Transcript: President Trump Remarks @Cabinet Meeting, Mar. 26, 2026

And even with a thing like this — but not just him. Every president for forty-seven years, every president should have done this. They should have done it a long time ago because you cannot give lunatics a nuclear weapon, and they would have had a big one.

The Iran Nuclear Threat and the B-2 Strike

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It stopped, really, when we did the B-2. But even before that, Barack Hussein Obama — what he did where he gave them the Iran nuclear deal, gave them free will toward a nuclear weapon. Basically, he chose Iran over Israel and others that didn’t want him to do it. But I terminated that deal. Had I not terminated that deal, you would have had a nuclear weapon years ago and it would have been used, guaranteed.

And one of the reasons you know about the guarantee is because their neighbors were sort of like bystanders. They weren’t involved very much. They didn’t choose heavy sides. They didn’t want to because people were concerned with Iran. There was a black cloud over the Middle East. They were concerned.

But all of a sudden, the worst starts and they start shooting at these five — in particular, five countries. They start shooting at Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman. They start shooting at them and everybody was shocked, including us. You know why? Because they’re sick and they had a plan to take over the Middle East. And some of those missiles that were shot at them were locked long before we even started this process. They were locked and loaded and aimed at those countries. They wanted to take over the Middle East, but we happened to come along. So it wasn’t so easy.

So right now, their navy is sunk in the largest elimination of a foreign navy that has taken place — maybe ever, but certainly since World War Two. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft and communications capabilities are totally dismantled.

And one of the problems they do have when they deal with us is we deal with people and the people aren’t able to communicate with anybody else. Because all of their leadership has been gone. The first level is gone, and they meant to pick a new level, and they’re gone. They’re all gone because they didn’t make a deal and because they’re sick people. They’re really sick. They’re really sinister sick people.

And if anybody thinks it was okay to have a group of people like this to have nuclear capability, nuclear weapons — and if we didn’t attack with the B-2 bombers, they would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks of that, maybe four weeks. But between two and four weeks, they were planning to have a nuclear weapon.

If we didn’t hit them at that time with the B-2 bombers in one of the great air raids in history — maybe the greatest. Dark at night, no moon, no light, every single bomb hit its mark and just obliterated that place. So it’s now buried deep under Earth. And it was an amazing thing, but they would have had a nuclear weapon and they would have used it without question.

And you know that because why did they shoot all these countries that weren’t even really involved with them? They weren’t involved. They had no big problems. Because they’re sick, because they want to take over the Middle East, not just Israel. Certainly, Israel would have been the first on their list. They would have used nuclear weapons on Israel, and they would have used it on their neighbors, and then they would have come after us.

And if we had a weak president, they would have done great damage. But fortunately, you don’t have a weak president. I knew what was happening. And I think we’ve been proven right.

NATO’s Inaction

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, they took one missile. It went 2,500 miles. They supposedly didn’t have a missile like that. They had no missile with that capability.

But they shot the now famous island — the island that The UK was very afraid to give us because they didn’t want to get dragged in. But we don’t want to get dragged into their wars either.

It’s one thing we’re very disappointed about — I’ll say it publicly — we’re very disappointed with NATO because NATO has done absolutely nothing. And I’ve always said, twenty-five years ago — I mean, I was somebody that wasn’t a politician, but I was always involved in politics and I understood politics. I said twenty-five years ago that NATO is a paper tiger, but more importantly, that we’ll come to their rescue, but they will never come to ours.

And I want you to remember that we said this — they didn’t come to our rescue. Now they all want to help. When they’re annihilated, the other side is annihilated, they said, “We’d love to send ships.” They actually made a statement, a couple of them, that “We want to get involved when the war is over.” No. It’s supposed to get involved when the war is beginning or even before it begins.

We had The UK say — and this is three weeks ago — “We’ll send our aircraft carriers,” which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have. “But we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over.” I said, “Oh, that’s wonderful. Thank you very much. We don’t bother. We don’t need it.” And we don’t need it. We don’t need them.

Ahead of Schedule

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission, and we’re way ahead of schedule. If you look at what we’ve done in terms of the destruction of that country, we’re way ahead. Think of it. They have no navy, and they had good ships. 154 ships have been shot down and are resting very nicely at the bottom of the sea. And we did that in a matter of less than a week because we have the greatest military in the world by far, nobody even close.

So we estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission. Twenty-six days in, we’re extremely, really a lot ahead of schedule.

The Iranian regime is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated. They’re saying to people, “This is a disaster.” They know it. That’s why they’re talking to us. They wouldn’t talk otherwise. But they’re talking to us because they’ve got disaster in their hands. They’re defeated. They can’t make a comeback. We’re free to roam over their cities and towns and destroy all of their crazy nuclear weapons and missiles and drones that they’re building.

They now have a chance to make a deal, but that’s up to them. And they’ll tell you, “We’re not negotiating. We will not negotiate.” Of course, they’re negotiating. They’ve been obliterated. Who wouldn’t negotiate? They are begging to make a deal. We’ll see if we can make the right deal. And if they make the right deal, then the Strait — Hormuz Strait — will open up.

Mine Droppers and Drug Interdiction

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And even now, we don’t know if there are any mines. They have twenty-two mine droppers — they call them mine droppers. Think of it. Who would have twenty-two mine droppers? This is a boat that drops mines. Who has twenty-two mine droppers? Except for people with very evil intentions.

So every one of those mine droppers has been struck with the same weapon we used to stop drugs from coming into The United States of America. When we hit those boats, it’s the exact same weapon, extremely effective. We have unlimited supplies and it’s extremely effective, but they have no more mine droppers.

By the way, speaking of drugs, we’re 98% down on drugs coming in by water, by the ocean, by the sea. 98%. And we’re trying to find out who are the 2% because we think they’re the bravest men anywhere in the world. Maybe women. But whoever’s on those boats is very brave or doesn’t watch television.

Drugs coming in by sea, coming in by water, are 98% down, and now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land. The land is the easy one. You had to stop the water. A lot of it came in through the water. Now it’s all pinched, and these people are trying to come in by land. And we will — that’s it. That’s the easy one. But we had to take care of the water first. Virtually nothing is coming in anymore. It was hundreds of millions of dollars a week coming in by water.

Iran’s Path Forward

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They now have the chance — that is Iran — to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to chart a new path forward. We’ll see if they want to do it. If they don’t, we’re their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away, unimpeded, unstopped. There’s not a thing they can do about it. They can’t do anything about it.

I tell you, if they could, you’d be hearing about it. You don’t hear anything about it. They can’t shoot our jets. We have the best military equipment in the world. Not even a contest. You see that with Venezuela? They had other equipment. They didn’t have ours. It didn’t work.

Venezuela and the Capture of a Dangerous Criminal

Didn’t work. Think of it. We did a the situation in Venezuela, it was a great military operation getting a very, very dangerous man who’s killed a lot of people, forced people into our country. Incredible. He let he emptied his prisons in Venezuela, emptied his prisons into our country.

And I hope that charge will be brought at some point because that was a big charge that hasn’t been brought yet. It should be brought. He emptied his prisons into our country and was a major purveyor of drugs coming into our country. And he’s now been captured and he’ll, you know, I guess, be given a fair trial. But I would imagine there are other trials coming because they have just they’ve really sued him just at a fraction of the kind of things that he’s done.

Other cases are going to be broad, as you probably know.

Iran and NATO

In the meantime, with Iran, we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. And nobody’s a match for The United States, but they’re not a match for The United States. It’s small potatoes. That’s why I’m so disappointed in NATO because this was a test for NATO.

This was a test. You can help us. You don’t have to. But if you don’t have you know, if you don’t do that, we’re going to remember. Just remember.

Remember this in a number of months from now. Remember my statements. They have an expression, a great expression. “Never forget.” You can never forget.

The Economy and American Prosperity

So as we end threats to America abroad, we’re focused here at home on building the greatest economy and the issue of the world. Now before this started, the Dow hit 50,000. The S&P hit 7,000. Both of those achievements were not were not achievable. Every one of you, most of you, I guess, said you’ll never hit 50,000 during a four year period because it was too high a number.

Well, hit it in our first year. And I said, well, now we have to take an excursion to Iran, and we have to stop this maniac who’s no longer with us. The supreme leader, wasn’t so supreme, no longer with us. It’s very sad. But we have to stop him from blowing up the world, blowing up The Middle East, and blowing up our country, and we did that.

And I thought, frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more, and I thought the stock market would go down more. It hasn’t been nearly as severe as I thought. I think they have confidence in maybe the American president and maybe the people sitting around this table.

