President Trump (00:16):
Nobody.
Will Scharf (00:17):
Did you see you're up six points in Iowa, sir?
President Trump (00:19):
I'm up?
Will Scharf (00:20):
It's not bad.
President Trump (00:20):
I'm up good in Iowa. We're up good everywhere. Unfortunately, I'm not running. It's up to you. We're up everywhere, but I'm not running, Peter, unless you say I can.
(00:30)
Well, thank you very much everybody. We very much appreciate. This is a big afternoon. They all are in a way because all of these things that we do are very important. This afternoon, I'm thrilled to sign a historic executive order expanding access to high quality retirement savings accounts for millions of Americans. In my State of the Union earlier this year, I promised to make the same types of retirement accounts enjoyed by the federal employees available to all Americans. So that's what we're doing. It only seemed fair. It's really a tremendous situation for all Americans. That was really much promises made, as they say, promises kept. I'm thrilled to be joined by incredible people that I know and they're Warriors. Jason Smith, these are Congress people. Bryan Steil, Mike Gary, Lloyd Smucker, Bill Heisinger, Ryan Mackenzie, John McGuire, Zach Nunn, Derick Van Orden, Jeff Crank, Nick Begich, Monica De La Cruz, and Mike Lawler.
(01:46)
Warriors, every one of them, they're great people. They fought very hard for what we're about to sign. And since my election, the stock market has set 59, this is in a little bit more than a year, 59 all time record highs, adding $9 trillion in value to really the value of our country, if you think about it. Under four years of Biden, the average 401k rose at a rate of just $875 a year. Last year under Trump, the average 401k balance was up $24,000. So $875 versus $24,000, I would say that's pretty good. This is really incredible. The numbers are incredible. The numbers being invested in our country are more incredible than anything. You see it. There are plants being built all over the USA. We have auto plants, not just AI. AI is doing great. We're leading China by quite a bit, but we have auto plants being built all over the country.
(02:48)
They're coming back from Canada. They're coming back from Mexico, Germany, Japan, South Korea, wherever they build autos, they're coming here. Nobody ever thought they'd see that. The union loves me. I did very well with the auto workers, but they like me a lot more now than they did when I was just talking about it. Beginning at the start of next year, every American will be able to go to trumpira.gov and open a new low cost IRA account. You'll then be able to access the same type of retirement accounts that federal employees enjoy through the Thrift Savings Plans, which are incredible. As part of the Federal Savers Match Program, low income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts. It's a great thing. For millions of Americans who lack employer sponsored plans, this will be really revolutionary because they'll be covered.
(03:48)
Nobody thought that was possible. For example, if a 25-year old who is eligible for a Saver's Match Program invests just $165 a month, under the matching federal contributions, they will have an estimated $465,000 in their account by the time they're 65 years old. In other words, they'll be rich. And there's something awfully nice about that. But this is only the first step. I was talking to Kevin Hassett a little while ago and the people standing right behind me, we're going to take it to the next level. And the next level, Kevin, you're going to mention something. But the next level will be necessary to have congressional approval. What you just heard, we don't need congressional approval. And it'll never be terminated because to terminate it, if somebody else is in office, to terminate it, you'd have to take that money away. You'd have to really take away something that's so positive.
(04:48)
I don't think any politician would do it. But to take it to the next level, we need congressional approval, which should be very easy to get. It should be bipartisan. Normally it would be bipartisan, but today, nothing's bipartisan. It should be something that everybody supports. So Kevin, before we start, maybe you could just explain what we're talking about for the next level.
Kevin Hassett (05:09):
Right. So for the next level, sir, what we're already talking, Chairman Smith and , about, and already I've been talking with Mr. Smucker about this for a number of years, is that we're going to expand this program that you're creating here, which is for low income people to middle income people and maybe above as well. So that every American, most high income people have an employer that gives them a 401k with a match, but low income people or Uber drivers or something, they don't have access to that. They don't have access to the match. What you've done here is you've given the match to low income people with incomes below 35,000. But we think that there are a lot of people even who make more than that, that don't have many assets for retirement. And so we're working with Congress to significantly expand this program and are looking forward for legislation this year to expand this.
