President Trump Remarks @ Swearing-In Ceremony of Markwayne Mullin (Transcript) 

I don’t know what close means, but I don’t know how people can vote for them. You take a look, men. They want men to be able to play in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. Terrible. But that’s the way it is. They don’t want to give voter I.D. They don’t want voter I.D. for elections. They don’t want proof of citizenship for elections. And then they get the vote. They do cheat. But I don’t know. It’s hard to believe they can cheat that much.

The Deadly Consequences of Open Border Policies

Just in the past few days, we’ve seen the horrifying consequences of Democrats’ deadly open border extremism. They want open borders, and they want to open the borders again if they have the chance, because they think they’re going to get votes by doing that.

On Thursday, a precious 18-year-old college student named Sheridan Gorman was shot and killed while she was walking in a park. She was just walking in the park. Didn’t do anything. The illegal alien monster charged with Sheridan’s brutal murder had come illegally from Venezuela and been released into our country by sleepy Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country.

And I don’t say that because I think he’s fine, he’s okay. I don’t like him, dislike him. I talk about job performance. That’s all I care about, job performance. Worst president in history. And Obama wasn’t far behind, by the way.

But he was then arrested and released again by a Democrat governor, a real slob of a governor, J.B. Pritzker, in the sanctuary city of Chicago, which we could make safe in two months, I would say. Two months that we sent in the group, Tom, right? Two months would be good. Three months, very good. Four or five months, it would be great. But they would never call because they don’t want to do that. All they have to do is call and ask for a little help.

The Democrats in Congress do not care how much American blood they shed in their demented pursuit of open borders. From Sheridan Gorman to Jocelyn Nguyen, Lake and Riley, their quest to flood our country with illegal aliens has left countless American victims in its wake. They never change, do they? They see what’s happening. They never change. That’s what they want. They want to get the votes.

Record-Setting Deportation Efforts

With sanctuary and sanctuary cities going at levels that they are, and we’ve ended a lot. We’ve done a lot. But for some reason, they love it. It’s a sanctuary. You know, sanctuary cities are sanctuary for — truly a sanctuary for criminals.

With Secretary Mullen at DHS, we will continue our record-setting efforts to deport these illegal alien criminals from our country. And we are doing it at record levels, despite a very unfair court system, a radicalized left court system, and others that I’m not too fond of also. And we’ll protect innocent American lives. Every single illegal migrant who has a criminal record must be deported immediately. If they have a criminal record, you got to deport them. And there’s a lot that came in under Biden.

And Kamala, the Great Border Czar Kamala, who never went to the border, never called Border Patrol. Never once called Border Patrol. Can you imagine that, Jim? She’s the Border Czar. She never called Border Patrol. Explain that to me. He’s the worst. She was as bad as he was. Going to give him IQ tests next week.

## After the Trump Administration

After the Trump administration, we’ve achieved unprecedented gains on public safety. Yesterday, we were in Memphis, Tennessee, to celebrate the steepest reduction in crime ever recorded. We’ve been there for about five months, and the numbers — nobody has ever seen anything like it.

And thanks to our Memphis Safe Task — it’s called Safe Task Force — alongside our efforts in Washington, D.C. What we’ve done in Washington is amazing. We have — Washington is a safe city now. It’s been amazing. It’s been — if you go back a year and a half, two years ago, Washington was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the world, let alone this country. And now we have a very safe city. What they’ve done with all of the people working — many of the people standing right there — it’s been incredible. And now we’re going to see all of our cities take a big step because of Mark Wayne.

## Record-Breaking Border Security and Crime Reduction

In one year, my administration, we’ve created the most secure border in the United States history and the largest drop in illegal immigration ever recorded, slashed the illegal fentanyl crossings on our border by 64 percent, and accomplished the largest decline in the murder rate in the history of our country, bringing it down to 1,900.

