Editor’s Notes: President Trump hosts an open Cabinet meeting at Camp David, giving the public a rare look inside the historic location. During the session, he and key members of his administration highlight major policy updates, economic achievements, and foreign affairs. Trump opens by praising his Cabinet as one of the most talented teams in American history and highlighting major accomplishments in under 18 months—including the strongest border security on record, the lowest murder rate in 125 years, rapid declines in inflation, record economic gains, and initiatives such as Trump Accounts and dramatic reductions in prescription drug prices. Cabinet secretaries then deliver updates on their portfolios before the meeting concludes with a press Q&A.
Read the full transcript of the cabinet meeting below:
President Trump Opens Cabinet Meeting at Camp David
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. This is something very unique. It’s Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room. I don’t believe the press has ever come anywhere near it, but we are the party of transparency, and we believe in transparency. I think it’s good for you to see certain aspects of Camp David.
It’s a very special place. But it was not — I guess the last visit was with Eisenhower where they allowed you onto the actual campus. And it’s a long time ago, but never into this room. I wanna thank all of you for being here. And again, this is a cabinet meeting.
It’s open. We have done a lot of open cabinet meetings, and I feel it works out very well. Everybody can ask certain questions. We’ll let you talk about certain things, certain things we can’t answer because they’re ongoing and very important. But this is one of the most talented teams ever to serve The United States and in the United States government.
This is a talented group of people. Let’s see. I’ll go one after another. Yeah. It’s a couple of steps. It’s an amazing group, and America is safer and stronger and far more successful than it was two years ago, and I think, frankly, than it ever was.
Achievements Since Taking Office
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think it’s ever been anything like this. We’re building more factories and plants in this country than we’ve ever built before. And we’re gonna be at some point, we’ll be leaving this position, and we’re gonna leave this country in very, very good shape, better shape than it’s ever been.
When we took office, we inherited a total catastrophe. The last administration created the worst inflation in forty-eight years, the most dangerous and insecure border in history, and exploding trade deficits like we have never seen before, rampant crime, men and women’s sports, transgender mutilation of your children, and chaos and bedlam all over the world. Other than that, they did quite a good job.
In less than eighteen months, we’ve turned around four years of disaster. We now have the strongest border in American history. We went from the worst border, I believe, of any country in history. 25,000,000 people came through in four years, and these are people that, in many cases, you don’t want. They were murderers. They were drug dealers. They were people that you do not want.
But now we have the strongest border in American history. And for the last fifteen months, the report just came out again. We’ve had no people coming in through our southern border, zero. And it’s almost hard to say because you’d say, is that even possible? They had 25,000,000 people came in. We had no people coming in illegally through our southern border, and that’s in history. So think of that — zero, a big beautiful zero.
The murder rate saw its single largest drop ever recorded to the lowest in one hundred and twenty-five years. That goes back to — think of it — it goes back to 1900, lowest murder rate in the history of our country. So that’s something.
Minnesota Cyber Attack
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Today, I just wanna mention that we heard in Minnesota, there was a cyber attack, and they blame it on Iran. I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent. There was a cyber attack of 30 water plants, and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor — the corrupt governor of Minnesota. They like to say, oh, it’s Iran. Iran should be so lucky. Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.
Economy and Stock Market
PRESIDENT TRUMP: This month, it was announced that inflation is dropping at the fastest rate in more than six years. Walmart, Sam’s Club, Giant Eagle, and others are slashing prices by hundreds — grocery stores and all of the stores. I mean, throughout the country, they’re slashing prices, something that you haven’t seen for a long time since my last administration.
The stock market has set 73 all-time record highs since the election. That means all-time record highs, seventy-three days out of a very short period of time. And the typical 401(k) is up by more than $30,000. And when you think of that, if you add another $1,000 to it, it will be — we set the record in the last administration, a record still standing. This administration is gonna blow my last administration away when the factories that we’re building at record — and we’re not building all over the world, they’re building. They’re coming from all over the world.
They’re coming from Germany with the cars. Coming from Germany. They’re coming from Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico. From all over the world, they’re building auto plants here because otherwise they have to pay tariffs. The tariffs have made our country rich and successful.
And all of this — I mean, I’d like to say it was the election. On November 5, there was the election, and that’s fine. But without the election, you wouldn’t have what I’ve done economically.
Trump Accounts
PRESIDENT TRUMP: On July 4, we launched Trump accounts, a key provision of our great big beautiful bill. And these tax-free investment savings accounts have already been activated by over 7,000,000 children. These are investments made in our future, which is our children. Our children are the most important aspect of our future, with more being added each day. So it’s a tremendous hit.
Over 7,000,000 — and really, really just got going, I would say, Scott, about two weeks ago when we got the final approvals, and we have over 7,000,000. Actually, there’s never been anything quite like that.
But millions of accounts are prefunded with a thousand dollars from the US Treasury or generous gifts from private donors like Michael and Susan Dell and others who have given billions of dollars — billions. People are putting up hundreds of millions and billions of dollars into it and buying really a great future for children. When they turn 18 or when they turn 21, instead of having no hope, no future, they will end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe even more than that. So it’s gonna be something to see.
With modest additional contributions, they’ll grow by numbers that should be — it could be over $200,000. We’re looking at the timeline. I wish we had an economy like we have now with the stock markets going up, but they will benefit by our country being successful. And we’re gonna give every child a head start on the American dream. So go to trumpaccounts.gov. They’re really something — the whole world’s talking about it, and it’s far ahead of schedule. Nobody thought it would be as successful as it’s been, but it should be. It should be. And we start them off with a thousand dollars, and this was part of the great, big, beautiful bill.
