Donald Trump (00:00):
Ready? Well, thank you very much. As you know, we passed the continuing resolution in the Republican House today. It was an amazing vote, actually. It showed we want to keep things going and going properly. It was good for a lot of reasons. The Republicans want to keep government open. But in the Senate, we have 53 Republicans total, and we need 60 votes. That means we need Democrat votes.
(00:31)
I want to thank Senator John Fetterman, who wants to keep the country open. We're doing so well, as a country. We're doing probably better than ever before, if you look at the stock market and other indicators, we have tremendous investment coming in records, investment coming. Everything is going well, but the Democrats are unhappy about that because they don't want it to go well. I think they actually dislike our country greatly, so they want to shut down the country.
(00:58)
They want to have open borders. They want to stop the fighting of crime, where we've been very successful. The D.C., as you know, Washington, D.C., it's a hot place right now. Everyone is having dinners. They're going out all over. There's very little crime. They haven't seen numbers like this in many, many years, and other places. As you know, we're going into Memphis. We'll soon be going into Chicago. We've already had people out there and in there, and FBI has been there, and we've brought the numbers down, but we got to be bringing them down a whole lot.
(01:34)
But I guess they want crime, and we fight crime, and it's a pretty big difference. They want to have men play in women's sports. They want to transgender for everybody. And if they don't get everything that they want, all these things that they want, that are proven so badly. They want to close our government down. We're not going to let bad things happen to our country, and we're not going to approve things that we shouldn't be approving. Just today, the House Democrats voted against condemning the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. Who can vote against that, the condemning all they're saying, "Please, condemn the assassination of a human being," and they said, "No, that we're going to do that."
(02:16)
Remember this. We had an election a very short time ago. Republicans won presidential. We won the popular vote by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the electoral college by a lot. We won most US counties in a total landslide. So, we won most. It's a very big statistic. We won the counties in a number that I don't believe has been hit before, 2,600 counties versus 525 counties for the Democrats. So, the Democrats really should start respecting what takes place at the voter booth. In many cases, it's not a voter booth because they have mail-in voting, which is a very corrupt situation, but despite that, we won in a landslide. And we have to remember, when you win the election, elections have consequences.
(03:17)
So, we'll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time. And we'll take care of the military. We'll take care of social security. We'll take care of the things that we have to take care of. A lot of the things the Democrats fight for, which in many cases aren't very good things, will not be able to be paid. So, we'll watch and see how they do with that, to handle their constituents pretty carefully. So, we're proud to announce that we won the House. We did fine in the Senate, but we need 60 votes. So, we have 53 senators, and we need 60 votes. That means the Democrats have to vote in the Senate, and I don't think they will be voting.
(04:02)
Now, what we are doing, we're really here today to talk about something else, which is the Gold Card, which is going to bring a lot of money into our country, which is going to reduce taxes and lots of other good things, but we'll save that for a little bit later. Why don't we do this first, and then we'll talk about the Gold Card? Okay? Any questions [inaudible 00:04:20]?
Speaker X (04:16):
[inaudible 00:04:21].
(04:16)
[inaudible 00:04:22] on TikTok?
(04:16)
[inaudible 00:04:23].
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Your call to President Xi… Mr. President, Mr. President, your call this morning with President Xi?
Donald Trump (04:27):
It was great. I had a great call with President Xi. And as you know, he approved the TikTok deal, and we're in the process. We have some great investors. They're some of the biggest in the world, American investors, great people, and we look forward to getting that deal closed.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Is it fully approved? The Chinese statement has been, necessarily, [inaudible 00:04:40] take it back?
Donald Trump (04:40):
Well, I think so. I mean, when you say fully approved, I don't know what that means. We have to get it signed. I guess that could be a formality. I've found his word to be very good. President Xi and I had a long talk. We talked for almost two hours then. It started at 8:00 in the morning, and I think it was a very good talk. We talked about trade. We talked about war. We talked about a lot of things. We talked about Russian-Ukraine, obviously, and Gaza. We talked about a lot of subjects. It was a long call. It was a good call. We have a very good relationship. But the TikTok deal is well on its way, as you know, and the investors are getting ready.
(05:32)
And I think China wanted to see it stay open, too. They wanted to see it, and I can tell you, the young people in our country wanted to see it stay open very badly because… And if you take a look at my numbers, no Republican has ever done anything like we did. We got massive numbers of youth vote and, by the way, helped very much by Charlie Kirk. So, Charlie was very much in favor of TikTok. He liked TikTok, and he said, "You should use it." And other people said that, too, and I used it. I don't know if I had the all… I think I set records. I looked at numbers that are phenomenal. We'll pass the amount to you. And it had probably a pretty big effect on the election because we won the election by a lot.
(06:15)
So, we are in a situation where, in a little while, meaning a number of days, we'll probably… I don't know if you can make a deal with these people. I think these people are crazy. Again, anybody who wants open borders and don't want to fight… They don't want to fight crime. They hate to fight crime. And in Chicago, last weekend, you had 11 people killed, murdered, and you had 28 shot. And those numbers have been pretty consistent all throughout a period of time, whether it was four people, five people, six people, 11 people, 12 people, killed, murdered, and they don't want to spend money to fight crime. And it's not even much money. Relatively speaking, it's very little, but we're going there anyway. It doesn't make any difference. We're going to Chicago. We're going to Memphis next. And we're going to clean up the crime in the cities because we have to do that. Okay?
Speaker X (07:01):
Mr. [inaudible 00:07:01]-
(07:01)
[inaudible 00:07:01]-
(07:01)
[inaudible 00:07:01]-
Speaker 2 (07:01):
On TikTok, Mr. President, with this deal today, are you confident that the CCP won't be exerting control over TikTok?
Donald Trump (07:16):
Yeah, we're going to have a very tight control. And look, it's an amazing thing that has been created. There's tremendous value with TikTok. And I'm a little prejudice because I, frankly, did so well on it. It got me numbers that nobody has ever even heard of before. So, a lot of people want it. The young people of this country want it badly. The parents of those young people want it badly. So, we were able to work out a deal with China, and it's a very good deal for us. I hope it's a good deal for them.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Would-
Speaker X (07:48):
Mr. President…
(07:48)
[inaudible 00:07:50].
Speaker 2 (07:51):
[inaudible 00:07:50] confident in a… or would you accept a deal where China controls the algorithm of TikTok?
Donald Trump (07:54):
Well, it's all being worked out. We're going to have very good control. These are American investors, all of them, and they all love our country. They're all very well known people, very famous people actually, financially, and they'll have control of it.
Speaker X (08:14):
Mr. President, [inaudible 00:08:15]-
(08:14)
[inaudible 00:08:15].
