Speaker 1 (00:00):
… Accurate reaction.
President Donald Trump (00:00):
Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Hi, Mr. President, you came from a different way this time.
President Donald Trump (01:51):
Yeah, a little bit different. We have some good people. We have Senator Lindsey Graham.
Senator Lindsey Graham (01:55):
Hello, everybody.
President Donald Trump (01:56):
Howard Lundick, commerce. We have Steve Miller. We have a lot of people. We have Aaron. We have a lot of people. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Hi, Mr. President. Have you spoken with any of the US service members who were injured during that operation in Venezuela?
President Donald Trump (02:11):
Yes. We have calls into them. They're all in good shape.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Can you detail what watching that was like when all this played out in Venezuela and what Maduro was doing that moment when he was-
President Donald Trump (02:23):
Well, there was impossible danger. I mean, it was a very dangerous operation. It was amazing that we had a few injured, but all are in good shape right now. But I knew there was great danger. You got off a helicopter, the helicopters were being shot at. They got on the ground. They were amazing, amazing talent and tremendous patriotism, bravery. The bravery was incredible. Lindsey, they got off the helicopter and the bullets were flying all over the place. As you know, one of the helicopters got hit pretty badly, but we got everything back. Got everything back and nobody killed.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The next question is who's in charge of Venezuela right now? Have you spoken to the newly sworn in president there, Rodriguez? And what are your thoughts on the entire situation? You said the US would run Venezuela.
President Donald Trump (03:11):
We're dealing with the people. We're dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don't ask me who's in charge, because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What does that mean?
President Donald Trump (03:22):
It means we're in charge.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Have you spoken with her?
President Donald Trump (03:25):
We're in charge.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Have you spoken with her?
President Donald Trump (03:27):
No. No, I haven't, but other people have.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Do you want to?
President Donald Trump (03:29):
Yeah, at the right time, I will.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Did the US give Delcy Rodriquez any guarantees in exchange for cooperating-
President Donald Trump (03:35):
No, no.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
… With your administration?
President Donald Trump (03:36):
No, but she's cooperating.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Are you going to demand free and fair elections in the short term in Venezuela?
President Donald Trump (03:41):
Well, it depends what you're talking. We have to do one thing in Venezuela, bring it back. It's a dead country right now. It's a country that, frankly, we would have been… If I had lost the election, we would have been a dead country. We would have been Venezuela on steroids. Venezuela right now is a dead country. We have to bring it back and we're going to have to have big investments by the oil companies to bring back the infrastructure. And the oil companies are ready to go. They're going to go in, they're going to rebuild the infrastructure. We built it to start off with many years ago. They took it away. You can't do that. You can't do that with me. They did it with other presidents.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
How do you think an election can take place in Venezuela? How soon can an election take place?
President Donald Trump (04:26):
Well, I think we're looking more at getting it fixed, getting it ready first, because it's a mess. The country is a mess. It's been horribly run. The oil is just flowing at a very low level. Much lower than… Even if it was badly run, it should have more income, more oil than what they're doing. So we're going to have the big oil companies go in. They're going to fix the infrastructure. They're going to invest money. We're not going to invest anything. We're going to just take care of the country. We're going to cherish the country. We're going to take care more importantly of the people, including Venezuelans that are living in our country, that were forced to leave their country. And they're going to be taken very good care of. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Have you spoken with the oil companies about going into Venezuela?
President Donald Trump (05:07):
I have.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Which ones?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
[inaudible 00:05:13].
President Donald Trump (05:13):
All of them, yes.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
[inaudible 00:05:14] from the oil companies?
President Donald Trump (05:15):
They want to go in so badly.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Did you speak with them before the operation took place?
President Donald Trump (05:20):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Did you maybe tip them off?
President Donald Trump (05:22):
Before and after. And they want to go in and they're going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela and they're going to represent us well. But the infrastructure is rusty, rot. Most of it unusable. It's old. It's broken. You see pipes laying all over the ground. Nothing's been invested for years. Chevron's in, as you know, they've done a good job, but even they haven't been in a position to invest money, because they're in a month-to-month basis.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What happens to the-
President Donald Trump (05:52):
They're only there, because I wanted them to be there.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
There are contingencies in case the military in Venezuela is unhappy with the US, the way it's running Venezuela. Do you guys have plans for [inaudible 00:06:04]?
