Donald Trump (00:00):
Okay, thank you very much. We're having some very good news today. A lot of companies are coming into our country and they're signing deals that are going to pay a lot of money and create a lot of jobs. And they're coming in largely because they think they feel good about our country, and maybe the tariffs to a certain extent, but they feel very good about the country right now, and so do I. And great things are happening. We're going to be signing some executive orders and some other things, and we will maybe go down the list and will view it. Please.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Sir, first we have an executive order for your attention. In 2019, during your previous administration, you imposed price transparency requirements on the healthcare industry. This was a significant driver in lowering the costs of healthcare during your first administration. Those requirements were largely reversed by the Biden administration. Now we're reinstating-
Donald Trump (00:51):
Or terminated, right?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Terminated. We're strengthening them. The idea is to make price transparency a key aspect of healthcare policy in America.
Donald Trump (01:01):
It's one of the biggest things that can happen to reducing costs and healthcare. It takes a little while to kick in, but Biden ended it immediately upon coming in, which was a terrible travesty in my opinion. And we're going to start it up and we've actually made it even stronger.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yes sir.
Donald Trump (01:19):
By a couple of major factors, right? Anybody have any question on price transparency? It allows people to go out and negotiate and price, and you're not allowed to even talk about it when you go into a hospital or see a doctor, and this allows you to go out and talk about it. And it's actually one of the biggest … There's a couple of people that actually going back a long way, that feel … That are real pros in the industry feel this is the biggest thing you can do for cutting prices. And it certainly is one of them. And it's been unpopular in some circles because people make less money, but it's great for the patient, it's great for the people in our country. It's not so good for pharmaceuticals, it's not so good for the companies that make the drugs, and I guess you could say it probably isn't so great for hospitals, but they say that if you have a great hospital that really knows what they're doing, it's actually great for a hospital because everybody wants to go there. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump (02:31):
Good. Got it. Doug?
Doug (02:32):
Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump (02:39):
Pulitzer Prize. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Thank you sir. Next we have, for your attention, another executive order. Copper is a critical material, and the supply of copper is vital to our national security. In recent years, we've dealt with a significant issue of the dumping of foreign copper into the American market. That significantly impacted the domestic production and manufacture of copper and copper materials. This executive order charges your Secretary of Commerce with starting the process to potentially impose tariffs or other trade barriers to prevent this ongoing dumping of copper and to protect the American manufacture and production of copper.
Donald Trump (03:21):
It will have a big impact. Howard, do you want to say something about that?
Howard (03:25):
Yeah. Do you mind if I read one of your truths?
Donald Trump (03:26):
Yeah, sure.
Howard (03:28):
So this is a truth that's about to go out. " Like our steel and aluminum industries, our great American copper industry has been decimated by global actors attacking our domestic production. To build back our copper industry I have requested my Secretary of Commerce and USTR to study copper imports and end unfair trade putting Americans out out of work. Tariffs will help rebuild back our American copper industry and strengthen our national defense. American industries depend on copper and they should be made in America. No exemptions, no exceptions. America first creates American jobs and protects our national security. It's time for copper to come home."
(04:16)
If it's all right with you? If I can talk a little bit about the digital services tax, would that be all right?
Donald Trump (04:20):
Yeah, of course. Go ahead, do that.
Doug (04:21):
So I'll read another truth. This is sort of so fun to read his words. It can't be any better.
(04:26)
So, "Our incredible United States economy, an undeniable American spirit has enabled the creation of the greatest technology companies on earth. Our digital economy is bigger than most of the world's countries, and the market cap of even one of our companies exceeds every European country. Instead of empowering their workers and creating opportunities, foreign governments have instead tried to tax, fine, and hinder Americans technology companies. Both friend and foe have been treating American tech companies harshly as if our companies are their piggy bank. This will now end. It is my objective to level the playing field and end these attacks. We are putting these countries on notice to end their unfair treatment of American companies large and small. Our companies are the greatest investors in the world. So our tech companies are the greatest investors in the world, and their investments will go only to where American companies are treated fairly. Our ingenuity, grit, drive, and perseverance have built America. If these countries want to participate in the AI industrial revolution, it's time to choose sides with America, not against us."
(05:46)
And we signed that on Friday, sir.
Donald Trump (05:49):
Okay. Very big deal, right?
Doug (05:51):
Huge.
Donald Trump (06:05):
Thank you.
(06:05)
All right. And that's a very big one that Howard just read, but they're both big. They're all big. We're only doing big ones. Okay?
Doug (06:14):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Mr. President, is that the culmination of ongoing conversations that you've had with your counterparts? This particular executive order.
