Transcript of President Trump Remarks After His 90-Day Tariff Pause Announcement

Think Gretchen, you’re there and Matt Hall, the Speaker of the House of Michigan.

And he’s been fantastic as the Speaker. I appreciate it. We won the state, Matt. You helped me a lot.

MATT HALL: I did. And you made me Speaker. So thank you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s good too. Rich, and I think everybody knows. So we’re working on that very hard, and I think it’ll be – I think we’ll come home with a winner for Michigan. Okay? I just spoke with the Secretary of Defense. Sometimes we call it the Secretary of War. It used to be called the Secretary of War. They changed it when we became a little bit politically correct.

But I think we’re in great shape. We’re going to be in great shape. So thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much, Matt. Congratulations. Great job.

Ambassador Appointments

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So we’ll start with the first orders. And I think we have one for a man named Mike Huckabee. Does anyone know Mike Huckabee?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s going to be a great ambassador to Israel. And they’re thrilled to have him that I can tell you. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir. So the Senate confirmed Governor Huckabee to be your next ambassador to Israel earlier today. That’s his commission as ambassador. And then we also have a transmittal letter to the President of Israel requesting that he accept Ambassador Huckabee’s credentials.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s going to be fantastic. He’s going to bring home the bacon. Bacon isn’t too big in Israel, is it? Okay. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee.

Executive Orders on Maritime Dominance

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Next, sir, this is a big one. As you’ve consistently identified, restoring our maritime dominance as a nation is very important from shipbuilding to having a merchant marine that’s capable of supporting American military efforts really up and down the line. Restoring maritime dominance has been a priority of this administration.

This executive order, which was prepared primarily by our National Security Council staff and National Security Advisor, Waltz, has a number of very significant policy steps, all aimed at restoring American maritime dominance and ensuring that we have the shipbuilding capacity and ability to compete globally both militarily and in the civilian space as well.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And that could be a good one for Michigan too, because we’re going to be spending a lot of money on shipbuilding. We’re way, way, way behind. We used to build a ship a day and now we don’t do a ship a year practically and we have the capacity to do it. So we’ll talk to you about that. Okay, Matt, you think about that. That’s a natural. Shipbuilding. That’s a good one. Thank you.

Defense Procurement Reform

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you, sir. The next executive order relates to defense procurement. Our current defense procurement process has been criticized by many folks on both sides of the aisle as being too slow to adapt to new and changing technologies, not delivering the sorts of weapons and systems that our war fighters need in order to compete on the battlefields of the future.

So with this executive order, we’re going to be modernizing the procurement structure the Department of Defense uses to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances around the world. And we’re also going to be launching a review of existing procurement programs to ensure that we’re getting value for the money and to ensure that we’re getting the best possible systems in the field.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And which are currently horrible, I’ll tell you they’re horrible. That process is ridiculous what they do. They get the highest price and not even good looking equipment and we’re changing it. We’re going to change it to the best. So, this is very important.

I want to say hello to Brooke. Well, Brooke, she got the cost of eggs down 87%. Have somebody that’s done a great job at Department of Agriculture and Kristi Noem, who perhaps a few of you have heard of. She has done the most unbelievable job as somebody that’s watching over our country at the border and with Tom Homan and your whole staff of tremendous people. So thank you.

Who would think that she is like meant for that job? She’s meant for it. So congrats. I just saw you there, Bo. Thank you very much.

Foreign Defense Sales Reform

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you, sir. Lastly, in the defense space, one persistent issue that we’ve had in terms of the issue of foreign defense sales is that we’re unable to provide weapon systems in a reliable effective way to key allies of ours. And the key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales.

So this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant departments and agencies to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable effective way.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. That’s good. All very important. Because our budget is just about approved and it’s a big budget and we want to spend the money properly, get the best equipment in the world. We rebuilt our military during my first term, rebuilt it entirely beautiful.

And then in some ways given away to Afghanistan, so stupidly – the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, I think. But it’s still – we have to fix it up a little bit and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a good job of it too. Thank you.

Deregulation Executive Orders

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Next up, sir, we have a series of executive orders and memorandum all relating to deregulation, which has obviously been a major priority of yours. The first of these is an executive order. The Biden administration launched what you’ve called a war on showers. They had certain regulations that basically killed the water pressure of showers and other water appliances.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You can say it. What are the appliances?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I mean, it’s everything, sir. Sinks and toilets, sinks. But the showerheads are-

PRESIDENT TRUMP: There’s no water. You don’t get water. It’s ridiculous.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So with this executive order, we’re effectively going to be reversing that set of regulations to ensure that Americans have choice in the consumer market. If they want a low flow shower head, they can buy one. If they want a real deal shower head-

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You buy a new house, you pay a lot of money and the developers, you’re not allowed to do anything more. They put restrictors on. They used to have a restrictor where you could take it out, but now they weld it in. And, you take a shower or wash your hands, whatever you do, including dishwashers when no water comes out.