President Donald Trump (06:03):
So Venezuela thus far has been very nice, but it helps to have a force like we have. We were ready for a second wave. We're all set to go, but we don't think we're going to need it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
There's about 17 billion worth of oil reserves in Venezuela.
President Donald Trump (06:19):
More.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Is that going to be…
President Donald Trump (06:20):
You mean trillion.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And is that going to be something-
President Donald Trump (06:23):
Did you say billion or trillion?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I said billion.
President Donald Trump (06:27):
You said 17 billion? It's much more than that.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Okay. So what is going to happen to those reserves?
President Donald Trump (06:32):
Well, we're going to run everything. We're going to run it, fix it. We'll have elections at the right time. But the main thing you have to face, it's a broken country. There's no money. There's inflation. If I didn't win this election, we would have been Venezuela on steroids. Lindsey would know that. You might say something on that, because we were talking before. We would have had a doubling up of very bad things, things that cost us a lot of money, like welfare, frankly. We wouldn't have had jobs. And instead of having $18 trillion in, we would have had at least five to $10 trillion leaving the country. So our costs would have gone up and all of the money that's… We're setting a record and it's long broken. And that's after 10 months. We haven't included the 11th month yet. So we think we're going to hit over $20 trillion.
(07:25)
The all time record is three, by another country known as China. About 10 years ago, they did three. We're going to do close to 20 trillion. By the way, there has never been anything like this ever before. And it's all because of tariffs, and the election, but it's because of tariffs. Without tariffs, we wouldn't have 10 cents being invested.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
There was a time back in 2016, and I remember your RNC speech and you were saying that regime change and a nation building-
President Donald Trump (07:57):
Where?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
When you were speaking at the RNC back in 2016, you were criticizing regime change and nation building, the US being involved in that. It seems obviously that your stance has changed on that. What led to that? When is the US nation building now? Is that-
President Donald Trump (08:11):
This isn't a country that's on the other side of the world. This isn't a country like where you have to travel 24 hours in an airplane. This is Venezuelans in our area, the Monroe Doctrine.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So is that what you would say that we're in the business of nation building?
President Donald Trump (08:26):
Well, no, we're in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out, because that's good. It gets the prices out. That's good for our country. Now we have a very sick neighbor. It's not a neighbor, but it's close to a neighbor, and that's Venezuela's very sick. Columbia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
What does that mean? He's not going to be doing it very long?
President Donald Trump (08:57):
He's not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So there will be an operation by the US and…
President Donald Trump (09:06):
It sounds good to me, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
[inaudible 00:09:09].
President Donald Trump (09:08):
You know why? Because they kill a lot of people. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Secretary Rubio mentioned Cuba yesterday in his remarks. Does the US have a plan to do-
President Donald Trump (09:14):
Well, Cuba always survived, because of Venezuela. Now they won't have that money coming in. They won't have the income coming. A lot of Cubans were killed yesterday. You know that. A lot of Cubans were killed.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Do you know how many?
President Donald Trump (09:31):
The bodyguards. No, they're looking, but a lot of them. There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side, but there was a lot of death on the other side, unfortunately, but a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday, trying to protect him.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
There's been protestors killed in Iran. You said we were locked and loaded, ready to go. What is the line there for when the US is going to get involved in those protests?
President Donald Trump (09:54):
We'll take a look. We're watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think
Senator Lindsey Graham (10:00):
Can I say something? So what do you-
President Donald Trump (10:00):
I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States.
Lindsey Graham (10:03):
Can I just add something? So when he first got elected in January, we met. Biggest comeback ever. We talked about-
President Donald Trump (10:10):
You think so, really? I didn't feel it was a comeback, actually, because the first one was-
Lindsey Graham (10:16):
The bottom line is we talked about a drug caliphate in our backyard. We have Venezuela, we have Cuba, we have Colombia in our backyard, and these three countries have been condemned ever since I've been in politics. Joe Biden put a $25 billion bounty on Maduro's head. Chris Smith, the day he got inaugurated, said, "I hope Trump will hold Maduro's feet to the fire." You did. So what has he done? He's going to clear our backyard of a drug caliphate, countries run by narco-terrorist dictators who murder, rape, send drugs into our country to kill thousands of our citizens.