Drug Prices and Most Favored Nation Policy
PRESIDENT TRUMP: With my most favored nation policy — you could say this is even a bigger thing if that’s possible — on drug prices, we’re achieving record discounts on prescription drugs. The prescription drugs were going through the roof for many years, and now we’re getting record discounts with price differences of 300, 400, 500, 600%. Nobody’s ever heard of a thing like that.
And what this is all about is that we were the highest — we had the highest prices anywhere in the world by far. Most expensive drugs, prescription drugs, and others. The highest in the world. The whole world was laughing at us. We paid for the rest of the world. We subsidized the whole world. And I said, we’re not gonna do that.
And I started it in the first administration. I took it up. Obviously, Biden wasn’t able to do anything about it because you had to get the consent of the drug companies and you had to get the consent — more difficult would be the consent of other nations. The other nations had to agree, but they were paying a fraction, sometimes 10%, 20%, 40%, 70% less.
So I had to call them and I had to get them on. And I said, if you don’t do it, we’re gonna have to charge you tariffs. And they all said no at first, very politely said, “Sir, we can’t do that. We’re not gonna double our prices.” They had to double their prices and, in some cases, triple their price, and we would come down.
So a pill that sold for $10 in Germany would sell for $130 in New York. Same pill from the same company, the same factory, the same plant, same laboratory — from $10, and we pay $130. I say, no. No. Now the world is a bigger place, so it’s not as bad as it sounds for them. So they went up to 20, and we came down to 20.
So we now have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world. We’re tied with the lowest, but we’re basically — it’s favored nation. So we have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world from the highest drug prices anywhere in the world.
Now what that does to your health care — I mean, I see these fake polls where the Democrats have wonderful numbers on this stuff, and they are horrible. What they’ve done — Obamacare is a total disaster. It’s a costly wreck. It’s unaffordable. We call it the unaffordable care act. It’s a disgrace. They never even thought of being able to do something like this. They didn’t even try.
So I got the drug companies first, and then I got the countries. And the drug companies agreed because they knew the countries wouldn’t agree. And when I called Germany, France, when I called The UK, when I called all of these countries, I said, “You gotta do it. It’s unfair. We’re paying 10 times more than you’re paying for the same drug. You can’t do this.” And they said, “Well, we’re not gonna do that because we’re gonna have to double our price in order to make you happy.” I said, “No. Maybe you didn’t have to triple your price.” They said, “Well, we can’t do it.” I said, “That’s alright. If you can’t do it, then I can’t do something also. And I’m gonna charge you very substantial tariffs, which are far — ” and they all said, “We’d love to do it. We would love to do it. It would be our great honor to do it.”
So nobody else would do this. This would have never happened. So your drug prices have gone down.
My number is not even thinkable. My first term, I had the privilege of having lower drug prices from the beginning of the year till the end for the first time in twenty-eight years. You remember. And I called the news conference to announce it. So the year it ended, and now it’s turned out one-eighth of a percent. One-eighth of a percent. Little tiny — this much. It went down that much during one year. First time in twenty-eight years it went down. It was always like this, just up, more expensive.
And I called the news conference. I was so proud of myself. And I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the first time in twenty-eight years, drug prices have gone down from January till the end of December. And I wanna thank everybody for being a part of this wonderful experiment.” And one-eighth of a point — now we’re talking about 400, 500, 600% coming down. We paid the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world from the highest.
So, you know, and I’ll say it again and again because the press doesn’t wanna report it. The fake news doesn’t wanna report it. They don’t wanna talk about it. What that does for health care, Bobby, is unbelievable because medicine is a big part of health care. So I wish that people would understand that, and I hope they’re gonna vote for us in the midterms because you’ll see some stuff that will be horrible because they can blow it very fast if they don’t know what they’re doing. So your drug prices are great.
Warning on Immigration and the Situation in Spain
PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It was — it looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing’s gonna happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected, except worse. Much bigger, much easier to get into — despite the fact that we have built thousands of miles of wall, which I said we were gonna do, but we didn’t have that. Forget it. But we have the safest border in the world.
If we’re not in office, our country will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small time. And when I watched it, I said, boy, I said, I’m gonna say it because I knew you’re gonna be at Camp David. And I say, that’s gonna be a talking point for the midterms. Because when you look at what happened to Spain, they don’t know what to do. And it’s happening again today. They’re coming in by the tens of thousands. They’re just invading the country.
And what that is is weak law, bad management, but very liberal law. They passed a couple of laws and people read — you know, people are smart. They read from other countries and they swam that three-mile swim or however they got in, but nobody’s seen anything like it. That will look good compared to what’s gonna happen to The United States.
The biggest thing, the worst thing that Biden did is allowing 25,000,000 people into our country because many of those people are criminals. They’re murderers. A lot of murder — 11,888. A lot of them are gone now. We got them out. But they allowed people to come into this country that you can’t allow to come into a country.
Military Rebuilding
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re also making an unprecedented investment in the United States Armed Forces, where we’re doing great. And we rebuilt the Armed Forces. We rebuilt our military my first term, but we are doing great with our military.
Combating Fraud and Global Achievements
PRESIDENT TRUMP: They spent a lot of money in our military. They gave away $300,000,000,000 worth of ammo and everything else in Biden’s term, but we’re building it up fast, and we have a — we’re — we just have a great military. That’s all there is to do. But we rebuilt it in my first term, and we’re using it in my second term with Venezuela and other places and Iran now. Iran is doing very poorly.
Just in case you read incorrect stories, they’re doing very, very poorly. They’re having a hard time. They’ve been very dishonest. They’ve been very dishonorable to deal with, but that makes no difference. They’re doing very, very poorly.
