CNBC's full interview with President Donald Trump

[0:02] Joining us now on the Squawk Newsline, President Donald J. Trump. [0:06] President Trump, welcome. Thanks for joining us this morning. [0:09] Well, thank you very much, Joe. [0:11] You are very welcome. [0:12] Can you give us, I think it's on everyone's mind, the latest on where the Iran negotiations stand? [0:18] We now know Tehran has publicly confirmed that it will send representatives to the meeting with Vice President Vance. [0:28] What do you expect? What are you hearing at this point, sir? [0:31] Well, as I said two days ago when they said they won't send them, I said they'll be sending them. [0:37] They have no choice but to send them. [0:39] What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal. [0:42] I think it's got, I think they have no choice. [0:44] We've taken out their Navy. We've taken out their Air Force. [0:47] We've taken out their leaders, frankly, which does complicate things in one way, but these leaders are much more rational. [0:53] It's a, it is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, [0:59] but I've done it indirectly maybe, but I've done it. [1:03] And I think we're in a very strong negotiating position to do what other presidents should have done during a 47-year period. [1:11] We have 47 years where these bloodthirsty people have been killing a lot of soldiers, a lot of our soldiers, and a lot of other people. [1:19] They've killed 42,000 people over the last two months. [1:22] And, you know, you get to a point where people don't want to mention that. [1:27] They don't like mentioning that. [1:29] 42,000 unarmed protesters, innocent unarmed protesters, many of them hung. [1:35] So we're not dealing with the nicest group of people, but we're dealing with them very successfully. [1:40] And the blockade has been a tremendous success. [1:42] They said two days ago, we will open the strait. [1:44] They said, no, we're not going to open the strait until we have a final deal. [1:48] No, no, we want to open the strait. [1:50] They said, we're not opening. [1:51] We totally control the strait, just so you understand, for all the fake news out there. [1:54] And, Mr. President, we've seen 100 days of the largest protests in Iran since the revolution in 1979. [2:05] And I know how much you respect and admire and are concerned with the Iranian people themselves. [2:15] And this is, I think, in a large degree one of the reasons you decided to embark on this whole thing, maybe among other things. [2:23] But the timing was right. [2:24] If we get close in negotiations right now, but the deadline for the ceasefire is tomorrow, if it looks like things are progressing, [2:35] will you not necessarily extend it to a definitive amount of time, but will you let it keep going if there's progress in the talks before taking more? [2:45] Well, I don't want to do that. [2:47] We don't have that much time because by the time both parties get there, as you know, they just got the OK to go forward, which I do, they were going to do anyway. [2:54] I mean, I don't think they had a choice. [2:56] They have to negotiate. [2:57] And, you know, the one thing I'll say is this. [3:00] Iran can get themselves at a very good footing if they make a deal. [3:03] They can make themselves into a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again. [3:08] They have incredible people. [3:09] But they seem to be, you know, bloodthirsty. [3:13] They're led by some very, very unfortunately tough people. [3:17] And I don't mean tough in a good way. [3:19] I think it's very negative for the country because we're much tougher than they are, like not even close. [3:24] But they have to use reason and they have to use common sense and they can get themselves into a great position to make themselves into a great country, but a legitimate country, not a country based on death and horror. [3:36] And I think regimes only respond to certain things. [3:41] And I understand your your threats to you to bond the bridges in the electric grid. [3:47] But I don't think the regime cares about the people of Iran. [3:52] And if you did that, I'm sure it's the last thing you'd probably want to do. [3:56] But it would hurt at least some of the people that we we care about and why we embarked on this in the first place. [4:04] So that would be, I'm sure, a last resort for you. [4:07] It's not my choice, but it will also hurt them. [4:10] It'll hurt them militarily. [4:11] They use the bridges for their weapons, for their missile movements. [4:16] But, you know, they're trying to move the missiles because we've obliterated most of their missiles and they're trying to move their missiles around, even during the ceasefire, which I think was a good thing because we're totally loaded up. [4:25] We have so much ammo. [4:27] We have so much of everything that we've like a much, much more powerful than it was four or five weeks ago. [4:33] So we've used this to restock and they probably have done a little bit of restocking. [4:37] We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn't very nice, a gift from China, perhaps. [4:43] I don't know, but I was a little surprised because I have a very good relationship and I thought I had an understanding with President Xi. [4:50] But that's all right. [4:51] That's the way war goes, right? [4:53] But I will tell you that we have our military is incredible, what we've done. [4:58] I mean, think of it. [4:59] In the first three days, we took out their entire Navy, 159 