But Americans filing their taxes this year are receiving record setting refunds. It’s been a very big story. Well, it should be a big story. I don’t think you write about it that much, but I speak about it. You know? I speak about it because if I speak about it, at least people hear you don’t write about it.

You don’t write about the drug prices going down. It’ll be going down thirty, forty, 60%, 70%. Favored nations. Call them most favored nations, we’re going to be paying the lowest price anywhere in the world. Before, we paid the highest price in the world, Bobby. Right?

And now we’re going to pay the lowest price in the world. That’s quite a difference. It’s a difference of from 40 to 70 and 80 and even 90 percent. That’s a pretty big difference.

But we’re slashing regulations and investment is pouring in from all over the world. We have the most investment of any country in history, has been put into our country in the last year. And again, we had to take a little detour. It won’t be long. Going to end soon. We had to take a little detour, go to Iran, and we had to put out a fire.

Very dangerous fire that could have blown up big portions of the world, if not the whole thing.

Support for American Farmers

So tomorrow, we’ll be announcing a variety of actions that we’re taking to support American farmers. We never forget. We love the farmers. We gave them $12 billion out of tariff money. We had a tremendous amount of tariff money come in, and we continue to have.

We’ve gone as you know, the Supreme Court gave us a very unfortunate, foolish ruling, a ruling that gives the people that have ripped off our country for many years, gives them some money back. It’s one of those things. It’s a terrible, terrible, horrible mistake they made, but it’s okay because we have another method that’s just as good. We’ll use the other method.

But because the tariff money has been so substantial, we gave our farmers who have been mistreated by some countries. We gave them $12 billion, and they’re extremely happy. And they deserve it. They’ve been great. They never complain. They just go out and they farm, and they wouldn’t do anything different.

They wouldn’t trade jobs with any of you, except maybe some of the fake media. I don’t know. Somehow, I don’t see that. I like their job better, actually. I love the farmers.

Introducing the Cabinet Speakers

So we gave them $12 billion. So in just a few moments, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant will discuss the actions that we’re taking to address energy prices, which have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. You know, it’s not over, so maybe it’ll go up a little bit more. It’s all going to come back down to where it was and probably lower. And my predictions have been right.

“Trump was right about everything.” They have a new hat. “Trump was right about everything.” It’s pretty right. But Scott’s going to address that.

And I think before we go very much further, I want to ask Vice President J.D. Vance to say a few words about where we are with the situation. He’s involved with Steve and with Jared on negotiations. And then some of the others will speak.

We’ll have Marco say a few words. Pete Hegseth, who was born for this role. I mean, he’s doing a great job. They gave him a hard time. And now people I tell you, somebody came up to me yesterday, gave you a very hard time, said, you know, made a mistake.

Pete Hegseth is doing a good job. So when I tell you who, you’re not even going to believe it. He said, “Hegseth. He gave you such a nasty hard time.” But you’re doing you’re doing great.

And then Steve is going to speak, and Scott will speak last. And if we have any questions, we’ll take some questions. You may have questions. I doubt it, but you may have. So JD, please.

Vice President J.D. Vance on Iran and National Security

VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: Yes, sir. Well, thank you. It’s good to see everybody. Proud to be part of this team, proud to be serving the president of the country. Let me just say a couple of things.

First of all, the president summarized this very ably. But look, the Iranian conventional military is effectively destroyed. They don’t have a navy. They don’t have the ability to hit us like they could have even a few weeks ago. What that does is that gives us options, Mr. President.

Now there’s been a lot of reporting about diplomatic options, about negotiations. There’s, of course, Pete and his team. There are further military options. But what we have now that we didn’t have when the president took over just a little over a year ago is the ability to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon. Because when I say options, I think it’s important the American people know options for what? And it’s options to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon.

You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on. And they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed and that’s a terrible tragedy. What happens when what’s on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people, but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people. That is the most important American national security objective that exists for any administration at any time is you don’t want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon. That’s why the president is doing this.

That’s why the president cares so much about this particular issue. I’ll let Steve talk a little bit about the details of the negotiation. But the last thing I’ll say before I turn it over to Marco is, I’m very mindful, of course, that we have a lot of folks overseas fighting very ably for The United States of America. Pete and the whole team, we’re very proud of them. But they’re fighting at a time where we are about to enter as Christians the most important week of the Christian calendar.

The holy week that celebrates the return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem. And so I want to say to all of my fellow American Christians, but particularly those serving in The Gulf, that I wish you all a very blessed Easter, a very blessed Holy Week. And we continue to stand behind you and continue to support you every step of the way. Thank you, sir.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Iran’s Threat to America

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Marco?

SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: The most important job any president has is to keep the American people safe. And every president says it, but we have a president that means it and does something about it. As the president outlined very clearly to the world on the night this operation began, Iran has been at war with The United States for forty seven years. For forty seven years, Iran has been killing Americans and attacking Americans across this planet.

And other presidents had an opportunity to do something about it, and they all warned about how Iran was dangerous, but they refused to act. And this president is not someone that’s going to refuse to act. He’s not going to leave a danger like this in place. He’s going to address it, and that is what he is doing.

From the very first night of this operation, the president made it very clear. People like this and now what I’m talking about is not the people of Iran. The people that run this country are radical Shia clerics. These are religious fanatics. Look what they are doing now at their weakest point. This is the weakest Iran has ever been, and look at what they’re doing.

They’re attacking embassies. They’re attacking hotels. Imagine what these people would do if they had a nuclear weapon. That is an unacceptable risk for the world.

By the way, the president’s not just doing a favor to The United States and to our people. This is for the world. He defined very clearly on the first night of this operation what the goal was. We were going to destroy Iran’s navy, and that is happening. We were going to if it hasn’t already happened, I’ll let Pete speak to the specifics of it.

We were going to destroy their missile launching capabilities, and we’re well on our way to achieving that goal. We were going to destroy the factory so they couldn’t make more missiles and more drones, and that is moving forward. Every single objective the president clearly laid out on the first night of this operation is being effectuated. Again, Pete will speak to the specifics of it. This has been an incredibly successful operation.

Every day, it may not get covered because, you know, we’re unlike them, we’re not bombing embassies and hotels. We’re hitting military targets. But every day, the Department of War lets the drummer get wicked over every portion of Iran that has these military capabilities, and the results are going to bear fruit for the world. The world is going to be a safer and a better place when President Trump’s mission here is achieved.

And frankly, I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should actually be grateful that The United States has a president that’s willing to confront a threat like this and not allow it to continue to persist because these people will kill as many Americans as they have a chance to do. And if they have a nuclear weapon, as the vice president pointed out, they could kill millions of Americans in the future. And that is a risk that was not going to continue to exist as long as we had this president.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Marco. But, you know, it’s very interesting because yesterday, I was watching he said, Anthony Blinken. And he was saying that they should have done it. But they didn’t do it. Nobody did it. Nobody did it.

For forty seven years, Marco, that’s the number. Forty seven? I guess now it’s forty eight because we’ve been saying forty seven for a long time. It’s probably forty eight. But for forty seven, forty eight years, every president should have done this. And some are saying now that they made a big mistake in not doing it, but we’re taking care of business.

Steve Witkoff on Diplomatic Negotiations with Iran

Steve Witkoff, please?

STEVE WITKOFF: Mr. President, it is my distinct honor to be a member of the cabinet to report to you and your team on our negotiations with Iran. Mr. President, you directed Jared and I to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran prior to Operation Epic Fury, which we did. However, it became quite clear during these meetings with the Iranian negotiating team that we could not make a deal that fulfilled your objectives of the following.

No enrichment whatsoever. No chance of weaponizing whatsoever. Decommissioning of Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan, which you destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer. No stockpiling of any material, which they flagrantly violated. Turning all enriched material over to us and a cutback in Iran’s missile inventory and range capability of those same missiles.

Throughout our meetings with the Iranians, we heard the following from them. The Iranians have the inalienable right to enrich. Then we heard they possessed enough 60% enriched material, 460 kilograms, to make 11 atomic bombs. Finally, we heard the following statement. “They would not give up diplomatically what we could not win militarily.”

In other words, they were again miscalculating the success of Operation Midnight Hammer, which was a total miscalculating success. These are incontrovertible signs among many other signs, sir, that their regime had not given their negotiating team authority to make a deal required by you.

Steve Witkoff’s Report on Iran Negotiations

STEVE WITKOFF: We conferred with you and all the other members of your foreign policy team, Susie Wiles, Pete Hegseth, the Chairman, Marco Rubio, JD, Scott Bessent, Chris Wright, John Ratcliffe, throughout all of these negotiations, and we were repeatedly rebuffed on everything we asked for. I have no doubt that we exhausted all efforts on behalf of a peaceful resolution as you directed. Jared and I both agreed that the Iranians were there to buy time until a weaker president arrived. This was a flawed strategy as your clear direction was to never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon today or anytime in the future.

