Transcript: President Trump Remarks In The Oval Office – June 3, 2026

It was a little bit tighter. They said he had a million people and I had 25,000 people and yet if you look at the picture of comparison, the exact same location, the exact same pool, except now the pool is clean.

It was filthy dirty then but it was amazing because that was my first glimpse into politics. I made a speech and I had more people. In other words, you put the picture side by side, which we have, and they said I had 25,000. He had a million, but I had more people. They were tighter. My people were tighter, but these are minor details. That’s what I said. Well, wait a minute. There’s something wrong, but this was a very famous place and it should be treated properly.

Criticizing the Biden and Obama Administrations’ Neglect

A person came to my office, a very substantial person from a foreign country, another country, and said the Washington Monument, the Lincoln, you know, you take a look at the Washington Monument, beautiful Lincoln Memorial, as you said, but the walking in between was disgusting. The thing was loaded up. We took 11 or 12 dumpsters, trucks full of garbage out of there that they were shoveling and it was there for years under the Biden administration.

Again, Biden and Obama, if you combine the money they spent, it was over a hundred, I think $142 million and they got nothing as usual. So I’m very proud of it. Maybe I shouldn’t say that before it opens. Maybe I’ll open it and it’ll look like a sieve, but it’s not going to be. I’m very good at building things and constructing things.

So I hope you’re going to go take a look at it. The sidewalks are being sandblasted, the granites on the outside, the granite and that last strong stone and that’s being sandblasted. It’s going to look like really something beautiful. It’s going to be brand new. It’s got a lot of life. So just enjoy it.

Introducing Rodney Scott and Peter Navarro on the Customs Executive Order

Rodney Scott is here along with Peter Navarro. Peter’s been with me for a long time, knows more about China than any human being on earth, except for I would say President Xi knows a lot more, but other than President Xi, Peter is probably in second place and certainly having to do with trade. But they’re here to talk about something else. And Rodney, if you would, please.

RODNEY SCOTT: Sure. So we’re talking about rolling out a customs EO. Why is that important? Basically, it’s America first in the trade environment, like we’ve been doing on the border. People are used to the illegal immigration and the narcotics. We’ve locked that down. This is literally taking the same principles and applying them to trade to protect American industry.

Different countries and different people are undercutting our import export rules, the tariffs to literally undermine American businesses. And we’re going to put a stop to it in the same way. We are going to increase the amount of data we have so that we can actually make conscious decisions about who and what comes into this country.

Cracking Down on Trade and Border Security

SPEAKER: And we’re going to start holding people accountable. We’re literally going to use the rules that are in place to a certain extent, and then make some recommendations for legislation going forward. We’re going to start holding trade accountable for bringing threatening things and threatening products into our country, just like we have on the rest of the border. So Customs and Border Protection gets a lot of attention for the border wall, everything else. This is going to be basically the equivalent in the trade environment.

And sir, you did a miracle when you came in. You shut that border down in a matter of days to an end of a flood of millions of illegal aliens. And a secure America is a safe America. What we’re going to do here, the EO you’re going to sign, that’s about a 20 to $30 billion a year EO you’re going to get because we are going to crack down with this detective border that CBP is putting in innovatively. We’re going to crack down on the fentanyl. We’re going to crack down on the unhealthy products, the counterfeits and all the tariff evaders. So this is a message to the world today. When you sign this, there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And this is what Donald Trump does. He secures our borders and not just physically, but in terms of trade. The new customs border is going to be awesome. Thank you.

President Trump on the Border Wall and Illegal Immigration

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Peter. We had millions of people pouring through our border. And when I got here, and it happened twice, but the first time was a lot easier because it wasn’t nearly as bad as this. But in 2016, we had a bad border, really a bad border. And pretty quickly, we made it very good. We started the wall. I built over a thousand miles of wall. Without that, you could have never done it, no matter how good you do.