President Trump (05:59):
And also the Trump accounts, you remember with Michael Dell and Susan and the group that we had are setting records, the numbers there.
Kevin Hassett (06:07):
We Have five million signups right now, sir.
President Trump (06:09):
Five million signups 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 six billion, 250 million. He put in a lot of money and he's going to do more too. They were very responsible. So I just want to let you know, it's record nobody... You are even surprised by that number, I think, right? I don't know if we 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 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?
Will Scharf (07:01):
Sure.
President Trump (07:01):
There's some other things and we thought we'd let these great people from Congress and beyond or below, I guess I could say.
Will Scharf (07:09):
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 (07:32):
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?
Will Scharf (07:59):
Yes.
President Trump (07:59):
Who would like to hold that? Okay, good. Popular guy. Okay, let's go.
Will Scharf (08:07):
This is a presidential permit authorizing the Bridger Pipeline, sir. This is a trans-border pipeline similar to the old Keystone XL pipeline. It'll 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 (08:26):
Slightly different than the last administration. They wouldn't sign a pipeline deal and we have pipelines going up and... 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 under grade. As opposed to trucking it or training it was... They're great. A lot of jobs too. A lot of jobs. Okay. Very good. Next.
Will Scharf (08:56):
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, cost 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 contract and government wide.
President Trump (09:29):
Would anybody like to object to this?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Absolutely not.
President Trump (09:33):
You fighting for this one too. Okay. Thank you. Next.
Will Scharf (09:43):
You previously announced that we were withdrawing Casey Means as the Surgeon General, sir, and appointing Dr. Safier or nominating Dr. Safier in her place.
President Trump (09:52):
Good call.
Will Scharf (09:54):
That, on the left, is the withdrawal, which will later be transmitted to the Senate.
President Trump (09:58):
Okay.
Will Scharf (09:59):
And on the right is the new nomination form for our new Surgeon General.
President Trump (10:03):
Nicole Safier, she's with Fox, was with Fox. Isn't with Fox anymore, Peter. But she's great. She'll be the Surgeon General.
Peter (10:17):
We'll send her.
Will Scharf (10:17):
I believe she's with Memorial Sloan Kettering in New Jersey, sir, and she's an outstanding doctor.
President Trump (10:23):
She is. I just don't know how Biden used the auto pen. There's so many things to sign. You say, "Here, please take this." It's crazy. All four years was crazy. Let's not bring it up. She's going to be great. Surgeon General. Thank you.
Will Scharf (10:58):
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.
President Trump (11:16):
Great.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's fantastic.
President Trump (11:18):
Everybody likes that?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You bet.
President Trump (11:24):
Okay. Firefighters.
Will Scharf (11:26):
Okay. 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 a National Foster Care Month, honoring those who have participated 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.
President Trump (12:00):
Yeah, it's been a big thing for the First Lady, so this is in honor of our First Lady.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well said.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I spent time in foster care.
President Trump (12:17):
Oh, that's great. That's great.
Will Scharf (12:18):
That was good.
President Trump (12:18):
Thank you very much.
Will Scharf (12:21):
Thank you, Mr. President.
President Trump (12:21):
So do you have any questions? Maybe we discuss the first signing first. Do you have anything on that? Please.
Female Reporter (12:27):
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? For IRA, to have their IRA, this is going to help give them...
President Trump (12:39):
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 there's more investment being made in the United States than any country, at any time, any time in history. 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, and 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 is giving a lot of companies coming in from Germany, from Japan.
(13:31)
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 level's never seen before. 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.
(14:37)
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. You see construction results. You notice the construction workers are through the roof. But when they open, the numbers are going to be staggering. Do you have a question?
Male Reporter (15:11):
I certainly do. Thank you, Mr. President. You had some good economic news, GDP, 2% growth. New orders for business equipment surged to the highest level in six years. And IRS data shows that the average federal tax return is up by more than 11% when you compare it to the same time as last year. Do you believe that this is-
President Trump (15:27):
It is up over 100%.
