Transcript: Trump Signs Executive Order on Retirement Savings – 04/30/26

KEVIN: We have five million sign-ups right now, sir.

TRUMP: Five million sign-ups in a short period of time, far above what we thought even possible. So congratulations to everybody that got that started. Michael Dell put in 6,250,000,000 — so he put in a lot of money, and he’s going to do more, too. But they were very responsible. So I just want to let you know, it’s like a record. You are even surprised by that number, I think, right? I don’t know if I can do that kind, but it’s really way beyond what anyone thought. It’s great.

And we’re going to be doing the same thing, I guess, in a certain way for older people. We’re going with a plan that, if it works, has to get approved by Congress, but we think it’ll get approved. It’ll be fantastic for the country. Let’s go. Will, do you want to start?

Signing the IRA Executive Order

WILL: Sure.

TRUMP: There are some other things, and we thought we’d let these great people from Congress and beyond, or below, I guess I could say.

WILL: So first, sir, this is the IRA executive order that you just mentioned that establishes the retirement accounts with the federal match for eligible people, as you said in your speech and as Kevin explained. This is a big step forward. It’s going to provide access to high-quality retirement accounts to a lot of Americans who don’t currently have access to such accounts.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. There it is. That’s nice. Great. Thank you very much, everybody. We’ll do some that aren’t associated with this, and then we’ll talk about this with the press. We’ll ask some questions of the Congress people, okay? Because they were really responsible for this. All right.

Signing the Bridger Pipeline Presidential Permit

WILL: This is a Presidential Permit authorizing the Bridger Pipeline, sir. This is a transborder pipeline similar to the old Keystone XL Pipeline. It will significantly expand our ability to move oil around North America, oil and gas around North America. It’s a huge deal in terms of long-term energy dominance and energy security.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Slightly different than the last administration.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Very different from —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They wouldn’t sign a pipeline deal and we have pipelines going up. By the way, they’re way underground. They’re not a problem. Nobody even knows they’re there. It’s so crazy. But they wouldn’t approve anything having to do with the pipeline, and they’re great. As opposed to trucking it or training it, it was — they’re great. A lot of jobs, too. A lot of jobs. Ok, very good. Next.

Executive Order on Federal Contracting

WILL: This is an Executive Order on Federal Contracting, sir. Many federal contracts currently operate on a cost-plus basis.

This provides oftentimes weird incentives for contractors, leads to cost overruns, costs the federal government a lot of money. What this Executive Order does is it establishes a fixed-price contract as the default in most federal contracts. This aligns the federal government with what would typically exist in the private sector, and we believe will continue to drive down fraud and abuse in federal contracting government-wide.

TRUMP: Would anybody like to object to this? No. Absolutely not. I’d be frightened of this one, too. Thank you. Next.

New Surgeon General Nomination

WILL: You previously announced that we were withdrawing Casey Means as the Surgeon General, Sir, and appointing Dr. Saphir — or nominating Dr. Saphir and her colleagues. That on the left is the withdrawal, which will later be transmitted to the Senate, and on the right is the new nomination form for our new Surgeon General.

TRUMP: Nicole Saphier, she’s with FOX — was with FOX — isn’t with FOX anymore, Peter, but she’s great. She’ll be the Surgeon General.

WILL: I believe she’s with Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New Jersey, sir, and she’s an outstanding doctor. She is.

TRUMP: I just don’t know how Biden used the auto-pens, but there’s so many things to say, and he’d say, “Here, please take this.” It’s crazy. All four years was crazy. Okay. Let’s not bring it up. She’s going to be great. Surgeon General. Thank you.

National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend Proclamation

WILL: This is a proclamation declaring this weekend to be National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend. As you know, firefighters do an incredibly difficult, dangerous job, help keep us all safe. This is a proclamation honoring their sacrifice and remembering those who have fallen. Everybody likes that? You bet. Okay. Firefighters. Ellen deserves some applause.

National Foster Care Month Proclamation

WILL: Lastly, sir, this is another proclamation. Your administration, particularly the First Lady, have made foster and adoptive care major priorities. This is a proclamation declaring National Foster Care Month, honoring those who have made it in foster programs, who have helped raise foster children, and speaking about the many things that your administration, including the First Lady’s office, have done on that set of issues.

TRUMP: Yeah, it’s been a big thing for the First Lady, so this is in honor of our First Lady.

Q&A: Impact on Small Businesses

REPORTER: Mr. President, how is this going to help small business owners? Do you think this is going to inspire more people to go into small businesses that might be reluctant earlier, you know, for IRA, you know, to have their IRA? This is going to, you know, help.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you, small businesses now are thriving. And as you know, more people are working right now than at any time in the history of our country. We’re doing great. And a lot of that’s AI, and a lot of that’s maybe in a certain way, maybe more importantly, auto plants are all coming back to our country. They’re coming back from different countries where they left us — for Germany, as you know, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico. And they’re all coming back at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. And tariffs did it. I did it. Maybe the election did it, but tariffs did it.

And if they build here, they don’t have to pay tariffs. We have Germany — a lot of companies are coming in from Germany, from Japan. Japan just announced $10 billion more — plants going to be built between Toyota and Honda and all the different companies — they’re pouring into our country. And South Korea, Canada — they’re coming in. I don’t know what they’re doing, but I can tell you they’re coming in tremendously from Canada. There’s no reason — they don’t want to pay the tariff. And because of that, they’re investing at levels never seen before.