We’re also making that investment and looking forward to getting $1,500,000,000,000 next year. People see now how important it is. We wanna keep a safe country. We have to keep a safe country. And good news is all of that equipment is made in The USA.
So we’re making it here. It’s jobs. And each one of our defense groups are building literally at least four new massive plants as we speak because we want them to — we want them to move faster. We have the best equipment in the world, but we want them to move faster. We don’t wanna wait a year or a year and a half.
We wanna wait a week, maybe. So that’s happening. I think the results are very good. They’re all — they’re building at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. And we’ve had tremendous success, and our military was just proud of it.
Again, Venezuela was a one day war, and we have a great relationship with Venezuela. We’re working with partners with Venezuela now, taking out tens of millions of barrels of oil and going to Houston, going to Alaska, going to Louisiana, going to different places for refinement, refineries, and it’s been very much amazing. The administration has done more in eighteen months than most administrations have done in eight years if you had a two term. We’ve done more in eighteen months than anyone’s ever seen before. Nobody’s ever seen.
This is the golden age of America, and we have a war that’s going on. I guess you call it a war. Maybe I call it a military operation because they have no navy. It’s been obliterated. Their air force has been obliterated.
They have no planes. Their missiles have been largely — they have some left. They have some, but they have far fewer than they had four or five months ago. Manufacturing capacity is almost gone. The drone capacity is almost gone.
There are very few, but they have some. They — they have one. That’s too many as far as I’m concerned. But we’ve done an amazing job with Venezuela. We’ve done an amazing job here.
We’re in there for five months. I know what people like to say because we’ve done a much bigger job, much more important job than we originally anticipated. So we’re in there for five months. And if you look at Vietnam, they were in there for twenty years. You look at Afghanistan, they were in there for many years.
You look at any one of the wars — Korea, any one of them — they’re in there for many years. We’re in for five months, and we have obliterated their military capacity. Again, they’ve got some left, but soon they won’t have some left. So I just wanna thank everybody around this table. You’ve been very special.
I wanna thank a lot of the media people because many of you have been very, very fair — and that’s one of the reasons you’re here, frankly. But you’ve been very fair. You’ve covered me this time, I mean, much more fairly, I think, than the first term. The first term was a great success. We had the greatest economy in history in the first term, and this term is gonna blow it away.
I think this term is gonna actually blow it away. So it’s an honor to have you, and I’d like to ask our great vice president, JD Vance, to say a few words, followed by Marco and Pete and Scott and Bobby Kennedy. Okay? Thank you very much, everybody. Please, JD.
Vice President Vance on Fraud
VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, great. Thanks, mister president. First of all, thanks for having us at this historical and beautiful place. And it’s an honor to be on the team, an honor to be able to work on fraud, which is what I wanna talk about today, though I know we have a lot of things going on. This has been an amazing team.
From Kelly Loeffler at SBA to Doug at the VA to Todd and Bobby Kennedy, this really has required a whole administration approach to try to tackle fraud. There are a few things that I wanna talk about and celebrate. The first is that just since the beginning of the fraud task force that I started under the president’s leadership and direction, we have identified $230,000,000,000 of fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American people, and we have halted already $56,000,000,000 of that. It’s sometimes hard. Once the money has already gone out the door, it’s hard to get it back.
But stopping it from going out the door is how we save the American people. $56,000,000,000, and of course, we’re gonna keep on working on that. Just today, mister president, we will announce 17 new anti-fraud actions that will total about a third of $1,000,000,000, and that’s added to the $230,000,000,000 that we’ve already uncovered. And I wanna just talk for the benefit of the American people about why do we care so much about this? Because what I always try to remind people is that fraud has two victims.
So to give one concrete example, there is a program that is administered by Medicaid, and that program ensures that low income moms and low income babies have access to neonatal care. Now I think most Americans probably share my view. This is one of the great things about The United States Of America — that if we see a baby and we see a young mother that requires help, we help our fellow Americans. That’s a good thing. It’s something that we should be proud of.
And yet, there is a program that has defrauded the moms and the babies who benefit from these. You’ve gotten people who’ve gotten rich by setting up false companies that are providing false services. So who loses in that equation? Number one, of course, is the American taxpayer that is $230,000,000,000 poorer because of the fraud that this country has let go on. But I actually think most importantly is that we’ve seen that program run out of money.
So we’ve seen moms and babies unable to access the health care that they need because the fraudsters have gotten rich. That is a disgrace. And until the president ordered us to stop it, no one was doing anything about it. So we’ve made a lot of progress, mister president, in just under a year, but we’re gonna keep on working at it because we believe the American people deserve to have their money spent as you and the congress have directed it.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: There’s big numbers here, finally. Tremendous numbers. They look like Eliot Ness. Does anybody know who Eliot Ness is? They look like that group of people you have lined up behind you — they’re doing a great job. Yes, sir. Billions. Think of — not millions. Billions of dollars is being recovered. Billions. And you haven’t seen anything yet.
We have things happening that people aren’t gonna believe. The level of corruption and fraud that took place under the Biden administration was unprecedented. And Minnesota, California, Maine — Maine, believe it or not, you know, you think of Maine as this wonderful place. Yep. The level of corruption is incredible. All over them. All over the place. So great job. Thank you very much.
VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Thank you, sir.
Secretary Rubio on International Affairs
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. Please.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, my turn. Well, first of all, thank you for bringing us out here. I got the chance to drive for the first time in a year and a half. It was just a golf cart. It was fun. It was great.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.
