51:32] Is he central?
[1:51:33] Is he central casting?
[1:51:34] But hundreds of people went into this journey.
[1:51:38] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[1:51:40] Forget about the equipment.
[1:51:41] A lot of equipment.
[1:51:42] Nobody cares.
[1:51:43] Hundreds of people could have been killed.
[1:51:47] So we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise.
[1:51:51] And I understood that.
[1:51:52] But I decided to do it.
[1:51:54] Was there a point that they were going to, that you were thinking, there's too much on
[1:51:58] the line.
[1:51:59] And somebody was saying, maybe we abort this now and wait.
[1:52:02] I mean, given the resource, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the
[1:52:06] line here.
[1:52:07] You must have been thinking this could have completely changed the next three years.
[1:52:09] The first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets, because we're
[1:52:16] flying over daylight.
[1:52:17] You know, we're the best at the world at night.
[1:52:19] We have goggles that nobody.
[1:52:21] We have goggles.
[1:52:22] I've tried them.
[1:52:23] Unbelievable.
[1:52:24] I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight.
[1:52:28] I mean, daylight today.
[1:52:29] We have a beautiful day.
[1:52:31] You see just as well with goggles.
[1:52:33] In many ways, it's enhanced.
[1:52:35] So we have the best in the world.
[1:52:38] So it's much safer for us to, for us to do it at night.
[1:52:41] Whereas other people, no other country has that capability.
[1:52:44] They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do.
[1:52:48] But when I was told flying and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran, and
[1:52:56] that's a long time, over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons.
[1:53:02] We took out their anti-aircraft, which is great.
[1:53:05] We took out their radar, which is great.
[1:53:07] We took out a lot.
[1:53:08] But they still have, you know, what hit this one was a shoulder, handheld shoulder missile,
[1:53:14] heat-seeking missile.
[1:53:15] So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever.
[1:53:18] But, but, and they have probably a little luck because you got to get lucky.
[1:53:24] But they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine.
[1:53:27] But these guys were out of there.
[1:53:28] They were great.
[1:53:29] Their timing was great.
[1:53:31] But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission.
[1:53:35] And they didn't say it's a foolish mission.
[1:53:37] They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this.
[1:53:41] This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they could,
[1:53:45] because the flight was so long, they had to refuel.
[1:53:48] It's a very dangerous mission.
[1:53:50] And I just felt it was worth it.
[1:53:52] If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both, and nobody was
[1:53:56] even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible.
[1:54:00] Yeah, please.
[1:54:01] Mr. President, thank you very much.
[1:54:03] Thank you, sir.
[1:54:04] Well, I'll come back to you.
[1:54:05] Okay, thank you.
[1:54:06] Given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more reasonable, less extreme leadership
[1:54:12] in Iran, what does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country
[1:54:17] after this conflict?
[1:54:18] What's your expectation?
[1:54:19] Yeah, if they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very positive.
[1:54:24] A big step.
[1:54:25] I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last.
[1:54:30] Look what happened.
[1:54:31] I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed, they say.
[1:54:36] They're not properly clothed, and they execute the women.
[1:54:39] They absolutely, they shoot them right on the street.
[1:54:43] No, you have a much different group of people.
[1:54:45] Now, I'm not saying we are dealing with them.
[1:54:48] Essentially, they have till 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time.
[1:54:55] But we are dealing with them.
[1:54:56] I think it's going well.
[1:54:57] Mr. Whitcoff is here, and J.D.'s involved in the dealing.
[1:55:01] Mr. Whitcoff is sitting right here, and I think it's going fine, but we'll have to see.
[1:55:06] You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years.
[1:55:11] I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago, not anymore.
[1:55:18] Right now, they are decapitated.
[1:55:20] But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years.
[1:55:27] This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents.
[1:55:33] And those presidents are saying now, every one of them to their friends, we should have done this a long time ago.
[1:55:39] So it's not something I like doing.
[1:55:41] It's very dangerous, and we're getting them at the height of their strength.
[1:55:46] If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a — don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon.
[1:55:55] Remember this.
[1:55:57] He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple.
[1:56:01] How Israel can vote for a Democrat is, if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace else in this country, and how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable.
[1:56:13] Because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran.
[1:56:17] Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash?
[1:56:20] Billions of dollars of cash.
[1:56:22] And he sent it over to them.
[1:56:24] Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars.
[1:56:27] He chose Iran over Israel and, really, the Arab world, if you look.
[1:56:33] Because, you know, the other — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE.
[1:56:37] I mean, you take a look.
[1:56:38] I mean, I can add Kuwait, and I can add Bahrain, and you can add others.