Against that backdrop and our compelling military successes in Epic Fury, we have had multiple reach outs from the region and others who want to play a role in ending this conflict peacefully.

I can report to you today that we have, along with your foreign policy team, presented a 15 action list that forms the framework for a peace deal. This has been circulated through the Pakistani government acting as the mediator. And this has resulted in strong and positive messaging and talks as you just indicated to the press. But these are sensitive diplomatic discussions, and you have directed us to maintain confidentiality on the specific diplomatic terms and not negotiate through the news media as others do.

I can say this, we will see where things lead and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction.

We have strong signs that this is a possibility, and if the deal happens, it will be great for the country of Iran, for the entire region, and the world at large. Your policy of peace through strength is the most effective tool for a diplomatic resolution here, just as this policy was an effective tool in each and every one of all of the other conflicts you settled in your first year.

Iran is looking for an off ramp following your powerful threat on Saturday. Your indications that you are willing to listen to peace proposals have been well received. You’ve instructed us that your preference is always peace and that we should make that our priority.

We have delivered that message, sir, along with the 15 points for peace. Finally, we have told Iran one last thing. Don’t miscalculate again. Thank you very much. Everybody around this table is doing a great job.

Pete Hegseth on Operation Epic Fury

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Pete Hegseth, please.

PETE HEGSETH: Mr. President, I’ll start kind of where you left off. Thank you for doing the work of the free world and having the courage to step up and stop the Iranian terror regime from holding the world hostage.

That’s really what it is. And 27 days ago, Iran had a modern military. Never in recorded history has a nation’s military been so quickly and effectively neutralized. Operation Epic Fury is not an endless war. It’s a decisive campaign with clear objectives to destroy Iran’s offensive military capabilities and ensure they never obtain a nuclear weapon.

This is stuff for the history books. This is stuff for legacy. Mr. President, you are acting now to ensure future generations do not have to live under the threat of a nuclear armed Iran. However, you wouldn’t know it if you listen to the dishonest hate-Trump media as you referenced.

The folks here in the room, these cameras, they have a choice. You’re either informing the American people the truth or you’re not. Because I hear it from my people every day. Behind every headline you write, there’s a helicopter crew in the air. And behind every news banner you write, there’s a battalion on the move. And behind every fake news story, there’s an F-35 pilot executing a dangerous mission. My message to the media is get it right.

This actually isn’t something new to me. I may be a young guy, Mr. President, but I’m not a rookie in this realm. In 2007, I helped lead the public fight for the Iraq surge, stood and watched people stand in the Senate and declare the war is lost before it even started. Who was that? It was Harry Reid. That was the Democrats and the media working hand in glove.

Back then, it was three years into a war. Now we’re three weeks into an operation. But see, unlike Iraq, this isn’t a tie. This is not parity. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success, on plan, and as the president said, ahead of pace.

Over 10,000 enemy targets destroyed, over 150 — I think now you’re right, Mr. President — over 150 naval vessels sunk, underground facilities destroyed, their defense industrial base in shambles. And overnight, not only did they not have a navy, Mr. President, they no longer have a navy commander. The IRGC’s navy commander was killed overnight in operation. So no navy, no navy leader.

Now here’s the thing about the media, though. If President Trump had not acted, you’d be screaming, “Why not?” And now that he has taken decisive action, you’re asking, “Well, why did you?” It’s the same old tired playbook, TDS in your DNA. But the hardworking, God-fearing, patriotic Americans out there know better.

And you alluded to this, Mr. President. Here’s a fact that you don’t hear on your networks that we know. Many of the Iranian military factories and bases that we’re systematically destroying were paid for by the pallets of American cash that Barack Obama flew into Tehran under the Iran deal — you might call it an inconvenient truth. Iran took our money and turned it into weapons and bunkers and ammo, and now we’re destroying those weapons, and we’re writing, Mr. President, that grievous wrong.

And make no mistake, we had to act. And our objectives are clear. No nukes, no navy, and a complete dismantling of their missile program and defense industrial base. And as Marco pointed out, and the VP as well, that mission has not changed since day one.

Yet, two days ago, they shot two failed missiles at a target 4,000 kilometers away. For years, they told the world that their missiles could only range two kilometers. Surprise. Yet again, Iran lied. And to the world, I say London is 4,000 kilometers from Iran. Washington DC is 3,300 kilometers from Venezuela, another country President Trump did something about, that partnered for a long time with Iran. So you’re telling us that Iran is not a threat to the world? President Trump knows better.

Assessment of Military Progress

And here’s what success actually looks like right now. You mentioned it, Mr. President. A-10 Warthogs — if you know them, you love them — and Apache helicopter gunships are flying strike missions inside Iranian airspace and throughout the Strait of Hormuz at will. See, you only send these slow, low-flying, close air support platforms when the enemy has no meaningful air defenses left. Their presence is proof that Iran’s air defenses are gone.

Their command and control has shattered, their top leaders hiding in underground bunkers while their mid-level commanders are being crushed in the field. The morale of their fighters plummeting, and we see that disconnect daily. They’re privately admitting, as you said, Mr. President, very heavy losses. We know that.

President Trump has given us a clear mission. Our capabilities are only going up, Iran’s are plummeting. We are here to win, and we’re full speed ahead.

So, Steve, we appreciate your efforts. We pray for a deal, and we welcome a deal, and we have the ultimate dealmaker to make it happen. But in the meantime, as I said yesterday, the Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs. War is negotiation by other means.

And finally, I want to thank our incredible troops, our pilots, crews, sailors, refuelers, air defenders, the absolute best of America, the real 1% of our country. This president, President Trump, has your back. And I know this cabinet prays for you every single day, and we ask the American people to do the same as they continue in this mission. God bless. Thank you, sir.

President Trump on Domestic Crime and Border Security

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s great. I think before I ask Scott to say a couple of words, it would be great if people like the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, “Please come in and stop the crime.”

A beautiful young lady was killed the other day, and the father was a very good friend of Dan Scavino. And he took it very hard. Dan took it very hard. He liked the father. Friends. They grew up together. And it’s a young lady whose life would be saved if we had done what we did, as an example, in Washington DC, which is now a safe city.

All the time, people come up to me in the building. People that work here, they say, “Thank you so much.” I know immediately what they’re talking about. They’re able to walk to work. They walk to work. You all walk to work. Some of you were mugged. I know because you told me stories. Some of you — one person in particular — was viciously mugged. And that’s not happening anymore. You have a safe city.

The governor of Louisiana called me. “Could you help me with New Orleans?” He said it was the safest Mardi Gras we’ve ever had. Sounds terrible to say — no murders. You know, it sounds like, who would say this? No murders. But they always had murders. They had a lot of crime during Mardi Gras. He said, “Virtually no crime. We had the troops down there.”

Memphis, Tennessee — I just got back. We were there. Crime is down 75%. In a short period of time, we’re there five months. We could do that for Chicago. We could do that for New York. We could do that for LA. And we could do that for, frankly, San Francisco.

I know they have a mayor who’s trying very hard. He’s a Democrat, but he’s trying very hard. But we can do it much more effectively because he can’t do what we do. He can’t take people out from the city and bring them back to the country from where they came, where they were in prisons. They were allowed to go in prisons. There were drug dealers, highest level drug dealers, murderers — 11,888 murderers. We do things that they can’t do.

I had friends calling me up from San Francisco. “Could you give him a chance?” I said, “Absolutely. If you want, I’m going to give him a chance.” He’s trying. He’s doing okay, but we could do much better. We could make it a lot safer than it is. San Francisco, a great city — was a great city — could quickly become a great city again. But they’re going very slowly.

I tell my friends, they’re very substantial people. They’re in a certain business where people have made a lot of money. I just hope that lasts. But they have tremendous potential. It was one of the greatest cities in the world. Now it’s got a lot of crime. And the mayor is really trying. Again, a Democrat trying. And I spoke to him. He just wants to have a chance. And I said, “We’ll give you a chance, but we can solve it very quickly.”

The Border and Immigration

This young lady would be around today if we were around, because we have nobody coming through our border. I mean, literally, for nine months, it’s zero. It’s hard to believe that that number can be possible because millions of people came in through Biden. But nobody even tries. We don’t have the caravans of thousands — 25, 30,000 people pouring into our border. They come up in caravans. We don’t have caravans anymore. There’s no such thing anymore. It’s a name that I think I developed, but somebody developed it — I think it was me. I thought it was inappropriate. Thousands of people would come up and just barge into our country, totally unchecked, totally undreaded.

