Read the full transcript of President Donald Trump’s conversation with the reporters as he signs executive orders on day one of administration. (Jan 20, 2025).
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Pardons and Commutations Related to January 6th
OFFICIAL: Yes sir. First we have a list of pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6th, 2021.
DONALD TRUMP: OK. And how many people are on the list?
OFFICIAL: I think this order will apply to approximately 1,500 people.
DONALD TRUMP: So this is January 6th. These are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Full pardon.
REPORTER: Full pardon or commutation?
DONALD TRUMP: Full pardon. We have about six commutations in there where we’re doing further research. Nice to see you again. So this is a big one. Anything you want to explain about this? We hope they come out tonight, frankly. We’re expecting it. Approximately 1,500 people. Six commutations.
REPORTER: Were there any cases you didn’t honor?
DONALD TRUMP: We’re looking at different things, but the commutations would be the ones that we’ll take a look at. Maybe it’ll stay that way, or it’ll go to a full pardon.
OFFICIAL: And the order does require the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons and commutation orders. Sir, this is a —
Southern Border Crisis and State Protection Against Invasion
DONALD TRUMP: Why don’t we get that down so they can get them going right now?
OFFICIAL: Yes, sir. Yep, absolutely. This is a proclamation guaranteeing the state’s protection against invasion based on the current crisis at the southern border. It invokes various executive powers relating to the ongoing invasion at the southern border.
REPORTER: Mr. President, do I make you feel confident that those are not going to be blocked by the court?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t think they will.
Realignment of U.S. Refugee Admission Program
OFFICIAL: Sir, this is an executive order realigning the United States Refugee Admission Program to better align with American principles and American interests.
This next executive order is about protecting America from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats. Again, the crisis at the border, but it goes beyond that and implicates other executive powers as well.
REPORTER: Okay. President Trump, if cartels are now going to be seen as foreign terror organizations, would you think about ordering U.S. Special Forces into Mexico to take them out?
DONALD TRUMP: Could happen. Stranger things have happened. That was actually a… Say it.
REPORTER: How will you make sure that Maduro will accept Venezuela?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to see Venezuela. We’re looking at Venezuela very strongly. It’s a country I know very well for a lot of reasons, and it was a great country 20 years ago, and now it’s a mess.
REPORTER: Sir, can we expect ICE raids starting tomorrow in major cities?
DONALD TRUMP: What does that mean?
REPORTER: Can we expect ICE raids in major cities?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want to say when, but it’s going to happen. It has to happen, or we’re not going to have a country left.
Cartels Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
OFFICIAL: This is actually an executive order designating the cartels and other organizations to be foreign terrorist organizations.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s a big one.
OFFICIAL: Yes, sir.
DONALD TRUMP: People have wanted to do this for years, so they are now designated as terrorist organizations, foreign, and Mexico probably doesn’t want that. But we have to do what’s right. They’re killing our people. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 American people a year. Not 100,000, like has been reported for 15 years. It’s probably 300,000.
REPORTER: So you’re saying Mexico doesn’t want that? How are you going to deal with this?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them.
Protecting the American People Against Invasion
OFFICIAL: Sir, this is an executive order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which again deals with the southern border and the unprecedented mission of illegal aliens across the southern border.
REPORTER: What do you think the biggest national threat to the U.S. is at present? What’s going to be your priority on foreign policy?
DONALD TRUMP: Say it.
REPORTER: What’s going to be your priority on foreign policy?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, foreign policy is a big statement. I mean, my priority on foreign policy is going to be to keep America safe. Very simple. It’s a big question, though. It’s a very big question.
REPORTER: When is going to be the first foreign leader that you plan to meet? Or who are you going to call tomorrow for your first meeting?
DONALD TRUMP: I’ve already been meeting people. I’ve been meeting him. I’ve been talking to him. I met with Prime Minister Trudeau, like all governor Trudeau. I met with numerous foreign leaders.
Birthright Citizenship Under 14th Amendment
OFFICIAL: Sir, this next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the United States.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s a good one. Birthright. That’s a big one.
REPORTER: What about that one in the court?
DONALD TRUMP: That one might be. Could be. You think we have good grounds, but you could be right. I mean, you’ll find out. It’s ridiculous. We’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know. And it’s just absolutely ridiculous. But, you know, we’ll see. We think we have very good grounds. People have wanted to do this for decades.
National Emergency at Southern Border
OFFICIAL: Sir, this is a proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border of the United States.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s a big one. A lot of big ones, huh?