Donald Trump (08:15):
I want to say, I want to thank President Xi because he was a gentleman, and we've just had a good relationship. And a lot of people in this country want it to be open.
Speaker X (08:24):
Is there [inaudible 00:08:25]-
(08:24)
Mr. President…
(08:24)
[inaudible 00:08:25]-
Donald Trump (08:27):
If it weren't open, maybe. I don't know. I think we won by so much, it wouldn't have mattered, but we got a lot of Republican votes from very young people. You go ahead, Jeff.
Jeff (08:42):
Thank you, sir. Russian jets entered Estonia's air space today for 12 minutes. Do you see that as a threat to NATO?
Donald Trump (08:45):
Well, I'm going to have to look it. They're going to be briefing me in a short while, so I'll let you know about it tonight or tomorrow.
Jeff (08:45):
What's your take, in general, just [inaudible 00:08:53]?
Donald Trump (08:45):
Well, I don't love it. I don't love it when that happens. This could be big trouble, but I'll let you know later. They're going to brief me in about an hour.
Jeff (09:00):
And to follow up with Charlie Kirk, there has been a lot of talk about free speech this week. Do you see a difference between cancel culture and consequence culture?
Donald Trump (09:13):
Well, I mean, your question is a little trick question.
Jeff (09:13):
It's not [inaudible 00:09:14].
Donald Trump (09:13):
I'm a very strong person for free speech. At the same time, when you have networks that where I won an election, like in counties, I guess it's 2,600 to 525. That's called a landslide times two when you have that level of popularity, of voter support, as I did in the last election, and yet 97 and 94%, different numbers, you see different numbers with different stats, but 97, 94, 95, 96% of the people are against me in the sense of the newscasts are against me. The stories are, they said, 97% bad. So, they give 97…
(09:59)
They'll take a great story, and they'll make it bad. See, I think that's really illegal, personally. You can't have a free airwave, if you're getting free airwaves from the United States government, and you can't have that and say… And somebody that just won an election. And I had to go through this during the election. I think it's a miracle that I can win when 97% of the stories on the networks are bad, or whatever it may be. Whether it's 89, it doesn't matter. It's a tremendous number. You know it. You report it all the time, and it changes.
(10:40)
But when you have that kind of a negative reporting, fake negative reporting, when they take a great story and they make it into a bad story constantly… That's what they do. Look, 60 Minutes took Kamala's answer, and they threw it out and they gave her a different answer so that she sounded competent. When things like that happen, George Slopadopoulos, from your network, George Slopadopoulos had to pay $16 million to me because of what he said, and that's ABC. You had to pay more than that. Your network had to pay more than that. So, I think it's very sad, but I think that reporting has to be at least accurate, at least accurate to an extent.
(11:23)
Again, when somebody is given 97% of the stories are bad about a person, that's no longer free speech. That's no longer, that's just cheating, and they cheat. And they become really members of the Democrat National Committee. That's what they are, the networks, in my opinion. They're just offshoots of the Democrat National Committee.
Speaker X (11:48):
Mr. President, [inaudible 00:11:50]-
(11:48)
[inaudible 00:11:50].
(11:48)
Mr. President, Mr. Prsident, [inaudible 00:11:51]-
Donald Trump (11:48):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Thank you. [inaudible 00:11:52] zero hedge. People are still anticipating who your pick for National Security Advisor will be. They're worried Marco Rubio is a little overworked, and one of the reported front-runners is Michael Anton from the State Department.
Donald Trump (12:06):
He's good.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
He has just authored the National Security Strategy. Also, in the mix is Mike Flynn-
Donald Trump (12:06):
Good.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
… and Steve Witkoff. Can you give us an indication for who-
Donald Trump (12:15):
Well, they're all good. Well, we'll make a decision soon.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Okay.
Donald Trump (12:15):
But we're doing very well. I settled seven wars. More than that, I think, but actually we settled seven wars. We're working on Gaza. It's a tough one, but we'll get it done somehow. And we're also working with Russia and Ukraine, and they hate each other so much, you wouldn't believe it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And are you considering-
Donald Trump (12:32):
President Putin and President Zelenskyy, they hate each other to a level that you wouldn't believe, so they're having a little bit of a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And are you considering Stephen Miran for Fed chair?
Donald Trump (12:45):
I hadn't thought of it too much. He's doing a great job, just got approved. His vote is a very good one. The Fed should have done more. Too Late Powell is terrible. He's a terrible chair. I think it's terrible. But despite that, we're powering through it. We have another record stock market today. We're at very, very high levels, and we're at the highest levels, so we're setting records many, many days. During my administration, we've set records, and we'll see what happens with 50,000. 50,000 is a pretty big number. Never come close, and we're not so far away from it.
(13:11)
It's because they see what's happening. Not so much what's happening exactly right now, but they see all the plants that are being built. They see the kind of investment that's going to be made. When you take $17 trillion… So, Biden had 250 billion, or putting a simpler way, they had much less than a trillion, but they had less than a trillion for four years. I have 17 trillion for eight months. Nobody has ever seen anything like it, and I think they're looking at that and they're saying, when those plants open… Right now they're being built, a lot of them, and some are starting over the next year. It takes a while, but we're getting fast permits. And when those plants get built, I don't think there'll be anything like what we're going to experience. Yeah?
Speaker X (14:11):
Mr. President…
(14:11)
[inaudible 00:14:13]-
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Mr. President, if I can, on the top subject of free speech, Ted Cruz compared Brendan Carr to a mob boss, the way he's threatening television stations, and saying it's absolutely dangerous for the government to determine which speech is okay and which is not. What's your reaction to Ted Cruz?
Donald Trump (14:27):
I think Brendan Carr is an incredible American patriot with courage. It used to be… I remember in the old days, networks would have to get licensed, relicensed, and it was always a big deal. They had to show honesty and integrity. When you have a network… Again, I'll use the same numbers, whether it's 90 or 94 or 97, all different numbers, but when you have networks that give somebody 97% bad publicity or 94% bad publicity,
Donald Trump (15:01):
I think that's dishonesty. And you know they're getting free airwaves, right? You know that, right? You get them for nothing. These airwaves, they make millions and millions of dollars. The news makes millions of dollars. ABC, your network, your network wrote very badly about me and they had to pay me $16 million. I wasn't looking for that.
John (15:18):
But you think you have a right or that Brendan Carr has a right to take away the license?
Donald Trump (15:24):
No, I think Brendan Carr is patriot. I think Brendan Carr is a courageous person. I think Brendan Carr just would like to see the airwaves be used illegally and incorrectly and purposely horribly. Doesn't like to see a person that won the election in a landslide get 97% bad publicity before the election. It's amazing that I won the election with that.