And this man came in, Dan. Right? And he came in through the ridiculous open border of Biden. If we were there — the election was rigged, what are you going to do? Came back. Big comeback. But if we were there, we wouldn’t have had people coming through.

It’s amazing. You know, it’s so easy now because everyone knows they’re not getting through. We don’t have any caravans. Once they know that — when it was easy to come through. When I heard that they had an open border policy, I said, “Boy, this is going to be —” I couldn’t believe it. But when it actually — you know, it dawned on me because I had built a thousand miles of wall. And we were finishing up some, and he didn’t want to finish it up. I said, “They really do want to have an open border.” And we got it finished.

But that young lady would be alive today. And she’d be alive for another reason, because we would have the National Guard in Chicago and in New York and in other places. And they love doing it. It’s like training. To be honest, it’s actually training. I never want to take them out of DC. I mean, maybe somebody later on will do it, but I never want to — you know, the people, they look, they say, “We feel so good. We feel so safe. We see these beautiful, strong people, and they’re so nice. They help — they open the doors for people. They carry bags. They pick up paper when they see paper on the ground.”

I looked at DC last night. I drove to make a speech, and I drove through, and I said, “Take me this way. Take me that way.” The city is clean. The fences are down. You don’t have homeless all over your parks. I mean, we had parks — you couldn’t — there was no room for anything else other than homeless. It’s all clean and nice. And it’ll be even more beautiful in a year from now. And we have some projects that are great.

This ballroom is going to be something that’s so beautiful for this city, so desperately needed by presidents. I mean, now it’s no secret. The military wanted it more than anybody. It was supposed to be secret, but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things. But doesn’t matter.

Fixing Up Washington: The Kennedy Center, Federal Reserve, and Government Spending

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Doesn’t matter. It’s going to be great. We’re building an arc, a triumphal arc, will be incredible for the city. Incredible. We’re fixing up the what was the Kennedy Center.

You know, they were — I was honored when the board changed the name a little bit. Actually, it shows that the Republican and the Democrats, they work together. It’s really something we work together. So I think it’s a great symbol, actually. But we’re doing a lot of work.

That building is ready to fall down. It’s in terrible shape. We’re closing it. We’re going to open it with a bang in less than two years. It’ll come in under budget ahead of schedule.

That’s what I do. It won’t be like the Federal Reserve that’s costing $4 billion or something thereabouts. Think of it. $4 billion. You know, it’s amazing.

I said to the group before, I said, everything I do, I get sued. I build under budget, ahead of schedule. I get sued over a ballroom that’s going to be the most beautiful ballroom in the country, so desperately needed. You won’t have to have tents sitting on the wet White House lawn. If it rains, you get wiped out to honor the president of China or the president of France or the president of somewhere.

You could have the grids. We get sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They don’t know what they’re doing. Then I just found out we got sued by that group and another group, I guess, on the fixing up of — again, I’ll use the old name, Kennedy Center — because they’re not fixing up Trump candidate. What it’s going to be beautiful when you add the name Trump.

But we get sued, and all I’m doing is fixing it up. We’re fixing broken marble. We’re putting on a roof because it leaks like a sieve. We’re fixing steel that’s broken. It’s the same building, same exact building.

We’re fixing — it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be so — and safe. It’s actually unsafe. You had some of those columns on the outside that were painted a fake gold. Now we painted them a beautiful white color.

Beautiful cream white. It’s beautiful. Everyone said it’s so much more beautiful now instead of a cheap — you can’t imitate gold. See, I’m a gold person. It’s all real stuff.

You can’t imitate it. They’ll someday discover a paint that will look like gold, and the guy’s going to be the richest man in the world. But you can’t imitate real gold. It just doesn’t — that’s 24 carat, which is what this building deserves. But think of it.

I get sued because I’m fixing up the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re going to make it gorgeous and safe. We’re fixing new windows, new this, but just all fix up. I get sued by preservationists. But you know who they didn’t sue?

The Federal Reserve Building: A Case Study in Government Waste

The man that took this beautiful Federal Reserve building — that’s small, much smaller than the hotel I built. I built the Waldorf Astoria hotel down the road, and it was a beautiful job for $200 million, $201 million. It’s bigger, I think, than the Federal Reserve building.

And it’s got rooms and bathrooms, and it’s not like just an open office space, which is much cheaper to build. Think of this. I hear he’s going to be over $4 billion for a little building. He doesn’t get sued by anybody but me. I sue because it’s either somebody’s very crooked, which has to be, because what happened to all that money?

You can’t sue. I would have done that building for $25 million. It’s going to cost maybe $4 billion, and we have a great new person coming in to take over the Fed. And Kevin may not ever have an office because I don’t know if they’re going to be able to build. I passed that building the other day.

It’s a see-through. You know what see-through means? There’s no walls up, and they’re going to spend — but the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a joke, by the way, they didn’t sue that building. They didn’t sue anybody. But they sue me, and I build — and by the way, my building — it’s all donations.

Rich people and people are putting up the money. Zero taxpayer dollars. Is that right, Scott? Zero taxpayer dollars. This stuff is all done for free and I get sued.

This can only happen to Trump. But they don’t sue the guy whose interest rates are too high. That’s why we call him “Too Late.” His name is Jerome Powell. We call him Jerome Too Late Powell, and done a terrible job.

He suffers from Trump derangement syndrome, as he probably should because I hit him pretty hard, and so I don’t blame him. But they don’t sue a man who has taken this gorgeous building, ripped it down from the inside, taking ceilings that are as beautiful as you’ve ever seen, taking the ceilings down instead of leaving them, taking walls down that were two feet thick of solid concrete and plaster, replacing them with six-inch walls with no insulation. I said, “Let me ask you. Are you going to put insulation in?” “No.”

“It’s not in the budget.” Insulation costs $5. Okay. Now you’re going to hear the guy next door. If he’s next door to me, I’ll be able to hear his military plan.

I’ll know exactly. If Lutnick is in there, I’ll say, “Oh, I know exactly what Lutnick’s got planned.” It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. They’ve ripped this gorgeous building apart, and you can never build it again. I could, but it costs a lot of money.

But a normal person can never build — so you’re going to have crummy little walls, a flat little ceiling eventually, but right now, you don’t have anything. And nobody sues this guy. And then when Jeanine Pirro, working with Pam and others, has the courage to sue to find out what happened to maybe $4 billion at a building that may never be occupied by Kevin Warsh — she may never get there. We’re going to have to find him some space in the White House. We’ll put him in the basement of the ballroom.

But when Jeanine Pirro and Pam and the group — when they bring a suit, it’s like this terrible thing. And then we have a judge that attacks us. She attacks us.

So we’ve got to get our priorities straight, you know. It’s a very sad thing that’s happened with the Fed. And then just one other thing very quickly — you have Gavin Newsom come in, California railroad. That’s 100 times over budget. It’s out of control.

It was supposed to go from the middle of San Francisco to the middle of LA. Well, now it stops way short of both. It now goes into areas that nobody ever heard of. It’s billions and billions of dollars over budget, years and years, maybe decades late. And that’s why we have a country that has a lot of problems, you know.

We have incompetent people. It’s all people. Think of this. Federal Reserve — I would have had that building done for $25 million. If I did it, it was up to somebody else — would have done it for more.

So maybe $50 million. But you could have done that building if it was properly done and planned. I would have done it for $25 million and it would be better. It would be better.

The Sharpie Pen Story: A Lesson in Smart Spending

See this pen right here? This pen is an interesting example. It’s the same thing. So this pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well.

I like it. But I can’t have the pen the way it was. You know what it is. I don’t want to give too much publicity, but they do treat me well — Sharpie. So I came here and they have thousand dollar pens.

And, you know, you hand pens out, you’re signing, and you hand them out, you’re handing them to all these people. Sometimes you have thirty, forty people, and they were a thousand dollars apiece. Beautiful pen. Ballpoint. Thousand.

It was gold, silver, gorgeous. But I’m handing out to kids that don’t even know what the hell — “What is this, mommy?” It’s kids. They’re getting a pen for a thousand dollars. They have no idea what it is. And I feel guilty because I’m like, you know, by nature, I don’t — it’s the government. I love the government like I love myself economically. I want to save money. So I’m saying, “This is crazy.”

And I had another problem. They didn’t write well. So I take it out, and I sign, and there’s no ink. And I got all you people looking, and you’re saying, “There must be something wrong with Trump.” And I’m signing, and there’s no ink in the pen, and it costs a thousand dollars.