But you wash your hands. And in my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair. I have to stand there in the shower for fifteen minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.

And what you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer. So it’s the same water. And we’re going to open it up so that people can live, and we’re going to hopefully have Congress approve it so it’s memorialized. We’re going to try and get all of these things, including straws, little thing like straws. We did straws a month ago, where the paper straws were melting, they were dissolving, they weren’t working well.

And we went back to the plastic straws. We’re going to get Congress to memorialize just about everything we’ve done here because most of it’s common sense. But the water is horrible. When you go into a new – anytime you see a new faucet, it’s going to be a long wash of the hands. And so we’re changing. It’s a big deal. I did it in the first administration. Biden came in and it’s like first week and he had no idea what he was doing, but somebody told him to do it.

And his first week, he put the restrictions on all the bathroom utilities, even in areas that have so much water, they don’t know what to do with it. You see those areas all the time with the flooding.

So we’re doing that and we’re going to get all of the things that you’ve seen. I think we set a record, we’re up to almost 205 amendments. Nobody’s ever done that. We’re going to get them approved by Congress, so they’re memorialized. And we look forward to doing that.

It’s very important that Congress is going to start working on it as soon as we get the big beautiful deal done. A big beautiful deal is important. The biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, that’s important. Okay. Is that okay?

Anti-Monopoly Regulations

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: This is another executive order relating to deregulation. So there are a lot of regulations on the books that either promote monopoly directly or prevent new market entrants from entering into a given market. The net effect of that is very negative for consumers.

So what this executive order is going to do is direct your departments and agencies to work with the FTC, with the Attorney General, with the Department of Justice to ensure that the regulations we have on the books don’t function as anticompetitive barriers to new market entrants. The net effect of all of that is going to hopefully be market forces that work down to the benefit of consumers – Americans as opposed to monopolistic businesses.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I said yesterday, he was a great, great student at Harvard before it went bad. It’s gotten really bad. Now they’re teaching their students mathematics, basic mathematics. Can you believe it? So what does that mean? They’re allowing people in that can’t add two and two? What’s going on at Harvard?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I went to law school there, sir, and it was pretty liberal when I was there, but it’s gone way off the deep end in recent years.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’re teaching them basic mathematics, people that got accepted to Harvard. How come they got accepted if they don’t have mathematics? And we’re holding back $8 billion. Can you believe? We give Harvard eight billion dollars, and we’re holding back Columbia. We’re holding back a lot of the schools because they were woke, and they’ve hurt a lot of people. Good. Thank you.

Eliminating Illegal Regulations

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you, sir. There are a large number of regulations on the books. These are regulations that are currently in effect that we believe blatantly violate the law, blatantly violate Supreme Court precedent that otherwise are just blatantly illegal. So what this presidential memorandum does basically just directs the heads of your departments and agencies to follow the law and to cease enforcing regulations that are blatantly illegal or unconstitutional.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s really very important that we get these memorialized in Congress, very important for the long haul, right?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir. This is the last of our deregulatory EOs for the day. This is zero-based regulatory budgeting. The idea here is that over time regulations accumulate on the books and in the Federal Register. And people aren’t taking a close detailed look at what’s on the books and clearing them out as times change or as regulations become dated or ineffective.

What this executive order is going to require is each of your departments and agencies to scrutinize on a continuing rolling basis all of the regulations they actually have on the books and sunset those that either no longer serve a purpose or the departments and agencies can’t identify a specific reason for keeping them active.

Action Against Law Firms

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Sir, you’ve taken action against a number of law firms that have in one way or another been involved in the weaponization of government or actions of lawfare. One of those law firms is Sussman Godfrey, similar to what we’ve done previously with other law firms. This is an executive order that takes certain measures against Sussman Godfrey to ensure that they can’t access government resources, government buildings, scrutinizing certain aspects of their practices as a law firm given their previous activities.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We signed with many law firms, the ones that we thought were inappropriate. And they’ve all agreed to pay $100 million. They went for some pretty big numbers. I guess we have a total – what do we have? What’s the total right now, Steve, about would you say?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Getting close to probably $600-700 million dollars now I would think.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ve multiple at $100 million, some at $125 million. So the numbers are adding up. We’re going to be close to $1 billion. So one at $40 million – millions of dollars an hour, but they don’t admit guilt. Remember that they don’t admit guilt. But and we have another five to go, I think five of them. And this one is just – we’re just starting a process with this one.

Trump Signs Executive Orders and Takes Questions

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, sir. Because that there were some very bad things that happened with these law firms. This firm is very involved in the election misconduct. Weren’t they all involved in the election misconduct? I think they were all involved.