ships, 159 ships, and wiped out their air force, wiped out their anti-aircraft craft. [5:10] All of their anti-aircraft apparatus is all gone. [5:14] All of their radar is gone. [5:16] Their leaders are gone. [5:18] You know, their leaders are gone. [5:19] The whole thing is gone. [5:21] And frankly, this should have been done a long time ago. [5:24] It would have been a lot easier because they were a lot less lethal a long time ago. [5:29] So, to be clear, you're saying that you need at least the prospects for a signed deal today and tomorrow, or else you would resume bombing Iran. [5:44] Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with. [5:49] But we're ready to go. [5:51] I mean, the military is raring to go. [5:53] They are absolutely incredible. [5:54] You know, I built the military my first term. [5:56] I'm using it now. [5:57] The military, when I took it over from Barack Hussein and Obama, they had just—it was so depleted, so sad. [6:04] And I built it in my first term. [6:06] You remember those big numbers. [6:07] You talked to me about it once. [6:08] That's a lot of money for military. [6:10] I built it. [6:11] We did a great job with our military. [6:13] And we're using it now and rebuilding it, too. [6:17] We've done a lot of rebuilding also in my first year of the second term. [6:21] But we have a tremendous—we have the most powerful military in the world. [6:24] Everybody knows it. [6:25] Since we're kind of tight on time, can we just talk about something else happening today? [6:33] And that is your pick for Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on Capitol Hill. [6:38] We've had a couple of guests today say the best thing that we need now is for Jay Powell to leave in May, like he's supposed to, [6:45] and to have Kevin Warsh in as Fed Chair for that next June meeting. [6:50] But we still have this Justice Department probe hanging over. [6:54] And I've seen things that you've said in recent interviews, Mr. President. [6:58] And I just want to ask you again, if it would be possible for the banking committee to completely investigate all of your concerns about the cost overruns [7:07] and the testimony of Jay Powell in front of Congress, if you could take that off-ramp to get this moving and Jay Powell leaves, Kevin Warsh goes in, [7:18] is that something you'd consider dropping the DOJ probe to let the banking committee handle it? [7:24] From the standpoint, Joe, from the standpoint that we have to find out why a small building costs close to $4 billion. [7:33] It's not finished, by the way. [7:34] They have a long way to go. [7:35] They rip down the most beautiful ceilings. [7:37] They'll never build them again. [7:38] The most beautiful, thick, foot-and-a-half-thick walls of solid masonry. [7:42] They're never going to be built again. [7:44] And they put up six-inch sheetrock walls. [7:47] And they say, sir, we have no insulation. [7:48] It's not in the budget. [7:49] I mean, they had the best. [7:51] That building was so beautiful. [7:53] I would have fixed that building. [7:54] I would have had it brand new, beautiful, for $25 million. [7:57] And they're going to spend close to $4 billion, maybe more than that. [8:01] I don't know. [8:01] It's not finished. [8:02] In fact, I looked at it the other day. [8:04] I'm afraid Kevin will have to have an office next to me in the White House because that building's not going to be done. [8:09] He's not going to be able to use that building for a long time. [8:12] And, you know, he had a complaint. [8:13] He said, I didn't realize this. [8:15] He said, the saddest thing is they ripped down the best building. [8:18] He said there was a building that had beautiful boardrooms that he used many times when he was there, that beautiful boardrooms and meeting rooms. [8:26] It was so beautiful, the nicest in Washington. [8:29] And he said, they ripped it down. [8:31] And maybe they did that to save money, like the Gavin Newsom, the railroad, where they made it shorter in order to save money. [8:37] But it's still 25 times over budget. [8:39] But the worst I've ever heard is the railroad. [8:42] In California, and I think this might be worse. [8:45] Think of it. [8:45] I would have fixed that building. [8:47] Beautiful. [8:48] Quickly. [8:49] 25 million would have been like a brand new building. [8:51] I would have all the ceilings would have been left. [8:54] All those beautiful thick walls with gorgeous moldings would have been left. [8:59] You're going to get a sheetrock ceiling, a sheetrock wall without insulation. [9:03] They said, sir, insulation is not in the budget. [9:06] Insulation costs you 100 bucks a room. [9:07] The whole thing is crazy. [9:09] And they're at four. [9:11] I think it's going to cause more than $4 billion when it's finished. [9:14] But it would have been... [9:15] Somehow, we know, but Joe, somehow we have to find out how this can happen. [9:19] It's not the first time. [9:20] How did this happen? [9:22] Did the contractor make $3.5 billion? [9:24] It's a banking committee can take it over. [9:29] I can't imagine that too late is taking money on construction. [9:34] I can't. [9:35] But it's possible. [9:36] But we have to find out why is a job that should have cost $25 million costing billions and billions [9:43] of dollars? [9:44] You know, I built the hotel. [9:45] It's now the Waldorf. [9:46] I sold it to Waldorf. [9:47] And it's now the Waldorf. [9:49] I built it for $201 million. [9:50] It's a bigger building than the federal... [9:52] And it was