[1:56:42] He chose such an unlikely candidate.
[1:56:47] Nobody could believe it.
[1:56:48] Frankly, if you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen — he should have befriended Iraq.
[1:56:54] He went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking.
[1:57:00] And he made a terrible mistake.
[1:57:02] But that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
[1:57:05] And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it.
[1:57:09] It was one of the best things we ever did, because he had a road to a nuclear weapon.
[1:57:12] And it was going to — it was a very short-term deal.
[1:57:15] You know, countries don't do 10-year deals.
[1:57:17] Countries do hundreds of years.
[1:57:19] You don't do a 10-year deal.
[1:57:20] For a country, you need — this isn't — you're a landlord, you're renting a store on a certain street, and you give somebody a five-year or 10-year lease.
[1:57:29] This is a country.
[1:57:30] It was a short-term deal.
[1:57:32] It was ready to expire.
[1:57:34] I terminated it before it expired.
[1:57:36] It took a lot of heat, and it was one of the best things they ever did, because he would have had a nuclear weapon.
[1:57:40] Then he would have had another nuclear weapon, had those beautiful B-2 bombers not gone in eight months ago, and obliterated — that's it.
[1:57:48] And by the way, the word is obliteration.
[1:57:50] CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete.
[1:57:54] It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it.
[1:57:57] It was obliteration.
[1:57:58] But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision, too, because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover — unbelievable, stealth planes.
[1:58:09] And they were able to do their job.
[1:58:11] If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level, either one of those two instances.
[1:58:19] And if they did, in my opinion — I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday — Israel would have been extinguished.
[1:58:27] Large portions of the Middle East would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, or others.
[1:58:36] And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them.
[1:58:39] They didn't think they were going to be hit.
[1:58:41] They thought they'd be watching us fight.
[1:58:43] And all of a sudden, UAE got hit by 1,500 missiles.
[1:58:47] He would have taken them out also.
[1:58:50] And they were powerful.
[1:58:53] If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible — the Iran nuclear deal was a road to a nuclear weapon — a big one, unlimited.
[1:59:03] Legally, I terminated it without even much thought.
[1:59:07] It was so easy.
[1:59:09] I terminated that.
[1:59:10] And then the B-2 bombers — and I did one other thing.
[1:59:13] I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius.
[1:59:20] And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases.
[1:59:27] And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting, perhaps, a different Iran right now.
[1:59:34] Because he's never — he's never been replaced, you know?
[1:59:39] And I also — I did one other, but this one was not picked up.
[1:59:42] Osama bin Laden.
[1:59:43] If you read my book, I said you've got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center came down.
[1:59:50] So I wish you'd read the book.
[1:59:52] But you — as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts.
[1:59:59] And a lot of this is instinct.
[2:00:01] Yeah, please.
[2:00:02] Thank you so much for taking my question today, Mr. President.
[2:00:05] Mr. President, last week — last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
[2:00:11] Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48-hour — I mean, 48-hour ultimatum?
[2:00:18] And secondly, would a new ceasefire include Israel, or would it just be between Iran and the U.S.?
[2:00:23] I can't talk about ceasefire.
[2:00:24] But I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side.
[2:00:31] They would like to be able to make a deal.
[2:00:33] I can't say any more than that, but I can't —
[2:00:35] Mr. President, you've listed — you've listed the goals —
[2:00:40] Excuse me.
[2:00:41] Please, go ahead.
[2:00:42] Thank you, Mr. President.
[2:00:43] Who you with?
[2:00:44] Who you with?
[2:00:45] My name is Diyar Kurda.
[2:00:46] I'm with the largest Kurdish media out there, Trudeau Media Network.
[2:00:48] It's based in Iran.
[2:00:49] Go ahead.
[2:00:50] Mr. President, you said before that you don't want the Kurdish forces to enter Iran and be harmed.
[2:00:56] Do you still want them to stay away?
[2:00:58] Or what role do you expect them to play now?
[2:01:00] I'd rather have them stay away.
[2:01:02] And then —
[2:01:03] I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulties.
[2:01:08] And I don't think — they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves.
[2:01:11] But I'd rather have them stay away.
[2:01:13] Go ahead.
[2:01:14] Thank you, Mr. President, for the question.
[2:01:19] Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law.
[2:01:25] Who you with?
[2:01:26] Who you with?
[2:01:27] Who you –
[2:01:28] The Press is from the New York Times.
[2:01:29] Who you with?
[2:01:30] The feeling, the feeling.
[2:01:31] It's the circulation way down at the New York Times.
[2:01:33] Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?
[2:01:37] No, not at all.
[2:01:38] No, no.
