Transcript: President Trump Q&A After Signing An Executive Order on 2028 Olympics

Vance. J.D., thank you very much. Thank you. Our equally great Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Pam, thank you very much, Pam. Secretary of Homeland Security, Cristie Kerr. She’s Cristie Kerr. Do you know Christy Kerr? She’s a friend of my great golfer. Cristie, no, she’s a better golfer than you. That’s the only thing. But you’re better at a lot of other things. But I want to thank you for being here, for doing an unbelievable job, really an unbelievable job.

FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr. Brendan, thank you. Thank you, Brendan. You’re doing a great job. White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles. Most powerful woman anywhere in the world. She’s rated the most powerful woman in the world, and I agree with that.

And Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Stephen Miller. Stephen? Stephen? Thank you. What happened to Stephen? We never want to miss Stephen. He’s an MVP candidate. Dan Scavino, another MVP. James Blair, Taylor Budovic, and Nick Luna. Thank you all. Great group of people. They’re going to be very much involved.

Honoring Olympic Champions and Leaders

I also am grateful to be joined by two of Team USA’s strongest and fastest competitors, retired gold medalists and gymnasts and member of the LA 28 Athletes Council, Nastia Lukin. Nastia? How are you, Nastia? Good? I don’t know you, but I’ve watched you. You’re very talented. I would not want to do what you do. This is much easier, believe me. It’s incredible what you’ve done, along with retired gold medal, Paralympian, swimmer, and board member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Brad Snyder. Brad? Thank you very much, Brad. It’s a great honor. Thank you.

Chairman of the 2028 Olympic Games, Casey Wasserman, a friend of mine for a long time. Casey, thank you very much. Casey, great job. Amazing. LA is a little bit different place than it was when selected, but we’re going to bring it back stronger than ever. I spoke to Casey about that. He said, “nope, we’re going to make it better than ever.” It’s going to be something that’s going to make it even more important as the Olympic Games. It was an interesting conversation we had as the fires were raging. Is that right? And I appreciated that very much. And CEO, Reynold Hoover. Reynold, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Great honor.

I also want to welcome the chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Gene Sykes. Gene, thank you. Thank you, Gene, very much. And thank him for recently banning men from competing in women’s sports. That’s a big deal. Thank you very much. It’s amazing the way I don’t hear any applause for that when everyone feels it. So 97, don’t worry about it, Gene, that’s a 97-3, it’s not 80-20, it’s 97-3, but nobody wants to clap. It’s crazy. The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics, so we appreciate the fairness and everything else that you’ve shown.

Also with us today is L.A. 28 board member Reince Priebus and also Kevin McCarthy. I want to thank Kevin McCarthy and Reince. Thank you, Reince, and thank you, Kevin, and the L.A. Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America.

Federal Government Coordination and Olympic Venues

It’s going to be incredible, it’s so exciting, and with today’s action, I’m directing the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Transportation, and many other departments and agencies to use every tool at their disposal to ensure a fantastic, safe, and beautiful event.

In 2028, the Olympics is bringing back our national pastime, baseball, wow, that’s great, with teams playing under the lights at the legendary Dodger Stadium, and it is legendary, it’s beautiful, one of the most beautiful. Squash players will go head-to-head inside the world-famous Universal Studios, triathletes will sprint beneath the sun, shining down on Venice Beach. This will be one of the great venues, I mean, when you think of it, right? It’s going to be so incredible.

Soccer teams will face off at the legendary Rose Bowl, sailors will race through the waters near the Port of Los Angeles, and the opening ceremony will take place at the beautiful Memorial Coliseum, just like the Olympics of 1932 and 1984, that was something, those were very important Olympics, 1932 was a very important Olympics, wasn’t it?

Team USA’s Olympic Legacy and Upcoming Celebrations

For eight straight consecutive summer games, no one has won more medals than Team USA, which is incredible, we want to keep it that way, over the years, Team USA has won triple the number of Summer Olympic gold medals as the next closest country, and I’m confident that that’s going to continue in 2028, that’s an amazing achievement, by the way.

Between the LA Olympics and the FIFA World Cup next year, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics, got them both, it’s a great time to be a sports fan in America, and maybe, you know, I don’t want to say most importantly, but it is a celebration of 250 years, we have our 250th anniversary, also, during the year, and it’s going to be between the three of them, I think there’ll be no other time that we’ve ever had in our history like that.

So I’d like to ask the LA Olympics chairman Casey Wasserman to say a few words, and I appreciate it very much, Casey, great job you’ve done. Thank you.