(15:48)
But here's what happened. The people have given you networks no credibility. They don't give them any credibility, John. If they did, they wouldn't vote for me. They wouldn't have voted for me.
(15:58)
When you look at, I mean, you could also say the liberal media, the liberal left, when you look at these stories and papers, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about, I assume you're talking mostly about the networks, but they have a licensing procedure and you can read it as well. They have to show honesty and integrity. And when they take the goods-
John (16:19):
Who decides that?
Donald Trump (16:22):
Well, I think the people decide. That's why I'm president. When they take a-
John (16:25):
So that means you decide whether-
Donald Trump (16:26):
… great success, like you often do, and you make it into like it's a loser or you put a negative spin on it, I don't think that's right. So I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot, so I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
[inaudible 00:16:40] UN next week. You're going to the UN-
Donald Trump (16:44):
I'll be at the UN. I'll be making a speech, yes.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
And are you meeting any other world leaders-
Donald Trump (16:44):
Many of them.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Can you tell us who?
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Who are you meeting, Mr. President?
Donald Trump (16:52):
Well, I'm just meeting with them. They're being set up.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
Syria, Zelensky?
Speaker 5 (16:52):
What is your goal for attending that meeting? What do you hope to get out of it?
Donald Trump (16:59):
World peace. Nobody's done a better job than I've done in world peace. Nobody's settled so many wars as I have. I've been here probably a little bit more than eight months and I've settled seven. And that doesn't include the destruction of a vast potential nuclear disaster in Iran, which we wiped out totally. As I say, obliterated. We obliterated it. It's been turned right with this beautiful plane right here. We just ordered some more of them, by the way. The B-2 bomber, just ordered some more of the more updated version, not that we needed that. We just need the plane because it was so flawless.
(17:43)
These pilots flew 37 hours flawlessly. Not an engine problem, not a screw, not a bolt came loose. It was an amazing… Compare that to many years ago, Jimmy Carter, same country with the helicopters and problems and the prisoners and the hostages and what a mess. These planes flew 37 hours without a stop. They fueled up. We had 52 tankers fueling the planes along the way. It was an incredible… And every single bomb hit its mark.
(18:17)
And then we fired 30 of them from submarines, from a submarine. What a job that was. And I don't even include that, but that stopped a war. That stopped, maybe a catastrophic war.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
Mr. President-
Donald Trump (18:31):
So I think that nobody's ever done anywhere near that.
(18:36)
Now, on top of that, we're working very hard to get Russia, Ukraine settled. We'll see what's going to happen there. I hope we're going to get it done. President Xi and I spoke about it and I believe that he really would like to see it done also, and I think he's going to work with us to help.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
What was your message to-
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Mr. President, on the UN-
Speaker 5 (18:50):
What was your message to President Xi on the war in Ukraine? What are you asking him?
Donald Trump (19:01):
Well, it's the same as his message to me. He would like to see it done. He would like to see it. I believe he would like to see it ended. Yes, I do believe.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Mr. President, these two wars that we were talking about, Gaza and Ukraine, are escalating at the same time you're going to take the stage at the UN, back at the stage after these years. Do you plan to setting any kind of red lines for these two countries? And you said before you're frustrated with Putin. Are you also frustrated with Netanyahu?
Donald Trump (19:28):
We have a long time ago before I get up and speak at the UN, because every day is a long time when it comes to Gaza and it comes to Israel and the Middle East. So we have a long time to go. But you know a lot of my opinions, and remember this, you can't forget October 7th, either. People are forgetting October 7th. They forget it too quickly. That was one of the worst days in world history. It was the most evil attack that I think you could really say. Babies were involved. Little babies were involved and having their heads chopped off and all of the things that took place. You can't forget that. I don't forget that. A lot of people do, but I don't.
(20:03)
Yeah, please.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
But how about when… Just one more, Mr. President-
Speaker 7 (20:07):
On Bagram, Mr. President, what goes into retaking Bagram? Does that require boots on the ground?
Donald Trump (20:10):
We'll see what happens with Bagram. We're talking to Afghanistan. It should have never been given up. It was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. There was no reason to give it up. I was leaving Afghanistan. I was leaving. I was the one that got it down to 5,000 soldiers. But we were going to keep Bagram, the air base. I said it yesterday. And we had an incredible trip, as you know, to UK, and I said it during the press conference.
(20:35)
It's one of the most powerful runways ever built in terms of weight, length and load, what it could take. And we just gave it up for nothing. We gave it up for nothing. There was no reason to give it up. We weren't going to leave Bagram. Joe Biden didn't know what he was doing. We had a man that didn't know what he was doing. We had a man, by the way, that didn't approve, if you take a look at what's happening in Congress, we had a man that signed everything with… Almost everything with a auto panel. And he didn't tell the people from the auto pen, whoever was using it, the one man that used it predominantly said that Biden only spoke to him twice and it was only about the weather. Cares about nothing.
(21:21)
So those pardons that he gave are illegal. He gave illegal pardons. And that includes the congressman that destroyed and deleted all the information from J6. They deleted everything because it turned out that they were wrong. It turned out that I offered 10,000 National Guard or soldiers, whatever they wanted, and you wouldn't have had a problem. And they turned it down. Nancy Pelosi turned it down and the mayor of Washington, DC turned it down.
(21:50)
They deleted everything and they destroyed it, illegally destroyed it. And Biden gave them a pardon. And Biden gave a lot of other people pardons that, frankly, would be in jail if it was for those pardons. But those pardons now are illegal, according to just about everybody.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
On Letitia James, are you disappointed that the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has not prosecuted Letitia James? Do you intend to fire him?
Donald Trump (22:15):
Well, we're going to see what happens. I'm not following it very closely. It looks to me like she's very guilty of something, but I really don't know. I know that the US attorney from the Eastern district or from that district in Virginia, that he was approved by two Democrat senators who, in my opinion, are among the worst. And when I learned that two senators, Democrats, because as you know, it's very hard with a blue slip, it's very hard for a Republican to get somebody approved if you have one senator that's a Democrat because of an old custom. It's not a law. It's a custom. It's a ridiculous custom. But if you have a Democrat senator, you have to get that senator approval. In this case, we had two.
(22:57)
When I saw that he got two senators, two gentlemen that are bad news, as far as I'm concerned. When I saw that he got approved by those two men, I said, "Pull him," because he can't be any good.
Speaker 8 (23:12):
So you want him fired? You want him out?
