TRANSCRIPT: Trump Signs Executive Orders At Mar A Lago, Feb 18 2025

And a lot of that will take place, and I think some won’t do it and some will do it. But the EU had a 10 percent tax on cars, and now they have a 2.5 percent tax, which is the exact same as us. So, already, we’ve saved a tremendous amount. That would be great. If everybody would do that, then we’d all be on the same playing field. Because, essentially, what we’re doing with the tariffs is, you know, they charge us, we charge them. Same amount. And it’s called reciprocal, actually.

And whatever they charge us, we’re charging them. And so, the EU is — you know, I appreciate that they did this. But, you know, the EU has been very unfair to us. We have a deficit of $350 billion. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our farm products. They don’t take almost anything. They take very little. And we’re going to have to straighten that out. And we will. I have no doubt about it. Yeah, go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Russia talks? Your impression of how they went today? And if you’re perhaps more confident or less confident of a deal after what happened today?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, much more confident. They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism — I mean, what’s going on over there. It’s — soldiers are being killed by the thousands on a weekly basis. It’s ridiculous. And they’re not American soldiers. They’re Russian soldiers. And they’re Ukrainian soldiers, largely. Although a lot of Koreans have been killed, as you know. Quite a bit of them have been killed. They came over to fight, and a large portion have been wiped out.

But we want to end it. It’s a senseless war. It should have never happened. Would have never happened if I was President. And it’s a shame to see it. And I see pictures that you don’t see, but I see pictures of fields that look just horrible. It looks like Gettysburg. If you see the old pictures of Gettysburg, it’s soldiers lying all over the field, body parts all over the field. They’re all dead. And this is going on on a daily basis. It’s a horrible thing. Both Russia and Ukraine, they’re losing thousands and thousands of soldiers. And a lot of people have been killed, too. I think that’s one of the things that you’ll see historically and you’ll see later on as it goes along. I think people are going to be surprised at how many people — not only soldiers — have been killed in Ukraine. A lot more people than you think. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: President Trump, as part of a peace deal with Putin, would you be willing to consider removing all American troops from Europe?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, nobody has asked me to do that, so I don’t think we’d have to do that. I wouldn’t want to do that. But that question has never really come up. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Sir, do you support stationing European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of this peace deal?

DONALD TRUMP: If they want to do that, that’s great. I’m all for it. If they want to do that, I think that’s — that’d be fine. I mean, I know France has mentioned it. Others have mentioned it. UK has mentioned it. But, yeah, well, if we have a peace deal, I think having troops over there for — from the standpoint of Europe, we won’t have to put any over there because, you know, we’re very far away. But having troops over there would be fine. I would not object to it at all. We’re talking about this now. Peace. We have either a ceasefire or a peace itself. And we’re looking to do both. We’d start off with a ceasefire. And if they want to do that — I know France was willing to do that, and I thought that was a beautiful gesture. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Do you have any message for Ukrainians who, after three years of fighting, might feel betrayed or disappointed at not having a seat at these initial talks in Saudi Arabia?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think I’m really disappointed in what’s happened. I’ve been watching this for three years. It’s a war that would have never happened if I was President. And I’ve been watching these, you know, people being killed at levels that you’ve rarely seen — not even close — since the Second World War. And I’m very disappointed. I hear that, you know, they’re upset about not having a seat. Well, they’ve had a seat for three years, and a long time before that.

This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without — I think without the loss of much land, very little land, without the loss of any lives, and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their sides. You have those magnificent golden domes that are shattered, will never be replaced. You can’t replace them. Thousand-year-old domes that are so beautiful, you can’t replace that. The whole civilization has changed because of what. So, when they’re worried about not being seated — I mean, somebody that should have gone in and made a deal a long time ago, you could have made a deal. This is one that could have made a deal. There was no talk of this during the Trump administration. Putin would have never, ever done it.

