Transcript of President Trump’s Press Briefing To Announce U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal

In addition, the UK will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against American products. But this is now turning out, I think, really to be a great deal for both countries because it’ll be really great for the UK also. So they’re opening up the country. Their country is a little closed, and we appreciate that.

They’ll also be fast-tracking American goods through their customs process. So our exports go to a very, very quick form of approval, and there won’t be any red tape. Things are going to move very quickly both ways.

The final details are being written up in the coming weeks. We’ll have it all very conclusive. But the actual deal is a very conclusive one. We think just about everything has been approved. So good for both countries.

And we’ll also receive new market access for American chemicals, machinery, and many other industrial products that weren’t allowed. And they’ll end up getting products that they’ll be able to price. And if they like them better and we make great products, they’ll be buying those products. But they were not available in the UK.

Economic Security Alignment

Furthermore, in a historic step, the deal includes plans that will bring the United Kingdom into the economic security alignment with the United States. That’s the first of its kind. So we have a big economic security blanket, and that’s very important. And we feel very, very comfortable with that because it’s been a great ally. Truly one of our great allies. I mean, a lot of people say our greatest ally. I don’t want to insult people by saying that, but I can say it’s certainly one of our greatest. Right at the top. And they’re the first one we’re talking about.

And, by the way, we have many meetings planned today and tomorrow, and every country wants to be making deals. And we have a meeting, as you know, Scott, we’ll be going over to Switzerland on Saturday. And that’ll be very, very interesting. We’ll find out. But I think they want to make a deal very badly, too.

Both countries have agreed that the economic security is national security, and we’ll be working together as allies to ensure that we have a strong industrial base, appropriate export controls, and protections for key technologies and industries like steel. Steel is a big factor. Both countries will become stronger with steel and things necessary for military.

You know, we used to build ships and other things literally at a level that nobody’s ever seen. And we haven’t — we’ve eased up, and I would say that the U.K. certainly eased up. But now we’re going to be uneasing both, and we work together.

Once again, I want to thank Prime Minister Starmer. He’s been terrific for his partnership in this matter. The special relationship and external bond — it’s really an external and an internal bond between our two countries — will soon be stronger than ever before. And we really do. We have a great relationship.

I want to just say that the representatives of U.K. have been so professional. And it’s been an honor doing business with all of them, and in particular, the Prime Minister. And I’d like to introduce him now to say a few words. Mr. Prime Minister, please take it away.

Prime Minister Starmer’s Remarks

PRIME MINISTER STARMER: Thank you, Mr. President Donald. And this is a really fantastic, historic day in which we can announce this deal between our two great countries. And I think it’s a real tribute to the history that we have of working so closely together.

Can I pay tribute, Donald, to your negotiating team as well, particularly Howard and Jameson, who’ve done an incredible job, a very professional job? And my team as well. Two negotiating teams have worked at pace now for a number of weeks to bring in this deal today — a really important deal.

This is going to boost trade between and across our countries. It’s going to not only protect jobs, but create jobs, opening market access. And as you say, Donald, the timing couldn’t be more apt because not only was it 80 years ago today that victory came for Europe after and at the end of the Second World War, but of course, on that day, the U.K. and the U.S. stood together as the closest of allies.

And, Donald, I think even down to the hour, because you may or may not know that it was about this time of day exactly 80 years ago that Winston Churchill announced victory in Europe. And that led to great celebrations across Europe, across America, but particularly in the United Kingdom. Literally, people going out into the street, putting bunting up, going up to the palace. And so to be able to announce this great deal on the same day, 80 years forward, almost at the same hour, and as we were 80 years ago with the U.K. and the U.S. standing side by side, I think is incredibly important and makes this truly historic.

That close relationship has endured over those 80 years. As you know, Donald, when it comes to defense and security and intelligence sharing, of course, there are no two countries that are closer than our two countries. And now we take this into new and important territory by adding trade and the economy to the closeness of our relationship.

It is built, as you say, on those notions of fairness and reciprocal arrangements. We’ve always had a fair and balanced arrangement between our countries. This builds on that. Hugely important for sectors like car manufacturing and for steel and aluminum and so many others.

And, yes, we can finish higher out some of the detail, but there’s a fantastic platform here, including, of course, on the tech side, where I think I’m right in saying we’re the only two Western countries with trillion-dollar sectors when it comes to tech.

And in the end, it comes down to, as you say, Donald, economic security is national security. On national security, we’ve been absolutely the closest of allies for so many years, keeping the peace through that close alliance, that friendship. Now we add to that this deal on trade and the economy.

And I want to thank you for your leadership on that, Donald, and for the way in which your team have negotiated this. And I’m so pleased that we’ve got this deal, we’ve finalized it, and we’ve built an incredible platform for the future. So thank you so much, Donald. I’m now going to go and do a press conference. I think you have your press in with you. But on the details, I think if you’ve got Howard, we can deal with that through one of my team.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s great. Well, Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much. It’s an honor. We’re going to have a continued, maybe a better relationship than ever before. You know, I don’t know if the media knows, but the U.S. and U.K. have been working for years to try and make a deal. And it never quite got there. But it did with this Prime Minister. So I want to just congratulate you.

PRIME MINISTER STARMER: Well, with this President, this Prime Minister, we’ve managed to achieve what many people have tried to achieve for many years.

