Trump Says 'We're in a Trade War with China Now' (Q&A)
Summary
Trade War with China: The discussion emphasized the ongoing trade war with China, highlighting the strategic use of tariffs as a tool for national security and economic leverage.
India's Role: India was mentioned as a potential reliable partner, with assurances from Prime Minister Modi to stop purchasing oil from Russia, which could influence geopolitical dynamics.
Venezuela and Drug Trafficking: The conversation touched on efforts to combat drug trafficking from Venezuela, including the use of military force to intercept drug-laden speedboats.
Weaponization of DOJ: There was a critique of the alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice against political opponents, with comparisons to previous administrations.
Middle East Peace Efforts: The podcast referenced past successes in Middle East peace negotiations, suggesting a continued focus on diplomatic solutions in the region.
National Security and Tariffs: Tariffs were portrayed as essential for maintaining national security, with examples of their use in preventing conflicts and supporting economic strength.
U.S. Military Involvement: The discussion included the U.S. military's role in international conflicts, particularly in relation to Iran and the Middle East, emphasizing strategic military actions.
Economic Growth and AI: The podcast highlighted the U.S.'s economic growth and dominance in artificial intelligence, attributing success to strategic policies and investments.
Transcript
Could there be any further conversation to have uh national concealed carry apply to actual DC? Uh like if you had a driver's license in Texas and you had a permit, of course you could drive. >> Well, they're talk, as you know, they've been talking about that for a long time. It's a it's an interesting question. A lot of people feel strongly both ways, but we are talking about that. Brian, thank you. >> Mr. President, >> Mr. president on Venezuelan boats. Um I want to ask you why not have the Coast Guard stop them, which it is empowered by law to do. You know, this way you can um confirm who's on the boat and ensure that they're doing what they what you suspect >> because we've been doing that for 30 years and it has been totally ineffective. Uh they have faster boats. Some of these boats are seriously I mean they're worldclass speedboats and but they're not faster than missiles. But we've been trying to do that for years and so much of the drugs 25 30% would come in through the seas. Right now we have I would say none coming in through the seas. In fact, I don't know about the fishing industry. If you want to go fishing, a lot of people aren't deciding to even go fishing. We've almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we'll stop it by land. >> What's the next step? >> But it never worked. It never worked when when you know when you did it in a very politically correct manner. And what's the next step in this war on cartels and are you considering options? Are you considering strikes on land? And >> well, I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control. Uh we've had a couple of days where there isn't a boat to be found and that I view that as a good thing, not a bad thing. But we had tremendous amounts coming in by boats, by very expensive boats. You know, they have a lot of money, very fast, very expensive boats that were pretty big. And the way you look at it is every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat and you feel badly, you say, "Wow, that's rough." It is rough. But if you lose three people and save 25,000 people, these are people that are killing our population. Every boat is saving 25,000 lives. And you can see it. The boats get hit. And you see that fentinol all over the ocean. It's like floating in bags. It's all over the place. And it's a it's a tremendous sa we're saving tremendous amounts of lives. >> On that issue, >> I know you've talked about I have a question for you and then I also have a question for director Patel. I know you talked about having some uh distaste for Boston recently. Is this one of the cities that you might be looking into? And can you give us a hint about other cities that you might be >> You're saying for where? For where? >> For Boston. >> Yeah. Well, Boston has a a bad mayor who at least is a reasonable IQ person. You know, most of them are low IQ, but uh and they're so bad. I mean, what's going on in Chicago is just You'd think the guy would say, "Hey, look, we have a problem, Mr. President. Could you come in and straighten it out? I could have that we could have that done in a month if we had their cooperation. It's going to be done anyway, but we could have it done in a month." Yeah. Boston, she's got four areas that are, you know, wrong. And uh you know somebody said would we take would we think about taking the World Cup away from Boston if they don't straighten it out? And the answer is yes. We have the right to do that with FIFA. So if we think that LA is going to be bad or we think uh that applies a little bit to the Olympics too, but we'll talk about FIFA first. You know, FIFA is very hot. If we think there's any reason that whether it's Boston or anywhere else that they're not doing their job, we're going to take that those World Cup games and move them someplace else. >> Thank you. Thank you. And then Director Patel, there's been so many conspiracy theories swirling around about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Do you have any updates for us, especially in light of all the online content that everyone's been talking about? >> The only thing we deal with at the FBI and the Department of Justice is facts. And we delivered in record speed a manhunt to capture Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin in 33 hours. And if you put that in perspective for Ouija Manion with the Boston Mar took them 5 days and a police officer lost their life in their manhunt. We are running out absolutely every single lead. And the best thing we can do to honor my friend Charlie Kirk's life is to make sure that everyone involved is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And that's what we're focused on, investigating the facts, not trading and conspiracy theories. >> Okay, >> Mr. President, thank you so much. Uh, in light of China's export curves on rare earths, do you view India as a reliable partner uh going forward? And are you planning to meet Prime Minister Modi in Malaysia? Um, are you open to talks in terms of >> Yeah, sure. He's a friend of mine. We have a great relationship. He just said that two days ago as you know we have a great relationship. No, we were not happy with him buying oil from Russia because that lets Russia continue on with this ridiculous war where they've lost a million and a half people. By the way, Russia's lost a million and a half people, soldiers mostly. Uh this is a war that should have never started, but it's a war that Russia should have won in the first week and they're going into the fourth year and I want to see it stop. So I was not happy that India was buying oil and he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big stop. Now I got to get China to do the same thing. You know that that is relatively easy compared to what we just did over the last week in the Middle East. Middle East was 3,000 years and we got it done. This is three years. Uh and I think we'll get it done. I think that Putin, President Putin, I think, is going to I think he wants to get it done. We'll see. There's a great animosity between him and Zalinski. You probably have noticed, right? And it's uh I think it's hurting the process. Yeah. Yeah. Please, >> Mr. President. Thank you. Um curious, why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela? And is there more information you can share about these strikes on the alleged? >> I authorized for two reasons really. Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America. They came in through the uh well, they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border policy. And as soon as I heard that, I said a lot of these countries, they're not the only country, but they're the worst abuser. and they've entered their they've they've allowed thousands and thousands of prisoners, mental institution, people from mental institutions, insane asylums emptied out into the United States. We're bringing them back, but that's a really bad and they did it at a level that probably not many many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela. They were down and dirty. And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs coming in through the sea. So, you get to see that. But we're going to stop them by land also. >> Does the CIA have authority to take out Maduro? >> Oh, I don't want to answer a question like that. That's a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer, but I think Venezuela is feeling heat, but I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat, too. We're not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop, as you say, their worst. They they have given us their worst. They've loaded up our country with prisoners with with mentally ill people that are seriously ill, criminally ill, and we're not going to take it. And so, I mean, it's uh just one of those things. And I can tell you, we've taken care of the sea. There's nobody, and we're watching. We're watching. And if we see it, we'll save it. Yeah. Please. On the ships though, sir, there are Republicans and Democrats up on the hill concerned that in the briefings they've gotten about those attacks, they're not necessarily getting information about who was on them and what exactly was on those ships. Can you ensure that but they are given information that they were loaded up with drugs and that's the thing that matters. When they're loaded up with drugs, they're fair game. And every one of those ships were and they're not ships, they're they're boats, they're speedboats. They're extremely fast, record setting type speedboats. They cost a lot of money and they have a lot of money because they're drug sellers, but uh they know one thing and they all have the same thing in common. There's uh there's drug dust. They call it drug dust. They call it fentinel dust all over the boat after those bombs go off. And you you can take along >> them though that that that they're >> we know we know before we know when they go out. We know we have uh much information about each boat that goes out. Deep strong information. Yeah, please. >> Sir, you're going to have Lumier Zinski here this week. What is your message at this stage of the war for him? And shy of Tom who is for Zilinski and shy of Tom for Ukraine. Are you considering other options? And will you speak with Vladimir Ken? >> No, we're looking at other options. We are uh President Zalinski is coming in. I'm not a fan of the war. I'm not a fan of the way it started. It should have never happened. It wouldn't have started if I were president. The election was rigged and uh because of that, we lost a lot of lives have been lost because of that war. Not American lives, but if I can save a lot of lives, that's why I'm in it. I want to save lives. I've I've had uh eight wars. The prime minister of Pakistan got up the other day said so beautifully. He says, "You saved millions of lives." He told that to a group of people right in this office. He said, "The president saved millions of lives." And I think what he's referring to is the fact that that would have been with India nuclear war. That was getting very close. You know, seven planes, they don't talk about it, but seven aircraft were shot down. In fact, we have the new ambassador to India right here. They're well represented. You better represent us, not them. Okay? >> But Sergio is going to do a great job. He's going to do a great job. But no, we'll be talking about the war with with him and we'll be talking about I mean they they want to go offensive. Uh I'll make a determination on that, but they would like to go offensive. You know that. And we'll have to make a determination. >> Question given you have the FBI director and attorney general here today. Jim Jordan has asked Jack Smith to appear in the House Judiciary. >> You mean deranged Jack? He's a deranged individual. Yeah. >> He's asked him to >> Well, they should. I'm surprised it takes so long. You know, we're talking about violent crime. What about the crime against a political opponent? That's what we have to talk about, too. >> Would like to understand the full extent to which the Biden Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement. Uh, what do you think the committee will find out? >> I think it was the worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of the world, let alone this country. And I hope that everybody's, you know, they're involved in it. I'm not I I'm the one that had to suffer through it and ultimately win. But uh what they did was criminal. Uh deranged Jack Smith in my opinion is a criminal. And I noticed his his interviewer was I think that was Weissman. And I hope they're going to look into Weissman too. Weissman's a bad guy. And he had somebody in Lisa who was his puppet worked in the office uh really as the top person. And I think that uh she should be looked at very strongly. It there was tremendous criminal activity having to do if we don't have fair elections in this country, we're not going to have a country. And I've said it from the beginning, fair elections and border borders. And we need also fair press because if you don't have fair press, it's very tough. And uh we've got the strongest border of anybody. Nobody has a border. We have a border where the numbers just came out again. You saw zero people came in illegally. Now, we do take people into our country legally, but zero people. But, you know, you're talking about a different subject. You're talking about political crime. They have committed massive political crime. I hope they're looking at Shifty Schiff. I hope they're looking at all these people. And I'm allowed to find out. I'm allowed to, you know, I'm in theory the chief law enforcement officer, but I have a very good talented group. This is about something else. But I hope they're looking at political crime because there's never been so much political crime against a political opponent as what I had to go through. They raided my house in Florida. It was an illegal raid. I have a lawsuit that was doing very well. And when when I became president, I said, I'm sort of suing myself. I don't know what do how do you settle the lawsuit? I'll say give me X dollars, right? And I don't know what to do with the lawsuit. It's a great lawsuit and now I won. It sort of looks bad. I'm suing myself, right? So, I don't know. But but that was a lawsuit that was a very strong, very powerful. They raided illegally my house in Florida, Mara Lago. They went through the drawers of my young son. They went through all of the cabinets and drawers of the first lady. She walked in, she said, "Wow, what happened?" Because she's very meticulous. And this wasn't so meticulous as she looked into the drawers and she saw everything a mess. It's it's a a what they did against a person that just got out of office. And then you look at these corrupt people. You look at Hunter Biden. You look at the signature as an example, the autopen. I just signed so many different things. An admiral, a four-star general. I'm signing them left and right. The commissions. And by the way, I want to compliment John Thun and also Mike, our great speaker. But John Thun all of a sudden I'm getting these things by the hundreds. I was getting one every two weeks. It would have been four years before you got him in more. You You would have had some that didn't even get in. All because of Democrat obstruction. So John Thun did a great job. I signed I must have signed 200 into the administration. We're just about caught up. It's amazing. And so compliments to John. He had to do some things that were very tough to do that he didn't want to do, but he was forced to do it by the Democrats. And as far as the shutdown's concerned, this is a Democrat Schumer shutdown. And he's trying to do it to get relevance back into the party because he's a loser. I've known him all his life. He's always been sort of a loser, but an intelligent one, but I think he's losing