(11:04)
To my Democratic friends, you should be celebrating this. When Bin Laden went down, I was the first to applaud President Obama. This was one of the most sophisticated military operations in the history of the country. What they were able to do was amazing. They knew we were coming. We had a good part of the Navy, and they were able to capture this man alive. No military in the world could have done it. And as to this Commander in Chief, he did something people talked about doing. You just wait for Cuba. Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns. They preyed on their own people. Their days are numbered. We're going to wake up one day, I hope in '26. In our backyard, we're going to have allies in these countries doing business with America, not narco-terrorist dictators killing Americans. This is a big frigging day, and everybody in the world is thinking differently than they were just a few days ago because of what you did.
President Donald Trump (12:13):
By the way, you mentioned something that's interesting. Lindsey mentioned Bin Laden. Do you know, I wrote about Bin Laden one year before the attack on the World Trade Center? And I said, "You got to go after Bin Laden." It was in my book. And very few people want to say that, but it was in my book. You know that, I think. You've actually talked about it. But if they would have listened to me, they would have taken out Bin Laden, and you wouldn't have had the World Trade Center tragedy.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, this is certainly going-
President Donald Trump (12:43):
Did you know that? I predicted Bin Laden.
Lindsey Graham (12:44):
I learn something every day.
President Donald Trump (12:46):
No, but did you hear that? Did you know-
Lindsey Graham (12:47):
Well, I did not. I just heard it right now.
President Donald Trump (12:49):
No, I wrote a book. It was one year before the attack that the book came out, and it talked about… There's a whole page, a whole section dedicated to a guy named Bin Laden, who's a bad guy, who you have to take out.
Lindsey Graham (13:03):
So I'll get the book. But right after the election, he told me, "I'm going to clean up our backyard." Now, this was before he took office. This was one of the president's priorities, is to make sure that people in our backyard, narco-terrorist states, will not continue to kill Americans without a… The number of people that will be alive today because Venezuela will be in different hands is going to be tens of thousands. This is something to be celebrated.
President Donald Trump (13:35):
And not just-
Lindsey Graham (13:35):
… whether you like him or not.
President Donald Trump (13:36):
Not just Venezuela. It's what's coming out of Venezuela in the form of oceangoing and Gulf-going and seagoing boats. Every time we knock out a boat, and we've done a lot of them… We did three over the last few days. They're very rare now. You don't see too many of them.
Lindsey Graham (13:54):
[inaudible 00:13:55].
President Donald Trump (13:55):
But drugs by sea are down 97%. Think of that. And now we're going to stop them by land too. The land is easy. We had to do the sea before we did the land, because it just works out.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, you were just talking about the land, but it sounded like-
President Donald Trump (14:09):
And by the way, you have to do something with Mexico. Mexico has to get their act together, because they're pouring through Mexico, and we're going to have to do something. We'd love Mexico to do it. They're capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I remember one time, you actually… Speaking of Mexico, I asked you about Claudia Sheinbaum, and you told me at one point you had offered to send US troops-
President Donald Trump (14:32):
That's true. I did.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
… into Mexico to combat drug trafficking there. Is that something you have spoken to her about?
President Donald Trump (14:37):
Well, I liked Claudia. I think she's a terrific person. I would say every single time I talked to her, I offered to send troops.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And she's just not willing?
President Donald Trump (14:46):
She's concerned. She's a little afraid. The cartels are running Mexico, whether you like it or not.
Lindsey Graham (14:52):
Like it or not.
President Donald Trump (14:52):
It's not nice to say-
Lindsey Graham (14:54):
It's a fact.
President Donald Trump (14:54):
… but the cartels are running Mexico.
Lindsey Graham (14:57):
It's a fact.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Speaking of those US troops, one thing that Americans and a lot of people are wondering… You just sounded like you weighed out another strike, another land strike at least in Venezuela. You sound like you weighed that out, but-
President Donald Trump (15:08):
No, we didn't need it. We were prepared to do a second strike if we needed. We're totally prepared-
Speaker 1 (15:14):
But that's off the table.
President Donald Trump (15:15):
… and we're still prepared.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
That's off the table now.