And I’m really pleased. And it feels completely historic and on a special 80-year anniversary as well. So, Donald, thank you so much. It’s really good to have got this deal over the line. Tribute to both teams, tribute to our countries, and tribute to your leadership.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Well, it really is a great thing. And you go do your press conference, and I’ll see you soon. Maybe speak to you later. But thank you very much. It’s an incredible thing. I can’t tell you that, for so many years, even as I sat, everybody talked and talked and talked about a deal with — it just seemed like a natural deal. But it was not done, but now it was done with us. So I feel very proud to have been a part of it. Keir, thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER STARMER: Thanks Donald, and we’ll speak again soon.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very good. So long. Bye. Thank you very much. Why don’t I do this? Why don’t I have our Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, give a little description of the deal pretty quick, and then the good side, the very nice side, we’ll be speaking about it also, maybe. So you get a pretty equal, I think it’s a very — it’s just been a deal that was we thought very complicated, it became very simple, it’s opening up the country that we really didn’t have the kind of access to that I would have thought. I was surprised. I think it’s why the deal never got done before. You know, they’ve been working on this deal for 25 years, and we got it done, and we got it done. Really, it’s going to be great for both countries. So, Howard, if you could go, and then somebody else, you may have, you’ll pick whoever you want, who’d like to do it. I have a feeling you’re going to do it, right? So, you guys go ahead, and then we’ll take questions right after that, but I think you’ll get a pretty good understanding of how big it is. It’s a very large deal, a very big deal, and Howard, go ahead.

Secretary of Commerce Details the Trade Deal

SECRETARY LUTNICK: So the UK is the sixth largest economy in the world, and the fourth largest that we export to, right? So it’s a huge market, a top 10 market. If you remember Liberation Day, they were at 10%, because we have balanced trade with the UK, right? They say they have a surplus, but of course, that counts gold bullion, which is, so let’s just call it balanced trade.

So how do you open up a market in balanced trade? People think it’s impossible. They’ve always thought it was impossible until President Trump came on the scene and changed the way things work. So here’s what we’ve got. We’ve opened up new market access. Ethanol, beef, machinery, all the agricultural products, they’ve agreed to open their markets, and that will add $5 billion of opportunity to American exporters.

So the question is, why would they do that now, because they’ve never done it before, and we still have our 10% tariff on, which will produce $6 billion of revenue for the United States. So the idea was, how do they keep their jobs, protect their economy, and do the best for their people while opening the market for us? And the way they studied it, their team was exceptional, and they tried to figure out the markets that they’re importing from other people and try to send them over to America. So why were they always favoring others and not us? And what they’ve done is they’ve found the ways to do that so that we have new access, but the UK workers are protected, and that was the balance.

So you’ve got, we did a deal with them on automobiles, and you know, if you’re not building here, we charge you a 25% tariff. But the President, and by the way, I want to make this clear, while Jameson and I worked hard, this was the President’s deal, and people think, oh, that’s not the way it works. If you get to sit next to him, I have the best dealmaker to my left, and if you don’t think that we take advantage of him calling the Prime Minister and getting that deal done, you don’t understand who’s the President of the United States. So he’s the closer. He gets deals done that we could never get done because he understands business, he understands deals, and that’s why we’re here today.

So he agreed they could send 100,000 cars into America and only pay a 10% tariff, and that protects their car industry. And remember, we do 16 million cars a year. So this is only like .6%. But for the U.K. auto people, this is tens of thousands of jobs that the President agreed that he would protect for them, so he made that deal. Right?

Then steel and aluminum. Right? Their steel business has been destroyed like everybody else has been destroyed by people dumping steel into their markets. And British Steel had announced it was closing down. So the British as part of this deal, nationalized British Steel, and they’re going to match the kinds of models we do. They’ll put tariffs on, they’ll put quotas on. They want to do it with America so they can be part of the resurgence of steel and aluminum in America, and that saves them, again, thousands and thousands of jobs.

So if you go step-by-step, aero and commercial planes, they sell Rolls-Royce engines to Boeing. We’ve agreed to let Rolls-Royce engines and those kind of plane parts to come over tariff-free. And what you’re going to hear today is there’s going to be an announcement in the UK that they are buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes later today, but I’m going to let the name of the airline announce it because that’s theirs to do. But part of this deal was always to do it together and to do it strong, and you can see the numbers on this board. Everything about this board works exceptionally well for the United States of America. It lays out the plan that you can work with us in autos. You can work with us with aero and commercial. You can work with us in pharmaceuticals if you have a supply chain that is secure and protected and national security.

So we feel really good about the deal. You’ve heard the Prime Minister. He feels really good about the deal, right? And we started at 10%, and we ended at 10%, and the market for America is better, and this is a perfect example of why Donald Trump produced the Liberation Day. People don’t understand he gets things done in a matter of time. This would have taken Jameson and I three years maybe, and instead, we got it done in 45 days certainly because we worked for Donald Trump. So Jameson, my partner in all this, maybe Jameson you’d like to talk a little, and then we’ll turn it over to the UK.

Additional Remarks on the Historic Trade Agreement

JAMESON: Sure. Happy to do that. Everyone has great remarks. I just have to echo the President and the Prime Minister when we talk about VE Day. This is something we’ve been waiting for for decades, and there is no more appropriate day to do this. When we step back and we look back a few weeks from now or months from now or years from now, we’re going to look back at this day and better appreciate the significance I think.

And I’ll just say as well in terms of negotiating, I mean the UK negotiators, we’ve got one right here, did an incredible job. This is why you win wars when you act like this. The Ambassador, he knows more about trade than a lot of us here based on his background. And I would say on this deal, Mr. President, what we’ve shown is that it is time to change the way we do trade. People said we couldn’t do a global tariff. We did a global tariff. They said no one would want to deal with us. People want a deal. They said no one would give offers. You saw that stack of offers I showed you yesterday in all those countries. They said we wouldn’t get deals, and here we are with a deal with the sixth largest economy. We’ve agreed to have fair reciprocal trade and we’ve done it in record time.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Great job.

BRITISH AMBASSADOR: Mr. President, thank you very much indeed in hosting us this morning. And thank you very much indeed also for that very typical 11th hour intervention by you with your phone call to the President demanding even more of this deal than any of us expected, so thank you for that. The Prime Minister was delighted obviously to take that call late at night.

But you took it to another level and I think the point I would make is twofold. One is that if we’re going to rebalance and rebuild international trade in a way that serves all our interests, then we’re better doing that together than separately and apart, and that’s what we’re on a mission to do. But secondly, you’ve done what you said you would do. You said to the Prime Minister when he came and we visited in the Oval, that you would do a good trade deal with the United Kingdom, that you would do it at pace, and that we would be first. And you have delivered that. You’ve been true to your words. So thank you very much indeed for that.

