Transcript: President Trump Signs the Secure America Act

That was about the best. They’ve all been out of commission for 50 years or more. Can you imagine that? And they were graffiti-strewn, grass-strewn, grass growing through the cracks, and they were in terrible shape. And all 22 have now been opened, and the most magnificent possibly of all. The California Union Station is beautiful. You see that? It was all graffiti all over the place. We threw a lot of work. We got it looking maybe better than it was the day they put it in.

The Reflecting Pool Restoration

But the one that they’re all talking about is the almost 2,500-foot-long… It’s taller than any building in the world, actually. There’s no building that’s 2,500 feet tall, I don’t think, but it’s like twice the height of the Empire State Building, as an example. Much wider. So we just got that open last night. We wanted to do it before July 4th, and it is incredible.

It’s called… It was originally called… 1922 was built. It was called the Reflecting Pond, or the Reflecting Lake, some people called it. But it was supposed to be a reflection. It never worked from 1922, because there was stone on the base, and no matter what, it always leaked, because you have stone and you have lots of crevices. Crevices, we have nice stone out there, but if you go between the stone, it leaks. And so it never really worked very well. And it was a bad color. It was gray. It was concrete and stone, so it was gray.

And I had the idea, along with some great people that worked for us. Doug Burgum is fantastic. His group, Greg, everybody. And we worked very hard. But it was going to cost $400 million, and we did it for about $10 million. And it was going to take four years to build, and we did it in like a month, month and a half. And we would have had our construction site out there for years, and it wouldn’t have worked when they built it.

So when they told me what they were going to do, I said, that’s not a good idea. I built many, many, many swimming pools as a builder. I built hundreds of them. And I got one of our contractors. I had him take a look. And he said, “Oh, we can do a great job. If you could just give us a decent surface.” The surface was in such. So we sandblasted the surface. We fumigated it. We took out 11 dumpsters, big dumpsters, full of garbage. It was all garbage. Some of the garbage was there for years. It was all disgusting, and it smelled. And anyway, we took 11 dumpsters of garbage out with shovels.

Restoring the Reflecting Pool

We had a shovel inside of what’s called a pool or a lake. And got it cleaned. We then fumigated it. We then sandblasted the entire thing. We washed it, cleaned it, scrubbed it, sandblasted it. Then we gave it a test. Then we rinsed it out, and we gave them a beautiful surface. And then they put a swimming pool topping, but industrial strength. It’s industrial strength. It’s used for tanks and lots of other things to hold water.

And we worked out the ratios of expansion and contraction. Because, you know, believe it or not, when you have something that’s 2,500 feet long, there’s tremendous expansion and contraction. Who would think of this? Only a person that does it, like me. And they have a lot of expansion and contraction. So when we’re putting the surface down, we’d leave areas that can expand and contract a little bit. Because it expands over a foot and a half. Can you believe it? So I would have ripped it apart. So we left areas of expansion and contraction.

We were testing it for three weeks, four weeks. It works great. And we just opened it last night, and people are going wild over it. So it was going to cost $400 million, and we did it for 10, probably 10, if you take away a couple of things.

We did a much bigger job than originally planned. Because once we put that in, it looked so good, the sidewalks outside didn’t look good anymore. You know, they looked like they were in good shape. But when you do something new in this business, you do something new, the thing that you thought were good, you’d save it. So we ended up sandblasting, steam cleaning and sandblasting the sidewalks around it. And we had a lot of areas that were in bad shape. We had to fix them. We patched them, and you can’t even see the patch.

We have granite surrounding the pool, and the granite’s great, but it was filthy, dirty, disgusting. And it was broken in some cases. We were able to carve out pieces from other pieces that were identical, and put them in. And you can’t even see the seam. And it’s like a beautiful — it’s in better shape than it was when it was built. I told you, from 1922, it never worked because it always leaked. Because at a stone base, the water leaked through the stone. So we’re very proud of it. It’s going to be great.

Restoring the Fountains and Monuments

Now we’re doing a new surface on the World War II fountain because the surface is so bad. And that’ll be done during the next couple of — we’re going to start in a week or so, finish it very quickly. But we’ve done a great job. And the city is — everyone’s coming up to me saying, the city is so beautiful.

So we have 22 fountains that none of them worked. The earliest — I’ll tell you, it’s 50 years. For 50 years. Some of them haven’t worked for 100 years. But we have fountains that were not working and were disgusting and dirty. And they’re all beautiful now, every one of them.

