Speaker 1 (00:10):
Mr. President, thank you for allowing us here today.
President Donald J. Trump (00:11):
Well, thank you very much. We're looking at the construction, and we're with the Chairman, as you know. Chairman, come on over. And we're just taking a look at what's happening. It's a tough construction job there, building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them and a lot of very expensive work. There's no question about it. And Tim has been with me for a long time.
Tim Scott (00:35):
Yes, sir.
President Donald J. Trump (00:35):
And you're in charge of the committee.
Tim Scott (00:36):
Indeed. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses, wanted to figure out why.
President Donald J. Trump (00:43):
Yeah. So we're taking a look. And it looks like it's about $3.1 billion. It went up a little bit, or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (00:53):
I'm not aware of that, Mr. President.
President Donald J. Trump (00:55):
Yeah. It just came out.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (00:57):
Yeah. I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.
President Donald J. Trump (01:01):
Yeah. It just came out.
Tim Scott (01:05):
Our notes said about 3.1 as well.
President Donald J. Trump (01:08):
3.1.
Tim Scott (01:08):
3.1, 3.2.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:09):
This came from us?
President Donald J. Trump (01:10):
Yes. I don't know who does that.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:16):
Are you including the Martin renovation? You just added-
Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's our entire capital plan.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:19):
Yeah. You just added in a third building, is what that is. That's a third building, including the Martin building.
President Donald J. Trump (01:23):
Well, I know, but it's a building that's being built.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:25):
No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
That part that's over.
President Donald J. Trump (01:29):
It's part of the overall work.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:31):
But it's not new.
President Donald J. Trump (01:33):
So we're going to take a look. We're going to see what's happening. And it's got a long way. Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (01:42):
Don't expect them. We're ready for them. But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use. But no, we don't. We expect to be finished in 2027. We're well along, as you can see.
President Donald J. Trump (01:55):
Nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not under too much danger. So any questions?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Mr. President.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Mr. President, does the issue-
Speaker 1 (02:03):
As a real estate developer, as a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget?
President Donald J. Trump (02:11):
Generally speaking, what would I do? I'd fire him.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Do you think this issue, Mr. President, gives you cause to do that?
President Donald J. Trump (02:17):
Well, I'm here just really with the Chairman. He's showing us around, showing us the work. And so, I don't want to get that. I don't want to be personal. I just would like to see it get finished. And in many ways it's too bad it started. But it did start, and it's been under construction for a long time. It's going to be a real long time, because it looks like it's got a long way to go.
Tim Scott (02:40):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Mr. President, are there things the chairman could say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticism?
President Donald J. Trump (02:48):
Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. But other than that, what can I tell you? The country is doing really well. I just briefed the Chairman on the deal we made with Japan. Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit, that way they have a little bit lower tariff. And they also opened their country to free trade, which nobody thought was even a possibility. And we get a zero tariff in the free trade. We don't pay tariffs, and they're going to pay 15% on everything they send into our country. So it's great. But they put up, as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money. You could call it anything you want, but it's a total of $ 550 billion. So nobody thought any of that was possible. And it's wonderful.
(03:36)
And we're doing pretty well with the European Union likewise. And we have some others. They're all really big. And our country's going to make a lot of money. We would be helped if interest rates would come down, but we're going to see how the board rules on that soon. I'd love to see them come down a lot. But we have a country that's thriving. We had a dead country one year ago. Today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And we'll get this one finished.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Mr. President.
President Donald J. Trump (04:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
You said that Jerome Powell announced both.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
So, I'm the next one.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Let's get that.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I know that that's your thing.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing. How are you? Good on the sound?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
Okay. Wait. Question. Is there somewhere I can go to be up close? Because I can't just stand.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
We've got to stay in the pen.
Speaker 7 (05:59):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
What's going on? Craziness, huh?
Speaker 7 (05:59):
What are these two hammers? I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
No, no, no. It's all good.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah. I would let him know.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
So good.
Speaker 6 (05:59):
Come up here.
Speaker 9 (07:06):
It's a stock of papers, sir.
Speaker 7 (07:07):
We need to get the third camera in here. Can we put you guys here? Okay. Like reporters, we need you all to back up. Libby and Sarah and Ed, we need you guys to back up. Ed, Libby, and Sarah, all back up. Everyone back up a little bit.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
With a new camera.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
That's fine.
Speaker 6 (07:55):
I can move the podium backwards.
Speaker 7 (07:57):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
And then you can pull it.
Speaker 9 (07:59):
You want me to move it?
Speaker 6 (08:01):
Just go back a little bit. Let, let's make it level. The problem is we're rocking.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
Oh, God.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
Wait.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
Right there, right there.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Right here?
Speaker 9 (08:11):
Yeah. Because I don't want-
Speaker 6 (08:12):
Let's make sure. I don't want him to rock it all either.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
No, we're with you. We're with you. How's that?