IQ points with time. I think that happens. I hope it hasn't happened with me. I know if it did, you guys will let me know about it very quickly. >> Violent crime, sir. Here in DC, a a judge has given the two teenagers that beat up exo staffer big balls probation. Uh it's incredible and no jail time. Is this justice? >> Janine Piro is doing a fantastic job and she is beside herself because you have these radical left judges that they beat the hell out of this guy. And it was many people against this one guy who was really trying to protect his girlfriend. He didn't want his hooded over the door because but they really beat him up badly. That just happened, right? Wow. That's terrible. I think the judge should be ashamed of himself. >> That's a big problem. You know, they can do their job and then they go into a court and the people are protected by these. I don't know where they come from. Where do these people come from? Where do these the judges come from? I want to compliment on behalf of Pam and Todd and all of us because Cash I think that Janine has done a fantastic job and the case I heard was like flawless. It's a flawless case. They have them on tape. They have everything and then a judge gives them a little probation. Very these are these are rough guys and they're young and if that happens they're going to grow up. They're going to be real bad. They're going to cause they're going to cause a lot of problems. Yeah. Please go ahead. So um for Gore has just gotten back from India. Uh what were the conversations like with uh Prime Minister Modi and the other? >> I think they were great. He reported to me that your great the great he's a great man. You know Modi is a great man that he he loves Trump. Now I don't know if the word love I don't want you to take that any different. I don't want to destroy his political career. Okay? But you have to understand I've watched India for years. It's an incredible country and every single year you'd have a new leader. I mean, some would be in there for a few months. And this was year after year after year. And my friend has been there now for a long time. And he is. And he's assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia. I don't know. Maybe that's a breaking story. Can I say that? Would you say there will be no oil? He's not buying his oil from Russia. It's started. You know, he can't do it immediately. It's a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon. And all we want from President Putin is stop this. Stop killing Ukraines and stop killing Russians because he's killing a lot of Russians. Again, it doesn't make him look good. It's a war that he should have won in one week and he's now going into his fourth year. That does not look this make this big so-called war machine look good. But he could make a settlement. We're willing to settle. I thought we had a deal. the the hatred of the two leaders is very, you know, it's it's an obstacle. It's an obstacle. There's no question about it. But I thought we had a deal two months ago. Uh who would think I created peace in the Middle East and can't get the two guys to settle? But I I think we'll get them. But uh if India doesn't buy oil, it makes it much easier. And they're not going to buy they they assured me they will within a short period of time, they will not be buying oil from Russia. and they'll go back to Russia after the war's open over. Jennifer, >> on the shutdown, sir, are FBI officials being paid right now? Are all the FBI employees being paid? And are all the >> Well, that's what I understand. I hope so. >> Thanks to your great work, Mr. President, special agents at the FBI are going to receive their paychecks. >> Got a lot of people paid actually. >> We got the people that we want paid made. Okay. And we want the FBI paid. We want the military paid. We got the people that we want paid. And I'll tell you, the Democrats, they don't talk about this. You know, we're getting rid of programs that we didn't like, but that were negotiated in, but we didn't like. We're terminating those programs, and they're going to be terminated on a permanent basis. And it's thousands of people, and it's it's, you know, billions of dollars. We're getting rid of a lot of things that we never wanted because of the fact that they made this stupid move. And they don't want to talk about it. You know, they have their day coming up. up. I hear very few people are going to be there by the way, but they have their day coming up and they want to have their day in the sun. Uh, but they should really make a deal. So, what we're doing, I mean, they call him Darth Vader, but he's actually a very nice person, Russell vote, but Russell vote is is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects. There's there's not only jobs. I mean, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it's billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It's terminated. Tell them it's terminated, Jennifer. All right, >> Hamas, sir. Uh, what is your understanding of the pace of returning the deceased hostages? Are you pleased? >> Well, they're looking for them. Absolutely. They're looking. So, we have the living hostages all back. Uh, they returned some more today. It's a gruesome process. I almost hate to talk about it. So, but they're digging. They're actually digging. There are areas where they're digging and they're finding a lot of bodies. Uh then they have to separate the bodies. You wouldn't believe this. This is And some of those bodies have been in there a long time. And some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble. But uh there are graves and some are some are in tunnels that are that were that died in tunnels that are way down under the earth and the tunnels are like three feet. Can you believe it? 3 ft high. They lived like this for a long period of time. It's a horrible It's a horrible atrocity. At the same time, uh we meaning Israel, but I knew everything they were doing pretty much. I knew most of the things they were doing, but they've killed probably 70,000 of these people, Hamas, and I said, "It's time now." So, we'll see what happens. We'll also see what happens. Your next question is going to be the weapons. We want the weapons to be uh given up, sacrificed, and they've agreed to do it. Now, they have to do it. And if they don't do it, we'll do it. that we had the head of SenCom today suggest that Hamas needs to hurry up and and disarm and follow your comprehensive plan that it was the head of SenCom saying that is that not a signal to Hamas to the rest of the world that at some point the US military more may more directly engage. >> We won't need the US military. >> So then why >> we won't need it because we're very much involved in it. If we weren't involved, there wouldn't be peace. If we didn't uh destroy the nuclear capability of Iran, that deal would have never happened for two reasons. The Arab nations would not have felt bold enough to do it because you have uh a very powerful at that time Iran is not powerful anymore between what we what Israel and us did because you know the attack was was if you look at it, we helped them very much. They will be the first to tell you, including shooting down thousands of drones that were coming into Israel. You know, we shot them down. We were shooting them down like uh it was target practice, but we shot down thousands of drones and missiles also going into Israel. Uh but between what we did to Iran that way with the you know conventional we will call it and what that be see that beautiful plane that B2 I noticed it under the desk. I always thought it was beautiful but I never understood it. Now I understand it took in uh hundreds of thousands of bombs in the form of two but hundreds of thousands of pounds of bombs and every single bomb hit perfectly. Then they sent tomahawks and they sent 30 tomahawks on top of it and that was totally you know CNN said well maybe it wasn't as bad as you know as Trump said because I said obliterated. uh obliterated is not a strong enough word actually. And you saw the atomic energy commission came out and said the word obliteration is very very they think of it. They came in under potential fire. They