Casey Wasserman’s Remarks

CASEY WASSERMAN: Thank you, Mr. President, your support, and the entire administration support through this whole process has been truly extraordinary. In just 1074 days, yes, we’re counting Sir, the eyes of the world will be on this country as we open the 2028 Olympics. And it feels just like yesterday. And you were just president elect in December of 2016, that you leaned into this process back then, and you’ve been supportive and helpful every step of the way, and we wouldn’t be here without you. So we greatly appreciate all your support.

Our games plan is near final, we’ve announced a competition schedule, some of the greatest brands in America have stepped up to support these Olympic games as commercial partners. And now with the creation of this task force, we’ve unlocked the opportunity to level up our planning and deliver the largest, and yes, greatest games for our nation ever.

We expect more than 150 heads of state will come to the games. We’ll host approximately 11,000 Olympic and 4,500 Paralympic athletes. They’ll participate in 800 competitions at 49 competition venues. This will be the equivalent of producing seven Super Bowls a day, Sir, for 30 days.

We are now focused more than ever on delivery, and we can’t do this alone. I want to thank President Trump and the entire administration for their support and their partnership as we work to bring these games home. These will be truly America’s games. We expect millions of fans from around the country to participate and attend events. And for the first time in history, we’re going to take the Olympic torch relay to all 50 states. The most states it’s ever gone to is 38, but in 2028, we will touch all 50 states. And Sir, if you’d like to run on Park Avenue again to revisit history, you’re more than welcome.

Administration Support for Olympic Security

And we’re thrilled. But this administration has delivered critical security funding in the recent bill that will be used by local and state agencies and the federal government to make sure that our games are safe and secure and ultimately the best place to experience and be an Olympic fan. We remain incredibly confident in our ability to deliver the greatest games ever. And that starts with the support of this administration every step of the way. Thank you, Sir.

Thank you. So we don’t have trophies in the Olympic movement, but as you know, 1984 hosted the Olympics in Los Angeles, right? And someone we admire, President Reagan, both of us presided over those, and you preside over our games. So we have for you a full set of the 84 original medals.

TRUMP: Wow. Can I say that I won them athletically?

That would be a great honor. That’s beautiful. Thank you very much.

Go ahead please.

Questions on Tariffs and Russia

REPORTER: Thank you Mr President. Do you still plan to follow through on your threat to impose 100% tariffs on all countries that purchase Russian energy, including China?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I never said a percentage, but we’ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time. But we’ll see what happens. You know, they have a meeting tomorrow. We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens. We’ll make that determination at that time. Yeah, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Ukraine War Discussion

REPORTER: Thank you Mr President. On Ukraine, President Zelensky just signed a law allowing for citizens aged 60 and above to serve in the military. We’ve seen dozens of videos of young men being hauled into vans and dragged to the front lines against their will. And we’ve even seen videos of a young man with Down syndrome serving on the front line. You, when you campaigned, you said you wanted to see the people stop dying. A lot of people admired that statement. Now the people dying are elderly, mentally handicapped and conscripts. So even if a ceasefire doesn’t work out, why should Americans continue to fund a foreign military that’s scrapping the bottom of the barrel of its population like this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you have to understand, very importantly, this is Biden’s war. This is not my war. I’m here to get us out of it. It’s a mess. And I’m here to get us out. I haven’t heard that when you say about 60-year-old men and, you know, et cetera. But this is Biden’s war, and we’re working very hard to get us out.

I stopped five wars in the last five months, actually. And I’d like this to be the sixth, frankly. And that doesn’t even include Iran, which, you know, obliterating their nuclear haul because they would have had nuclear weapons within two months. But stopped a lot of wars. You just take a look at the ones just over the last two or three months. It’s been amazing.

This is the one I’m trying to stop. This is the one we’re working hardest on. The other ones I stopped within a matter of days. Almost every one of them, including India and Pakistan. And I could go over the whole list, but, you know, the list as well as I do. But this is the one we’d like to see. I have not heard that. But this is Biden’s war. And it’s a war that he got us into or indirectly got us into. It should have never happened. It would have never happened had I been president. Yeah. Next.

Gaza and Israel Policy

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Would you support Israel reoccupying all of Gaza as has been suggested by some Israeli officials?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t know what the suggestion is. I know that we have we are there now trying to get people fed. As you know, 60 million dollars was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food and a lot of food, frankly, for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food. And I know Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution and also money. We also have the Arab states are going to help us with that in terms of the money and possibly distribution. So that’s what I’m focused on. As far as the rest of it, I really can’t say. That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel. Yeah, please. Go ahead, please.