Manufacturing Boom and Historic Investment

For 30 years, we virtually didn’t build an auto plant in this country. And now we’re doing more than we’ve ever done. So I’m very proud of that. AI is going wild. We’re doing great. And we’re letting them build their own electric, but we’re actually making them build their own electric plant. So they don’t take — they take tremendous amounts of energy to have a successful plant. And they’re building all of the new ones — are building their own electric plant like utility — and any extra, they’ll either give it or sell it for a good price to local communities and to the grid. So it’s going to be fantastic.

But we have tremendous amounts of factories being built in our country now, more than we’ve ever had at any time, ever before. And we have the biggest investment being made in our country in the history of our country. And by the way, in the history of any country, there’s never been a country that has the kind of investment coming in that we have right now. And these things are being built right now. So you’re not going to see the results — I mean, you see construction results. You notice the construction workers are through the roof — but when they open, the numbers are going to be staggering.

Economic Growth and Tax Refunds

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You have some good economic news. GDP will grow 2 percent. Foreign business equipment surge to the highest level in 16 years. And IRS data shows that the average level of tax returns fall by more than 11 percent when compared in the same time as last year. Do you believe that this is evidence of the big, beautiful tax cuts that just happened to all last year are working? And do you think the economy is going to continue to hum and endure growth?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, thank you. So, the biggest tax cut in history is in the great, big, beautiful bill. And I think, you know, I see it. I actually see it reported, where people are shocked at how much money they’re making. They can’t believe the refunds that they’re making. Five thousand. Six thousand. Seven, eight, nine. One more — less, not on television. Eleven thousand more than she thought she was going to get. And it’s no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. No tax on Social Security for our seniors. No tax on social — nobody can believe it.

And the numbers are far greater than they thought. People that thought they were going to make an extra $500, turns out they’re making an extra $5,000. So it’s been really great, yeah. And that’s going to carry forward.

The Country Is Doing Well — Despite Military Operations

Look, the country is doing really well. And that’s despite a military operation. I don’t call it a war. I’d rather have a military operation. We’re really — I mean, Iran is dying to make a deal. I can only tell you that. I don’t want to get into the — but they got to — they cannot be nuclear, other than that. But they are. Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Every ounce of any form of equipment, practically, is gone.

Stock Market Highs Amid Conflict

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, their drone factories are about 82 percent down, and their missile factories are almost 90 percent down. And many of their missiles have been knocked out. They used some, but we knocked out more than they used. And it’s pretty — it’s pretty amazing what’s happened. They want to make a deal. But despite the fact that we are in what some people would call a war, we just hit a new high today on the stock market. We have S&P that’s through the roof. They’re all — I mean, they’re through the roof.

And you know, when we hit 50,000 on the Dow and 7,000 on the S&P, I said to myself, we’re going to do something about Iran. They want to have a nuclear weapon. You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. And I hated to do it to my people, because they said 50,000 — Peter, you know this — that 50,000 wouldn’t be obtainable in my four years, or anybody’s four years. And we hit 50,000 on my first year, the end of my first year. We hit 7,000 on the S&P. They said that would be even less attainable. And we hit that at the end of the first year, before the year was up.

And then I said to Kevin, sorry about this, Kevin, but we have to put out a fire. And the fire is taking place in the lovely country of Iran, and they want to have a nuclear weapon.

The B-2 Bomber Strike on Iran

And we didn’t use this beautiful — see that plane right there, that beautiful B-2 bomber? It looks small there, but it’s actually quite — It doesn’t look very powerful there, but it’s quite large, actually. We ordered — actually, we ordered 25 more of them, the updated version, all built in America, which is very nice.

But if we didn’t have that B-2 bomber, if we didn’t go in and do what we did, we obliterated that nuclear capacity of theirs. And so they never — they didn’t get the nuclear bomb. If we didn’t do that attack — it should have been done long before I came along by other presidents, or by another country, or something. But it should have been done long before I came along.

But they are in very bad shape, and they’ve got nothing going — including leadership. I mean, you know, their leaders are gone. Now they have a whole new — their first-string leaders are gone, their second-string leaders are gone. Now we’re dealing with their third string. But we’ll see what happens.

Venezuela: A Joint Venture

It’s been an amazing — it’s been an amazing period of time between Venezuela and where we’re doing great. We’re getting along with them great. We’re working very closely with them. They’re doing more oil now than they’ve done in many, many decades, actually. And they’re making more money, and so are we. You know, we’re — it’s like a joint venture, to be honest.

And we paid for the attack many times over. The attack — something you’ve never heard before, probably. I always used to say to the victor, belong the spoils. But we paid for the attack, which is always expensive. But it was a less-than-one-day attack. It was actually a 45-minute attack. And that’s a good — you know, they have a good military in Venezuela, but this — they did not expect that and that and that and that, other than that. And when these suckers come at you at 2,500 miles an hour, at 25 feet off the ground, and you say, “This is not what I bargained for, this is no good.” Anyway, so —

Iran: Blockade and Nuclear Ambitions

Now, you know, Venezuela was amazing, but now we’re doing — essentially, it’s larger. We’re doing essentially the same thing in Iran. Can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And their economy is crashing. The blockade is incredible. The power of the blockade is incredible. They’re not getting any money from oil. And hopefully it can be worked out very soon.

REPORTER: Yeah. Iran is proving to be very stubborn. The talks seem like they are stalled. Are you getting antsy to break the ceasefire?