We also took care of a lot of the monuments, not fountains, but monuments. And they’re all in good shape. Some of them are being finished up now. And it’s incredible. And my goal was to get it all done, along with Interior and others that worked with us, to get it done before the July 4th date. July 4th was a very important date. So that was our — that was the date we looked at and we did a — we did a hell of a job.

But everybody’s looking at that reflecting pool. They can’t believe it. Reflects. We used a dark blue. It’s called American flag blue. I wanted to go light. But they said, “Sir, light doesn’t reflect. And light shows leaves and garbage. It’s garbage.” One man said, “Sir, when you leave, it’ll be strewn with garbage again. You don’t want that.” See, when I’m here, it’ll be perfect.

But when I leave, I said, you’re right about that. You’re probably right, depending on who’s president or who’s running it. But it’s really beautiful. It’s something for you to see. It’s incredible. It’s the largest — it’s the longest pool in the world by three or four times. It’s, you know, it’s really pretty amazing. That’s where Martin Luther King made his great speech. And they say he had a million people.

And I made a speech there for July 4th a few years ago. And they said — and I was packed. And they said I had 25,000 people. They said he had a million. But when you’re looking at the picture — I said, well, wait, the people are even tighter at mine. I had more people than him. But they said I had 25,000 and he had a million. But I’m not going to argue with Martin Luther King because I don’t want that.

$38 Billion for ICE, $26 Billion for Border Patrol

But the Secure America Act provides $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to Border Patrol to ensure these critical law enforcement agencies have the necessary resources to do their jobs, protecting our borders and getting criminal aliens out of the country. And starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent, and open-border people out of this country. We got them out.

I’ll give you an example. In Washington, over five — I don’t even know if you know this. It’s not just policing. You have criminals. You have career criminals. There’s nothing you can do to make them nice. They’re tough people. They’re bad people. Some of them had records — 22, 23. One had 28 arrests and rough arrests for murder. And we got — we took out almost 5,000 people out of Washington, D.C.

And if you remember, 2 percent of the people create 91 percent of the crime. When you hear that number, it’s great. I love that number because you can handle 2 percent. If it’s 91 — create 91 — that’s no good. Too many people. But 2 percent of the people. And we got — we took 5,000 — almost 5,000 people out of Washington, D.C. They’ll never come back.

Washington, D.C.: A Safer City

In addition, the National Guard — and we worked with the police department, law enforcement. It was great. And we have a very safe city. Everyone is going out to eat now. Restaurants were all closed. They were all closing. The few that were open were closing. And now you can’t get a restaurant in Washington. Everyone wants to have a restaurant. It’s a whole different — so it’s something we’re very proud of.

New Orleans: The Safest Mardi Gras in History

New Orleans, the same thing, by the way. It’s a little earlier in the process. But I got a call from your governor. I got a call from Steve. They called me together, actually, and they said — the safest Mardi Gras. They said, we’ve never had a Mardi Gras like that. They had the lowest crime they ever had in the history of the Mardi Gras, which has been going on for a long time. A long time.

They usually — Steve said they usually have numerous numbers of murders, but they had none. But beyond murders, I heard it was the best — like, the best you’ve ever had. It really was. And a great Super Bowl, too, that you’re at. And Memphis — and that’s going to be great for the Super Bowl, because we’ll keep it — I think you’re bidding on the Super Bowl coming in. 2031. Yeah. And it’s going to be — now you can really say it was a safe city.

Memphis: Crime Down 77 Percent

And the other one is Memphis. The crime is down 77 percent. Can you believe it? People are calling me up. Friends are — we’re leaving Memphis. We’re all leaving. And now they’re saying — and the governor is — everyone is thrilled. It’s amazing. And if they would call me for Chicago, we’d straighten out Chicago so fast. We’d straighten out New York fast. We’d straighten out Los Angeles fast. We do it really well.

And part of it is you have to get the really bad ones. You have to get the career criminals out, because they will — they’ll hit you hard. And they ought to get rid of — by the way, cashless bail, you ought to do that as soon as possible, where they — Markwayne? That’s right. Where they walk in, they commit a crime, they go out, they — in the afternoon, they commit another crime. And sometimes those crimes are murder. Right back on the street. That’s right.

Cashless — I’ll tell you what. Cashless bail was a tremendous help to criminals. It’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to a criminal. And they ought to end it. In every city, they ought to end it. Chicago, New York, L.A., they ought to end it.