Male Reporter (15:28):
Do you believe that this is evidence that the Big Beautiful tax cuts that you signed into law last year are working? And do you think the economy is going to continue to hum as the year progresses?
President Trump (15:36):
Yeah, thank you. So the biggest tax cut in history is in the great, Big Beautiful Bill. And I think 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, 5,000, 6,000, 7, 8, 9. I saw one last night on television, 11,000 more than she thought she was going to get. And
President Trump (16:00):
There'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 even, 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. It's been really great. Yeah. That's going to carry forward. Look, the country's doing really well. And that's despite a military operation. I don't call it a war, but you rather have a military operation. Iran is dying to make a deal. I can only tell you that. I don't want to get into the... But they cannot be nuclear other than that. But their Navy's gone. Their Air Force is gone. Every ounce of any form of equipment practically is gone. Their drone factories are about 82% down, and their missile factories are almost 90% down, and many of their missiles have been knocked out between... They use some, but we knocked out more than they used. It's pretty amazing what's happened.
(17:11)
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, it's through the roof. They're through the roof. When we hit 50,000 on the Dow and 7,000 on the S& P, I said to myself, "We got to do something about Iran. They want to have a nuclear weapon. You can't let them have a nuclear weapon." 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. We had 50,000 at 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 before the year was up. Then I said to Kevin, "Sorry about this, Kevin, but we have to put out a fire." The fire is taking place in the lovely country of Iran, and they want to have a nuclear weapon. If 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 looks very powerful there, but it's quite large actually. 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 didn't get the nuclear bomb.
(18:42)
If we didn't do that attack, 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. 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.
(19:14)
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 there. 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. It's like a joint venture, to be honest, and we've 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... They have a good military in Venezuela, but they did not expect that and that and that and that. Other than that... But when these suckers come at you at 2,500 miles an hour at 25 feet off the ground, you say, "This is not what I bargained for. This is no good." Anyway.
(20:15)
Now, Venezuela was amazing, but now we're doing... Essentially, it's larger, but we're doing essentially the same thing, and 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.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Iran is proving to be very stubborn. The talks seem like they are stalled. Are you getting antsy to break the ceasefire?
President Trump (20:48):
Well, I don't know what stubbornness because really nobody knows what the talks are except myself and a couple of other people. They want to make a deal badly. We have a problem because nobody knows for sure who the leaders are. It's a little bit of a problem. The leaders have been wiped out along with their military, almost all of their military. Think of it, 159 ships was their total navy. 159 ships are gone. They're underwater. They're way below sea level. Sea levels is a big difference. Pretty deep water's over there too. I don't know that we need it. We might need it.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
On Iran, a little while ago, the president of FIFA said that when the World Cup is here in the US, the team from Iran will be playing in the games.
President Trump (21:43):
Well, if Johnny said it, I'm okay. Did Johnny say it?
Speaker 4 (21:47):
He did. What if they win?
President Trump (21:48):
Johnny Infantino, that's a piece of work.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
What if they win?
President Trump (21:52):
Well, if they win, we'll have to worry about that. That Snapchat. I'm going to have to worry about that one. Look, you know what? Let him play well. Johnny's fantastic. He's a friend of mine. He talked about it. I said, "You do whatever you want. You can have them. You don't have to have them. Probably have a good team." Do they have a good team? Do you have any idea?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I have no idea.
President Trump (22:13):
It would be hard to believe, actually. But I think let him play.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
This is a little bit different, but what is your take on these reports that your show, the apprentice could come back on Amazon with host Donald Trump Jr.
President Trump (22:33):
Well, I've been hearing it. Look, we had a great success, 14 seasons, and the apprentice was a tremendous success, so I've been hearing that a little bit. We'll see what happens. He's a good guy. He'd be probably good. He's got a little charisma going. You need a little charisma for the soccer service. We'll see what happens. Yeah. They told me about it. We'll see.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Thank you, Mr. President. There's been some talks about changes to your security after what took place-
President Trump (23:03):
Changing my security.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Changing your security after what the first-
President Trump (23:06):
Well, they did a pretty good job, actually. They stopped the NFL running back. He was like a running back. In fact, if he ever got out, they're probably going to sign him. He was a speedy guy, but he was stopped. They had many levels in front of him before he would even come close. You could be a baseball team and win 19 to nothing and somebody could say, "You should have won 21. You should have gotten 25 runs. The team was no good or something." 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. 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."