The wall has been — remember the Democrats, the Democrats said the wall doesn’t do anything. They said no. Walls work. Two things. Everything else is obsolete. It gets obsolete quickly. Two things: wheels and walls. They’ve been here for a long time. A wheel and a wall, you’ll always have. Other things, your computer is going to be obsolete about two days after you buy it. But wheels and walls, they work.

And we built an incredible wall that stretches more than a thousand — think of it, a thousand miles. And without that, we would not be a success. We’re actually building now additional areas because we need some additional wall in certain areas.

25 Million Illegal Entries During the Biden Years

But we had millions of people — 25 million people. I think it’s more than that, but 25 million people came in during the Biden years, the Biden disasters. And we stopped that. We stopped it down to zero. Hard to believe, but the numbers come out every month. They come out zero, zero, zero. People don’t come anymore because they know they’re not going to get through.

So we had caravans with 10, 15, 20, 25,000 people coming up from countries. And remember, I know these people. I know the leaders of the countries. They’re smart and they’re cunning and they’re streetwise. And they would put their people that were from prisons in there. They would put their murderers in there and they’d put a lot of bad people. And they’d also put people that just didn’t work. They put all of their welfare recipients in there and they’d send them into our country. And all of that stopped. And many of those people are now brought back.

Many of the murderers — 11,888 were murderers. I say it all the time. 50% of them were — they murdered more than one person: two, three, four, seven people murdered into our country. They let them into our country. And it’s a sin that should never be forgotten.

So it’s a much different country right now. We’re respected by everybody. Everybody in the world respects. We just got back from China, as you know, some of you were with us. And President Xi was great.

Strengthening Customs Enforcement

He said, “You’re a respected country, respected all over the world.” He said, “You did it so fast.” We did. We did it in a very short period of time. This country was a laughing stock all over the world for four years. We were a laughing stock. And now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’re the most successful country in the world. So this is very important what you’re doing. And I’d like to have Will just say a few words about it specifically.

Yes, sir. As Rodney and Councilor Navarro said, this is an executive order on strengthening customs enforcement, using new technologies and new approaches. The idea here is to ensure that importers of record, other people moving goods across our border are accurately reporting what they’re bringing in, that contraband, that illegal goods aren’t being brought across the border, and that goods being brought in are being accurately accounted for, for purposes of duties and tariffs and all of the other things we require of importers of record.

But this executive order will launch a series of bold new steps that I think we as an administration believe will result in the tightest, most controlled border in American history, following on, obviously, your success in closing the southern border and stopping the scourge of illegal immigration into the country as well, sir.

So, Peter, what kind of money do you think this involves in terms of savings to our country?

I will guarantee you the first year it’ll be at least $15 billion, next year $25 billion, and out there there’s $80 billion to $100 billion that the tariff evaders are doing. Plus, sir, we’re going to stop more of the fentanyl coming in, and we’re going to crack down on counterfeits. This is good for America. This is good for the people that elected you. It’s good for the country.

And we have fentanyl coming in 59 percent less. Cut it by a number that nobody thought was even possible. We’re going to get it a lot lower than that, but we have it. And we did this in a very short period of time. This is going to be a great one, sir. You didn’t have the same one. This is the moneymaker for us, and CBP has been doing a really great job innovating on this, sir.

You’ve done a fantastic job. Thank you. Appreciate it, sir.

Okay, we’ll stand one. Oh, that’s a good one. That’s a nice one.

Reforms to the Federal Workforce

Okay, what else do you have? This is another executive order on reforms to the federal workforce, sir. Currently, with respect to many policymaking positions in the departments and agencies across government, we lack the ability, because of existing personnel rules, to effectively discipline or promote people who are in policymaking roles. This executive order follows on a number of previous executive orders. The end goal is making the federal workforce more accountable and ensuring that people, particularly in policymaking roles, aren’t unaccountable to the wish-fulfilling of the administration.

And the reason for this was what? Whose idea was that?

James Shirk, who’s here from the Domestic Policy Council. Would you like to say something? Come on. You did a great job on this.