entered Iran airspace late at night in the dark. No moon. The moon was low for a reason. What's the what time we picked it? Couldn't see anything. And they hit every target and they weren't hit. Nobody saw that plane. That plane is stealth. Nobody. So s the problem with that is it may be stealth today, but tomorrow it won't be. And we just ordered about 20 brand new B2 bombers. It's unbelievable as a weapon. I know Putin when I was uh writing with him in Alaska, we passed a lot of them and he said that really did the trick. I said, "Yeah, it did. It's amazing. The flying wing." >> But you see no reason for the US military to get involved in Gaza. >> No, I don't see that. No, I think we're going to handle it very well. will be helping Israel. But we have other countries that are now you know we signed many many countries signed and many of those countries relatively are very strong military powers and Hamas has no support. See Hamas had the support of Iran and now Iran says don't get us involved. The last time they got them involved didn't work out too well. So they used to have the support of Iran. Today Iran is they're trying to survive. You know, when I heard the reports two weeks ago, Iran's looking to build a nuclear weapon. I said, "Don't worry about it. They got a lot of things they want to do before nuclear weapons." I said, "The last thing they want to do is a nuclear weapon." It didn't work out. And if they did a nuclear weapon before they got even close, that site would be attacked and it would be wiped out. Mr. Mr. President, you're meeting with President Xi in a few weeks. Yeah. If you can't come to an agreement or a deal at that meeting, are we in for a sustained trade war with China? Well, you're in one now. Look, we have 100% tariff. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be exposed as being a nothing. We would have no defense. You know, they've used tariffs on us, but we've never had anybody sitting in that chair that felt the need to do it. And and they've allowed us to be 37 trillion dollars in debt, etc., etc. We uh tariffs are a very important tool for our defense, for our national security. If we don't have tariffs, we're not going to have national security. As an example, uh if you look at Pakistan and Iran, I told them I was in the midst of negotiating a trade deal with actually with Iran and Pakistan was going to be in line and because of tariffs, they all want to negotiate much differently and we were making a good deal. And then I heard that they're shooting at each other. And I said during one of my conversations, are you guys going to go to war? Two nuclear powers we are thinking about. I said, here's the deal. You go to war, I'm going to put a 200% tariff. I'm going to stop you from doing any business in the United States. I said it to both of them. Within 24 hours, the war ended. That would have been a nuclear war. And again, the prime minister of Pakistan, who was here two weeks ago, said that that man saved many millions of lives in front of a whole group of people because he thought it was going to be war. But when it came to war or having to pay massive tariffs, the tariffs overrode. That's why it's so important. Not only the money, we're taking in trillions of dollars. Not only the money, the power to keep peace, the power to be used for good is enormous, but uh a lot of people didn't understand tariffs. It's also made us very rich. We have a big case coming up in the Supreme Court and I will tell you that's one of the most important cases in the history of our country because if we don't win that case we will be a uh weakened troubled financial mess for many many years to come. I don't even know if survivable you know survivable is is a good term. Uh, and if we do, we're going to be the most powerful economic country in the world. And all we're doing is using them as a defense against what's what took place for many years. China would charge us tariffs. It was incredible. But we weren't allowed to charge. We were. So, we're allowed to do whatever we want. We just had presidents that didn't want to do it for whatever reason. And it was nothing. But of the eight wars, I was saying seven. Of the eight wars, I would say tariffs are respon directly responsible for me ending six of them, five or six. Without the tariffs, you have wars raging all over the world. With the tariffs, other than Russia, we have no wars out there. And uh we've made a lot of good friends, too. Tariffs are so important to our new our our national security. If we don't have tariffs, we don't have national security. Our country would would suffer a level that g because they use so strongly on us. As an example, the European Union, they won't take our cars. They won't take our agriculture. They won't take anything. But they send their cars in. Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen by the millions. We don't send any cars. They don't take them. They were tariffing us out. Uh agricultural product. They don't take our agriculture. They want their farmers to do it. I understand that. But it was very unfair. And they were tariffing our product. They they're keeping out by using tariffs and we didn't use them, but I used them. And now we made one of the great deals with Europe. 650 billion dollars they pay us. And uh we've evened it out. It's really a good thing to see. And you have to understand they've all signed Japan, South Korea. I mean, South Korea $350 billion dollars upfront. uh Japan $650 billion dollars and they've all agreed to it. They're all happy. But before it was a total ripoff and if we don't have the use of tariffs, we have no national security. This country will have no financial security. Will not have national security. And the people that brought the lawsuit are people that are aligned with foreign nations that are now being treated fairly as opposed to just ripping us off and ripping us aunder. So if but if we don't if we are not allowed to use what other people use against us, there's no defense. It'll be a disaster for America. That's why I think I'm going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it. I've not done that. And I had some pretty big cases. This is I think it's I think it's one of the most important cases ever brought because uh we will be defenseless against the world. Okay. Mr. >> Did you have one? Yes, please. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I want to ask you about the Georgia Senate race. I know it's very early, but there's several Republicans in that field that are vying for your endorsement. >> A lot of good people in that field. I know I know all of them. Actually, I haven't made a decision on that, but you have some very good people in the Georgia Senate race. >> Well, Governor has endorsed >> No, I know the governor has. He's spoken to me about it a lot. He likes that candidate a lot. And uh I understand that I haven't made a decision yet. >> Okay. >> But I'm I'm following that race very carefully. I think it's very important for Georgia to get a real senator because the senator they have now is a horrible senator. He he allows all the crime, all the borders. You have open borders. I mean, his whole philosophy is a disaster. That's not representative of the people of Georgia. I know the people of Georgia. I won Georgia three times, but they say twice. Okay. I wanted very big the last time and I wanted big the first time and I wanted big the second time but we had criminals that didn't allow I mean they I hope they're going to go into that. I hope they go into the votes which are being stored in Fulton County and take a look at a real look at those votes. Okay, because I won it the second time too. But I know Georgia very well. I love Georgia. Those people are great and they deserve a good senator because the man they have now is a weak, ineffective person. Okay, >> Mr. President, >> by the way, you won Georgia three times. Just >> I agree. Do you agree with me? The media >> for someone that >> spends a lot of time in Georgia. I believe you won that. >> Uh, I really have a question about >> You know, the word believe isn't strong enough, right? You know, >> there you go. >> It's true. I know I