On Iran and the World Cup

TRUMP: Well, I mean, I don’t know what stubborn is, because really nobody knows what the talks are except myself and a couple of other people. They want to make a deal badly. And we have a problem, because nobody knows for sure who the leaders are. It’s a little bit of a problem, you know. The leaders have been wiped out, along with their military. Almost all of them, don’t they? Think of it. A hundred and fifty-nine ships was their total navy. One hundred and fifty-nine ships are gone. They’re underwater. They’re way below sea level. Sea level is a big difference. Pretty deep waters over there, too. So I don’t know that we need it. We might need it. We might need it.

REPORTER: And on Iran, a little while ago, the president of FIFA said that when the World Cup is here in the U.S., the team from Iran will be playing in the games.

TRUMP: Well, if Johnny said it, I’m okay. Did Johnny say it? He did. What if they win? Johnny Infantino. That’s a piece of work.

REPORTER: What if they win?

TRUMP: Well, if they win, we’ll have to worry about that. That’s that. I’m going to have to worry about that one. That one doesn’t do it.

Look, you know what? Let him play well. Johnny is fantastic. You know, he’s a friend of mine. And he talked about it. He said, “You do whatever you want. You can have him. You don’t have to have him. You don’t have to have him. You can have him. You don’t have to have him.” Probably have a good team. Do they have a good team? Do you have any idea?

REPORTER: I have no idea.

TRUMP: It would be hard to believe, actually. But I think let him play. Right?

On The Apprentice Returning

REPORTER: This is a little bit different. But what is your take on these reports that you’re showing? The Apprentice is going to come back, could come back on Amazon with host Donald Trump joining the team. And what is your take on that?

TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. What do you mean? Well, well. I’ve been hearing that. Look, we had a great success — 14 seasons. And The Apprentice was a tremendous success. So I’ve been hearing that. Little bit. So we’ll see what happens. He’s good. He’s a good guy. Probably good. He’s got a little charisma going. You need a little charisma for that subject, so we’ll see what happens. Yeah, they told me about it. We’ll see.

On Secret Service Security

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. There’s been some talks about changes to your security after what took place.

TRUMP: Changing my security?

REPORTER: Changing your security after what took place.

TRUMP: Well, they did a pretty good job, actually. You know, they stopped the NFL running back. I mean, he was like a running back. In fact, if you ever got out there, probably get a sign. He was a speedy guy. But he was stopped. They had many levels in front of him before he would even come close. You know, you could be a baseball team and win 19 to nothing, and somebody could say, “You should’ve won 21. You should’ve gotten 25 runs. The team was no good,” or something.

So, I don’t know. I can only say that I know a lot of those people at Secret Service, and they were good and they were forceful. And I saw the guys in front of me. They were powerful-looking guys. I said, “We could send them to Hollywood. They could make movies.”

I think that there’s always room for improvement, right? And he got into the building. The problem is the — I know that’s what I do. I build buildings like that. Much nicer, actually. But I build buildings like that. And you know, when you have a thousand rooms sitting on top of a ballroom, and you have the elevators coming down right near the entrance, it’s a pretty tough situation.

On Security, Budget, and the New Building

Now, right outside, we have something that’s on time, on budget, actually ahead of time. And ahead of budget, depending on finishes — you know, finishes is a big difference between marble and onyx in price. But it’s right on budget, right on time. And that’s built to the highest standards of security. No units on top, no hotel built on top, where an elevator comes right down through the middle of it. It’s a tough location. That’s a tough location. That’s a tough location.

On Law Enforcement and the Democrats

So, I think — I know the people at Secret Service. I think they’re great. And I think that Congress has to take care of those people. You know, we’re talking about ICE. We’re talking about Border Patrol, Secret Service, everyone. The Democrats essentially want to defund the police, just so you know. They want to defund law enforcement. It’s crazy. These people have gone crazy.

I heard Hakeem Jeffries, a low-IQ person — he’s a very low IQ — screaming today that the Supreme Court is illegitimate. I mean, that’s a dangerous statement. And if I say something modest, they say, oh, he’s a king, he’s a king, and they’re sick. But Hakeem Jeffries said the Supreme Court is illegitimate. That’s a rough statement. If I made that statement, it would be the biggest story out there. Bad things would happen.

On Gas Prices and Iran

REPORTER: The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4.30 in this country.

TRUMP: And you know what? And we’re not going to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran. The gas will go down. As soon as the war is over, it’ll drop like a rock. There’s so much of it. It’s all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world. And it’ll be — it’ll go down.

But what won’t happen is, if Iran had a nuclear weapon and used it, then the whole world is a different place. You’re not going to have to pay a little bit more for gasoline. The gasoline and the oil will go down rapidly as soon as the war is over.

Reporter Question: The “Wealth-Maker”

REPORTER: Yes, sir. I’ve got two questions. First, I’m going to follow up on Daniel’s question. I’ve described you as the peacemaker. You’re achieving peace around the world. Due to these latest policies — big, beautiful bill, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime — now the Trump account, and then the IRA account — can we describe you as the wealth-maker?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m helping people out. That’s a nice question, actually. But I’m helping people out. These people are with me. You know, these are great people. And feel free to speak up if you’d like, because they wanted this to happen, and we got it done. And they’re Republican people, I think, in all cases, right? In all cases. It’s crazy. We have to — we need, like, always unanimous. The Democrats, they will vote against anything, no matter how good — if they had their favorite thing in the world, and we happen to want it, but we found a new strategy, we’re going to oppose every single thing that we want, and we’ll get unanimous votes. So I’m going to come up and oppose everything, Brian, from this point forward, and they’ll vote for it.