This one — I called the guy. I said, “I’d like to use your pen, but I can’t have a gray thing with a big S on it.” Sharpie. As I’m signing a trillion dollar airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets, brand new B-2 bombers — of which we just ordered plenty — I can’t do that with the press.

“Use your pen, but I like the pen the best. But I’ll sign it.” I could do like Biden did, you know? Give it to somebody else to sign or an auto pen or maybe sign it separately in another room, but I can’t use your pen. He said, “Well, I can make it nicer.” He said, “What can you do?” He said, “I’ll paint it black.” I said, “That’s nice.” “And I can even paint the White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold.” Almost real gold. Not bad. “And I can even do your signature, sir.”

And by the way, this was not staged. I just saw the pen sitting there and I thought that this is an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve Building would be a better job than $4 billion that they’re spending. And you know one of the things that Kevin Warsh told me?

He said they ripped down the nicest building. I don’t know what building they’re talking about. They ripped down a building, Scott. Right? Kevin — Washington, it’s the most beautiful building in Washington. He said the most beautiful space. They ripped it down. Why did they do that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know. Do you know what he’s talking about? Is it true?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, sir. They ripped it down.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We have a moron at the Fed. Who wouldn’t be lowering interest rates right now? But I want to thank Jeanine Pirro and Pam and her group for having the courage to bring this suit. And I believe that the contractor on that job is probably one of the richest men in the country right now. I believe that it’s not possible to spend that kind of money. $3 billion, $4 billion. Nobody knows.

Nobody has any idea what it is. But it’s over $3 billion, and it’s probably going to be over $4 billion by the time they finish. And it may never get finished unless I take it over. I’ll get it finished. But it can never be what it was.

It’s never going to have those beautiful ceilings. It’s never going to have those incredible walls. The walls were a foot and a half thick of solid masonry. They ripped them down for no reason. And I just gave you the story, and just to finish on this one.

So I told that story to somebody and said, “Yeah, but I mean, but it’s not the same thing.” I said, “You’re right. This one is better. It writes.” So the guy said to me, “You don’t have to pay me, sir. I’ll give them to you for nothing.” I said, “No. I don’t want that. Let me pay you. I want to pay you.” “No, sir. You don’t have to. You’re the president of the United States.” He was shocked. Head of Sharpie gets a call. I don’t even know who the hell he is. “Is this really the president?” He said, “No. You don’t have to pay me, sir. This is such an honor.” I said, “Nope. I want to pay you.” And he said, “What would you like to pay?” I said, “How about $5 a pen?” He said — whatever the hell we agreed to. Peanuts. As opposed to a thousand.

And these were thousand dollar pens, and we were giving them — sometimes, you know, you were there for signing. So I’d have thirty, forty people standing behind me. I’d give out 40 pens to people. Then somebody would say, “Could I have a couple extra?” This way, go like this. “Hey. You want five? Here, take five.”

But the bottom line is they’re better pens. It’s a business story. So for $5 — it could be zero, but for $5 — I get a much better pen than for a thousand dollars. And I could hand them out, and actually they become hot as a pistol. So what can I tell you?

Secretary Bessent Addresses Economic and National Security

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. With that, could I give it to — please — a man who’s done a great job at Treasury. Good luck, the president. Good luck, Scott.

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, sir, as always, you’re a tough act to follow, but that is very illustrated. Your economic leadership has made our military mission possible. Mr. President, national security, as you always say, is economic security. Your leadership has shown the American people that there is no prosperity without security, that our mighty military on one side with the U.S. economic strength — they is fighting off this evil regime.

The Iranians believe they are fighting a two-front war. It is the military war that our great warriors are prosecuting. But on the other side, they are trying to take control of the global economy through a choke point that we believe does not exist and that we will overcome. The historic operation at Epic Fury seized a generational opportunity to demolish a regime that has coordinated over four decades of global terror and claimed thousands of American lives.

Many people, especially the Democrats, underestimate the will of the American people for short-term volatility for fifty years of safety that we are going to have on the other side of this. And I believe energy prices will be lower, inflation will be lower.

Treasury’s Role in Maximum Pressure Campaign

Before, we had the appearance of security, which is not real security. Now the American people and the world will have absolute security. Through your maximum pressure campaign, treasury has worked to uncover all financial lifelines through the regime and cut them off. You gave that order last March. This was not something that happened overnight.

This is something that has been contemplated for almost a year. They’re finding that the Iranian financial system collapsed in December. We have systematically weakened Iran’s ability to fund operations and procure weapons, and that required months of preparations. Threats to American national security have no place in the global economic system. The oil market is well supplied.

We’ve taken actions to ensure oil supplies stranded at sea are made available to the global market. Your bold actions like the Development Finance Corporation’s maritime reinsurance program in conjunction with Central Command will soon provide shippers through the Gulf Region with a level of security we had never seen before. Mr. President, we are starting to see more and more movement in and out of The Gulf today, and this is more than yesterday, and this is the beginning. I am confident that shipping traffic will continue to increase on a daily basis even before we secure the Straits.

U.S. Economy and Working Family Tax Cuts

Turning to the home front, the U.S. economy remains strong. We had a strong economy thanks to you. We are the best insulated in the world thanks to your energy efforts in term one and term two. The U.S. is an energy superpower. American workers’ purchasing power is finally being restored. The latest figures indicate robust real compensation increases.

We are starting to see the working family tax cuts benefits bearing fruit this tax season. 44% of tax returns have claimed at least one of your signature policies — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans. The average tax refund is up more than 10% for working Americans.

The economy you’ve utilized through your pro-growth policies is well positioned to withstand these temporary disruptions. The United States dollar has reasserted itself as a safe haven asset. The U.S. dollar has appreciated since the hostilities began because everyone knows, thanks to your efforts, the U.S. economy is the best positioned in the world and capital is flowing in.

Efforts to reprioritize economic security are ensuring the United States remains secure, resilient, and prepared for the challenges ahead. As we approach the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, America will never be safer and more secure militarily and economically. Thank you.

President Trump’s Remarks on the Cabinet

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Aaron? I just want to ask you a question. Is this guy central casting? I’m looking at him. I’m in treasury. He might not be so good for war. I don’t know. He’s looking pretty good. No. I’m looking pretty good too. I’m looking at this guy. He’s central casting. He’s even — the glasses are perfect. Will you — you get those glasses? I think I’m going to get glasses like that. That’s beautiful. That’s a good one. Great job. That’s really good.

No. He’s done a great job, and you all have — proud of you all. Do you have any questions?

Q&A with Reporters

REPORTER: Yes. Mr. President, are you going to go in for the uranium? Like, how do you secure Iran and —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let’s assume I was or I wasn’t. Why would I ever answer a question? What kind of a question — am I going to go in for the — oh, yeah. I’m going in. We’re going in tomorrow at 3:00. How could you possibly ask a question like that and expect an answer? I don’t know. But I think you’re a friendly person too. It’s a ridiculous question.

REPORTER: Mr. President. Mr. President, can you hear me? Mr. President? You, Mr. President. There’s been a report that potentially the U.S. is looking at diverting some munitions, air defenses that were meant for Ukraine to the Middle East. Is there any accuracy to that? Is that something you’re considering?

On Ukraine and Diverting Munitions

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’d have to ask you, but we do that all the time. You know, we have tremendous amounts of ammunition. We have them in other countries. Like in Germany and all over Europe, we have — you know, we’re packed. And we take sometimes, take from one and we use for another. We help Ukraine.

Biden started it, and he gave $350 billion away. Too much — way too much. And we sell it now to NATO. We sell it to NATO, and they probably give it to Ukraine, mostly, I think. They give it to Ukraine, but we get paid for everything that we give. We don’t give anything anymore.

That’s a tough situation, that whole Ukraine situation. Very, very tough. We’re working very hard on getting that one solved. It doesn’t have any impact on us, virtually nothing. In fact, if anything, I mean, we sell a lot of equipment for that unfortunate war.

Twenty-five thousand people died last month. Twenty-five thousand. Mostly soldiers. Some in the — but for the most part, they’re dying. Nobody’s seen anything like it since World War Two. It’s a terrible situation, and hopefully, that’s going to get settled.

On Settling the Ukraine War

You know, settled eight wars, and many of them, I think, were more difficult than this one. In theory, they would’ve been more difficult, but there’s tremendous hatred between President Putin and President Zelensky. Tremendous hatred. I’ve seen it before, but I’ve never seen it maybe to this extent. And I think that’s calming down a little bit, and I think we have a chance of getting it done.