President Donald Trump (15:16):
No, it's not. If they don't behave, we will do a second strike.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But the question is that the American troops… Are they going to be on the ground there, doing any kind of peacekeeping? I think Americans are very-
President Donald Trump (15:27):
Depends. It depends on what happens. It depends a little bit on the new administration, if you want to call it that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So if you see that pushback from Rodriguez and ultimately-
President Donald Trump (15:37):
Well, I don't think there was pushback. I think that, frankly-
Speaker 1 (15:37):
She called it…
President Donald Trump (15:40):
Well, you hear a different person than I hear.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Really? So you have spoken with her.
President Donald Trump (15:44):
We talked to them, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Oh, you did speak.
President Donald Trump (15:46):
They've been very good.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Because she called it kidnapping of Maduro.
President Donald Trump (15:49):
It's all right. It's not a bad term. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Now, are you going to demand that Delcy Rodriguez let opposition figures return, or free any political prisoners?
President Donald Trump (15:58):
We haven't gotten to that yet. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back, and then have elections.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Now, is it fair-
President Donald Trump (16:08):
We better bring the country back. Otherwise, you're going to have a mess that's so bad. It was really bad. It's going to get a lot worse unless we go in and fix it.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Is the US going to reopen its embassy in Caracas, or get the-
President Donald Trump (16:23):
We're thinking about it. We've been asked to do it.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You had-
President Donald Trump (16:26):
We've actually been asked to do it.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
You had Putin, on the phone of course, and then Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago.
President Donald Trump (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You told me that-
President Donald Trump (16:33):
Numerous times.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You told me that your New Year's resolution was peace on earth. Do you think the 2026… If you could set a deadline of when the Russia-Ukraine war-
President Donald Trump (16:44):
I don't do deadlines, but I would say that… As an example, Thailand and Cambodia. I was very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, where does it actually-
President Donald Trump (16:49):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
… stand between Russia-
President Donald Trump (16:50):
And they shut it up again, and they got it solved.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Where does it actually-
President Donald Trump (16:53):
I give myself one quarter of a point for that. So now I'm eight and one quarter points, because they started up Thailand and Cambodia, and now it's okay.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So where does it actually stand between Russia and Ukraine right now?
President Donald Trump (17:04):
I think we'll have a deal at some point, hopefully in a not too distant. So I don't know if you saw, the numbers just came out. 30,000 soldiers were killed this current month.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And there was that attack in-
President Donald Trump (17:17):
30,000. 27,000 the month before.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Have you and Senator Graham discussed official Russia sanctions?
President Donald Trump (17:22):
We discuss it all the time. There's nothing else I talk to him… I don't consider him very exciting to talk to, except when we're talking about legislation, and we talk about legislation all the time. You think that's an exciting relationship? It's not. But we talk a lot about legislation, and we have great legislation coming. Do you want to tell them?
Lindsey Graham (17:45):
So the tariff bill… So here's what I believe. I don't think we could have secured the border without the threat of tariffs. I don't think we'd have a European trade deal without the threat of tariffs. So if you want to end this conflict, then put pressure on Putin's customers. He sanctioned the two largest oil companies in Russia, which is the biggest pressure anybody's put on Putin since the war started. But we have 85 co-sponsors to give this president-
President Donald Trump (18:16):
It's hurting Russia very big, the sanctions.
Lindsey Graham (18:18):
Oh, yeah. So this bill would allow-
President Donald Trump (18:20):
And India also is-
Lindsey Graham (18:21):
Yes, sir. So he put a 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil. I was at the Indian ambassador's house about a month ago, and all he wanted to talk about is how they're buying less Russian oil. Would you tell the president to relieve the tariff? This stuff works. So I'm hoping we'll bring the bill up, and it's from zero to 500. He picks the number, nobody else does. But if you're buying cheap Russian oil, keeping Putin's war machine going, we're trying to give the president the ability to make that a hard choice, by tariffs. I really do believe that what he did with India is the chief reason India is now buying substantially less Russian oil. So I hope we pass this bill soon. And after this-
President Donald Trump (19:14):
And they wanted to make me happy, basically. Modi's a very good man.
Lindsey Graham (19:17):
Yes.
President Donald Trump (19:18):
He's a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy. They do trade. And we can raise tariffs on them very quickly, and it would be very bad for that.
