Editor’s Note: President Donald Trump, joined by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Alaska’s congressional delegation, announced nearly $200 billion in South Korean government-funded energy infrastructure investment in the United States, including eight new nuclear power plants, the long-awaited Alaska LNG pipeline and a major natural gas power plant in Texas. The President also announced the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and took questions from reporters on Iran, immigration, the Federal Reserve, superintelligence, the Alaska Senate race and an incident aboard a flydubai flight. This event took place on September 30, 2026.
TRANSCRIPT:
U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much, everyone. I think you read my release. I put it out on Iraq. We’re out of there. We have a very good prime minister who I endorsed actually in the election.
He was not doing particularly well, but he was a great gentleman and a great man, and I endorsed him and he won. And we left Iraq after 23 years and billions and billions of dollars spent. We shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but we’re now gone and took everything with us, every nut, every bolt, every screw, every tank, every plane. We left Iraq.
Isn’t that nice? Should’ve never been there, but we should’ve left a long time ago. So I’m very honored to tell you that. And we left with dignity and respect. In fact, the prime minister has great respect for your president and for us, and he appreciates everything.
And we’ll be there to help if we need to, but that’s a big thing. We’re out of Iraq after 23 years. I noticed you complain about Venezuela, which was 148 hours. We won the war in 148 hours and no deaths.
And in Iran, where their military is gone, their navy’s gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone, everything’s gone, their leaders are gone. Just about everything’s gone. They have a 301 just came out. Inflation rate of 301%. Their currency is valueless.
We lost 18 people. Great people. Losing one is too many. But if you look at Iraq, we lost 4,500 people, and the result isn’t anywhere near what we have here.
Although, we went into Iraq to destroy ISIS, and I did that in my first term. That’s why they should left long ago. But the sole reason we went to Iraq was to eradicate ISIS, and I did it in my first term. They should have left.
South Korea’s $200 Billion Energy Investment
Today, we’re thrilled to announce one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in American history. Thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republic of Korea, they will invest up to $200 billion, that’s the Korean government, $200 billion to build a six gigawatt power generation facility in Texas. That’s a major plant. That’s about as big as you’ll see. Eight new large scale nuclear power plants and, at long last, Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline.
That’s a big one, and that’s why we have a lot of people from Alaska, including a very great governor and your great senator, Dan Sullivan. We’re joined on this occasion by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who was very involved in this whole situation. A big one, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, Alaska senator, as I said, Dan S. Sullivan.
Trump Attacks “Fraud” Second Dan Sullivan Candidate
The Democrats put up another man in the race named Dan Sullivan. He’s a fraud. Dan Sullivan’s a fraud. That Dan Sullivan is a disgraceful fraud. They put it up for confusion and everything else. And I believe he actually tried to get his initial because his initial, I think, was J. And he said, “No. I have nothing to do with this.”
But despite saying he has nothing to do with it, I believe he tried to get his initial made to an S so it could be exact. Because it was Dan S. Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan. He tried to get it to be Daniel S.
Daniel S. is the good one. Let’s see. How do you remember that? Super. Right? Super intelligence. So vote for the guy with S because I don’t know if they got the… Unless he’s already got that. It’s so corrupt. The Democrats are corrupt.
But Dan Sullivan, the senator of Alaska, has been a great senator, and he’s been working on this deal and other deals in Alaska, the pipeline for almost 20 years, and we’re now getting it done. And so I want to thank, in particular, Sullivan for getting this deal done wherever you may be.
DAN SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. President.
Recognizing Officials and Business Leaders
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you. I want to thank you as well, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy who’s fantastic, fantastic. World’s tallest governor, about… A tall basis. I think Barron might have you. And the son is pretty tall. I have a couple of them, actually, that are tall.
But I want to thank Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. He’s a great governor. Also, as somebody who’s a warrior, Representative Nick Begich, and he is really a warrior. We’ve been together in a lot good fights, and Nick has done a fantastic job. Thank you, Nick. Really appreciate it.
Westinghouse CEO, a man who’s done unbelievably in bringing the company to a very high level, Dan Sumner. Dan? Thank you. He’s over there. Thank you, Dan. Where are you? I think I’m going to get a young guy. Look at you. Nice young guy. It’s nice to be young, isn’t it? Young and very successful. But he’s done a great job at Westinghouse.
NextEra CEO John Ketchum. John? Hi, John. How are you, John? Good. Great job. You’ve done great company. Somebody that I relate to, he said it Related. Related, a big real estate company, but he was a competitor of mine and a friend of mine.
Lewis Energy CEO, Rod Lewis. Rod? Hi, Rod. Hello. Thank you very much. And Glenfarne CEO, Brendan Duval. Brendan. Hi, Brendan. How are you? Great. Thank you very much. A lot of great people in this transaction.
Trade Deal Behind the Investment
The colossal package investments we are announcing today is a major step toward securing our critical energy supply chain, ensuring American energy dominance, and making our partnership with South Korea and the entire Pacific region stronger than ever before. As you know, in our trade agreement with South Korea, they have to invest hundreds of billions of dollars.
And for doing that, I reduced their tariffs to 15%. But they paid to get them reduced, and part of that money is going into this project. Otherwise, this project is so big, probably… I don’t know. Maybe the money wouldn’t be very easily available.
But Japan is paying $550 billion, unrelated. Europe pays $650 billion, and South Korea is about $250 billion. It’s all money that you never heard about before, but we make great deals. That’s what we do. Right, Jeff? Jeff knows that.