Reporter Question: Space Force and Space Exploration

REPORTER: Second question. You created a Space Force towards the end of your first administration.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

REPORTER: You had an Artemis II crew in here. I know it’s a big accomplishment. What do you see moving forward, the duration of your administration, in terms of space exploration? I know that was a big moment for you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, doing Space Force was — I think it’s going to go down as one of my more important things. It’s turning out. Even a lot of these great military operations that we have right now, when you look at Venezuela, when you look at, like, the decimation of Iran, which was considered powerful — it was the bully of the Middle East.

Space Force and Global Leadership

And a lot of that took place so effectively because of what’s coming out of space. When we did Space Force — when I did Space Force, I’m very proud of it — space was like — we were third. China was first. Russia was second. Now we’ve leapfrogged. We’re way ahead of China, we’re way ahead of Russia. And we made some great choices. The first person that headed Space Force, and really, after that, we had a couple of really great people heading it. Always very important. And a new person is heading it now. I think he has a chance to be as good as anybody — as good as — maybe better, I don’t know. But we’ve had great people heading up Space Force. It’s been very important. It’s been very important for what we’re doing with respect to the different places.

Eight Wars Settled

And as far as peace, I settled eight wars. And people try and dispute it, but then they go over them. And almost in every case, they sent letters thanking me and letters to the Nobel Committee. I don’t care about that. Maria was very nice. She gave me her Nobel Peace Prize because she said she didn’t deserve it. She was very, very nice. But I settled eight wars. And in every case, the people — the prime ministers or presidents — wrote letters thanking me.

Pakistan-India Crisis Resolved Through Tariffs

In the case of India, I — look, the biggest one would have been Pakistan-India. The prime minister of Pakistan said I saved from 30 to 50 million lives, but it could have been more than that. Two nuclear nations were going at it. Eleven airplanes were shot down. They were in the first week of what would have been a very bad war. And I got it solved. Do you know how I got it solved? By the use of tariffs. I said, I’m going to charge you tariffs if you guys keep fighting. And they said, oh, please, don’t do that.

Scotland and Kentucky Whiskey Trade

REPORTER: You just lifted the tariffs, right, on — you just lifted some tariffs on whiskey? Is that correct?

TRUMP: Yeah, what I’m doing is for — for as long as I’ve been here, they’ve wanted to — you know, Kentucky, which is a great place. And I also won Jason by a lot. But Kentucky, with the bourbon, and Scotland, with the whiskey, and they’ve had trade for years and years and years, and a lot of restrictions, a lot of different restrictions took place that didn’t amount to much. And it really stopped them.

I don’t know if you know, it’s a barrel trade. They use the barrels from the one to take care of the other, and the barrels are only good for one year. In other words, they can’t be used twice. They can only be used once. But the once makes — it makes it a better substance. I’m not a big drinker, so forgive me. But it makes them a big substance and a better taste. But they dealt for years. This was Scotland and Kentucky, mostly Kentucky. And I just took all the restrictions off. So, Scotland and Kentucky can start dealing again. And I did it in honor of the king and queen who just left, they’re heading back. It was a big deal. They’ve been trying to get this for a long time.

Troop Withdrawal Considerations: Germany, Spain, and Italy

REPORTER: You talked about possibly pulling out some troops out of Germany. Would you be considering the same thing for Spain and Italy? I mean, they haven’t been exactly on board.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, probably. Yeah, I probably will. Why should I? You know, look, why shouldn’t I? I mean, Italy has not been of any help to us. And Spain has been horrible. Absolutely horrible. You know, it’s NATO. It’s not even the fact that they’ve been — it’s one thing if they said nicely, or they said, okay, we’ll help. But the help is a little slow. But the level — and we helped them with Ukraine. You know, they made a mess out of Ukraine, a total mess. And we helped them with Ukraine.

Ukraine has nothing to do — you know, we have — we’re an ocean apart. It has to do with them. It’s like, for them, it’s their front door. We helped them. And Biden gave them $350 billion, which was insane. It’s one of the reasons the world went on. But when we needed them, they were not there. We have to remember that.

And so, if we ever have a big one — because we didn’t need any help with Iran. We had Iran right from the first day it was over. It was over. And now it’s even more so. We’re so locked and loaded if we want to do. But we didn’t need their help. And to a certain extent, I asked them — I didn’t need their help, but I said, yeah, we’d love to have your help because I wanted to see if they’d do it. And they — in all cases, they said, we don’t want to get involved.

And, you know, the amazing thing is, they use this Strait of Hormuz. We don’t. We don’t use it. We don’t need it. We have a lot of oil. And — well, wait a minute. And they use it. We don’t. And you would have thought they would have said, we would love to help you. But they didn’t, which I think was a very —

And Germany. I mean, he’s doing a terrible job. He’s got immigration problems. He’s got energy problems. He’s got problems of all kinds. And he’s got a big problem with Ukraine because they’re in that mess. And he criticized me for doing the whole thing with Iran. But I said, would you like to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran? He said, no, I don’t. I said, well, then I guess I’m right. He didn’t have any answer to that.