The Most Secure Border in Our Country’s History

Starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent open border in the world. We had the most unsafe border, I believe, anywhere in the world. And the numbers came out two days ago that for 11 months, not one person came into our country illegally through the southern border. We had 25 million people come in over a four-year period. We have it good. And nobody tries to come in.

All the caravans — I came up with the name caravan. It was a — you’d have 25,000, 30,000 people coming up. And they’d pour through the border. You’d see in the scenes where they were knocking over the fences. A very, very bad, very dangerous situation. We don’t have them anymore because they know they can’t get through. So when they know they can’t get through, they don’t come. And a lot of lives are saved.

Women were being raped on the journey up. They were being raped in numbers. Twenty-five, 30 percent were being raped coming up. You don’t have that anymore because they don’t come up in caravans anymore because they know they’re not going to get through.

So, starting on day one, we took the most dangerous and unsafe, violent open border in the world, and we created the most secure border anywhere in our country — probably one of the most in the world. I believe it was the most insecure and unsecure border anywhere in the world because there’s no country, even a third-world country, that has a situation like that where you’d have criminals just walk across, totally unchecked.

Radical Left Open Border Policies Let in Millions Unvetted

They had a — the Biden — it wasn’t Biden. He didn’t know what the hell was going on. It was — it was people that are radical left lunatics who are very smart, very violent, very vicious, politically vicious. And they allowed this open border policy where millions of people came into our country, unchecked, unvetted. People from jails, people — drug dealers, people from mental institutions. Jails and mental institutions from all over the world were emptied out into our country.

And we’ve got a lot of them out. We have a ways to go. It’s very tough with the courts because every — these — the judges have been very terrible. They’ve been terrible. Very sad. But we’re doing — we’re fighting our way through it.

We have made this a much — in fact, we’ve made it a country that, as you saw last month, they said we had the lowest murder rate that we’ve had in 125 years. Think of that. And that’s despite the fact, because we got a lot out. But we do have more. We had 11,888 people come into our country who murdered — committed a murder. Fifty percent — more than 50 percent created more than one murder. Think of that. See, the people coming — one — I think seven. Seven murders. We allowed them into the country. We got most of them out.

Fentanyl Flow Cut by Nearly 60 Percent

In the last month, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. We cut the flow of fentanyl across our border by almost 60 percent. Think of that. And, by the way, coming in by sea, 97 percent.

And we’re looking for the 3 percent because we think they’re among the bravest people. We cut them down, right? We cut it down 97 percent. And now I — you know, I hate to tell this to Mexico, but we’re now focused on coming in by land because the sea was tougher. A lot was coming in by sea. A much bigger percentage than anyone would know. It was safer for them. It used to be safe — not safe anymore. But we’re 97 percent down, coming in by sea, by ocean, by water. And you see what happens to them. And they don’t do it a second time.

They used to have — they were totally unchecked. When they did capture somebody, they’d bring them in and book them, and then let them go. And they’d go, and they’d be back on their boat the following night. So, we’re doing a great job. In the last 12 months, the numbers have changed in this country like nobody’s ever seen before.

But zero illegal aliens have been admitted. And that’s made by largely Democrat people. Those lists are made. And I find it hard to believe when I say zero. I say, it must have been some. But they say zero, and it’s very close to zero. It’s hard to believe.

Empty Plazas at the Border

You know, they used to have certain areas on the other side of the wall. I built over 1,000 miles of wall. Without the wall, you couldn’t do it. But I built over 1,000 miles of wall. We’re building more now in certain areas where you need it. But nobody’s ever seen anything like this. We had plazas. We have thousands of people standing in those plazas. They actually made them out of concrete because the land was so disgusting and dirty and it was so messy and horrible. So they put massive concrete plazas on the other side for people to wait getting in. There’s nobody on them. There’s nobody. They took a picture this morning. There was nobody on any of the plazas. They have four of them, big ones, where they come and stand by the thousands. There was nobody on the plazas. So it’s really amazing.

The Border: A Defining Issue

I want to speak about it in my speeches. I made a speech last week, which was really wonderful. Wisconsin. And I wanted to speak about the great job I’ve done on the border. My people said, “Sir, nobody cares about that.” I said, “What do you mean? I got elected on that, twice, actually, because I got elected the first time in 2016.” And after I left, it became horrible. Horrible. Second time was far worse than what it was in 2020. It was so bad. Far worse than 2016. 2016 was like a pleasure trip by comparison to what it became.