won, too. I Oh, we have the great N. Gingrich. N, you agree with us? Good. In other words, have him dismissed immediately from you know his wife as you know is becoming an ambassador to a great country Kalista. So congratulations and we're going to take a picture and uh the only reason I'm doing he speaks so well of me. He said I'll go down as the greatest president in history and then he blew it. He said I'm not sure if I put him above Washington or Lincoln. So I'm not that happy about that. Dude, >> I've got a question about the weaponization of the DOJ. The media often says your department is weaponizing the DOJ. >> That's the opposite. >> It's the opposite. Todd, you represented President Trump and probably the greatest weaponization uh of the DOJ by Alvin Bragg. You know firsthand. If you can describe what you saw under the Biden administration, how they weaponized the DOJ? Well, I mean, I think it's hard to describe what happened those last four years against President Trump. Alvin Bragg, a local prosecutor, his office staffed by somebody from DOJ. Jack Smith picked as a special counselor, staffs his entire office with DOJ prosecutors. And then there are countless things that happened all all in writing, most of them on the docket that require no explanation except for a complete abomination of of the place that the attorney general run now and director Patel. So when people talk about this department weaponizing, it's embarrassing because there's no scenario in which you can look at what we're doing, restoring justice, doing the right thing in every single case, and say that that's weaponization, and yet remain eerily silent about what happened for the past 3 years. I mean, you read these articles and giggle because it cannot be true that people really think that what they did to him, not once, not twice. I'm still counting three, four times, but we're the ones that are weaponizing. So, this man is not weaponizing the Department of Justice. We're not weaponizing the Department of Justice. It's it's the opposite. I mean, and also, nobody questions what I'm saying because it's true. Cuz we all lived the past four years. So let listen, they never want to bring up the details, but I I watch the fake news and oh, he's weaponized and he wants to send them to prison. He wants all these. They indicted me like five times. I took a mug shot. Who would have thought it turned out to my favor? Because it was a good shot. But I had to take a mug shot. It's right out there on the door, New York Post, front page of the every paper in the world. I had a mug shot. They wanted to send me. Nobody says that. They say he's acting very very tough. He's acting unfair. Let me tell you, uh, if they've been nice to anybody, it's to those criminals because they are so good having to do with all of the things we're talking about today with violent crime. But if anything, I think this Justice Department has been so respectful of the law because the other Justice Department with Rita or Lisa and all of that scum, real scum, what they did to the political opponent of a guy that has a seriously low IQ. Now, in his case, it was it was low based on his career, but it got real low. Okay? It was descending rapidly. But what they did to go after his political opponent is legendary. Worse than any third world country, banana republic. And what we're doing is nothing. Are you kidding? Nothing. They write stories. Why aren't they doing this this and we'll leave I I don't have to leave it up to them, but I choose to at this moment at least. But there's never been anybody treated in the history of politics. You know, they say the two worst treated presidents by the media etc. was that man right there, the late great Abraham Lincoln and this great right there, Andrew Jackson. They say Andrew Jackson was treated terribly. They give him number one and number two, but that was before I came along. N I say I have number one times 10. Nobody's been treated like I've been treated and I did a great job. You know, we had a great first term and we had one of the most successful economies in history, etc. I rebuilt the military. We did a tremendous amount. The last part we had a horrible thing called CO and we handled that well. We made ventilators for nations every all over the world. We I mean we did a great job. Probably never get credit for it. Look at the therapeutics, the Regeneron, all the different things, the vaccines, all the things we did. We did a great job, but we had to focus on that. But we had the we had the best economy in the history of our country. We're blowing it away right now. Look at the stock market. hit another all-time high today. That's 48 days out of the few days that I've served. 48 days have already hit record highs and we have maybe most importantly the number we have now I was saying 17 it's over $18 trillion is being poured into our country. It's because of the election and because of tariffs without the tariffs you wouldn't have probably 18 cents. It's because of the tariffs because there are no tariffs if they build in our on our country in our country and they understand that. So we have medical companies coming over. We have the AI. We're dominating China in AI. Everybody said that's impossible. We're dominating. I'm letting these massive plants build their own electric generating plants. They're becoming utilities in addition every maybe they'll make more money with that. Who knows? But they're building their own electric because we have an old grid. You wouldn't be able to do that. And we're dominating China. We're dominating with AI, which seems to be the new big thing. That's the new internet. That's the new whatever. So, we're very happy with the job we're doing. I'm very happy with the job they're doing. But when you tell me about uh attacking a political opponent, there's never been, and I'm a legitimate opponent. I watched my son, he's got the number one bestselling book now. My son Eric, he's a wonderful kid. That guy spent so much time with subpoenas. He got more subpoenas than anybody in the history of our country. Think of it. And he's an innocent good boy. He's a good kid. He's always been a good kid. All of my children are good. They went through hell. My children went through federal grand juries on a hoax. Think of it. You have Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton and others make up a hoax and then wanting to put so they know it's a hoax and they go before the press say Donald Trump Jr. will go to jail because of what he's done with Russia. I'll never forget I get a call from my son Don and he said, "Uh, Dad, I'm being accused of something with Russia. I don't know anything about Russia." He didn't know anything about, think of it, how bad they are. They say he'll go to prison for the rest of his life. He knew nothing about it. On a hoax, the Russian hoax, Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, on a story that they made up. And they made it up in order to explain why Hillary Clinton lost an election that she lost by pretty good numbers. The second one that this one actually second one was even better. But the third one, this one was a too big to rig. It was just too big to rig. They would have rigged. They tried to rig it. But think of it, they want to send my children to jail, but they were after Don in particular. He I'll never forget Adam Shifty Schiff, a total crooked guy, lying in Congress, making up a phone conversation that I have with you. Totally made up. Then when he heard it was taped, he wanted to disappear. And Nancy Pelosi went crazy because they wanted to impeach me based on the conversation that was made up. When they heard the tape, everybody, you know, I won it unanimously in the Republican party. I got every single vote. Something that never happens. And I beat it. But think of it, they want to put my son in jail for something that they made up. So they know they made it up and they say, "He will serve the rest of his life in prison." These are sick, bad people. And don't tell me about us going after them. If anything, we're we've been very, very soft. I wouldn't be that soft. I'll tell you that. Thank you very much, everybody. [Music] out.