The bottom line is, for this world, for our country, but certainly for Israel, the Middle East, and Europe, much closer, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And if you agree that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon, which most people agree — almost everybody. It should have been done a long time ago. But if you agree they can’t have a nuclear weapon, then what I did has been executed perfectly because our military has decimated them.

Yeah, please, go ahead.

On Iran’s New Regime, Secretary Rubio’s Role, and the Release of Eight Women

REPORTER: Mr. President, two questions for you. [Anita Shroffy] from the Daily Mail. You have called this the new regime before, and Iran. But I speak to Iranians on a daily basis, and they tell me that these are the same people that have murdered them, executed them, repressed them. I talked to them through the blackout, and they wanted me to ask you this question. And second of all, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, how come he’s not involved in these conversations?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, he’s very much involved. Marco is very — totally, he’s negotiating with him all the time. You know, look, Iran killed 42,000 people over the last few months — protesters. They were going to kill eight women, whose lives I saved. And I appreciate that they didn’t do it. I asked them not to do it. They didn’t do it.

They were getting ready to hang the women. They were going to hang eight beautiful women that were — I mean, it just caught the imagination of a lot of people. People were talking about it. You know, it was inconceivable. You saw those eight beautiful people, and they were going to be executed that evening. This was a week ago. And I got on the phone very quickly, and I said, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. The whole world is watching. Don’t do it.” And they didn’t do it. I appreciate it.

I guess four were released, and the other four are going to be released in a month. They were ready to be executed that night. So, they take a tough — you know, they knocked out the wrestler they killed. They killed the wrestler’s teammates. He was a — he was a world champion wrestler, too. He was a great wrestler.

On the Killing of 42,000 Protesters

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Great, talented wrestler. They killed him because he protested. He spoke. He didn’t — he wasn’t wrestling. What he did is, he spoke negatively about the regime, and they killed him. They executed him, along with his friends. They killed 42,000 people.

So, when you say about — they say that I do the same. I don’t do the same. I’m trying to — I’m trying to save that country in a certain way. And nobody has ever seen that. Think of it. They killed 42,000 innocent, not weapon-carrying people for protesting. Forty-two thousand. And the number, they say, is a lot higher than that. This is a rough group, but we have decimated them. And their economy is a disaster. So, we’ll see how long they hold out. We’ll see.

On LIV Golf, the PGA Tour, and Doral

REPORTER: Saudi Arabia is pulling the plug on LIV Golf. Once that tour is gone, do you think the PGA Tour should welcome the defectors back with open arms?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I know it’s a great question. In fact, if I had time, I’d love to watch television today because the PGA Tour is playing at Doral, the Cadillac Championship. And I said, who’s winning? I don’t get a chance. I can’t even look at it.

REPORTER: Jordan Spieth was in the lead.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Who is?

REPORTER: Jordan Spieth.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, that’s good. He’s good. Great guy. Good putter, to put it mildly, right? He’s a very great guy. Chipper putter. No, it’s — they’re at my tournament right now, the PGA. In two weeks, LIV is going to be at my course right here on the Potomac.

No, I’d love to see LIV. But I do believe that all of the golfers should be playing — the great golfers should be playing against each other. I do believe, you know. It’s sort of — and they were viewing something as a monopoly. But it’s a way — in a way, it should be the opposite of a monopoly.

I want to see Rory playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm play Scotty, who’s so great. Right? Scott. Scotty Scheffler is great. And I want to see him play Jon Rahm and Bryson and all the different guys. They have great players on LIV. But it’s almost like people want to see that. That’s why the Masters were so good, because you saw everybody together.

Patrick Reed played great. You know, he’s on LIV, and he played great. And they all did. They all played. They’re great players. I play with them. They’re very good. When I think I’m a good player and then I play with them, I don’t think I’m that good.

But there’s something nice about all of the players playing together. Now, they’ll all be accepted by the Tour. There’s no question. Because they’re great. If they weren’t, you know — but the Tour really will — the Tour wants to have the best player. You can’t have the best player that they’re boycotting. Now, they may do something, you know, a little bit. But they’ll all be back on Tour, and it’ll be great.

And, you know, having one, two — now, I don’t know that — what’s happening with LIV. I’m not sure what’s happening with LIV. But they are playing at my course, two weeks, on the Potomac. Beautiful course. But right now, they’re playing at Doral, which I own. And if we end this early, I’ll be able to watch for about three minutes. I get back onto the economy and every other subject that we have, including Iran. We’re doing so well with Iran. So, I think so. Yeah, please. Yes.

On Trump IRAs and Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell

REPORTER: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Jennifer Schoenberger with Yahoo Finance. Question on clarification of the Trump IRAs versus a regular IRA. Does it come down to the difference of a federal match? Who would qualify for that? And secondly, do you have any reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell staying on the Board of Governors? Were you prepared to take any action on that?

On Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve Building

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t care. If he stays on, he stays on. That doesn’t — I just wanted to make sure that Kevin became the head. It’s very unusual that they stay on, you know. I predicted he would because, you know, who’s going to hire him, frankly? So, I predicted he would stay on. But, you know, he’s a negative — I think he’s a negative force. The thing that angered me about him more than interest rates was the fact that he could allow a building to cost billions of dollars more than it was — I could have built that building. I could have renovated and fixed that building, which is what I do. I always did well with it — for $25 million. And they’re going to spend maybe $4 billion. It’s not even close to being opened.