SECRETARY RUBIO: So just a couple points. We all know we’ve followed in the news — obviously, the events in The Middle East and others here can talk about that. Not that they’re not important, but there’s some other issues happening around the world, mister president, that you’ve shown great leadership in that have not gotten nearly as much attention. I think they deserve to mention today.
The first is the International Criminal Court is an illegitimate international organization — frankly, illegitimate. They make themselves illegitimate because they claim that even if you’re not a member of that court, they can come after you. What that literally means in the future is that American servicemen, political leaders, and others could find themselves under indictment by this international criminal court. Do you wanna know a little about it? Jack Smith used to work there. These are the people that think they can go out and basically indict any world leader in Holland into The Hague.
So we’ve begun — we tried to get them to reform and listen to us. They wouldn’t do it. They’re very arrogant. We’ve now begun an effort to really try to bring that court to heel.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No way. There’s no information that they’re after me. It could happen. But just so you know, because she’s talking about it and saying that — that means that Nick — he’s not trying to defend me. He is trying to defend Bibi and various other people. But there are many people that shouldn’t be looked at that way, but there is no indication that I’m one of them at this moment.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And I actually think the people who are in biggest danger in our system are servicemen, people in uniform — that they’ll try to grab for the rest of their lives. They won’t be able to travel anywhere in the world with their families because they could be arrested on one of these — imagine, like, you’re a soldier. You fought in a war, and twenty years later, they try to come grab you. So this is a big problem.
So we’ve had dozens of countries already join us. Since we started two weeks ago, five countries have already quit the ICC and notified them that they’re leaving, and we think there’ll be more.
The second thing is we had an unprecedented ministerial. 60 countries came to Washington and were part of an effort where we were shedding light on far left terrorism and violence. You know, if a bomb goes off somewhere and it’s tied to some right wing group — and I don’t consider neo-Nazis right wing. I consider them Nazis, right? But you’re gonna get a lot of attention on that. But if it’s a leftist group, an Antifa group, they get no cover, or they ignore the ideological spin and the ideological reason behind it. So we got 60 countries came up here and hopefully creating a strong coalition to go after far left violent terrorism. Go after it and call it by name, and I think we’re building a very strong coalition there.
We’ve had some such successes in The Middle East, mister president, as you know, on the diplomatic front. The deal with Lebanon and Israel is unprecedented. President [Ayun] was here a week ago. I think that was the first visit by a Lebanese president in over thirty some odd years. In fact, this is the first time the Israelis and the Lebanese government have spoken at the official level close to thirty years, and that was thanks to your leadership. A lot of work to be done to keep that peace and build on it, but it’s a real achievement.
And, of course, as you announced last night, mister president, this disarmament deal that you brought about with Steve and Jared’s work on Hamas is another big step as well. It’s something a lot of people thought would never happen. It needs to happen, but the fact they’ve even agreed to it is a real achievement.
Last point is on the Western Hemisphere. For the first time in, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty years, the overwhelming majority of the countries in the Western Hemisphere are now led by pro-American leaders and pro-American governments. It’s an extraordinary achievement. Virtually every election that’s happened in the Western Hemisphere since you were elected president has elected someone who is pro-American. And I think this is an incredible situation.
And last but not least — and I have to thank a number of agencies here, particularly the Department of War — after that terrible earthquake in Venezuela, within thirty six hours, the full force of the American government was on the ground providing humanitarian assistance. It was a sight to behold. The USS Ford, I think, was under port. Our marines and armed service personnel were helping run their airport and their tower.
It is one of the fastest, most dramatic, most effective humanitarian responses, certainly in recent history, if not ever. And it came at the direction of the president. In fact, within an hour of that earthquake hitting — remember, because I was overseas — the president called and said, “Make sure we go in there and help these people recover from this,” and we did. And thanks to your leadership, mister president. It’s a great story.
Enough needs to be told about it because the credit goes to so many agencies represented here today, but really the Department of War’s effort was phenomenal. So thank you.
Jake Clayton’s Remarks
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, sir. Thank you very much, Marco. And just before we continue, I wanna just congratulate Jake Clayton. He’s with us today, as you know. He’s had a big victory. He’s gonna do a fantastic job. His whole life has been about doing a fantastic job.
[JAKE Clayton]: Thank you, mister president, for the invitation, the opportunity to be here. It’s an honor for the War department to help run this facility — also from the food to defense line. It’s an honor to have you, and it’s great Americans here and all around the country and all around the world who are the core of what keeps us safe. But in order to do that, you have to have a leader that’s willing to put them in a position to do it. And that’s my takeaway, mister president — sort of three points. One, it takes courage.
Pete Hegseth on Military Strength and Courage
Two, it takes restoring a spirit, which you have done. And third, it takes investment, and not just an investment, but a generation investment. And I think people miss that. The courage it takes to seal the border, to say we’re gonna do it, and we’re gonna do it every single day, and we’re gonna do it on behalf of the American people. The courage to bomb the Houthis and say we will maintain freedom of navigation.
Wonder why they’re not involved in this conflict, the Houthis, even though they’re a proxy of Iran? Because they felt the weight of American power for forty five days, and you had the courage to do that. Courage to do midnight hammer and conclude the twelve day war by obliterating their nuclear sites, something no other presidents had the option on their table to do, but they never pulled the trigger because of the complications, because of the challenges, because of the risk, courage.
The courage to take on cartels and drugs, drug boats, and now forming the AACC, the America’s Counter Cartel Coalition with all those friendly governments that Marco talked about who wanna be shoulder to shoulder, not just with America, but with a bold, strong America with clear leadership. The courage to go get Maduro in the most heavily guarded house inside the most heavily guarded fort, inside the most heavily guarded town in their capital city in the middle of the night, and change the entire dynamic of that country and that region, and the world saw what the American military was capable to do, but that doesn’t happen unless the commander in chief says you’re authorized to do it and will take the handcuffs off when you do it to ensure that Americans come home.