Lindsey Graham (19:29):
People were afraid of that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
[inaudible 00:19:30] say you told me you weren't very thrilled-
President Donald Trump (19:31):
And I'll tell you something. The Russian economy is lousy, but what's really lousy is the Venezuelan economy. The Venezuelan economy is, I think, the worst economy I've ever seen. If you look at inflation, things are doubling every day.
Lindsey Graham (19:48):
[inaudible 00:19:48].
President Donald Trump (19:49):
It's a disaster. We got to fix the country fast.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
President Trump, are there going to be any more… You said [inaudible 00:19:54] already going there. Are there any other companies that you've talked to about dealing with Venezuela? Maybe Mr.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
… to talk about that. Are there any other corporations, entities outside the oil?
President Donald Trump (20:04):
Many, outside of the oil business.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Like who?
President Donald Trump (20:06):
Well, the oil business, yes, but outside yes. Howard, do you want to …
Howard (20:09):
You have steel, you have minerals, all the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that's gone rusty. So steel, aluminum, minerals, I mean, this is all, it's a rich … It was once upon a time, one of the great economies and cultures of the world, and it was destroyed and now President Trump is going to fix it and bring it back, for the Venezuelan.
President Donald Trump (20:34):
But it's not easy. It's really gone bad.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Any rare earth-
President Donald Trump (20:38):
But it's got potential. What?
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Any rare earth minerals?
President Donald Trump (20:41):
They have rare earth, but everybody has rare earth. Rare earth is not rare. What's rare is the processing.
Lindsey Graham (20:47):
We've got it [inaudible 00:20:48]-
President Donald Trump (20:47):
We're doing processing plants all over. There's no such thing as rare earth. The rare earth is everywhere. What isn't everywhere is the processing of rare earth. And we have a lot of places going up right now.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
One thing we haven't heard you specifically react to is the Minnesota fraud that we've seen play out.
President Donald Trump (21:05):
Well, it just doesn't get worse. I've reacted. It's almost not even believable. This very stupid low IQ governor, he's a very stupid man, because you know I had a campaign against him with JD, and he's a stupid man and he's a corrupt politician. And the Somalians are ripping off our country to the tune of, looks like $19 billion, but that's only what they can find. So usually when you look at it 19, that would mean it could be 50, but the numbers are astronomical.
(21:36)
Think of it. They have a dead country. They don't have government. They don't have anything. They don't have a military. All they do is run around shooting people and trying to capture ships. We don't let them take ships anymore. You know why? We use the same exact missile on them that we use on the drug carriers. And it's very effective. Do you notice there's nobody capturing ships anymore? Because as they head out to go capture the ship and the ship doesn't want to fire back because it's very flammable stuff in many cases. And the insurance companies don't want … Because they built a billion dollar ship and they don't want anybody firing rockets into the ship.
(22:18)
But we're hitting them so hard. And it's very similar. Same missile system. It's called deadly accurate. And do you notice that ships aren't being taken anymore? The pirates are-
Lindsey Graham (22:32):
That's right. I hadn't thought about that.
President Donald Trump (22:33):
The pirates aren't …
Lindsey Graham (22:34):
No Somali pirates.
President Donald Trump (22:35):
It's actually very easy. They head out and we say, guess what? There's pirates, bing, that's the end of the pirates. The shipping business is coming back because … See, these are little things that we're doing. And I'm doing it not just for American ships. I'm doing it worldwide because we don't want ships taken by Somalia, Somalia pirates. But what they are doing is they're stealing money from the American taxpayer. And every one of them should be forced to leave this country, including Ilhan Omar, who's a total crook. And she's one of the leaders of it, not the only because she's not that smart.
(23:15)
But think of it. $19 billion at least they've stolen from Minnesota and from the United States. It's actually more from the United States because Minnesota puts in, and we're not going to pay it anymore. We're going to have Walz go pay … We're not going to pay them and we're not going to pay California and we're not going to pay Illinois with a big slob of a governor that they have that doesn't want … We brought down crime by 25%. He didn't do anything. He's not doing anything. But they want us to leave. He had a day where they had 17 murders, not too long ago, 17 murders and 77 people shot. But 17 died. And then he talks about, "Oh, we can handle it." He can't handle it. But we pull back and we'll go in at the appropriate time.