DONALD TRUMP: You know what that means, man.
Letter from President Biden
REPORTER: President Trump, did President Biden leave you a letter?
DONALD TRUMP: He may have. Right? Don’t they leave it in a desk? I don’t know. Oh! What’s in there?
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you, Peter. It could have been years before we got it.
REPORTER: Wow. Thank you. Can you read it on the outside?
DONALD TRUMP: Maybe we should all read it together. Let’s read it. Well, maybe I’ll read it first and then make that determination.
REPORTER: That sounds great.
DONALD TRUMP: Peter, thank you very much. I may not have seen this for months.
REPORTER: Have you helped with the passing of the torch?
DONALD TRUMP: I did. I left him one in the desk.
REPORTER: What is he talking about?
DONALD TRUMP: Unification of our country. You know, I didn’t know that he gave a pardon to his family because he did it during my speech.
REPORTER: He didn’t tell you in the letter?
DONALD TRUMP: No, he didn’t tell me. No, no. He did it. They released it during my speech. I mean, during my speech. So, all I could do was say, “Excuse me, I’d like to come back and speak some more.” So, now we’re surprised by that. It’s bad precedent, obviously.
Tariffs on Mexico and Canada
REPORTER: What are you thinking on tariffs on Mexico given the actions you’re signing on the border?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people. Canada is a very bad abuser also. Vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.
REPORTER: When do you think you’ll do it next?
DONALD TRUMP: I think February 1st.
REPORTER: Are you planning on getting notice of that?
DONALD TRUMP: I think we’ll do it February 1st.
REPORTER: 25% on both tariffs?
DONALD TRUMP: On each.
Executive Actions to Secure Southern Border
OFFICIAL: This is an executive order taking a large number of executive actions to secure our southern border.
DONALD TRUMP: Okay. Sounds reasonable.
Top Threat to the Country
REPORTER: President Trump, we remember four years ago, Barack Obama had told you that the top threat to the country was going to be North Korea. Did Joe Biden tell you what he thinks the top threat to the country is right now?
DONALD TRUMP: No, no.
REPORTER: Why not?
DONALD TRUMP: I think we have a lot of them. I think North Korea turned out to be good. I was very friendly with him. He liked me, I liked him. We got along very well. They thought that was a tremendous threat. Now, he is of nuclear power. We got along. I think you’ll be happy to see him coming back. I think he has tremendous condo capabilities. He’s got a lot of shoreline.
Immigration Coordination with South America
REPORTER: Are you going to work with countries from South America to coordinate on immigration.
DONALD TRUMP: About who?
REPORTER: On immigration in general.
OFFICIAL: This is an executive order.
DONALD TRUMP: I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people. And I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. We need it because we’re going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don’t want tariffs, all you have to do is build your plant in the U.S., so we’re going to have a lot of workers coming in. But we have to have legal immigration.
China Tariffs
REPORTER: Do you have a date in mind for when you want to put it on the China tariffs?
DONALD TRUMP: Which one? You’re talking about which? Say it again.
REPORTER: The China tariffs.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, China? Well, as you know, I put on large tariffs on China, and they’ve really been forced to leave them. And if we didn’t leave them, you wouldn’t have one steel mill that’s open in this country because they were dumping massive amounts of steel. We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars from China because they were unable to terminate the tariffs I put on China because it was too much money, and the budgets didn’t work, and other reasons, too.
No. I mean, we’re going to have meetings and calls with President Xi. I spoke to President Xi last week, as you know. Did you know that? I had a very good phone call.
NATO and Ukraine War
REPORTER: But what’s wrong with NATO at this moment? Are you planning to leave NATO alive?
DONALD TRUMP: No, NATO has to pay more money. NATO has to pay 5%. We are… We’re in the Ukraine war by $200 billion more than NATO. It’s ridiculous because it affects them a lot more. We have an ocean in between. And we’ve spent $200 billion more on Ukraine than NATO has spent. And they’ve got to equalize.
REPORTER: Talk to Xi about the Ukraine war. Because China and Brazil together have a proposal to bring Russia and Ukraine to talk.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s good. I’m ready.
REPORTER: When are you going to talk with the Brazilian president?
DONALD TRUMP: How did Brazil get involved? This is a new one.
REPORTER: When are you going to talk to…
DONALD TRUMP: Are you from Brazil?
REPORTER: I’m from Brazil.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s why they’re involved, I guess.
REPORTER: When are you going to talk to the Brazilian president? How do you see our relationship with Latin America and Brazil?