Texas Gas Plant, Nuclear Reactors and the Alaska LNG Pipeline
The natural gas power plant that will be constructed in Texas will be among the largest ever built anywhere in the world. The eight new nuclear reactors built across the country will solidify our position as the world’s leading producer of nuclear power. And we’ve really taken that lead once we were able to show the tremendous safety that’s now taking place with respect to become safe. And once we were into that, we really pushed it and pushed it hard.
We’re now the leading producer of nuclear power. Pretty amazing considering we got a very late start over certain countries in Europe. And by building the Alaska LNG pipeline, we will deliver nearly 4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, and that puts us at a level that’s not comparable with anyone else. The United States is already the largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, and this pipeline will help us expand those exports even further.
For five decades, politicians have talked about the Alaska pipeline. I’ve been hearing about it from the time I’m a little boy. “The Alaska pipeline’s going to be built someday.” I was always fascinated by it. But today, the help of Senator Dan S. Sullivan… And don’t get it confused with anybody else.
Remember, they put up a fake. It’s a fake Sullivan. Guy knows nothing. In fact, I think he just switched to the Republican Party, didn’t he? He just switched over.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: He was never a Republican, Mr. President. He was never a Republican. He still isn’t a Republican.
DONALD TRUMP: But we’re finally getting it all done. But it just shows you how dirty and disgusting the political game is to do that.
But this alone will be one of the largest energy projects in American history and a gigantic win for the people of Alaska. It will create up to 12,000 construction jobs immediately and 1,000 operational jobs. It’ll also save Alaska households up to $1,500, maybe even as much as $2,200 dollars per year in energy costs. It’s amazing.
So now I’d like to ask a man, and I have to tell you this because he has an election. It’s a crooked deal. It’s crooked as hell. I’ll say it. When they put up a man with his exact name, they picked him out of a hat. They said, “Anybody named Dan Sullivan in Alaska?”
And they put somebody up against him because they know they can’t win without cheating. That’s what they do is they cheat. But this is a great senator who is totally responsible for this pipeline for what we’re doing. So many of the jobs we’ve done… I won Alaska by a lot. Many, many points. Did I win it by how many points?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: 15, sir.
DONALD TRUMP: How about 22? A lot of points. So we shouldn’t have a problem. But one of the reasons I won is we’ve done more for Alaska than anybody in history times 10. And this is a man that worked with me shoulder to shoulder. But to say a few words, I’d like to ask Secretary Lutnick to start, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, Governor Dunleavy.
But I’d like to start with Dan Sullivan. So he’s running for office. He’s a spectacular senator, not just for Alaska. He’s great for the world, for our country and the world. What he’s done is so important, and he’s got my ear.
And he’s had my ear for a long time on Alaska. We did so many jobs between King Cove Road and all the different things that we got to prove that nobody else could have ever. All these energy projects are all mine, and I got them done working with Dan Sullivan. So, Dan, could you say a few words? And then we’ll go to the rest of the group.
Senator Dan Sullivan: “The Most Important Project in Our State”
DAN SULLIVAN: This president, I would say this is the most important project in our state. By far, this is the project that is going to keep our kids and grandkids in Alaska with a great bright future. This is the project that our state has been working on to try to get done for almost a half century. And the reason is it’s going to deliver low cost energy to Alaskans, to our churches, to our schools, our hospitals, our businesses, and we need low cost energy. This will deliver low cost energy to Alaskans for 50 to 100 years.
Not to mention our military, which we’re all working together to grow our military, a huge military buildup. They need the energy, as you said, Mr. President, 12,000 jobs just to build this project, and this could unleash all kinds of other opportunities in Alaska. Manufacturing opportunities, the sky is the limit when we get this project done.
And Mr. President, I want to thank you and your team. You have been focused on this from day one, literally. Your executive order on Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential focuses on this Alaska LNG project and pipeline. Your first State of the Union address, you highlighted how this was a really, really important project for you and your team here. They have been absolutely outstanding. All your cabinet officials, your chief of staff, everybody, Howard Lutnick in particular, Mr. Secretary, thank you.
But Mr. President, this one is huge for Alaska. It’s why I’ve been, as you mentioned, sir, working on this relentlessly for… Well before I was a US senator because it’s the most important thing for my constituents, but it’s great for America. This is going to be the biggest LNG project in our country. We’ll be able to get gas, of course, to Alaskans first in our military, and we need it, but to our Asian allies. So, Mr. President, thank you again.
And everybody here, we’re going to get this done. We’re going to get this done. This is really exciting for my state, my constituents, and the United States of America. So thank you again, Mr. President.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you, Dan. Great job. Secretary Lutnick, please.
Secretary Lutnick Details the Three Projects
HOWARD LUTNICK: Korea is going to invest with their sovereign money just under $200 billion in America in energy infrastructure to strengthen American energy dominance. Right? This is exactly what the president talked about from the beginning. Right? To use our unfair trading relationships around the world to restructure them.
Right? And as the president said, 15% tariffs, but $200 billion. So these projects are being financed, fully paid for by the Korean government for the benefit of the United States of America. So three projects just under $200 billion we’re announcing today. Right?
The largest, $120 billion. It’s $100 billion plus a $20 billion contingency to build eight gigantic nuclear power plants, and they’re going to go across the United States. They’re going in Ohio. They’re going in Tennessee. They’re going to South Carolina, and they’re going in Kentucky.
Right? These are gigantic nuclear power plants because we want to create the supply chain for nuclear so we can be the exporter on the world of nuclear. This is exactly what the president said in his executive order, and we are executing that today.
Second project, just over $50 billion invested in Alaska for the Alaska LNG project. Alaska is the most resource rich state in our union. Right? And this project, $50 billion is going to start to unleash the incredible natural resources of Alaska. It couldn’t happen.