hotel rooms with bathrooms and, you know, partitions. [9:57] And it's much more expensive to build a hotel room than it is a nice empty office space, right? [10:02] And I built that for $201 million. [10:06] This now is eight years ago or so. [10:08] But think of it. [10:09] This building, you look at it, it's a little building. [10:13] It's over... [10:14] I think it's going to cost over $400 million. [10:16] And here's the thing. [10:17] It's going to be nothing compared to what it was. [10:21] This is... [10:22] They spent $4 billion, and it's nothing compared to what it was. [10:26] It was beautiful. [10:27] It was beautiful. [10:28] Ceilings were all destroyed. [10:29] They took them down. [10:31] I don't know why. [10:32] If the DOJ, though, if this goes forward with the Department of Justice and it delays [10:38] the appointment... [10:40] Or the... [10:41] You know, him being confirmed, Kevin Warsh, it's kind of counterproductive for what you're [10:47] trying to do in terms of changing the MO of the Fed up to this point. [10:53] So I'm just trying to look for an off-ramp to get for you... [10:57] Well, it is and it isn't, Joe. [10:58] You have to find out why a thing like that could happen. [11:00] Because if you have hundreds of projects like that, you know, very few are like this. [11:04] But if you had hundreds of projects like that, you have to find out why that happens. [11:09] I mean, because we obviously don't do it right. [11:11] But, you know, we have some really people... [11:13] We have some great people in government that can do jobs. [11:17] I built under budget, ahead of schedule. [11:21] I'm doing a ballroom now. [11:22] It's a much bigger job than that. [11:25] And it's going to cost, depending on finishes, like $300 million. [11:30] It's a much bigger job than that. [11:31] It's ahead of schedule. [11:32] And I have lawsuits every week from all these people, all the do-gooders that, you know, [11:36] that stop progress in our country. [11:38] Well, I'm going to give it back to you a chance, Mr. President, to get you to... [11:42] And you can have some extra time. [11:43] I know my people said 20 minutes, but you can have some extra time. [11:45] Oh, thank you, sir. [11:46] All right. [11:47] That's good. [11:48] You can even put Andrew on the phone. [11:49] You know, you told me Andrew would not be there. [11:52] And I said, I don't care if he's there anymore. [11:52] That was last week. [11:53] That was last week. [11:54] You could even put Andrew on. [11:55] Thank you, Mr. President. [11:56] Joe made a comment to me. [11:58] When he tried to get me on, he said, I promise I'll have Andrew Ross talking. [12:01] He will not be there. [12:02] He is there. [12:03] And you can put him on. [12:04] It's okay, doesn't it? [12:05] I didn't say I'd have him. [12:06] I said he's not in last week. [12:08] But then you can't because you were on the West Coast. [12:10] Thank you, Mr. President. [12:12] I'll chime in in a minute. [12:13] He's going to be so... [12:15] I don't mind if he's there. [12:16] I like him. [12:17] I respect him. [12:18] He's just wrong on a lot of issues. [12:19] There you go. [12:20] Thank you. [12:21] Mr. President, thank you. [12:23] Let's talk a little bit about what you... [12:25] Hi, sir. [12:25] Let's talk a little bit about what you expect from your next Fed president. [12:30] There had been a lot of expectations. [12:32] You've been very clear about wanting lower rates. [12:35] But with the situation in Iran right now with higher oil prices, [12:39] most people tell us that that's going to have to wait. [12:42] The market itself is not anticipating lower rates or any rate cuts until at least the second half of this year. [12:48] There's only a 41% chance or something of that, according to the market itself. [12:53] Will you be disappointed if your new Fed chair, if he gets approved, doesn't cut rates right away? [12:59] I would. [12:59] But let's talk about Iran first. [13:02] Iran, I'm looking at your numbers now as I speak. [13:06] I mean, the market's up. [13:07] We're going to be at 50,000. [13:08] That's where we were just a little while ago when it started. [13:12] And when I hit 50,000 on the Dow and 7,000 on the S&P, I said, [13:16] well, I hate to do this to everybody, but I'm going to have to journey down to a place called Iran [13:21] and not make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon because they will blow up the world. [13:26] You want to see a bad stock market? [13:28] Try blowing up the Middle East and then Europe, and then they come for us, right? [13:32] And we're not going to let that happen. [13:33] And so I said to the people, I said to my people, they were all gathered, all these wonderful guys, [13:38] Scott Besson, the whole group, Howard, they were all doing a good job. [13:42] I said, fellas, I got a little bad news for you. [13:44] I'm going to put a little wrinkle in your numbers. [13:46] Why, sir? [13:47] We're going down to a place called Iran, and we're going to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon [13:52] because they'll use it to blow up because they're religious fanatics, [13:56] and they will use that weapon to blow up the world, but they'll start with Israel in the Middle East, [14:00] and we're not going to let that happen, and they said, wow, that's going to be bad. [14:05] I said, yeah, it's going to hurt the market, and it's going to drive up the price of oil and whatever it is, [14:10] but that's peanuts compared to what would happen