DONALD TRUMP: Great. Should be great. They need us. Much more than we need them. We don’t need them. They need us. Everybody needs us.
Additional China Tariffs
REPORTER: Mr. President, you will not receive an additional China tariff. Mr. Harris, depending on how the talks go with President Xi, is that correct?
DONALD TRUMP: What does that… Define that.
REPORTER: Well, you’re asking…
DONALD TRUMP: Because of fentanyl. Right. That’s only because of fentanyl. There are other things too. And a very big thing is the Panama Canal. China controls the Panama Canal. What’s that all about? They’re not supposed to be… When Jimmy Carter gave it, which was a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake, he didn’t give it to China. He gave it to Panama. And China controls the Panama Canal. And we’re not going to allow that to happen.
NATO Spending and BRICS Nations
REPORTER: Are they still on the table?
DONALD TRUMP: No, we’re not going to allow that to happen.
REPORTER: What can we expect of a country in NATO that spends the least amount of money, like Spain, France, below the 5%?
DONALD TRUMP: Spain is very low. Aren’t they a BRICS nation?
REPORTER: What?
DONALD TRUMP: They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. You know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out. And if the BRICS nations want to do that, that’s okay, but we’re going to put at least a 100% tariff on the business they do with the United States. You know what the BRICS is, right? You guys know. You know what I’m saying, right? You know what I’m saying. So it’s not even a threat.
In fact, since I made that statement, Biden said, well, they’ll have us over a barrel. I said, no, we have them over a barrel. And there’s no way they’re going to be able to do that. As a BRICS nation, yes. They’ll have a 100% tariff if they so much as even think about doing what they thought. And therefore, they’ll give it up immediately. So will China give it up.
Merit-Based Hiring in Federal Government
OFFICIAL: So this is about reforming the system of hiring in federal government to ensure that merit is the lodestar of hiring decisions.
DONALD TRUMP: As per the Supreme Court. This is a big deal. Merit. Our country is going to be based on merit again. Can you believe it?
Well, there’s only half a day. I have another half a day left. We’ll see. We want to get it done.
Okay, that’s a big one.
DONALD TRUMP: No, he’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure that these get implemented. We have a problem in this country. He’s on an executive order. It doesn’t get done for six months. As an example, when we allow the J6 hostages to go out, it might not be approved. And under the old days, by the two weeks, three weeks, six months, you know, they had a good ruling for the Supreme Court, and it’s like nothing happened. That ruling was six months ago. You know that. And it was like they didn’t have a ruling. They’ve been treated very unfair. The judges have been absolutely brutal. The prosecutors have been brutal. Nobody’s ever treated people in this country like that.
January 6th Pardons and Assaults on Police
REPORTER: Mr. President, are you smoothing the sentences of anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6th?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re looking at two police officers, actually, that — Washington police officers — who went after an illegal. And things happened, and they ended up putting them in jail. They got five-year jail sentences. You know the case. And we’re looking at that in order to give them a — we got to give them a break.
REPORTER: Would there be a penalty in your actions today for —
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it would be a pardon. That would be a pardon. The one I’m talking about would be a pardon.
REPORTER: Yes, sir. Should there be punishment for the people who assaulted law enforcement officers that day?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I will say this. They’ve been in jail for a long time already. I see murderers in this country get two years, one year, and maybe no time. So they’ve already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in history, in the history of our country. And even people that were aggressive — and in many cases, I believe, they happened to be outside agitators. But, you know, what do I know, right? But I think they were. I think they were outside agitators. There were outside agitators involved.
And obviously, the FBI was involved, because Wray admitted the FBI was involved. Didn’t he say 23 people, indirectly or directly, were involved? And it was then 26. That’s a lot of people. Now, we have — we’ve got to take care of — these people have been treated so badly. It’s never happened before. What happened in Seattle where they took over a big portion of the city? What happened in Portland where they burned down the city every day and people died? Nothing happened to anybody. But they go after these people violently. I mean, they’re still going after brand-new people. They found somebody else with a picture. There’s never been anything like this. And, you know, it’s almost 100 percent — think of this — almost 100 percent of the people are convicted. A hundred percent. It’s Washington, D.C. People go into a trial and they say, oh, I have a wonderful lawyer and I didn’t do anything wrong. And they end up in shackles almost immediately and jail. Now, we’re not going to let it happen.