That’s before my father was born. My father was born a little bit after that. He wouldn’t be happy mentioning this because he never liked talking about age. But he lived to be a ripe old age. But that’s before my father was born. Think of it. Nineteen hundred. We have a record. Nineteen hundred. Murders last year were at the lowest level in 125 years. And we’re making America safe again. We’re doing it at levels that nobody — everything we’re doing, we’re making great. The borders are great. The military is great.

## Tremendous Success in Iran and Venezuela

We’re having, by the way, a tremendous success, as you know, in Iran. We had one in Venezuela, and now we’re having one in Iran. They have no Navy left. They have no Air Force left. They have no anti-aircraft equipment left, no radar left, no leaders left. The leaders are all gone. Nobody knows who to talk to. But we’re actually talking to the right people, and they want to make a deal so badly. You have no idea how badly they want to make a deal. And we’ll see what happens.

I want to thank Pete Hegseth. The job you’re doing over there is really incredible. You and the general and all of the other generals and colonels and captains and majors and everybody else, right? It’s a perfect, amazing thing. We make the best military equipment in the world. Now we’re going to make it faster. We want to get it faster. But we make the best in the world. We’re doing a job.

## The Swearing-In Ceremony

So I’d like to ask Attorney General Bondi to come and do the honors of swearing in a man who’s going to do a phenomenal job for our country. And I tell you, your family has to be very proud. You have to be very proud. Everybody wanted this job. He said, there’s one man for this job, and I have no doubt he’s going to be fantastic. Thank you, Pam. Come on over.

PAM BONDI: Thank you. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: I do solemnly swear.

PAM BONDI: Markwayne Mullin.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Markwayne Mullin.

PAM BONDI: That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

PAM BONDI: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

PAM BONDI: And that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: I now bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

PAM BONDI: And that I take this obligation freely.

And take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. Or purpose of evasion. Or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully. And that I will well and faithfully. Discharge the duties of the office. Discharge the duties of the office. On which I am about to enter. On which I am about to enter. So help me God. So help me God.

Congratulations, Secretary. Congratulations. Thank you.

## The New Secretary of Homeland Security Speaks

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: I think that was the most nervous I’ve ever been. It just seems surreal being in the Oval Office. And having the President of the United States speak so highly of me. And then recognize my family. And know my family by name. It’s humbling. And I never take it for granted.

But I’ve made this very clear. That I don’t care what color your state is. I don’t care if you’re red or you’re blue. At the end of the day, my job is to be Secretary of Homeland. And to protect everybody the same. And we will do that. I’ll fight every single day.

Today I got the privilege of meeting so many of the employees at DHS. These employees have been there for 30 days. Without pay. And if you need anything. To know their dedication. To show up and still protect the homeland. That you and I enjoy. And the freedoms that we’re experiencing. They’re working for free. Because of political politics. That’s all I need to know.

I told them if you’re fighting 365 days. Understand I’ll be fighting 365 days beside you. No one’s going to outwork me. And I’m not going to let any of them outwork me. The President has entrusted me with this. And failure is not an option. So thank you so much. Mr. President. For this opportunity. I won’t let you down.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. I love that expression. “No one’s going to outwork me.” That’s a wrestler’s expression isn’t it? That’s a good wrestler’s expression.

## Q&A With Reporters

REPORTER: Yes please. Mr. President. Will the Secretary’s replacement in the Senate support the SAVE Act. And the use of the talking filibuster to get it through The SAVE Act.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s called the SAVE America Act. There’s a big difference. Nobody knows what that means. Save America means save America. And I can’t speak for him, but I would imagine that — I didn’t even ask him the question because who wouldn’t support it? Voter ID with a picture. You want citizenship, proof of citizenship. Ideally, you want to end mail-in ballots because there’s tremendous corruption.

Then we added a couple of things, Markwayne. I don’t think being a great athlete and having a family of great athletes — they have produced great athletes in this family. All-American wrestlers. They especially like wrestling, by the way. And what about baseball? Do you play baseball? They like wrestling.