And, by the way, we wouldn’t have had October 7th. You know that. We wouldn’t have had October 7th either in Israel, and we wouldn’t have had that mess that’s going on over there. It’s like we have great fire people here. We’re putting out fires. All over the world, we’re putting out fires. So, that wouldn’t have happened. And you know what else wouldn’t have happened? Inflation, because it was caused, really, by the cost of energy going through the roof because of their bad energy policies. And also, their spending. Their terrible spending. Wasteful spending on the Green New Scam. It’s a scam. It’s a whole big scam. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Yes, sir. I want to ask you a little closer to home. What would it take for you to reconsider the restrictions on the Associated Press and, secondly, some of your advisors are concerned with the Associated Press’ style guide, using language and giving guidance to not use words like illegal immigrant or to use phrases like gender-affirming care? And they’re concerned about that being an encroaching amount of liberalism in the way in which the press writes about things. Do you share those concerns?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I do think that some of the phrases that they want to use are ridiculous. And I think, frankly, they’ve become obsolete, especially in the last three weeks, because many things have happened in the last three weeks. And I didn’t know about that, but I would say that if they want to use certain phrases like that — and I guess some are okay, but many aren’t — but the Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is and what is taking place. It’s called the Gulf of America now. It’s not called the Gulf of Mexico any longer. I have the right to do it just like we have the right to do Mount McKinley, and nobody is even challenging that. But only the — essentially, it’s primarily the Associated Press.

And I don’t know what they’re doing, but I just say that we’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America. We’re very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America. Now, the Associated Press, as you know, has been very, very wrong on the election, on Trump and the treatment of Trump, and other things having to do with Trump and Republicans and conservatives. And they’re doing us no favors, and I guess I’m not doing them any favors. That’s the way life works. But, you know, thank you for the question. Who are you with? Very good question. Thank you. Yes.

REPORTER: We’re hearing that Russia wants to force Ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal. Is that something that the U.S. would ever support?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine.

Ukraine Situation and Elections

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine — I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 percent approval rating — and where a country has been blown to smithereens. You got — most of the cities are laying on their sides. The buildings are collapsed. It looks like a massive demolition site. The whole — I mean, so many of the cities. I mean, they haven’t done it in Kiev because I guess they don’t want to shoot too many rockets in there. They’ve done it 20 percent, but they haven’t done it 100 percent. If they wanted to do it 100 percent, it would probably happen very quickly.

And, yeah, I would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to — wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election? That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also. You know, Ukraine is being just wiped out. Look at what’s happening to the cities. There are cities — there’s not even a building standing. It’s a massive — you talk about Gaza. I mean, it’s literally — these cities look like Gaza. Actually, many have, percentage-wise, more buildings knocked down than in Gaza. So, you know, people are tired of it. People want to see something happen.

And, you know, the other thing that has been bothering me for a long time — because I solved the problem with NATO. They paid hundreds of billions of dollars into the funds of NATO when I said, you got to pay, because the United States was paying for European countries, and then they take advantage of us on trade. But I’ve seen it. Look, we have to — they have to pay. They have to find out, where is the money going to? We have — I believe President Zelensky said last week that he doesn’t know where half of the money is that we gave him. Well, we gave them, I believe, $350 billion. But let’s say it’s something less than that, but it’s a lot. And we have to equalize with Europe, because Europe has given us a — given a very much smaller percentage than that.

I think Europe has given $100 billion, and we’ve given, let’s say, $300 plus. And it’s more important for them than it is for us. We have an ocean in between, and they don’t. But where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? And nobody — I’ve never seen an accounting of it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars. I have — I don’t see any accounting. So, I want a steep piece. Look, you know why I want? Because I don’t want all these people killed anymore. I’m looking at people that are being killed. And they’re Russian and Ukrainian people, but they’re people. Doesn’t matter where they’re from on the whole planet. And I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it’s going very well. But today, I heard, oh, we weren’t invited.

Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land — everything — almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way. And President Biden, in all fairness — he doesn’t have a clue what he — he was so bad for this. He was so bad. So pathetic. So sad. But with all of that being said, look, it is what it is. When I left, there was no chance that this could have happened. But it happened because we had incompetent leadership at many different levels.

But when you see what’s taken place in Ukraine with millions of people killed, including the soldiers — millions of people killed, a big percentage of their cities knocked down to the ground. I don’t know how anybody even lives there. You know, when they say they took a poll, and Zelensky is at 4 percent, who’s living there? You know, I mean, people are — it’s hard to believe that people live there. Their cities are being knocked down. And this is something that would have never happened. And, by the way, for four years, it didn’t happen — was never going to happen. Go ahead.

REPORTER: How would you counter the perception — because Russia is pushing for this, obviously. They don’t really hold true elections — that that would be a capitulation of some sort. How would you guard against, potentially, Russia installing a puppet government? And then, finally, how would that new election have an impact on getting Zelensky to sign the rare-earth-minerals deal?

DONALD TRUMP: Look, you have leadership. And I like him personally. He’s fine. But I don’t care about personally. I care about getting the job done. You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States. Look, we had a President who was grossly incompetent. He had no idea what he was doing. He said some very stupid things, like going in for portions and all those things. He made a lot of bad statements. But he’s grossly incompetent. And I think everyone knew that. This is something that should have never happened. Would have never happened. And I used to discuss it with Putin.