(23:55)
I think that there's always room for improvement. He got into the building. The problem is that I know that's what I do. I build buildings like that. Much nicer actually, but I build buildings like that. When you have 1,000 rooms sitting on top of a ballroom, and you have the elevators coming down right near the entrance, it's a pretty tough situation. Now, right outside, we have something that's on time, on budget, actually ahead of time and ahead of budget depending on finishes. Finishes, there's a big difference between marble and Onyx in price, but it's right on budget, right on time. 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.
(24:56)
I know the people at Secret Service, I think they're great, and I think the Congress has to take care of those people. We're talking about ICE. We're talking about border patrol, Secret Service, everyone is... 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. That's a dangerous statement. If I say something modest, they say, "He's a king. He's a king." They're sick. But Hakeem Jeffries said the Supreme Court is illegitimate. I'd say rough statement. If I made that statement, it would be the biggest story out there. Bad things would happen.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4 in person in this country.
President Trump (25:59):
And you know what? We're not going to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran. The gas will go down. As soon as the war's 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. 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 going to have to pay for a little bit more for gasoline. The gasoline, the oil will go down rapidly as soon as the war is over.
Brian (26:35):
I've got two questions. First I want 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 in overtime. Now, the Trump Accounts and then the IRA account. Could we describe you as the wealth maker?
President Trump (26:56):
Well, I'm helping people out. It's a nice question actually, but I'm helping people out. These people are with me. These are great people. Feel free to speak up if you'd like, because they wanted this to happen and we got it done. They're Republican people, I think in all cases. It's crazy. We need like always unanimous because the Democrats, they will vote against anything no matter how good. If they had their favorite thing in the world and we happened 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. I'm going to come up and oppose everything, Brian, from this point forward, and they'll vote for it. Go ahead.
Brian (27:41):
My second question. You created Space Force on the second end, towards the end of your first administration. You just had the Artemis two 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 (28:00):
Well, doing Space Force, 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. A lot of that took place so effectively because of what's coming out of space. 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.
(28:40)
The first person that headed Space Force, and really after that, we had a couple of really great people heading it, always very important. A new person who's heading it now, I think you could, as 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. As far as peace, I settled eight wars, and people try and dispute it, but then they go over them. 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.
(29:25)
But I settled eight wars. In every case, the people, the prime ministers or presidents wrote letters thanking me. In the case of India, 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. 11 airplanes were shot down. They were in the first week of what would have been a very bad war, and I got it solved. 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." They said, "Oh, please don't do that."
Brian (30:06):
You just looked at some tariffs on whiskey? Is that correct?
President Trump (30:08):
Yeah. What I'm doing is for as long as I've been here, they've wanted to... 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 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 unit.
(30:48)
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. I just took all the restrictions off. Scotland and Kentucky can start dealing again. I did it in honor of the King and Queen who just left the heading back. It was a big deal. They've been trying to get this for a long time.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
You talked about possibly pulling out some troops of Germany. Would you be considering the same thing for Spain and Italy? They haven't been exactly on board.
President Trump (31:37):
Yeah, probably. Yeah. I probably will. Look, why shouldn't I? Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible. NATO is NATO. It's not even the fact that they've been... It's one thing if they said nicely, or if they said, "Okay.
President Trump (32:00):
... well help, but the help's a little slow, but the level. And we helped them with Ukraine. They made a mess out of Ukraine, a total mess. And we helped them with Ukraine. Ukraine has nothing to do... We're an ocean apart. It has to do with them. It's like for them, it's their front door. We help them. And Biden gave them $350 billion, which was insane. It's one of the reasons the war went on.
(32:27)
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 it. But we didn't need the help. And to a certain extent, I asked them, I didn't need the help, but I said, "Yeah, we'd love to have you 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."
(33:01)
And the amazing thing is they use the Strait of Hormuz, we don't. We don't use it. We don't need it. We have a lot of oil. 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, he's doing a terrible job. He's got immigration problems. He's got energy problems. He's got problems of all kind 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.