if we let this happen, [14:13] and I told them, 47 years other presidents wanted to do it. [14:17] They never had the guts, the courage to do it. [14:19] I said, we have to do it, and they understood that, very professional. [14:22] They're great guys, great people. [14:25] Jameson's doing such a great job, all of them, [14:27] and so I said, we're going down, and we're going to do our little thing, and we did, [14:32] and we've knocked out. [14:34] We've totally won the war. [14:35] If you read the New York Times, you think, oh, gee, when are we surrendering? [14:39] We have totally beat them militarily and otherwise, and otherwise. [14:44] I mean, I wish you could hear the conversations we have with them. [14:49] We are victorious. [14:51] If we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild, [14:54] and they can't get the nuclear dust because it was obliterated by the B-2 bombers that went in. [15:00] They never got the credit they should get. [15:02] They've tried to get down there. [15:03] You know, we have cameras from Space Force on it all the time. [15:06] They've tried to get down. [15:07] They can't get down. [15:08] That place was obliterated. [15:10] They did such a good job. [15:11] The left tries to make it, you know, tries to demean all the time, like, oh, well, [15:15] maybe it wasn't totally obliterated. [15:17] It was, and they can't get it, or they would have tried to get it. [15:20] But the fact is that we took this little journey. [15:24] And if you would have told me that the Dow is almost, I'm looking at your thing. [15:27] I mean, literally, we're at 50,000. [15:30] And if you would have told me that oil is at 90 as opposed to 200, I would be, frankly, surprised. [15:37] And you know what is happening? [15:38] Boats are finding other sources. [15:40] They're going up to Texas and Louisiana. [15:43] They're going to Alaska. [15:44] They're going to other places. [15:46] It's an amazing phenomenon. [15:47] You know, when there are problems, people find out how to take care of things. [15:53] And the straight's very important. [15:55] But people have found out. [15:57] I mean, you're taking a look. [15:58] Look at your numbers right now. [15:59] I'm looking at where the stock market's up, where it's, you know, look at that S&P. [16:05] The numbers are what they were when we started this whole thing. [16:08] I thought they'd be down 20% or down a very substantial amount. [16:12] But even when it was down more a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised. [16:17] I thought it would be down much more. [16:18] And I thought the oil would be much higher. [16:20] And I'm very happy to say that it wasn't. [16:22] And when it's over, and it will end, when it's over, you know, they want it to be over [16:26] immediately. [16:27] And I just looked at a little chart. [16:29] World War I, four years and three months. [16:31] World War II, six years. [16:33] Korean War, three years. [16:35] Vietnam, 19 years. [16:36] Iraq, eight years. [16:39] I'm five months. [16:39] Okay, five months. [16:42] I would have won Vietnam very quickly. [16:45] I would have, if I were president, I would have won Iraq in the same amount of time that [16:50] we won, because essentially we've won here. [16:53] Okay. [16:53] I mean, people can play games. [16:55] The Democrats can say, well, we should have done better. [16:58] No matter what, if I did it in one week, they should have said, they'd say, we should [17:02] have done better. [17:03] Look at Venezuela. [17:04] I took it over in 45 minutes. [17:05] It was basically a 45 minute. [17:07] By the way, a very strong military country, and we took it over in a day, but let's be [17:13] nice. [17:13] But we basically took it over in 45 minutes. [17:16] We took it over during the attack in 45 minutes. [17:19] And they would say, I'm surprised they haven't said it, that you should have done it in 30 minutes. [17:24] It took too long, you know. [17:25] So it's tough. [17:26] But we can't let traitors, we can't let traitors like Schumer put pressure on you, where they [17:32] say, we want out. [17:34] Think how bad that is. [17:36] I'm negotiating with these people, and they're telling us, we have to get out now, we have [17:40] to get out now, we have to get now. [17:41] And they were in a war for 18 years. [17:44] They were in a war for, think of that, Vietnam, 19 years, Iraq, eight years. [17:50] So I want to make a good deal. [17:53] I'm not going to be rushed. [17:54] I have all the time in the world, I want to make a, not a good deal, I want to make [17:58] a great deal. [17:58] I don't want to do this, go through this. [18:01] And, you know, we have, I mean, if you look at this, what we've suffered in terms of losses, [18:07] we lost 13 men, and that's terrible. [18:09] I wish we didn't lose one. [18:11] But if somebody would have said, we've done this, and obliterated that country, obliterated [18:15] it, and we lost 13 men, people would have said, that's not possible to have done that. [18:22] It's not possible. [18:23] So we've done a great job. [18:25] And I don't want to be rushed by people that are really treasonous, as far as I'm concerned, [18:29] where they're, and it's just, you know, I watch this low IQ guy, Hakeem Jeffries, he's [18:32] a totally low IQ person. [18:34] And he's always ranting and raving, oh, this war is so terrible. [18:37] They shouldn't be saying that when we're in the midst of a negotiation, because it does [18:42] hurt us somewhat. [18:43] It gives the