President Putin and I would talk about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye, I will tell you that. But he never — there was never a chance of him going in. And I told him, You better not go in. Don’t go in. Don’t go in. And he understood that. And he understood it fully. But I’m only interested — I want to see if I can save maybe millions of lives. This could even end up in a World War III. I mean, to be honest with you, you’ve been hearing now Europe is saying, Well, I think we’re going to go in and we’re going to go — all of a sudden, you’re going to end up in World War III over something that should have never happened. And, you know, it’s a very sad situation. Yeah, please.

Elon Musk’s Role and Social Security Fraud

REPORTER: In a court filing, the White House said that Elon Musk is not a Doge employee and has no authority to make decisions. Can you clarify for us today what his exact role is?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, Elon Musk — yeah, yeah — Elon is, to me, a patriot. So, you know, you could call him an employee. You could call him a consultant. You could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot. I mean, look at the kind of things — I just said — just write it down, just in case that question got asked, right? And — which, I’m surprised it took so long, actually. But you know what? Ukraine is a bigger deal because people are dying by the thousands a week. Thousands. But look at this. From 90 to 99, Social Security — 6,054,000 people. Well, that’s okay. Maybe that’s possible.

You know, 90 to 90 — 99, maybe it’s possible. That’s a lot of people, though, with that. But people that live to 100 to 109 — 4,734,000. Wow, that’s a lot. That means over 100 years old, they have 4 million people. I don’t know. I don’t know too many. I know people that are doing great in their 90s, but not too many people over 100. But over 120 — from 120 years old — people that are 120 years old up to 129. 3,472,000 people. Wow. You know that can’t possibly be because the record is like — I think it’s one person — a woman lived to 127, but they have 3,472. Okay, but now we’re going really in. People from 130 years old to 139 years old — 3,936,000. Wow. I wonder if people are getting paid with all this.

I mean, are these checks — and that’s what we’re checking right now. People from 140 years old to 149 years old — 3,542,000. 140 years old and beyond. Now we’re really going because we’re looking to break the record by 25 years. People from 150 years old to 159 years old — 1,345,000. These are in the — by the way, these are in the computer files. This is what they do well. They’re super — I asked Elon, who are these Doge people? He said, they’re super-brilliant computer people, and they love the country. It’s simple. Wait a minute. People from 160 years old to 169 years — 121,000. So, 160-year-old people. 170 to 179,000. 6,087. But now let’s go into the real numbers. From 200 to 209 years old — 879 people. From 210 years old — I haven’t met any of them.

And if I did, I would bless them. I would worship the ground they walk on. 210 to 219 years old — 866. From 220 years old to 229 years old — 1,039. And then you have two people. From 240 years old to 249 years old — one person. And there’s one person that’s 360 years old. That’s just that. And then, where’s the money being spent? Right? Let’s go into that for just a second. $520 million for a consultant on the environment. It’s called Environmental, Social, and Governance. Investments in Africa and mobilized private sector resources — $520 million. Somebody got $520 million for an environmental — sounds like an environmental study. That’s the most — I’ve always been one that paid a lot of money for my environmental studies. But they — you know, I paid, like, $50,000. Not $520 million. $520 million for ESG.

$25 million to promote biodiversity, conservation, and promote licit livelihoods by developing socially responsible behavior in the country of Colombia. Well, it’s nice — $25 million to go into Colombia for something that nobody ever heard of. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants — $40 million. $42 million for Johns Hopkins — great place to research and drive social and behavior change in Uganda — $42 million. What about us? What about social change in our country? $70 million for a center at Purdue to research university-sourced, evidence-based solutions to developmental challenges. I mean, these are massive numbers on things that nobody ever heard about. $10 million for Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcisions — $10 million for circumcisions in another country. $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise-driven skills.

In other words, let’s teach them something about enterprise. What about our people? Can’t we teach them about enterprise? $2.3 million for strengthening independent voices in Cambodia. $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Center, which is a very liberal group of people. I wonder how much of that money came back to the people that approved it. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $486 million to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including $22 million for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova. And $21 million for voter turnout in India. Well, why are we giving $21 million to India? They got a lot of money. They’re one of the highest-taxing countries in the world, in terms of us. We can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high. I have a lot of respect for India.