(33:48)
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.
Elina Shirazi (34:16):
Mr. President, two questions for you. Elina Shirazi from the Daily Mail. You have called this the new regime before in 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 (34:42):
Oh, he's very much involved. Marco is very, totally. He's negotiated with them all the time. Now look, Iran killed 42,000 people over the last two months, protestors. 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, just caught the imagination of a lot of people. People were talking about it. 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 appreciated it.
(35:28)
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... They knocked out the wrestler they killed. They killed the wrestler's teammates. He was a world champion wrestler too. He's a great wrestler. Great talented wrestler. They killed him because he protested. He spoke. 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.
(36:03)
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 save that country in a certain way. And nobody's ever seen anything like that. Think of it, they killed 42,000 innocent, not weapon carrying people for protesting. 42,000. And the number they say is a lot higher than that. It was 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.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
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 (36:55):
Well, I do. 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.
Speaker 6 (37:08):
Jordan Spieth was in the leader.
President Trump (37:09):
Who is?
Speaker 6 (37:09):
Jordan Spieth.
President Trump (37:10):
Oh, that's good. He's good. Great guy. Good putter to put it mildly. He's a very great guy. Triple putter. No, 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 it's sort of... They were viewing something as a monopoly, but it should be the opposite of a monopoly.
(37:44)
I want to see Rory playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm playing. Scottie, who's so great, right? Scott. Scottie Scheffler is great. And I want to see him play Jon Rahm and Bryson and all the different guys. They have great players on the LIV, but it's almost like people want to see that. That's why the Masters was so good because you saw everybody together. Patrick Reed played great. 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.
(38:24)
But there's something nice about all of the players playing together. No, they'll all be accepted by the tour. There's no quote, because they're great. If they weren't, 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 a little bit, but they'll all be back on tour and it'll be great. And you're having one tour. Now, I don't know that what's happening with LIV. I'm not sure what's happening with LIV, but they are playing in 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 before 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.
Jennifer Schonberger (39:13):
I just want to follow up.
President Trump (39:13):
Yes.
Jennifer Schonberger (39:16):
Thank you so much, Mr. President. Jennifer Schonberger with Yahoo Finance. Question on clarification of the Trump IRAs versus a regular IRA.
President Trump (39:24):
Right.
Jennifer Schonberger (39:25):
Does it come down to the difference of the federal match? Who would qualify for that? And secondly, do you have any reaction to Federal Reserve Chair J. Powell staying on the board of governors? Were you prepared to take any action on that?
President Trump (39:38):
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. I predicted he would, because who's going to hire him, frankly. So I predicted he would stay on. But 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. They're going to spend maybe $4 billion. It's not even close to being opened.
(40:19)
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. I think I'm very happy about Kevin. I think Kevin, he's a star. And the other Kevin, we're going to talk to you. Could you answer her question?
Kevin Hassett (40:38):
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 the match. We're creating the TrumpIRA.gov website. So it'd 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.
(41:12)
And finally, you've noticed that Michael Dell has given money, promised money for the Trump accounts. We've also made it clear that if the Trump IRA charities can contribute to other people's accounts as well.
Jennifer Schonberger (41:23):
And I imagine this will boost the stock market and economy [inaudible 00:41:26].
President Trump (41:27):
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 Hassett (41:37):
Sure.
President Trump (41:37):
We'll be going back to Congress to ask for this.
Kevin Hassett (41:40):
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 (41:59):
Or better.
Kevin Hassett (42:00):
Or better.
President Trump (42:01):
They had a couple of little glitches that we'll get rid of.
Kevin Hassett (42:05):
But there's absolutely no contemplation of harming social security in any way. This is meant to be an add-on of that.
President Trump (42:12):
It'll be very exciting. It's going to be great. We'll be pretty quickly, pretty fast. We're going to move pretty fast.
Speaker 6 (42:19):
Something that we talked about, something that we talked about a couple 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 have turned up dead. Have you been briefed yet about whether or not these cases are connected?
President Trump (42:37):
Yeah, I have.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
And can you tell us if they are connected?