Greenland and International Security
DONALD TRUMP: About what? Greenland. Oh, Greenland. Greenland is a wonderful place. We need it for international security. And I’m sure that Denmark will come along. You know, it’s costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it. The people of Greenland are not happy with Denmark, you know. I think they’re happy with us. We had representatives — my son had representatives went up there two weeks ago, and they like us. So we’ll see what happens. But Greenland is necessary not for us. It’s necessary for international security. You have Russian boats all over the place. You have China boats all over the place, warships. And they can’t maintain it.
Meetings with Foreign Leaders
DONALD TRUMP: Who? I’ll be meeting with President Putin. I don’t know. I can’t speak to that. So the first foreign trip typically has been with UK. But we did it — I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product. I said, I’ll do it, but you have to buy American product. And they agreed to do that. They bought $450 billion. It was the least reported story I’ve ever been involved in.
If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another $450 or $500, we’ll up it for all the inflation.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to try and get it done as quickly as possible. It should have never started. You know, the war with Ukraine and Russia should have never started. It would have never started if I were President. I don’t think I have to push him. I think it’s going to happen, but maybe not quite yet. But it’ll end up being in the — in the accords, the Abraham Accords. I think Saudi Arabia will end up being in the Abraham Accords. It could be, but, you know, it’s not in a very long way.
TikTok and ANWR
DONALD TRUMP: Ooh, look at that. It says TikTok. My, my, my, what is that all about? And what about ANWR? We’re opening up ANWR.
REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it depends on the deal. I mean, I may not do the deal or I may do the deal.
TikTok is worthless. Worthless. If I don’t approve it, it has to close. I learned that from the people that own it. If it — if I don’t do the deal, it’s worthless. Worth nothing. If I do the deal, it’s worth maybe a trillion dollars. A trillion. So if I do the deal for the — I’m talking about doing it for the American people. I’m talking about doing it for the United States. If I do the deal for the United States, then I think we should get half. In other words, wait, I think the U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok. And congratulations, TikTok has a good partner. And that would be worth, you know, it could be $500 billion or something. It’s crazy. The numbers are crazy. But it’s worthless if I don’t — if the President doesn’t sign, then it’s worthless. If the President does sign, it’s worth maybe a trillion dollars. So I think, like a joint venture, I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We’ll see what happens. I mean, that’s one of many ideas I’ve had.
REPORTER: The Press. Can you say that he’s open to that idea? Who? The CEO of TikTok is around.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I think he’d probably like it. Because he’s got nothing. They really have nothing. It’s passed in Congress. It gives the President the right to make a deal or to close it. And we have 90 days to make that decision. But I could see making a deal where the U.S. gets 50 percent of TikTok, polices it a little bit or a lot. Depends on them. But remember, they make telephones in China. They make all sorts of things in China. Nobody ever complains about that. I hear they’re complaining about this.
So many different products made in China. Nobody ever complained about it. The only one they complain about is TikTok. And TikTok is largely young people. I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally. But, you know, I went on TikTok. And I won young people by 36 percent, Peter. And Republicans typically don’t do too well with young people. But it’s a different Republican Party.
REPORTER: Would the U.S. government buy a portion of TikTok then? Or how would it get that 50 percent?
DONALD TRUMP: No, you’d take 50 percent of TikTok for the approval that TikTok could continue in business. And they’d have a great partner. The U.S. would be their partner. But the U.S. essentially would be paid for doing that half of the value of TikTok.
REPORTER: Would there be a private sector owner?
DONALD TRUMP: Could be. Could be a lot. Tell you what, every rich person has called me about TikTok.
REPORTER: If you wanted to block TikTok, why did you change your mind?
DONALD TRUMP: Because I got to use it. And remember, TikTok is largely about kids. Young kids. If China is going to get information about young kids, I don’t know. To be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that. But, you know, when you take a look at telephones that are made in China and all the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China, TikTok, I think TikTok is not their biggest problem. But there’s big value in TikTok if it gets approved. If it doesn’t get approved, there’s no value. So if we create that value, why aren’t we entitled to like half?
Biden’s Press Conferences
DONALD TRUMP: Does Biden ever do news conferences like this? How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this? None. None. Zero. And it would be zero for the next infinity. For infinity, it would be zero.
Elon Musk and Satellites
REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]
DONALD TRUMP: Elon is very busy sending rocket ships up to various places with lots of satellites on them.
Marco Rubio
REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]
DONALD TRUMP: Which one? Marco Rubio. He’s a macro. Marco Rubio. Yeah, I think he’s great. I think Marco is doing a fantastic job. I think he’s going to get a lot of votes. I think he’s going to be at 90 percent or something. I’m hearing very good.