Donald Trump (06:22):
Which one? Last or …
Speaker 2 (06:25):
The one that the [inaudible 00:06:26]-
Donald Trump (06:26):
No, the digital tax is taking place all over Europe. They're taxing us and they're doing other things. They're suing all our companies. And if that's going to happen, we want to be the ones that sue, not them. And they use it almost as a form of running European countries, and the EU in particular has been very violent in its lawsuits against our companies, and frankly, very violent and very bad to our airlines. I've gotten calls from the heads of airlines saying they stop in Europe and they're getting charged all sorts of taxes that they never even heard of. They stop and they're getting fined and charged, and they do it only with American companies. They're not doing it to other countries. So we're stopping it. And we have another thing … We have another step to go. And if they don't shape up …
(07:13)
As an example, Apple has had to pay like 17 billion dollars in a lawsuit that nobody thought was worth anything. I won't get into the judge or the decision or how the decision was arrived, but I am pretty good at this stuff and I think it's disgraceful, and Google's being sued, Facebook's being sued, and many others are being sued by their so-called government. If you call it a government. EU. They don't treat us right, they don't treat us right as a country. So we're going to protect our companies. We have to protect our companies or we're not going to have any companies left anymore.
(07:56)
I also want to thank Apple, though, for announcing they're going to invest 500 billion dollars in our country. That's the biggest investment anybody's probably made to this date. And they're going to do it very quickly, and that's because of tariffs. They don't want to pay the tariffs, and they feel very strongly about the country. Now, they wouldn't have done it without us. Without the Trump administration, they wouldn't have done it, but they feel very strongly about the direction of the country. The polls have shown that too. The polls are coming out showing direction of the country is the best they've ever seen, actually. Best they've ever seen. So I just want to thank Tim Cook and Apple for the confidence. $500 billion. That's the biggest investment anyone has made in a short period of time.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Mr. President, have you spoken today with the House Republican holdouts who said they would not be supporting the budget resolution-
Donald Trump (08:51):
Yeah. Well, I'm not involved in that. They know what I want, and the Senate knows what I want too. And the Senate's got a bill that's very strong, having to do with the taxes, because the taxes is what's bringing all these companies in. And without it, by the way, you'd have to double your own taxes. Everybody would be doubled up and you'd have the biggest tax increase ever. So the House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I'm looking at them both, and I'll make decisions, but I don't know where they are in the vote. I know the Senate's doing very well, and the house is doing very well, but each one of them has things that I like. So we'll see if we can come together.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Mr. President, can you clarify, hopefully once and for all, what your expectations are with this email to federal employees? What are you going to use that information for, and do you see it as voluntary like OPM has said, or mandatory?
Donald Trump (09:44):
Yeah, well it's somewhat voluntary, but it's also, if you don't answer, I guess you get fired. What it really is-
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I'm still lost on that.
Donald Trump (09:51):
What it is do people exist? We have this massive government with millions of people, and nobody knows who's working for the government, who's not. So what they're doing is they're sending out a letter to everybody and they're saying, "What were the things you did last week?" I guess they ask for five. And if people are working, it's easy. I could tell you five things I did last week … I could tell you five things I did six weeks ago, right? If they're there and they're working, they're able to say they did five things during work, and that means they're working and they're with us, and they have no further obligation. If they're not, it could be there's no such person. It could be that the person's no longer working, they're no longer living at that address, they maybe moved, maybe they moved to a different country, or maybe the person doesn't exist. And we then take that person off the payroll and we save a lot of money by doing that. But that's one of the only ways. I think it's a very smart thing. And it says if you don't answer, essentially, there's a penalty to pay. That's the end of the job.
Howard (10:52):
Well, Musk has said that. The order itself doesn't say that. I think that's part of the confusion. Is he speaking for you when he says you'll be terminated.
Donald Trump (10:59):
Yeah, yeah. Everybody speaks
Donald Trump (11:00):
… for me. I'm the one, I'll take responsibility. The old statement, "The buck stops here," right?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (11:06):
The famous statement. Well, I can say the same thing. The buck stops here.
(11:10)
Now, we have to find out if people are getting paid and they're not working and they have a problem. Let's say they have another job and then they write in false statements. It's a big problem if they're writing false statements. They may be working for somebody else but getting paid by the US government, and that would mean that they're not allowed to be doing that. They're not allowed to be working for us and be working for somebody else. We're paying them a lot of money. We're paying them. So we'll see. That solves that problem.
(11:41)
Most people aren't willing to say that we're doing this, this, this, and this, and this, for the US government and yet they add another job because that's a big problem for them if they do that. So in some cases they're not writing back and if they don't write back, they end up eventually losing their job. We give them extensions but that was something we thought about a long time ago. We give them extensions but we'll see. We have to make sure, number one, that we have people. Number two, that they're working. And number two, they're working for us, not for another company.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
Is it true that President Zelensky is coming on Friday to meet with you? And is the mineral deal sorted out?