Transgender Athletes in Olympics

REPORTER: Thank you. On transgender athletes in the Olympics, back to the safety, especially of female combat boxers, will the Department of Justice considering pressing charges against any man that tries to masquerade as a woman coming into this country to beat up American athletes? And secondly, would your administration consider genetic testing so that these people can prove that they’re actually women competing?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think there is going to be a very strong form of testing. As far as charges, I’d have to ask the Attorney General about that. I don’t know. But there will be a very, very strong form of testing. And if the test doesn’t come out appropriately, they won’t be in the Olympics. Yes, ma’am, please. Go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Thank you. Mr. President, do you believe that the U.S. Committee would have made this decision on men and women’s sports if you weren’t President? And do you believe that this decision will stay in place once you are no longer President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think they probably would have because it just seems to be an issue that most people feel should be. I can’t really say. I’d have to – you could have asked Chairman Wasserman. But I would say that, you know, there’s a possibility. It could go either way if you really want to know the truth. I feel strongly about it. I have. I ran a campaign, at least partially, on that. That was one of the many issues that I talked about – open borders, the economy, taxes, all of the things. But that was certainly one of the issues. So I really can’t – I really don’t know. It could have gone either way. Please.

Federal Reserve Appointments

REPORTER: Have you decided on a replacement for the Fed Governor?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: For Fed Governor? I’ll be making that decision before the end of the week, and we’ll either decide on one for permanence or the four-month period, the term – you know, there’s a term of about – number of months. We have a couple of candidates. Everybody wants it, okay? It’s not a couple. But we’ve narrowed it to a couple of candidates. And we’ve also – we’re looking at the Fed chair, and that’s down to four people right now. Very good. Well, I can tell you, because I’ve already said this, two Kevins and two other people, okay? Brian.

Fire Safety Concerns for Olympics

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. This has to do with the safety aspect of the Olympics. What can you do as a President to ensure that Southern California, the greater Los Angeles area, is safe from any fire danger that the state clears away, brush, and state parks – the reason why this last fire happened in Pacifica, Palos Verdes? What can you ensure for that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, as you know, Brian, we have – I’ve been fighting with them for a long time about allowing the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest essentially. And we actually opened up that water pretty strongly. We got a lot of opposition from the governor, and we opened it up anyway, and the water is coming down. We want it opened further.

They have a lot of water. They sent it out into the Pacific Ocean in order to protect the smelt. It’s a little tiny fish that’s not doing very well, especially when they don’t have water. They really do badly, okay? But it’s a fish, environmentally protected, even though it’s in many other areas. I think they just used that as an excuse – the smelt. You’ll check that out. But I think it’s just an excuse. They’ve got to allow full water, and they’re working with – Lee Zeldin is really helping us a lot, but they’ve got to allow a full complement

PRESIDENT TRUMP: of water to come down from the Pacific Northwest. There is so much water. If Gavin Newsom let the water come down – see the way I pronounced his name properly for a change? If this guy allowed the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest, they have so much water they don’t know what to do with it. All of those sprinklers would have gone on. All of those people with those beautiful houses with sprinklers in the ceilings and with the water, the fire pumps outside, all that water. They didn’t have any water because they wouldn’t let the water come down. There’s so much water there.

At first, when I got involved with this issue in my first term, I said to the congressmen – they took me up because they wanted to show me the fields where they could farm 10 times more product. You’d see 100 acres and you’d see one acre or two acres. Beautiful green. It’s very vibrant soil, but they don’t give it the water that it’s entitled to. I said, “Oh, they have a drought?” I said, “No.” They told me, “We don’t have a drought. The Democrats don’t allow the water to come down into the farms and into anywhere.”

By the time it gets down even into certain parts of California, it’s fed out stupidly into the Pacific Ocean if that water were allowed. We broke into it and we allowed it to come down, and it come down at a higher level, and we want that, and we’re demanding that of the governor.

Olympics Security and Local Permits

The other thing is, we’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, okay? No, I’ll use – I will use the National Guard or military. This is going to be so safe, and if we have to, because obviously you have a mayor that is not very competent. You can’t get the permits for the people. You know the people are still waiting for their permits. Lee Zeldin got them the federal permit, which is 10 times harder to get, and everybody can build on the federal basis, and that’s the hard one. But the mayor, Bass, she cannot – she refuses to or cannot get them permits. They’re waiting, and I was there right after the fires, and I saw all these beautiful people standing by their homes, ready to get in and get to work, and they’re waiting for their permits, and they’re still waiting for their state permits and city permits. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.