It became the worst in the history of the world. I don’t think there’s ever been a border where 25 million people came across, all unchecked and unvetted. We should never let that happen. We can never let that happen, what happened to our country, again, because no country can stand it. No country could have withstood what these people did.

The Border Czar Who Never Saw the Border

We had a border czar who never saw the border. We had a border czar who never called, never once, the people that we’re giving good paychecks to. They never called up ICE. They never called up the Border Patrol, who are phenomenal people, by the way. She never once called them. She was the border czar for four years, almost four years, and she never went to the border, and she never called up.

I used to call them all the time, Paul, Brandon. I used to call them all the time and say, “Hi, how are we doing on the border?” They said, “We’re doing okay.” But they’re great people, amazing people. She never called them. We had the worst border, I think, of any country in history. No third-world country would allow people to come into their country like that.

Protecting American Youth and Restoring Law and Order

So, the bill provides crucial funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our nation and to protect America’s youth. We’re so proud. We’re so proud of Washington, D.C. and the National Guard, the job they’ve done. And we’ve worked with the Washington, the Capitol Police. They’re great people. I’ve gotten to know so many of them.

Calling Out the Radical-Left Democrats

Very simply, the radical-left Democrats. And I’m going to use that term a lot because they’re dumb. I mean, who wants open borders? Who wants transgender mutilization of your child? Who wants that? Who wants men playing in women’s sports? They’re dumb. They’re Democrats. They have the worst policy of anybody.

I watched that thug that’s up in Maine. He’s a thug. And they’re trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office, probably. I don’t know him. I don’t want to say bad, but I just — look, I mean, nobody’s ever had a record like that. And you’ll have Schumer. He goes crazy over this or that or Epstein. Epstein, Epstein. This guy, why aren’t they talking about him? He said, well, we don’t know, but this guy’s got a rapture. I’ve never seen anything like it.

He’s a thug. I know thugs. I had to deal with thugs. I built a lot of buildings. I dealt with the toughest people on Earth. I dealt with worse-than-thugs. This guy’s a thug. He’s a low-level thug. And he’s running for — to be a senator, to work with Eric Schmidt. Great Eric. Eric will handle him. I think he’s going to handle him. He’s not getting it. To be with Barrasso. Who the hell do we have to deal with Rand? Now, Rand would be very interesting. Rand would figure it out. He don’t put them away. But this is a thug. He’s a cheap, no-good person.

And I watch these senators, the Democrats, and, well, we don’t really know. You do know. He’s bad. I’ve never seen a person like that run for office. And the guy from Texas, different. But he’s terrible, too. He’s terrible. These are radical-left communists.

But I watched this guy this morning, and he was so bad. He was so bad. He was a bad guy. You know, just a bad guy. He must be laughing up his sleeve when he looks at these idiots going, like, Schumer, well, he’s okay. He’s okay. He’s not okay. Can you imagine if the Republicans had him? What if we had him, John? We wouldn’t let it happen. I think — I really believe it. If it meant losing the Senate, you would not let that happen. Correct. It’s just a terrible thing.

I mean, I watch it happening. It’s unfolding. It’s really history, because there’s never been a guy like that that’s ever run for office at any level. I don’t think at any level. And the excuses, they come up every day somebody comes forward with really proven stuff. Even his business. You know, he’s a big — he’s not a businessman at all. His parents supported him. The guy’s a loser. Other than that, he might be a very nice guy.

A Call for Unity — On the Right Terms

But, very simply, the radical left Democrats and — and I don’t — I look forward to the day when I don’t call them Democrats anymore. And I won’t, if they do their job, if they want to stop crime, if they want to lower taxes, if they want to do the common — the education, the good things. There’s so many things we can do together. I look forward to the day that I don’t call them Democrats anymore. There’ll be that day, I think, I hope.

But they’re in Congress, and they voted with the cartels, the terrorists, the gang members, the drug dealers, the human traffickers, the child predators. And our great Republican majorities voted to protect law-abiding American citizens. I mean, they voted to raise your taxes. They voted for men in women’s sports. They voted in favor of men participating in women’s sports. It’s ridiculous.

They voted for the transgender mutilation of your child. They voted for all these things. They voted for open borders so bad. One of the worst things that’s ever happened in this country. Hardest thing to cure, because we had 25,000 people.