The courage to undertake Epic Fury and ensure this Iranian regime never has a nuclear weapon, which remains your commitment. And frankly, the courage to negotiate with people that have shown no willingness to do so honestly, with incredible negotiators who are the best in the world, and give them every opportunity to do it, give those things up peacefully. All of that takes guts. But that comes on the back of the change in spirit of our department. You talk about spirit all the time, and you’re right to do so.
When you rip out DEI, when you rip out social engineering and social justice, and you put in merit, and then you untie the hands of commanders to be commanders, to enforce discipline and accountability, to get back to basics, then you get historic reenlistment inside our ranks. Our best people, mister president, are staying because they wanna be in that kind of department. And then historic recruitment records amongst young Americans — every month, our department breaks records. And when did that trend line start? On election day, twenty twenty four, when the American people said, “I wanna serve under this president.”
And that new name, the Department of War, has become the ethos, the warrior ethos of our department. Again, spirit. And I will note, the flyovers will indeed continue until morale grows. But that’s also spirit. Parades, two fifty, flyovers, the American people seeing and feeling their military in ways they have not in the past — that spirit.
And then finally, mister president, a generational investment. You rebuilt the military in your first term, you’ve spent in your first year $1,000,000,000,000, and now we are committed in working with congress to get $1,500,000,000,000. But this is not the same way we funded our department in the past. This is a businessman in charge. This is a deputy secretary of our department who’s a turnaround guy, just like the president is, saying we will not fund the department the way we have in the past.
In fact, so far, $75,000,000,000 in private investment from defense companies who are now investing in new plants, new equipment, new assembly lines to build the munitions of the future faster than ever possible. That’s saving taxpayer dollars because the companies themselves are investing. The arsenal of freedom would never happen without you. Just like we use a lot of the things Ronald Reagan’s buildup was a part of, in this administration and in future administrations, they will look back at Donald Trump and the buildup that he has done, and that will be the deterrence of the future — established because of your investment. So thank you, mister president, for your leadership.
TRUMP: You, brother. Thank you. Scott, please.
Scott Bessent on the Economy and Financial Policy
SCOTT BESSENT: Mister president, it’s an honor to be here in this historic place as we celebrate our nation’s two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. And I think if we look back, whether our founders — President Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton — could not have imagined the economy that we would have created. It is the envy of the world. And as you said, we have record investment coming in. We’ve never seen anything like it, and we’re pulling away from the rest of the world because of your leadership, the policies that you did from day one in terms of digital assets, in terms of technology, and bringing back American manufacturing.
You’ve done it again. You had the incredible economy during your first term, and we are seeing that carry over here. And it is in stark contrast to the Biden economy, which was government jobs, government spending, and high inflation — the worst inflation in fifty years.
And with the working families tax cuts, which I will add every Democrat voted against, it is the perfect barbell for this economy. On one side, you have full expensing for factories, for equipment, for farm structures. On the other side, your four signature policies — promises made, promises kept — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans if you buy an American made car. And Americans are starting to feel it. Core inflation is low. Consumer confidence is strong.
We have the highest consumer confidence — came up today — in five months, and Main Street is back. Small banks, community banks are lending again. Americans are starting to feel it. As you said, these Trump accounts are the most successful program launch in government history. We’ve had 7,000,000 families sign up for them. When we get to open enrollment, we will have 70,000,000 families who have signed up for this.
38% of American family households have no exposure to our great equity market. And thanks to you, we’re going to have an ownership society. An ownership society. You were one of the first presidents to create assets for the American people, not more debt.
We had the biggest tax refund season ever. Trade deals, tax cuts, energy dominance, the regulatory efforts — America is ushering in the greatest reshoring wave in our history. In June, our manufacturing sector expanded for the sixth straight month. We’ve got construction jobs, and those are going to lead into manufacturing jobs. We’ve got Main Street prosperity. Real wages are up a thousand dollars.
And, sir, what you’ve done again too is the bottom 25% of wage earners, just like in your first term, are outperforming the top 25%. This is a working families administration. In the past year, that group had wage increases of 5.5% — three times what the top end has done. And these are private sector jobs we are creating. As you often say in these meetings, we could have created 2,000,000 government jobs, but we didn’t. The private sector is creating. We’ve got incentives. We’ve got money coming in, and we are rebuilding.
And then our energy dominance — thanks to you and these policies, you can come to The United States and you’re gonna have regulatory certainty, tax certainty, and energy certainty. So it is the best place in the world to build your factory.
And finally, I wanna add, it has been a privilege to be a part of — as we’ve gone from Epic Fury to economic fury — to constrict, on your orders, the Iranian regime’s financial tentacles all around the world. We started it on your orders in March 2025. In December 2025, the largest bank in Iran collapsed. The central bank had to print money. It caused inflation. Now they’ve got 180% inflation. They aren’t able to pay their troops. And on your orders, we are searching for their assets all around the world, and that money will go to the Iranian people, Americans who have been harmed by the Iranians — whether the USS Cole, or the barracks in Lebanon, or when the Iranians attacked the ships. So it’s been a privilege to be part of that, and I look forward to the rest of —
President Trump on Employment and the Economy
TRUMP: Thank you very much. And I wanna just add that today, there are more people working in The United States than at any time in the history of our country. We have more people working today — think of that number. I mean, more people working today by far than at any time in the history of our country. So it’s been something very special. Bobby, please.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Drug Pricing and Family History
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Thank you, mister president. Let me just take a moment to note the historical significance of this occasion. Before the press came in, you asked all the cabinet members who had been to Camp David before — about, I think, about three quarters of them had. I raised my hand, but I haven’t been here for sixty two years. I came here on weekends, as many weekends as we could between 1961 and 1963. My father loved this place. My uncle loved this place.