You know, Kevin, who’s going to be fantastic — I don’t know if he’s going to have an office. I’m going to have to put him right here. I’m going to give him that — we’ll cut the oval in half, I’ll give him half of the oval. No, it’s — I think — I’m very happy about Kevin. I think Kevin sees a star. And the other Kevin, we’re going to talk to you. Could you answer her question?

On the Trump IRA Match, Website, and Phase Two

KEVIN: Yeah, sure. It’s a great question. And the match is a super important part of it, and it’s one reason why we’re calling on our friends here to potentially expand it, so that right now the match is capped at $35,000. But there’s a whole academic literature that this match has a big effect on people’s willingness to save and their long-run welfare. And so the differences really are in the match. We’re creating the trumpira.gov website, so it’ll be really, really easy for people to have access to private companies that have to follow the TSP rules that are really low-cost and so on, so that they’ll get the best possible investment.

And finally, you’ve noticed that Michael Dell has given money, promised money, for the Trump accounts. We’ve also made it clear that the Trump IRA charities can contribute to other people’s accounts as well.

SPEAKER: And I imagine this will boost the stock market and the economy further.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Do you want to mention phase two? We’re doing phase one today because I can do that without Congress. But phase two is going to be something that would be unbelievable. Do you want to just give a little summation?

KEVIN: We’ll be going back to Congress to ask for this. Right. So the basic headline is that if you look at the huge success of Australia in their retirement savings accounts, that we’re working with the Treasury Secretary, he and I, and Jason Smith, and other members of Congress to come up with something that’s pretty close or in the direction of the Australian system.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Or better.

KEVIN: Or better. Now, they had a couple of little glitches that we’ll get rid of. But there’s absolutely no contemplation of harming Social Security in any way. This is meant to be an add-on for that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It will be very exciting. It’s going to be great. We’ll be pretty quick. Pretty fast. We’re going to move pretty fast.

On Missing Scientists with Classified Access

REPORTER: Something that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, there’s all these missing scientists who had access to classified material. A bunch of them have turned up either — they’re either missing or they’ve turned up dead. Have you been briefed yet about whether or not these cases are connected?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I have.

REPORTER: And can you tell us if they are connected?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, so far, I mean, they’re individual. We have a lot of scientists. So when you see, you know, you put together 10, it’s a lot, but it’s, you know, a very small number compared to what overall. We have a lot of scientists. I was asking that question to thousands, hundreds of thousands of scientists. So, no, some of them that we looked at are very sad cases in some cases. Some were sick. Some left this Earth self-inflicted. Some had other things.

Secret Service Agent Shooting: Friendly Fire Questions

REPORTER: Just to follow up on my question earlier, have you been informed if the Secret Service agent who was shot on Saturday, if that was from friendly fire or if it was from the suspect?

TRUMP: Well, they say it was not friendly fire.

REPORTER: So, you’re hearing that it’s from?

TRUMP: Well, that’s what I heard. I mean, I heard that. They said it wasn’t friendly fire. It was actually reported. You read the reports? Because it was actually reported.

REPORTER: Yes, sir. I read through the DOJ.

TRUMP: Well, then why do you ask me the question?

REPORTER: I don’t believe it said that the agent was struck by —

TRUMP: I’m just saying they said it wasn’t friendly fire. And he hasn’t been charged yet. It wasn’t us. Okay. And he hasn’t been charged yet with that. Of course, that could come.

Bulletproof Vest and Personal Security

REPORTER: I want to follow up on the security changes. Is there talks about you potentially wearing a bulletproof vest moving forward, given you have now been shot at so many times?

TRUMP: I don’t know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier. You know, these guys, they’re looking so big with guns. Some of these guys are physical specimens. Some of these guys have traveled. I don’t want to be near him. If you want to gain 20 to 25 pounds, you better watch the vest.

Frankly, the vest did an amazing job because it took a bullet close up. And he didn’t even want to go to the hospital. I mean, we sent him to the hospital just in case. But he didn’t want — you know, it’s still a hit. But he didn’t want to go to the hospital. The vest totally protected him.

Still a lot of power behind that shot, though. That’s like getting hit by Mike Tyson. But it’s amazing. I’ve been asked about that. And I guess it’s something you consider. In one way, you don’t like to do it because you’re giving in to a bad element. And so, I don’t know. But I have been asked about it.

REPORTER: How nervous are you about it happening again? Another assassination attempt?

TRUMP: I don’t think about it.

REPORTER: You don’t think about it at all?

TRUMP: If I did, I wouldn’t be doing a very good job here. I’ve been thinking about nothing but that. I don’t think about it. I really don’t. I don’t think about it. If I did, I wouldn’t be effective.

Senate Filibuster and MAGA Priorities

REPORTER: You pushed on Truth Social, calling on Senate Republicans to blow up the filibuster. It is a big issue with MAGA. MAGA wants you to get rid of it. Why don’t they do it?

TRUMP: Why don’t they do it? I don’t know. I have no idea. You know why, I guess? Because they have three or four that are like hard-line. Same ones. Same ones. That are hard-line, no to everything. And you don’t have all of them. You know, we have a very small majority.

John Thune is a good man. I said to him, John, just go take the vote. Let’s expose who the people are. Yeah. But, you know, if we got rid of the filibuster, we could vote on the Save America Act, voter ID. You know, you act so good. I love this guy. Yeah, everything.

I’m curious. You know I don’t love his girlfriend too much, okay? I won’t tell you who the girl is. But I like him, and I’ve always liked him. Thank you.