For us, it’s not the end, it’s the end just of the beginning. There is yet more we can do in reducing tariffs and trade barriers so as to open up our markets to each other, even more than we’re agreeing to do today. But it also provides us with the platform, the springboard to do what I think will be even more valuable for both our countries in the future, and that’s creating a technology partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom so that we can harness science and technology in order to create future industries and future jobs.

And to do that together in the way we work so closely already in the national security and defence area, we can just take that to yet further areas of science, enterprise and endeavour. So we’re looking forward to doing that in the coming months. You’ve launched us extremely well today. It just, in my view, as the Prime Minister has said, just shows what two countries who trust each other, who are confident in each other and are familiar with each other, can do, not just for ourselves, but for those in the rest of the world who need to benefit from a bigger and better international trading system.

Questions from Reporters Begin

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was beautifully stated. What a beautiful accent. I’d like to have that accent. Thank you.

SPEAKER: My mother would be proud. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Any questions?

REPORTER: James Buckley from Sky News. Yes. Can I ask, why Britain and why now? And you described this deal as a full and comprehensive deal. And yet, we’ve just heard from Mr. Muggle, and it’s the end of the beginning. Clearly, there’s much more work still to do. With respect, are you overstating the reach and significance of this deal? Because you’re a president who needs a result at a difficult time.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think that it’s a great deal for both parties. It’s for us. We’re opened up. I didn’t know how closed it was. Quite closed, the market, as you know, the UK. And it opens up a tremendous market for us. And it works out very well, very well. And a lot of assets, you see the chart, and those are tremendous assets.

We’ve been trying, and when you say why us, meaning your country, we’ve been trying for years. And they’ve been trying for years to make a deal, including when I was in the first term. It would always be people talking, but they weren’t getting it done. But for 25 years before that, they were trying always to make a deal, a very significant deal.

I actually, until I looked at the numbers, I didn’t realize this is a very conclusive deal. But we think we could grow it even from that. But this is a Maxed Out deal, not like you said it. You said it really incorrectly. This is a Maxed Out deal that we’re going to make bigger. And we make it bigger through growth. But we have tremendous assets involved.

I was surprised to see how big your country is. It’s actually one of the biggest in technology and so many other things. It’s agriculture. I really didn’t know. Depending on your definition, it’s from four to five to six. That’s pretty big in the world. So I was very impressed by that. But we’re going to take it to new levels. It’s a very big deal right now. But I think it is going to grow. Just of its own volition, it’s going to grow. And over time, there’ll be changes made. There’ll be adjustments made. Because we’re flexible, we’ll see things that we can do even better. But it’s very conclusive. And we think everyone is going to be happy.

And the people of your country are going to be very impressed with the result. And they’ll be able to buy from more people. They’ll be able to price things differently. They’ll be able to get some products that aren’t available to them now that we make better than anybody in the world. And it’s just something that — it’s a great thing that it came together. It’s so nice because we have — many countries want to make a deal. And many countries are very unhappy that we happened to choose this one, to be honest with you. But it’s a long time. Our oldest ally, or just about — I guess a couple of people claim that, too. But let’s put it right at the top. I think it’s going to be something very special for the UK and special for the United States.

REPORTER: How close are you to more deals? And when do you expect the next to be announced?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very close. We have numerous deals. I know Howard is going back as soon as this is finished. Your press conference, he’s got numerous. And Scott, who is right over here, who is fantastic, by the way. You were great on television this morning. I watched you. That was — you gave them a little lesson in the world and economics.

But Scott is going to be going to Switzerland, meeting with China. And, you know, they very much want to make a deal. We can all play games. Who made the first call? Who didn’t make the — it doesn’t matter. It only matters what happens in that room. But I will tell you that China very much wants to make a deal. We’ll see how that works out.

Every country throughout the last 40, 50 years has literally ripped off the United States on trade, on military protection, on all the different things. And we are now making fair deals. And in this case, it’s great because we really weren’t very much involved. You have the European Union, which is, I think, you made the right decision years ago. I don’t know if you remember, I was opening up Turnberry the day that you were voting, and they asked me, Would it happen or would it not happen? I said, No, I think they’re going to go their own separate way. I think it’s better for them. And they did. I think it’s going to end up being a very smart decision.

But a big part of that decision was always that you’d be able to make a deal with the United States. And they were unable to do that, but now they made it. And it’s a tremendous — you know, it’s very important. That was always a big part of your decision on Brexit. And they were never able to make that deal. It was — you know, it was a tough one. And this one was — it’s amazing, with time. This one just went very smoothly. Went quickly and smoothly. And a lot of common sense, as I like to say. There’s tremendous common sense. But it’s going to make your country much bigger in terms of trade, and it’s going to make our country much bigger in terms of trade, too.

Yes, sir.

REPORTER: Thank you for that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay.

REPORTER: Tom Bateman at the BBC.

REPORTER: You mentioned meat and beef exports. The UK currently doesn’t accept American beef because of its own food standards. Are you calling on the UK to accept all American beef and chicken products?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think they’ll take what they want. We have plenty of it. We have every type. We have every classification you can have. As you know, Bobby Kennedy is doing a tremendous job, and he’s, I think, probably heading toward your system with no chemical, no this, no that. I mean, I think we’re heading that way. It seems to be. And — but we have that also. So we have — we’re a very big country. We have a lot of beef. We’re a very big country. So it’ll be — it’ll be great. Yes.

SECRETARY BROOKE: Yes. Yes. Let’s talk about American beef really quickly. And it can’t be understated — I’m Brooke Rawlins, by the way — how important this deal is going to exponentially increase our beef exports. And to be very clear, American beef is the safest, the best quality, and the crown jewel of American agriculture for the world. So I think a really important part of this deal isn’t just the ethanol reducing of tariffs from 19 to zero, which for our row croppers is a huge deal, but also for beef. And as we move forward, I know our incredible trade team is looking at all of the meats, all of the produce, really all of our agriculture exports. And I don’t know if there’s an industry that has been treated more unfairly and has suffered more than our agriculture industry. So we look forward to — I’ll be in the U.K. on Monday talking to my counterpart over there for the next week. And I look forward to moving that out across the country.