Thank you, sir. It’s been a long-standing problem that is almost impossible to fire a federal employee, even in cases of serious misconduct. As a result, if you have employees who are trying to undermine the wishes of the American people by pushing their own agenda or just incompetent in what they’re doing, agencies have a long-standing difficult time getting rid of them. And that’s a particular problem if you’re in a senior policy influencing role where you’re controlling the policies of the entire agency.

What this does is basically treats those employees like private sector workers. They’re going to be hired on the basis of merit and confidence, but if they’re messing up, then they can be removed quickly rather than taking a year or longer to get rid of them.

That’s great. And you were very much involved in it?

I was, sir.

He’s got Central Pennsylvania, sir. He’s like perfectly cast.

Customs Reform Executive Order

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You couldn’t have done that any better. Were you nervous? No, a little. Thank you, sir. Would anybody else like to say anything about either one? What about you? Come on over here. Come on. Can you top it? You don’t have to. Thank you very much. Go ahead, please.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, this customs reform EO is a long-time common for us. It helps us solve problems that have plagued the customs system for many years. We’ve got a system where people are basically being able to hide behind shell companies. They move from one to the next, and then we can’t go after them. This EO really enables us to crack down on people accountable. It’s so important.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I know you took it so seriously. See how serious they are? I mean, there’s a love of the country. This isn’t like normal stuff. These are the smartest people in the world. They can do anything they want. They can have any job. And they love this country. This is what it is. And they hate what you saw. And you fixed it. Thank you very much. All of you. Anybody else? Anybody? Only if you want. I’m not going to call anybody. Anybody? You don’t have to. They covered you well, right? I don’t know if you could do any better. Thank you very much. That’s a great job for us. It’s a big one. Okay. Thank you. Pulitzer Prize winner over there. I got the great Pulitzer Prize winner. Okay. Thank you very much. That’s great.

Iran Ceasefire and Negotiations

REPORTER QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Do you have any questions? Mr. President, given Iran’s attacks on Kuwait, its latest attack on Kuwait, is the ceasefire with Iran still on?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you know, there’s a reason for everything. And we hit them pretty hard the night before and actually last night. And when it was explained to me, I said, all right, so we’ll do that. But we’ve been hitting them pretty hard, a little bit. So there is a reason for certain things, and there’s usually a reason that sometimes makes sense. But they did something, not a big deal. We got it. We nipped it in the bud very quickly, as we do with the greatest military in the world. But some people would say they were slightly provoked, because we took a strong action for a different reason. So they were reciprocating. I hear the negotiation itself has gone very well, actually. Very well. I mean, if it happens, and it might not happen, who knows, but if it happens, it could happen like over the weekend.

REPORTER QUESTION: How do you define ceasefire?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Pretty much the way it is. It’s a different part of the world. You know, I’d say in that part of the world, ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner. It’s not bad, but it’s true. I mean, a ceasefire there is much different than a ceasefire in other parts of the world.

Anti-Weaponization Fund

REPORTER QUESTION: Mr. President, can you explain why you decided to drop the anti-weaponization fund?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So I love it. I think it’s so important. People were — this is a victim right here, but not only a victim, he was also a student of it. What happened to great people, great American people, the way they were victimized, the way they were savaged, you have suicides, they killed themselves, they went bankrupt. They were weaponized by the Biden administration, by a bunch of thugs, including Obama people. And like nobody’s probably ever been. I mean, I can think of maybe two instances in this country where they’ve had it to somewhere that extent. I can’t even share with you so much. They were put in jail for long periods of time. They were accused of things that never happened. They had prosecutors that were radical lunatics and their lives were destroyed.

And frankly, we had a lawsuit that, against us on the, you know, on the weaponization where the judge, a radical left judge, ruled against it. And we’ll see how that all works out. But a radical left judge ruled against it. But these people, their lives have been destroyed, their families have been destroyed.