But I don’t think that you would say that his family — and I don’t know this for a fact, and I shouldn’t say it because I could get myself — does anybody in your family want men to play in women’s sports? I don’t think so, Jim. Right? I don’t think so. How would they do? Would they do good wrestling you? They would be in trouble.

He said, yes, they’d be in big trouble. It’s so crazy. So that would be one. And then we have a few others that we — we call them the “best of.” Best of Trump. But if you look at transgender — mutilization of children, we don’t want that. It’s the mutilization of children. We don’t want that.

So, generally speaking, I think I can answer that Mark Wayne would be very much in favor of what I’m in favor of. Would you say that’s right, Mark? I can’t think of too many things. He might be worse — he might be worse than me. That’s what I look at his wife and say, that’s right. But — so, yeah, he’s going to be great.

REPORTER: Yeah. Do you believe the Secretary will run DHS any differently than Kristi Noem did? What do you hope to see as his priorities?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we had a good run. Look, we created the strongest border with the help of that man right there. Tom is so incredible. He’s going to be a big influence here, too. There’s nobody more professional, nobody better. There’s nobody better as a human being. You know, he looks tough, but he’s got a good heart. But not too good. Don’t make it too good.

But, you know, we had Tom. We have the safest border we’ve ever had. We have a lot of assets, but a lot of things we can do and we’re going to do. We have to get the criminals out of our country that were allowed in by Biden.

On the Senate Agreement to Reopen DHS

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you support what appears to be a merging agreement coming out of the Senate to reopen DHS?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m going to look at it, and we’re going to take a good, hard look at it. I want to support Republicans. And, you know, sometimes it’s awfully hard to get votes when you have Democrats that don’t want to have voter ID. They don’t want to have proof of citizenship. They don’t want to do anything about men playing in women’s sports.

That’s one of the items we put on, you know. And I did that just because it’s so popular. You know, they say that’s at least an 80-20 issue. No, it’s about a 99-1. I don’t think it’s — what do you think, Pete? Do you think it’s 80-20? Who’s closer? 80-20 or 99-1?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Almost 100.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I think 100 is really the — so, you know. So, I support that, and I support common sense.

REPORTER: Would you be comfortable with a deal that involves separating ICE funding from the DHS funding package in order to reopen DHS?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they’re working on all of that, you know. That’s a detail that they’ll explain later.

On Election Integrity and FISA Reforms

REPORTER: On election integrity and DHS measures, Mr. President, since FISA falls under DHS, and given that many credible voices have raised concerns over the premature and possibly faulty — likely faulty 2020 election assessment, will you and Secretary Mullin implement reforms at FISA and at DHS to ensure full confidence in future elections, like in the upcoming —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about it. You know, pros and cons. Look, they used it to try and put me in prison. Right? So, I can’t be thrilled with it. They used that very strongly, very illegally. The Democrats are thugs, and I don’t want to say that. It would be nice to have everyone get along. But it’s a different country than it was years ago.

It was very dangerous, the way they used it. And they weaponized government. They used that to weaponize government. So, I’m not thrilled. But I’ll also go along with two groups of people. The military — and I think the military likes it. Right? And I’ll go along with the senators. I’m fine. But I was a big victim of it.

On Negotiations With Iran

REPORTER: Are you going to send Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to do direct negotiations with the Iranians?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, we’re in negotiations, as it turned out. And now you’ve seen what I said yesterday was exactly correct. We’re in negotiations right now. They’re doing it along with Marco, J.D. We have a number of people doing it. And the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal. And who wouldn’t, if you were there?

Look, their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their communications are gone. That’s the biggest problem. It’s very hard to communicate between themselves. All of the anti-aircraft is gone. Most of their missiles are gone. We either shot them, or they shot them and don’t have them anymore. They’re down to a trickle. Pretty much everything they have is gone.

I don’t know. Can you name one thing that’s not gone, or can you name one thing that’s doing well? You know, if you read the papers, you think we’re tied.

You think we’re in a tough battle. We are roaming free over Tehran. You’re at the city, Tehran, as opposed to Iran. We’re roaming free. We can do whatever we want. And, as you know, today, we were going to have the privilege of shooting down a very big electric generation plant — one of the biggest in the world. And one shot to the right location ends the plant. It collapses. And we held off based on the fact that we’re negotiating.

## The Ceasefire Decision

REPORTER: What do you think was the turning point to make you want to pursue a ceasefire? A few days ago, you said you wanted to continue bombing Iran. Now you want to pursue peace talks. Was there something that happened?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In fact, they’re talking to us, and they’re talking since. And remember, it all starts with, they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Just — you know, I said yesterday, what are — they said, what are the top 10? I said, well, number one, two, and three is, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. And they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. And we’re talking about that. And I don’t want to say in advance, but they’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.

REPORTER: How can you be sure they won’t have a nuclear weapon?

## On Border Security

REPORTER: Your former Border Patrol chief, Greg Bovino, said his only regret is that he didn’t catch more illegal aliens. What’s your reaction to that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Who said that?

REPORTER: Your former Border Patrol chief, he just retired.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I mean, we captured a lot. You know, they were allowed into the country by Sleepy Joe and that group of incompetent people that were — he was the worst President ever. The group of incompetent people. To me, that’s the biggest scar. You know, inflation — they caused the highest inflation we’ve ever had. We’ve already gotten rid of it. The biggest scar is what they did. The people that they allowed — from prisons all over the world. They came from the Congo, from all over South America. Rough, rough, rough people. Really tough people.

So, no, I understand what he means. He says, you know, he would have liked to have captured more. I’m not capturing so much as removing. You know, we’re removing thousands of people. And many are self-deporting because we’re going after them so powerfully that they’re self-deporting, Tom, going back — I think that’s one of the big, unkept secrets. It’s — we have thousands and thousands of people, and they’re self-deporting. They’re going back to where they came from. But what we want, really, is the criminals — we’re really focused on those criminals getting them out.

## On Democrats and DHS Funding

REPORTER: Right now, the Democrats and also to Americans that are stuck in airports is really devastating, watching it online, because Democrats won’t fund DHS. What’s devastating? Americans are now stuck in airports as we speak because Democrats won’t fund DHS.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they just don’t — they won’t — look, this is a deal that was done, and a great, big, beautiful deal, which gave you the biggest tax cuts ever, including no tax on tips and no tax on Social Security for the seniors. Think of it. No tax on overtime. Tax deductions when you buy a car. You take money, pay interest in the money, you deduct it. We’ve never had that for people buying cars, if it’s an American car. Only if it’s an American car.

But they are just what — they’re — they stick together, the Democrats. I tell you, I give them great credit for that. We have some that will — they’re not good stickers. We have guys like Tom Massey in Congress, who’s terrible. He’s just terrible. Terrible person. I call him Rand Paul, Jr. But they don’t vote. Rand Paul, I mean, rarely votes for stuff. He likes me. He says, I’m a great President. He said the other day, I’m a great President, one of the greatest Presidents.

But I said, do me a favor, vote for us, and don’t call me a great — I’d rather have the vote than the statement. But we have people that don’t stick together, and those people, hopefully, will someday be gone.

The thing I most respect about the Democrats, even on horrible policy, they stick together. What they do have, though, is horrible policy. Transgender for everyone, open borders, men and women’s sports. They have the worst policy that you can imagine. And so, whether they stick together or not, I mean, they have just as terrible policy.

We have great policy. Republicans have great policy. We have common-sense policy, but it’s great policy. That’s our biggest advantage, is our policy is correct.

On Gulf Allies and the Iran Operation

Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you encouraging our allies in the Gulf to be more involved in the Iran operation?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it.

REPORTER: Are you encouraging our allies in the Gulf to be more involved in the Iran operation?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I mean, a little bit, but more — more NATO. I think our Gulf allies have been pretty good, to be honest with you.

On the Military’s Defense of the USS Abraham Lincoln

The UAE has been hit so hard. I think it got hit by 1,400 rockets. Shot them all out of the air with our great — with our great Patriot missiles. Think of it.

They shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers, the Abraham Lincoln — one of the biggest ships in the world, actually. And out of 101 missiles shot, every single one of them was knocked down in the sea. Think of that. Think of what that means. A hundred and one missiles — highly sophisticated, very fast missiles — shot. Out of 101, all 101 were shot down. And now, for the most part, lie at the bottom of the sea.

Yeah, pretty amazing, right? Pretty amazing. Our military is amazing, Pete. You know the attack I’m talking about recently? A hundred and one shot. I said, “Wow.” I saw that. You can see we have, sort of, pretty good equipment that we see. It’s called the Red Line. Those Red Lines were thick, right? I said, “That’s a lot.” And then we saw them, one by one, just get shot.

And these guys that do the shooting, the coolest cucumbers ever. You know, most people — you don’t have a lot of time. When a missile is going at 2,500 miles an hour, I don’t care how far away it is, you don’t have a lot of time. But I watched them — I watched them sit down and think. Great students. MITs — a lot of MITs, a lot of guys like this. They’re not as much into the muscle as they are — this one right here.

And amazing to watch them perform, under great pressure. Because they have a matter of seconds to do it. If they don’t do it properly, it’s a big problem. You know, because these were powerful — these were very powerful missiles coming. And so, a lot of people joke. They don’t joke. These guys don’t joke. They’re the best in the world. We have the best in the world.

On TSA Agents and Funding

Yeah.

REPORTER: What would be your message today to the TSA agents who have been staying home in recent days amid this impact?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, some of them are needing money, you know, because the Democrats cut off their money. I blame the Democrats more than anything else. But some of them, you know, they didn’t get paid because they’re not funded by the Democrats. This is a Democrat problem.

In fact, I actually said to the Senate, why would you — this is a Democrat problem. I think the polls are showing it’s a Democrat problem. And they’ll do anything, actually, to hurt our country so they can try and win the midterms. And if we ever went back to our old policies, we wouldn’t have a country left.

REPORTER: If they get a deal — Republicans and Democrats in the Senate — to fund all but enforcement operations of ICE, to get those TSA agents repaid, and to open up the rest of the Department, would you sign that deal?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to comment until I see the deal. But as you know, they’re negotiating a deal. I guess they’re getting fairly close. But I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it.

These guys came in. They wouldn’t pay people. You know, they had a deal to pay. They had to break their deal. The Democrats broke the deal that we had. It was all done. Everything was fine. And then they just said, well, we’re not going to pay anymore. And they hurt our country. And at a very difficult time, because, you know, we are at, as they would say, a war. They call it a war. I call it a military operation. A very successful one. Successful like nobody’s ever seen before.

Hey, Venezuela was equally as successful. That was a great thing. No, the Democrats had a deal. It was a done deal. And then they said, well, we’re not going to pay. And so they — a lot of people suffered over that. And it put our country in danger.

You have another question? You haven’t been here in a while.

On Iran: New Leadership and Negotiations

REPORTER: Well, on Iran, can you give us any more sense of who exactly, in Iran, it is? Is there White House or others you’re speaking with?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, we had — I hate to say this in front of these young people. They’re not children. I spoke to most of them. They sound like adults to me, even though they are sort of children, right? They’ll always be your children. But I hate to say it, but we killed all their leadership. And then they met to choose new leaders, and we killed all of them. And now we have a new group, and we can easily do that. But let’s see how they turn out.

It’s — we have, really, regime change. You know, this is a change in the regime because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with that created all those problems. So this was — I think we can say, Jason, this is regime change, right?