I have a lot of respect for the Prime Minister. He just left, as you know, two days ago. But we’re giving $21 million for voter turnout. It’s voter turnout in India. What about, like, voter turnout here? We’ve done that, I guess. We did $500 million, didn’t we? It’s called the lockboxes. $20 million for fiscal federalism in Nepal. Listen to these numbers. This is all fraud. $19 million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal. $1.5 million for voter confidence. We want to give them confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $2.5 million for inclusive democracies in South Africa. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well. They’re doing a lot better than we do in the schools, aren’t they? $2 million to develop sustainable recycling models to increase socioeconomic cohesion among marginalized communities in Kosovo and Ashkali.

And in Egypt, we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I could — by the way, I could read this all day long. I could go on all day long, and you’ll see hundreds of billions of dollars. And we’re doing it. But when I saw the Social Security numbers, I said, wow, that’s really something. So we have — let’s just go above 100 years old. We have millions and millions of people over 100 years old. Everybody knows that’s not so. We have a very corrupt country. Very corrupt country. And it’s a sad thing to say. But we’re figuring it out.

Now, the good thing about Social Security, and what I read, is if you take all of those numbers off — because they’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent — but if you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden, we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old. You know, so it’s a very positive thing. How about over here? Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Who’s your reaction to Michelle King had resigning after the —

DONALD TRUMP: Who resigned?

REPORTER: —

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. Resigned or got fired. I think got fired. You know, when you fire somebody, they always resign, and then they say, we resigned. But when you have numbers like that, I think, really, it’s — got fired. They have to get fired. Who would keep them? How could you have numbers like this? Now, the big thing is, how many of these people got paid? Were they getting paid? Were they getting paid? How many of them were getting paid, Social Security? Because that’s — if that’s the case, it’s a massive fraud. We’ll have to call those great Palm Beach police into this situation, right? You guys would figure that out very quickly. But how many of them are being paid? I mean, maybe millions of them, but it’s a total fraud. Also, a lot of illegal immigrants are in Social Security that shouldn’t be there. Yeah, please. Go ahead.

REPORTER: Mr. President, there was a big wave of probationary federal workers who were fired over the weekend. Some of these workers focused on nuclear weapons security were immediately rehired.

Federal Worker Terminations and Rehirings

REPORTER: Do you have any concerns about how these terminations have been?

DONALD TRUMP: No, not at all. I think we have to just do what we have to do. You know, you’re going to — it’s amazing what’s been found right now. It’s amazing. If we feel that, in some cases, they’ll fire people and then they’ll put some people back. Not all of them, because a lot of people were let go. Don’t forget, I got elected on the basis of making our government stronger and smaller, because we have millions of people that, obviously, they’re paying millions of people that shouldn’t be paid. And that has also to do with workers. Yeah, please. No, go ahead. Actually, yes, New York Times.

REPORTER: Sorry. Mr. President, given your concerns about corruption, you said that if there were any conflicts of interest with Elon Musk, you wouldn’t let him anywhere near it.

DONALD TRUMP: That’s right.

REPORTER: Doge and SpaceX employees are now working directly at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department — agencies that have billions of dollars in contracts with Musk’s companies or that directly regulate his companies. How is that not a conflict of interest?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I mean, I’m just hearing about it. And if there is — and he told me before I told him, but obviously I will not let there be any conflict of interest. He’s done an amazing job. They’ve revealed, in fact, he’s going to be on tonight, a big show called Sean Hannity at 9 o’clock. And he’s on and I’m on, and we talk about a lot of different things. And any conflicts — I told Elon, any conflicts, you can’t have anything to do with that. So anything to do with possibly even space, we won’t let Elon partake in that. Yeah, please.

Immigration and Guantanamo Bay

REPORTER: On immigration, sir, you said you would be sending the worst of the worst to Guantanamo Bay. What we’re finding out is that there are a lot of low-risk migrants who don’t have a criminal background who are also being sent. Are you thinking about this differently now?

DONALD TRUMP: No, they’re going to be brought back to their countries. And with some persuasion, every one of those countries — every one in the — as you know, every country is taking the people back. So some of them are going to be brought back to — many of them, any of them that are low-risk, as you say, are going to be brought back to their countries. Yeah, go ahead, please.

Venezuela and Oil

REPORTER: Can you give us a bit of an update on where you stand with Venezuela?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, sure. It’s real — there’s basically a monthly license that can soon expire. Well, you know, we had Venezuela on the run, and it looked like that was going to be very good. And when Biden came in, as he always does, he screws it up. And they started buying millions and millions and millions of dollars of oil — billions of dollars, actually, of oil. And it gave them a new life — a new, really, lease-on life. And — but we’ll see. We had some pretty good discussions with a lot of people within our government, in the United States government, that are involved in that. And Venezuela is a little bit early. But, you know, we were not buying from Venezuela.