Trump Says 'We're in a Trade War with China Now' (Q&A)
Summary
Transcript
Could there be any further conversation to have uh national concealed carry apply to actual DC? Uh like if you had a driver's license in Texas and you had a permit, of course you could drive. >> Well, they're talk, as you know, they've been talking about that for a long time. It's a it's an interesting question. A lot of people feel strongly both ways, but we are talking about that. Brian, thank you. >> Mr. President, >> Mr. president on Venezuelan boats. Um I want to ask you why not have the Coast Guard stop them, which it is empowered by law to do. You know, this way you can um confirm who's on the boat and ensure that they're doing what they what you suspect >> because we've been doing that for 30 years and it has been totally ineffective. Uh they have faster boats. Some of these boats are seriously I mean they're worldclass speedboats and but they're not faster than missiles. But we've been trying to do that for years and so much of the drugs 25 30% would come in through the seas. Right now we have I would say none coming in through the seas. In fact, I don't know about the fishing industry. If you want to go fishing, a lot of people aren't deciding to even go fishing. We've almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we'll stop it by land. >> What's the next step? >> But it never worked. It never worked when when you know when you did it in a very politically correct manner. And what's the next step in this war on cartels and are you considering options? Are you considering strikes on land? And >> well, I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control. Uh we've had a couple of days where there isn't a boat to be found and that I view that as a good thing, not a bad thing. But we had tremendous amounts coming in by boats, by very expensive boats. You know, they have a lot of money, very fast, very expensive boats that were pretty big. And the way you look at it is every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat and you feel badly, you say, "Wow, that's rough." It is rough. But if you lose three people and save 25,000 people, these are people that are killing our population. Every boat is saving 25,000 lives. And you can see it. The boats get hit. And you see that fentinol all over the ocean. It's like floating in bags. It's all over the place. And it's a it's a tremendous sa we're saving tremendous amounts of lives. >> On that issue, >> I know you've talked about I have a question for you and then I also have a question for director Patel. I know you talked about having some uh distaste for Boston recently. Is this one of the cities that you might be looking into? And can you give us a hint about other cities that you might be >> You're saying for where? For where? >> For Boston. >> Yeah. Well, Boston has a a bad mayor who at least is a reasonable IQ person. You know, most of them are low IQ, but uh and they're so bad. I mean, what's going on in Chicago is just You'd think the guy would say, "Hey, look, we have a problem, Mr. President. Could you come in and straighten it out? I could have that we could have that done in a month if we had their cooperation. It's going to be done anyway, but we could have it done in a month." Yeah. Boston, she's got four areas that are, you know, wrong. And uh you know somebody said would we take would we think about taking the World Cup away from Boston if they don't straighten it out? And the answer is yes. We have the right to do that with FIFA. So if we think that LA is going to be bad or we think uh that applies a little bit to the Olympics too, but we'll talk about FIFA first. You know, FIFA is very hot. If we think there's any reason that whether it's Boston or anywhere else that they're not doing their job, we're going to take that those World Cup games and move them someplace else. >> Thank you. Thank you. And then Director Patel, there's been so many conspiracy theories swirling around about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Do you have any updates for us, especially in light of all the online content that everyone's been talking about? >> The only thing we deal with at the FBI and the Department of Justice is facts. And we delivered in record speed a manhunt to capture Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin in 33 hours. And if you put that in perspective for Ouija Manion with the Boston Mar took them 5 days and a police officer lost their life in their manhunt. We are running out absolutely every single lead. And the best thing we can do to honor my friend Charlie Kirk's life is to make sure that everyone involved is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And that's what we're focused on, investigating the facts, not trading and conspiracy theories. >> Okay, >> Mr. President, thank you so much. Uh, in light of China's export curves on rare earths, do you view India as a reliable partner uh going forward? And are you planning to meet Prime Minister Modi in Malaysia? Um, are you open to talks in terms of >> Yeah, sure. He's a friend of mine. We have a great relationship. He just said that two days ago as you know we have a great relationship. No, we were not happy with him buying oil from Russia because that lets Russia continue on with this ridiculous war where they've lost a million and a half people. By the way, Russia's lost a million and a half people, soldiers mostly. Uh this is a war that should have never started, but it's a war that Russia should have won in the first week and they're going into the fourth year and I want to see it stop. So I was not happy that India was buying oil and he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big stop. Now I got to get China to do the same thing. You know that that is relatively easy compared to what we just did over the last week in the Middle East. Middle East was 3,000 years and we got it done. This is three years. Uh and I think we'll get it done. I think that Putin, President Putin, I think, is going to I think he wants to get it done. We'll see. There's a great animosity between him and Zalinski. You probably have noticed, right? And it's uh I think it's hurting the process. Yeah. Yeah. Please, >> Mr. President. Thank you. Um curious, why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela? And is there more information you can share about these strikes on the alleged? >> I authorized for two reasons really. Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America. They came in through the uh well, they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border policy. And as soon as I heard that, I said a lot of these countries, they're not the only country, but they're the worst abuser. and they've entered their they've they've allowed thousands and thousands of prisoners, mental institution, people from mental institutions, insane asylums emptied out into the United States. We're bringing them back, but that's a really bad and they did it at a level that probably not many many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela. They were down and dirty. And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs coming in through the sea. So, you get to see that. But we're going to stop them by land also. >> Does the CIA have authority to take out Maduro? >> Oh, I don't want to answer a question like that. That's a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer, but I think Venezuela is feeling heat, but I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat, too. We're not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop, as you say, their worst. They they have given us their worst. They've loaded up our country with prisoners with with mentally ill people that are seriously ill, criminally ill, and we're not going to take it. And so, I mean, it's uh just one of those things. And I can tell you, we've taken care of the sea. There's nobody, and we're watching. We're watching. And if we see it, we'll save it. Yeah. Please. On the ships though, sir, there are Republicans and Democrats up on the hill concerned that in the briefings they've gotten about those attacks, they're not necessarily getting information about who was on them and what exactly was on those ships. Can you ensure that but they are given information that they were loaded up with drugs and that's the thing that matters. When they're loaded up with drugs, they're fair game. And every one of those ships were and they're not ships, they're they're boats, they're speedboats. They're extremely fast, record setting type speedboats. They cost a lot of money and they have a lot of money because they're drug sellers, but uh they know one thing and they all have the same thing in common. There's uh there's drug dust. They call it drug dust. They call it fentinel dust all over the boat after those bombs go off. And you you can take along >> them though that that that they're >> we know we know before we know when they go out. We know we have uh much information about each boat that goes out. Deep strong information. Yeah, please. >> Sir, you're going to have Lumier Zinski here this week. What is your message at this stage of the war for him? And shy of Tom who is for Zilinski and shy of Tom for Ukraine. Are you considering other options? And will you speak with Vladimir Ken? >> No, we're looking at other options. We are uh President Zalinski is coming in. I'm not a fan of the war. I'm not a fan of the way it started. It should have never happened. It wouldn't have started if I were president. The election was rigged and uh because of that, we lost a lot of lives have been lost because of that war. Not American lives, but if I can save a lot of lives, that's why I'm in it. I want to save lives. I've I've had uh eight wars. The prime minister of Pakistan got up the other day said so beautifully. He says, "You saved millions of lives." He told that to a group of people right in this office. He said, "The president saved millions of lives." And I think what he's referring to is the fact that that would have been with India nuclear war. That was getting very close. You know, seven planes, they don't talk about it, but seven aircraft were shot down. In fact, we have the new ambassador to India right here. They're well represented. You better represent us, not them. Okay? >> But Sergio is going to do a great job. He's going to do a great job. But no, we'll be talking about the war with with him and we'll be talking about I mean they they want to go offensive. Uh I'll make a determination on that, but they would like to go offensive. You know that. And we'll have to make a determination. >> Question given you have the FBI director and attorney general here today. Jim Jordan has asked Jack Smith to appear in the House Judiciary. >> You mean deranged Jack? He's a deranged individual. Yeah. >> He's asked him to >> Well, they should. I'm surprised it takes so long. You know, we're talking about violent crime. What about the crime against a political opponent? That's what we have to talk about, too. >> Would like to understand the full extent to which the Biden Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement. Uh, what do you think the committee will find out? >> I think it was the worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of the world, let alone this country. And I hope that everybody's, you know, they're involved in it. I'm not I I'm the one that had to suffer through it and ultimately win. But uh what they did was criminal. Uh deranged Jack Smith in my opinion is a criminal. And I noticed his his interviewer was I think that was Weissman. And I hope they're going to look into Weissman too. Weissman's a bad guy. And he had somebody in Lisa who was his puppet worked in the office uh really as the top person. And I think that uh she should be looked at very strongly. It there was tremendous criminal activity having to do if we don't have fair elections in this country, we're not going to have a country. And I've said it from the beginning, fair elections and border borders. And we need also fair press because if you don't have fair press, it's very tough. And uh we've got the strongest border of anybody. Nobody has a border. We have a border where the numbers just came out again. You saw zero people came in illegally. Now, we do take people into our country legally, but zero people. But, you know, you're talking about a different subject. You're talking about political crime. They have committed massive political crime. I hope they're looking at Shifty Schiff. I hope they're looking at all these people. And I'm allowed to find out. I'm allowed to, you know, I'm in theory the chief law enforcement officer, but I have a very good talented group. This is about something else. But I hope they're looking at political crime because there's never been so much political crime against a political opponent as what I had to go through. They raided my house in Florida. It was an illegal raid. I have a lawsuit that was doing very well. And when when I became president, I said, I'm sort of suing myself. I don't know what do how do you settle the lawsuit? I'll say give me X dollars, right? And I don't know what to do with the lawsuit. It's a great lawsuit and now I won. It sort of looks bad. I'm suing myself, right? So, I don't know. But but that was a lawsuit that was a very strong, very powerful. They raided illegally my house in Florida, Mara Lago. They went through the drawers of my young son. They went through all of the cabinets and drawers of the first lady. She walked in, she said, "Wow, what happened?" Because she's very meticulous. And this wasn't so meticulous as she looked into the drawers and she saw everything a mess. It's it's a a what they did against a person that just got out of office. And then you look at these corrupt people. You look at Hunter Biden. You look at the signature as an example, the autopen. I just signed so many different things. An admiral, a four-star general. I'm signing them left and right. The commissions. And by the way, I want to compliment John Thun and also Mike, our great speaker. But John Thun all of a sudden I'm getting these things by the hundreds. I was getting one every two weeks. It would have been four years before you got him in more. You You would have had some that didn't even get in. All because of Democrat obstruction. So John Thun did a great job. I signed I must have signed 200 into the administration. We're just about caught up. It's amazing. And so compliments to John. He had to do some things that were very tough to do that he didn't want to do, but he was forced to do it by the Democrats. And as far as the shutdown's concerned, this is a Democrat Schumer shutdown. And he's trying to do it to get relevance back into the party because he's a loser. I've known him all his life. He's always been sort of a loser, but an intelligent one, but I think he's losing IQ points with time. I think that happens. I hope it hasn't happened with me. I know if it did, you guys will let me know about it very quickly. >> Violent crime, sir. Here in DC, a a judge has given the two teenagers that beat up exo staffer big balls probation. Uh it's incredible and no jail time. Is this justice? >> Janine Piro is doing a fantastic job and she is beside herself because you have these radical left judges that they beat the hell out of this guy. And it was many people against this one guy who was really trying to protect his girlfriend. He didn't want his hooded over the door because but they really beat him up badly. That just happened, right? Wow. That's terrible. I think the judge should be ashamed of himself. >> That's a big problem. You know, they can do their job and then they go into a court and the people are protected by these. I don't know where they come from. Where do these people come from? Where do these the judges come from? I want to compliment on behalf of Pam and Todd and all of us because Cash I think that Janine has done a fantastic job and the case I heard was like flawless. It's a flawless case. They have them on tape. They have everything and then a judge gives them a little probation. Very these are these are rough guys and they're young and if that happens they're going to