REPORTER: What makes you trust them?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t trust anybody. I don’t trust you. I mean, that’s only because I know you. But if I didn’t know you, I’d probably have more trust. But I don’t trust anyone. Why do you — why do you say that — why do you say what makes you — do you think it’s — do you think I trust them? I don’t trust them.

REPORTER: Then why bother talking to them?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because they’re going to make a deal. They’re going to make a deal. Something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money. And I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize. And they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it. So that meant one thing to me, we’re dealing with the right people.

No, it wasn’t nuclear-related. It was oil- and gas-related. And it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we’re dealing with the right people. Because, you know, you don’t know, because the leadership was killed. All gone. Khomeini, all gone, as the expression goes. He passed Supreme Leader. And then the new Supreme Leader was racked up, at a minimum, racked up pretty good. And everyone else was gone. And then many of the people in the third tier are gone.

But we’re dealing with a group of people that, I think, had turned out. And the present, the gift they made to us, was very significant.

And they said they were going to do it, and it happened. And they’re the only ones that could have done it.

Press Briefing: Strait of Hormuz and Oil Flow

REPORTER: Was it related to the Strait of Hormuz and the flow of oil?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, it was related to the flow and to the Strait. Yeah, it was.

REPORTER: Are you negotiating on who’s going to control the Strait from now on?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, we’re going to be- we’ll have control of anything we want. Look, if we can end this without more lives being down, without knocking out $10 billion electric plants that are brand new and the apple of their eye, I’d like to be able to do that, you know? But we- they can’t have certain things. I mean, you know the things. I don’t have to go over the list, but again, it starts with no nuclear weapons. And they’ve agreed to that. There won’t be any nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have- and they’re not going to have enrichment. Any of those things.

But, look, I hate to say that we’re in a very good bargaining position, but- and I hate to say that they’re defenseless because, you know, until that last missile is fired, they have little power, but we are in about the best bargaining position. We’re way ahead of schedule. And again, they have no Navy, and they have no Air Force, and they have no missile protection, and most of their missiles are gone. Most of their launchers we’ve killed. You know, we’ve killed about 82 percent of their launchers. So, even if they had a missile, they can’t launch it.

We’ve been very- we have the greatest military in the world. Nobody even comes close. We have the best military equipment in the world.

Saudi Arabia and Regional Alliances

REPORTER: On Saudi Arabia, there’s been some reporting that you’ve been talking to the Crown Prince. Have you been focused on normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, no. We have a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. What do you hear with Saudi Arabia?

REPORTER: I’m just hearing that you’ve been talking and that he has been encouraging you to do certain things related to Iran. Can you share a little bit?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s a warrior. He does. Yeah, he’s a warrior. He’s fighting with us, by the way. Saudi Arabia has been excellent. And UAE, excellent. And I will tell you, Qatar, incredible. Qatar took a hit. Pretty bad hit. Qatar is very close. You know, they’re essentially- you can walk right over the border. Qatar took a hit. They’ve been great. They’ve been very strong.

Kuwait, they had a little mishap. They shot down three planes with our missiles. They happen to be our planes. But the pilots made it. Can you imagine the pilots making it? The pilots are always coming. And they said, those are patriots. We’re not going to escape patriots. And they got out of there pretty quick, Pete. Right? Pretty amazing that they got out. The three pilots lived. They’re fine. In fact, they’re flying today.

REPORTER: Was it the Kuwaitis that actually fired the missiles?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. The Kuwaitis made a mistake. They fired. They thought they were firing at the enemy. It was, as the expression goes, friendly fire. But the pilots are great. They’re flying today. Pretty amazing, when you think of it. Yeah.

Hope for a Peace Deal With Iran

REPORTER: President Trump, on a human level, how hopeful are you that this peace deal will work out? Like, as a human, as-

PRESIDENT TRUMP: On what?