THE PRESIDENT: I think we could say that we have the best in the world — the best tractors, the best everything in the world. And they say that our agriculture is second to none. People are going to be able to have options, choice, and they’ll have more of it. And that usually means lower prices. How about we’ll do you, and then you. Go ahead.

Questions About Europe and Broader Trade Relations

REPORTER: Congratulations for the deal. We see big revenues from the chart. But what about the rest of Europe? There is — it’s a victory day. But other European countries seem like they’re losing the trade.

THE PRESIDENT: We intend to make a deal with Europe. We have found that the European Union treated us extremely unfairly — very difficult — and hurt themselves in doing so. And they very much want to make a deal. We’ll be dealing with them. We are dealing with them currently. So, that’ll cover pretty much the rest of it. But this was separate because of Brexit, in particular. This was a separate deal. It always seems so natural. I mean, all the media would say that this seemed to be like, why did this happen 25 years? Why didn’t it happen a long time ago? And it was always amazing to me.

And somebody would say, we got to make a deal. We have to make a deal. But this deal just fell into place. The Prime Minister did a fantastic job. His representatives are total professionals, and they got along well. And it just seemed to work. And I think one of the reasons it did is because we blew up the whole system. If we would have just been dealing with you separately or country by country. But we blew up the whole system. It was very unfair to the United States. And I think because of that, this worked out so nicely. And I’m honored that it was the first deal. Please.

Well, why don’t you go in the back, yes.

British Film Industry and Aston Martin

REPORTER: Well, thanks. I’m with the London Times. I would say this is a great day for James Bond because now Aston Martins will be available to America as buyers for the film. We’d like to know if there’d be relief on British films. You’ve talked about a big tariff on films.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to have a discussion on that separately. And as you know, we’re putting tariffs on that particular film, you said — the moviemakers. And we’re going to be doing some tariffs to get them because a lot of them have left this country. They all live here. The money comes from here. Everything comes from here, but they make them in other countries. So we’re going to do something to bring them back, maybe to a large extent. But James Bond has nothing to worry about that, I can tell you.

And, you know, Sean Connery was a friend of mine. Sean Connery was responsible for my getting zoning in Aberdeen. He said, “Let the bloody bloke build his golf courses.” And I was like four years into the process, and it was impossible in Aberdeen. And he just stood up one day, and he said that. As soon as he said that, I got the approvals in about two minutes. So he had great — he was a great guy, Sean Connery. And great character.

REPORTER: Can you share a bit about that later in the year? Are you going back to — are you going to Scotland and to the UK?

THE PRESIDENT: I will be, Jim. We have a lot of investment over there. We have Turnberry, Aberdeen. We have, as you know, in Doonbeg in Ireland, right on the ocean. They’re all on the ocean. I only have interest if they’re on the ocean. And we have good investments over there. Beautiful. Yes.

China Trade Relations

REPORTER: Mr. President, if the talks go well this weekend between Secretary Bessent and Ambassador Greer with their Chinese counterparts — not preemptively, but if the talks go well — would you then consider lowering the tariff rate on China?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it could be. I mean, we’re going to see. Right now, you can’t get any higher. It’s at 145. So we know it’s coming down. I think we’re going to have a very good relationship. You know, I always got along very well with President Xi. That relationship was greatly disturbed by COVID when COVID came in. But we get along very well now. I mean, that relationship was hurt with a lot of people, a lot of countries, when COVID came in. But I think we’re going to have a very good relationship. I expect to have a very good relationship with China, Scott. I think it’s a very friendly meeting. They look forward to doing it in an elegant way.

China, as you know, has a tremendous trade surplus with us, and we just can’t have that. But I think it’s going to be very good for both countries. I would like to see China opened. You know, one of the big things here is — and nobody would know this, but the U.K. was largely closed. It was very much closed to trade, and now it’s opened. And a lot of the financial reporters are very happy about that because so much — I’ve listened to them. I hope they get countries opened up. And then you compete on a fair basis, but you can’t compete when you’re not allowed to go there. China would be the number-one example of that.

You know, it’s very closed. We almost had it last time, before COVID. And that didn’t work out. But we made a great deal with China. They had to buy $50 billion worth of our food products. And it was a great deal, doing very well for our farmers. And then when Biden came in, as usual, nothing happened. You know, he didn’t enforce it. And it got less, less, less, and ultimately, it destroyed a great deal. That was a great deal. But, no, I think that we’re going to have a — I think we’re going to have a good weekend with China. I think they have a lot to gain. I do think they have far more to gain than we do, in a sense. But we’re going to have a good — I think we’re going to have a very good weekend.

REPORTER: Can you speak to Xi after the weekend talks?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure. Depending on what Scott says, we sort of — Scott is doing certain countries, and Howard is doing certain countries. I mean, I wish I had, like, 10 more of each, and we could do them all at one time.

It’s a little long.

THE PRESIDENT: But there will be a time. We’ll do a number of them, and then there’ll be a time. I think I can say this, Scott, and Howard, where we’re just going to say — because we understand the countries, we understand what they want — where we’re just going to make the deal. In other words, we don’t need the country involvement because we’ve already had it. And we’ll say this particular country, which had big surpluses, let’s say — we had, therefore, deficits — that this particular country is going to pay a 25 percent tariff or a 30 percent or a 50 percent or a 10 percent.

I think we should explain it now, Howard. One of the things we did here that we’ll rarely do is, on cars, we took it from 25 to 10 percent on Rolls-Royce because Rolls-Royce is not going to be built here. I wouldn’t even ask them to do that. It’s a very special car. And it’s a very limited number, too. It’s not one of the monster car companies that makes millions of cars. They make a very small number of cars that are super luxury, and that includes Bentley and Jaguar.