I’m actually curious. It’s great that he hasn’t changed his mind. I’m just sitting there crying. I think he is the president. It’s not even imaginable to me why. And people are angry about it. People are angry. I’m talking about Republicans who are angry about it. The filibuster should be terminated.

On the Filibuster and Republican Strategy

If the Democrats ever get a shot, which probably, based on history, sometime they will, they will use it in the first minute of the first hour, and they will execute all of the bad things. Twenty-one justices. You know, they really like 21. I heard 13, but they really want 21 Supreme Court justices. And they really want to have D.C. and Puerto Rico become states. That would mean automatic four senators going to the Democrat golem. And there’s not even a chance that they don’t do it and do it immediately.

Now, with that knowledge, because you could argue whether it’s good or bad, but I don’t think it’s that much of an argument, frankly. But you could argue, with that knowledge that they’re going to do it immediately, why wouldn’t you do it as a Republican? Unless you have bad motives, almost. But if we did it, we could pass one bill after the other. We could pass laws and acts and things that we never even dreamt of passing. And you know what else? We wouldn’t lose for 50 years. You know, if we terminated the filibuster, we would have a 50-year run. You’d stop cheating.

I mean, look, they’re professional cheats, and they’re great at it. That’s what they’re best at. Because you can’t get elected with their policy. You can’t get elected with men and women’s sports, with transgender mutilization of our children, with open borders for jails to be dropped into our country, and mental institutions, and drug dealers, and murderers. Think of it, 11,888 murders come into our country. Nobody even talks to them about it, right?

We got a lot of them out because of — you know what? — because of ICE, which they don’t want to fund. They’re defunding our police. When they defund ICE and with Border Patrol and Secret Service, they’re defunding our police. The same thing as they’re doing with an officer on the street corner.

So, why the Republicans’ Senate doesn’t just sit in there and just do it and take a negative vote and do it again and again like the Democrats do? They go again and again — the war power.

On Negotiating with Iran

I’m negotiating a deal with Iran. And every week, every three days, they put in a thing that the war should stop. And people ask me, how the hell do you negotiate like that? You’re destroying them. Every day I read — think of it — we militarily decapitated the country. And every day I read about how well they’re doing militarily. They got nothing left. They’re done.

And yet, I read in the New York Times, I see that stupid CNN, which I only watch because you have to watch a little bit of the enemy. So, I watch it for a very short period. But you have to. You don’t — you have to be smart. And if you see CNN, you think they’re winning the war. If you read the New York Times, it’s actually seditious, in my opinion. You read the New York Times, you actually think they’re winning the war. I read some of these columnists and — but it’s all sorts from the top. It’s a terrible thing.

So, we’re negotiating with them. And they read how well they’re doing. And they’re sitting in a cave, and all their leaders are dead. Everyone is dead around them. Missiles are all over the place. They have no Navy. They have no Air Force. They have no nothing. We can fly right over the middle of Tehran without being shot at because they have no anti-aircraft. They have nothing.

And they’re reading that they’re winning the war. They’re trying to figure it out. They get the New York Times, I guess, in some form. And they think we’re crazy. But, you know, I’m supposed to be negotiating. And they make you negotiate from weakness, not strength. But the difference is I don’t care. And everybody knows the facts. We are decimating that country.

Military Strength and the Houthi Conflict

I got a call today from another country that’s more on our side than their Middle Eastern country, saying, “Sir, please don’t hit them anymore. They’re decimated. Please.” He’s actually helping them. He’s actually saying, “Please.” And yet, the New York Times will tell you that they’re winning the war. It’s so sad. I hate to even say that, because when I say that, people out watching, they’ll say, “Oh, maybe they’re winning,” just by the fact that I’m saying it. And it’s so ridiculous. They’re being decimated.

We have the greatest military in the world. And one thing that’s come out of this and Venezuela is some of the things that have happened. I rebuilt the military in my first term. And did a good job. And also the first year of this term. We have the greatest military in the world. When I spoke with President Xi, when I spoke with President Putin, I have great respect for what I’ve done and what our military does. We have a military like no other.

You know, when we attacked Venezuela, their equipment, none of it worked. It was all good equipment, but it was discombobulated. You know what that means. They pressed the buttons and nothing happened. They said, “What the hell is going on?” They heard that weird buzzing sound from way up high. It’s amazing how great our military is.

The B-2 Bomber Mission Over Iran

And for us to read — it’s like the B-2 bombers, right there. Late at night, eight months ago, they went into Iranian territory, and Iran was waiting for them. And they were firing at the wrong targets. They were firing at their planes, but they didn’t see them. And with no moon, dark at night, they dropped — each plane with two bombs, 14 bombs. Every one of those 14 bombs went right down an air chute. Think of it. They followed the beam right into the chute.

And every single one of those bombs — very powerful, 200,000-pound bombs. Every one of those bombs went right down an air chute. Late at night — think of it. Late at night, with no moon, you couldn’t see a thing. They put those — and they went into territory. All of a sudden, I was watching. They got faster. And then they go like that because the bombs go faster when they head down. I wouldn’t want to head down. I’d want to get the hell out of there. And they let the bombs go.

And then the first one that let them go was a perfect hit. He said, “Skedaddle.” And that plane turned over in its eyes, and it went back to a place called Missouri. You know what I mean? Jason. The President. It went back — it wanted to say hello to a very powerful congressman, by the way, from Missouri. Jason.