REPORTER: On a human level, not as the President of the United States, how hopeful are you that this peace deal will work out with Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’re talking about to end it? Well, I think we’re going to end it. I can’t tell you for sure. You know, I don’t like to say this. We’ve won this. This war has been won. The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news. I mean, the New York Times.

You read the New York Times, it’s like we’re not winning a war where they have no Navy and they have no Air Force and they have no nothing. And we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country. They can’t do a thing about it. For instance, if I want to take down that power plant, that very big, powerful power plant, they can’t do a thing about it. It’s like, take me. That’s all they can do.

And yet, if you read the New York Times or if you watch ABC fake news or NBC fake news, you’d say it’s a close battle. It’s not a close battle. They’re totally defeated. You know, we killed their Navy in, would you say, three days, Pete? Gone. In fact, I was a little upset with Pete. I said, why didn’t you save the ships? We could have used them, right? He said, it’s more fun shooting them down. But the Navy was wiped out in a very rapid order.

Pretty impressive for you guys, you champion wrestlers, right, when you hear this stuff? But you don’t — if you read the news, you don’t hear this. You know, you read like, oh, they’re doing wonderfully. They’re doing terribly. They’re wiped out. Militarily, they are dead.

On Ukraine and the Push for Peace

REPORTER: On Ukraine, is there a new sense of a timeline? Do you want to get something done before the midterms?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’d like to see President Putin and President Zelensky sit down and make a deal. I think they’re getting close, but I’ve been saying that for a while. I’ve settled eight wars. All of them should have been more difficult than this one. This should have been the easiest one. But these are two people that truly hate each other. You’ll find out that hatred is not good for making deals. These are people that — they don’t like each other very much.

On Iran Nuclear Negotiations

REPORTER: I know you said there’s a bunch of people from the administration who are negotiating with Iran. There’s been reports that the Vice President is leading those negotiations. Is that true?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, he’s involved in them. J.D. is involved. And Marco is involved. And Jared Kushner is involved. Very smart guy. And Steve Whitkoff, smart guy, is involved. And I’m involved. I’m involved. Why? I’m going to be so big, oh, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m the President of the United States, Tom. And I’m not going to talk about it. It’s beneath me to talk about saving millions of lives, because that’s what you’re talking about. You’re talking about saving millions of lives.

If Iran had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it. And if I didn’t end the horrible Barack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal in my first administration, they would have had a nuclear weapon three or four years ago. They would have used it. I would have never gotten the chance, probably, to be President. Who knows if what — it would have been so devastating.

On the B-2 Bomber Strike and Iran’s Nuclear Potential

And if we didn’t send those beautiful B-2 bombers — they took them off my desk. They were right there. I don’t know why. But if we didn’t have those beautiful — the B-2 hit, which was so — we obliterated, despite CNN. CNN said, “Well, maybe the word obliteration.” I said, “No, no. We obliterated it.” Just obliterated their nuclear potential.

You would have had them having — two weeks after that attack, had we not made the attack, they would have had a nuclear weapon. They would have absolutely used it. And they would have used it on the entire Middle East, including Israel.

And do you know why you see that? Because, unexpectedly, when this war broke out, unexpectedly, they started sending missiles to UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and elsewhere. And nobody thought they were going to — were you equally surprised by that, Pete? Pete, do you want to give about a three-minute statement on how we’re doing in this, as I call it, military operation?

The Military Campaign Against Iran

PETE: Thank you, Mr. President. You’re spot on. Never in history has a modern military — Iran had a modern military, a modern Navy, a modern Air Force, modern air defenses, leadership, massive bunker. Never has a modern military been so rapidly and historically obliterated, defeated from day one with overwhelming firepower.

The air campaign that we’ve conducted, that Israel’s conducted alongside us, was one for the history books, truly. And it’s because we have a President of the United States that, when he sends his warfighters out to fight, he unties their hands to actually go out and close with and destroy the enemy as viciously as possible from moment one. And that’s why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well.