DONALD TRUMP: People know him. They know him in the Senate. They know he’s good. He’s doing a good job. I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. He’s got some very strong ideas, though. Marco.
REPORTER: Did you sign the tech pact with him?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Yes, I did.
REPORTER: Marco Rubio’s ideas?
DONALD TRUMP: Just signed. He’s changing Venezuela, changing power.
Venezuela and Oil Embargo
REPORTER: Are you still committed with Maduro leaving power in Venezuela?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to find out about that, too, because we’re going to probably stop buying oil from Venezuela. We don’t need their oil.
REPORTER: Another embargo like the first time?
DONALD TRUMP: Could be, but we don’t want to buy it. We don’t have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves.
REPORTER: President Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: That’ll change Venezuela quite a bit.
Concerns About Dictatorship
REPORTER: President Trump, there was a lot of concern about this during the campaign. The question that only works today. Are you a dictator on the table?
DONALD TRUMP: No. No. I can’t imagine even being called that. No, I believe in the sanctity of the vote. The Democrats didn’t because they cheated like dogs, but I believe in the sanctity. And this was too big to rig. This last election was just too big to rig.
Speaking with World Leaders
REPORTER: Mr. President, when do you plan to speak to President Xi?
DONALD TRUMP: Could be very soon.
REPORTER: And you’ve talked a bit about Ukraine and Russia, but how long do you think it would take to end that conflict?
DONALD TRUMP: I have to speak to President Putin. We’re going to have to find out. He can’t be thrilled. He’s not doing so well. I mean, he’s grinding it out, but most people thought that war would have been over in about one week. And now you’re into three years. So he can’t be thrilled. It’s not making him look very good. Now, eventually, you know, I mean, it’s a big machine, so things will happen. But I think he’d be very well off to end that war. We have numbers that almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed. About 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia is bigger. They have more soldiers to lose. But that’s no way to run a country.
TikTok and China
REPORTER: When did you take the urge, Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP: Just gave me the right to sell it or close it. Essentially, with TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it. And we’ll make that determination. And we may have to get an approval from China, too. I’m not sure. But I’m sure they’ll approve it. And if they don’t approve it, it would be somewhat of a hostile act, I think. But it’s good for China if it gets approved.
REPORTER: Would you not guaranteeing that TikTok will be around after 98%?
DONALD TRUMP: No, but it could very well be. It makes sense for it to be, because it’s got tremendous value. But if we create the value by approving, you know, in other words, that approval gives a tremendous value. If that’s the case, then we should be entitled to 50% as a country. You know what I’m saying? You haven’t heard that one before, right? It’s called a joint venture. And nobody ever thought that way.
REPORTER: Over your border?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. I think you have a lot of people that would be interested in TikTok with the United States as a partner.
Returning to the Oval Office
REPORTER: Mr. President, what was it like walking into the Oval Office this evening?
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, what a great feeling. One of the better feelings I’ve ever had.
REPORTER: Do you like this town better now than in 2017?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re very experienced now. You would say nobody’s ever had experience like I have. I’ve dealt with some very good people. I’ve dealt with some very bad people. And I know who the bad ones are and the good ones are. You know, don’t forget, I was very successful in primarily the real estate business. And people used to say, who’s worse, a politician or a vicious real estate developer? And I’d always say, you know, the real estate developer is far worse. But after about three months and getting to know scum like Adam Schiff and other people like that, I said, no, actually, real estate people are quite nice by comparison.
Speaking with President Zelensky
REPORTER: You said you plan to speak with President Putin soon. What about President Zelensky and what’s your message?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I will. But he’s told me he wants to make a deal. Zelensky wants to make a deal. I don’t know if Putin does. Why not?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. He should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia’s going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at the inflation in Russia. So I would hope. I got along with him great. And, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal.
Sanctions and Tariffs on Russia
REPORTER: Mr. President, are you keeping U.S. sanctions on Russia until he makes a deal?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, sanctions or tariffs. I think the word tariff is much better because it keeps your dollar stronger. I think tariffs are more effective. I use sanctions on Iran. They were broke. When I left office, Iran was broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah. None. They were flat broke. And October 7th would have never happened. And I think you all know that. It would have never happened. They had no money. Now they’re rich, but, you know, they’re weakened in a different way. I would say that the one attack by Israel really set them back. It really set them back.
The Pages and others. You know, the attack on air defense was a bad attack.
Federal Workforce Reforms
DONALD TRUMP: What are you signing now?