[2:01:39] I hope I don't have to do it.
[2:01:40] But, again, I just said — 47 years they've been negotiating with these people.
[2:01:45] with these people they're great negotiators and because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon
[2:01:51] and if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective which possibly that will
[2:01:57] happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak ineffective and afraid afraid of iran
[2:02:03] we're never going to let iran have a nuclear weapon and if you think it's okay for people
[2:02:09] that are sick of mind that are tough smart and sick really sick ideal uh you know from from a policy
[2:02:19] standpoint from a stamp any which way you want to say mentally these are disturbed people if you think
[2:02:27] i'm going to allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon you can tell your friends
[2:02:33] at the new york times not going to happen it means violating international law quiet quiet you no
[2:02:42] longer have credibility the new york times because the new york times said oh trump won't win the
[2:02:47] election and i won in a landslide i won every swing state new york times said oh trump won't win the
[2:02:51] election new york times has no credibility the credibility they have is it used to be
[2:02:57] all the news that's fit to print a great the old gray lady it was great but they're they're running on
[2:03:03] past fumes and you can't keep doing that you have to be able to give the correct news and people like
[2:03:08] you who i know are fake you're fake go ahead please your messaging on the war has moved from the war is
[2:03:16] coming to an end to we're going to be bombing iran to the stone ages and we've heard a range of those
[2:03:22] kind of messages so are you so which is it are you winding this down are you i can't tell you i don't
[2:03:28] know i can't it depends what they do this is a critical period they have a period of well till tomorrow
[2:03:36] at eight o'clock i gave them an extension they asked for an extension of seven days right i said
[2:03:42] steve give them 10 days 10 days is up actually today so i gave them 11 i guess indirectly
[2:03:51] i thought it was inappropriate the day after easter i want to be a nice person uh they have till
[2:03:57] tomorrow now we'll see what happens i can tell you they're negotiating we think in good faith
[2:04:04] we're going to find out we're getting the help of some incredible countries that
[2:04:08] want this to be ended because it affects them also a lot of people are affected by this
[2:04:14] but we're giving them uh we're giving them till tomorrow eight o'clock eastern time and after that
[2:04:22] they're going to have no bridges they're going to have no power plants stone ages yeah
[2:04:29] cnn fake are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the strait of bormuz or
[2:04:40] is that now a top priority i would say it's a very big priority because um see that's that's one
[2:04:47] thing that's a little different than other than we can bomb the hell out of them we can knock them
[2:04:52] out for a loop but to close the strait all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded
[2:04:59] with because you can carry them in trucks large trucks a water mine drop them in the water and
[2:05:07] now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to don't worry about the mine
[2:05:11] you can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water so it's not like the rest we can knock
[2:05:17] out their military we already have we've knocked out their navy we've knocked out their air force
[2:05:22] completely knocked out 158 ships in three days we've knocked out even their mine droppers they
[2:05:28] don't have any mind droppers anymore but they put them on other boats and they could drop them i'm
[2:05:32] not even sure they have any mines yet by the way i'm not sure i don't i'm personally they say there
[2:05:38] might be eight i don't know i don't know i think there might be none uh because they're very good
[2:05:43] bullshit artists that's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't
[2:05:48] done the job and people are living in hell you live in that country they're living in hell
[2:05:54] uh no i think that uh 47 years of this stuff is long enough they're at the weakest point they've
[2:06:02] ever been they have no navy they have no air force they have no anti-aircraft weaponry they have no
[2:06:09] radar they have no communication in fact the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't
[2:06:15] communicate i said to steve what are they saying sir they can't communicate they have no method of
[2:06:21] communication so we're doing we're communicating like they used to communicate 2000 years ago with
[2:06:27] children bringing a note back and forth they have no communication but all i want to see is i want to
[2:06:34] have a safe world and you're not going to have a safe world israel will be gone the middle east will be
[2:06:41] gone and then they're coming for europe and i have to tell you i'm very disappointed in nato very i think
[2:06:47] that nato i think it's a mark on nato that will never disappear never disappear in my mind you
[2:06:53] know they're coming to see me on wednesday they're going to say oh we'll do this we'll do that now they
[2:06:58] all of a sudden want to send things you know but they said it loud and clear at the beginning when i
[2:07:03] spoke to uk of all i would have said they would have been there first because they've been they're the
[2:07:07] oldest and i say yeah i'd love to have a little help said no sir we'd rather wait till you win i said i
[2:07:14] don't need help after we win they have two old broken aircraft carriers barely work i said i guess
[2:07:20] we can use them who the hell knows i called the general he didn't even want he said we don't really
[2:07:25] need them we got we got the ss abraham lincoln sir we don't need them do you know we have in terms of