Donald Trump (12:22):
Yeah, I hear that. I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly it's okay with me if he'd like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that's a big deal. Very big deal. And I think the American people, even if you look at polling, they're very happy because Biden was throwing money around like it's cotton candy and it's a very big deal. It could be a trillion-dollar deal, it could be whatever. But it's rare earths and other things.
(12:52)
And look, we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting a war that should have never ever happened. That's a war that would have never happened if I were president. And it didn't happen for four years. People say, "How do we know that?" It didn't happen for four years. Would have never happened. And nevertheless, this guy went into this situation and he spent money like nobody's ever seen, $350 billion.
(13:18)
The other thing that we don't like is that Europe has spent 100 billion, we've spent 350 billion. Europe gets their money back because they spent it in the form of a loan and we just gave them, whether it's 300 or 350 billion, nobody really knows. They can't even tell me the answer to that, but it means probably more than that. So what we're doing is now we're saying, "Look, we want to be secured. We want to get that money back." We're helping the country through a very, very big problem. A problem like very few people have had. Shouldn't have had this problem because it shouldn't have happened. But it did happen so we have to straighten it out. But the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back plus.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Mr. President, yesterday with Emmanuel Macron you said you had spoken to Putin about the idea of peacekeepers in Ukraine, that Putin was fine with it. The Kremlin, I guess, has said that that's actually unacceptable to them. What's real here?
Donald Trump (14:07):
That's not what I was told. But you're going to need some form of peacekeeping, so something will be done that's going to be satisfactory to everybody. We need peacekeeping to-
Speaker 7 (14:18):
Any situation where American troops [inaudible 00:14:20]-
Donald Trump (14:19):
It's actually something I did discuss, but a form of peacekeeping that's acceptable to everybody. Ultimately, we'll be able to agree on something, I'm sure.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
With Ukraine and this mineral deal. What does Ukraine get in term, Mr. President,
Donald Trump (14:35):
$350 billion and lots of equipment and military equipment and the right to fight on and originally the right to fight. Look, Ukraine, I will say they're very brave and they're good soldiers, but without the United States and its money and its military equipment this war would have been over in a very short period of time. In fact, I was the one that gave the Javelins. You remember the famous Javelins? That was me. That wasn't Obama, it wasn't Biden, it wasn't anybody else. It was me. And they wiped out a lot of tanks with those Javelins. And the expression was that Obama gave sheets and I gave the Javelins. That was a big deal at the time. It wiped out. That was the beginning when people said, "Wow, that's something." Well, that was American equipment. Without American equipment this war would have been over very quickly. And American money too. I mean a lot of money.
Speaker 8 (15:27):
The war fighting equipment and the ammunition, is that sustained going forward for Ukraine, and how long is it sustained?
Donald Trump (15:38):
Well, it could go forward for a while and maybe until we have a deal with Russia. Look, we need to have a deal with Russia, otherwise it's going to continue. But now when Americans put up their money, the taxpayer money and President approves it we're getting our money back in some form. But it could go on for a while or it could be settled quickly. I think it's going to be settled quickly. I spoke with President Putin. I think he wants to settle it and wants to get on with life. It's horrible. What's happening, horrible. Thousands of soldiers a week are being killed, and others too. But especially on the battlefield. Thousands a week are being killed and we want that to end.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Mr. President, when you spoke to-
Donald Trump (16:21):
Yeah, Brian?
Brian (16:22):
Yes. Okay. Real quickly, Karoline Leavitt, your press secretary sent an earthquake through that briefing room earlier today announcing that the WHCA would not have any control over placing media in the seats, the briefing room. Just want to get your thoughts on that. And also on Air Force One, it's really, it's trending on X, people are talking about it. What's your thoughts?
Donald Trump (16:45):
Well, we're going to be now calling those shots. As you know, we won that lawsuit right there. See the Gulf of America, which is a beautiful name. Most people agree. I don't know. AP has been terrible. I think they're radical left. I think they're third-rate reporters. I know the specific young lady that works on the account is terrible. She's a radical-left lunatic as far as I'm concerned. They don't treat us fairly. That's number one.
(17:12)
And number two, they had no right to do that. This is the Gulf of America. And if you look at that shoreline, look at that shoreline. Look, from Florida. Most of it is, it's called America. And vast majority, like big numbers. So I'm just admiring it as I look at it. I'm getting teary-eyed, but I don't want you to say, "Trump broke down and started crying." No, how beautiful is that? Look at the shoreline. Look at that. That's America.
Brian (17:45):
Can I shift our attention to Canada real quick?
Donald Trump (17:46):
Yes, please.