Everybody talked about it, but it’s the combination of your deal making and your trade deal that allowed this to happen. And this is extraordinary. This will change Alaska, and it will change geopolitics because all of Southeast Asia is now going to get their gas after the senator uses it and reduces the cost to all Alaskans. Right? All Southeast Asia is going to be leaning on the president and the United States of America for their gas, for their natural resources, changing the way the world looks at America and works with America.
And then lastly, we’re building over $22 billion gas fired power plant, 6.5 gigawatts in Texas. All of that today, none of it could possibly happen without structure of the trade deals we did and the dealmaker in chief of the United States of America who made the deal.
Look. I have the best job because I get to sit and watch Donald J. Trump make the coolest deals I’ve ever seen in my life, and I have the best time doing it. And when we sat with the Koreans, it was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen, and that produces today.
So I am proud to be up here with these great executives. These are the people who are going to execute it. Right? But the number one thing I’m happy about is Dan Sullivan’s going to stop calling me every single day, pushing me to get this deal done. So I am really happy that we’re going to go on to execution going forward. So thank you, Mr. President.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. Secretary Doug Burgum, please.
Secretary Burgum on Energy Security for Pacific Allies
DOUG BURGUM: Thank you, Mr. President. So much gratitude to share today, starting with President Trump and Howard Lutnick. As was just described, this is a historic deal that changes the future of Alaska, and it changes the future of geopolitics of oil.
Not only are we going to be in a position to lower the price and drive affordability through this strategic piece of national security infrastructure for Alaskans, it also is going to help Hawaii. Hawaii imports their oil today from the Middle East. They’re going to be able to import natural gas. Our territories where we have military bases in Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands, which are all managed as part of the Department of the Interior, they all are dependent on foreign sources for energy. We’ll be able to fill that from Alaska.
Japan, who’s an ally of ours, where we have 50,000 troops, it’s almost 30 days for a shipment to come from the Middle East, if it gets there at all to Japan. It’s eight days from Anchorage to Tokyo, most of that through US territorial waters. Korea, also much closer to be able to ship to them. The Philippines, Taiwan, all of our allies can be dependent on American energy.
Again, President Trump when he ran, he was running on America First, but that meant prosperity at home and that peace abroad. This critical piece of national infrastructure security is going to deliver on both that prosperity and on the peace. And it wouldn’t have happened without President Trump’s leadership. His EO on day one, January 20th of last year, on the first page, one of the 54 items of unleashing Alaska’s energy potential was this pipeline. He’s delivering on that, and of course, wouldn’t have happened without the incredible delegation and the leadership in Alaska.
So Dan “Super” Sullivan, Governor Dunleavy, Congressman Begich, you guys have been fantastic in helping make this happen. But without Howard Lutnick, Chris Wright, Lee Zeldin, the whole cabinet you’ve assembled, this is a team effort. Extraordinaire, President Trump, thank you for your leadership and a big day for America, a big day for Alaska.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, Chris Wright, please.
Secretary Wright: “Today Is Pure Joy”
CHRIS WRIGHT: Yeah. Today is pure joy. I have been an energy nerd my whole life. The way to make America better is much more energy infrastructure, much more energy resources. President Trump has always been about energy addition, energy expansion in his first term in his campaigns. As a businessman, he got how central energy was.
The first time I ever sat in the Oval Office on the other side of the desk from the president, he brought up this project on day one of this new administration and said, “You know about this project? We need to build it.” And I said, unfortunately fortunately, I do know about this project because I’ve known Dan Sullivan before I came into politics. And Dan Sullivan talked to me about this project years ago.
The Alaska LNG project will be the largest energy infrastructure project built in 50 years. It is transformative. For the state of Alaska, absolutely. But for the United States to have a Pacific Coast LNG export terminal, our fastest growing export, the fastest growing energy source on planet Earth is natural gas. This puts the United States geostrategically positioned and grows our ability to export that to our friends and allies while hitting a home run for the state of Alaska.
I can also turn Dan Sullivan off blocked on my phone. Then he said, “Well, that’s not going to work because I’ll get a new phone and I’ll have a different middle initial, and so I’ll still be able to get rid of you.” And then was he smarter. He got my wife’s cell phone number. So Dan has always been able to reach me, and I would tell you I love his passion. He cares about the people of Alaska. He gets how important energy is to Alaska and our country, and he has been ceaseless on this.
And to achieve difficult things, you have to be ceaseless, principled, right. But the combination of President Trump, it’s just an incredible alignment of stars. Dan Sullivan’s relentless pursuit of this project. Governor Dunleavy and Representative Begich, passionate champions. Anyone they meet, they talk about this project.
Then Howard Lutnick comes in in a negotiating way to find a way to make this happen. And Secretary Burgum, in charge of the interior and so many of the lands in Alaska, had to say, “We’re going to be practical. How are we going to benefit the environment and build energy infrastructure, make our country better, and save the economic future of Alaska?”
I am thrilled to be partners with all the gentlemen and the businessmen to my left. It is incredible day for America. God bless your leadership, President Trump. Thank you. Same to you, Sullivan, and all my other partners here. Love you guys. Thank you.
DONALD TRUMP: Very good. Thank you. And we’ll maybe not totally finish off because we have a couple of people that I think everybody wants to hear from. But a man who’s really been a great governor and friend of mine, Governor Dunleavy, please.
Governor Dunleavy: “This Will Transform the State of Alaska”
MIKE DUNLEAVY: Mr. President, this is an incredible day for the state of Alaska. I have to condense two hours of just discussing with the people all the things that your administration has done for this great state. You have to realize we’re only 740,000 people at top of the world. We could be forgotten.
This president, on day one, issued an executive order for the great state of Alaska across the board, directing his departments to do everything they could to unleash Alaska’s energy. President Trump by far, and I’ve said this before, has been the greatest president in the history of our state.
1959, we became a state. No president, in my opinion, and the opinion of many other Alaskans has come close to doing what the president has done simply by looking out for Alaska. If it’s everything from the King Cove Road to the Tongass National Forest to oil to this massive gas line, this will save the state of Alaska. This will transform the state of Alaska. This is probably the largest project ever in the Arctic.
Probably one of the largest, if not largest project in the Pacific, and it’s going to transform our great state for 50, 60, 70 years. And it wouldn’t have been done without the President of the United States, Donald Trump. There’s no doubt about it.
I want to thank you for the great team you put together. You put together, I think, a world class team in Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Wright, and then Secretary Lutnick. I can’t say enough about your secretaries and your staff, Mr. President. They have executed what you want to have happen for this country and for the great state of Alaska. These guys have been incredible. Secretary Lutnick has been fantastic on this project. He’s basically taken this project and moved it not just into life, but into a reality that’s going to transform the entire country, the entire Pacific Basin.
And I just want to thank Dan Sullivan. Dan Sullivan, I knew back in 2012 when he was with the state of Alaska. He had a role as the Department of Natural Resources commissioner as well as attorney general. He has been working on this gas line since 2012. And everywhere I go, whether it’s in Japan, Korea, anywhere here in the United States, Dan Sullivan is there selling Alaska to everybody on how great this state could be.
And I want to thank Dan. I want to thank president. I want to thank all the secretaries. Thank you very much. This has been fantastic.
DONALD TRUMP: Fantastic. Mr. Begich, do you want to say something?
Representative Begich on a Global Energy Realignment
NICK BEGICH: At the end of the day, this is transformative opportunity for the state, for the nation. And I think it really speaks to the level of teamwork that we have with the administration and among our delegation. Leaders like Dan Sullivan, like Governor Dunleavy, have been pushing this project for years, for years, trying to find a way, and we have found a way to bring that energy to market, to our benefit, to the benefit of the nation, and to the benefit of so many allies around the world.
We’re seeing right now a realignment for energy flows globally. And people have recognized that there’s a price to be paid when you’re rolling the dice in certain areas of the world that aren’t as stable as the United States. The United States offers our allies and our friends abroad something that they can’t find anywhere else, and that’s reliable energy flows. And that’s what Alaska is going to bring to the table.
And Mr. President, I can’t thank you enough for being a partner for Alaska and your incredible work. Secretary Burgum, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Wright, you have prioritized Alaska from day one. We couldn’t have a better partner than you. Thank you.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. Would anybody like to say anything? Anyone? Do you want to talk about the real estate business?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It’s all good.
DONALD TRUMP: Good. So…
JOHN KETCHUM: Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Please. Please.
NextEra CEO: “A Billion Dollars a Week”
JOHN KETCHUM: John Ketchum with NextEra. And this administration has just been amazing in supporting energy dominance across this country. And NextEra is spending a billion dollars a week trying to finance and fund and build the energy infrastructure this country needs. And this announcement today is just an example of what this administration has been able to accomplish. So thank you so much, Mr. President, for your leadership.
DONALD TRUMP: A billion a week. That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of week. Not every month. Every week?
JOHN KETCHUM: Every week.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s pretty good, I think. Well, the country is doing great. And if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be spending 1 billion a week.
JOHN KETCHUM: Spending a lot less.
DONALD TRUMP: Do you have any questions, please?
Question on California’s Energy Policy
REPORTER: Mr. President, president, any questions?
DONALD TRUMP: Please, governor.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Jennifer Schonberger with Yahoo Finance. Building on the discussion here, the United States is a net exporter of crude oil, yet California has to rely on foreign crude oil because it doesn’t have refineries. And so how much will this new LNG facility help not just with Alaska and Hawaii, but other consumers here in the United States? Do you have any thoughts or plans also on…
DONALD TRUMP: And it’s a great question because it’s so unfair what California is doing. They closed their refineries. They had a lot of refineries. They were actually the third or fourth biggest oil producer in the country. Nobody thinks of California that way. They have a lot of oil in California, but they don’t use it because of the environmental lunatics.
And this will help the people of California a lot. They’re being charged so much. It’s so sad to see how they keep electing these people that have no idea what they’re doing. Maybe just very shortly, I could ask Chris Wright because he is an expert on how they’ve destroyed California and the refineries. Chris, do you want to give that a quick shot, please?
CHRIS WRIGHT: Yeah. No, you’re right. California has just stood in the way of building any infrastructure, so they can’t get oil delivered to the states. We’re a net exporter of oil, as you said. They import over 60% of their oil from abroad. And then they refine that oil in California until they force so many of their refineries to close. They can’t even produce enough gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
So they’re going to have to build a new pipeline to bring refined products to California. Well, they’re going to be an energy island. They strangled their own oil and gas industry and their refining industry. So California has been dead set on making energy expensive, impoverishing their citizens, and encouraging all the businesses and people to leave the state.
That’s just the exact opposite of President Trump’s goal, which is lower energy prices to make things more affordable, increase job opportunities to raise wages up. I don’t know why California does what it does. I will tell you the Trump administration has been ceaseless in trying to help the population of Californians. They are Americans. This should not be imposed on them.
Timeline for the Alaska LNG Project
REPORTER: Mr. Museka, what’s the… Mr. President, on this project that has been announced today, two questions. What is the timeline for completing the LNG project? And secondly, I was in Alaska just a few weeks ago. Energy costs are exceedingly high. Is there any consideration of constructing another oil refinery for gasoline? Going to bring those prices down.
DONALD TRUMP: One of the reasons Alaska prices are going to come way down. When do you see completion of the job, fellas?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, the pipeline’s going to take three years, and we can start immediately with… Soon as this financing funds. Right. So three years, we’ll have cheap gas for Alaska, which will be the lowest price in probably 20 years, the gas we can deliver. And then the LNG will start exporting roughly two years after that. So roughly five years from LNG export.
DONALD TRUMP: Gasoline prices in Alaska are going to tumble. Well, as soon as the war ends, which is going to be soon, the Iran war, prices are going to come way down regardless. But gasoline price… Because of this project and a couple of others in Alaska are going to tumble.
Now, if the Democrats come along, I can’t speak to that. Their prices will double if they come along. You’ll end up in a depression, recession, something very bad. They have the worst policy. That’s why they haven’t gotten elected. People have to understand what’s happening. If anything were done to hurt Alaska, the prices would go up so high.
And remember, our gasoline prices, having stopped Iran from having a nuclear… Our gasoline prices are lower than Biden, and he didn’t stop from nuclear weapons. When the war is over, which will be very soon, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock. Yeah, please.
Midterm Convention Ratings
REPORTER: …Midterms, Mr. President, there is report that Ken Paxton was complaining about your midterm convention, and he felt like it hurt him. What’s your reaction to that?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I haven’t heard that, but I can tell you that the convention was amazing. As you probably know, we had 107 million views. Think of this. We had over 100 million views. I think we’re 107. The NFL had 25 million views. So we had four times what the NFL did. And it’s possible that could be true.
I don’t know if it’s possible, but other people were helped greatly. This was a national convention, midterm convention, never been done before. And we went directly against the NFL. It was just the timing worked out that way. And we had 107 million versus 25 million views, which was a big story in the entertainment world and sports world.
So I think the convention… I would imagine they do it again often. Somebody said it won’t do as well because I won’t be around, but I’ll be around in some form. I don’t know what form I’m going to be around in. But the convention, just based on the views that they got, it was the most watched thing on television, and that included the NFL, which is pretty amazing.
Political Prisoners Raised With President Xi
REPORTER: Mr. President… Mr. President, last week in your meeting with Xi, did you discuss the release of political prisoners such as American Min Zin and Jimmy Lai?
DONALD TRUMP: I did. I did with President Xi. I did. We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Fruitful discussions.
The flydubai Incident
REPORTER: Mr. President, I have a question about flydubai and then about your new ads. Have you spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu yet about the incident on the flydubai plane? And what do you think the pilot was trying to do?
DONALD TRUMP: I think it’s an incredible story. I can relate the story, but you’re better off getting it from him. But by this time, I guess, you have a lot fake stories out there and you never know what’s happening. But I did speak to Bibi Netanyahu at length about this event.
And it seems as though the copilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job, and he stabbed the pilot. The pilot was in very bad shape, and I guess he still is in very bad shape. But he had the sense to… Amazing to… In a way, he was a hero to open the door. Those doors are solid steel. You can’t get them open from outside. He was able to fall back and get the door open and scream.
And a plumber, an Israeli plumber, never flew a plane, was rarely in planes, very rarely flew. An Israeli plumber saw what was happening. And he’s strong. When you lift pipe all day, you’re strong. And he saw what was going on, and he heard the screaming.
He was toward the front where you had security in the back. You had security, and you had another flight crew, but they didn’t have time. The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane. Plane wasn’t designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, and so it was well beyond its limits.
And he ripped with the g forces as they were. He ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back. The crowd got him. The passengers got him. Grabbed him. And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed.
Now this is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi and from a couple of probably early. I don’t know if you’ve heard that story yet. I think it’s amazing. So a plumber never flew a plane, strong guy, lift him up, throw him back.
The crowd knew they were going to die shortly because of the g forces, but they were able to hold him because he was going crazy. And he was crazy. And his plumber, having flown a plane, had the sense to lift a stick. Who are they?
And it’s not like planes are different today. He used to have a little steering wheel or whatever. Today, they fly differently. And when asked why he did that, he said he watches that show, Air Disasters. You know the show? It’s that crazy show. Never want to watch it because I don’t like watching it because bad things happen. But he said he watches it a lot, and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly. I mean, you tell me. This is the craziest thing.
And then shortly thereafter, the pilots, they have emergency pilots on these planes, and the security guys, but they were in the back of the plane. They came up. They took over the plane. I think it’s the most amazing story. They said he wanted a crash. They don’t know that. They don’t know that kind of information.
But supposedly, a plumber grabbed the stick. And through watching this unbelievably sh*t… Crazy show, I watched it numerous times actually. I don’t want to watch it. Well, then now maybe I will start watching it. But he learned about flying, because they always talk about this should have happened, that should have. He grabbed the stick, pulled it up, leveled out the plane before it crashed.
Jeff, I think it’s a true… It’s pretty incredible. And he happened to be a Jewish plumber. Jeff is very proud of him. He’s a Jewish plumber, Jeff.
Record-Low Poverty Rate and Household Income
REPORTER: And, sir, last year, US recorded the lowest poverty rate on record and median household incomes went up to a new record.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
REPORTER: With this investment that you’re announcing today as well as the trillions of dollars of investments you’ve announced over the last year, how do you expect that trend to continue?
DONALD TRUMP: Thank for that question. So we announced the lowest poverty rate in the history of our country, the best numbers we’ve ever had. And we’ve also announced individual income numbers. In other words, people individual… Their individual income was higher than at any point… Higher than inflation, by the way.
And our inflation numbers are way down other than for oil, which is still lower than Biden, but is coming down rapidly. And as you probably noticed, we’ve taken out, over the last couple of days, more oil than we took out during the prewar days from the Hormuz Strait. Taking out a lot of oil. And so far, there’s not a thing they could do to stop us. It’s pretty amazing. I think our navy has been incredible, and I think that our military is truly in a class by itself.
Supreme Court Ruling on Third-Country Deportations
REPORTER: President, Mr. President. Mr. President, yesterday, the Supreme Court lifted the ban on deportations to third countries…
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: For migrants. I just wanted to see if you have a comment about that decision. And are you hopeful that it was in Massachusetts?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to see what happens. Look. You never know with this kind of thing, but we got a little help. We’ve done a great job on getting criminals out of our country, but we have to fight the court system quite a bit. And so we get a little help every once in a while. That was good.
But we had 25 million people that the Democrats, the Biden administration allowed with their border czar Kamala, who never spoke to the border patrol. Not one call to border patrol, not one visit to the border. She was the czar for four years. She was the border czar.
And we had people coming in from all over the world. They came in from the Congo. They come in from all over the world. The Congo and Africa. I don’t know what it is, but they came in. Look. I made peace between Rwanda and the Congo. But I told the head of the Congo, he’s a good guy, actually. I said, “You send us a lot of your people from prisons.”
And they did, but they sent from all over South America, from all over the world. They emptied their prisons into our country. And we’ve gotten a lot. I would say it’s the most difficult job I have. We’ve gotten it because we have to fight the crisis. And you get some of these judges that are just terrible. They’re just rather super liberal and terrible. They make it very difficult.
But despite that, we’ve gotten many of the bad ones out. I would say most of the really bad. We’re going for the bad ones, the murderers, the drug dealers. We got them out of the country. In some cases, they’re so evil. We had 11,888 murderers, and we got them mostly out. Some are still out, but we’re on the hunt for them. And we’ve done an amazing job. Nobody can believe it.
The biggest inflation we’ve got way down and inherited the worst inflation in history. The Democrats caused the highest prices in history. It’s considered the worst inflation in history. And we have it down now to a very good number. We’re going to get it down still further. And when the war ends, oil is going to bring it down into a really low number, and oil prices are going to go down tremendously.
REPORTER: Mr. President…
DONALD TRUMP: But I appreciate your question.
REPORTER: Mr. President…
DONALD TRUMP: We’ve done a great job in getting criminals removed from our country.
Iran’s Alleged Role in RAF Fairford Incident
REPORTER: Mr. President… President, Iran, the UK has just said that Iran played a role in that incident at RAF Fairford. Are you planning any kind of response to Tehran as a result of that?
DONALD TRUMP: You said Iran played a role?
REPORTER: I said Iran played a role in that incident at RAF Fairford where the US is using that base.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: Are you planning any response to Tehran? And are you satisfied the…
DONALD TRUMP: Look. We are studying it right now. We’re studying it. We’re studying it very hard. Iran’s got a lot of problems right now. They have no money. Their currency is dead. Their economy is dead. Their military is gone. Gone. They have no military. They have no navy. They have no air force.
And their leaders are fighting for control. I think their leaders are fighting very strongly for control, but control of what? So… But we’ll have an answer to that very quickly.
REPORTER: How the UK is responding to this?
DONALD TRUMP: About the UK?
REPORTER: Are you satisfied with how the UK is being responded to?
DONALD TRUMP: …UK did release a number of people that we caught wanting to blow up a base. We caught them early, and I’m trying to figure out if that’s for real that they actually did it. Maybe they did it for a reason, but we’re going to know about that this afternoon, so we’ll report on it.
REPORTER: The president… Mr. President, I don’t know if you described the Iranians that the US is dealing with as crazy. How do you get a deal done when the counterparts to the US are crazy, irrational, whatever you want to use to describe it?
DONALD TRUMP: Maybe you blow them up. Maybe you blow them up. We have to make that decision. We blow them up, make a deal, but the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon one way or the other. Yes.
Republicans and the Midterms
REPORTER: Mr. President, I know that you’re starting to travel into more Republican friendly states this week as you go on the campaign trail. Do you think Republicans are in trouble ahead of the midterms? And do you have a planned date for when you’re going to go to Alaska as we said?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I only see that for whatever reason. I don’t understand it. Nobody does. Nobody’s been able to explain it. Whoever wins the presidency, Republican or Democrat, automatically does poorly in the midterms. I don’t know why, but we shouldn’t. I think we had the most consequential presidency, maybe one of the most ever… Maybe some people say the most consequential.
Look at what we’re doing there. We’re building plants and factories all over the nation. We have record employment numbers. We have more people working in the United States today than at any point in the history of our country by far. We are booming.
I used the expression from the king of Saudi Arabia, but others said almost the exact words. He said at the time… And he’s referring to a different time period, but at the time, he said, “Sir, one year ago…” Again, said it a year ago, so we’re talking about two years. I don’t want you to get that wrong.
But he said a year ago, “One year ago, during the Biden administration, you were a dead country. You were dead. We thought you had a chance, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world.” And we’re a lot hotter now than a year ago when he made this statement.
So they said, and they say it to this day, “We thought you were a dead country, and now you’re the hottest country.” We’re the hottest country in the world. There’s nobody close. And we have the best military, the strongest military, and we have the best economy anywhere in the world. There’s no economy like this economy.
And the only thing we don’t have is good public relations. We don’t seem to be able to get the word across that we have more people working than ever before. We have the best job numbers than ever before, and we don’t get the word across. And that’s because the press doesn’t want us to get the word across. And press has to become real news, not fake news.
Trump on Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve Renovation
REPORTER: You made a…
DONALD TRUMP: Mr. Jeff.
REPORTER: Thank you, sir. You made a post today about Jay Powell saying you wanted him to be forced to resign. Do you expect Kevin Warsh to help with that?
DONALD TRUMP: I mean, I’m going to… Kevin’s going to do his own thing, but Jay Powell’s a disaster. I called him “Too Late” because he was too late with interest rates. He wasn’t good. But he took a building. It’s too bad you didn’t work on that building, Jeff. It’s a small complex of buildings. Could end up spending 3.5 to $4 billion to renovate, not to build them, to renovate.
He could’ve done it for 50 million. I think I could’ve done it for 25 million. I would’ve left the walls. I would’ve left those gorgeous ceilings. Would’ve spackled them up and fixed them up and painted them up, and they would’ve been beautiful. They would’ve been good for another 100. Ripped them down, and now they’re putting up sheetrock, just straight sheetrock.
He’s a great real estate man, one of the best. And say hello to Steve too, by the way. He’s a great real estate man also. But they would have fixed up that building for, I say, 25 to 50. It would have new electric, new air… New everything. And they wouldn’t have ripping down gorgeous eagles all over the ceiling.
They ripped them down, Jeff. And when it ripped down, then the walls came tumbling down. And all of that beautiful work, they had foot and a half thick walls, masonry walls. Now they have sheetrock. Now they put up some sheetrock, Jeff, with no insulation. And the reason they have no insulation, he said, “It wasn’t in the budget.” Wasn’t in the budget. You know what insulation… Insulation’s a penny a foot.
It’s horrible what they’ve done. He’s incompetent. And a man that’s incompetent should not be sitting on the Federal Reserve Board. And I’m sure that Todd and everybody’s going to be looking because the report was a pretty bad report. The report said they did a bad job. They didn’t know what they were doing. You decided to try to be so important…
Government-Funded Ads
REPORTER: …Is spending millions of dollars on new ads about you, and your critics say those ads might violate federal propaganda laws. Why should US taxpayers pay for that?
DONALD TRUMP: No. Well, I’m not running for office, first of all. And so the ads are given by me, but I’m not running for office. And I don’t talk about anybody. If I was talking about Dan Sullivan, if I was talking about anybody behind me that’s a politician, like Nick, if I read, that’s a political ad.
But what I’m talking about making America great, making our country great, that’s a countrywide ad. That’s an ad for the spirit of our country. Now if somebody said that that’s wrong, I’ll gladly pay the money. But these are ads for the country. These are ads. I’m not promoting. You have to understand. I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country.
Los Angeles Mayor’s Race and Spencer Pratt
REPORTER: Mr. President, right here, Mr. President, thank you. Willie Nelson with Salem Media.
DONALD TRUMP: Willie Nelson. Is that related to the Willie Nelson?
REPORTER: No. It is a family name, though.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: Have you met him before? He’s a good man.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. I have. Yeah. He’s a good man. Go ahead.
REPORTER: So, Mr. President, in my home city of Los Angeles, the mayor’s race is Karen Bass versus Nithya Raman. One let the Palisades burn. The other is a DSA socialist. A lot of LA voters hate both choices. What’s your reaction to that?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I thought Spencer did really well. I mean, Spencer Pratt. He’s a great guy. He worked really hard, and it looked like he was in the runoff easily, at least in the runoff, but then the fake votes kicked in. It was a fake vote.
I didn’t know Spencer Pratt, but I thought he ran well. He had a lot of spirit. He had a lot of common sense. He was going to clean up crime, clean up the filthy streets, and everything else. And the night of the election, he was in the runoff. It was obvious. But the election never ended. They kept getting more and more votes.
In fact, the woman who came in second was crying profusely that night that she lost. Everybody knew she lost. Then all of a sudden, two weeks later, she’s in the runoff. Look. Our elections are disgraced, and we should have the SAVE America Act. We should have voter ID. We should have proof of citizenship. I appreciate the question.
So I’m watching this race between two extremely liberal women, to put it mildly. And I don’t know who’s going to win, but I thought Spencer Pratt did a great job. The night of the election, that night… Now that election never ended because they were getting votes after that. But the night of the election, the woman was crying profusely that she lost, and she lost by a lot.
But all of a sudden, she surged. And it’s one thing for somebody to surge if you have… Nobody ever heard of her. When a person that nobody ever heard of surges, you know what that means? Rigged election. So she surged. She got tremendous thousands and thousands of votes out of nowhere, and she beat out Spencer Pratt for the runoff.
No. It’s very crooked. California is a very crooked election system. And if we had an honest election, Republicans would win. I would’ve won. I would’ve won. If California… I got millions of votes, but I would’ve won California. If that were an honest system, I would’ve won. Go ahead.
Superintelligence and the Race With China
REPORTER: I wanted to also ask, Mr. President.
DONALD TRUMP: I like this guy. That’s why I asked him. Some guys I like. Him. I like a couple of people over here. Most of them I don’t like.
REPORTER: Thank you. Mr. President, you just signed the superintelligence agreement with the tech industry leaders.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: Do you think Democrats drop the end of the world talk now, or is that their midterm message?
DONALD TRUMP: The Democrats are a hoax. Whoever wins superintelligence. We’ve changed the name officially, by the way. I signed the document. We don’t call it artificial intelligence because it’s not artificial. It’s real. It’s a terrible word. It’s amazing it lived on so long, actually. I used to talk about it two, three years ago. And I said, “Why do these brilliant people allow that word?” It’s a very inaccurate word. It’s super intelligence.