Remember this, when countries — because countries set those people up. When countries put people into a cartel, into a — through the cartels, they put them into a whole group of 10, 15, 20,000 people that come in. They’re not giving you their best people. They’re giving you people that they don’t want. And they’re sending them into our — and the Democrats voted in favor of that. It’s really — it’s really a shame. And it’s so bad for the country. You’d almost think they hate the country, because they can’t — they’re not stupid people.

On Election Integrity and California

You can’t cheat like they did. And look at the election in California, as an example. After a week, they determined that a kid who’s leading and had all the mojo, all of a sudden he doesn’t make the runoff. And then I hit them hard on that.

But I started talking about Steve Hilton, who’s a fantastic guy. And I saw them say it was going to be two weeks before they knew. And I started hitting them. It’s going to happen to Steve Hilton, too. It’s watched. You got to watch. And they approved Steve Hilton very quickly. They didn’t want anything. There was too much heat on him.

The only reason he got approved — he had all the votes he needed, probably, to be first place. But the only reason they approved Steve Hilton — it was going to be two weeks. They said it. And then they approved him that night, because the heat was on them, because they were cheating dogs. And you can’t have a great country when that happens. That’s why Los Angeles — that’s why that state is in such trouble. It’s the most beautiful place. Best weather. It may be anywhere in the world, but it’s in big trouble.

So, we’re going to have a tremendous success. The people alongside of me are amazing people. They’re amazing people. Every one of them. I know every one of them. They’re amazing people. They love the country. They want to do right for the country. And if you have any questions, please, let’s go.

Questions from the Press: Iran

REPORTER: This morning about Iran, you said that they’ve taken too long to get through a deal. And I want to make sure I quote you correctly. You said that now they will have to pay the price. What did you mean by that specifically?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard.

REPORTER: You’re presuming bombing?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that. You know, they shot down a very, very incredible — actually, an incredible machine. And at first, they said they didn’t do it. Then they admitted they did it. Sort of easy, because we have the — we have the bomb. We actually have the bomb. They’re very lucky that bomb didn’t explode. That bomb was lodged in the helicopter. Didn’t explode. It was on fire, but it didn’t explode.

Those two guys, they knew how to fly, but they got very lucky. And then we had the unmanned boat going very, very fast at speeds that you wouldn’t want to go. That’s why it’s unmanned, I guess, because nobody can go in that. But they rescued. So both people are, fortunately, the pilots are okay.

I’ve been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign their deal. It’s a good deal. It doesn’t give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon. And it was just tap, tap, tap. I don’t know what they’re doing.

So they then shot out a — shot at our helicopter. A very expensive helicopter, by the way. But much more importantly, the two men, fortunately, they’re okay. But an amazing rescue.

On Iran: No Deal Like JCPOA

If you ever get a clip, you won’t believe the rescue — how cool it was — the equipment we have. Look, we have the strongest military in the world. And I gave them a break at the request of Pakistan. The field marshal and the Prime Minister of Pakistan are great. We stopped them from going to war with India. You would have had a nuclear war if it wasn’t for me. But they became friendly to me. Very friendly. And they are close to Iran, and they work — and they still are working on trying them to do what’s right.

But we want a deal that’s meaningful. We want a deal that works. We don’t want to just have a Barack Hussein Obama deal, JCPOA, the worst deal. That was a path to a nuclear — it’s the exact opposite. You know, I like on television, they say, oh, they should have kept — that deal — first of all, it was over. It was a short-term deal. But that deal was a path to a nuclear weapon. This is a path against a nuclear — you can’t have a nuclear weapon. His was a path to a nuclear weapon.

They were developing, during his administration, a nuclear weapon. If they had a nuclear weapon, there’d be no Israel, there’d be no Middle East, and they would have absolutely shot at us. All right. So we’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today, in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set. And we’ll see what happens with the deal.

We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers. Because you know what? They dealt with some very stupid presidents, I have to say that. I’m embarrassed to say. Some very stupid people were sitting here.

On Susan Collins and the Maine Senate Race

REPORTER: Mr. President, you mentioned the Senate race in Maine. Are you all in, in supporting Susan Collins? Does she have your full support and endorsement in her Senate reelection?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because she’s a sane woman. She’s not my best friend at all. These guys are. I get along. But I have some — but she’s a sane person. And she’s a person that never missed a vote. In many years — I mean, she’s, like, had 10,000 votes. Ten thousand votes. That’s right. She had 10,000 votes. She never missed a vote. Unfortunately, because sometimes she voted against me.