Speaker 7 (08:17):
Can you… Sure.
Speaker 8 (08:21):
Can you give me a test?
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Count really quickly, please?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
It's what?
Speaker 7 (08:23):
Give us a 10-count list, please.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
20 second count.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 10 (08:34):
I'm locked up now.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
You might have to stand on the green. There we go.
Speaker 10 (08:47):
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
These guys don't want you to.
Speaker 10 (08:54):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Good?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
All right. Perfect.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Okay. We're good. We're good.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Lights, camera.
(08:54)
No, no. I'm just going to… That's fine. I want to… take it anyway. There.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
Yeah. That's it.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We have four.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
This is site, I normally-
Speaker 11 (14:10):
Travel pool, on the conclusion of the remarks, the travel pool, we're going to lift up this side and we're going to exit that way. Please watch your step.
(14:24)
That's correct. He'll come down the staircase to the podium here. Once he concludes, he'll exit that way and then travel pool will exit this way.
Speaker 12 (14:30):
Here we go, here we go.
Speaker 13 (14:30):
Here he comes right now.
Speaker 14 (14:30):
Am I blocking you?
Speaker 15 (14:30):
There we go.
President Donald J. Trump (24:54):
Well, thank you very much everybody. And it feels very good actually to be back on a construction site. If you remember, not so long ago we rebuilt the old post office into the Trump Hotel and we sold it to Waldorf Astoria. And it was a great success and we had great luck with the building. We did a good job. We built it quickly and relatively inexpensively for about $200 million. And that was a big hotel, big, big project.
(25:23)
But we looked around, and Tim Scott's here someplace.
Tim Scott (25:27):
Sir.
President Donald J. Trump (25:27):
Tim, come on up. You saw what we saw.
Tim Scott (25:32):
Yes.
President Donald J. Trump (25:33):
And the big thing is to get it done. They have to get it done. They have to get it finished. And very importantly, we have to get interest rates lowered in our country. Our country is the hottest in the world right now. But the one section, people are pretty much unable to buy housing.
Tim Scott (25:47):
Yes.
President Donald J. Trump (25:47):
Because the interest rates are too high. We have no inflation, we have a lot of cash coming in. The tariffs have been unbelievable now.
Tim Scott (25:54):
Thanks to your leadership.
President Donald J. Trump (25:55):
People that didn't even believe in tariffs are saying, "What a great move that was." We have hundreds of billions of dollars coming in. Japan just on one deal is paying us $550 billion. And they opened up their economy. It's incredible, the deal. And they're happy, we're happy, everybody's happy. But we should have the lowest interest rate of any country and we don't. We should have. Every point is worth $365 billion. So we want to get the rates down, but we also want to get the Fed Building finished. So I met with the contractors, we toured it with the Chairman. And we had a very good tour, and we'll talk to you about it sometime. But Tim and I, we sort of understand what happened.
Tim Scott (26:39):
Yeah. Too expensive. Bottom line is this, that Americans deserve to become first-time homebuyers. President Trump has created the best economy in the world. The one thing that would make it better is lower interest rates. Full employment is even more possible. Wages rise faster as interest rates come down when your employment is at 4.1% because of your leadership. We have revenues coming in at record-breaking, maybe last month, even more revenue coming in than bills going out, which is remarkable.
President Donald J. Trump (27:07):
They found 25, $26 billion. They said, "Where did that come from?" I think that's been many, many decades since that happened.
Tim Scott (27:14):
I can't remember that.
President Donald J. Trump (27:15):
But they found $26 billion last month. And they said, "Where did that come from?" I said, "Why don't you try the tariffs?" Said it was true. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. And our country's doing great. And we have no inflation and the numbers, the job, everything is good. The one thing we have to do is get housing prices down and the interest rates down so people can buy the house. Because they're all making money, but they can't get the interest rate down. We have to.
Tim Scott (27:41):
Amen.
President Donald J. Trump (27:42):
All right? And he's been my friend for a long-
Speaker 16 (27:45):
Mr. President, you've been at a number of construction sites. Did you see mismanagement going on or funds that aren't being utilized?
President Donald J. Trump (27:50):
Well, I see a very luxurious situation taking place, let's put it that way. And I was given a very nice tour by the head of construction. And look. If you look over here, they're trying to open up the basement. When you open up a basement, first of all, it's the worst space. Always a basement is the worst space in a building. And it's also the most expensive space to build. And especially here because you have a water line. You're going down into the water, so they have to build what's called a reverse bathtub. The water has to be kept out. It's very expensive construction. So it would've been good if they didn't build it. Would've been good if they didn't do certain other things.
(28:27)
If you look at the kind of protection in the hall, have you been able to get in the hall? You saw the protection of plywood. That was a lot of money just to protect it for a period of time. I would've done it very gingerly and easily and not have spent millions of dollars on protection. And there are things that could have been different.