OFFICIAL: It’s an executive order relating to reforms to the federal workforce, including to the senior executive service.
DONALD TRUMP: We’re getting rid of all of the cancer. I call it cancer. The cancer caused by the Biden administration.
Middle East Peace
REPORTER: How confident are you, Mr. President, that you can keep the ceasefire in line and conclude the two-state deal?
DONALD TRUMP: I’m not confident. That’s not our war. It’s their war, but I’m not confident. But I think they’re very weakened on the other side.
REPORTER: Do you support a two-state deal?
DONALD TRUMP: Gaza. I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is… It’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way.
REPORTER: Do you plan to help rebuilding Gaza?
DONALD TRUMP: I might. You know, Gaza’s interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. You know, everything’s good. It’s like… Some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.
REPORTER: How do you see the future in governance for Gaza?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it depends. I can’t imagine you could have… Well, you certainly can’t have the people who were there. Most of them are dead, by the way. Most of them are dead. But they didn’t exactly run it well. Run viciously and badly. So you can’t have that.
TikTok and Chinese Tariffs
REPORTER: Mr. President, on TikTok, sir, do you pause any decision on Chinese tariffs until you know what the resolution on TikTok will be?
DONALD TRUMP: Although… No, if China didn’t approve it, we could put tariffs on China. Don’t forget, China charges us tariffs, and we charge them very little, except for what I did. I put a lot of… We took in hundreds of billions of dollars. But until I came along, China never paid 10 cents to this country. They ripped us off, and they never paid anything. But, like, if we wanted to make a deal with TikTok, and it was a good deal, and China wouldn’t approve it, then I think ultimately they’d approve it, because we’d put tariffs on China. Maybe. I’m not saying I would, but you certainly could do that. And if we said, well, if you’re not going to approve it, then that’s a certain hostility, and we’ll put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 percent, even 100 percent. And if we did that, I think they’d approve it.
Advice from Former Presidents
REPORTER: President Trump, you’ve seen the other leading presidents a couple times in the last few months. Have you ever had to call on one of them for advice? Which one would you call?
DONALD TRUMP: That’s interesting. Well, I thought Bill Clinton was a very good politician. I don’t think he was used properly. I think they disrespected him. When Hillary was running, he came back and he said, you know, you better get up to Michigan and Wisconsin. You remember that, Peter. Every house has a Trump sign on it. And they all laughed at him because the Republicans hadn’t won Michigan or Wisconsin for decades, a long time. And they all laughed at Bill Clinton, like, the hell does he know? And he turned out to be right because they won both of them. And then we just won both in this election, too. We won Wisconsin and Michigan and every other swing state. We won all the swing states, all seven. They talked about seven swing states. We won them all. But Bill Clinton, he had a great political sense.
REPORTER: You looked like you were having a good conversation with President Obama at President Clinton’s table.
DONALD TRUMP: I was. And you’d like to know what I was thinking. Everybody wants to know. I wouldn’t want to know. But we were having some crazy conversations. Why are you asking a question like that? You know, I don’t think you want to know. You might be insulted.
Executive Orders
OFFICIAL: It’s an executive order relating to holding former government officials accountable for unlawful disclosure of sensitive information. This next one, sir, is a declaration of a national energy emergency.
DONALD TRUMP: That’s a big one. You know, if that allows you to do it, that means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem. And we do have that kind of an emergency.
Drones and National Security
REPORTER: President Trump, at some point, will you use your powers of the presidency to tell Americans who are concerned about drones?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I will.
REPORTER: Can you tell us, Matt?
DONALD TRUMP: In fact, I’d like to know, because I just got here. What do you think? I just came here. I’ve been here for, what, 15 minutes now.
REPORTER: Do people listen? Does this come out loud?
DONALD TRUMP: And I got to read this letter, too, because of you, I found this letter. I can read it for you. Interesting. Yeah, I knew you would. Your father would, too.
No, I think it’s terrible. I would like to find out what it is and tell the people. In fact, I’d like to do that. Could we find out what that was, Susie? Okay? Yeah, why don’t we find out? Immediately. I can’t imagine it’s an enemy or there would have been, you know, people would have gotten blown up all over. Maybe they were testing things. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have said what it was. They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting.
REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]
DONALD TRUMP: No, no, no. No security. Because they had everything shut down to drones. You know, you can shut that down pretty easily if you’re sophisticated. They’re very sophisticated, these people. No, it was just cold weather. And we made a good move because, first of all, I thought it was incredible in the Capitol today.
Speech at the Capitol
DONALD TRUMP: You know why I liked it? Because I got great reviews on that speech. I got great reviews. Can you believe it? They actually were fair. Maybe the fake news is changing. Unleashing energy production. Yeah, unleashing energy production. But I thought it was, I think having it in the Capitol was great. Obviously, you can take care of the people you have to take care of. The city was booming. And if we would have done it outside, people would have been hurt because it was really cold. You know, it was like, look, sunny. But when you stood outside for 10 minutes, people were running back in. It was really cold and really windy. The wind brings it down a lot. So we made the right decision. You couldn’t have stayed. I don’t think you could have had it out. You know how cold it was today. It was, people went out for a little while just to test it. They couldn’t stay out more than 10 minutes. They all came back in. So we would have had a disaster if we did that. And people would have been hurt.
Executive Order on Unlawful Disclosures
REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]
DONALD TRUMP: Which one?
REPORTER: The one on unlawful disclosures by federal officials.
DONALD TRUMP: No, I think it’s just more general than that. It’s not Hunter Biden.
I was, I was surprised that President Biden would go and pardon this whole family because that makes him look very guilty. You know, I could have pardoned my family. I could have pardoned myself, my family. I said, if I do that, it’s going to make me look very guilty. I don’t think I’d be sitting there, frankly. If I did that, I don’t think I’d be sitting there right now because I would have, would have shown that you’re guilty. But by pardoning his brother or brothers, by pardoning all of those people that he pardoned, by pardoning J6, the unselect committee, they destroyed all of the documents. They deleted all of the information. There’s no information.
And a lot of the information pertains to Nancy Pelosi because she was given one on, I mean, you know this, it’s on tape with her daughter. Nancy Pelosi was responsible for not taking advantage of 10,000 soldiers or 1,000. You wouldn’t have need, you could have used 400. It was a relatively small crowd. It wasn’t the crowd that was at the mall. It was a small crowd. So I was a little bit surprised that he did it because it makes him look guilty. I mean, he’s going to have to live with it. Now, with that being said, it’s unbelievable precedent it creates for a president. But the precedent is unbelievable.
Now, maybe every president that leaves office they’re going to pardon every person they ever met so they don’t have some lunatic like deranged Jack Smith, who’s a total lunatic, by the way, not a smart guy, he’s a dummy. But we beat the hell out of him. And I helped my reputation.
REPORTER: Do you think you’d have to do the same thing at the end of his term?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I guess now I have precedent to do it. I don’t, I wouldn’t want to do that, no. I think it makes you look very guilty. I think it makes Biden look very bad, very weak, and very guilty. And I mean, he pardoned everybody. How about this J6 committee? How do you, why is he pardoning them? The reason is because if you delete and destroy documentation, everything, they have nothing because they were guilty as hell. They rigged it. It was a rigged deal. And when you do that, they look very bad. But I was a little surprised he did it.
Liz Cheney, I mean, she’s a lunatic. And she lost by the greatest margin in the history of a politician running for Congress, like 40 points. The reason it was the greatest is because anybody losing that badly is going to drop out. But she’s a nut job. She doesn’t drop out. You know, she just keeps chugging forward. And she lost by almost 40 points. That’s the biggest number anybody’s ever lost by. But why would Biden do that? He pardoned her and pardoned everybody. The reason is that they destroyed documents. And if you’re even in a civil case, which this wouldn’t be, I mean, people go to jail for a long time for doing that.
Unleashing American Energy
DONALD TRUMP: What’s this one?
OFFICIAL: That’s unleashing American energy, sir. Relates to easing permitting processes and other regulatory systems to ensure that we can produce energy efficiently to drive the American economy forward.
Changes in the Oval Office
REPORTER: Looking around the office, we noticed some changes in the way that Biden has set up. Can you confirm that you have added back the Diet Coke plan?
DONALD TRUMP: I think this we first of all, I just got here. So my people came in. They have extraordinary decorator sense. Right. Let me just see some of the pictures. That’s a good one. I could live with him. I can live with George Washington. I can tell you I can live with Thomas Jefferson. I can live with most of them. They took a very safe route. They didn’t have that. Not many bad ones up there.
Withdrawing from the World Health Organization
DONALD TRUMP: What is this?
REPORTER: Withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, that’s a big one. So we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China with 1.4 billion people. We have 350. We have nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But let’s say we have 325. They had 1.4 billion. They were paying 39 million. We were paying 500 million. Seemed a little unfair to me. So that wasn’t the reason, but I dropped out. They offered me to come back to 39 million. In theory, I should be listening to that, but, you know. And when Biden came back, they came back for 500 million. He knew that you could have come back for 39 million. They wanted us back so badly. So we’ll see what happens. Pretty sad to think of it. China pays 39 million, and we pay 500 million. And China is a bigger country.
Actions to Combat Inflation
REPORTER: Mr. President, you spoke about inflation today in your remarks. What action are you taking today that will have a direct impact for Americans on their everyday cost to bring the cost down?
DONALD TRUMP: The biggest thing and factor for inflation is energy. They screwed up my energy policy, and then they went back to it. You know, they heard it really badly, and then they went back to it, and they started drilling more. But by that time, it was too late. Many of these things that we’re signing and that Doug Burgum is going to be signing, and Chris Wright was phenomenal. You know, Energy Department of Energy. We’re going to be taking a lot. We’re going to make a lot of money from energy. We have more than anybody else. We’re going to make a lot of money from energy. We’re going to make a lot of money from tariffs.
And the European Union charges us. They have a VAT tax of 20 percent, but it’s really much higher than that. And that’s the equivalent — almost the equivalent of a tariff. And they’re tough. They’re very tough. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our farm product. They don’t take almost anything. And yet, we take their cars and we take their farm product. We take a lot from them. So, you know, we have like a $300 billion deficit with the European Union. So we’re going to make a lot of money. We’ll straighten that out with either tariffs or they have to buy our oil. The one thing they can do — oil, I guess. The one thing they can do to catch up quickly, buy our oil and gas. And they should do that.
Potential Travel to China
REPORTER: Will you travel to China this year?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I could. I’ve had the invite.
REPORTER: Will you see a bike?
DONALD TRUMP: I would do. Yeah.
European Union and BRICS
REPORTER: Talking about the European Union and the tariffs, like, what do you mean when you say that the European Union is not a BRICS country?
DONALD TRUMP: Is that a what?
REPORTER: BRICS.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, BRICS. No, I was talking about BRICS. BRICS is six nations. I think it’s seven nations. And they were looking to do a number in the United States. And if they do that, I’m — they won’t be happy about what’s going to happen to them.
Universal Tariffs
REPORTER: Are you still considering a universal tariff, Mr. President, on all countries?
DONALD TRUMP: I may. Yeah, but we’re not ready for that yet. We may. We may put it — wrap it. Because, essentially, all countries take advantage of the U.S. We don’t — we don’t make any good deals in the U.S. It’s amazing, in a way, that we exist. We don’t make good deals. We don’t have any good deals. We have a — we have a deficit with almost — not all. There are a couple. I won’t tell you their names because I don’t want them to find out about it because they’ll feel stupid. But there are a couple of countries that — there are a couple of countries that actually don’t make money with us. But I don’t want to let you know because they’ll immediately change that. But we’re going to — we’re going to do — I’ll tell you what. We have — our country has an amazing economic future. I really believe in that.
REPORTER: What kind of universal tariff do you want?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, you’d put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States because they’re coming in and they’re stealing our wealth, they’re stealing our jobs, they’re stealing our companies. They’re hurting our companies. So you put a — you put a tariff on to keep them from doing that.
Billionaires and Job Creation
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You surround yourself to a whole bunch of billionaires today. The President finally had to get his payroll adjusted and put it back in all of our hands. What are you going to do to respond to that?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, he was — he had a lot of guys. And then they found out that he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, and I think they deserted him. They deserted him. Those same guys. Look, I don’t make pretexts, people around. But they did desert him. They were all with him, every one of them. Now they’re all with me. I don’t know. Not going to get anything from me. I don’t need money. But I do want the nation to do well, and they’re smart people. And they have — you know, they create a lot of jobs. And if they don’t do it, China is going to do it. You know, what they’ve done is they’ve taken industries and they’ve taken it away. They outsmarted China. And, you know, we sort of like that. It’s okay. They’ve done a great job — a lot of them, not all of them. They’ve done a great job of protecting women from radical gender ideologies.
World Health Organization and COVID-19
REPORTER: Mr. President, going back to the World Health Organization. You were the President during COVID. Don’t you see the importance of an organization like that to coordinate a global response? Do you see it?
DONALD TRUMP: Sure. I do. But not when you’re being ripped off, like we are, by the World Health. World Health ripped us off. Everybody rips off the United States. And that’s it. It’s not going to happen anymore. Thank you very much, everybody.
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