In fact, it’s, in some ways, too super, but it’s real intelligence. It’s very, very real intelligence. So I changed it, and they were all like what we talked about yesterday. I had a room yesterday that was… I don’t think there’ll ever be another room like that. That was a who’s who, and they all agreed that that would be a great word.
We looked at superior intelligence. We looked at supreme intelligence, but I didn’t want to mix it up with the Supreme Court, get myself in trouble. I don’t do so well there anyway, but get myself in a little trouble. But we had supreme, we had superior, we had extreme intelligence, and we had super, and super was the best word by virtually everybody.
And so now it’s not called what we had, artificial. Artificial means it’s fake like the press. I call the press artificial media. I’m changing it from crooked to artificial media. Artificial means it’s fake or it’s false. And this is not… This is real. So… And I think it’s going to be great.
I spoke to President Xi about… He agrees on the name, by the way. But I spoke to President Xi about the whole thing. They’re going full blast. Look. If we want to destroy our country, then we should stop. This is bigger than the industrial revolution and largely for good. And they’re going to police, and they’re going to police each other, and they’re going to self police. They’re going to police themselves. It’s going to work out very well.
But we’re leading China by a lot. And if we start doing what some people would like us to do… I mean, Bernie Sanders said, “Stop all work immediately.” Well, you can’t stop work. If you stop work, somebody’s going to do it. And whoever wins superintelligence wins. That’s it.
I used to say whoever wins the other, but whoever wins super intelligent wins. And right now, there are two players. It’s us and China. There practically is no third. It’s between the two of us. I know it always will be. But we’re leading them by a lot, and the Chinese know that. And I don’t think they’re too happy about it, but we’re leading them by a lot. And remember, whoever wins superintelligent wins. Okay.
The Alaska Senate Race
REPORTER: You won Alaska by substantial margins all three times throughout the president, 13 and a half points in 2024. Why do you suppose the Senate race involving Senator Sullivan is as close as polls showing us right now?
DONALD TRUMP: …People of Alaska, who I love, don’t know how good he is. He’s really good. He would call me constantly. He talked to me constantly about this project that we did today. This was an incredible project. It’s the biggest in the world. And he would call me constantly. He didn’t want us to forget about it. He did a great job as governor.
If the people of Alaska knew what I know, and I know the real facts, there wouldn’t even be a race. Plus, I’m very concerned about that crazy voting system they have up there. That bothers me. And it bothers me that we have another candidate that the Democrats put in named Dan Sullivan. It’s a fraud. I’m surprised the courts allowed it.
They put some little caveats on, but I’m surprised the courts allowed it to happen. It’s very fraudulent in my opinion. But he’s so good that I think he’s going to go through the fraud. I mean, just to answer your question, if people knew how good Senator Daniel Sullivan was, there would be no race. Okay? Anybody else?
Treasury Bond Auctions
REPORTER: The Treasury tomorrow is going to be giving you auction sizes out for long term bond yields. My question is, would you like to see the Treasury reduce the size of auctions for long term dated trade raises?
DONALD TRUMP: Scott has done a terrific job, and he likes doing what he does. And he has a good instinct for it, so do I. I think he’s doing a great job. I mean, we’ll see how it all works out. Jeff, go ahead.
Possible Ban on Diesel Exports
REPORTER: Mr. President, have you decided to ban diesel exports?
DONALD TRUMP: Diesel?
REPORTER: Diesel exports.
DONALD TRUMP: I’m thinking about it. I speak to Chris and Doug about it a lot. They sort of think it’ll help diesel, but it might raise the price of other things. And I think we’re in a good place because oil prices are going to start to come down. Tremendous oil is coming out of the Hormuz Strait now. We’re running it. We’re literally running it. We have total control. I guess that’s always subject to change.
If they drop one mine, it is a mindless ship. They don’t want to take their billion dollar ships through the Hormuz Strait. But again… And we had more oil coming out over the last two days than any time in history. That’s long before we stop them from having a nuclear weapon. But would either of you two guys like to give Jeff an answer to that?
CHRIS WRIGHT: So as the president said, we work every day for weeks, for months on this issue. And you’ve seen diesel prices come down the last week. I think you’ll see them move meaningfully down in the coming weeks and days, and we’ll have some announcements about that.
But, yeah, we’re tight on diesel because we’ve lost diesel exports from Russia. We’ve lost some diesel exports from the Middle East, although we’re restoring those, and we’ve lost diesel exports from China. So that’s a lot of interruptions. But American refiners are running at record highs. And you will hear announcements from our friends in Europe about new diesel supplies that’ll come to the market. That’ll meaningfully push diesel prices down.
REPORTER: So is it fair to say you’ve advised against that and you’re not…
DONALD TRUMP: No. I mean, I think it’s something that we think about and we talk about every day, but it just seems that it would have a negative impact on gasoline. So that would go up a little bit, and diesel would come down a little bit. And we think we’re in a very good place. It’s going to start to come in.
Diesel is really hurt much more, not by the Middle East, but by what’s going on in Russia because those diesel refineries are being knocked out at a pretty alarming rate. And if that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have a diesel problem. What’s happened in Russia with Ukraine has been really the biggest problem for diesel. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
REPORTER: You’re meeting with Dennis Biden?
DONALD TRUMP: Somebody told me I am. He’s a nice guy.
REPORTER: …Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I don’t know that. I don’t know. But he’s a good guy. Dennis is a good guy. Thank you very much.
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