Press Questions

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. India says that the U.S. imports Russian uranium, chemicals, fertilizers, while criticizing their energy imports. Your response to that, sir?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know anything about it. I’d have to check, but we’ll get back to you on that. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Have you seen the Hamas-released video of Israeli hostage Avitar David starving and being forced to dig his own grave in a Hamas tunnel?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have, yeah. I have.

REPORTER: And what’s your reaction?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it’s horrible. I think it’s horrible. And I hope a lot of people do get to see it as bad as it is, because I think it’s a horrible thing. Yeah, behind you, please.

American Workers and Border Security

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you. Can you speak to just how, you know, this drop-off in foreign-born workers is going to benefit Americans, and will it force American companies to pay fairer wages to American workers?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we want to take care of our American workers, first and foremost, and that’s what we’re doing. We also want to help our farmers, because our farmers are producing like never before. We have to help them. And we’re working out some very complicated strategies and language. But the main thing that I think I was elected to do is to get the illegals out of our country, who are especially, in particular, criminals.

11,888 murderers were allowed into our country with Biden’s open-border policy, with our border czar, who never spoke to the Border Patrol, never went to the border one time. That’s Kamala. And think of it. We have murderers. We have people coming in from all countries all over the world, from prisons, from prisons in the Congo and Africa, from prisons all over South America, all over rough parts of Europe, all over Asia. They’re pouring into our country. Not anymore.

So we just announced we had our third consecutive month where we were rated zero people. And these are, frankly, very liberal people that make up these charts. So I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They seem to not be doing their job for the Democrats. But I’m honored by the fact that they say it. We’re very tough on the border. And people can come into our country, but they have to come in legally.

So I think that we’ve done an amazing job, actually. But we have to get the criminals out of our country, murderers, drug dealers, gang members. They emptied prisons into our country. It’s one of the reasons I think, even beyond the economy, it’s one of the reasons I got elected. It’s really maybe the number one. I don’t know the difference between the economy and that. But as I said before, our nation is doing really well, but we have to get these really bad people. They should have never been allowed in our country. Open border policy is for fools. We’re the only country in the world with an open borders policy. But we don’t have that anymore. We had zero now for three months in a row.

Future Political Leadership and Redistricting

REPORTER: Thank you very much, President Trump. Nice to see you got off the roof all right.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: You said this morning that you probably won’t be running for a third term. Last weekend, Secretary of State Rubio said that he thought J.D. Vance would be a great nominee. You could clear the entire Republican field right now. Do you agree that the heir apparent to MAGA is J.D. Vance?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think most likely, in all fairness, he’s the vice president. I think Marco is also somebody that maybe would get together with J.D. in some form. I also think we have incredible people, some of the people on the stage right here. So it’s too early, obviously, to talk about it, but certainly he’s doing a great job and he would be probably favored at this point.

REPORTER: And on Texas, if Texas redrawing their congressional map would get you five safe red seats, means that California, New York, Illinois and Maryland are all going to redraw their maps to add safe. Well, they’ll do it anyway. Is it worth it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, they’ll do it anyway. Why, if we stop over there, they would have done it anyway. Look, a lot of these states, you know, I watched this morning as Democrats are complaining and they’re complaining from states where they’ve done it, like in Illinois, like in Massachusetts. I watched this lunatic, Pocahontas. She’s a total lunatic. I don’t know what she’s on. She’s all jumping up and down like I’ve never seen anything like it, talking about supporting the communist mayor. And he’s not a socialist. He’s a communist. Okay, this is not a socialist. This is a communist. If you look at any of his policies and go back six months, you don’t have to go back further than that.

So they want to put a communist in New York. Now, the good news is we have a lot of power over that because we’re the ones with the money. We send the money. We don’t send the money. It’s up to the White House. A lot of power in the White House. But when I watched her jumping up and down, talking about that and supporting the communists. But if you look at what’s going on with the redistricting or whatever you want to call it, the Democrats have done it long before we started. They’ve done it all over the place. They did it in New York. They did it in a lot of different states.