(24:06)
But we're the ones that brought the crime down. We brought it down 20%. They didn't bring it down. Pritzker didn't bring it down. Same thing with Gavin Newsom. If we didn't go in to Los Angeles seven months ago when they had the riots, even the police commissioner, the head of police said if we didn't have the federal government go in, we would have lost total control of the city of Los Angeles and they would have had to cancel the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Speaking of Los Angeles, you pulled out the National Guard out of Portland in Los Angeles.
President Donald Trump (24:41):
We did. You know what? You know that Portland, we got it down to almost no crime? Do you know that? But we pulled it out. We had a Supreme Court decision. We can go back. We're allowed to go back in. But we'll go back in when the crime starts. Look, the crime will soon start because they now know that we're out. And at the appropriate time, we'll go back in and we may, if we're allowed to, the most powerful thing we have, we haven't used, the Insurrection Act.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
You're considering using the Insurrection Act?
President Donald Trump (25:10):
I would always-
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Where?
President Donald Trump (25:10):
I've always considered it, but we haven't needed it. Anywhere. 48% of the presidents of this country have used it. Bush used it, I think, 22 times or something. You know that, right? I mean, Bush the elder.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Then other-
Speaker 7 (25:23):
What are your short term, next two weeks, what do you need from Delcy Rodríguez? You've threatened Delcy-
President Donald Trump (25:30):
Total access. We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
What other things?
President Donald Trump (25:41):
A lot of things. Roads that aren't built, bridges that are falling down. Yeah, bridges that are falling down. Nobody can go anywhere.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
And on Greenland …
President Donald Trump (25:50):
What Greenland now?
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Yeah. On Greenland.
President Donald Trump (25:52):
How did we come up to Greenland?
Speaker 7 (25:53):
So do you expect to take an action against Greenland?
President Donald Trump (25:57):
Well, I don't want to talk about Greenland. Let's talk about Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine. We'll worry about Greenland in about two months. Let's talk about Greenland in 20 days.
Speaker 7 (26:09):
On Venezuela, we talked so much about energy-
Lindsey Graham (26:10):
What about Cuba?
President Donald Trump (26:11):
By the way, I will say this about Greenland, we need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you that.
(26:35)
You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
What would the justification be for a claim to Greenland? What would the justification-
President Donald Trump (26:50):
Oh, I don't want to talk about Greenland now. I just say this. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and the European Union needs us to have it. And they know that.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I think there's some confusion about-
Speaker 8 (27:03):
[inaudible 00:27:02] the operation in Venezuela will affect your relationship with Xi Jinping and China.
President Donald Trump (27:07):
No, I don't think so. I have a very good relationship. We have the power of tariffs and he has other powers on us.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Are you still planning to travel to see him in April?
President Donald Trump (27:14):
Yeah. I'll be going in April.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I think there's some confusion from Americans and maybe the community and the world when it comes to what you said about Rodríguez earlier today in a phone interview. You said that she would face the same fate, if not worse, than Maduro.
President Donald Trump (27:30):
Worse. Much worse.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
But it sounds like you're talking to her on the phone and wanting to work with her-
President Donald Trump (27:35):
I am. Not me, my people are. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
… and you are considering her in power. Can you just clarify where you stand on Delcy Rodríguez right now being in power?
President Donald Trump (27:41):
I don't have to tell you. I just say that she will face a situation probably worse than Maduro, because Maduro gave up immediately.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
So she could also be captured?
President Donald Trump (27:52):
He raised his hand and gave up, and he did the right thing, but he gave up. So we were actually, we were so effective and it was so fast and violent, it was very violent, but we were so effective, he raised his hands, he gave up.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
What was the most violent moment?
President Donald Trump (28:11):
I don't want to tell you.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
[inaudible 00:28:12] Did you get a-
President Donald Trump (28:12):
There was some bad moments, but there was some very violent moment. I don't want to tell you.
Speaker 8 (28:16):
Did you get a briefing at all on Maduro's first night in custody and what can you tell us about that?
President Donald Trump (28:21):
Yes. I have a total briefing on every aspect of it, but I don't think it's appropriate to talk to the press about it. You'll find out.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
When it comes to him in court tomorrow, I mean, what's the end game here with Maduro? Does he just rot in a US prison?