other side some hope. [18:45] And I don't want them to have hope. [18:47] Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about Anthropic, if I could, for a second, because this is a [18:53] company that your administration has declared a supply chain risk. [18:58] And I want to understand the determination for that. [19:01] There's a view by some that it's political. [19:03] But more importantly, at the same time that this is happening, reportedly, the NSA and other [19:08] parts of the government are using Claude, which of course is the large language model of [19:14] Anthropic, and how you square that. [19:17] Well, Anthropic is a group of very smart people, but they started telling our military how to [19:21] operate, and we didn't want that. [19:23] And they tend to be on the left, radical left, but we get along with them. [19:28] In fact, they came to the office, they came to the White House a few days ago, and we had [19:34] some very good talks with them. [19:35] And I think they're shaping up, they're very smart, and I think they can be of great use. [19:40] I like smart people, I like high IQ people, and they definitely have high IQs, you know. [19:45] It's one of those things. [19:46] And I think we'll get along with them just fine. [19:49] So do you think a deal will be made so that Anthropic will be allowed to be used inside [19:54] the Defense Department of the future? [19:55] We want the smartest people. [19:58] Now, in the meantime, we replaced Anthropic with somebody else. [20:02] You know who they are, and they're very, very smart people. [20:06] Sam Altman is a very, very smart group. [20:09] We have a lot of smart groups. [20:10] We have some brilliant people. [20:11] We have the most brilliant people in the world. [20:13] President Xi told me that. [20:15] He said, Silicon Valley, yep. [20:16] He called it Silicon Valley during the conversation. [20:19] I have a great relationship with him. [20:22] He said, you have the smartest people in the world, and we do. [20:24] You take a look at what's happening with Jensen and all of these people, and it's a great honor [20:31] to be working. [20:32] I think Tim Cook, you know, I see he's retiring. [20:36] I wrote a piece about him today, and I got to know him very well. [20:40] He's a fantastic person, did an unbelievable job. [20:44] And I say it respectfully, but if Steve Jobs had lived and ran the company, it might have [20:50] done good, but it wouldn't have done, I think, nearly as good as the job Tim has done. [20:55] And I got to work with him, so I really know what I'm talking about. [20:58] He's a very unusual guy. [21:00] He gets things done. [21:02] Mr. President, yeah, we did read your entire true social post. [21:06] I just want to return for one second and make an analogy here. [21:11] You saw what inflation did to the Biden legacy and administration. [21:17] So 22% price increases. [21:20] By the time he was leaving, it was down to about where it is now, about 3%, but not a [21:26] single... [21:27] It was down to 5%. [21:28] It wasn't down to... [21:28] But not a single person... [21:30] And the reason it was down was because I had won the election, and it started falling [21:34] after I won the election, and I started getting prices down from right after November 5th. [21:39] If you needed to, to prevent that from happening, let's say, Chair Warstott, for whatever reason, [21:47] there's some type of energy shock, who knows, with the blockade. [21:50] Let's say that things got too hot. [21:53] At that point, just to make sure there was no inflation, would you allow him to raise [21:59] rates or not cut rates? [22:00] Would there ever be a period where you could see that that was something that a Fed chair [22:05] needed to do? [22:06] And if he... [22:07] You said he might have an office right near you. [22:08] He might not want an office right next to yours, sir. [22:11] I don't know. [22:12] After what happened to Jay Powell, he might want to be across... [22:16] In those new digs, maybe. [22:18] Maybe I'd like him next to me. [22:20] Actually, it's not a bad idea. [22:21] Maybe Jay Powell did us a big service in... [22:26] I call him too late. [22:27] He's just too late. [22:28] He's always too late, except what it came to before the election, but that didn't quite [22:32] work out well for him. [22:34] So the answer is, I want Kevin. [22:36] I think Kevin's great. [22:37] He's really, he's central casting in a true sense, okay? [22:40] I think he's going to do a great job. [22:42] Yeah, if there's time for... [22:43] I've been in favor of interest rate rises to stop inflation. [22:48] I think it sort of is effective. [22:50] But there's one thing, and nobody ever talks about it but me, unfortunately, so I'm sure [22:54] it's not correct, but I think it is. [22:57] We should be, we should have the lowest interest rate in the world. [23:00] When I was a young guy growing up, we always had the lowest interest rate worldwide. [23:04] We always did. [23:05] And then 15 years ago, 20 years ago, it started where Switzerland and other people had lower [23:13] rates than us. [23:14] And I just had a thing with, if you take a look at some of the, you know, let's call them [23:19] like elite countries. [23:20] They're only elite because we allow them to walk away with $30 billion and $40 billion a [23:25] year. [23:25] But I don't do that so much anymore. [23:27] I sort of put a clamp on that with the tariffs and charges that we charged them, because they [23:33] were elite, because