Speaker 16 (28:48):
Are you going to advise them?
President Donald J. Trump (28:48):
Look, there's always Monday morning quarterbacks. I don't want to be that. I want to help them get it finished. It's been going on for years and I want to help them get it finished. And what we really want to do, and I think I can speak for Tim and I think I can speak for the entire Senate, we can speak for everybody, frankly, is we want to see interest rates come down.
(29:08)
Our country is booming, and the interest rates is a final little notch. And if you look at Europe, they've lowered 11 times, 11 times in a short period of time. We've lowered zero. And they are competition, although we're in the process of probably making a very good deal with them too. They want to make a deal very badly, very badly. So we're making a deal. We just completed our deal with Indonesia. We just completed our deal with the Philippines. We're making unbelievable deals and the money is pouring in. We want to get interest rates.
Speaker 16 (29:42):
But on interest rates, at some point does the level of interest rates now slow economic growth?
President Donald J. Trump (29:48):
Yeah, it never helps it if it's high, never helps it. Well, it's already… As good as we're doing, think of how well we'd be doing. We'd be like a rocket ship. As good as we're doing, we'd do better
President Donald J. Trump (30:00):
… Better if we had lower interest rates and we should, we're primed. Don't forget, without us, the whole world collapses, so we should have the lowest interest rate because you could talk about Switzerland, you can talk about wonderful countries, no debt, but without us, everything collapses.
(30:15)
We should have the lowest interest rate and if you took it down three points, not a little bit, but three points, if you got us down to one, we would save more than a trillion dollars basically with just a paper transfer. You wouldn't be cutting costs of anything. You wouldn't be building anything. Just a move of the hand saying we're going to lower interest rates. You would save a trillion dollars a year and there's nothing you can do to save that kind of money.
Speaker 17 (30:45):
Did [inaudible 00:30:46] say why he stopped?
President Donald J. Trump (30:48):
Well, we had a little talk about it and I thought it was a very productive talk. He'll be able to tell you at his next meeting, but I will say that he did say the country's doing really well and the country is really doing well.
Speaker 18 (31:02):
Mr. President.
President Donald J. Trump (31:03):
Yeah, please go ahead.
Speaker 18 (31:04):
How would you describe your talk with him? Would you say that the energy was tense?
President Donald J. Trump (31:10):
No, I didn't think it was tense. No, I thought we had a good meeting. No, there was no tension. There was no tension. I think he had more tension with my great senator to the right. He's a pretty tough cookie. He was, you might say-
Tim Scott (31:23):
Well, if I'm honest, we had a honest, candid conversation about some of the overruns at this building. We had it in my banking committee and he said we were wrong and turns out we were right. Thank God President Trump and his team took enough time to dig into some of the details and the details are clear. We need to get this project done. We would like to keep it where it is or a little lower, but at the end of the day, the point is that instead of talking about interest rates, instead of talking about first-time home buyers, instead of talking about the heat in our economy, that's a good thing, we're talking about an overrun on the Federal Reserve building as opposed to the Federal Reserve objective of lowering and keeping our economy full.
President Donald J. Trump (32:02):
As an example, they built parking spots under a building next door.
Tim Scott (32:06):
Really expensive.
President Donald J. Trump (32:07):
That's very expensive when you're starting to build parking lots, underground parking lots. That's a very expensive thing. A lot of people I know they park their car and they walk a block or two blocks or something, but it is a very expensive thing, but that is what it is and that's okay. What?
Speaker 19 (32:28):
Is this project a fireable offense for Jerome Powell?
President Donald J. Trump (32:31):
Look, I would love to see it completed. I don't want to put that in this category. It's a very complex thing that could have been made simple.
(32:44)
I built a great hotel and the great hotel that everybody in this group knows very well, it's called the Old Post Office and it's a much bigger project than this, and I spent $200 million building it and it was taken down to the steel for the most part, taken down. You've seen it go up and I built it quickly and I built it for $200 million, that was a much bigger job than this. It spent $200 million and it's got marble bathrooms, the top fixtures, the best of everything, all brand new. This is a very expensive job. I don't know. It got out of control and that happens, that happens, it's a shame.
Speaker 25 (33:19):
Are you negotiate on auto tariffs? Your auto tariffs…
President Donald J. Trump (33:24):
No, I'm not negotiating on auto tariffs.
Speaker 19 (33:26):
Are you looking at 15% like Japan?
President Donald J. Trump (33:28):
Well, it depends. What Japan did is they bought down their tariffs. They gave us $550 billion because they didn't want to pay 20. They were 28% and they gave us $550 billion up front. Hundred percent, 500. We get 90, they get 10, 90% they get 10 and there's no payment. It's not a loan or anything. It's a signing bonus I call it.