But in Massachusetts, somebody used this as an example today. I was interviewed this morning and they said, “You know, it’s pretty unfair. Trump got 40 percent.” I’m not proud of that, but I think I probably got more. But that’s okay. They have 40 percent in Massachusetts and yet they have 100 percent of the vote in terms of Congress. So there’s no Republican. There’s no anything. So I think we should have 40 percent. You know why? They redistricted and they’ve done it all over the place and they’ve done it in California, by the way. Before this, they’ve done it in California. So we’ll see what happens. We have a wonderful governor in Texas. He feels strongly about it. It’s

Questions on Texas Democrats and Federal Involvement

TRUMP: going to be up to him. I think there’s tremendous support for it. And, you know, we’ve watched the Democrats destroy our country in four years. They’ve destroyed between their open borders that we talked about, transgender for everybody, all of the horrible things that they’ve done, high taxes, horrible medical medical provision for people. We’ve watched them destroy our country for four years. And people don’t want that. And people in Texas, as you saw, I got the highest vote in the history of Texas. I love Texas. Texas likes me, obviously. But I got the highest vote and that was checked out on the show. Did you see that? Where they checked it out? They said he actually did get the highest vote in the history of Texas, which disappointed them. They were very disappointed to hear that. But Texas is a place that’s done very well with a free enterprise kind of an attitude, with the exact opposite of what’s happening in New York with a communist mayor. And they know what they’re doing and they’re doing the right thing. Yeah.

REPORTER: Two questions for you, Mr. President. Thank you. Texas Senator John Cornyn, Texas Senator John Cornyn is asking for your help to force Democrats back to the state and hold them accountable. Do you want the federal government and the FBI to help locate and arrest these Texas Democrats who have left the state?

TRUMP: Well, I think they’ve abandoned the state. Nobody’s seen anything like it, even though they’ve done it twice before. And in a certain way, it almost looks like they’ve abandoned the state. Looks very bad. Yeah, go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Should the FBI get involved? Should the FBI get involved?

TRUMP: Well, they may have to. They may have to. No, I know they want them back. Not only the attorney general, the governor wants them back. If you look, I mean, the governor of Texas is demanding they come back. So a lot of people are demanding they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about. Yeah. Please.

Questions on Ghislaine Maxwell Prison Transfer

REPORTER: Thank you so much, President Trump. Two questions for you. One, did you were you aware of and did you personally approve the prison transfer for Ghislaine Maxwell that your Justice Department?

TRUMP: I didn’t know about it at all. No, I read about it just like you did. And do you believe that she’s not a very uncommon thing? Do you believe that she’s credible to be listening to your deputy attorney general sat down with her recently?

TRUMP: Well, he’s let me tell you, he’s a very talented man. His name is Todd Blanch. She’s a very legitimate person, very high. I just have very highly thought of person respected by everybody. And I didn’t talk to him about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asked would be totally appropriate. And it’s not an uncommon thing to do that. And I think he probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved or aren’t involved are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people. But I will say this. Todd Blanch is one of the most highly respected people you’ll ever meet. So I know this. I didn’t discuss it with him, but anything he talked about with her or the fact that he did that not unusual, number one, and most importantly, is something that would be totally above board. Please.

Government Efficiency and Financial Success

REPORTER: Yeah, please. Go ahead. Mr. President, how much more would you like DOGE to cut from the federal government?

TRUMP: Well, it’s not so much DOGE anymore. And by the way, I have to say that somebody from DOGE was very badly hurt last night. You saw that a young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in D.C. And either they’re going to straighten their act out in terms of government and in terms of protection, or we’re going to have to federalize and run it the way it’s supposed to be run. But it’s not a question of DOGE. We have great people and all, working with those, and cutting with a—I said with a scalpel as opposed with an axe—cutting with a fine-tooth comb, and they’re getting rid of people that aren’t doing their job, or bad people, or bad things, bad policy, et cetera, et cetera. And I think we’ve been very successful in that. And there’s more cutting to do, but there’s also more getting—we want smart people in government.

TRUMP: Our country is doing great. I think we are doing probably maybe in many ways better than we’ve ever done before. You know, we’re taking in trillions, not billions, trillions and trillions of dollars from other countries who for years took advantage of us. They took advantage of the United States like we were children, and that’s not happening anymore. Now they’re paying a lot of money, and they’re paying hundreds of billions of dollars. Individual countries paying hundreds of billions of dollars. You’re seeing what everybody else is seeing. And we have a lot of things we can do. You know, one of the questions asked of me this morning is, are you going to make a dividend to the people? And the purpose of what I’m doing is primarily to pay down debt, which will happen in very large quantity. But I think there’s also a possibility that we’re taking in so much money that we may very well make a dividend to the people of America. Thank you all very much

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