You know, look, she’s a sane woman. And she’s a respected person. Maybe a little different ideology than me. But this guy is a thug. He’s a fake — he’s a fake thug. He’s a phony. I made a lot of money picking out phonies. He’s a real phony. He’s a bad — he’s a bad person.

On Military Strength and Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you going to go back to attack — or are you thinking of attacking Iranian power plants and bridges, as you’ve threatened before?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m not going to say that to you, but I can do that. Look, I can knock out — we have the most powerful — I built the military with these people approving it. We’ve approved numbers that nobody would have ever thought we would be. But we built it. We gave a lot to Ukraine through Biden. He gave a lot of money. A lot. But we’re in great shape. We have a lot of storage capacity. But he gave a lot.

And if you look at, you know, what’s happened — when I left, our cupboards were full. He gave — he gave it. Now, I sell it to the European Union, and they give it to Ukraine, for the most part. But we have the strongest military anywhere in the world. And sometimes you’ll have to use it.

And we have to remember — and when people hear this, Iran, very simply, cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t. And they’ve agreed to that. All they have to do is they have to start signing a paper. It’s fully negotiated.

We have a fully negotiated, but they’re tapping and tapping. And I say, all right, let’s give them a couple of more days. They’re tapping. Because it’s a meaningful paper. They know when they sign that paper, it’s meaningful. The Obama deal, JCPOA — one of the worst — one of the dumbest documents I’ve ever seen.

On AI and Government Partnership with Tech Executives

REPORTER: Mr. President, when are you meeting with tech executives about the government taking a stake in AI companies? And what could this partnership look like?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: About AI? Well, I can say this. We’re having a meeting with them. It’s an amazing industry. It’s bigger than any industry anyone’s ever seen. We are leading China by a lot. And, you know, whoever leads that is going to really lead the world to a large extent. That’s how big it is.

And I’m going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly. And we’re talking about giving back something to the public. And if we do that, the public will become very rich — the people in our country — because that’s the kind of money we’re talking about. And I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular. Well, we’d like that.

On Turkey, Erdogan, and F-35s

REPORTER: Mr. President, I have two questions. First of all, Turkish President Erdogan keeps threatening Israel. Do you think there’s a chance of a conflict between Israel and Turkey? And will you sell F-35 to Turkey?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, as you know, he’s a very good friend of mine. And we’ve worked very well together. I like him a lot. I’m not supposed to say that because the press will say, oh, he likes Erdogan. No, he’s a hell of a leader and a strong person — very strong person.

I haven’t heard that at all. If I did, I’d call him, and I think I’d make sure that things were fine. I don’t think that will happen with Turkey. Not as long as I’m President, because he respects me and I respect him. But beyond that, we have a good friendship. So, you know, we’ll see.

REPORTER: And then my second question. Besides peace in the Middle East, what do you wish for yourself for your birthday?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’ll go a step bigger. Peace for the world, okay? Peace for the world. Middle East, yes. Peace for the whole world.

On New Jersey Democratic Congressional Nominee Adam Homley

REPORTER: Mr. President, there is a New Jersey Democratic congressional nominee over in the 12th District. His name is Adam Hamawy. He has a connection to the blind sheikh. And I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. I think it’s cerebral. I’ve seen it. I mean, he was more — you know, now he’s trying to sort of say, yeah, I sort of knew him. He didn’t know him. They were very good friends. And you look at the — you go back and look at what happened during that period of time. He was a witness at the trial for him. He was a positive witness for him. He said the most glowing things. The guy knocked down the World Trade Center — admitted that he knocked down the World Trade Center.

I think it’s another one, if you look. I actually think the one in Maine is worse because he’s just an outright pig. He’s like a pig. I watched him a couple of times. He’s like a pig. That’s what he reminds me of. You know, I come up with good names for people. I don’t want to stick him with that one, although I think pigs would be very upset about it.

On USMCA Renewal and Canada

REPORTER: Mr. President, July 1st is coming fast. How confident are you that you’ll be able to renew the USMCA? And what more do you expect from Canada?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m not looking to renew it. I don’t — you know, I mean, I made the deal. And the primary reason I made the deal is that NAFTA was the worst trade deal I’ve ever seen. And I made it better, but I had the right to terminate. And, you know, with NAFTA, we didn’t have the right to terminate.