they're making billions and billions of dollars from the United States, [23:39] largely, and other reasons. [23:40] And they run a good operation. [23:41] But it's easier to run it good when you make that much money, where we have these massive [23:45] deficits with, you take a look at some of the countries. [23:49] But Switzerland is one. [23:51] They talk, oh, yes, we are small and brilliant. [23:54] Well, they're brilliant because they pay us almost nothing. [23:57] Now they pay a little bit. [23:59] They should pay much more. [24:00] We'll get that up a little bit. [24:01] But if you take a look at Denmark, you take a look at all these countries, you think of [24:06] them so good. [24:07] They pay such a low interest rate. [24:09] If we charge them, and what happened with me is I charged some of them, and they squawked [24:14] like you wouldn't believe it. [24:16] They called, and we are a small country. [24:19] All of a sudden, I realized they're not elite. [24:22] We're elite. [24:23] We're being sucked dry. [24:24] And we can't do that. [24:26] And you'll see that. [24:27] You know, we had a little setback with the Supreme Court. [24:29] They said, I can charge tariffs, but I have to do it a different way. [24:33] And because of what they did, we have to pay back $160 billion. [24:37] All they had to do was add one sentence, just one sentence. [24:40] And that's, you don't have to pay anything taken in thus far back. [24:45] But because they didn't add, and by the way, it was a close call, too. [24:48] There were justices that were powerful that I was right on the tariffs. [24:53] But because we lost by just two votes, you know, just a little vote, two votes, we have [24:59] to pay back $165 billion. [25:01] They could have, with a little one sentence, you don't have to pay back tariffs that have [25:06] already been received. [25:07] You start from this point. [25:09] And you do it a different way. [25:10] So we're doing it a different way. [25:11] We're going to end up with the same. [25:12] Actually, we'll end up with bigger numbers, actually. [25:15] But it's a little more unwieldy. [25:17] But it's the way it's been done. [25:19] But it's so sad that the Supreme Court didn't want to save our country with one sentence, [25:24] $165 billion. [25:26] And we're giving a lot of that money back to people that hate our country. [25:31] So I'm not happy with the Supreme Court, I'll be honest with you, okay? [25:33] Mr. President, on that topic, there's a whole number of very large companies, including [25:37] Apple and Amazon and others, that have not sought reimbursements yet for the tariffs. [25:44] Meaning they haven't tried to collect refunds. [25:47] And from what I understand, part of the reason that they have waited is because there is [25:52] a worry about, frankly, offending you. [25:57] Would you find it offensive for them to try to collect a refund? [25:59] I think it's brilliant if they don't do that. [26:02] Actually, if they don't do that, they got to know me very well. [26:06] I'm very honored by what you just said. [26:08] If they don't do that, I'll remember them. [26:10] I will tell you that, because I'm looking to make this country strong. [26:14] The Supreme Court could have helped us. [26:15] Now they have birthright citizenship. [26:17] They'll probably rule against us. [26:18] No country in the world has it. [26:20] It's horrible for our country. [26:22] And I just see it. [26:23] Well, I see some of these Republicans that are nominated by me asking real bad questions. [26:31] And it looks like maybe we're going to lose that one, too. [26:34] Look what happened with NIL. [26:35] They destroyed college sports. [26:37] The court system destroyed. [26:40] So hard to put that one back, Humpty Dumpty. [26:42] So hard to put that one back together. [26:45] We had 150 years of rulings and everything else, and they had such a great system. [26:50] It was a scholarship system. [26:52] You get free college if you're a good athlete. [26:54] You get this. [26:55] You get that. [26:56] And it took care of every sport, fencing, not only football. [26:59] Now it's all football, and the football is bringing down colleges, because they're losing. [27:04] Did you see Penn State lost $500 million last year? [27:09] Florida State lost $450 million last year. [27:15] They can't lose that kind of money. [27:17] They don't make that kind of money. [27:19] The court system, a person that never had anything to do with sports, a very liberal-leaning [27:27] Democrat, liberal. [27:29] She decided that the sports system that was in place for 150 years is no good. [27:34] She never went to a game before. [27:36] It's no good. [27:37] And she said it's unconstitutional. [27:39] And unfortunately, NCAA didn't even appeal it. [27:42] You know, I've won a lot of cases on appeal, to be honest with you. [27:44] We've got some really bad judges, but I've won a lot of cases on appeal, some great people. [27:49] We have, fortunately, some great people in the appellate courts. [27:53] And I've won cases. [27:54] They didn't appeal it. [27:56] And because of that, college sports is a disaster right now. [28:01] You have many people staying in college because they're going to make more money than they [28:04] would if they went into baseball, Major League Baseball, or the NFL. [28:08] They can make more money, you know, a seven-year freshman. [28:11] We have a seven-year freshman. [28:13] It's crazy what they've done. [28:15] And this is a person that never