But it doesn’t affect us — thousands of miles away. That’s why when I heard the head of Germany say, “This is not our war,” about Iran, I said, well, Ukraine’s not our war. We helped, but Ukraine’s not our war. I thought it was a very inappropriate statement to make. But he made it. You can’t erase it. But he felt that way. And I said, well, you know, Ukraine’s done our work. But it’s not. But I would like to see all those young people stop being killed. And they’re being killed. It’s like a slaughterhouse. What’s happening there is horrible.

Twenty-five thousand — our last two months ago, was thirty-one thousand people died in one month, Marco. Right? I said, it’s getting crazy. It’s getting worse. Think of it. 31,000 soldiers, both Russian and Ukrainian, died two months ago. Twenty-five thousand last month. And if I can solve that, it would be a great honor to do it. I wish it could’ve gone faster.

On India-Pakistan and Stopping the Death

You know, I solved the other ones in one day that had been going for thirty-two years. We stopped one that was starting — it was already started. India and Pakistan. And the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a gentleman, said President Trump solved something that was going to cost 10 million lives. That was going to cost a lot of lives. Two nuclear nations. And those were complicated, but we got them done quickly. This one is — it’s a shame. And the only reason I’m doing it, frankly, is because I want to stop death. I want to stop the death from happening.

On Gas Taxes and the Economy

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think I’m going to go with a man that I’ve missed, Brian. I haven’t seen you in a long time. I’ve missed you. He’s been in a very strange location. I don’t know. He’s had a strange thing happen. But, anyway, go ahead, Brian.

REPORTER: Well, good to see you too. Actually, good to see that your cabinet is running — good to see you too. You talked about —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, some people should do that. As an example, in California, every time prices go down, his prices go up because they — you know, the gas tax is bigger than the tax itself, bigger than the product itself. It hasn’t — I mean, we’ve thought about it, I guess. But, honestly, when I did this, I knew it was going to be a little bit — we had the greatest economy ever. We had the greatest stock market in history. I said, we’re going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit. It’s going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion.

I said we’re going to have a great stock market. Nobody thought we could get to 50,000 or 7,000 in their respective indices. Nobody thought that was going to happen, but it did in the first year. They said it couldn’t happen in four years, that you wouldn’t hit 50 in four years, but you could maybe get close. We hit it in the first year. And I said, this is a good time to solve a problem that you had to solve. And that’s what I did.

But the gas tax — you know, people have talked about it. It’s something we have in our pocket if we think it’s necessary.

On English Proficiency Requirements for Drivers

REPORTER: And if I could follow up real quickly — you just recently took off, Secretary Duffy, 17,000 truckers off the road that quite frankly could not speak English, which is a safety issue. Could we ever extend that to Uber drivers, Lyft drivers, cab drivers? Someone who takes a lot of Uber — a lot of my drivers can’t speak —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, that’s not good. I didn’t like that. Go ahead, Chuck.

SECRETARY DUFFY: See, that’s a really good point. The problem is that our states are the ones that issue these licenses. So with commercial driver’s licenses, we do have some federal control. But, again, we have thousands of people who can’t speak the language — long-standing rule — and it’s a safety issue. Right? If you can’t understand road signs, if you can’t communicate with law enforcement when you’re pulled over and communicate what’s on your rig, huge problem.

But the last administration, Mr. President, they let truck driving schools self-certify that they were qualified to train truck drivers. So you pay $800 and you get a certificate that you passed a CDL driving school. And, again, they have no skills. They don’t have the knowledge, and they don’t have the skills. They haven’t gone through any of the testing. And then they get licenses, and they’re killing Americans on our roads. So it’s remarkable, the rot that the last administration allowed to take place. We are ending that, and I need partnership with our states. Even California has started to come on board. Even Gavin has started to play ball with us, which is surprising. Not all the way. A little bit.

On Nursing Homes, Daycare Centers, and Judges

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, it’s interesting because I just saw something — the nursing home business and the daycare centers in particular, they went out and inspected them in Minnesota, and they didn’t exist. They’re knocking — it happens to be a young man, Nick. Nice young man. He’s done a very good job. They’re knocking on doors. It’s like homes, and they’re getting hundreds of thousands — they didn’t exist.

And in California, it’s worse. It’s even worse. And I spoke with Russell Vought. I said, “Russell, don’t send him any money.” He said, “But we have a court order that we have to.” So can you believe it? A judge. The judges are really hurting this country. Justice Roberts doesn’t like what I say, but the judges are really hurting this country. And frankly, the justices — the Supreme Court has really hurt our country too.

On Iran Negotiations and Deadline

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you have a new deadline given that there are some talks now? Do you have a new deadline before taking —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ll announce it. I mean, right now, you’re talking about a deadline for doing some pretty big damage, even bigger than we’ve done. We’ll see. Well, look, we have very substantial talks going on with respect to Iran with the right people. You know, I told you about a president. Right? Steve, can I reveal the present?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You can do anything you want, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They said to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there. “We’re going to let you have eight boats of oil. Eight boats. Eight big boats of oil.” This was two days ago. And they’ll sail up tomorrow. That was three days ago. And I didn’t think much about it. And then I watched the news and they said — a very good anchor, actually. Happened to be Fox. But I watched it and he said, “Something’s unusual happening. There are eight boats that are going right up the middle of the Hormuz Strait. Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through.” And I said, well, I guess they were right. And they were real. And I think they were Pakistani flagged. Yes. And I said, well, I guess we deal with the right people.

And, actually, they then apologized for something they said. And they said, “We’re going to send two more boats.” And it ended up being 10 boats. Alright? I hope I haven’t screwed up your negotiations, but I thought it was appropriate to say because I did taunt you the other day by saying they’re going to give us a present.

On ICE Agents at San Francisco Airport

REPORTER: Illegal immigrants who were arrested in San Francisco Airport for ignoring deportation orders — at the same time, as you highlighted, really great reception from American travelers for ICE agents. Is there a PR aspect of this that can allow future deportations to go on with less protesting, less outrage?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. It’s amazing because by putting ICE there — look, the press was very unfair to ICE, so was everyone else. These are great American patriots. They have a tough job. They have to find murderers and take them out of our country. I wouldn’t want to do it. You wouldn’t want to do it. Most people wouldn’t want to do it. They do it.

And, you know, 11,888 murderers — and that’s murderers. That’s not drug dealers. That’s not lots of other things. It’s not people from mental institutions. Entire jail populations were released from major countries and let into our country through the open border. And ICE has done an amazing job. I wouldn’t want that job. It’s a tough job. Dangerous job.

So what happens is, by putting them at the airport — and I did say, “Do me a favor, take off your masks,” and they did. For that. Not for when they’re looking for some cold-blooded killers and they’re in the — but for that. And they did. They took them off.

Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and Military Pressure

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And the passengers — I see the interviews of people. They’re saying, these are nice people. One person said, he’s a very strong man, but he’s a nice guy. He grabbed my bag. He helped the woman with a bag that she couldn’t lift.

And I’ll tell you, I don’t want to use the word rehab because there was nothing to rehab, but rehab from the press, you know, because the press is so tough on them. And these crooks in Minnesota, these crooked politicians and dirty cops — and dirty cops, they’re dirty politicians. Walt is a dirty crooked politician. The attorney general is a crooked guy. He’s no investigations, and I hope JD is going to do a great job.

He’s in charge of it now with somebody who’s very talented. But I think it’s easy stuff. They say $19 billion. Think of it. It’s missing.

$19 billion. You know, if we would solve half of the fraud problem, Pam, in this country, we would have more than a balanced budget. We’d have a surplus. And in the case of Minnesota, it’s very Somalia oriented. Think of it.

These people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world, acknowledged to be one of the worst countries in the world. Some people say it’s the worst. They have no money. They have nothing. They come to our country, low IQs, and they rob us blind.

Stupid people. And they rob us blind because we have crooked politicians and we have dirty cops. Attorney general is a dirty cop. It’s my opinion. It’s only my opinion.

And something should be done about him. Let’s see what kind of job he —

Mail-In Ballots

REPORTER: Mr. President, yesterday you said that you think Iran will — Excuse me? Should Iran be able to charge a toll for the Strait of Hormuz? They’re charging some vessels to go through.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, yeah. Well, should they be able to? Yeah. I mean, they shouldn’t be able to, but they’re doing it a little bit. Look. Their capability is a lot less than it was two weeks ago. And with every week and every day, frankly, it gets less and less. All I can tell you is they’re begging to make a deal. So let’s see what happens. We may make that.

REPORTER: Tell me about mail-in ballots, go ahead.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I — you mean I used the mail-in ballot? You probably said, yeah, did.

REPORTER: Why did you use the —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I’m President of the United States. And because of the fact that I’m President of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine taking —

REPORTER: You were in Palm Beach, sir, the last few weekends.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right. And I yeah. And I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn’t be there because I had a lot of different things. But, you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots. You do know that. Right?

So if you’re away, we have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you’re on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re disabled, we have an exception. And if you’re ill, if you’re not feeling good, whatever. So I was away, mostly in Washington DC, so I used the mail-in ballot. But I appreciate the question because I know it was so well meaning.

The Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s Military Capabilities

REPORTER: Tankers going through the Strait of Hormuz, is that a condition to move that five-day deadline?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we don’t want anything impeded. We want ships to go through. We don’t know that they’ve dropped any mines, by the way, because we blew up all their mine droppers. Right? We blew up every one of them. They’re going to have to take them out on a rowboat or something. I don’t know how the hell they get out there, but we don’t really know. You might speak to it. We don’t know.

There could be a few of them out there, but that’s a lot. You know, if you have a billion dollar ship and you get hit by a mine, it’s not the greatest thing in the world. So if you think there may be a mine, that’s a bad thought, and it stops things up. How are we doing in that regard, Peter?

SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Mr. President, you’re right. We have so heavily degraded their coastal defense capabilities and their naval capabilities that any strategic or operational attempts to do those types of things are extremely limited, and we continue to move over the top of that. Now whether Iran makes a wise choice or not to try to execute that is part of how this deal comes together. But with every passing day, the military pressure that we’re putting on them lessens their ability to hold that militarily at issue.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So is it very — I mean, the problem with the issue of the Hormuz Strait is this. We’ve decimated them as a military. No air force, no navy, very few rockets left. We blew up so many. Hard to manufacture them. Same thing with drones.

The leadership is good. The problem with the Straits is this. Let’s say we do a great job. We say we got 99%. 1% is unacceptable because 1% is a missile going into the hull of a ship that cost a billion dollars. Right? So 1% — we can’t — if we do a 99% decimation, that’s no good. So it’s really, you know, a little bit. But I have a feeling it’s going to clean up pretty quickly.

REPORTER: How close are you going to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I can just say this. They want to make — they want to make — and I probably hurt our little negotiation. It gives them a little impetus to say, well, I wish you didn’t say that. But they said yesterday that we weren’t negotiating with them, and now they admit that we were negotiating with them. So they want to make a deal. The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat to shit.

Iran’s Oil and Venezuela

REPORTER: Are you guys even taking control of Iran’s oil?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s an option. I mean, I wouldn’t talk about it, but it’s an option.

REPORTER: Is that something you thought about?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, in Venezuela, we’ve done very well working with Venezuela, certainly. And we’ve taken in billions and billions of dollars. And by the way, Venezuela is doing better right now than they’ve ever done in the history of their country. And it’s sort of like a joint venture. But the United States has made a lot of money, Marco. Right? With it, do you want to talk about that for a second? About Venezuela?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Yeah. I mean, I think Venezuela in the first two months of this year generated more revenue from oil sales than they had most of all of last year. But the money is not being stolen anymore. And it’s being held in a US Treasury blocked account. And to the extent it’s flowing to the Venezuelan government, it’s going to help people, like fund hospitals, pay teachers. It’s not —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We get a lot of it, and they got more than they have in many years. Think of it. We get a lot of it. We have a deal. We get a lot of it. We had 100 million — think of this — 100 million barrels we took in in the first two weeks. 100 million barrels. That’s a lot of oil. It’s a lot of ships. And we got some and they got some. We paid for the ships with a lot of money left over.

And Venezuela has done better now with us. Call it a partner. Call it whatever you want. We’ve made a lot of money, and they’ve made a lot of money. We’ve paid for the cost of that military hit many, many times over, and we’ve only just started.

Our relationship with Venezuela has been amazing. The people actually — I’m the highest polling person. And in other words, after the presidency, I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy. I may run against Delcy. It’s an option. No. They like me in Venezuela, but it’s an option for me. It’s a wonderful option.

Gulf Allies and Regional Security

REPORTER: Sir, there’s some reports that Gulf allies are concerned about winding down the war too soon, potentially leaving Iraq —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they probably like us to stay. But if we don’t stay — like, it’s a beautiful thing about airplanes that go 2,000 miles an hour. You can get back there very quickly. If we don’t say we’re going to be protecting them — you know, they’ve been very good. Hey. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, in particular, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the three of them, Kuwait, Bahrain. They’ve been 100%.

Now, in all fairness, you know, they could’ve gone the other way. They were surprisingly — they were shot at. Nobody ever thought they’d be shot at. UAE had 1,400 missiles aimed at them. Fortunately, they had the greatest anti-missile weapon in history called the Patriot. Almost every single missile was shot down.

You know, we had an incident recently where 101 missiles were shot at a certain thing that we own that’s very valuable. 101 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour. Out of the 101 missiles, every single one of them were shot down in midair and fell into the ocean. It’s amazing technology. There’s nobody that has equipment like we have.

Iran’s Enriched Uranium

REPORTER: Iran still has that enriched uranium. Is it even possible —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you’re going to have to see, but, you know, I think we’ll be — we’re in just very good shape. We’re roaming. You know what we’re doing? You know the word roaming free? We’re over the skies with the most beautiful planes you’ve ever seen. Roaming free, there’s not a damn thing they can do about it.

And it would be nice if, like, the fake news New York Times — which, right, it’s so fake. And The Wall Street Journal is terrible. Terrible. I mean, I read a story today that I’m desperate to make a deal. I’m not — I don’t — if I was desperate, he’d be the — Pete, let’s get the hell out of there. I’m the opposite of desperate.

I don’t care. I want to — in fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We’re hitting them on a daily basis. No. I can’t talk about specifics. A lot of people said that wouldn’t matter. Maybe it does matter. Who knows? But I wouldn’t talk.

It’s like the question this young lady asked. Sorry about it. Embarrassed her. I don’t want to embarrass you because I think she’s a friendly reporter, so I’m sorry. But, you know, I can’t say what we’re going to do because if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They’d probably — what is it called? The 25th Amendment? They’d institute the 25th Amendment, which they didn’t do with Biden, which is shocking.

REPORTER: The first question was, apparently, really safe enough to leave the region. Because Steve said that they’ve got enough uranium to make 11 bombs. That’s a very scary thing. So —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s again, I can’t talk to you about that. You’re asking me a question. You’re essentially saying, will I go in and do something? I can’t talk to you about that.

Coalition of Ships and the Hormuz Strait

REPORTER: So you’re — that you’re at coalition of ships, warships, to help protect tankers. How close are you to getting that coalition?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we have a coalition for them, but they should have been up here a long time ago. And, you know, they’re affected. The amazing thing is we don’t need the Hormuz Strait. We don’t need it. We don’t need it at all. We don’t — we have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this. We have more — we have twice the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia or Russia, and soon it’ll be three times the amount. Chris, do you want to speak to that for a second?

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT: And that’s correct. Our total oil production is greater than Saudi Arabia’s plus Russia and more than we consume in the United States. We’re the largest —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Pretty nuts. You know what they call it? Drill, baby, drill.

U.S. Energy Dominance

REPORTER: Mr. President, another topic —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Anything else you want to say?

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, and same thing for natural gas. Before your first term, we were the largest exporter of natural gas in the world. Today, we’re — we’re by far the largest — I mean, we’re the largest importer. Now we’re by far the largest exporter, and it’s growing rapidly this year. New facilities are coming online. Production is ramping up. We’re doing an amazing job.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re a lot of help from that man right over there. He’s getting approvals done quickly and very environmental — he’s an environmentalist, actually. He does a great job, but he gives you a fast approval or rejection. Do you have anything to say?

Venezuela: A New Partnership

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, back on Venezuela, where Chris and I have both had a chance to be there, I literally think they’re going to put up a statue to President Trump. And I’m not being — it’s not a political statement. It’s an actual thing.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That would be a great honor.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: No. Because it’s — it’s like they view President Trump like Simón Bolívar. He’s the liberator of a country, and this is a country where they love American baseball. You look on the street, they’re wearing NBA jerseys. And Delcy and her team, working with us, getting back — Chris and I both experienced it. It was the first time in Venezuelan history that they had the free press allowed to come on to essentially what’s their — where the White House, the Palacio de Miraflores — and it was like — it was an emotional thing for people that had been for twenty years that never had a chance to be there.

So whether it’s the — and then production, it’s showing up in production. The American companies that are coming back, most of those American companies have many American Venezuelan team members. One company in Houston’s got 600 Venezuelan Americans that know more about reviving that industry. So their GDP went — is it one fourth of what it was before? They want to get back.