On Iran, Corruption Claims, and Media Criticism

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Many of them, not just, I’m not just talking about a few people, many of them. I’m one of them. I look, they raided my house, Mar-a-Lago, that never happened, nobody ever thought of anything like that. It turned out that it was a total fake. Everything about it was fake and corrupt. We have all the information. You know, the good advantage to sitting here is we can get information that you wouldn’t get by what we have and what we are going to be showing over the coming weeks, unless you’re not even going to believe. Some of you will believe it, like CNN will believe it because they knew what was going on. They’re crooked as hell.

CNN is a very corrupt organization, but with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles. You never see a young, beautiful woman, never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted. And then we win our election in a massive landslide. We win 87 percent of the counties in this country. Nobody’s ever heard of a thing like that. And that’s because we’re doing the right job.

And we took a detour down to Iran because we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon under any circumstances. We can’t let that happen. So the reporters should be happy. They shouldn’t be unhappy. They should be very happy. Because you know what we’re doing? We’re saving our country.

Reporter Questions on Iran and the President’s Upcoming Birthday

REPORTER QUESTION: Yes. But I have two questions. One on Iran and then one on your birthday. Thank you. We do both. The first one is, are you concerned at all that the IRGC could sabotage any potential deal? And then the second one is, you have a birthday coming up. I won’t say which number, but it’s a big birthday. So you’re going to blow out a candle, you’re going to blow out, you know, some candles on a cake. Hopefully. What are your wishes that you’d like to see accomplished for the next year?

Trump on Iran Volatility, Military Strength, and Diplomatic Goals

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Well, I’ll go in your order. Anything can happen, you know, when you’re dealing with Iran. But when you’re dealing with other countries, but that’s a very volatile part of the world, probably the most volatile part of the world. The people are volatile. The leadership, you see what’s going on. We’ve gone through three teams of leadership. It’s been a, you know, we’re military. There’s never been a military like what we have. We could go another two, three weeks and just wipe everybody out.

I’d rather not do that. Very easy to do. They’re ready to do it. They want to do it. But if we can get something down in writing, which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I’d like to do that. Most of my people, I think, would like to do that. Some people wouldn’t, but most of them would. But we had to take a detour as far as wishes for, and I’m very proud of that detour, you know.

Record Stock Market Highs Amid Military Conflict

By the way, just to finish up on that, we had the strongest stock market in history. And I said, we have no choice. We have to do it. I knew it would affect it, but I was very happily surprised when I saw that today we hit another stock market high. I mean, we have the highest stock market in history with a military conflict going on or a war. Some people call it war. Some people call it a military. It’s not a big thing for us. We have a great military. It’s not a big thing for us.

But if I didn’t do that, I spoke to people like Peter, great financial people, Scott, Howard, and lots of others. I said, you know, we just hit the greatest stock market in history. Everyone’s 401ks are the highest they’ve ever been. Everybody’s making a lot of money. Costs are coming down.

On Iran Nuclear Negotiations

You know, we took over the highest cost and the highest inflation in the history of our country. Costs are coming down. Everything’s good. And I hate to tell you this, but we’ve got to take a little detour and go down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we’re going to have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon. That’s what we’ve done. And they’ve agreed to that.

By the way, if they signed the agreement, they will have agreed to: we will not have a nuclear weapon or bomb, we will not develop one, we will not buy one. You know, originally, it was “we will not develop.” I said, “What about if they buy?” That went into a two-week negotiation. But in the end, we got that. Now, we got it if they signed the paper. In theory, they’re pretty close to signing a paper. We’ve actually gotten along with them very well.

And you know what? You saw it for the last few nights. It takes two to tangle. You understand that. But we didn’t hit them very hard on something else unrelated. And so they were responding. But they’re not very strongly.

“Make America Great Again”

As far as wishes, I want to just, you know, we have a phrase. I think it goes down — I would think — in the history of our country, maybe the history of the world, as the greatest slogan or phrase ever. “Make America great again.” That’s what I want. Make America great again.