So, in order to help that industry—and that’s really handmade stuff. They’ve been doing it for a long time in the same location. And I said, yeah, that would be—let’s help them out with that one. But that’s different than a car company that comes out and makes millions of cars, which they’ll be doing in our country.

Manufacturing Investment in the United States

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’re going to build—we have many, many factories, car plants being built or going to be built very soon. I think we can say that we’ll be close to $10 trillion of investment. I think we’re actually at that number now, if you add up some of the ones we haven’t heard about yet. I mean, we have some going up right now. They have plants going up, and they haven’t even spoken to us. They’re doing it because of the tariffs.

And tariffs have always been used against us. And I never understood. I used to sit back. As you know, China paid hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs when I was President. But until then, China never paid anything. And they really did a big number on us from the standpoint of trade. But we are using tariffs now for our benefit.

And we have now close to $10 trillion. Now, think of that—$10 trillion. If you look at the past administration—and we’re talking about over, essentially two months because we could say three, but it took a little while to get the office in perfect shape. It took a little while to get things done. But once we started, when you think of that, close to $10 trillion of investment.

You’ve had years where the United States wouldn’t do that in a whole—wouldn’t do $1 trillion in a year, wouldn’t do anywhere near $1 trillion. We did $10 trillion in two months. So, it’s amazing what’s happening.

Bringing Semiconductor Manufacturing Back to America

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re getting calls from—that has to do with chips, has to do with cars. We used to make chips. We had Intel, and we used to make chips. We had a monopoly on chips. Everything was made here. And now, over a period of years, because of Presidents that didn’t know what they were doing, they allowed that business to be stolen from us. Most of it moved to Taiwan.

And you probably were in the same position, right? Because you had a lot of the chip-making capacity. But they moved it in. And if we would have said, “That’s fine. If you want to move it to Taiwan, that’s good. But if you want to sell back into the United States, we’re going to put a 50 percent or 100 percent tariff on.” They would have never left. But we had people sitting here that didn’t understand that. And it’s too bad.

But now they’re coming back, because I’m saying it. I’m saying it about 40 years too late. But they’re coming back. As you know, we have the biggest chip makers in the world spending, in one case, $300 billion. In one case, $500 billion. Same as Apple. And in another case, $200 billion. And we’re going to have a large share, a very, very substantial share of the chip-making market.

Questions on China Meeting

REPORTER: Mr. Trump, you said this weekend it’s going to be a friendly visit. But do you expect that it will just be a formality to break the ice? Or are they going to get into substantive negotiations?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I believe so, yes. I believe it’s substantive, yes. I think we would like to say, “Yes. We’re having a meeting to meet.” Well, we’re meeting. So what are we going to do? Talk about meeting again? So I think it’s going to be substantive. I think we can say that. Right, Scott? Very substantive.

Now, China wants to do something. And look, they have to at this point. You know, essentially, they made a trillion dollars a year, and now they have absolutely no business because of the tariffs. They have no business, and they want to have business. And we want them to have business. We want them to do well. We want them to do very well. So I think it’s going to be very substantive.

Impact on U.S. Ports and Workers

REPORTER: Because business has slowed down, as you mentioned. In China. But we’re seeing, as a result, the ports here in the U.S., the traffic has really slowed. And now thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I know. We lose—that means we lose less money. You know, when I see that, that means we lose less money. Look, China was making over a trillion—$1.1 trillion, in my opinion. You know, different numbers from $500 billion to a trillion or a trillion—I think it was $1.1 trillion. And, frankly, if we didn’t do business, we would have been better off. Okay? You understand that.

So when you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. But we’re going to make it so they can—I’d like to say they can do better, actually, in terms of the bottom line.

We’d like to see China opened up so we can compete in China and give people something that they’ve never had—access to something. That would be great for the world. It would be great for our businesses. And I think it would be great for friendship.

I really expect a lot of people think I’m a militant guy. I’m really not. I think that trade can bring a greater friendship with China. It can be something good. But, you know, one of the things that I know Scott is going to be talking about very high on the list is, open up and let our businesses go into China. Because when you talk about a closed country, that’s a really closed country. And I think it would be great if it was opened up. It would give people a lot of choice and would create a lot of jobs, a lot of everything. So I think it would be a great thing for China. And that’s going to be one of the things we’ll be discussing, like we discussed with UK.

Questions on Tariff Strategy

REPORTER: Will you have a China deal?

REPORTER: Mr. President, what does Britain have to do for you to draw the baseline 10 percent tariff for the oil and gas industry?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think that’s set because that has to do with a lot of different things, including past—you know, there are a lot of past things that we talked—this is very inclusive. We included everything. And that’s pretty well set.

REPORTER: Mr. President, the 10 percent baseline tariff remaining in place, is that a template for these future trade deals? You said you were going to keep it here. Is it going to stay in every case?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, that’s a low number. They made a good deal. Many—some will be much higher because they have massive trade surpluses. And, you know, in many cases, they didn’t treat us right. One thing with UK—they had, you know, somewhat closed. Not like a China, as an example. But they always treated us with great respect. They treated us with great respect.

The template of 10, well, is probably the lowest, and therefore, they, you know, made that deal. And—but they—you know, we’ve had just a very special relationship with them. Like, I won’t do that deal with cars, I mean, unless somebody shows me that there’s another kind of a car that’s comparable to a Rolls-Royce, then there aren’t too many. This is a good commercial for Rolls-Royce, by the way. They’re going to order a lot of cars.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I wonder whether you’d like to buy.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean—

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, the last time this happened, I ended up—I would be happy to suggest a discount, obviously, a very modest discount.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ve had many of them, actually. You know, the last time that happened, I ended up buying a Tesla, you know. Thank you.

REPORTER: Mary Morgan Allohan with Daily Wire. I have a question. I heard there was talk that part of the agreement would depend on whether the U.K. would respect free speech and freedom of religion. I know the VP is really interested in that and talked about that earlier this year. Was there any assurances that you guys got on that front?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You want to handle that?