President Donald Trump (28:32):
There is no end game. We're just going to go through a slog of a trial. A judge is very respected, Judge Hellerstein. He's a highly respected judge. We see how we do. The case is, it's infallible. People are so happy with what we've done. You go down to Miami, you go down to a lot of places and they're all dancing in the streets of this country. He was a rough man, killed millions of people. He killed millions and millions of people.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
After he stands trial-
Lindsey Graham (29:01):
Can I just say something? This is a good thing, not a bad thing. President Biden put a $25 billion bounty on the guy's head. Why? Because he was a horrible criminal murderer, poisoning our people. Every administration has been saying he's a threat to our country. He's a bad guy. This is the first guy that's actually done something about it.
(29:29)
Here's the story for me. He could be in Turkey today, but he's in New York. So if you tell people in Cuba, you need to stop being a communist dictatorship threatening America, you should go somewhere else. You better take the offer. Maduro has nobody to blame but himself. He gave him a way out. He chose to defy Trump and the US military and his ass is in jail where he deserves to be. And every president
Lindsey Graham (30:00):
… has said the same thing, but he did it.
President Donald Trump (30:02):
One of the things that is happening, I think you see it, we see it all the time, Howard, you've seen it, that Cuba is ready to fall.
Lindsey Graham (30:13):
Yes.
President Donald Trump (30:14):
Cuba looks like it's ready to fall. I don't know if they can hold out. But Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil, they're not getting any of it and Cuba literally is ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are going to be very happy about this.
Lindsey Graham (30:33):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Marco Rubio has really had your ear, it seems, throughout this entire process. I know that the Vice President Vance was just down the street when this whole operation was playing out, but would you say that Marco Rubio has your ear more than the vice president right now?
President Donald Trump (30:51):
No, they both do. JD's very smart and doing a great job, and so is Mark. No, both. I would say equal.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
It sounds like he's the go-to… And you were just talking about Cuba and what could come next there. Are you considering US action in Cuba?
President Donald Trump (31:00):
I think it's just going to fall. I don't think we need any action. It looks like it's going down. It's going down for the count. You ever watch a fight?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I have.
President Donald Trump (31:09):
They go down for the count and Cuba looks like it's going down. What do you think, Howard?
Howard (31:14):
It's going down. They've lived off of Venezuela. The economics were all Venezuela, right? That's why he said the protective force of Maduro was Cuban. They were Cuban guards. So, they were just paying Cuba. When that money stops-
Lindsey Graham (31:32):
Oh, don't hire them in the future then.
Howard (31:34):
Yeah, they weren't very good.
President Donald Trump (31:35):
People from our country who were forced to come over, they really didn't want… They were from Cuba. People from different countries like to stay in those countries, whatever whether it's good, bad, or different. And people want to go back to Cuba and they want to work in Cuba, but Cuba's going down for the count. Thank you very much, everybody.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Is Elon Musk back in the fold? You had dinner with him last night at Mar-a-Lago.
President Donald Trump (31:57):
Who? Leon?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Elon.
President Donald Trump (31:58):
Elon's great. I say about Elon, he's 80% super genius and 20% he makes mistakes, but he's a good guy. He's a well-meaning person.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Can I ask you about one more thing that I've been wanting to ask you the last couple of days? You said that you were very-
President Donald Trump (32:15):
She's got a lot of questions.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I do. I do.
President Donald Trump (32:17):
Tell him who you're with. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I'm with NewsNation. My name's Libbey Dean.
Howard (32:20):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
So, you said that you were really very angry with the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy if he was the one who conducted that strike on Putin's residence.
President Donald Trump (32:30):
I don't believe that strike happened.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Right. So, Putin had said in that phone call to you that that strike happened. You came out and said that you believed Putin. There was some criticism-
President Donald Trump (32:38):
There is something that happened fairly nearby, but it had nothing to do with this thing.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Why did you believe Putin in that moment and then go say that about the Ukrainian [inaudible 00:32:46]?
President Donald Trump (32:46):
Because nobody knew at that moment. I mean, that was the first I heard about it. He said that his house was attacked. We don't believe that happened now that we've been able to check, but that was the first we ever heard about it. We just hope that Russia and Ukraine get it settled. It's costing us nothing. In fact, we make money because unlike Biden, Biden gave $350 billion, gave it away. Now, I got a lot of it back because we did a rare earth deal, going into rare earth. And we're going to get a lot of that money back, maybe all of that money, maybe more than all of the money. But we get paid now whenever we send anything, we get paid.