I think we’ve come a long way. I think we’re the most respected country in the world right now, by far. I was talking about a friend of mine. He’s a good man. I hate to say it because the press goes and they say, “Oh, he called him a good man.” He is a good man. He’s for China. I’m for the USA. You know, it’s like one of those things. But we do very well now with China.

When I came here, we were not doing well with China. My first term, when I inherited that, it was like — what China was doing to us was incredible. I don’t blame China. China took advantage of stupid people, really stupid people. So we’re doing great.

But the phrase “Make America great again” — that’s all I want. Very simple phrase to think of. And I think it’s the greatest in the history. I would say that’s probably the greatest phrase in the history of the world. Not only here — there’s never been anything like it. “Make America great again.” That’s what I’ve done. And we’ve made it great.

In fact, in a way, I want to use it because I would never give it up. It’s too good. It’s too good. It really is the Republican Party. That’s why we’re doing so well. That’s why, if you look at the Republican Party from before I came till now, this is a much different party. It’s a much bigger party. We have many, many more people. And I think the thought, the mind, the thought is much different than it was 10 years ago. It’s been amazing — much more powerful party, much different party, and much more impactful. Thank you very much.

Reporter Questions on Iran

REPORTER QUESTION: Two questions on Iran. Go ahead. First, you said last week that the U.S. would go in and dig out the buried nuclear material and go with them.

DONALD TRUMP: With them. That’s possible.

REPORTER QUESTION: Did Iran actually agree to that?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, it depends on what day you’re talking about. They did agree. And then sometimes they agree. Well, that’s what I’m saying. That’s one of the things we talk about. It’s very overrated. I’m the one that overrated it. I thought to me it was important. To other people, it’s not important because those beautiful B-2 right here — the B-2 bombers — they obliterated. You know, when CNN said maybe it wasn’t obliteration, they knew. I mean, before the pilots even came back home, before anybody saw the site.

On Iran’s Nuclear Material and the B-2 Bomber Strikes

But then the Atomic Energy Commission went. They said it was obliterated. You know, that stuff is buried underneath a mountain that virtually collapses. It’s very, very hard to get it. One of the — but nevertheless, I want to get it. We’re the only ones — us and probably China are the only two countries that have the equipment where you can do that. So, yeah, I want to get it.

We have, at different times, had different — I mean, they’ve changed your mind a couple of times. But as it stands now, we will go in at some time in the not-too-distant future. It’s very safe down there. You know, we have — with Space Force, we have cameras every angle that those three sites are being watched at all times. If anybody went there, we’ll see exactly what’s happening, and we’ll blow it up a little bit further.

But as far as getting it is very — the B-2 bombers did a job like nobody has ever seen. In the night, with no moon, dead darkness, at 1 o’clock in the morning or so, they dropped those bombs, the biggest — just about as big a bomb as you can ever find, and it hit — it went down air chutes. It was hard to believe that they can do the technology. It followed a beam right into the air chutes, right exploded. Very hard to get that material. But I still nevertheless want it.

And I don’t want to do it if we’re in conflict. I don’t want to put men in that kind of danger. I remember Jimmy Carter had some bad problems in Iran with the hostages. I don’t want to ever put our people in that kind of danger. But when it’s over, as of this moment, it’s agreed that we will go in with them, we will get it, and we will destroy it. It will be destroyed.

On a Deal With Iran and the Strait of Hormuz

REPORTER QUESTION: And just as a follow-up, Mr. President, my second question. Is it possible to get to a deal with Iran, whether to go in and do that or to open up the Strait of Hormuz, without seeing an Israeli cessation of their hostilities in Lebanon? Yes or no?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it would. We’re trying to separate it. I mean, you know, it’s a very different kind of a thing. I think it’s a very different kind of a thing. I mean, we’re trying to separate it.

And the other thing, we actually spoke with Hezbollah for the first time ever. We didn’t know they spoke. And they agreed yesterday, they’re not going to shoot. We’re just going to see. But I’d like to separate it. I’d like to have a separate thing, because it is separate.