SECRETARY HOWARD: Yeah, that was not part of the conversation. Our conversation was an economic conversation from start to finish, closed by the President yesterday. This was a business deal, open their markets and also protect their workers, grow our markets and help our workers.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: This was about business Religion. You know, business is so — a semi-religion. But not nearly as important. I don’t want to get myself into trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. President, I don’t want to get into trouble.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead. In the back. Go ahead.

Seeking China’s Help on Ukraine-Russia Conflict

REPORTER: Mr. President, will you be asking China to help you close, you know, the gap between Ukraine and Russia?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think so. I think it’s a natural thing to ask.

REPORTER: What do you expect them to do?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know. I think we’re making good progress. The fighting is a little bit different than it was. I think if we weren’t involved, Russia would be, you know, going at it to maybe get the whole thing. And without our involvement, they’d be able to get it, because we supplied a lot of — a lot of different things, foolishly. But we’ve been sort of paid back by doing the rare-earth deal that I talked about before.

I think that — no, I think that we will be very much involved in trying to get that bloodbath — It’s a bloodbath. It’s a horrible situation. Five thousand — it’s really more than that. But it’s five thousand soldiers, on average a week — mostly soldiers — are being killed. Young, beautiful people. I mean, they’re being killed. I see the satellite pictures coming back, body parts lying all over the field. Heads and arms. It’s so terrible. I’ve never seen anything like it, actually.

And if we can get that stopped, that will be a great accomplishment. And we’re trying very hard. And I think we’re close. And Mr. Witkoff is talking constantly back and forth. He’s a real professional. He’s got a great relationship with both countries. And I think we have a good chance.

And likewise, we’re trying to work on Iran to get that solved without having to get into any bombing, as we say. Big bombing. I don’t want to do that. I want them to work — I want them to be very successful.

Non-Market Barriers in the U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal

REPORTER: On the non-market barriers, how did you get the U.K. to bend, and what was the 11th hour deal, or ask?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think it was really just a part of the overall. I mean, they have so many things that are so good for them, it’s going to be so good for the country. And that was sort of easy. It wasn’t — we had non-market — I call it non-market or non-monetary. No, I think the overall deal just worked out very well from their standpoint. They were willing to give that in order to get other things. And you might want to speak to that, Mr. Ambassador.

AMBASSADOR: Look, the point about the deal is that we will continue reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers. This is a continuing picture. It’s a movie. It’s not a still picture here. It’s a movie. It continues. And we’re both committed to freeing up trade between our countries. We’re both committed to freeing up investment between our countries. And the point about this deal is that it provides a very good template and a very good launchpad for what we can continue to do and build on in the future. And that’s what we’re both determined to do.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, many of the — many of the — we’ll keep it confidential. How about just one more little thing, right?

Well, it got the deal closed, and it was handled very well from the other side, too. But many of these things that we’re talking about — we’ve been talking about this for 25 years. It’s hard to explain when — if you weren’t sitting behind this beautiful Resolute desk, you just wouldn’t get it. I have been hearing about making a deal with the UK for 25 years, and especially around the time of Brexit. They wanted to make a deal, so they came out of Brexit, and they make a deal, and how natural. And it just couldn’t be done. It couldn’t be done. Good people.

And this is a bigger deal. This is a much bigger, better, stronger deal for both of us than we ever even contemplated before. It’s a big deal.

Recognition for the New U.S. Ambassador to the U.K.

AMBASSADOR: Virtually everyone said that it would end in failure, it would end in tears, and it’s ended in exactly the opposite. But, Mr. President, can I say that that is due to Secretary Luton-Aitken and Ambassador Greer being absolutely fantastic. But yesterday, I received a call, a very diplomatic call, that just edged things over the line, and that was from your new ambassador in the United Kingdom.

Who is terrific. Warren Stevens. He’s here. Where is Warren? Very terrific. Hello, Warren. How are you? He’s flying to London tomorrow night. He’s going to be very popular with the British people. He’s going to be a very successful ambassador. And?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s got plenty of cash.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: He has plenty of cash. He needs to roll big spenders.

European Union and Federal Reserve Questions

REPORTER: I thought you were going to meet Ursula Von der Leyen. We’re going to go ahead fast. Are you planning to meet Ursula Von der Leyen, the President, or do you plan to cancel any time soon?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, she’s so fantastic, right? She’s so fantastic. I hope we’re going to meet. Yeah, the answer is yes. I saw her. Actually, I saw her a few days ago. And I think that we’ll definitely meet, yeah. The European Union is a big thing. They want to make a deal very badly. You know, everybody wants to make a deal. Look, everybody wants to make a deal with the United States. And we’re doing that. And we’re going to make fair deals. I’m just honored that this was the first one. Go ahead, please.

REPORTER: The Federal Reserve Chairman, Mr. President, said that you would have to call him for a meeting. Do you plan to meet him? What do you think about him?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m just like talking to a wall.

REPORTER: You should meet him. What do you think about not signing? The Bank of England cut today.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, the Bank of England cut. China cut. Everybody is cutting but him. You know, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. It’s a shame. I called him too late. You know, too late, Powell. That’s his nickname. And it’s a shame. It’s ridiculous. So, a meeting, he’s always too late.

Economic Strength and Tax Legislation

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But in this case, it’s not going to matter that much because our country is so strong. We’re so powerful in terms of economic strength and what we’ve done. And I’ll tell you what, if we didn’t have our first term, you wouldn’t be. We created things in the first term. We cut more regulations than any President in history. We cut the taxes more than anybody in history.

And a very big factor is going to be the tax bill that we have right now, the one big beautiful bill as we call it, which is all-encompassing, the biggest tax cuts ever in history, bigger than even the first time, and the incentives even great for the UK because it’ll make us so strong that we’re going to be doing more business with you.

It’s a very important element for taxes, for every aspect, regulation cuts. That bill is, I believe it’s the biggest bill of its kind ever in the history of this country. And Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune have done an incredible job. I mean, I’ll let you know if we have to get a vote, but we have a lot of support for that bill.