Donald Trump (23:16):
Yeah, I want him out. Yeah. When I learned that he was blue-slipped through by two Democrat senators in Virginia, people that would never vote for… The people that haven't voted for us for probably years, okay, probably years, in my opinion, two bad guys. You know who they are, Warner and Kane. Two bad guys, bad senators, too. They do a terrible job for the people of Virginia.
(23:42)
But when I saw that he got approved by these two terrible people that haven't voted, they just don't vote no matter what it is. We could give them the greatest deal ever and they still wouldn't vote. And they voted for this guy. And I have other people, judges and I have US attorneys from other states who have the same situation and they can't get approved. So when I learned that they voted for him, I said, "I don't really want him."
(24:04)
Okay. [inaudible 00:24:13], please.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
Have you seen the polling, the Gallup poll out of Ukraine that shows 23%, less than a quarter of Ukrainians actually support continuing the war against Putin? We saw the European leaders come here and try to say the world is united for the war effort, but Ukrainians have war fatigue themselves.
Donald Trump (24:28):
Well, I don't blame them.
Speaker 9 (24:31):
Have you seen the polling, and your thoughts on it?
Donald Trump (24:32):
I don't blame them. It's a war that never should have started. It's a war that never would've happened. If I were president, that war never would've happened, ever. That's a disgrace that that war happened. And they're losing anywhere from five to 8,000 people a week on that war, which is the worst since the Second World War. That's a war that should have never happened.
Speaker 9 (24:48):
And if you consider-
Donald Trump (24:49):
Would've never happened. And it didn't happen for four years. When I was here, it didn't happen.
(24:54)
Go ahead.
Speaker 9 (24:55):
Have you considered cutting funding, even promises made by the Biden administration?
Donald Trump (24:58):
Well, we're not spending any money on the war. We're being paid for everything we said. Unlike Biden, he gave them $350 billion. And it was shocking. We're not spending any money on the war. The war is being funded by NATO. NATO is buying our equipment. In fact, I don't want to make money on the war. I don't want to. But we are actually making money on that war because they're buying our equipment, as you know.
(25:22)
But NATO, as you know, very important, is funding the entire thing. They're paying for the missiles, for the tanks. They're paying for anything that's sent over there, it goes to NATO, and then NATO does what they want with it. In this case, I guess they give it to Ukraine. It's a very sad war. It's a war that never should have happened.
Speaker 10 (25:50):
[inaudible 00:25:50] TikTok, could you tell me, is the US government going to take a board seat in the company, and will the US government-
Donald Trump (25:54):
A what?
Speaker 10 (25:55):
A board seat within the company?
Donald Trump (26:00):
Well, we're going to announce it. Are you talking about TikTok?
Speaker 10 (26:02):
Yes, TikTok.
Donald Trump (26:02):
We're going to announce it. But it's a great deal for our country. It's a great deal for all of the young people in the country that wanted it and people generally. I was happy with it. Look, I wasn't a fan of TikTok and then I got to use it and I became a fan and it helped me win the election in a landslide. So I think that it's a deal that's going to be great. And it's also controlled by very powerful and very substantial American people. By the way, all American people.
(26:29)
Yeah, please. Go ahead, please.
Speaker 11 (26:33):
Mr. President, question from Newsmax. Last year, before you took office, there was an estimated 6.8 million men not actively seeking work of prime working age. So if you and Secretary Lutnick could talk about the efforts your administration is taking to help our American gentlemen get back to work.
Donald Trump (26:50):
Yeah, well, what we're doing is we're building plants over the United States and frankly, because of tariffs, we're taking in trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars. And countries that have ripped us off for years, and everyone knows this, countries that have ripped us off for years, like nobody's ever been ripped off before, they're now having to pay up. They're paying a lot of… They're paying a lot of money to America, and we're reducing taxes with that money and we're doing things that we were never able to do before.
(27:20)
So you're going to have a lot of jobs. The jobs are being created right now. And the tariffs, the tariffs are protecting our country. Tariffs were used against us, but we didn't use them against others. But we're really better at it than anybody else. And we've taken in… We will have taken in trillions of dollars. Nobody's ever seen anything… Even people that were against the tariffs, now they see the way they work.
(27:46)
And by the way, with no inflation, with no problem. We're just building up cash and we're using that cash to reduce taxes, reduce debt and other things. It's a great thing to watch. And your honest reporters are saying they've never seen anything like what's happening. Our country is becoming very rich again, only because of tariffs. If we didn't have it… If I didn't get elected, this country would be… It was a dead country. Look, we were a dead country a year ago, and now we're the most successful, most vibrant country anywhere in the world.
Speaker 12 (28:23):
Question about health, healthcare.
Donald Trump (28:28):
[inaudible 00:28:27] to see you. You look good on television.
Speaker 12 (28:28):
Thank you, sir. I try. Tonight, in a few minutes, Steve Bannon will appear on my show. He quotes the idea that you should "Dual hack" Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent, not only as Treasury Secretary, but as interim Fed Chair. Would you be willing to entertain that?
Donald Trump (28:42):
In other words, he likes Scott?
Speaker 12 (28:44):
Yes, sir. Very much.
Donald Trump (28:45):
So do I. And I like Steve, too.
Speaker 12 (28:47):
Would you like to see that, him dual [inaudible 00:28:49]-
Donald Trump (28:49):
Well, it's certainly interesting, a dual hack. We could save a little bit of salary. I think I could maybe make a deal where we just give him one salary. I have a couple of them.
Speaker 12 (28:56):
I don't think you need to.
Donald Trump (28:57):
I have Marco. No, I don't think so. We have Marco, he's got about three positions. He's doing great, also. No, no, I don't think that's going to be… Actually, I went to Scott and I talked to him about that position and he loves what he's doing right now. So he's not in the mix because he's… He loves being Secretary of the Treasury.
Speaker 12 (29:21):
Quick follow-up. Today is the first day of early voting in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Are you planning on campaigning for Winsome Sears, John Reid, or Jason Miyares?
Donald Trump (29:27):
Well, I'm going to have to look at some of them. As you know, it's sort of a semi-local election. I've been watching it. I've been seeing the-
Speaker 12 (29:36):
Well, I would appreciate it as a Virginia voter, just-
Donald Trump (29:38):
Who do you like of the group? Who do you like?
Speaker 12 (29:38):
The whole ticket, sir.
Donald Trump (29:40):
All of them? You like them?
Speaker 12 (29:41):
All of them. Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (29:41):
All right. I'll take a very strong look.
Speaker 12 (29:41):
Thank you, sir. Appreciate that.
Donald Trump (29:41):
For you, I'm going to look.
Speaker 13 (29:50):
Secretary Kennedy's panel on vaccine changed its broad recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines today. Are you comfortable with that change, or would you like to see Americans take the vaccines that were
Speaker 13 (30:00):
… developed under your tenure.
Donald Trump (30:01):
Yeah, well, the vaccines, according to a lot of people, and if you look at, George said, "Have had a tremendous…" Operation Warp Speed, it was just according to just about everybody, it was one of the greatest things that any president has ever done in this country. So we're very proud of it. I'm very proud of it. I'm also very proud of Regeneron and some of the things that came out of all of the labs and all of the research that we've done. So I don't know exactly what the final determination is, but I had the vaccine. I was very happy with it. Here I am, right. Here I am.
Speaker 18 (30:33):
Sir, will you just [inaudible 00:30:35]-
Speaker 15 (30:33):
Have you-
Speaker 19 (30:33):
Bobby Kennedy [inaudible 00:30:36]-
Speaker 15 (30:33):
… had [inaudible 00:30:36] recently?
Speaker 19 (30:36):
Bobby Kennedy seems to be undoing what you did with Operation Warp Speed.
Donald Trump (30:41):
No, I put it in there because I want to have opposite views. That's okay. I think we're going to have something very, very big coming up soon on autism. Autism is totally out of control and one of the biggest, one of the most important things that in my opinion I had to do is to see what's going on with autism. We're going to have a news conference early next week on autism, and I think you can see some things that are amazing that we've learned that somebody else wouldn't have learned. It's out of control, autism, out of control, and I think we maybe have the reason why.
Speaker 19 (31:16):
But is Bobby Kennedy going too far and unwinding the vaccines and-
Donald Trump (31:23):
No, no. He's saying for older people-
Speaker 19 (31:24):
… [inaudible 00:31:25] vaccine?
Donald Trump (31:24):
Yeah. He's saying for older people. A lot of people agree with that. But I can tell you this, Operation Warp Speed, one of the greatest things a president has ever done for this country. And you can say the world, because when we came up with that vaccine, the whole world opened up. But I put Bobby there as somebody that will go either way from… And I want the facts, but I also look at facts from Pfizer where they spend a lot of money on the other drug companies. They spent a lot of money on finding out the results after the fact, and the results were amazingly good.
Speaker 20 (32:01):
Mr. President, after normalization with-
Speaker 21 (32:04):
[inaudible 00:32:04].
Speaker 16 (32:04):
I'm wondering if you've seen the video point out by former Israeli hostages. It's addressed to you. One is a widow of one that died, and these are people who are freed thanks to you, but they're actually encouraging you to force a ceasefire, force Netanyahu to ceasefire, and they didn't address it to him because they think you're the one who might actually listen to them and get it done. They're worried that the hostages who are still there are more at risk if the war continues. Your thoughts on it [inaudible 00:32:37]-
Donald Trump (32:37):
Well, they might be. They also, maybe they'll be free because of that. You never know how it's going to look. War I was saying is… War, a lot of strange things happen. A lot of results take place that you would never think were going to happen. As you know, I was able to get most of the hostages out. We're down to 20 and we have 32 dead people. We have 32, maybe more 38, but between 32 and 38 people that were dead. Mostly young people. And I've dealt with some of the parents and we got all our Americans out as you know. And now we're talking about mostly Israelis, but I dealt with parents. I spoke to parents and they want the body of their son believe it, almost all cases sons, but they want the body of their cherished beautiful son. They want the body back as much as though he were alive.
(33:24)
It's so sad to see. But I've dealt with the mothers and fathers. "Please, sir. Please, sir. The body of my son." They know he's dead and they just want him back. They want him back as much as though he is alive. I mean, it's very terrible. And we have very close to 40 bodies that are included in the whole thing. But we have 20, probably 20 that are living. It might be a little bit less because a couple of things. Look, young people don't die, okay. They just don't die. And they can take a lot. But a lot of people have died in these horrible tunnels. They're mostly in the tunnels. I know a lot about it. I got them out. I got them out. I always said the last 20 when you get down to the last 10 or 20, it's going to be very tough. It's a nasty situation. You can't forget October 7th, but it's a nasty situation. Terrible. Terrible.
Speaker 17 (34:24):
Mr. President, in Gaza, the UN concluded this week that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. What are your thoughts on that?
Donald Trump (34:33):
Well, I haven't seen that. I'm looking at it, but did anybody commit genocide on October 7th? What do you think about that? That was genocide at the highest level. That was murder, genocide. You can call it whatever you want, little babies were chopped in half-
Speaker 17 (34:51):
And in Gaza?
Donald Trump (34:52):
… arms were cut off, people heads were cut off people. That's genocide. That's genocide, also, I guess, right.
Speaker 17 (34:54):
What do you think [inaudible 00:34:55] image of Gazans [inaudible 00:34:55]-
Speaker 22 (34:54):
President-
Speaker 14 (34:54):
Mr. President, I have a question on your [inaudible 00:34:55]-
Speaker 22 (34:55):
… TikTok, you referred to getting a fee for that deal, what is that fee is going to be? [inaudible 00:35:05]-
Donald Trump (35:05):
Well, it hasn't been fully negotiated, but we'll get something from the standpoint that we worked hard. We put up a lot, we spent a lot of money on letting this come and letting this… It's a very, very big deal. It's a very powerful deal. And the United States really, I see it. People were saying, "Save TikTok. Save TikTok." So many people. It's a big thing. And China can be very proud that they were able to get that started. And so I very much appreciate President Xi's working with us on that, very much.
Speaker 22 (35:45):
But the point here [inaudible 00:35:46]-
Speaker 17 (35:45):
[inaudible 00:35:46].
Speaker 23 (35:45):
[inaudible 00:35:46].
Speaker 24 (35:46):
Mr. President, on Antifa, what comes next after designating Antifa a terrorist organization?
Donald Trump (35:50):
Well, there are others that we're going to designate too, but we're going to look at the people that funded Antifa, see who they are, where they came from and why they did. Have you seen Portland at all? Have you take a look at what's happening in Portland? I mean, this has been going on for years. It's just people out of control. They're crazy. We're going to stop that very soon. We have to get rid of a couple of other problems first. We're going to get rid of the problems in Memphis where you can't even walk a block without getting shot. We're going to get rid of the problems in Chicago. Chicago's a great city and we have to save it. We have to save it. I told you, I had the head of the Union Pacific Railroad in my office and I said, "So what do you think? You go to every city. You have railroads in every [inaudible 00:36:32] biggest railroad, beautiful railroad. He's a great guy."
(36:35)
I said, "What do you think?" He said, "Sir, save Chicago. Don't let it go down. Save it." The way he said it was so meaningful to me. It was so, like, it was terrible. In a way it was terrible. "Save Chicago." Who would ever think that we'd be sitting here talking about saving Chicago? Chicago's a great city. They have a terrible mayor. Terrible. He's like 5% approval rating, he's an incompetent person. They have an incompetent governor in my opinion. He's incompetent. 11 people gets shot and he says, "Crime is in a good shape." I mean, they're losing 4, 5, 6 people a week getting killed by bullets, by knives. And then he says, how wonderful it is, Chicago, so… Well, it might be wonderful for him. I think they're afraid. Look, he's not a stupid guy. I really believe they're afraid to say, politically, I guess, from an ideology standpoint, from a democratic standpoint, he's afraid.
(37:41)
He's afraid to say the fact that they have a very unsafe, very dangerous city. He should say, "I'm going to call President Donald Trump and I'm going to ask him to send in the troops, to send him the National Guard and clean this hellhole up," because Chicago can be a great city again. I'll tell you what, Washington, D.C. is a great place again. It's booming and the restaurants are booming. And six months ago, seven months ago, nobody could go outside and even just walking around the White House, people here are thanking me for what I've done. They're thanking me. They're saying, "Thank you." I almost know what they mean because they can walk to work. And even when they took Uber and they took other forms of transportation, they felt unsafe because the car was hijacked while they're in there. They take a car and it's being hijacked as they get into the car. And they did that for safety. And now we have a safe place here. We've taken 1,500 people out of, career criminals that been taken out Washington, D.C. and we weren't very nice about it.
Speaker 24 (38:44):
Do you know [inaudible 00:38:49]-
Speaker 17 (38:44):
[inaudible 00:38:47].
Speaker 14 (38:44):
Mr. President [inaudible 00:38:54]-
Speaker 25 (38:44):
Mr. President [inaudible 00:38:52] China-
Speaker 26 (38:44):
You mentioned that rail merger, did you discuss it the Union Pacific [inaudible 00:38:56]-
Donald Trump (38:57):
I did. I did discuss it and I don't want to make a comment on it, but the Union Pacific is a great railroad and they want to add a railroad that had a mistake out of a place very close to my heart. A lot of people say that that was a place where I got off to a very good start. It was a rough thing that happened. Well, they're trying to buy that railroad that had the problem. And it sounds good to me, to be honest with you. It sounds good to me. I'm a very big fan of the head of the railroad, the head of the Union Pacific. He started as a very low on the totem pole, started his job very low and became the chairman of the company over a 45-year period. But I asked him about different cities. He said, "St. Louis is tough. We try…" He's going to stop many of them.
Speaker 25 (39:47):
Mr. President [inaudible 00:39:53]-
Donald Trump (39:54):
New Orleans, we have to save New Orleans.
Speaker 27 (39:55):
New York.
Speaker 25 (39:56):
Mr. President-
Speaker 28 (39:57):
Mr. President, when are you going to give details on Memphis?
Donald Trump (40:02):
We're going to be going into New York too.
Speaker 28 (40:02):
Mr. President-
Donald Trump (40:02):
And we're going to be going in… Quiet. You're really obnoxious.
Speaker 28 (40:04):
I'm not obnoxious, but I'm trying to ask you, what about your plans for Memphis?
Donald Trump (40:06):
You are really obnoxious.
Speaker 28 (40:06):
I'm not obnoxious.
Donald Trump (40:06):
Okay.
Speaker 28 (40:06):
But I'm asking, what are you plans for Memphis?
Donald Trump (40:10):
Okay.
Speaker 28 (40:10):
Many people want to know what the numbers are going to be like-
Donald Trump (40:10):
I'm not going to talk to you until I call on you.
Speaker 28 (40:10):
What are your plans for Memphis, Mr. President?
Donald Trump (40:18):
So who else? Yeah, go ahead.
John (40:18):
Yeah. I just want to sell this free speech question, 'cause you've said that you restored free speech in America.
Donald Trump (40:23):
Yeah.
John (40:23):
Is that free speech, including for people who are harshly critical of you for your political opponents, for people who say things you don't like-
Donald Trump (40:32):
I've become immune to it.
John (40:33):
… who treat you unfairly?
Donald Trump (40:34):
I've become immune to it. There's never been a person that's had more unfair publicity than me. And that's why your network paid me $15 million or $16 million, I believe, to be exact. George Slopadopolus. And that's why CBS paid me a lot of money too. And that's why I sued the New York Times two days ago for a lot of money-
John (40:51):
The judge [inaudible 00:40:52]-
Donald Trump (40:53):
… because… Well, I'm winning. I mean, I'm winning the cases. And the reason I'm winning is because you're guilty, John. You're guilty. ABC is a terrible network, a very unfair network, and you should be ashamed of yourself. NBC is equally bad. I don't know who's worse. I think they're equally bad. And for you to stand there and act so innocent and ask me a question like that. But look, you paid a big price because you were dishonest, John. The reason I won that lawsuit is because you were dishonest. You were proven to be dishonest. And so you can't sit back and just say, "Oh, well what do you think…" Like, you're some wonderful person. You're not a wonderful person. Frankly, you're a terrible reporter. You know it, and so do I.
Speaker 29 (41:33):
Mr. President-
Speaker 30 (41:33):
Mr. President, can you talk about why the-
Speaker 31 (41:33):
Mr. President [inaudible 00:41:34]-
Donald Trump (41:33):
Here's what we're going to do. .
Speaker 30 (41:33):
… justice department [inaudible 00:41:36]-
Donald Trump (41:38):
Here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about something that's going to reduce our taxes greatly. That's going to hopefully bring some great people into our country. As you know, right now, nobody's coming in because we've succeeded in closing… We've closed the border very successfully, I think you'll agree. We had nobody coming for the last few months. I mean, it was actually said zero. Even I can't believe zero. But the numbers are put out by very impartial people or people that have a tendency to be on the left. And they actually said for the last three months, nobody came in. We have a very strong border. It's a closed border. People are coming into our country, but they're coming in legally. It's a beautiful thing to watch, but we are doing something where rather than coming into the border… 25 million people came into our country during Biden.
(42:29)
One of the saddest things. The worst thing… Look, he was horrible in inflation. He was horrible in just about everything you could be. I don't think he was good on… He wasn't even fair on anything. It was a horrible administration. He was the worst president in the history of our country. And we have to mop it up. The hardest thing that we have to do is to get rid of the criminals that he allowed into our country, from prisons, from mental institutions, gang members, drug dealers. And we're getting them out and we're getting them out fast and we're making America safe again, great again, but we're making America safe again. And it's an honor to do it. But this is something… This is an unforced era, what they've done. It's just an unforced era. So I'm going to ask Howard to speak. Howard's done a fantastic job as you know, Secretary of Commerce, and I'm going to ask Howard and Will, could you just give a quick description of what we're doing and what we're signing, et cetera?
Will (43:31):
Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (43:31):
And I will do that. Go ahead.
Will (43:33):
We have two items for your attention today, sir. A major focus of your administration has been shifting the conversation and shifting the policy dynamics around the issue of immigration, closing the border, preventing illegal immigration, but also as is the case with the executive order in front of you, opening new pathways for truly extraordinary people to come contribute to America instead of taking away from it. So this executive order is entitled the Gold Card. It will set up a new pathway, a new visa pathway for foreigners of extraordinary ability who are committed to supporting the United States for a payment of $1 million to the US Treasury, or if a corporation is sponsoring them $2 million by that corporation. And that will give them access to expedited visa treatment as part of this new gold card program.
Donald Trump (44:21):
And one of the biggest problems we have is that people, they go to the best schools and they do great and they get great marks and then they're thrown out of the country, you're not allowed to stay. This way, a corporation will be able, sort of like a signing bonus in baseball or football, a corporation will be able to get them to stay in the country, and I think it's going to be tremendously successful. Howard, would you say a few words there, please?
Howard Lutnick (44:45):
Sure. So historically, the employment-based green card program let in 281,000 people a year, and those people on average, earned $66,000
Howard Lutnick (45:00):
… dollars a year on average. And they were five times more likely to go on assistance programs of the government. So we were taking in the bottom quartile below the average American. It was illogical. The only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile.
(45:20)
So what we are doing now is we are going to stop doing that. We're going to only take extraordinary people at the very top. Instead of people trying to take the jobs from Americans, they're going to create businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this program will raise more than $100 billion for the Treasury of the United States of America.
Donald Trump (45:42):
Which we'll use for cutting taxes and paying down debt. We think it's going to be very successful. Essentially, we're having people come in, people that in many cases, I guess, they're very successful or whatever. And they're coming in, they're going to spend a lot of money to come in. They're going to pay as opposed to walking over the borders. And they may come from jails, prisons and everything else. These people don't. They're very productive people, and they're going to pay a million dollars. A corporation is going to pay $2 million and it's going to raise billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars, which is going to go to reduce taxes, pay off debt, and other good things. So I think it's going to be very successful.
Speaker 32 (46:26):
Are the big techs on board with these, Mr. President?
Donald Trump (46:27):
What?
Speaker 32 (46:27):
The big techs, are the big techs on board with the decision you just-
Donald Trump (46:29):
What's going to … Well, what's going … I wish you'd speak more clearly. I really … Give it to me again.
Speaker 32 (46:38):
Are the big techs, the CEOs on board with these decisions?
Donald Trump (46:38):
Big tax?
Speaker 32 (46:38):
Big tech.
Speaker 33 (46:44):
Big tech, tech companies. Big tech companies.
Donald Trump (46:44):
Yeah, big tech. Yeah, big tech, it's every company. It's big tech. It's big tech. It's big everything.
Speaker 33 (46:50):
Do you think the CEOs will [inaudible 00:46:51]
Donald Trump (46:50):
It's a company. I said it. It's not a tech company. It's tech companies and everything else. It's companies having a hard time at getting people to be able to stay in the country. It's very difficult. Now, if you want to walk through the border, you can have no problem. People say, "Well, the best way to come in is walk right through the border." But they can't do that anymore because under our administration, the border is totally closed. You can only come in if you come in legally. And that's the way it's been and that's the way it should be.
(47:20)
And we're taking a lot of people out of the country that are here from prisons, from jails, from mental institutions, and even insane asylums, people that are crazy. We're taking them out of the country. We're getting them out of the country 'cause you can't have a country like that.
(47:33)
And I tell you, Kristi and Tom Homan and all of the people that have worked so hard on this, they've done an unbelievable job. And I think we're getting great books where people feel safe. Washington DC is just the beginning. Other, we brought the numbers down in Chicago a little bit by having the FBI in there for the last five months. We brought the numbers down in Memphis a little bit, but now we're going for the big one. Now we're going to go for the big one. But we set ourselves up very well in Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, a little bit going in early, just to see what was happening. We study it. We're studying the site. It's sort of like war. I mean, I hate to tell you, it's like war.
(48:14)
Some of these people are really bad. They're really, really sick people. They're dangerous people. They're killers, they're murderers, drug dealers. And can't have it. You can't have a country like that. It's so beautiful to see Washington DC that people are walking down the middle of the street and they're going to restaurants and you are too. And half of you were mugged. I mean, I don't know if she's here now, I don't see her, but some people were badly mugged that were reporters. Two of the people standing in the back of the room were mugged and they aren't going to have that anymore.
(48:51)
And if you look at the crime stats in Washington DC, you have a safe place again. They were afraid to go to a restaurant because the restaurant would be held up while they're having dinner. And so they'd be mugged going there and assuming they escaped the mugging, they go to the restaurant and then they're held up. This is how bad it's been.
(49:10)
Yeah?
Speaker 34 (49:10):
To follow-up on the visa question. I think this may be the next thing that you're signing, but for the H-1B visa action that you're doing-
Donald Trump (49:16):
That's going to be next. We'll talk about that.
Speaker 34 (49:17):
You're very close to the technology CEOs. Are they concerned about that?
Donald Trump (49:22):
I think they're going to be very happy. Everyone's going to be happy and we're going to be able to keep people in our country that are going to be very productive people. And in many cases these companies are going to pay a lot of money for that and they're very happy about it. Okay, we'll talk about that next. Okay.
(49:35)
My friend, why don't you keep that? Okay?
Howard Lutnick (49:35):
Thank you.
Donald Trump (49:35):
Done such a good job. Okay. This is phase one. John, are you happy?
Speaker 35 (49:48):
Sure.
Donald Trump (49:48):
Okay. Okay. Let's go.
Speaker 36 (50:00):
Thank you, Mr. President. One of the most abused visa systems in our current immigration system has been the H-1B non-immigrant visa program. This is supposed to allow highly skilled laborers who work in fields that Americans don't work in to come into the United States of America.
(50:17)
What this proclamation will do is raise the fee that companies pay to sponsor H-1B applicants to $100,000. This will ensure that the people they're bringing in are actually very highly skilled and that they're not replaceable by American workers. So it'll protect American workers, but ensure that companies have a pathway to hire truly extraordinary people and bring them to the United States to work.
Donald Trump (50:41):
We need workers. We need workers. We need great workers. And this pretty much ensures that that's what's going to happen. I think, Sean, do you agree with it?
Howard Lutnick (50:49):
Well, they're $100,000 per year. So the whole idea is no more will these big tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000. Then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic. If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans, stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here. $100,000 a year for H-1B visas and all of the big companies are on board. We've spoken to them about the golden card.