AIDE: Yes. Anyway, so they went from $40,000,000 to $125,000,000 and most of them are at about $100,000,000.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

AIDE: The next presidential memorandum we have for you relates to Miles Taylor. You may recall that Miles Taylor served in the Department of Homeland Security during your previous administration. In his capacity with the Department of Homeland Security, he leaked classified information. He wrote a book under the pseudonym Anonymous making outrageous claims both about your administration and about others in it. What this presidential memorandum is going to do, one, it’s going to strip any active clearance that he has in light of his past activities involving classified information. It’s also going to order the Department of Justice to investigate his activities to see what else might come up in that context given his egregious behavior during your previous administration.

Presidential Memorandum on Miles Taylor

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And I had no idea who this guy was. I had no idea. I saw him on CNN or one of them, I guess CNN a lot. He’d be on all the time saying that the president is the president. I had no idea.

It’s like, in this office, you have a lot of young people and they’re here, I’ll see him for two minutes. And I assume he was in the office, but I barely remember him. Barely remember him. It was somebody that went out and wrote a book and said all sorts of terrible things. They were all lies.

And it was like he was like this gentleman or that gentleman, like I dealt with him all the time. I had no idea who this guy said, who the hell is Miles Taylor? And he made a living on going on CNN talking about the president. And I think what he did, and he wrote a book anonymous, said all sorts of lies and bad things. And I think like a traitor.

It’s like spying. He walks into the office. He’s supposed to be sitting here. A lot of people, I’ll be here and there’ll be 20 people standing in the room. There’ll be oftentimes young people in the office.

I assume he was one of them at least, but I didn’t know anything about him. And he wrote a book, anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible. And now we have a chance to find out whether or not it was terrible. But it was a work of fiction, had a lot of publicity, got himself a nice job with CNN or one of them. And I think we have to do something about it.

You can’t have that happen. If that happens to other presidents, it wouldn’t be sustainable for other presidents. I seem to be able to sustain. But if that happened to other presidents, I mean, it’s just unfair. And if it was a Democrat president, I’d say that’s a terrible thing.

A thing like that can happen. That’s a terrible thing. And it’s time to find out whether or not somebody can do that. Can they write a book about very confidential meetings? And, you know, because they happen to be one of a lot of people in a room and they go out and write a book and worse than that, call it anonymous, like it’s a big deal.

And everybody say, who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Then it was found out who he was long time later. And, I get a lot of publicity of that one.

He’s like a promoter. But, we’re going to find out whether or not somebody’s allowed to do that. I think it’s a very important case, and I think he’s guilty of treason if you want to know the truth, but we’ll find out. And I assume we’re recommending this to the Department of Justice.

AIDE: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good. Terrible guy.

Presidential Memorandum on Christopher Krebs

AIDE: Similarly, Christopher Krebs, the former head of CISA. This is a man who weaponized his position against free speech in the election context in the context of COVID-19. This is another similar presidential memorandum to the one you just signed. It addresses his access to government existing clearances he might have and further instructs your Department of Justice, other aspects of your government to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in while he was still head of CISA.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: This is another one. I don’t know that I met him. I’m sure I met him, but I didn’t know him. And he came out right after the election, which was a rigged election, badly rigged election.

We did phenomenally in that election. Look what happened to our country because of it open borders, millions of people coming into our country. Russia and Ukraine that would have never happened. October 7 would have never happened. Afghanistan, way that they withdrew with 13 dead, but so many killed actually.

I mean, so many killed outside of the 13 soldiers, hundreds of people killed. And maybe, I don’t know, never mentioned, but I mentioned it, 42 or 43 people so badly injured, the legs, the arms, blown off the face. And, this is all because of a incompetent group of people that preceded us, and that would have never happened. And this guy, Krebs, was saying, oh, the election was great. It was great.

Well, it’s been proven that it was not only not great when you look at all these lawyers and law firms that are signing, giving us hundreds of millions of dollars. It was proven by so many different ways in so many different forms from the legislatures not approving the 51 intelligence agents that worked from all of the different scamming operations. It was a very corrupt election. They used COVID to cheat. And we’re going to find out about this guy too because this guy’s a wise guy.

He said, we’ve been proved this is the most secure election in the history of our country. Now this was a disaster. And frankly, we should go to paper ballots, same day voting, voter ID, and one other thing, a vote you should get a little certificate that says you’re a citizen of our country. You get a citizen piece of paper that says you’re a citizen before you can vote. But you want voter ID and you want paper balance and you really want same day voting.

If you don’t have same day voting, they decide to change the air conditioner. We’re fixing the air conditioner. Let’s move all these boxes. We’ll bring them back in a few days, and then they don’t bring back those boxes. We gotta have safe elections.

We have to have borders. Ideally, we have to have a free press, which we don’t have. We don’t have a free press. We have a very dishonest press. This will be it’s an honor.

We’re going to find out whether or not he was right. This was a disgraceful election, and this guy sat back saying, well, I’m a member or like, he’s a Republican or something. And right almost right from the beginning, and he’s tried to make the case that this election was a safe election. I think he said, this is the safest election we’ve ever had. And yet every day you read in the papers about more and more fraud that’s discovered.