And if that happens, on top of all of these trade deals that we’re doing, this country will hit a point that you better go out and buy stock now. Let me tell you, this country will be like a rocket ship that goes straight up. This is going to be numbers that nobody’s ever seen before.

That’s a very important element of all of this, you know, if we get that. If you don’t, and the Democrats are fighting it only because they want to fight. They have Trump derangement syndrome, you know, if it was somebody else, they wouldn’t fight. If you had a normal…

PRESIDENT TRUMP: If you had some stiff sitting behind you, they’d be fine. But they have Trump derangement syndrome. You know, Senator Schumer has become a Palestinian. He’s welcome. I don’t know when they’re going to give him the ceremony, whatever the ceremony may be. It’s terrible what’s happened to the Democrats.

So very, very important element of everything, of what we’re doing, unrelated to today, but related in the sense that we’ll do, if that passes, we’ll do even more business with the UK. We’ll have so much. It’s the biggest tax cut in history. It’s going to make our country zoom. It’s going to be incentive, as you know, with the deduction for basically for work, work, you build your plant, et cetera, your deduction. It’s going to be the biggest — it’s the biggest bill of its kind ever passed. Maybe the biggest bill ever passed. That’s why we call it the one big, beautiful bill.

Questions on Administration Appointments

REPORTER: Mr. Trump, you just announced a new nominee for the U.S. Surgeon General, who never finished her residency and is not a practicing physician. So can you explain why you picked her as America’s top doctor?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, she’s a — yeah, because Bobby thought she was fantastic. She’s highly — she’s a brilliant woman who went through Stanford. And as I understand it, she basically wanted to do — she wanted to be an academic as opposed to a surgeon. I think she graduated first in her class at Stanford. And Bobby really thought she was great. I don’t know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby. I met her yesterday and once before. She’s a very outstanding person. A great academic, actually. So I think she’ll be great.

REPORTER: Your nominee for U.S. Attorney of D.C. Do you have a backup plan if the Senate does not —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, I do. Yeah, but he’s a terrific person. And he wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought. You know, he’s done a very good job. Crime is down 25 percent in D.C. during his period of time. I’m very disappointed in that. But I have so many different things that I’m doing now with the trade. You know, I’m one person. I can only make — boom, I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day.

But we have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. And hopefully we can bring him into — whether it’s DOJ or whatever — in some capacity. Because really outstanding. It was — to me, it was disappointing. I’ll be honest. I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works sometimes. You know, that’s the way it works. And he wasn’t rejected, but we felt it would be very — it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great.

Questions on Tariffs and the Economy

REPORTER: Mr. President, you have companies like Ford and Mattel. With companies like Ford and Mattel recently saying they’re going to raise prices on certain products, how long do you think the American public is going to be patient and wait for you?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Well, I don’t think — I think they’re saying that just to try and negotiate deals with me. They’re not — look, tariffs are the most misunderstood thing maybe in any form of business, anywhere in business. Oftentimes, the country picks them up. Oftentimes, the company picks it up. The people don’t pick it up. Okay? The people don’t pick it up. And if Ford did that, they wouldn’t sell any cars.

And if Mattel — I don’t know, some — I’m not so sure. They also said — they’re the only country I’ve heard they said, Well, we’re going to go counter. We’re going to try going someplace else. That’s okay. Let them go. And we’ll put a 100 percent tariff on his toys. And he won’t sell one toy in the United States. And that’s their biggest market. I heard that. I mean, I watched this guy talking about how, I’m going to go counter. I said, Well, I wouldn’t want to have him as an executive too long.

The Ford people, I know very well. What they’re doing is negotiating with us by saying that. But we don’t think that’s going to happen.

Look, I put out a truth today, and it said that gas is down, gasoline is down, energy is down, groceries are down, eggs are down. I mean, eggs, thank you very much. But eggs are down. When I came in the first week, you guys hit me with eggs. I said, What the hell happened with eggs? Eggs were up like 170 percent and going up. And they said, Don’t order any for Easter. And we were thinking about ordering plastic eggs like everybody was doing.

And Brooke did a fantastic job. Agriculture. Brooke did a fantastic job. And we had hundreds of thousands of eggs out here on the lawn just two weeks ago at Easter. But you take a look at the cost. Energy is down. Even interest rates are down.

Now, if the chairman of the Fed, Jerome, if he would lower interest rates like China did, like I think UK did, but like numerous other countries have done, it would be — it’s like jet fuel. It would be great. But he doesn’t want to do it. I think he doesn’t want to do it. Probably he’s not — he’s not in love with me. I think that’s what — it’s sort of a crazy reason. But that’s the way life is. Anybody in his position would be — it would be like jet fuel. But even without that, we’re doing well.

But remember this. You know, I’ve watched you people reporting over the last few months that if we do this, you know, prices are going to go through. Well, groceries are down. All of this stuff is down. Lumber is down. Oil is gone down. I mean, we have that thing — Broke 60, right? Sixty dollars a barrel. And 98 — $1.98, $1.99 in some cases. And heading in that direction.

No, I think it’s been amazing, actually. And what that’s good for, it gives the consumer more money, and it gives them a better life. Because we just came out of the worst inflation, in my opinion, in the history of our country. They say 48 years. But Biden really screwed it up. He screwed up energy. And he also paid — he spent too much money. He was spending it on, you know, a Green New Scam. And that’s like throwing the money — see that beautiful window behind? Take money, throw it right out that window. Because it’s the same thing.

He spent — he spent $10 trillion. He wasted it. Not only was it bad, it was a negative. It wasn’t even like it helped a little bit. It was a real negative. And then, on top of it, they let 21 million people into our country without any identification, any — anything. Just let them in. It’s very, very sad.

Well, we’ll do one or two more. Go ahead. Who are you with?

Questions on UK Relations with China and Trade Standards

REPORTER: I’m with the Daily Telegraph. Now, you know me from another president.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I do.