NAFTA, USMCA, and Trade with Canada and Mexico

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I had to get these senators to approve that deal. That was a tough thing. Congressman, too. NAFTA had no termination. So, I mean, I’ve never said this before, but I’ll tell you what my thinking was. NAFTA was a disaster for our country. The worst trade deal ever made, by far. You know, they had typos in, okay? And they were supposed to correct them. And they never corrected them when they were signed. They knew there were typos. And there’s a process for that. You state your claim, and, you know, you get a change. They have typos on percentages. Or maybe somebody wrote — and that was for years. They never ran — they had horrible — all against us. So it probably wasn’t typos.

NAFTA was the worst trade deal we ever had. USMCA did one thing that I loved. After six years, it comes up for renewal. I don’t know that I’m going to renew it because, to be honest with you, the United States does much better. Hey, we don’t need anything that Canada has. We don’t need anything that Mexico has. But they need everything that we have. And they have to treat us better. You know, with Mexico and Canada, we have trade deficits. We should have surpluses with them. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything that they have.

So the primary thing that I got — it was a much better deal than NAFTA, much, much better. It was a — it was sort of a good deal. But it was a great deal for one reason. It gave the right to terminate — and who would have thought that I was — you know, they just didn’t want to have it during the four-year period when I was President. So now they made it so that I wouldn’t be President.

On the 2020 Election and USMCA Renewal Timing

And because they rigged the election, the second election, as you probably hear and probably know — most of you know that happened and now it’s been proven, and it will be proven as time goes by even more so. We have things that you won’t believe. When we release the full files, you’re not going to believe how crooked the second 2020 election was. But who would have thought that it comes due in my term? I mean, this was — thank you very much. So, it was very important that we be able to do that. So we’re talking to them. We’ll see if we do something.

Bill Pulte and Downsizing the DNI

REPORTER: Mr. President, just before we came in here, you posted about Bill Pulte and that he’d be starting the job early. You said he’s going to be downsizing the DNI. Can you talk about your thinking here?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you know, people have wanted that downsize for a long time. And many people don’t want it at all. A lot of people thought it was a duplication. Yeah. A lot of people thought it was a duplication.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Smart Leadership

He’s done a great job at Fannie Mae. And, you know, you take Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae. The value of that has increased so much since I’ve been in charge. You know, I had the right to sell that. And in my first term, a group came to see me wanting to buy it. And they offered me exactly 10 percent of what it’s worth today. And I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to look foolish when they flipped it a year later for hundreds of billions of dollars more. So I kept it. And I put him in charge as soon as I got here. And he’s done an amazing job. Could be worth a trillion dollars.

REPORTER: That’s a pretty different portfolio.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it is. I know. But, you know, smart people are smart people. I always say I’d rather have smart than experience. But experience is good, too. I would say this. He’s going to be there for a short while, while we pick somebody else. We’re interviewing five different people. They’re all very good, very different. And we’ll put somebody there.

On Eric’s Nomination and Democratic Opposition

But people want it downsized. The senators and the congresspeople, I think everybody wants it downsized. And many people, I think — and I won’t speak for Todd, but — and I’m not sure how Todd feels. By the way, he’s great. I hope you people have given him an easy run because he’s very busy. He doesn’t need stupid people saying, “Why didn’t you get a higher mark at a certain college?” Because he’s highly educated. He was a great student. He’s great at everything he’s done. And “How come he got a B-plus?” See, they’ll go after him for getting a B-plus instead of an A, but the other guy can be a thug and let him run. He’s okay. He’s fine.

The one thing about him, it’s great, because every time they bring something up, he’s worse than anybody that we’ve ever seen. And I hope the Republicans are going to use him as your standard bearer when they say, “Gee, Eric, we don’t like the way you dress today. It’s unacceptable, right?” And then all you have to do is point to this thug that they’re trying to put in. So pretty much that’s the way it is. He’s going to do a good job. He’s going to be there for a very short period of time. He will be superseded and replaced by somebody that’s going to have the job permanently.

On Democrat Opposition and Extortion

What do you think the Democrats are going to do? Democrats? They’re not Democrats. They’re Democrats. They’re dumb people. Yeah. Do you need their votes? Then I guess something’s going to happen. No, we can’t let them extort us. I told the guys today, we can’t let them. They’ve done it on numerous occasions. I said we can’t.