Nobody knows about this because I’m in the history books, but he was resentful at Dwight Eisenhower for renaming it Camp David. And if he had made it to his second term, he was gonna rename it Shangri-La, which was the original name that Roosevelt had named it. My uncle prided himself on being the most open, transparent administration in history. He was the first president to have televised press conferences. During his thousand days in office, he had about 30 press conferences. You, mister president, have press conferences every day. Nobody has done it.
And here you’ve opened the inner sanctum of the presidency for the first time in history, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. But you also face, although you gave these guys a lot of compliments, the most hostile press corps of any president in The United States history.
TRUMP: Uniformly.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: So, anyway, I’m gonna talk just briefly about the subject you alluded to, which is the MFN. And just so everybody has a background — you were here, and every president who promised to fix that disparity between what we pay and what the other developed countries have paid. When you came into office, the list price for Ozempic was $1,350 for Americans. You could get it at any pharmacy in London, Hamburg, Frankfurt for $88. And every president — President Bush, President Biden, President Clinton, President Obama — they all promised to fix this, and none of them did anything. You fixed it.
By the time you leave office, assuming that’s in 2028, 95% of the drugs that are available to Americans, they will be paying the lowest prices in the world. Trump Rx, just in the short time since we put it out, has saved Americans $700,000,000. We now have 800 drugs on there. We have deals with Amazon and with GoodRx, we’re adding more and more drugs every day. And I’ll just give you one example. [Praluent] is a very popular cholesterol drug. Its list price is $522 — that’s what everybody is paying. We now have it on Trump Rx for $237. That means that the 300,000 Americans who take that drug will be saving $3,700 a year on pharmaceuticals every year. And you can apply that across the board. This is gonna change things. It’s making pharmaceuticals the most affordable in this country, of any country in the world.
TRUMP: Well, thank you, mister president. How are you doing on the autism research?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: We will have an answer for you. We just got —
TRUMP: That’s so important.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: We’ll be talking about that. We’ll be having something of interest.
TRUMP: Such an important thing. There’s a picture of your uncle right there on the wall.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: I know. Just looking — handsome guy.
TRUMP: And that’s quite a picture. Did you see it?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Yeah.
TRUMP: They gave you the idea to start out that way, but it’s quite a picture. Any questions?
Press Q&A: Iran, Ceasefire, and Military Operations
REPORTER: Mister president, mister president — I think we’ve seen these strikes between Iran and The United States for the past ten days. How do you go about reviving the ceasefire and getting diplomacy back on track?
TRUMP: I think we just wanna win. You know, we just wanna win. We’re doing very well. We’re trying to be nice, as nice as you can be in a situation like that. But they’re being decimated. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft. Doesn’t mean they don’t have any capability — they have some, but very little. We just wanna win.
It’s very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and they can’t have a nuclear weapon. If they did, the Middle East would have been wiped out by now. If I didn’t stop the JCPOA, the Obama deal, and if I didn’t terminate that, they would have had a nuclear weapon. I believe Israel would no longer be with us, and big parts of the Middle East and perhaps other countries in different continents, frankly, because these people are crazy. So they cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be hitting them very hard. And then, you know, at some point, they’re gonna say we just can’t take it anymore.
The Disarmament Deal with Israel
REPORTER: Mister President, the disarmament deal that you announced, do you have assurances from Israel that they are on board with this deal? And what comes first? Does Israel pull back and then Hamas disarms, or does Hamas need to disarm and then Israel is—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We do have an understanding with Israel. Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us with it. And they’ve been very good. They’ve been very good about it. Most people said that would be a deal that would be undoable.
Now, will it go through its ups and downs? It’s a very complex situation over there. The people are very complex and difficult. Many cases, wonderful. In many cases, not so wonderful. But that will be — it’s a great breakthrough. Nobody’s ever thought that would — nobody thought that would be possible to disarm Hamas.
That shows you how much success we’re having with Iran. Because if you go four months ago, five months ago, a deal like that would have been impossible. So it’s a big step for the Middle East, and people are really impressed by it, and they’re surprised by it.
REPORTER: And what comes first, Mister President?
REPORTER: Mister President, did FIFA or Mister Infantino speak to you about their proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup, and is that something you support having just—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Who?
REPORTER: Did FIFA or Mister Infantino speak to you about their proposal to sell a stake in the—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund and Government Abuse
REPORTER: President, you said this morning on Truth Social that victims of government abuse should be paid back. Yeah. Even if it’s not the anti-weaponization fund, which you still want the acting attorney general—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m talking about the weaponization against large numbers of people in our country by the Biden administration and by Obama, but by the Biden administration in particular in this case. But large numbers of people, their lives have been ruined. They’ve been destroyed. Their families have been, you know, decimated. They’ve gone to prison for no reason whatsoever.
There’s never been a group of people — most likely, I mean, I can think of a couple that were treated pretty badly, groups. But there’s essentially never been a group of people treated so badly as these people. And this fund — this fund was not for me. This fund was for those people that have been weaponized, that have been abused.
Now, I was abused. They attacked my house, Mar-a-Lago, where I live. And I was — you know, big damages should have been given to me. I don’t want anything. I’m not talking about myself. I think that there’s a group of people in this country, history will show, that were treated like nobody else has ever been treated so badly, so horribly. Their families have been ruined. Many, many suicides. They’ve committed suicide. People that were very successful that wanted to go to a rally or an event and ended up spending the rest of their lives in horror.