went to a game, acknowledged, not familiar with sports, [28:21] but she overruled everything. [28:24] She said, it's all unconstitutional, started all over again. [28:28] And thank goodness we have people like Randy Levine and others, Coach Saban, who's so great. [28:33] We have a lot of people got together. [28:35] But it's very hard to put that one together, I will tell you right now. [28:38] It's a tough one, but they're going to do the best. [28:40] But if the courts had common sense, they would have done something that could have been very [28:46] easy to do and made everybody happy. [28:48] If they had common sense, we would not be paying back almost $200 billion in tariffs so stupidly. [28:56] In many cases, the enemy, the enemy is getting this money. [29:00] The people that have hated the United States were giving them checks for billions of dollars. [29:05] It's so sad to see. [29:07] And it would be nice if the court system and the Supreme Court could have done things a [29:12] little bit differently. [29:13] Very sad. [29:14] Actually, it's very sad. [29:15] It's called no common sense. [29:16] And look at the rulings we're getting on illegal immigrants. [29:18] I mean, they're coming in, murderers and everything else. [29:21] We have a murder, a many-time murder, it's really hard to get them out of our country. [29:28] But we don't stop. [29:30] Mr. President, just in terms of putting things together, there's a story earlier this week [29:37] about United potentially wanting to buy American. [29:41] Senators from both sides of the aisle have warned that that is a step too far. [29:44] You should not be putting these two large airlines together. [29:46] Have you thought about that proposition? [29:48] I just heard it two days ago, and I know them both very well. [29:52] I don't like it. [29:53] No, I don't mind mergers. [29:54] I think I'd love somebody to buy Spirit, as an example. [29:57] You know, Spirit's in trouble. [29:59] And I'd love somebody to buy Spirit. [30:00] It's 14,000 jobs. [30:02] And maybe the federal government should help that one out, you know, I tell my people. [30:06] But with American, it's doing fine. [30:08] And United's doing very well. [30:10] I know the United people. [30:11] They're doing very well. [30:12] I don't like having them merge. [30:14] It's just like all of these aerospace defense companies and aerospace companies. [30:19] We used to have hundreds of them, and now we have, like, a very small number. [30:24] And you get one bid, and it makes them lazy. [30:26] And I came down very hard on them two, three months ago because it takes too long. [30:30] We have the best equipment in the world. [30:31] We have the best, you know, the Patriot systems, the Tomahawk systems. [30:35] We have the best stuff in the world by far. [30:38] You know, the other day during this crazy war, we had 111, there's a dispute as to 111 and [30:47] 101. [30:48] I want to be exactly accurate with you people, because otherwise you'll write stories that [30:50] I exaggerated. [30:52] We had 101 or 111. [30:55] Nobody's able to get it right. [30:56] But the result was the same. [30:58] Missiles shot at one of our great assets out in that area, a ship. [31:03] And out of the 111 missiles shot, every single one of them was shot down, going at 3,000 miles [31:10] an hour, right? [31:11] You know, not easy. [31:12] It's like a needle in a haste. [31:14] They used to call it impossible to do. [31:16] So they go to 3,000 miles an hour. [31:19] Every single one of them was shot down, mostly by Patriots. [31:24] But every one of them was shot down. [31:26] Think of it. [31:27] 111 missiles coming at you, and every one of those missiles is now lying at the bottom [31:32] of the sea, like the Navy, like the Iran's Navy is lying at the bottom of the sea. [31:37] It's amazing. [31:38] But we've got to make it faster. [31:40] So I have a push. [31:41] You know, Raytheon took billions of dollars, billions, many billions. [31:46] I don't even want to tell you how many, because I'm embarrassed, for stock buybacks, instead [31:50] of buying plants. [31:51] So I made it illegal for them to do that. [31:53] No defense company. [31:54] They have to build new plants. [31:55] So we have plants. [31:56] Raytheon now is building five. [31:59] They're all building. [32:00] Lockheed's building three or four. [32:02] They're all building plants, because we need speed. [32:04] We don't want, you know, you order a Patriot, and they say, well, have it to you, sir, in [32:08] three and a half years. [32:09] We want it in a week. [32:11] And that's where we are now. [32:12] They're building plants all over the country. [32:14] And they're going to do well for doing it. [32:16] We appreciate it, Oytanya. [32:18] If you have time, I want to ask you one more question. [32:20] Go ahead. [32:21] And, you know, we have allies now in the Middle East. [32:26] Maybe some are, we can maybe count on more than allies in other parts of the world. [32:31] But they're much better allies than they are, that I can tell you. [32:34] The UAE asking the U.S. for some type of financial lifeline, I don't know if it's a solvency [32:43] problem. [32:44] It's more of a liquidity problem. [32:44] And I know we did, Secretary Besant did something with Argentina that worked out. [32:51] Is there some type of swap possible, currency swap with the UAE to help if they need it? [32:57] And do you think there would be backlash because it's such a wealth, or perceived to be such [33:01] a