[2:07:31] technology we had one day 101 missiles going at 2 700 miles an hour aimed at the abraham lincoln 101
[2:07:42] missiles out of 101 missiles 101 missiles were shot down unbelievable technology 10 years ago five
[2:07:52] years ago i don't know if that would have been possible but 10 years ago that wouldn't have been
[2:07:58] that wouldn't have been possible uh 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast
[2:08:07] and out of the 101 missiles we shut down all 101 we have weaponry uh the patriots are unbelievable we have
[2:08:14] weaponry that's unbelievable go ahead please thank you mr president um you said earlier today during
[2:08:26] the egg roll that you would like to take iran's oil but americans want u.s forces home correct
[2:08:32] what's that trade if i had my choice if i had my choice yeah because i'm a businessman first with
[2:08:39] venezuela as you know the war was over in about 45 minutes and we have great people running venezuela very
[2:08:47] good people i mean the relationship is good and we are a partner with venezuela and we've taken
[2:08:55] hundreds of millions of barrels hundreds of millions over 100 million barrels already is
[2:09:02] in houston refined and out and paid paid for that war many many times over many times you know the old
[2:09:09] days to the victim okay you know that to the uh to the winner belong the spoils go the spoils
[2:09:19] and i've said why don't we use it to the victor go the spoils and we don't have that we haven't had
[2:09:25] that in this country probably in 100 years because even the second world war you look at the second
[2:09:29] world war we didn't have it with the second world we helped rebuild all those countries we rebuilt
[2:09:34] germany how about germany telling us germany telling us that uh well it's not their war we had nothing to
[2:09:42] do with getting they wanted me to go and tell them everything i was doing we didn't know anything about
[2:09:47] it well if i would have told them they would have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as
[2:09:51] successful possibly right but to the victor belong the spoils so we haven't heard we haven't heard that
[2:09:59] in i think maybe hundreds of years now with venezuela and we just so you understand the people
[2:10:06] of venezuela they say if i ran for president of venezuela i'm polling higher than anybody has ever
[2:10:12] polled in venezuela so after i'm finished with this i can go to venezuela i will quickly learn spanish it
[2:10:18] won't take too long i'm good at language and i will go to venezuela i'm going to run for president
[2:10:23] but we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now the the the people that
[2:10:29] are running it if you remember bush with iraq they fired the generals they fired the police
[2:10:35] they fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the white house they fired everybody
[2:10:41] and you know they had they had a mess and you know what happened isis formed those generals and
[2:10:46] those soldiers got together the police got together they all got together they formed isis
[2:10:51] not going to happen with us so venezuela has been an incredible it's been an incredible situation we
[2:10:57] went in we were very successful military power like nobody's ever seen the general uh venezuelan
[2:11:05] general said i was on that site i said i've never seen ferocity like that i've been doing this for 40
[2:11:11] years he said i've never seen it they they hit us from 17 different it was they were all set they saw that
[2:11:18] big beautiful aircraft carrier the ford in that case and planes were pouring off it at one o'clock in
[2:11:24] the morning so typically when you see that late at night you know you could be in trouble right and
[2:11:33] we're all ready they had their equipment it was russian and they had chinese equipment it was all
[2:11:38] set they were going to give us a fight he said and then they came and they came at speeds like we've
[2:11:44] never seen and they came at 17 different angles the general and his people that was a lot of angles
[2:11:51] they hit him from every angle he said we knew it was over in three minutes we were waiting for him
[2:11:59] their equipment didn't work and there's a reason it didn't work someday we'll explain that to people
[2:12:05] they pressed the button nothing happened they pressed it again and again nothing happened
[2:12:10] and he said we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes we've never seen any
[2:12:14] he used the word ferocity the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles and it was over
[2:12:21] they went inside and remember that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers and those soldiers
[2:12:27] looked and they said get the hell out of here thousands we didn't have thousands we had like 200
[2:12:33] people so we have a great military and i'll tell you what somehow this rescue captured the world's
[2:12:42] attention more so than normally you're talking about two people but this rescue captured the world's
[2:12:49] attention but we did it in venezuela that was amazing and now we have a very bad man in prison and
[2:12:56] going to trial i mean he he released aside from the drugs which he was terrible maduro released
[2:13:04] hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country drug dealers murderers the worst people in
[2:13:11] the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know
[2:13:17] and we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol
[2:13:23] agents right not once kamala she never called the border patrol she never said how are we doing i used
[2:13:28] to call the border patrol guys every day you can ask them paul ask any one of them brandon ask him
[2:13:34] all the time how are we doing how are we doing and we now i'm proud to say have a totally sealed border