He’s the fraud, he’s a disgrace. So we’ll find out whether or not it was a safer election. And if it wasn’t, he’s got a big price to pay. And he’s a bad guy. Here’s another one.

I have no idea who he is. Krebs, I have no idea who he is. I’m sure he was in the room at some point, just like you’re all in the room, but I have no idea who he was. So thank you very much. Those last two are very important, I think, for the country.

Presidential Proclamations

AIDE: Thank you, sir. And lastly, we just have three proclamations. These are the sorts of things that most Presidents use an auto pen for. You obviously don’t like using the auto pen much, if at all. The first of these National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. This is one that you did in each of I believe each of the previous years of your previous administration recognizes former prisoners of war. More generally, this proclamation is written to acknowledge the great steps you’ve made both in this administration and your previous administration on behalf of veterans, homeless veterans, others who have suffered in that way. And basically stating that it’s a priority of your administration to ensure that veterans and homeless veterans are cared for properly.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And you know what they ought to find out who was using that AutoPen, because whoever that person was, he or she was like the President of The United States. And I’m against auto pens.

I think auto pens are not a good thing, especially when you’re talking about documents like we’re signing today. If he can’t sign, then he can’t be President. It’s pretty simple. Let’s see whether or not he could sign. But I think that should be tested.

I really think that should be tested. It’s another one. And you may think about it because how can a man that did he really know that when they gave all false information on the council, I mean, the whole unselected committee of political lunatics, they destroyed all the information. You can’t get any information. They went for like a year and a half, almost two years, screaming and ranting and raving.

Democrats plus two worse than Democrats. You had Cheney, Liz Cheney, and crying Adam Kissinger. Crying Adam. Every time I look at him, was crying. The guy was a crier.

But you can’t do that. You just can’t do that. So we’re going to find out a lot. I think we’re to find out a lot. These last three or four have been very they’ve been very, very interesting.

We’ll see what happens. But I don’t think a president should be allowed to use an auto pen when they’re saying very important legislation. I think a president should sign it, not use an auto pen. And we’re going to find out whether or not he knew what the hell he was doing. I’m sure at this point, he’ll say, I signed it.

They’ll tell him what to say. But, to give pardons to people that destroyed all the information. If you destroyed information on a civil case, just a civil case, not a criminal case, a civil case, they put you in jail for that. And they found out that Pelosi was the one that was in charge of the security of the capital. She knew all about it and she admitted her guilt to her daughter who was a movie documentary person.

I’m sure her daughter is not too happy about that. Sure, crazy Nancy is not too happy. But we found out all the things, everything. And we go for the information. So we’ve destroyed all of that information.

If I haven’t destroyed it, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I guarantee you that I’d be sitting someplace else. So I think there’s something that we should really look at because that’s so important. The whole concept of an auto pen. Because whoever who was you know, auto pens are run by somebody.

Whoever ran the auto pen was president of The United States. And I would be willing to bet that Biden didn’t know, probably didn’t know anything about any of it. Very dangerous. Very dangerous. So you’re going to check that out. Right?

AIDE: Yes, sir. We’re working on it right now. This is just another proclamation, sir, declaring National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. You’ve obviously made it a major priority of your administration to track down and at times deport criminals who have committed violence on our streets, victimized so many people. This is an annual proclamation that hopefully gets Americans to remember that when crimes occur, are real victims, there are real people who are affected and there are people who suffer as a result.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. It’s very important. Thank you.

Michigan Issues: Selfridge Air Force Base and Asian Carp

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I just want to add, so we’re working very hard with Democrats, the governor, with Matt Hall, with a lot of transportation, Sean and all of the people trying to keep Selfridge Air Force Base open, strong, thriving. And I think we’re going to be successful, Governor.

I think we’ll be very successful that we’ve gotten some good feedback from Pete Hegseth and Department of Defense. And talking about F-16s and talking about F-35s, etcetera. We’re going to it’s a great piece of property. It’s a great location and it’s a great state. So I think we’re going to come back with a very good answer.

We’re also working on a certain fish that’s taken over a beautiful lake called Michigan, right? And that’s a tough one. A tough one. Do you want to just talk about that?

JASON: Sure, Mr. President. First of all, I want to thank you for caring so much about Michigan. We’ve been working a long time. We couldn’t get Joe Biden to do anything about either one of these issues, particularly Selfridge Air Force Base. It’ll be critical to Michigan’s economy and our security when you’re able to deliver us another mission there.

But on the Asian carp, for years, when Obama was there, we could never get anyone to do anything about this invasive species that’s going to destroy our Great Lakes. You know how important recreational fishing and so much of that is to our state. Because of your work, we’re hopeful that we’ll get a solution there and we’ll get that barrier built so we can protect our Great Lakes. So thank you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And they’re very powerful fish. I mean, as you they jump out of the water. They jump at the fishermen. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. Has this gotten into any of the other lakes yet? Because you would think it would be pretty easy because they’re all sort of connected together.