wealthy country? [33:02] Is that under consideration? [33:03] It is. [33:05] But it's been a good country. [33:06] It's been a good ally of ours. [33:09] And, you know, these are unusual times. [33:10] They were, more than anybody else, I mean, it was shocking, because we thought that they'd [33:15] shoot missiles at Israel, but not every other country in the area. [33:19] And, you know, UAE got hit with 1,400 missiles. [33:22] Now, fortunately, they had the Patriots, and they had great defense. [33:26] And they were able to shoot down most of them. [33:28] But they did get hit hard. [33:31] They were hit the hardest of the group, actually. [33:34] And they're really led by incredible people. [33:37] And yeah, I mean, I'm surprised, because they are really rich. [33:40] You know, they invested. [33:42] A year ago, I went there, and I got them to invest $1 trillion in the United States, building [33:48] a tremendous plant in a great state called Oklahoma, aluminum plant, smelting plant, beautiful, [33:55] incredible, top of the, it'll be the best anywhere in the world. [33:58] And, you know, they're very good for this country. [34:00] So, yeah, if I could help them, I would. [34:02] I mean, we're helping them much more with what we're doing with the war, because, you [34:07] know, the bully of the Middle East was Iran. [34:09] Iran was a bully and bullied all of these countries around. [34:13] And they threatened them all the time. [34:14] And they threatened about the Hormuz Strait. [34:17] They threatened, sometimes, some people call it the Strait of Hormuz, which is actually [34:21] a more beautiful wording. [34:23] But they threatened them all the time. [34:26] And so we're really doing a big job there. [34:30] Those five countries have been great, and Israel's been great. [34:32] Israel's been a great partner for us. [34:36] It's like they say, we're the big brother, they're the small brother. [34:40] But the small brother's been very helpful to us. [34:42] You know, they've displayed great courage. [34:44] The Saudis? [34:45] Yeah. [34:46] If the UAE had a problem, I find it hard to believe, but if they had a problem, we would [34:51] be there for them. [34:52] Yeah, I would be there. [34:53] Are the Saudis impatient now, or do they want, are they on the other side? [34:58] Were they, you know, finished? [34:59] Well, he's another great guy. [35:00] You know, he gave me the famous line that I used a little bit. [35:03] He said, a year and a half ago, sir, you were a dead country. [35:06] Now you're the hottest country anywhere in the world. [35:08] He said that to me. [35:09] And it's true. [35:10] We were a dead country. [35:11] We had a guy that wasn't respected. [35:12] We had a country that was laughed at. [35:15] He couldn't walk up a flight of stairs. [35:16] Forget about down. [35:17] He couldn't walk up a flight. [35:19] But he was falling all over the place. [35:21] I have to be careful, because if I do trip or fall, it's got to be the biggest. [35:25] That's why when I get out of those planes, I walk nice and slowly. [35:28] I'm not looking to set any speed records. [35:32] But we had an embarrassing country. [35:34] We had a country that was going to fail. [35:36] This country would have failed if I didn't win this election. [35:39] I've had many people tell me that. [35:40] There are many people that aren't necessarily of the Republican persuasion or MAGA. [35:47] But we've had many people say that this country would have failed if I didn't win this election. [35:51] You people wouldn't be looking at the numbers you're looking at right now, I can tell you. [35:54] The Saudis are not ... Are they taking it economically on the chin to the point where they want you [36:01] to end this, or are they saying finish the job? [36:03] I think they're doing great. [36:04] I spoke to him yesterday. [36:05] He wasn't asking for anything. [36:06] They're fighting. [36:07] They're helping us. [36:08] They're helping us on the straight. [36:11] They're helping us all over. [36:12] The ones that aren't helping are NATO. [36:14] NATO said to me, no, we'll send somebody as soon as it's over. [36:17] I said, that's not really ... We don't need them. [36:20] We'll never need them, actually. [36:22] They'll need us. [36:23] They need us desperately because they're a paper tiger. [36:25] But I've said that ... By the way, I've said that for a long time. [36:28] Before I was in politics, I used to say it. [36:31] I was not in politics, but I sort of enjoyed it, and I liked watching things, and I always [36:36] said they were a paper tiger, and Europe has to straighten themselves out. [36:41] Between energy and immigration, they have to straighten themselves out, or they're not [36:45] going to have a Europe anymore. [36:46] Yeah. [36:48] We could talk NATO, but I know you've obviously got a lot to do. [36:52] We will be watching for any true social posts about the negotiations, whether you hear what's [36:57] happening. [36:58] Thank you for all your time this morning, Mr. President. [36:59] We greatly appreciate it. [37:01] Well, thank you. [37:02] And, Becky, thank you. [37:03] And, Andrew, I'm glad you were on the phone. [37:05] I'm really glad. [37:06] Even though Joe totally misrepresented, I don't mind that at all. [37:09] OK? [37:10] Thank you, Mr. President. [37:11] We'll talk soon. [37:12] He's a kidder. [37:13] Kidder's like the kid. [37:14] Thank you, Mr. President. [37:15] Thank you. [37:16] Thank you very much. [37:17] Squawk on the Street is next.