On Israel and Stopping Iran’s Threat to the Middle East

But Israel — hey, look, they’ve been a great partner. Bibi Netanyahu has been, for me, a great partner. For other people, not so good. For me, he’s been very good. We were very effective, what we’ve done. And they needed us. They couldn’t have done it without us. Couldn’t have even come close. And they needed us. And they got us to help them with a real problem, because Iran was a real problem, a big problem, a worldwide problem, because they wouldn’t have stopped with Israel.

They would have blown up the Middle East. And you saw that by the rockets. All those rockets that went to the five — mostly, for the most part, the five countries outside of Israel — those rockets were aimed there before we hit them with the B-2 bombers. They were going to blow up the Middle East. They were going to blow up Israel, but they were going to blow up the Middle East. And I stopped it. And I’m very proud I stopped it.

The Iran Nuclear Deal: Then and Now

And we also stopped it when I get — when I — in the first term, when I terminated the Iran nuclear deal, penned by Barack Hussein Obama. It was one of the dumbest deals I’ve ever seen. And this has no relation — I like these morons, these Democrats — D-U-M, Democrats — that go on television and say, “Oh, well, this is just like the Obama deal.” This is the exact opposite. This is no path to a nuclear weapon. That was an absolute path to a nuclear weapon that you couldn’t have done anything about. This is the exact opposite.

They gave billions and billions of dollars to Iran, including $1.7 billion, put into a Boeing 757 with the seats taken out — because there wasn’t enough room if you left the seats — with $1.7 billion in cash taken from the banks in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and flown to Iran — $1.7 — in green cash, and then tens of billions of dollars given to Iran by our government. Frankly, they picked the wrong country.

The Naval Blockade and Iran’s Future

But maybe we’re going to be getting along with Iran. We’re going to find out. You know, there is a good possibility, I think, because without the bombing, that wouldn’t have worked. Without the blockade — the blockade is the most powerful thing. I think the blockade maybe has more impact than the bombing has. But the blockade that we have — the naval blockade is incredible. Not one ship has gotten through unless we wanted it to. And people respect it a lot.

And we’ll see. But, you know, there’s a chance if this really worked out, they could rebuild. You know, it used to be a very, very good nation. You go back — I have friends that used to — old-timers — they used to go there, and they used to do well. They used to build in Iran. They built apartment houses, and they built office buildings in Iran. Hard to believe, right? But there’s a chance that maybe that comes back.

But whether it comes back or not, I think we have a very powerful deal that we’re negotiating. The exact opposite as the Obama deal. The Obama deal was a disgrace. It gave them a nuclear weapon. We do the exact thing. We — under our deal, they will never, ever have a nuclear weapon. One of the other things that happens — and this is important, but there’s nothing more important than taking away the capability of a nuclear weapon from Iran.

The Hormuz Strait and Minesweeping Operations

REPORTER QUESTION: Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But one of the other things that’s important, and very important, is that immediately upon signing the Memorandum of Understanding, the Hormuz Strait will open. And it’ll open up quickly. And we’ve already had our minesweepers there. You know, we’re sweeping, as you probably have heard. And these are underwater minesweepers. They’re great. Amazing technology. They’re underwater because, usually, when you’re looking for mines, that usually means you have some dangerous characters out there this way. So we’re underwater. But we’ve swept mines, and we’ve gotten most of them, we think.

So — but the Hormuz Strait will open immediately upon signing. Now, that’s subject to a couple of areas being cleaned out also of mines, which we don’t think there are any. So it’ll happen very quickly. And we’ll take the southern route anyway. But immediately upon signing, we open up the Hormuz Strait.

Questions on the DOJ Weaponization Fund

REPORTER QUESTION: Mr. President, just to clarify —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sorry.

REPORTER QUESTION: Mr. President, just to clarify on what you asked earlier, is the $1.8 billion DOJ fund dead, or is it on hold?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s — I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know. I know one thing. The weaponization —

REPORTER QUESTION: So, should —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the weaponization?

REPORTER QUESTION: Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the weaponization?