Brian (17:47):
Last week I spent some time with two government officials from Canada. I was asking them how realistic is it that Canada would be the 51st state? And they told me there is a path. Alberta is first, and if they sign on, Saskatchewan would follow. And then you go west to British Columbia. There is a movement in Canada to join us. Want to get your thoughts on that and how that's proceeding right now?
Donald Trump (18:13):
So it's true. Thank you, Brian. It's true. A lot of people in Canada are liking becoming our beautiful, cherished 51st state. They'll have to pay much lower taxes, they'll have the ultimate security. They don't pay very much for security right now because they rely on us which is really unfair to us. They make cars that we could make and they send them back into the United States. They make a lot of things, including the sending of oil and everything. We don't need their oil. We don't need their lumber. In fact, we're going to be freeing up. And I've asked Howard Lutnick to get that done with Lee and everybody, Lee Zeldin, environmental. We're freeing up our forests. We're going to be able to take down trees. Right now, we're so restricted environmentally, we're going to be freeing it up with an emergency order. We have an emergency order and we're going to be freeing up our forests.
(19:05)
We have more forests than almost anybody. And great lumber, great trees. We don't need anybody's trees. We don't need trees from Canada or anybody else. In fact, we have to put the slits as they call them, the area 50, 60-yard area in between areas of trees. It stops the fires. And frankly, California should have been doing that for years. It's almost getting late. They're going to run out of forests the way they're going. What a shame.
(19:31)
And by the way, the water is flowing in California. I hope you people have seen it. But the water is flowing. Do you have a picture of that? Hold it up. Do you have a picture of that? Get a picture of it, please. We had a little skirmish in California. I can't believe we had to do that. But we opened up the water in California. The water was flowing into a place called the Pacific Ocean, which for the Pacific Ocean is only a drop but for us it's more water that we can use in California. So I'll get you some photographs but it's a beautiful sight. The water is flowing in California, beautiful water from the Pacific Northwest and beyond and it flows down. And instead of being routed out to the Pacific Ocean, and this has been going on for 20 years, more, in order to take care of a certain species of fish, which wasn't doing very well without water, I can tell you. So that's a big deal.
(20:28)
It's not reported. It's incredible. But California has a lot of water. That's going to take care of farmers. It's going to wetten up the land, and it's going to go all the way down to Los Angeles where they have curfews on water, where they have all sorts of blocks on water. You can only use so much. Until just recently, they were going to put a number of gallons per person living in a house in Beverly Hills on water. You're not going to have that problem anymore.
(20:57)
Do you have a picture? Let me just see what that looks like. How beautiful is that? Look at that beautiful water flowing. Look at that. That's coming in the dikes and other means of transportation. Isn't that beautiful? Who would believe that? That's all water they could have had. I went to the governor during my first term and I said, why don't you do this? And they said, "Environmental." They have an environmental problem with clean water. If this water were there, you wouldn't have had those fires. You had sprinklers. They'd make people put sprinklers in the ceiling of a home and they had no water in them. With this, they would have had a lot of water in them. They would have all been full. You would have had a whole different deal down there. You probably wouldn't have had a fire, but if it was it would have been small, would have been put out. You had the fire hydrants not working in California. So it's a beautiful sight. These are canals that were built. These were all built. And you saw them for years they were empty, concrete.
Donald Trump (22:00):
They call them the V-shapes or the half-pipes. And they're shaped different forms, but they're shaped and they rush down through the farm areas where the farmers can take it and down to Los Angeles. And they were sitting empty for years, and now look at that. Look at that way it looked.
(22:20)
It wasn't easy. We had to be very unfriendly to get into those areas. We opened it up.
Press (22:27):
Mr. President.
(22:27)
Mr. President.
Donald Trump (22:28):
I essentially attacked California. Can you believe it? I attacked.
Press (22:32):
Mr. President.
(22:32)
Mr. President.
(22:32)
[Inaudible 00:22:33].
Donald Trump (22:33):
I attacked California.
Will Scharf (22:34):
We have one more, sir.
Donald Trump (22:34):
Let's go.
Will Scharf (22:35):
At the outset of your administration, sir, you committed to ending the weaponization of government, to holding those accountable who participated in the weaponization of government.
(22:43)
One-
Donald Trump (22:43):
Hold it. This is a good one. Is everybody listening? Deranged Jack Smith. We're going to call it the Deranged Jack Smith signing or bill.
(22:54)
Go ahead.
Will Scharf (22:55):
One law firm that provided pro bono legal services to the special counsel's office under Jack Smith's leadership was Covington & Burling. As a result of those actions, we're now going to be suspending and putting under review the security clearances for the attorneys and employees at that firm who worked with Jack Smith's team, and we're going to continue holding the people who were responsible for the weaponization of government and who supported it accountable for what they did.
Donald Trump (23:21):
And you'll be doing this with other firms as time goes by, right?