The Media Got It Wrong — The Damage Was Obliteration

So, every one of those bombs. And yet, before they landed, CNN came out with a report that maybe the damage wasn’t that great. The damage was far greater than we said. It was obliteration. And when the Atomic Energy Commission went there one week later, they say Trump was right. It was obliteration. And they still haven’t been — they’ve had possession of the site for — they haven’t been able to do anything with it. It’s — that stuff is buried.

And the reason I took such — I was angry about it was because it’s disrespectful to those pilots and those incredible people, including the people that maintain the planes. Those planes had to fly for 37 hours without stopping. They got the tankers. They had three tanker lifts, meaning they had to get refueled up in there. They never landed. They went all the way from Missouri to here and then back.

Some went to Guam, which there are those that say that was a way of camouflaging and all that, because they followed the ones that — they thought the ones from Guam were not coming. They were going to take it easy at Guam. That didn’t work out too well. But that was amazing.

On the Military Strike and the Bombs That Hit Their Targets

And the New York Times and CNN, they said, well, maybe the B-2 attack was in circles. Even to this day, I hear it. Because we want to get the nuclear dust. It’s way down there. You need excavators and everything to get it. But we want to get it. We’ll take it one way or the other. We’ll get it. We’ll either get it or we’ll take it. They’ll either give it to us or we’ll take it.

But I think it’s very disrespectful to our incredible military when they say maybe they missed a target. Every single bomb hit the target. Then, on top of that, we shot, from submarines, 30 unbelievable missiles that also hit the target. On top of that. It was complete obliteration. And it was confirmed by Atomic Energy.

But even the other day, I saw on CNN — well, I don’t know. They want the stuff. So, therefore, the bombs didn’t hit. You know, we want the stuff. It’s way buried. But we want to get it. We will get it. Won’t even be hard. But they have to respect our military. They have to — if it were a miss, I’d tell you, you know, it would be fine. It would have done a lot of damage.

But this was — these bombs went down the air chutes. They’ll never build air chutes again in a mountain. You know, they built these air chutes to get a little air up there. They’ll have to find a different way because it didn’t work. But our military is amazing. There’s never been anything like — we have the most powerful military on Earth, and it’s too bad we have to use it. But we’re doing really well. So we’ll see how that all works out. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

On Building, Granite, and the New White House Floor

How do you like the new floor? So, we had all — what I do best is build. That’s what I do best. I think — I say to people, am I a better builder or politician? And most of them say politician, but that’s okay. What I do best is I build. The ballroom will be just like that.

So I went out, and I have a special black granite. Granite is the most powerful stone there is. Marble is much weaker than granite. I like marble more because marble can be more beautiful, but it’s a much weaker stone. When you look at gravesites and you look at a marble plaque 100 years old, you’ll see oftentimes you can almost not read it. When you look at a granite plaque 100 years old, it looks like it just got put there yesterday. You know, that’s a test.

But we have the finest granite anyone has ever seen. It’s called flawless granite. There’s very little of it. And I replaced a broken slate that was put here many years ago. I saved the ramp because it’s in honor of FDR. FDR ran up there. He had that built as a ramp. They said, oh, sir, we’ll straighten it. I said, no, we have to leave the ramp. It was built. That ramp was built for FDR with a wheelchair because, you know, it’s a not — it’s a pretty good slope.

But a lot of people say, why is it a ramp? I say, because of FDR. They say, ah, I get it. But we saved that. But we replaced the broken slate. And a slate, by the way, is meant for a roof. It’s not meant for a sidewalk. And we replaced it with granite, the highest grade granite. It’s valued at — you know, they value stones in terms of — that’s valued at 1 million-plus. That means 1 million-plus years. A marble will oftentimes be valued at 200 years, 300 years. This is giving you a little lesson in stone.

Somebody was saying, he went off on a tangent. And there’s something wrong. Like I did with the pen.

President Trump on White House Renovations

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I gave you a little thing on the pen, that that pen is better than the one that costs 2,000 that you’re handing to everyone. See, this one, I can hand to these guys. That’s worth three bucks. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. It’s worth three bucks. So, anyway.

But I always — I always tell people — but they said, he went off on a tangent. And I said, no. I always say — I always say, if you don’t find it interesting, leave during the — but the granite — in fact, if you can, let them leave through that door. It’s just completed. We had it completed for King Charles. On time, on budget. I paid for it. So, you know, it’s very expensive. I would have said — He loved it. He loved it. And he’s seen some nice stuff.

Well, we’re fixing the White House. But it was — it was sort of terrible. People would walk to the Oval Office on a broken slate. Again, slate is used on roofs. It’s not used where people walk on it. And it’s been walked on for a long time. And there are many, many broken pieces. So I said to do it right.

Now, the other thing I did, if you want to have a look — all of the columns, they had 200 years of paint on them. And they looked terrible. And, you know, they were chipped and broken. And when you have a lot of paint — and I stripped the columns back down to the original stone and painted them, and you’ll see it. But you may want to — final touches. A little touch up here with the paint. Got a little hit by a couple of these heavy stones. You know, they’re very heavy. Thick. It’s thick granite.

But that granite’s valued at over a million years. In other words, a lifetime. One million-plus. That’s your max. Why don’t you walk out there and take a look, okay? And the company that did it, if you look at the setting, each point is perfect. So take a — Peter, take a look. Tell your father if I did a good job. It’s going to be great.

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