President Trump (42:40):
Well, so far, they're individually... We have a lot of scientists. So when you see, you put together 10, it's a lot, but it's a very small number compared to what overall. We have a lot of scientists. I was asking that question. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of scientists. 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. So far, there's not a major... Sometimes there's a little bit of a connection anyway, and you'd say, "Oh, this is a terrible thing." But so far we're finding that there's not much of a connection. We'll let you know. We're going to be doing a full report. Very serious stuff.
Speaker 7 (43:30):
I want 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 suspect?
President Trump (43:37):
Well, they say it was not friendly fire.
Speaker 7 (43:40):
So you're hearing that it's from-
President Trump (43:42):
Well, that's what I heard. I heard that. They said it wasn't friendly fire. It was actually reported. Do you read the reports because it was actually reported?
Speaker 7 (43:49):
Yes, sir. I read through the DOJ [inaudible 00:43:51].
President Trump (43:51):
Well then why do you ask me the question?
Speaker 7 (43:55):
I don't believe it said that the agent was struck by-
President Trump (43:56):
I'm just saying they said it wasn't friendly fire-
Speaker 7 (43:58):
And he hasn't been charged yet.
President Trump (43:58):
... meaning it wasn't us.
Speaker 7 (44:01):
Okay. And he hasn't been charged yet with that. Of course that could come. 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?
President Trump (44:14):
I don't know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier. These guys, they look so good. Some of these guys. Some of these guys are physical specimens. Some of these guys are [inaudible 00:44:25]. Get him away from me, I don't want to be near him. If you want to gain 20 to 25 pounds, get a west vest. And literally, 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. We sent him to the hospital just in case, but he didn't want... 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.
(45:04)
I've been asked about that and I guess it's something to consider. In one way, you don't like to do it because you're giving into a bad element and so I don't know. But I have been asked about it.
Speaker 7 (45:18):
How concerned are you about it happening again? Another assassination attempt.
President Trump (45:21):
I don't think about it.
Speaker 7 (45:22):
You don't think about it at all?
President Trump (45:23):
If I did, I wouldn't be doing a very good job here. I'd be thinking about nothing but that. I don't think about it. I don't think about it. If I did, I wouldn't be effective. Okay.
Brian (45:32):
Mr. President, 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.
President Trump (45:44):
They should do it.
Brian (45:47):
Why don't they do it?
President Trump (45:47):
Why don't they do it?
Brian (45:47):
I don't know.
President Trump (45:48):
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 if you don't have all of them, we have very small majority. John Thune's a good man. I said to him, "John, just go take the vote. Let's expose who the people are." But if we got rid of the filibuster, we could vote on the Save America Act, voter ID. You act so good. I love this. He's a great guy-
Brian (46:20):
I'm curious-
President Trump (46:22):
... even though I don't love his girlfriend too much. I won't tell you who the governor is, but I like him and I've always liked him. It's great that he hasn't changed. But Brian, I think here's the problem. It's not even imaginable to me why. And people are angry about it. People are angry. I'm talking about Republicans are angry about it.
(46:45)
The filibuster should be terminated. If the Democrats ever get a shot, which probably based on history, sometimes they will, they will use it in the first minute of the first hour and they will execute all of the bad things, 21 justice... They really like 21. I heard 13, but they really want 21 Supreme Court justices, and they really want to have DC and Puerto Rico become states. That would mean automatic four senators go into the Democrat column, and there's not even a chance that they don't do it and do it immediately.
(47:19)
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. If we passed, if we terminated the filibuster, we would have a 50-year run. You'd stop cheating. Look, they're professional
President Trump (48:00):
... 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 mutilation 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 murderers come into our country, nobody even talks to them about it. We got a lot of them out because of, you know why, 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.
(48:43)
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. 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.
(49:26)
And yet I read in the New York Times, I see on 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 have to be smart. And if you see CNN, you'd 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, but it all starts from the top. It's a terrible thing.
(49:57)
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's 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.
(50:29)
But 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. I got a call today from another country that's more on our side than that 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'll win just by the fact that I'm saying it." And it's so ridiculous. They're being decimated.