Will Scharf (23:24):
We're looking at sort of the whole panoply of options there, sir.
Donald Trump (23:28):
The weaponization of our system by law firms, even pro bono work they're doing, just in order to clog up government, stop government … And nobody knows about it more than me, and hopefully that'll never happen again.
Press (23:44):
So the Covington & Burlington? Is that …
Will Scharf (23:46):
Covington & Burlington.
Press (23:47):
Thanks. Mm-hmm.
(23:48)
Mr. President, may I ask you a question about Europe? So long-term, do you plan to maintain the number of U.S troops stationed-
Donald Trump (23:57):
Wait, I just want to savor this one, please.
Press (24:00):
Mm-hmm.
Donald Trump (24:00):
Who would like this pen?
Press (24:02):
I'll take it.
Donald Trump (24:02):
Here, why don't you send it to Jack Smith? He's a deranged person.
Press (24:10):
Mr. President, what do you say to people who worry that targeting an individual firm or individuals who aren't Jack Smith for his actions-
Donald Trump (24:16):
Excuse me. I've been targeted for four years longer than that.
Will Scharf (24:20):
Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump (24:20):
So you don't tell me about targeting. I was the target of corrupt politicians for four years and then four years after that. So don't talk to me about targeting.
(24:32)
Yeah, go ahead.
Press (24:32):
Mr. President, there are approximately two million federal employees right now. By the end of your term, what do you expect that number to be? What would you like that number to be?
Donald Trump (24:42):
Well, it'll be lower, but I can't tell you. Everybody knows I ran on downsizing government, but making government better. I ran on tariffs and making our country rich, and that's what it's going to do.
(24:53)
We're going to be doing something else that's going to be very good. We're going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card. We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you green card privileges plus. It's going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful. Never been done before or anything like this, but it's something that we're going to be putting out over the next … Would you say two weeks, Howard?
Howard Lutnick (25:34):
Two weeks.
Donald Trump (25:34):
Do you want to weeks say a couple of words about it?
Howard Lutnick (25:36):
Sure.
Press (25:36):
Mr. President, are there-
Donald Trump (25:37):
Wait a minute. We're going to-
Press (25:37):
… Any requirements for that gold card?
Howard Lutnick (25:39):
Hang on a sec.
Press (25:39):
Do you have to invest a certain amount of money in this country in order to qualify for that gold card?
Donald Trump (25:44):
Yeah, exactly.
(25:45)
Go ahead.
Howard Lutnick (25:45):
So the EB-5 program was really, you lend some money, but it was full of nonsense, make believe and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low-priced. So the president said, "Rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we're going to end the EB-5 program and we're going to replace it with the Trump gold card," which is really a green card gold. So they'll be able to pay $5 million to the U.S government. They'll have to go through vetting, of course. We're going to make sure they're wonderful, world-class, global citizens. They can come to America, the president can give them a green card, and they can invest in America.
(26:27)
And we can use that money to reduce our deficit. Why do we give out lotteries of green cards? Why do we give out EB-5 for green cards? The President of the United States understands that the right answer is, why don't we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America instead?
Press (26:45):
And how-
Donald Trump (26:45):
The gold card-
Press (26:45):
… [inaudible 00:26:46] these cards?
Donald Trump (26:46):
The gold card … Well, millions, but the gold card will bring in with it people that create jobs, very high-level people.
(26:57)
I think companies will pay to get people in. For instance, you today graduate from the Wharton School of Finance, or Harvard, or Stanford or any college, and nobody knows if you can even go to work for a company. So Apple and all these companies that want to get people to be working for them will be able to buy a card. And for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, I see that as one of the things.
(27:28)
But generally speaking, it'll be people with money and people that create jobs. And they won't have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which they're not paying right now, they're not citizens, but if they create jobs in the United States, they'll pay full taxes like everybody else.
(27:44)
So you're getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and we'll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they're pretty good.
(27:56)
As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion. Five trillion. Wow. And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that's a total of $50 trillion. Well, we have 35 trillion in debt. That'd be nice. So we'll see.
(28:12)
But it could be great. Maybe it will be fantastic. We have it all worked out. From the legal standpoint, it's totally legal to do. Hasn't been done before. It's been done in many different forms. We give them away. Why should we give them away? We shouldn't give them away. And I think it's something very exciting. I think it's potentially just something that we're all very excited about.
(28:39)
So it's a gold card. It's somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication. It's a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in; meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long-term status in the country. And I think it's something we're very, very happy about.
(29:07)
Will, you have anything to say about that?
Howard Lutnick (29:09):
Well, many other countries, by the way, do this, including, of course, your 51st state does that.
Press (29:15):
And the money's earmarked for deficit reduction?
Donald Trump (29:18):
It may be earmarked for deficit, but it actually could be more money than that. I mean, if you did 10 million, you'd have $15 trillion left over. But generally it's going to be paid down debt. Yes.
Press (29:31):
Do you need Congress for this? Do you think you need them to pass the law?
Donald Trump (29:32):
No, we don't need Congress. No. Because we're not doing citizenship. We're doing a card.
Press (29:36):
I see.
(29:37)
On Ukraine-
Donald Trump (29:38):
It's a path to citizenship, a very strong path to citizenship, but we're not doing the citizenship. For that, I'd have to get Congress.
Press (29:46):
And would all countries be eligible for this gold card?
Donald Trump (29:47):
It depends. The countries largely, the people will be vetted very carefully.
Press (29:53):
Mr. President, on Ukraine, would you provide military support for Ukraine in the future under a peace agreement?
Donald Trump (30:00):
Say it again louder.
Press (30:02):
Would you provide military support for Ukraine in the future as part of a peace agreement?
Donald Trump (30:06):
You mean like security?
Press (30:07):
Yeah. [inaudible 00:30:08]
Donald Trump (30:08):
Well, people are going to do it. I think Europe will largely be responsible for that. European countries will be responsible.
Press (30:12):
But Macron asked for a U.S backup.
Donald Trump (30:17):
Well, we'll see. I mean, right now we're just in the process of negotiating. We've pretty much negotiated our deal on rare earth and various other things. We'll be looking at that security, you're talking about general security for Ukraine, later on. I don't think that's going to be a problem. There are a lot of people that want to do it. And I spoke with Russia about it. They didn't seem to have a problem with it. So I think they understand. They're not going back in. Once we do this, they're not going back in.
Press (30:50):
[inaudible 00:30:50].
(30:50)
Would the U.S provide, for instance, air defense for Ukraine?
Donald Trump (30:53):
Well, I just told you. Right now, we're not providing anything.
(30:56)
You know, it's about Europe too. Europe put in 100 billion and we put in 350 billion. It's not a fair thing. We would normally say, and I say it now anyway, but we want equalization. They should put up actually more money than us because they're right there. We have an ocean in between.
(31:16)
But we've had very good talks with Russia, we've had very good talks with Ukraine, and we think it maybe will come to an end and we'll stop killing young people all over the battlefield and elsewhere.
Press (31:31):
[inaudible 00:31:27]. So on Europe, do you plan to maintain heavy military presence in Europe in the long term, like tens of thousands of troops-
Donald Trump (31:33):
We'll be involved.
Press (31:34):
… Or [inaudible 00:31:35] withdraw some?
Donald Trump (31:35):
Yeah, yeah, we'll be involved in Europe. We're involved in Europe now. Europe is our friend. They took advantage of us on trade. We don't like that. What the EU does, we don't like that. But we'll solve that the old-fashioned way. We'll give them the same reciprocal numbers.
(31:51)
You know, we're talking about a reciprocal tax. You know that. And if they charge us, we charge them. Right now, they charge us much, much more than we charge them, and they have non-monetary taxes also in tariffs. And we're going to change that.
(32:06)
It's all changing. It's all changing. We're not going to be the people that we were. We had people in this office sitting right at this desk … Or another model of this desk, because as you know, the other desk is right now being refurbished.
Press (32:19):
Is Steve Witkoff delaying his trip to the Middle East and [inaudible 00:32:23]-
Donald Trump (32:22):
No. No, not that I know of. No. Steve …
(32:24)
And the Middle East has been great. Saudi Arabia has treated us really well. They really have. And I think Qatar has treated us very well too. They want to get that whole mess ended in the Middle East. You know, we don't even talk about that anymore. You guys haven't asked one question about the Middle East. But the Middle East seems to be doing relatively well.
Press (32:45):
[inaudible 00:32:45].
(32:45)
May I ask about the Middle East, sir? About the Middle East.
(32:46)
For months, even before you were elected in November, you'd spoken about your desire to free all of those hostages that have been held by Hamas since October 7th, a year and a half ago. And just a few weeks ago,
Journalists (33:00):
… go. You gave an ultimatum. You said if they're not all released by noon on February the 15th, there would be hell to pay. Is Hamas thumbing their nose at you, Mr. President?
Donald Trump (33:11):
No. I think the opposite. So as you know, they weren't going to release any more hostages, and I said, "There's going to be hell to pay." And then they agreed that they were going to release the hostages that they had agreed to release plus an extra one. So you could say that was a big difference. But I said it from that point, it's up to Bibi, Netanyahu and Israel. I may have taken a different stance, but they did release, they went back to releasing the hostages.
(33:41)
But if you remember, they said we weren't going to release any, they've totally ended it. And I said, "Well, they're not going to release any, there'll be hell to pay." But the rest is really up to him. I may have done it differently than him. It's not my decision, it's his decision. But they did release all of those hostages.
Journalists (34:00):
Mr. President- Mr. President, when you spoke to Vladimir Putin, did he raise or did you discuss at all the possibility of a minerals deal on the Ukrainian land that Russia now controls?
Donald Trump (34:10):
I didn't discuss it.
Journalists (34:10):
Are you striking a deal with Russia?
Donald Trump (34:10):
No, I'd like to buy minerals on Russian land too, if we can. The rare earth, they have very good rare earth also. They both do, I would say that. And oil and gas. Look, it's a great thing if we sell this, it's great for Russia too, because we can do deals there. They have very valuable land that isn't utilized. So something like that could take place. Yeah.
Journalists (34:30):
Have you got raising or lifting sanctions against Russia on the table as you're [inaudible 00:34:35]-
Donald Trump (34:35):
No, we haven't lifted any sanctions on anybody.
Journalists (34:37):
But on the table as part of any negotiations?
Donald Trump (34:39):
I guess it will be at some point, but right now we haven't agreed to lift sanctions on anybody.
Journalists (34:44):
On that gold card, getting back to that, I'm fascinated by this, Mr. President, [inaudible 00:34:48]-
Donald Trump (34:48):
You should be fascinated. Your taxes will go down to nothing.
Journalists (34:51):
Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?
Donald Trump (34:55):
Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible. They're not quite as wealthy as they used to be. They're not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they can afford $5 million.
Journalists (35:11):
So they [inaudible 00:35:12]-
Donald Trump (35:12):
No, a lot of people that are wanting to-
Journalists (35:13):
… would be eligible?
Donald Trump (35:14):
A lot of people are going to want to be in this country and they'll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies and pay taxes, all of those things. It's an incredible thing. I mean, this is the group that is the first to hear it. Nobody's heard about it. Nobody ever thought about it. But we've been thinking about it very, very strongly over the last week, and I was going to announce it sometime next week, and I figured why not? We have a lot of cameras blazing right now. We might as well do it now. We'll have Caroline announce it the next time. No, it's a great thing. The gold card. Remember the words, the gold card. Somebody said, can we call it the Trump gold card? I said, "If it helps, use the name Trump. I'll give it to you for free."
Journalists (35:57):
Mr. President, you probably just launched 10,000 stories. Do you want to elaborate a little bit more on what Russian oligarchs you know or don't?
Donald Trump (36:06):
Isn't it interesting how many stories we do tell, and they all turn out to be true. And they all turn out to be ultimately correct. Trump was right about everything. Do you have one of those Trump-was-right-about-everything hats? I'm going to give it to this gentleman. Get me one of them.
Speaker 9 (36:21):
But they're all going to be vetted. Everybody who comes in gets vetted. Okay? They get vetted. So you got to-
Journalists (36:27):
When does it begin? When does it begin?
Speaker 9 (36:30):
We're going to begin in two weeks.
Donald Trump (36:33):
About two weeks. The sale will start in about three weeks.
Journalists (36:37):
Mr. President. Do you see a more active role for Zelensky now given the status [inaudible 00:36:42]?
Donald Trump (36:42):
I hope so. I mean, look, I think that we want to get that country back on its feet. Right now it's been destroyed. So here, give me this. Here. Give me all of them. Look. See that? Trump was right about everything. It just came in. Somebody sent it, I said, "This was sent in by a fan." I said, "I think we should make some of them, right?" But we were pretty much. You want one?
Journalists (37:10):
I'll pass.
Donald Trump (37:10):
Are you allowed to take one?
Journalists (37:12):
Probably not.
Donald Trump (37:12):
He'll consider it. I know him well. He's sort of a stiff. Brian, you're not a stiff.
Journalists (37:17):
[inaudible 00:37:17] one.
Donald Trump (37:17):
He's sort of a stiff guy. He'll take other things, but not a free hat.
Speaker 9 (37:21):
Always say yes to the president. Always say yes to the president.
Donald Trump (37:24):
Would anybody like one?
Journalists (37:26):
Mr. President, an easy question, perhaps, maybe it's difficult. I'm going to ask you this question about the [inaudible 00:37:32]-
Donald Trump (37:31):
Who do you work for?
Journalists (37:32):
I work for two news organizations.
Donald Trump (37:34):
Who?
Journalists (37:34):
I work for two news organizations.
Donald Trump (37:35):
Yeah, who are they?
Journalists (37:36):
I work for Gray Television, America's second-largest broadcaster, and I work for iHeartRadio.
Donald Trump (37:41):
So there you go.
Journalists (37:43):
Let me ask you the easier tough question, Mr. President. The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Are they being extended an invitation?
Donald Trump (37:51):
They will be. We haven't yet, but we will be. I thought it was a great performance by them and absolutely they'll be extended that invitation. Would you do that right away, by the way?
Speaker 10 (38:02):
Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (38:03):
We'll do it right away. We're going to do it sometime today. And they deserve to be down here and we hope to see them. We have a lot of… We just had the great hockey team, as you know, Florida, come here. We have many of the great athletes come that win things.
Journalists (38:17):
What's the main obstacle holding up this PGA Tour, LIV Golf?
Donald Trump (38:23):
Well, they have to get together. They've had a lot of discussion back and forth. They both are meaning well and a deal will ultimately happen. I think it'll happen pretty quickly. It'll be nice to see the golfers, the best golfers, be able to play against each other.
Journalists (38:38):
What's your role been in this whole project?
Donald Trump (38:40):
Just to help expedite it. Tiger was here. Adam Scott was here. Jay Monahan was here the other day. Just to really help expedite it. We had Yasir here from Saudi Arabia, great guy. These are all great people and they want to work it out, so if I can help them work it out. I don't get anything out of it. If I can help them work it out. I just think golf, it's very much of an individual sport and you want to see the best players playing against each other, not playing in two different locations. Right?
Journalists (39:12):
What's going to be more challenging? A PGA-LIV deal or Russia-Ukraine deal?
Donald Trump (39:16):
I think the PGA deal is much more complex.
Journalists (39:24):
Sir, may I ask you a Middle East question, if I may? What's your take on what's happening in the West Bank and what Israel is doing there?
Donald Trump (39:28):
Well, it's a movement up there that a lot of people are concerned about, and there's been a lot of Israeli movement. They're up there for a reason. All of a sudden, maybe they're not feeling so good about that, so that'd be terrible. I hope that doesn't happen. But there is movement up there that nobody knew about. Right? You know that, right?
Journalists (39:50):
Yeah. Are you concerned about it as well?
Donald Trump (39:52):
I'm concerned about everything. I want the world to be peaceful. When I left here, we had no war. We had defeated ISIS in less than four weeks. In fact, I took the general that defeated ISIS and I put him in charge of the whole ballgame, 'cause that's what we want, we want winners. Razin Caine, Razin, when I heard that name, I said, I like that name. That's the kind of general I like. So we'll see. But he was great. He's a great soldier. Not a politician, a soldier, a real soldier. You know that, Brian, this guy was the real-
Journalists (40:25):
I've heard that story a million times.
Donald Trump (40:26):
Yeah. This guy's the real deal.
Journalists (40:27):
He is.
Donald Trump (40:29):
And I think he's going to do a great job. But think of it, we had no wars. We had no problems, we had no inflation, we had no problems. And then all of a sudden you have October 7th in Israel, which was horrible. And then you see what happened with Ukraine, would've never… Russia would've never gone in if the election weren't rigged. It was a rigged election. The 2020 election was rigged, and we got out of it and you see what happened. You see what happened to our country: inflation, Afghanistan, that horrible withdrawal from Afghanistan. I think when Russia saw what happened in Afghanistan, they said, "Wow." It's a paper tiger. We're not a paper tiger. We are the strongest military force in the world.
(41:14)
And by the way, Pete Hegseth is doing a great job. But we didn't have wars, we didn't have inflation. We had a strong border. We had everything going good. And then Biden got in and he's, in my opinion, the worst president in the history of our country. I think Jimmy Carter was a very happy man when he passed away two weeks ago.
Journalists (41:36):
What are you expecting at the cabinet meeting tomorrow?
Donald Trump (41:37):
It's going to be a cabinet meeting and I'll preside. Unlike Biden, I'll preside over my own cabinet meeting.
Journalists (41:43):
Mr. President.
(41:43)
[inaudible 00:41:44].
(41:43)
How do you compare your cabinet in your second term to your cabinet that you had in your first term?
Donald Trump (41:50):
Well, I had some great people in my second term. I think this is deeper. I think it's better because it's deeper. I had some people that I didn't really like too much in my cabinet. But I didn't know Washington then, I was a New York person. I knew New York intimately, but I had to rely on people. I had great people. Look, we got the biggest tax cuts in history. I rebuilt the military, but we did so much. We did unbelievable.
(42:13)
Even Right to Try, somebody was saying today they were saved by Right to Try. We did Right to Try medically. We did transparency medically. That was a big thing, but Biden canceled that one. He didn't cancel Right to Try, which is interesting. He didn't cancel Space Force. He was going to cancel Space Force. Space Force is turning out to be invaluable. Amazing. We created Space Force. But think of it, we rebuilt our entire military and now we're going to have to patch it up a little bit again because of what's happened. No, this was a grossly incompetent administration. The only thing they were good at was cheating in elections and the weaponization of government. Thank you very much everybody.
Speaker 10 (42:56):
Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Journalists (42:56):
Is it bedtime, Mr. President?