What we’re signing today has been amazing, but they tried to extort us and eventually they will lose tremendous support because they’re extorting on law and order and they can’t win on law and order. People want law and order. They don’t want crime. And that’s essentially what they were doing. And ultimately, they could not take the heat. But we can’t let them extort us.

On the World Cup

REPORTER: But, Mr. President, it starts tomorrow — the World Cup, the soccer World Cup, the football World Cup.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The most successful World Cup they’ve ever had. They’ve never sold tickets at that level. They’ve never sold that many tickets so quickly. It’s amazing because you don’t think of soccer. We use the word football, soccer, right? But you don’t think of soccer in this country. It’s the most success. I spoke to Johnnie this morning. He’s fantastic. And he’s the boss. He said there’s never anything close to what’s happened.

REPORTER: But because of this success, some people are afraid that it’s going to be harder and harder to get visas to come from outside. Can you reassure them?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re working on it very closely to make sure the right people come into our country.

On Inflation and Oil

REPORTER: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Could that be a headwind?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now, something you didn’t know. Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran — until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. That’s why oil is $85 a barrel.

I mean, you take a look. Remember when I did this? I said, “Look, the one bad thing will be we hit the best economy we’ve ever had.” And I said to my people — I had Scott Howard, I had Pete, I had Todd in the room — I said, “The one thing we have to do now, we just hit the highest stock market in history. Highest 401ks in history. Everything was going well.”

Iran, Venezuela, and the Military Operations

And I said, I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran’s going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. We have to go and attack. So we hit him with the B-2 bombers, which we took a lot of courage. It was totally successful. We buried it very hard to get. But now we had to make the second move.

And I said, you know, the bad part is the stock market will go down by a lot based on predictions of experts like 25 percent. And it was worth it to me. It was worth it not to have a nuclear weapon. And the other thing is that oil would go to $250 a barrel. It’s at 85. And which is pretty amazing.

Record Stock Market Highs

And here’s the key. We just hit today another stock market high. Seventy-four in my short time here, 74 days, we had stock market all time historical highs. Nobody can believe it. The Dow, the S&P. S&P was at 7000, they said, in four years, maybe five years, it will never hit it during the term. It was too much. I hit it in my first year. I hit on the Dow. It was 50,000 was an impossible number. They said, five, six years out, get it. Well, I hit it in my first year.

And now I get everyone in the room and say, congratulations. But now I’m going to take it down a little bit because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And they all agreed with me. Todd, you remember, everybody agreed.

The Venezuela Operation

And we took a little journey down to Iran. We first stopped off in Venezuela, by the way. And we have paid for that war many, many times over. And we have great relationships with the people of Venezuela. We get along with them. It was a great success. It was a one day war. It was really, to be exact, 48 minutes of fury. And it was over.

And Venezuela is doing great. Relationships with the people are great. It’s become a happy country, believe it or not. I mean, it’s become a happy country. And we’re taking out millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela.

The Iran Operation

And then we went to Iran and essentially we’ve done the same thing. It doesn’t look as pretty, but there’s no Navy, 159 ships at the bottom of the sea. There’s no Air Force. All of their planes are blown up. Most of their drones are gone. Most of their drone making ability is gone. Most of their missiles are gone. All of their leadership is gone. So they replaced it. All of that leadership is gone. So they replaced it. And that’s the people we’re dealing with now. And I think they’re going to want to make a deal. But we’re going to find out.

Oil Prices and the Military’s Role

When the war is over, it’s coming down. I know it’s going to come down like a rock. And again, we’re taking out millions, which I’m just announcing today for the first time. But we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night to get oil. But now I’m going to tell you, because they just figured it out. So now that they figured it out, I can tell you, it was very hard for me. I wanted to say it so badly. I didn’t want to ruin it, but it was very hard. But millions of barrels of oil has come out. And that’s why it’s at 85, 90 dollars a barrel instead of 250.

But we have the greatest military in the world, the toughest military in the world, the just the best in every way. Nobody even close. There’s no military that’s even close. I rebuilt it during my first term. I’m using it now. When this conflict is over, Todd said, please go to conflict as opposed to the war. He didn’t like the word war, but it’s sort of a conflict. It’s a military operation. When it’s over, you will see oil drop to where it was before. We’re getting gasoline just before it started.

I was in Iowa and we passed gas stations, a dollar, 85 cents a gallon. And we’ll be back at those levels very soon. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

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