REPORTER QUESTION: Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the weaponization?

REPORTER QUESTION: Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the weaponization?

REPORTER QUESTION: Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The weaponization fund, as far as I’m concerned, was a beautiful thing.

On January 6th and the Media

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was something I was — I didn’t make it, but I was — I heard that. I thought that was the greatest thing, because people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like The New York Times, and like others, have abused our people —

REPORTER QUESTION: Well, but —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Wait a minute. Be quiet.

REPORTER QUESTION: I’m not —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama. Can you believe it? But CNN —

REPORTER QUESTION: I love CNN.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In particular, CNN does such false reporting. But now they have new ownership, so maybe it’ll straighten it out. I doubt it. But it’s hard to straighten garbage out. But CNN has abused, and others have abused so badly — these people. These are people that are great people that were destroyed. Their families have been destroyed. Many suicides — they committed suicide. People that went there to — with love. They went there with love.

You know, when I made that speech early in the day, tremendous crowd. I hate to say because they’ll say, oh, I was wrong on the number, but I believe it’s the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to by twice. The biggest crowd, I think. Bigger than the inaugurations, bigger than anything. And there was so much love and friendship. It was the most amazing thing. People were crying. They were like, wait a minute, let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish.

And those people have been abused by you and by others and by the politicians, by the Democrats. They’re dumb people. They want to have open borders. They want to have transgender mutilization of your children. They want to have men playing in women’s sports. They want to have high taxes. They turned down — you know, they fought us on the tax bill, and they fought us because they want people to pay high taxes because they’re crazy. There’s something wrong with them. There’s something wrong with you. It’s a shame.

On Communism

REPORTER QUESTION: Yeah, go ahead. Thank you so much. On communism, today you have some stirring words on communism.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I just wrote that. Did you like it? Did you think it was well-written?

REPORTER QUESTION: Well, it’s certainly very meaningful to an American. Well, I’ve read it. Do you want to read it? Do you have it? You could read it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s untrue. I just wrote it. I just felt — I’ve seen what’s going on with communism, and I see this kind of — read it. I’d love to have you.

REPORTER QUESTION: Thank you. You wrote that, quote, “Communists always do well with the voters, or as they would say, the people, in the early years. But in the end, the country, state, or city goes to hell. Great violence proceeds at levels never seen before, and the entity dissolves into poverty, squalor, and crime. Remember, breathtaking popularity first, and then guaranteed death and destruction.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you see it happening with New York. You see it happening with Los Angeles and parts of California. And it’s so easy, you know. I’d be the greatest in the world. Nobody would be as good as me. I’d get away every — I could be the greatest. I would sell them. You’re going to get free rent. You’re going to get free houses. You’re going to get free food. You’re going to get free everything. But eventually, that ends, and it leads to death, destruction, and squalor 100 percent of the time.

When I watched New York — and, you know, I liked him very much. He stood here, and he’s been in the office a couple of times, the mayor of New York. I think he’s a very nice person. But — and I don’t know. He’s a smart guy. I don’t understand why he thinks it’s okay for all these companies that pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes a year to leave, because you’re not going to have any tax base, and you’re going to end up in hunger and squalor and death and destruction.

On Populist Promises and Free Enterprise

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would be better than him if I wanted to go that route. Ladies and gentlemen, you’ll no longer pay rent. You’ll no longer have to pay interest on your mortgage. In fact, I’ll end your mortgage. I’m going to cut everything. You’re no longer going to have to pay for food. I’m going to give you a grocery store, and I’m going to give you free food. You’re no longer going to have — you’re going to have the greatest life ever. Follow me. You’re going to have the greatest life. And you know what? For a couple of years, that’s such a powerful — I would be the best ever at giving it. Nobody would ever be. I had to sell free enterprise. Free enterprise is tougher to sell, but that’s what’s made our country great. And that’s why it’s great again now.

If I didn’t get elected, we wouldn’t have a country. We really wouldn’t have a country. This country would be finished.