So, I mean, you could say what you want about the fund, and they’ve agreed to not have a fund. But there are a lot of people that are very upset about it. A lot of Republican people, a lot of Democrat people are very upset about it. A lot of people were covered. I wasn’t covered by that fund. I don’t wanna be covered by the fund. I probably was abused more than anybody in the history of our country, but I wasn’t looking for that.
But there were a lot of people, and I’ll tell you something. Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn’t be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. You’re never gonna get anybody. And to make him a pawn on this whole thing — this is being done by a senator. And I don’t really blame him, to be honest with you. I endorsed his opponent. And as soon as I endorsed his opponent, his opponent went through the roof and he won the primary election in Texas for the senate.
And the man that lost, the man that I didn’t endorse, has become very angry, and that’s okay. I mean, I understand that. I probably would do the same thing. You wanna know the truth? I think I’d do the same thing.
REPORTER: Mister President, on that though, do you agree — just to be clear — do you agree with the acting attorney general that the anti-weaponization fund is dead? And why not just put that in right—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Is dead, but, you know, I wish it weren’t, to be honest with you. I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with her. This was me. Horribly abused. And I’d like to see them compensated for the pain. They lost their families. They committed suicide. Many people committed suicide. They went down for an innocent journey. And I’m not only talking there. I’m talking about not even having to do with that, the way they were treated. The Biden administration and the Obama administration weaponized government and destroyed lives.
REPORTER: Mister President, are you willing to accept limits on the scope of the audit immunity deal in order to get Attorney General Blanche confirmed?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, no. He should be approved forthwith. I mean, he’s — you’re never gonna get a person like that. Everybody agrees to it. Don’t forget, Senator Gordon thought he was phenomenal until he lost. You know? When he lost — is that a correct statement? You come from Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean, he thought this was the most incredible person. And then when he lost — then he lost because of me. I endorsed somebody else. And as soon as I endorsed the other person, the other person became a rocket ship upward, and he lost. And, you know, I think I’d be the same. But we do have — I mean, I shouldn’t say that, but I’d be upset also. And so I fully understand it. He shouldn’t be that way. I shouldn’t be that way. But he is that way. He’s become a very angry person, and I understand. You have a couple of others that have caused their defeat too. And, you know, you’ll probably hear from them too.
Military Action Against Iran
REPORTER: Mister President, back on Iran, there’s a report that you got a proposal from the military to go big and hit them hard over ten or fourteen days. Are we going big? Are you gonna consider—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ve already gone big. Look, I mean, what’s big? They had 159 ships. That was their entire navy — 159. Their entire navy is laying at the bottom of the sea. I’d say that’s going big. They had 200 airplanes. They’re all gone. Every one. There’s not one airplane. They had anti-aircraft weaponry. They’re very good, but it didn’t work. And it’s all gone. Their radar is all gone. Their leaders are all gone. Everything’s all gone, but they’ll fight onward.
Ukraine and the Patriot Missile License
REPORTER: Mister President, on Ukraine, you said the other day that you’re not sure about whether to grant Ukraine the Patriot missile license that have been discussed. Do you wanna see more from Zelensky before you take that action?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s a big step. Look, we have the greatest weapons in the world. We have the greatest drones in the world. People don’t know that. We have the greatest weaponry in the world.
In the case of President Zelensky, he’d like to have some Patriots. He’d like to have some Tomahawks, which is, you know — lethal, one offensive, one defensive. But when you give somebody the right — very complex weapons, by the way. I mean, the Patriot, as an example — the other day, you read that five missiles were shot. They were going 8,600 miles an hour. Think of it. 8,600. Now, a car, if you go 60, it gets to be a little faster. If you go — 8,600 miles an hour, and they were big missiles. And they were shot at Jordan, and our guys were there — bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Five. Bing, bing, bing, bing. Right?
I don’t wanna be — I’ll say ten — I had a big break here. That would’ve been a great sound bite. Right? There were five missiles, and we shot all five down before they got close. Nobody else has that capacity. These weapons are incredible. We have to be very careful about letting somebody build them. You know, it’s very important now.
We are building many plants now to make those. The Tomahawk missile is the most incredible thing. It can go into a doorway. You can put it through a window of a house. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful. Now, we have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.
And I don’t think this would ever happen, but, you know, those people that you give that technology — they can someday turn on you. You know, that is possible. If you look at war, it’s happened a couple of times over the years. Right? So we have to be very careful. I mean, we guard that. We have the greatest military in the world, but we have the greatest weapons in the world. Now we have to make them a little bit faster because we’ve given a lot away.
You know, President Biden, unfortunately, gave a lot away to Ukraine, and he gave — and so did I. I mean, I gave them the Javelins and the tank busters. Without the Javelins, that war would have been a one-day war. Would have been over. They wiped out the tanks going up to Kyiv where they got stuck in the mud. They had a general that decided to go through the mud instead of going up the highway where they were going very nicely. It would have been over. But, no, I gave them the Javelins. The Javelins are unbelievably — we have the greatest weapons in the world.
We have to be very careful about giving out the secrets to those weapons. And you can’t copy them. It’s a little like Nvidia. They have a chip. They say you cannot copy it. The complexity is so great. You cannot. You know, most things you copy. China’s known for — other countries — that we do something, and I guess we copy also. Most things you can copy pretty easily. There’s a chip that they made — their ultimate chip — and they always have the ultimate chip. And I say, well, why doesn’t somebody copy it? Because they can’t. The complexity. They can’t copy our weapons. We have the greatest weapons in the world. Many of them. Those are just two or three that I mentioned, but you cannot copy them. So we have to be very careful.