REPORTER: How concerned are you about the UK’s reliance on China? Chinese money in the money markets, Chinese exports.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re not concerned. Honestly, I’m not concerned about anything. If I was, I wouldn’t even be here right now. If I was concerned about anything — and it wouldn’t be that, but I wouldn’t be here right now. No, we’re not concerned. We’re going to have, I believe, a very good relationship with China and a fair relationship. And it’ll get bigger and it’ll grow. It’ll grow.

As an example, if they open up the country, that’ll be the best thing China ever did for itself. They don’t know that yet because, you know, it’s been a different system. But that’ll be the greatest thing that ever happened to China. The people will be happier. They’ll buy for less. They’ll see things that they never saw before, and they’ll be buying them. And it’ll really create great long-term peace.

REPORTER: And if I could ask one of the Agriculture Secretary, actually, there’s a lot of concern about chlorinated chicken and the import of hormone-treated beef. Has that question been addressed, resolved in these talks, or is that something for the continuing negotiations?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, I would just say that it’s very clear, and we have it in the heads of terms, that we are going to discuss all of these types of issues. And obviously, the importing country, whether it’s us or…

REPORTER: (QUESTION INAUDIBLE about rules and regulations)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You got to follow the rules on those types of things. But our point is, the rules need to make sure that they are based on science. And that’s our expectation. We know the UK believes that, too. So we want to come to an accommodation. We want the consumers in each country to be able to choose what they want and give them the information that they want. But we have an incredible EPA led by Administrator Zeldin that is on this. So the talks continue. But we are very, very confident in our products. And what the President has done to open up the markets is unprecedented for these farmers here in America.

REPORTER: The press is on Wall Street as they watched it. You saw the stock market decline sharply after the British today and rally back from that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, now it’s going to really rally. Because, you know, don’t forget, they said this is all a pipe dream. And this is a tough one. This is — somebody will say, well, this is easy. This is much tougher, I think, than any other deal because they’ve been at it for so many years, decades, trying to make this deal. And it’s very conclusive, and it’s a great deal, and it’s a very big deal, actually.

No, this is just the beginning. We’re going to be having conferences, or at some point, we won’t have — we’ll just put out a statement that we just signed this country, that country. And after a number of these are done, nobody has enough people to do it. We’re just going to put out X country is going to pay this. And if they open up, they’re going to do this and that. And then they’re going to be open up. Everybody wants to be here. You know, I say this is where they want to be shopping. They want to shop in this country because we have the consumer. And we have the consumer like nobody else. And, you know, if this country went bad, the whole world would go bad. But we really — but we really saved it from going bad.

Yeah, please.

Air Traffic Control System

REPORTER: (QUESTION INAUDIBLE about air traffic control)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m glad you asked me about it because I’m just going to be talking to now with the heads of the airlines and everything else. So, I was all set, before we had the rigged election, to give out a brand-new, gorgeous system to one company that was going to do the whole thing. One of the best companies in the world that you know very well. You know, there are three or four of them that do it.

And when they took over, Buttigieg, who has no clue — you know, he drives to work on his bicycle with his — with his — in all fairness, with his husband on the back, which is a nice, loving relationship. But he didn’t have a clue. This guy didn’t have a clue. And he’s actually a contender for President. Between him and Crockett, you can have that party. But he didn’t have — he didn’t know what he was doing.

And he took what they call dry systems — systems where you have wires in the Earth, buried in the Earth, or whatever. And then you have the open-air systems where you have satellites. And you can’t mesh them. Anybody would know that if you went through about two months of study in school, if you studied that kind of thing. And he did. They spent tens of billions of dollars trying to take old, broken equipment and merge it. merging it into existing new equipment with brand-new equipment.

It’s one of the greatest. They spent like $40 billion. And what they did is they made it worse because it doesn’t work together. You can’t make it work together. If you have a satellite system, you need satellite. If you don’t, they had all these different technologies, some of them 50 years old, and they’re trying to mesh them in. And they end up spending twice the money they should have. You could have bought a whole new system.

So we have a very good guy who you all know, Sean Duffy, he’s head of transportation. And I’ve given him a 10-minute lesson in buying, and he’s become really good. And we are now in the market to buy a gorgeous, brand-new system.

The helicopter that crashed into the plane at 400 feet, it shouldn’t have been. What would have happened is all sorts of bells and sirens would have been going off three minutes before that accident happened if you had the right equipment, but they didn’t. And the new equipment is unbelievable what it does. You can have — you don’t even — well, I was going to say something, but you always — in my opinion, you always need pilots. I want pilots. But you wouldn’t even have to have pilots. This system is so incredible, what they can do.

But we have a system that’s obsolete. And what they did is the worst. They tried to combine the really old, broken stuff with the new stuff, and you can’t combine it. So, Biden — do you think Biden figured this out? I don’t think so, fellas. Do you think he has any clue? He doesn’t know what the hell is happening.

So here’s the story. We’re going to be buying a brand-new — it’s going out to bid very soon — brand-new, state-of-the-art system that will cover the entire world. I’ll give you an example. When my pilot — now I have military pilots, but prior to that, I had very good pilots, great pilots — they would land — and I won’t tell you which country, but they would use the system of another country. They wouldn’t even use the system of the United States. So if I’m landing in New York or Florida or Tennessee, they’re using a system from another country. I said, Why is that? And they were — you know, they’re not into business, but they’re just saying, Our system doesn’t work, sir. And I said, Boy, that’s pretty sad.

But we were all set to give it out to — you know, look, you have Raytheon and you have different companies like that, numerous companies. And you have companies that would do it, like in IBM, as an example. But — and you give out one deal, one contract. They gave out hundreds of contractors. They had diggers. They had non-diggers. They had people that focused on satellites. They had hundreds of different contracts. One contract where one guy is controlling everything. You need a trench, then they dig a trench. But if you don’t dig the trench, they don’t blame you. What happens is, you don’t dig it, then they say, We want to cross it over on you.

Now, we have it all set, and we’re going to be doing it. We would have done it, except that the election took a little strange turn. But the second one didn’t. That was too big to rig.

Thank you very much, everybody.

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