JASON: That’s why we’re working so hard to make sure that we work with the Army Corps and erect a barrier so that the Asian carp doesn’t get into Lake Michigan, it will devastate the ecosystem, the economy, tourism. And it’s 20% of the world’s freshwater is in the Great Lakes, Mr. President, which is why it’s so important that as a nation, we protect them.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And all of a sudden, I assume the lakes, they’re all interconnected, right?

Discussion on Invasive Fish in Lake Michigan

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So at some point, they’re going to be in the other lakes. And so we’re going to work hard on that. I spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers and they have a method. It’s a pretty gruesome method, but it’s a method. And I think they know what to do.

So we’re going to work on that very hard. And thank you, Governor, very much. Sort of a bipartisan thing when you get it right down to it’s a very expensive thing actually, it costs a lot. I looked at the numbers, I said, well, but we have to save Lake Michigan because these fish, they eat everything in the way, including the other fish. They eat everything.

REPORTER: Are people endangered by that, the fish?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it’s I mean, they’re going to eat all the fish there. We won’t be able to fish anymore. And that’s a big deal in Lake Michigan. There’s a lot of fishing, recreation.

So it’s going to be a problem there. But you’re right, it’s bipartisan, sir, but you’re the one taking action on these issues. We couldn’t get Biden to do it on Selfridge. This thing has been delayed for what fifteen years where we were trying to do it. We started under Obama where we were trying to do it.

He wouldn’t do anything about it. So we appreciate you paying so much attention to this and taking exercise. And the governor in all fairness called me about it. I had seen it and she called me and John James called me. We spoke with your office and it’s I want to put that down really is bipartisan.

It’s great to see it actually. It’s great to see that. And that includes Selfridge too. Then we’re going to get it done and we’re going to we’ll all stand there together and cut a ribbon. Okay, Gretchen?

GOVERNOR GRETCHEN WHITMER: Good. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m glad you brought it up and I’m glad you brought it up, Matt. Appreciate it. And I know you two get along pretty well, right?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: About 70% of the time.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Think you do. All right, good. We’ll have a big we’ll have something to celebrate pretty soon. So pretty sure about that.

Okay? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Gretchen, very much. Okay.

Questions from Reporters

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Do you have any questions?

REPORTER: Mr. President, where does the TikTok deal stand, given what we’ve seen?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Tariffs in but obviously, I would say right now, China is not exactly thrilled about signing it. We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it, but, we’re going to have to wait to see what’s going to happen with China.

No, it’s on the table very much. I think China is going to want to do it actually.

REPORTER: If you had to play more of what you believe is the end game with China, are you waiting for President Xi to blink? How do you think this is all going to be resolved?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: For years, we’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of by China and others in all fairness. But by China, that’s the big one. And it’s just one of those things. We’re making $2 billion a day right now in this country, $2 billion a day with tariffs, and they were making $2 billion a day. We’ll be making more.

And now when you see what happened today, I don’t know if it’s still there. This is if I looked an hour ago, but we were up like close to 3,000 points. Nobody’s ever seen a day like that. I think that’s a record, isn’t it?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Definitely.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s not a record? Who would have thought we’re going to have a record like that after watching? Because the geniuses of the world, they get it. Our country is very strong. We were left a very, very weakened country, both economically, financially because of all of the tariffs and all of the other companies just raiding us and ripping us off.

And also, at the border where 21 million people were allowed to come in. Many of those people were criminals. And but the people that do this for a living, and some of them are very smart and some of them aren’t smart at all. But these guys are very smart, and my group is very smart. My whole group is smart.

And you’ve done so amazing on the border. I read the other day that there were nine people and hundreds of thousands two years ago with Biden, and we had nine. We had it down to nine, and they were all let in for medical reasons. They were in bad shape. We let them in for medical reasons, not even for anything else.

So you’ve been amazing. But that’s a big thing. I think it’s one of the greatest problems that I’ve never seen anything like it. Open borders, the whole world was emptied out prisons from all over the world from The Congo in Africa, from Africa to Asia, a lot in South America, but it wasn’t just South America prisons emptied out. And I said it outside with the drivers before, but El Salvador has been amazing job that the President has done. He’s coming to see me next week and we look forward to that, but that’s really been amazing.

REPORTER: President, the EU also announced increases in tariffs today. Why not?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They didn’t put them in. No, they threatened them, but they picked a later date, which our expectation is it’s going to be later still. Okay. I’m glad that they held that.

REPORTER: If this was the strategy all along to bring them to the table, why did you instruct or advise or maybe they did it on their own, some of your top aides to say this is not a negotiation to hold the line that they were going to hold the line that you were not going to change a lot?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, sometimes it’s not a negotiation until it is. And that happens. And I said outside that you have to have flexibility to do it right.

And that’s what we have. We brought everybody to the table and it may not be a negotiation. It may not last. I mean, things may be as that I think are not fair to us. Look, we’ve been ripped off by essentially everybody for thirty five years. This is not just a new thing.