Hamas Disarmament and the Board of Peace
REPORTER: Mister President, as Hamas disarms as part of this plan, who do you see taking possession of those weapons that they had? Does that go to the new government?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s gonna be run by the board. This Board of Peace has been an amazing — it’s led by some amazing people. Board of Peace.
REPORTER: Mister President, you said they do have some capabilities left. Should Americans be prepared for these back-and-forth attacks to continue until—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’ll get weaker. They’ll get a little stronger maybe now, but they’ll get weaker and then they peter out. Yeah. Sure. I think so. I mean, it’d be foolish to say no. You always have to keep your guard up.
REPORTER: What is the status of talks? Who from the administration—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they always wanna talk, but they break their word so often. Steve is talking. Jared — we have very good people. JD is involved, very strongly involved. We have great people talking. Marco’s involved. They’re all — because they say talks aren’t happening. Very good people. We’re the best people, but they’ll make a deal.
As an example, we’ll talk about nuclear, and we’ll be in there talking about nuclear for seven hours. I say, why do you need seven? You could take ten minutes. You have five minutes. You should solve it. But seven hours, and then they’ll go out, and I’ll say they discussed nuclear. And they’ll go out and they’ll say, “We never discussed nuclear.” And I say, why? What did they say about it? All they do is make me angry. You know? They just make me angry.
Prospects for a Deal with Iran
REPORTER: Do you believe that you can reach a deal with Iran given that you talked about—
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. You can. I mean, I’m losing faith in them because they do lie and they do misrepresent. Well, the other day, the five missiles were shot. We knocked them down, but we were in the midst of a negotiation. I mean, I’m waiting for Steve to call me. How’s the negotiation going? And instead, I got a call from Pete that they just shot five missiles at one of our bases in Jordan.
And we have bases in Jordan. Fortunately, our people operated the equipment. It’s also very complex to operate. You know, you talk about the equipment — it’s very — you have to be — oftentimes, you see, when did you go to school? MIT, Caltech. I mean, you know, they go to schools that are not as normal for the military, to be honest with you. We have unbelievably brilliant people operating that equipment. And when you don’t, you know, the equipment — the shots miss, the safety misses, or the accuracy misses. We have unbelievable people.
Think of it. We had — at one point, a couple of months ago — 111. A 111, over a short period of time, missiles were shot at the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Great, beautiful ship. One of the most beautiful ships, to me, design-wise. 111 missiles going out. Out of the 111 missiles, 111 missiles were shot down quite a bit earlier than they got — I mean, long before they got there, they were shot down. It was almost — in a couple of cases, they were shot down almost as they were taking off. It’s incredible technology.
So you have a ship that cost billions of dollars and you have missiles heading to it. 111 missiles were shot down, routinely shot down. And I spoke to the people.
Closing Remarks and Final Questions
TRUMP: I like to reward people. I call them up on the president, and they were cool as a cucumber.
REPORTER: Mister President, the last two weeks of strikes by CENTCOM. CENTCOM has said that those were meant to degrade Iran’s ability to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz. How many more strikes will it take to significantly—
TRUMP: Well, you never know.
Look, I mean, most people would have given up by them. You know, they’ve got no navy. They got no air force. Most people would have given up.
They haven’t. So I give them credit for that. I mean, they’re known as being tough. They’re tough.
REPORTER: Back in Ukraine, what did you tell President Zelensky about the Patriots? Did you explain all that to him? You’re concerned about—
TRUMP: I spoke about Patriots. I spoke to him about Tomahawks. I spoke to him about everything. I also spoke to him about, let’s get this war over with.
So last month, they had 25,000 people. It’s averaging about 25,000 people a month die, mostly soldiers, almost entirely. But, you know, missiles are hitting areas also, but mostly soldiers. They had 25,000 soldiers. The month before that, it was 32,000 soldiers.
I said, you gotta get this war over with. I think he wants to make a deal, and I think Putin wants to make a deal. But there’s a lot of dislike, as you probably noticed. But he seems very reluctant to make concessions, President Putin. Well, nobody wants to make concessions, but they’re both gonna have to make some concessions.
I mean, I think you gotta make a deal. 25,000 young, beautiful people, soldiers, mostly soldiers are dying a month. I ended eight wars. That was the war I thought would maybe go first, and it really hasn’t, Scott. I mean, I ended wars that were, in theory, much more difficult to end.
We had a couple that were into the thirty year category. Well, the Congo. Look at the Congo and Rwanda. That was a nasty war. And they have peace.
I ended India, Pakistan. 11 planes were shot down. That was raging. I said, if you’re gonna go to war, 250% tariff to each of them. And they screamed and yelled and were very angry. They were both angry about it. And a day later, they called and they said that we will not go to war. And the Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved 50,000,000 lives because that’s two nuclear powers, serious nuclear powers.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Enjoy your day. Happy holidays. Thank you, guys.
Minnesota Corruption and Cyber Attack
REPORTER: [QUESTION INAUDIBLE]
TRUMP: I think that Minnesota is behind it. You know who’s behind it? Minnesota, because they’re grossly incompetent. I think the governor’s behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyber attack. I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together. It’s one of the worst run states. JD will tell you, he found tremendous corruption in Minnesota.
Yes, sir. And by the way, just gave me a report. Massive future things having to do with corruption in Minnesota are happening right now.
REPORTER: Have you talked to Senator—
TRUMP: I haven’t been about the— I’m sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.
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