[2:13:39] nine months nobody is coming through but and nobody even tries because they know they're not going
[2:13:43] to get through so we don't have caravans anymore so maybe one or two more and we'll be done mr
[2:13:52] president are you allowed to or are you willing to end this conflict with iran charging tolls
[2:13:58] for passage through the street uh us charging tolls iran what about us charging tolls is that something
[2:14:05] you're considering i'd rather do that than let them have them run why shouldn't we we're the winner we won
[2:14:11] okay they are militarily defeated the only thing they have is the psychology of oh we're going to
[2:14:17] drop a couple of mines in the water all right no we i mean we have a concept where we'll charge tolls
[2:14:23] okay i thought you meant your question your question would your question would have been
[2:14:30] more accurate if you said us just to clarify in order for iran to successfully meet your deadline
[2:14:37] tomorrow do they have to make a deal open the street or both we have to have a deal that's
[2:14:43] acceptable to me and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything
[2:14:49] mr president thank you very much you've said glory be to god in this conflict do you believe that god
[2:14:59] supports the united states actions and i do because god is good because god is good and god wants to see
[2:15:06] people taken care of god doesn't like what's happening i don't like what's happening everyone
[2:15:11] says i enjoy i don't enjoy this i don't enjoy it these two guys don't enjoy it you know people say
[2:15:16] oh boy they're so tough they don't want they don't like i don't like seeing people killed i've ended eight
[2:15:22] wars nobody's ever done it the person who won the nobel prize came to me and said you deserve the nobel
[2:15:29] prize she announced that when they announced they said goes to maria she's a great person really a good
[2:15:35] person she said no no no this is ridiculous they gave me the nobel prize president trump ended eight
[2:15:43] wars i could go over every one of them including india and pakistan where the prime minister of
[2:15:49] pakistan said president trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives that makes me much happier than what
[2:15:57] we're doing right now that makes me much happier we have one more to end by the way president um you
[2:16:07] called the yesterday in your truth social you called the iranians crazy bastards true um what is
[2:16:14] your response to critics who say that i don't care about what is your response to critics who say that
[2:16:18] it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues i haven't heard that
[2:16:23] but if that's the case you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was being
[2:16:28] ripped off on trade or on everything for many years until i came along so if that's the case you're going
[2:16:35] to have to have more people dasha you said that very little is off limits in iran as far as what a
[2:16:42] great choice he was they said well what happened uh during his nomination what happened to you i'm
[2:16:49] telling you people that were not forum senators friends of mine sir i don't think you're doing the
[2:16:54] right thing now they call me up what a choice these two guys are fantastic and john ratcliffe was
[2:17:01] incredible it was actually their genius that called us from it was 40 miles away and he said you know
[2:17:10] we're seeing something moving up in the mountain this is at night and they kept the camera on him
[2:17:16] for 45 minutes he wasn't moving and they said you know probably wrong but we're seeing something moving
[2:17:22] this is a vast mountain vast thick with bushes trees he said we see something moving 40 miles away
[2:17:32] it was a head of a human being i'm telling you it's moving and then all of a sudden 45 minutes later
[2:17:41] he moved a lot stood up and they stood way half of him and that was really the beginning of something
[2:17:49] incredible we had an idea where he was but not specifically that's a big mountain so uh i want to
[2:17:57] thank the cia too i don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done yes please
[2:18:02] yes thank you very much mr president for this great opportunity country it has super army you make a
[2:18:12] difference mr president thank you for your greatest leadership thank you i have a two quick questions
[2:18:18] mr president what was your reaction when you learned that kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil to the
[2:18:27] international market with your support as united states of america well i expected that we've gotten
[2:18:34] along with the kurds for a long time so i expected that another question what would what would be your
[2:18:43] reaction if the iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire mr president well they
[2:18:51] should do it but again the consequences are great i mean they were told you if you protest you will be
[2:18:57] shot immediately you saw what happened to the young wrestler he was a great champion by the
[2:19:02] way he was a great wrestler one of the top in the world and he and his two friends were hung and
[2:19:09] all they did was say a little bit about liberty they wanted liberty and they were violently executed
[2:19:16] but the number is up to probably 45 000 people were killed so you know when somebody stays in
[2:19:22] a house when they know if they walk out of the house to protest they'll be immediately shot and killed
[2:19:28] and they issued that you know that was publicly issued it's not a secret that's why so many people say
[2:19:33] oh well why are you doing this way we can't let iran have a nuclear weapon you know we got regime
[2:19:40] change we do we're dealing with a much different regime than before we're doing with different people
[2:19:46] they're smarter i think they're sharper uh and far less radical we have regime change but uh
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