We negotiate with bombs. You have a choice, as we loiter over the top of Tehran, as the President talked about, about your future. The President has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees. Our job is to ensure that. And so we’re keeping our hand on that throttle as long as it’s hard, as it’s necessary, to ensure the interest of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield.

This is not Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not a President who’s interested in vague end states. He’s been very clear with us about what we need to accomplish, creating the conditions for them never to have a nuclear capability. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in historic fashion. Thank you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: People don’t like me using the word war, but — so I won’t. But the Democrats call it a war. How about a little statement? I think he’s done a very good job. Do we agree he’s done a good job, Mark White? Can we take some of your time?

I appreciate it. Thank you, Richard. You know, the only two people that were quite disappointed — I don’t want to say this, but I have to — I said, Pete and General “Raizin” Caine, I think this thing is going to be settled very soon. Here they go. Oh, that’s too bad. Pete didn’t want it to be settled. These guys are doing a great job. That’s a good attitude, though, Tom, right? They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing.

Q&A With Reporters

**REPORTER:** Mr. President, can you — just taking things locally, hopefully not throwing in or out of the hole, Barry, for a second — do you support the construction of the Second Avenue subway in New York City? And what are you going to do about it?

**PRESIDENT TRUMP:** Far out. Far out. Correct. You know, the Second Avenue subway is being under construction for — you’re a young guy. It’s longer than you are old. Okay? That’s been under construction. I haven’t heard about the Second Avenue subway. Twenty years. What the hell kind of a question is that?

I guess they got to get it finished. They spent trillions of dollars, practically. No, they spent more money on that than on anything, I think, in the history of our city, in New York City. And it’s been under construction for a long time. It’s very sad, actually.

The only thing maybe worse was Gavin Newscombe, the governor of California. His train — I call it his train wreck because it’s a wreck. That’s been years. It’s literally 30 times over budget. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. And it doesn’t go to San Francisco and Los Angeles like it was supposed to. They decided to cut it way short because there was no way they could finish it. But it’s one of the worst — I’ve never seen anything like it.

Other than the worst, the Federal Reserve Building for almost $4 billion — a little building that’s going to cost a renovation for $4 billion — headed by our highly incompetent head of the Federal Reserve.

Reconciliation and the State of America Act

REPORTER: Mr. President, would you be open — are you hoping to see the Senate pursue Reconciliation 2.0 to fund ICE and pass the State of America Act?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ll see about reconciliation. We’re certainly talking about reconciliation, I think. Mark Wayne, right? Do you want to talk about that for a second? Now that he’s working, we can get him to do this.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Thank you. Lindsey Graham, the chairman where the reconciliation will funnel through, he is committed to making sure we get reconciliation through, if that is in some form with funding ICE, possibly backfilling from the One Big Beautiful Bill, but also, more importantly, the State of America Act. There’s a framework that we can do through reconciliation, paying for it, put some of the policies that cost money in, because there’s nothing more important than the State of America Act.

I mean, that’s what the American people want. There’s 80 percent of the population who say they want only Americans voting, citizens that are registered to vote, citizens that have done it the right way. And I believe that everybody wants an election integrity. So, fortunately, Lindsey Graham has said, through reconciliation, he’s willing to put the framework out for that.

Closing Remarks

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And I think that was said so beautifully, so concisely, so well, your father, that we should let him have the last word. And that was it. That was the last word. Did he do a good job? Are you impressed with your father? How about me? Don’t answer. Don’t answer. Don’t answer. No. You like your father better. Okay? Come here. Come here. Look at this guy. This guy. Don’t wrestle him. Don’t steal him.

I want to thank President Obama for his wonderful speech. I want to thank President Obama for his wonderful speech. I want to thank President Obama for his wonderful speech. I want to thank the family, because without the family, he’s not here. You know, he’s a different person. And that goes especially for Mom, who looks like she’s about 22 years old. I don’t know. I see these kids, but she looks very young. But it’s a great couple. Congratulations to you both. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thanks. Come on in.

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