(33:54)
But they gave us $550 billion and took down the tariffs a little bit and then they agreed to open their economy to everybody. This was not easy. This took a lot of people walked out of rooms and things. Sometimes they walked out of rooms, went back to Japan. I said, where are they? They went back to Japan and then they called and they said, can we make a deal? They came back a couple of times this happened. This was, as you know, it was over a period of months and ultimately they agreed to open their economy. Now the opening of the economy is worth more than $550 billion. The payment that they made, it's worth more. So between that and the payment, we reduced it down to 15%, but they were at about 28% and then they bought it down basically.
Speaker 19 (34:36):
But could other countries buy it down?
President Donald J. Trump (34:38):
Yeah, I would let other countries buy it down, sure.
Speaker 20 (34:40):
Mr. President, do you feel better or worse about your relationship with [inaudible 00:34:44] after this meeting?
President Donald J. Trump (34:44):
I feel good about it. I mean, look, I have one dispute. There could be some things with money and where it comes from, how it's come from, how it's printed, where it's printed, all of the standard things with the Fed. But I just want to see one thing happen, very simple. Interest rates have to come down. If the interest rates don't come down, we're knocking it out of the park with high interest rates. If interest rates come down, then that final little element kicks in, that's housing. The sad part is that people, wonderful young people, young couples starting off, they can't get a mortgage because the rates are too high. Tim knows that better than anybody I think.
Speaker 18 (35:24):
Mr. President, if the rates are hurting families in the country, why let that keep going for another eight months? Why not just fire the chairman?
President Donald J. Trump (35:30):
Because to do that is a big move and I just don't think it's necessary and I believe that he's going to do the right thing. I believe that the Chairman is going to do the right thing. I mean, it may be a little too late as the expression goes, but I believe he is going to do the right thing.
(35:45)
The fact is it's so big, what's taking place in America. Where the king of Saudi Arabia says, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world and I thought you were dead one year ago. Thought we were dead. I just left NATO as you know, they're agreeing to pay 5%. We're not paying anything. We send them the, they pay for a hundred percent of everything now for the war in Ukraine. But I just left NATO and every one of those leaders said, every country, they said, and very smart country, very successful countries frankly. Every one of them said, you have the hottest country in the world. We did that over a period of a year, less than a year. I mean, if you think, I mean less than. They say a year ago we were dead and today, so I'm here six months and we did it over and we had the help of men like this and people like standing right behind me. They're great.
Tim Scott (36:36):
Leadership matters.
President Donald J. Trump (36:37):
They're great professionals. They really are. They're great professionals and in a short period of time, we made it the hottest country in the world. With all of that being said, we'd like to see, we can always do better and we can do better if interest rates come down. Good job you do. You do a nice job. I watch you a lot.
Speaker 21 (36:53):
Thank you. I appreciate that, Mr. President. Do you have a name in mind to replace a chairman?
President Donald J. Trump (36:57):
I do.
Speaker 21 (36:59):
One person?
President Donald J. Trump (37:00):
Two people, maybe three.
Speaker 21 (37:02):
Any clues?
President Donald J. Trump (37:02):
I'd pick him, but I think he's not leaving the Senate.
Tim Scott (37:04):
No, sir. I'm not.
President Donald J. Trump (37:05):
I'd pick Tim.
(37:11)
No. There's no pressure. No. We want to have, his term comes up soon. I think he's going to do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is. Even people that believed in the higher rates, they're all on board. They all want to see the interest rates come down. It's very important.
Speaker 22 (37:27):
Mr. President, if he doesn't do the right thing in cutting rates, as you said, you don't consider-
President Donald J. Trump (37:33):
I don't think we're going to do that. I don't think so.
Speaker 23 (37:34):
… Investigate newly declassify documents by Gabbard?
President Donald J. Trump (37:37):
Yeah, that's a terrible thing. I have great respect for Tulsi and the documents they found on President Obama, frankly, it was an Obama thing, but it was the people that worked under him also working with him and now it's a very, very serious thing. Thank you very much.
Speaker 23 (37:53):
Mr. President, what was the final straw to pull out?
President Donald J. Trump (37:59):
Thank you very much everybody.
Syd (38:08):
Right this way. Straight to cars. You're welcome. Straight to cars. Please watch your step. Please watch your step, straight to cars. Please watch your step, straight to car. Okay, so you stay here. Oh, okay. Sure. Okay, got it.
Chris (38:27):
Sydney, good to see you.
Syd (38:28):
If you could stay here.
Chris (38:41):
Got it.
(38:41)
Always great working with you.
Speaker 24 (38:43):
Thank you.
Chris (38:43):
I'm Chris by the way.
Speaker 24 (38:44):
Hi, nice to meet you.
Chris (38:47):
I've seen you before, but mostly know these guys.