(33:24)
So, this isn't an economic thing for us. This is a situation where on average 25,000 souls, 25,000 soldiers mostly, and some people from Kyiv and different cities, but a very small number by comparison, but 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers are being killed every single month. And they're not from America, they're from Russia and they're from Ukraine. And if I could get it stopped, I'd like to get it stopped and I think we will. Thank you very much, everybody.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
[inaudible 00:34:00]. You've talked about returning some control to American companies. Did that play at all into your decision to capture Maduro?
President Donald Trump (34:09):
No. What really played is the fact that he sent millions of people into our country from prisons and from mental institutions and drug dealers and every drug addict and… Every drug addict in his country was sent into our country, think of that. Every single drug addict from Maduro's country, which isn't really his country and it's certainly not his country anymore, every drug addict and every drug dealer has been sent into our country. Now, we're getting them back, but it's a very laborious job to get him back. Very hard job to…
(34:49)
And of course, we're not getting a lot of good backup from certain judges, from certain radical left, but we're doing well on appeals because the people doing the appeals, seems that the judges are much more sane. What these super radical left judges are doing to our country, it's incredible. But if you take a look, Maduro sent hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of people from jails, from prisons, from mental institutions, drug dealers, drug addicts, everybody. He sent anybody with a [inaudible 00:35:26], that could never be forgiven. And other countries have done the same, but nothing like Maduro's done.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
But you talked about ending American foreign intervention. What changed your mind in Venezuela? What drew your interest in them?
President Donald Trump (35:41):
The fact that he sent drugs into our country, we're stopping it rapidly with what we're doing with the sea because a lot of it comes in by sea, but it's not coming… The drugs coming in, as I said before, by sea are down 97%. You should be saying, "Thank you very much, President Trump. Great job." Now, they can't get anybody to pilot those boats. It's 97%. I'm trying to figure out who are the other 3%?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Would you say that Operation Resolve-
Speaker 2 (36:13):
[inaudible 00:36:14]. They've been glad and relieved to see Maduro in custody-
President Donald Trump (36:16):
The voters that voted for me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
… and not starting any more forever wars?
President Donald Trump (36:19):
Let me just tell you, the voters that voted for me are thrilled. They said, "This is what we voted for."
Lindsey Graham (36:27):
So, let's just think about it. What is the right response when a country sends in tens of thousands of people to overwhelm your system? When a country is a narco-terror state that floods your country with cocaine, that's aligned with Hezbollah? What's the right response? You blow up the boat before they get here. You take down the source of the problem. President Trump didn't wake up one day and say, " Hey, let's take Venezuela." He did what other people talked about, but didn't have the balls or the guts to do it. This is a good thing. This is not interventionism. This is making America safer. We're going to be more prosperous because of the business deals. There are going to be Americans alive today because he shut down a narco-terror state called Venezuela. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.
President Donald Trump (37:28):
And the oil companies are going to go in and rebuild their system. They're going to spend billions of dollars and they're going to take the oil out of the ground and we're taking back what they sold. Remember, they stole our property. It was the greatest theft in the history of America. Nobody has ever stolen our property like they have. They took our oil away from us. They took the infrastructure away and all that infrastructure's rotted and decayed. And the oil companies are going to go in and rebuild it. We're not going to spend very much money at all, if anything, but the oil companies are going to go… We're going to take our oil back.
(38:09)
When you look at what he did, the drugs are terrible, but also terrible he sent hundreds of thousands of people into our country that should not be here, and that means from prisons, that means Tren de Aragua, the gang, Tren de Aragua, that comes out of Maduro's country. He was very friendly with that gang. Well, they're having a hard time right now. We had Tren de Aragua all over Washington DC and they got the hell beat out of him. Washington DC is the safest city right now in the United States. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Mr. President, if you had to sum up Operation Absolute Resolve, would you say that it was about oil or it was about regime change?
President Donald Trump (38:53):
It's about peace on Earth.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
How is it peace on Earth by-
President Donald Trump (38:56):
Peace on Earth. We got to have peace. It's our hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it was done and other presidents, a lot of them, they lost sight of it. I didn't. I didn't lose sight, but it really is, its peace on Earth. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Thank you, Mr. President.
Speaker X (39:11):
[inaudible 00:39:25].
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Can I help you? Can I help you? Do you want me to help?