And Roger Penske just left. He’s a great gentleman, great man actually. And he said, no other President would have had the guts to do this. And I believe that’s right. They wouldn’t have done it. They should have done this a long time ago. Long time ago, they should have done it. I started it with China. I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes from China in my first term.

And we had the greatest economy. We were up 88% on the stock market. That was the greatest ever in the history of our country. But it had to be done. It’s something that had to be done.

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you so much. Which countries we will be negotiating first? Do have any criteria? Because for example, Brazil and The UK, they do not have debt to The U.S. They have a surplus. They do not have a surplus. They have debt with The U.S. So what is the criteria? And also, would you consider talking or meeting with Xi Jinping?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, sure. He’s a friend of mine. Like President Xi, I like him. I respect him. But they haven’t treated our country. That’s sure. I’ve paid with him.

On the other countries, we have Japan is here, and South Korea is here, and others are here. And we’re trying to see them. It’s from what I hear, it’s much more than 75. I said 75 plus. So many. It’s everybody wants to make a deal, actually.

And we want to do what’s right for our country. We also want to do what’s right for the world. The world is important. I mean, it’s the world, right? And I think we’re going to make a lot of people very happy. And I think investing in The United States Of America will be the greatest investment that anybody has ever made.

Pharmaceuticals and Manufacturing

REPORTER: So, pharmaceuticals deal, is that something you’re still considering moving forward?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Well, it will be because we want them coming back. Realized during COVID that we don’t make our drugs and our pharmaceuticals in this country. So, I realized that. And it was a big realization. We had to go to China to get drugs. We had to go to other places. I won’t even mention the names, but we had to go to other places.

We don’t make it. And that’s because we let them leave. And now if they want to come back, we’re going to put tariffs on the pharmaceutical companies, and they’re going to want to come back. They’re going to come back. I’m not going to pay them any money like Biden with a chip deal. That chip deal was horrible. They give billions and billions of dollars to chip companies. All they have is money. They have so much money.

And they give billions of dollars and they’re just going to keep the money. They’re not going to spend it. And the only thing that’s going to bring them back is you say, we have a barrier. You have to pay 50% or 100% or 200%. And if they have to pay that, they’re going to say, we’re not going pay that. We’re going to build here.

And that’s what happened. We’re the biggest, most prestigious chip company in the world, spending $200 to $300 billion, think of that billion dollars to build essentially one massive plant. It will be one of the largest plants in the world. And we’re going to get them very quickly. We’re going to get them energy.

We’re going get them the electricity they need and the energy that they need. And it will be approved by Lee Zeldin, a total professional. And it will be approved very quickly. They’ll get their zoning very quickly. They’ll have everything done in a matter of months.

REPORTER: Thank you, sir. You’ve procured a record amount of private sector since your election, $7 trillion. You talked about the importance of all that. Can you talk about how these investments will have a positive impact on families who felt like the previous left them behind? And why your executive orders on coal yesterday is so important given the amount of manufacturing that you’re ushering back in.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. And which is correct. We have, I would say more than $7 trillion now, right, of investment coming in. Apple is coming in for $500 billion alone. We have other companies coming in with massive numbers.

We have car companies that are coming in. No, we’ve never seen anything like it, maybe in the 1940s or 1950s or something, but we’ve never seen anything like it. They had three plants canceled in Mexico. Not that we want to hurt Mexico, but we’re for us. And that’s what my job is.

It’s not to take care of other countries, but I want to help other countries as much as I can, but we have to take care of America First and it’s about America First. So we have many, many companies coming in that would have never come in if we didn’t win the election and then put the tariffs on. And they’re coming in because when they build in The United States there are no tariffs. You don’t have to pay any tariffs. So instead of paying 30%, forty %, fifty % or 25%, but it could go a lot higher in some of the industries.

So we have steel mills right now that are raging. The steel industry has gone. If I didn’t put the tariffs on steel, because China was dumping massive amounts of steel in my first term and I put tariffs on, I saved the steel industry, but now it’s going to thrive maybe like never before. I mean, if you go back to U.S. Steel from ninety years ago, was incredible. Was the number one company in the world for a long time. That’s why we don’t want to see it go to Japan. And we love Japan, but U.S. Steel was a very special company.

We don’t want it to go to Japan or any other place. So we’re working with them and I don’t know if they need any money now. I’ll be honest with you, hit gold. They hit gold because if you look at it, they have such orders for steel now. It’s incredible.

What’s going on is what’s going on in our country is incredible with respect to plants. So we lost 90,000 plants and factories from the beginning of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made in the history of this world, but certainly in the history of trade. There’s never been a worst trade deal. We were able to cancel that. We had to get approval from Congress.

It like a disastrous curse because you had to go to Congress to get it terminated. You couldn’t just terminate because it was a bad deal. And you had people in Congress that didn’t want to do it because they had other reasons, maybe bad reasons, mostly not there anymore those people. But it’s amazing what’s happening. I appreciate that question because it’s incredible.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it. $7 trillion and it’s much more than that because these are places that we know. $7 trillion is unheard of. I never looked at the Biden numbers, but you could go a whole year, and it was — it was peanuts. People everybody was leaving.