NATO Allies’ Absence and Support During Iran Conflict

They remember what it was. Their production on oil production is climbing towards 50% increase just in the three months we’ve been here. That flows to American refineries on the Gulf Coast, lowering the price of gas in America. So it’s a — Did you get that? When are they going to do the statue?

I think he’s a lovely man. I do. I think he’s a lovely, lovely man. But I think he did something that was shocking. He didn’t want to help us.

And maybe in particular, that country, you know, we were the longest bond, the longest ally. Australia too. Australia was not great. I was a little surprised by Australia. I wouldn’t say anybody was great other than the five countries in The Middle East.

We never really had very much support. You know, we spend trillions of dollars supporting countries. And this is little league. This isn’t the big league deal. This is sort of little league pool for us.

This wasn’t easy. This was like, we decimated them in a period of a week. In the first week, it was over. In the first few days, it was over. I think the navy took us three days to essentially annihilate — they weren’t there.

So if there’s ever a big one, which I hope there’s not, but if there’s ever a big one, I don’t think they’re going to be there. And that’s not fair. And we have to remember that as a country because we spend trillions of dollars protecting Europe, protecting the countries of NATO. They weren’t there for us for small time. This is small time.

You know what? Venezuela is a big deal, but it’s not the big one. They weren’t there. So what makes you think they’d be there if we needed them for something?

REPORTER: Mr. President, your prime — and your prime minister was not there, as you know.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: Do you need — He was there after we won. He said, “We’d like to send some ships.” I said, “We already won. We don’t need them anymore.”

REPORTER: But can you explain why he was reluctant to help? Why he — what? Why he was reluctant to help with Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He didn’t have to. I didn’t ask him. I just said, just tell me no. I mean, we’re always going to be there, least we were. I don’t know about it anymore, to be honest with you. I would have to be honest. We were always there when they needed help.

We always would have been there when they needed help. I mean, think of it. We’re there to protect Europe from Russia. In theory, it doesn’t affect us. We have an ocean, big, fat, beautiful ocean.

But we’re there to protect NATO, to protect them from Russia. But they’re not there to protect us. It’s a ridiculous — it doesn’t make sense.

NATO Spending and the 5% Commitment

I tell you, a lot of people were big NATO people. I was never big. It was okay. I got them to pay 5%. By the way, they haven’t paid it yet. You know that. You know, I got them to pay 5% from 2% to 5%.

They didn’t pay it yet. I got them to pay up the 2% because they weren’t paying the 2%. Then I got them to pay 5%, which they should be at. And we had a lot of — oh, that was great. Great. Oh, only Trump could do it.

But the problem is they haven’t paid. Because if you look at the numbers, they haven’t paid yet. So we were there for them, but they were not there for us. Did we need them? No. I never thought we needed them. I was more doing a test. I said, “I really would love to have you come up. Bring your boats. You can sail through the beautiful Hormuz Straits, and you can protect people that are being shot at.” They didn’t do it. And that’s small potatoes. Do you understand what I’m saying?

REPORTER: I was just going to say, does it affect the state visit with the king that you’re going to have in April? Are you looking forward to that? With the king coming in?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a great gentleman. As you know, he honored me and our country. He really honored our country. But we had an amazing time. I’ve known him as Prince Charles. Know him as King Charles. I’m proud of him. He’s fighting a tough battle. He’s tough. I think he’s fantastic — it has nothing to do with that. It’s different.

And we’re going to — he’s going to be here very soon, as you know. We’re going to have a state dinner. It’s going to be great.

But I was very disappointed when the prime minister said — I won’t be able to — it started with the island. The island that the indigenous have claimed away from your country. And for some reason, you went for it. And all of a sudden, indigenous people that never saw the place, they never saw it. He was afraid that we would do something to himself because he’s a liberal. That’s the way they think.

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you hearing —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And when we needed the island to land that beautiful B-2 bomber, we were told we can’t use it. We’d have to fly back to Missouri, which is a seventeen-hour flight as opposed to a couple of hours. And I said, “You gotta be kidding.” Not good. They made a big mistake.

Iran Deadline and Negotiations

REPORTER: Mr. President, is the Friday deadline for Iran pushed back now? And if not —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know yet. I don’t know. Witkoff and JD and Jared will tell me whether or not they think it’s going along. And if it’s not going along, maybe not. And we have a lot of time. You know what? It’s a day. In Trump time, a day — you know what it is? That’s an eternity.

REPORTER: The European Parliament just passed a major deportation plan. Some of the tenets of it are that member states can deport rejected asylum seekers to their countries regardless of whether they have a connection with — it allows for detention periods of up to two years and also offshore return hubs or detention centers similar to ours.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Who did this? Who — which country?

REPORTER: The European Parliament, and the vote was not close. It was 389 to 208.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’d vote with them. Yep. Europe is where you are now.

REPORTER: Do you think that will move the needle with Democrats?

Democrats, Immigration, and the Hispanic Vote

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t care about the Democrats. The Democrats hate our country. The Democrats are in chaos right now, and they have no common sense. You know, they have one quality that’s amazing — they stick together. And it’s harder because they stick together in a ridiculous policy like men playing in women’s sports, open borders for everybody, including murderers and anybody else that want it.

“We’re open to you. Come in, murderers.” You know why they do that? They do that for a couple of reasons, but they do it for votes because they think they’re going to vote for the Democrats. Even though I did great with the Hispanic vote, tremendous with the Hispanic vote.

You know, I turned that whole thing around. The Hispanics like me and I like them. And, you know, it’s interesting with Hispanics. When I built a wall, everybody said, “Oh, that’s going to ruin us for the Hispanic.” It was just the opposite. They know all about immigration, and they know all about death and crime, and they’re smart people, and they have common sense. They wanted to be protected from the people that were coming into our country.

So, you know, I won the election with a very tremendous Hispanic vote, and I think it’s higher now than it was then. So we’re a party of common sense. The Democrats are a party of insanity. They’re a party that will destroy our country. If I didn’t win this election, I believe our country would have been destroyed by now. One year, that’s all it would have taken.

If you had Kamala or Sleepy Joe, either one, it wouldn’t matter. They’re the same thing. Two sleepy people. Two stupid people.

Gavin Newsom and the Cognitive Test

I believe — and by the way, Gavin Newsom, who is one of the candidates — I believe he took himself out of the running when he says he suffers from mental disability. And a reporter said it was terrible that I talked that way about somebody with mental disability. I said, “I have no problem with it, but I don’t want a person with mental disability to be my president.” I mean, you don’t want to have a person with mental disability being your president.

And Gavin Newsom said that he can’t read a speech. He can’t do almost anything. And then he said he’s as dumb as all the people in the room. And he got accused of being a racist, which was amazing — I thought it was the worst interview I’ve ever seen anybody give. He’s actually a very stupid person. So I believe he’s out of the running. I think that statement, that interview — he admitted that he’s a stupid, stupid person to be president.

You know, I’ll say it right now. I say it because no press ever reports it. I’m the only president that ever took a cognitive test. I took it three times. It’s actually a very hard test for a lot of people. It wasn’t hard for me. But it’s a cognitive test. It starts off with an easy question. And by the time you get to the middle, it gets tougher. By the time you get to the end, very few people can answer those questions. They get very tough mathematical equations and things.

I took it three times. I aced it all three times in front of numerous doctors that I have no idea who they are. And I was told when I went in — they said Dr. Ronnie told me this. My current doctors are fantastic doctors. They said, “Well, if you take it — you know, it’s Walter Reed. It’s essentially a public hospital. And if you do badly, he’s probably going to get out.” But I aced it. I got them all right. And one doctor said, “I’ve never seen anybody get them all right. I’ve been doing the test for twenty years.”

I want people — I would love to see anybody that’s a president or a vice president or anybody that has any chance of being a president — I would like to see them take a cognitive test because we had a man in this office that had no clue what was happening. And let me give you a little secret. He wasn’t a smart man thirty years ago.

And I’ll tell you about President Obama. He wasn’t a smart man either. I know all about him. He wasn’t a smart man. Highly overrated. He was a great divider. And our country can’t go through that anymore. Can’t go through.

Closing Remarks on Iran and NATO

We have done an amazing job. I had to do a little stopover — I call it an excursion. I had to do a little stopover in Iran, and we had to knock the hell out of them because our country would not have been safe. The world wouldn’t have been safe. I’ve done a great favor for the world.

The world has not been — it has not been reciprocal because when I told NATO — where we give billions and billions of dollars, trillions over the years — I said, “Do you mind coming up and giving us a little hand with the streets? Send up some —” they didn’t want to get involved. And I believe that’s going to cost them dearly.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.

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