When Biden came in, for whatever reason, instead of just taking the beautiful — as I call it, liquid gold — we have more than anybody, they started paying a fortune to Venezuela. And we’re looking at that, actually. Why did they do that? Why were they doing that? Why would they go to the enemy and give them billions and billions of dollars? Now, with that being said, as you know, Venezuela has said very strongly they will not take any — any illegal immigrant, any of the people that they sent over to us. They sent their gangs — probably the worst gang anywhere in the world. As bad as MS-13, maybe worse. And they came out of the jails of Venezuela. They emptied their jails into our country. And they said, We’ll never take them back. Well, they took them back, and they’re taking them back. And they are taking them back rapidly. They were sending a lot of people to Venezuela. They said they wouldn’t take them back, and they are taking them back. But we’re looking at Venezuela very seriously, and we’re going to be able to — don’t forget, I’ve only been here for three weeks. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: Just a little clarity on — are you inclined to continue to allow Venezuela, through, I think, Chevron and other oil companies, to export those petroleum products? Or are you —

DONALD TRUMP: Maybe not. Yeah, maybe not. We’re looking at that now. I just got here. When I was — when I left, they weren’t doing anything. They were ready to go. We give up. And then Biden came along, and he gave them, literally, billions of dollars. I couldn’t believe it, actually. And we have so much under our feet. Liquid gold. We have so much. And it was pretty amazing. So, we’re looking at the whole situation, why he did it. All right, how about one more? Yeah, please.

CIA Drone Flights and Mexico

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. What can you tell us about the CIA drone flights over Mexico? Is this the next step in the war against the cartels?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to see.

REPORTER: Should they have authority to take legal action?

DONALD TRUMP: Mexico has allowed a tremendous number of people to go through their country and to ours, and even people coming from Mexico. And illegals. Totally illegal. They’ve allowed people to empty jails into Mexico and then let them come through with this totally ridiculous open-border policy of the Biden administration. So, millions of people have come in, and hundreds of thousands — and actually, millions — are criminals. They came in from jails all over the world. They’d release them into Mexico, and they’d come into our country. And they also came in from Canada, by the way. Large numbers through Canada. In fact, when we closed up the one border, they came in through the other border. So, Canada was — is not an uninterested party.

But I will say this. We’re dealing with Mexico. I have a very good relationship with Mexico. But I think Mexico is largely run by the cartels. And that’s a sad thing to say. And if they wanted help with that, we’d give them help. But Mexico — if you look at what’s gone on with Mexico for years now, but now especially, it’s run by the cartels. And they’ve allowed millions of people to come into our country from jails and prisons of other countries from all over the world. Not just South America. Africa, Asia, all over. A lot from the Congo in Africa. A lot. They opened their jails. They came in through Mexico. And we have some of the worst criminals coming in from the Congo and other places.

So, it’s not just South America, and it’s not just Venezuela. But they opened their jails. And you know the crime rates in Venezuela and other places all over the world has gone way down. You know why? Because they’ve given us — they’re prisoners, they’ve given us their drug lords, gang members. And it’s hard to believe that we accepted this. It’s hard to believe that we allowed open borders. And we’re taking in, you know, hundreds of thousands and millions of people coming in from all over the world that are absolute stone-cold criminals. In fact, 11,088 murderers. And many of those people have murdered more than one person. Why are they giving us these people? And why are we taking these people under Biden?

You know, you had a border czar that never went to the border. Happened to be a Vice President. Never went to the border, never called the border people. I call them all the time. I speak to them all the time. But here’s the good news. We have the most secure border we’ve ever had right now. As secure and even more secure than I had it four years ago. And the Border Patrol is doing incredible. ICE is doing incredible. Tom Holman is unbelievable. And Kristi Noem has been just working very, very hard, very, very hard. And we have the best numbers we’ve ever had. And we’re going to keep it that way. And we’re going to find out how a thing like this could happen to our country. Because who would allow this to happen? What they’ve done to our country is so sad. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Related Posts

• President Trump Remarks on US, Israel Attacking Iran (Transcript)
• President Trump on Economy, Energy in Corpus Christi, TX (Transcript) 
• Bulwark Podcast: w/ Susan Glasser on Trump’s State of the Union address (Transcript)
• Douglas Macgregor: US-Iran Diplomacy Fail (Transcript)
• The Truth About Trump’s State of the Union w/ Sen. Bernie Sanders (Transcript)