They weren’t coming in. They were leaving, and that means jobs are leaving. And so we’re not, we’re not playing games. We’re gonna make this country greater than ever before. Thank you for that question.

REPORTER: Mister president, I mean, for past few for the seems that you have to take me to the letter to student public application. Thanks. For the past few days, we’ve heard from this administration no pause. Was this idea of doing a pause, did that just come about this morning? Can you tell us exactly what came into consideration for you and your advisers?

Trump Signs Executive Orders and Takes Questions on Tariffs

PRESIDENT TRUMP: For a period of time, I would say this morning, over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been dealing with Scott, with Howard, with some other people that are very professional. And I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning, just wrote it up. We didn’t have the use of lawyers or we wrote it up from our hearts, right? It was written from the heart.

And I think it was well written too, but it was written from the heart. It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us. And we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt and they all want to negotiate. The only problem is, you can only do so many at one time. It’s like, we want to do it right.

We want to get it right. We want to take care of them, but we have to take care of our country. So, this was something certainly we’ve been talking about for a period of time. And we decided to pull the trigger and we did it today and we’re happy about it. I didn’t know it would have that kind of an impact, but I think we have the biggest increase in the history of the stock market.

That’s pretty good. You’re almost, if you keep going, you’re going to be back to where it was four weeks ago. But it was a sick market four weeks ago because this trade was sick. It was only a question of time. I don’t blame the tariffs. I think the tariffs just sort of magnified what was happening. Biden allowed these people to get away with murder. Biden allowed China to just take advantage of us. We had like a trillion dollar deficit with China, one trillion deficit.

So that was going to only be a matter of time. I think the tariffs brought it out faster and they magnified the problem. But I think this was a problem that existed far beyond tariffs. This was a systemic problem and we’re going to cure that problem. And maybe to a large extent we have because we’ve revealed it and we’ve revealed it very strongly.

On China Trade Negotiations

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. So on the teams, China has made some serious missteps in these negotiations. And Secretary Bessent said earlier, you may have goaded them into a tough position here. I’m wondering, are you in a way putting together a coalition against China in terms of trade?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. China – look, they’re very capable. And I don’t blame China for what happened. I blame the people sitting right at this desk, right behind this desk or another desk. Get your choice of seven. I happen to pick the resolute. But I blame the people sitting behind in this chair or behind this desk for being stupid, incompetent, or not having courage. This should have been done years ago. This should have been done, before Obama in all fairness.

Not only Biden, Obama. This should have been done many years ago. This started with the World Trade Organization, which was owned by China. It was owned and paid for by China. They didn’t even have to do things. They considered them a nation that was undeveloped. They said they were a developing nation. Well, we’re developing nation too if you think about it. Look at our inner cities, look at what’s happened. I think we’re starting from ground zero there, right?

So we’re a developing nation too. No, I don’t – I know a lot of people take heat for saying it, but I blame the people sitting at this desk more than I blame China. If China can get away with what they got away with, taking hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars right out of our pocket because our people here were stupid, they were stupid people, maybe corrupt. Don’t know how you can be that stupid. How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?

But they certainly weren’t courageous and they allowed this to happen. And with Japan and with many other countries that took advantage of us. We had deficits with almost every country. I used to read these things first time I’d read them. I’d actually read the agreements and say, how could anybody agree to this stuff?

So certainly, they were rough and they were tough and they were smart. And you can blame them, but I really blame the people that allowed them to do it because if you could read first grade and you could read these agreements, you’d say, these are terrible deals. I actually used to say, who would allow deals like this to be made for our country? And maybe it’s people that didn’t care. Maybe it’s people that weren’t courageous. Maybe it’s people that were corrupt.

I don’t know. But I blame those people more than I blame anybody else.

On EU and China Trade Demands

REPORTER: Mr. President, you’ve been very specific in saying that you would like the EU to purchase U.S. Energy. Is there something specific that you would like China to do?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you’ll be hearing about that. There are a lot of things I’d like China to do. There are a lot of things that I want China to do and I’ll be telling China what that is, not you. I’m not telling China.

On Iran Nuclear Deal

REPORTER: This depends on Iran. You said the other day that if they do not agree to a potential nuclear deal that it would be very dangerous for them. What specifically did you mean?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they can’t have a nuclear deal.

REPORTER: Did you mean military action though if they don’t agree?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, if necessary? Absolutely.

REPORTER: Is there a deadline for these talks?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, I do. You’re talking about with Iran?

REPORTER: Do you also see this being definitive this weekend or do you see this as a start of a process?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We have a little time, but we don’t have much time because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. And we’re going to let them thrive. I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be great.

The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. They understand that. You know, the people are so incredible in Iran, and they’re so smart. They’re very smart people. And, you know, they’re in a rough situation, rough regime.