Donald Trump (51:29):
They love it. They love it. They really love it. They need it. Go ahead, Sean.
Speaker 36 (51:34):
Mr. President, it seems like there's two categories of visa programs, the H-1B that a lot of people believe take American jobs and then the Gold Card and programs like EB-5 that add value and jobs to America. Is that sort of how you look at the visa program?
Donald Trump (51:45):
Well, ideally, look, if somebody's got the people, they're not going to want to spend $100,000 as an example in your second category. So it's not taking jobs. And we need certain jobs, we need certain skilled jobs that we don't have, but they won't be taking jobs because ideally the people aren't going to want to, they're not going to-
Speaker 36 (52:01):
It looks like a lot people investing in America and creating jobs, so that's why I'm asking-
Donald Trump (52:01):
They're really investing.
Speaker 36 (52:11):
It seems like you have two categories. One, that Secretary of Lutnick's, the Gold Card and EB-5 that create jobs and investment. And then there's other ones that seem to take, whether it's a J-1 and O or an H-1B that take US jobs.
Donald Trump (52:21):
Yeah. It's pretty correct. I mean, I would say that's a correct assessment. But the main thing is we're going to have great people coming in and they're going to be paying. I mean, it's wonderful to say, "Oh gee," versus … We took in 25 million people that … Look, many criminals. Jails were open for Venezuela, for many other countries, and they were let out of jail and poured into our country. Our poor country how it suffered with this stupid president that we had and the stupid people that surrounded him right around his desk. These liberal crazy people that have destroyed, they could have destroyed. If we didn't win this election, our country would've been dead. Our country was dead. Think of it. And I've said this. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said, your country was dead one year. They thought it was dead. This country couldn't have survived another year of those people running it.
(53:17)
And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Think of that. And this is going to help and we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. This will be taken in. The Gold Card will be taken in hundreds of billions of dollars and companies will be able to keep some people that they need. They need people of expertise, great expertise, and I think it's going to be a fantastic thing. And we're going to take that money and we're going to reduce taxes. We're going to reduce debt.
(53:45)
We have a very, very strong country, assuming everything works out great with the lawsuit that we have. We have a lawsuit that's inspired by foreign countries that ripped us off for 25 years. But assuming we win that, we hopefully win it in the Supreme Court of the United States. We have a country that no stopping us. We're rich. We'll be rich. We can take care of poor people. We can take care of our military. We can take care of everything. We can take care of beyond the country. We can help take care of the world. If we don't, it'll just be the same struggle that we've had for years where other countries charged us tariffs and they ripped us off. Our country has been ripped off more than any country in the history of the world and now we are doing what we have to do. We're taking in billions and billions of dollars at levels that nobody has ever seen, trillions of dollars, and we're using it to reduce debt. We're using it to reduce taxes.
(54:48)
The Great Big Beautiful Bill is a big tax reduction. It's being paid for by the tariffs and people are paying a lot less money in taxes. They're being … Think of it. No tax on tips. No tax on social security. No tax on overtime. It's an unbelievable phenomenon. It really is. It's the golden age. We're making it the golden age. Without the tariffs, it would be impossible.
(55:14)
And China for years charged us tariffs and they continue to do it and so do other countries. Most countries, they charged us, they were ripping … Look, the European Union, as you know, I get along very well with them, but they ripped us off so badly. Nobody's ever seen anything. Now the European Union's paying us $950 billion and they're paying us 750 billion to buy our energy and they're okay with it. They signed the agreement. It's not like anybody forced them to do it. They're okay with it.
(55:46)
Tariffs are making our country very rich again, and we'll be able to take care of our debt. We'll be able to take care of our taxes, lower taxes. We'll be able to take care of Medicare, Medicaid, social security. We're going to be a rich country again. Without tariffs, we'd be in very big trouble.
Speaker 37 (56:04):
Mr. President.
Speaker 38 (56:04):
Mr. President.
Speaker 39 (56:10):
Mr. President. Do you want Europe to pay 100% tariffs on China?
Speaker 37 (56:12):
Excuse me. H-1Bs are sometimes used by people already in the country legally on other visas or student visas. Does this apply to them or to renewals or does it only apply to people applying for the first time from abroad?
Howard Lutnick (56:22):
Renewals, first times. The company needs to decide, do they want, is the person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government or they should head home and they should go hire an American.
Speaker 37 (56:39):
It's an annual fee?
Howard Lutnick (56:39):
The whole idea, it's annual, and it's for total, it can be a total of six years, so $100,000 a year. So either the person is very valuable to the company and America or they're going to depart, and the company's going to hire an American. And that's the point of immigration, hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free. The President is crystal clear. Valuable people only for America. Stop the nonsense.
Speaker 37 (57:15):
[inaudible 00:57:16]
Donald Trump (57:15):
And remember, the country-
Speaker 37 (57:16):
[inaudible 00:57:16] is just a fee, right?
Howard Lutnick (57:20):
Yeah, fee to America.
Donald Trump (57:20):
The country would rather not have to pay $100,000, but they'd rather, how do you do that? You hire American. So there's an incentive to hire American. But there may be instances where it's better off doing through expertise or whatever it may be. But they're both unbelievable, whether it's a Gold Card or anything else that we talked about today. And that includes talking about freedom of speech because our country has been decimated by bad people, very bad people. People that love crime, they love crime.
(57:54)
Explain it to me. They don't want to have our military go in and save lives. But when you go and ask the people, Do you mind having the National Guard come in if it meant safety?" They look at the question like, "what's wrong? What kind of a stupid question is that?" Of course they do. We're going to have a safe country again. We're not going to have people shot. 11 people shot. Think of it.
(58:18)
In Chicago over a period of six or seven weeks, 55 people were murdered. And then you have a governor saying how wonderful it is. It's not wonderful. It's very unsafe. There's not a place in the world. You go outside, you go to Afghanistan, you go to different places all over the world that you hear about. It's 20% of what's happening in places like Chicago and you think of them as unsafe. Mexico City. Mexico City is a tough place, dangerous place. The crime rate is lower. Think of it, what's happening to our country, we're not going to let it happen. And I think I got elected largely for that reason.
(58:59)
So we're going to have a safe country again. We're going to have a great country again. We're doing unbelievably. We have the highest stock market in history. We have the most investment we've ever had ever as a country coming in. And we're very simple. They said, "How'd you get elected?" I got elected because I'm going to make America great again. That's what we're doing. We're making America great again. Thank you very much everybody.
Speaker 40 (59:22):
Thank you press. Thank you press. Thanks guys. [inaudible 00:59:25]