(51:15)
We have the greatest military in the world. And one thing that's come out of this and Venezuela, 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, they have great respect for what I've done and what our military does. We have a military like no other. 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's going on?" They heard that weird buzzing sound from way up high. It's amazing how great our military is.
(52:06)
And for us to read, it's like the B2 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 the airplanes, but they didn't see them. And with no moon, dark at night, they dropped, each plane had 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, they're 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. Then they go like that because the bombs go faster when they head down. I wouldn't want to head down, I'd head up. 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 on its side and it went back to a place called Missouri, Jason's-
Speaker 8 (53:22):
God's country.
President Trump (53:25):
It went back, it wanted to say hello to a very powerful congressman, by the way, from Missouri, Jason. 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. 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. 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, refuel up in the air, they never landed. They went all the way from Missouri to here and then back. Some went to Guam, which there are those who say that was a way of camouflaging and all that, because they followed the ones, 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.
(54:40)
But that was amazing. And the New York Times and CNN, they said, "Well, maybe the B2 attack wasn't so great." 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 the target. Every single bomb hit the target.
(55:12)
Then on top of that, we shot from submarines, 30 unbelievable missiles that also had 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." Yeah, we want the stuff. Its way buried, but we want to get it, we will get it. It won't even be hard. But they have to respect our military. If it were missed, I'd tell you, it'd be fine. It would have done a lot of damage, but these bombs went down the air chutes. They'll never build air chutes again in the mountain. They built these air chutes to get a layer 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.
(56:13)
Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.
(56:20)
How do you like new the floor? 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 grave sites and you look at a marble plaque, a hundred years old, you'll see oftentimes you can almost not read it. When you look at a granite plaque, a hundred years old, it looks like it just got put there yesterday. You know, that's a test. But we have the finest granite anyone's ever seen. It's called flawless granite. There's very little of it.
(57:15)
And I replaced broken slate that was put here many years ago. I saved the ramp because it's in honor of FDR. FDR right up there, he had that built as a ramp. They said, "Oh, sir, we'll straighten it." I said, "No, you have to leave the ramp. It was built, that ramp was built for FDR with a wheelchair" because it's pretty good slope. But a lot of people say, "Why is it a ramp?" They say, "Because of FDR." They say, "Ah, I get it." But we saved that.
(57:43)
But we replaced the broken slate. And 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... They value stones in terms of, that's valued at one million plus. That means one million plus years. A marble will oftentimes be valued at 200 years, 300 years. This is giving you a little lesson in stone. Somebody will say, "He went off on a tangent," some people will... Like I did with the pen. I gave you a little thing on the pen, that that pen is better than the one that costs 2000 that you're handing to everyone. See this one, I can hand to these guys. That's worth three bucks.
(58:26)
So anyway, but I always felt, but they said, "He went off on a tangent." I always say, "If you don't find it interesting, leave doing it." But the granite path... 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 it's very expensive.
Speaker 9 (58:51):
Does he love this?
President Trump (58:54):
He loved it. He loved it. He's seen some nice stonework.
Speaker 10 (58:55):
It's Trump Renaissance. This is a Trump Renaissance here.
President Trump (58:57):
Well, we're fixing the White House. But it was sort of terrible. People would walk to the Oval Office over broken slate. Again, slate is used on roofs. It's not used when people walk on it and it's been walked on for a long time and many, many broken pieces. So I said to do it right.
(59:14)
Now, the other thing I did, if you want to [inaudible 00:59:16], all of the columns, they had 200 years of paint on them and they looked terrible and 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, little touch up here with the paint, get a little hit by a couple of these heavy stones. They're very heavy, thick, they stick around it. But that granite's valued at over a million years, so in a lifetime, one million plus, that's your max.
(59:47)
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...
(59:57)
Peter, take a look. Tell your father if I did a good job.
Speaker 11 (01:00:04):
Thank you, press, thank you, press, thank you press. Please keep moving. Thank you press. Thank you, press. Thank you press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Please keep going. Thank you press.
President Trump (01:00:16):
I hope you do this. It's called [inaudible 01:00:17] by the way.