But they understand and the leaders understand. And I’m not asking for much. I just – they can’t have a nuclear weapon, and I’ve said that. And I was a little bit surprised because when the election was rigged, I figured they’d get their weapon because with me, they were broke. They were broke. They had no money because of the sanctions. Like, nobody could buy oil. We did that to Venezuela just recently, and we’ll do it to other countries if we have to.

On Russia-Ukraine Conflict

REPORTER: What is it you want to see?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I want to see Russia and Ukraine make a deal. They got to make a deal. When schools get blown up and bad things happen like I’m hearing about, it’s not good. I hope we’re going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine.

But with Iran, yeah, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. It will be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.

REPORTER: When would the talks need to conclude before you might take action?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I can’t really be specific. But when you start talks, you know if they’re going along well or not. And I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well. So that’s just a feeling.

On U.S. Troops in Europe

REPORTER: Mr. President, on the subject of U.S. Troops stationed in Europe, do you have any plans to reduce the number of U.S. Troops in Europe or in other NATO countries?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it depends. We pay for military over in Europe. We don’t get reimbursed by much, South Korea too. So it will be one of the things we discussed that’s unrelated to trade, but I think we’ll make it part of it because it makes sense. It’d be nice to wrap it all up in one package for each country. It’s nice and clean.

And we have plenty of law firms. These are great law firms that we signed with the best. And I think part of the way I’ll spend some of the money that we’re getting from the law firms in terms of their legal time will be, if we can do it, I think we can do it using these great law firms to represent us with regard to the many, many countries that we’ll be dealing with. We’ll have good lawyers representing us, but we want to have good lawyers. And these are the best considered the best lawyers in the world, right? I mean, the best in the world.

On Iran Talks and China Tariffs

REPORTER: Mr. President, two questions. On Iran, do you have an update on who will be participating or conducting these conversations? Will Qatari be there on Saturday for this direct talk? And on China, some economists are saying that right now, it’s technically an embargo on China with 125% tariffs. Are you concerned of escalation beyond the trade war with China?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I’m not concerned. I think President Xi is a very smart guy. And I think we’ll end up making a very good deal for both. But we’ve been treated so badly for so many years. Again, we allowed that to happen. We’ve been treated so badly for so many years.

But no, I don’t expect that. I think President Xi is one of the very smart people of the world. And I don’t think he’d allow that to happen. And we’re very powerful. This country is very powerful. Far more powerful than people understand. We have weaponry that nobody has any idea what it is and it is the most powerful weapons in the world that we have, more powerful than anybody – not even close. So nobody is going to do that.

But I think that if that’s what you’re referring to, it’s not. But just in terms of basic escalation, which is what you said, no, I think that President Xi is a man who knows exactly what has to be done. He’s a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well. And I think he’s going to want to get to a deal.

I think that’s going to happen. We’ll get a phone call at some point and it’ll be off to the races. It’ll be a great thing for them. It’ll be a great thing for us. It’s going to be a great thing for the world and for humanity.

REPORTER: [QUESTION INAUDIBLE]

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll have to see. I mean, we have to get there right now. Got to get there. In the meantime, they’re losing 2,500 young people every single week. Think of that. 2,500 people a week, it’s not even conceivable. We got to get there fast.

REPORTER: Do you think you have to increase tariffs on China even more before they come to the table or give you a call?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I can’t imagine it. No, I can’t imagine. I don’t think I’ll have to do it. I don’t think we’ll have to do it more. We calculated it very carefully. By the way, when you hear 100, a lot of people charge much more than that. Canada charges much more than that to our farmers, our dairy farmers. Many, many people charge much more than 100 or 125 in this case. But it’s still a significant number. I don’t see that, I guess.

On Tariff Critics

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you think some of your tariff critics would prefer to see The United States go through turmoil than to actually see it succeed just because they are your policies?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You mean just leave the tariffs the way they are now and just relax, right? Some people have said that. Look, again, we’re making – it’ll be soon much more than $2 billion a day. That’s not the worst thing that I’ve ever heard. So yes, some people say that, but we look at the other side too.

I think as The United States, we have an obligation to look also at the other side. We want what’s good for everyone. I mean, it’s America First, but we also want to make sure there’s a world that can live and live happily and all of that. And so, this is the way I look. No, but there are people that say, look, where we are now, I’ve been in worse positions in my life than making $2 billion a day plus plus, right? It’s really plus plus.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Related Posts

• Transcript: ‘Quite a Shock’ Trump and Mamdani ‘Bro Up’ in Oval Office – Piers Morgan Uncensored
• Transcript: Kamala on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Rebellion – Bulwark Podcast
• Transcript: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán on Putin vs. Trump – MD MEETS Podcast #5
• John Mearsheimer: Bleak Future of Europe – Defeated & Broken (Transcript)
• Transcript: ‘Ukraine Is A Corrupt MESS’ Trump Finalizes Russia Peace Deal – Piers Morgan Uncensored