On Crime in Democrat-Run Cities

But I see what’s happening in Los Angeles. I see what’s happening in New York, where — look at Chicago. You have a stupid governor, a dumb governor, a really dumb guy. I know him well. He’s a failure in his family. Pritzker. I know the family. I was partners in a deal with them. I made a lot of money. They made money. We made a good partnership. But he was like an outcast in the family. He was a slob. And the mayor is a low-IQ person. I mean, he’s a stupid person.

And Chicago. Chicago has a case — you have a real chance to become great again. There’s a case great again. If we were allowed to do what we did in Washington or Memphis — you know, I was with the governor of Tennessee yesterday, and he said, I want to come in — he came in to thank me. I said, for what? He said, what you did for Memphis. Memphis, the crime is down about 72 percent. And it’s going — he said, it’s like a different city. Washington is even more so. We started a little bit earlier. In Washington, you walk down the streets, and people feel safe here again. It’s a safe city.

On New Orleans and Mardi Gras Safety

If I were — oh, by the way, in Louisiana, what I’ve done there is unbelievable. Because the governor, Jeff Landry, called. He said, you got to help me with New Orleans. We have a tremendous crime problem. And I sent in our really talented people, including National Guardsmen, and they did an unbelievable — they had the safest — they said they had the safest — we just ended about three weeks ago — they had the safest Mardi Gras they’ve ever had.

I could do that in Chicago. But you have to have the support of a governor. You can’t have a slob that says, you know, we don’t want it. People get murdered, and he says, it’s fine. They lost five or six people last week, and he said, it’s fine. They’re not going to lose five or six people. And I would make Chicago so good and so safe. It’s got potential. The longer it goes, the harder it is to fix.

On San Francisco and Tackling Crime

And San Francisco, we could do such a good job. My friend said, please let the mayor — he’s a liberal guy, nice guy. I talked to him. He wants to make San Francisco good, and he’s trying very hard. I said, look, I can do it much faster than you. Please let me have a time. I mean, I spoke to the mayor, and some very important people asked me to give him a chance because they’d like to see if he could do it. And he’s doing okay, but I could do it much faster, much better.

And we can remove — don’t forget, 2 percent of your people create 90 percent of your crime. That’s a great number because 2 percent of the people you can take care of. If it was 90 percent of the people, that’s not good. But 2 percent.

Washington, D.C. Transformed

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In Washington, right here in D.C., we removed close to 5,000 hardline criminals. Many came in through the Biden open border. We removed them from Washington, D.C., and it’s one of the reasons that we’re so safe now.

We have a great, beautiful place. Again, the fountains are almost all open. You’re going to have the reflecting pool opened within hours. I mean, literally within hours. The water starts pouring in tonight. It’s going to be beautiful. You haven’t seen that since 1922. Think of that. 1922, it hasn’t worked. Never worked. From the day they built it, it never worked. But you’re going to see that. And people are all thanking me because Washington is beautiful again.

The parks are open. We changed the grass. You know, grass has a life also. Like people, grass has a life. And that grass hasn’t been changed in 70, 80 years. It died many times over. We have beautiful grass, beautiful parks, beautiful everything. We don’t have people living on it.

And Washington, D.C., in a matter of 14 months, Washington, D.C. is like a different place. People are coming here. You know, the restaurants are all going out of business, as you know, because you used the restaurants. And now the restaurants are hot. In fact, if anything, we don’t have enough restaurant space. They’re all reopening. It’s become vibrant. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. And I am honored that I’ve been able to do it to our nation’s capital.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, press. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. Thank you, really great people. Thank you very much.

Related Posts

• Transcript: President Trump Hosts a Cabinet Meeting, Jul. 31, 2026
• Transcript: President Trump’s Remarks at Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Funeral
• Transcript: Trump’s Michigan Rally Speech Ahead of Midterm Elections
• Transcript of Nick Fuentes Interview ft. Hunter Biden – Channel 5
• Transcript: Trump Remarks at White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner