TRUMP SPEECH LIVE: Trump’s Remark Leaves Reporters Speechless — Trump Speech LIVE — US News LIVE

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