grow up. They're going to be real bad. They're going to cause they're going to cause a lot of problems. Yeah. Please go ahead. So um for Gore has just gotten back from India. Uh what were the conversations like with uh Prime Minister Modi and the other? >> I think they were great. He reported to me that your great the great he's a great man. You know Modi is a great man that he he loves Trump. Now I don't know if the word love I don't want you to take that any different. I don't want to destroy his political career. Okay? But you have to understand I've watched India for years. It's an incredible country and every single year you'd have a new leader. I mean, some would be in there for a few months. And this was year after year after year. And my friend has been there now for a long time. And he is. And he's assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia. I don't know. Maybe that's a breaking story. Can I say that? Would you say there will be no oil? He's not buying his oil from Russia. It's started. You know, he can't do it immediately. It's a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon. And all we want from President Putin is stop this. Stop killing Ukraines and stop killing Russians because he's killing a lot of Russians. Again, it doesn't make him look good. It's a war that he should have won in one week and he's now going into his fourth year. That does not look this make this big so-called war machine look good. But he could make a settlement. We're willing to settle. I thought we had a deal. the the hatred of the two leaders is very, you know, it's it's an obstacle. It's an obstacle. There's no question about it. But I thought we had a deal two months ago. Uh who would think I created peace in the Middle East and can't get the two guys to settle? But I I think we'll get them. But uh if India doesn't buy oil, it makes it much easier. And they're not going to buy they they assured me they will within a short period of time, they will not be buying oil from Russia. and they'll go back to Russia after the war's open over. Jennifer, >> on the shutdown, sir, are FBI officials being paid right now? Are all the FBI employees being paid? And are all the >> Well, that's what I understand. I hope so. >> Thanks to your great work, Mr. President, special agents at the FBI are going to receive their paychecks. >> Got a lot of people paid actually. >> We got the people that we want paid made. Okay. And we want the FBI paid. We want the military paid. We got the people that we want paid. And I'll tell you, the Democrats, they don't talk about this. You know, we're getting rid of programs that we didn't like, but that were negotiated in, but we didn't like. We're terminating those programs, and they're going to be terminated on a permanent basis. And it's thousands of people, and it's it's, you know, billions of dollars. We're getting rid of a lot of things that we never wanted because of the fact that they made this stupid move. And they don't want to talk about it. You know, they have their day coming up. up. I hear very few people are going to be there by the way, but they have their day coming up and they want to have their day in the sun. Uh, but they should really make a deal. So, what we're doing, I mean, they call him Darth Vader, but he's actually a very nice person, Russell vote, but Russell vote is is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects. There's there's not only jobs. I mean, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it's billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It's terminated. Tell them it's terminated, Jennifer. All right, >> Hamas, sir. Uh, what is your understanding of the pace of returning the deceased hostages? Are you pleased? >> Well, they're looking for them. Absolutely. They're looking. So, we have the living hostages all back. Uh, they returned some more today. It's a gruesome process. I almost hate to talk about it. So, but they're digging. They're actually digging. There are areas where they're digging and they're finding a lot of bodies. Uh then they have to separate the bodies. You wouldn't believe this. This is And some of those bodies have been in there a long time. And some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble. But uh there are graves and some are some are in tunnels that are that were that died in tunnels that are way down under the earth and the tunnels are like three feet. Can you believe it? 3 ft high. They lived like this for a long period of time. It's a horrible It's a horrible atrocity. At the same time, uh we meaning Israel, but I knew everything they were doing pretty much. I knew most of the things they were doing, but they've killed probably 70,000 of these people, Hamas, and I said, "It's time now." So, we'll see what happens. We'll also see what happens. Your next question is going to be the weapons. We want the weapons to be uh given up, sacrificed, and they've agreed to do it. Now, they have to do it. And if they don't do it, we'll do it. that we had the head of SenCom today suggest that Hamas needs to hurry up and and disarm and follow your comprehensive plan that it was the head of SenCom saying that is that not a signal to Hamas to the rest of the world that at some point the US military more may more directly engage. >> We won't need the US military. >> So then why >> we won't need it because we're very much involved in it. If we weren't involved, there wouldn't be peace. If we didn't uh destroy the nuclear capability of Iran, that deal would have never happened for two reasons. The Arab nations would not have felt bold enough to do it because you have uh a very powerful at that time Iran is not powerful anymore between what we what Israel and us did because you know the attack was was if you look at it, we helped them very much. They will be the first to tell you, including shooting down thousands of drones that were coming into Israel. You know, we shot them down. We were shooting them down like uh it was target practice, but we shot down thousands of drones and missiles also going into Israel. Uh but between what we did to Iran that way with the you know conventional we will call it and what that be see that beautiful plane that B2 I noticed it under the desk. I always thought it was beautiful but I never understood it. Now I understand it took in uh hundreds of thousands of bombs in the form of two but hundreds of thousands of pounds of bombs and every single bomb hit perfectly. Then they sent tomahawks and they sent 30 tomahawks on top of it and that was totally you know CNN said well maybe it wasn't as bad as you know as Trump said because I said obliterated. uh obliterated is not a strong enough word actually. And you saw the atomic energy commission came out and said the word obliteration is very very they think of it. They came in under potential fire. They entered Iran airspace late at night in the dark. No moon. The moon was low for a reason. What's the what time we picked it? Couldn't see anything. And they hit every target and they weren't hit. Nobody saw that plane. That plane is stealth. Nobody. So s the problem with that is it may be stealth today, but tomorrow it won't be. And we just ordered about 20 brand new B2 bombers. It's unbelievable as a weapon. I know Putin when I was uh writing with him in Alaska, we passed a lot of them and he said that really did the trick. I said, "Yeah, it did. It's amazing. The flying wing." >> But you see no reason for the US military to get involved in Gaza. >> No, I don't see that. No, I think we're going to handle it very well. will be helping Israel. But we have other countries that are now you know we signed many many countries signed and many of those countries relatively are very strong military powers and Hamas has no support. See Hamas had the support of Iran and now Iran says don't get us involved. The last time they got them involved didn't work out too well. So they used to have the support of Iran. Today Iran is they're trying to survive. You know, when I heard the reports two weeks ago, Iran's looking to build a nuclear weapon. I said, "Don't worry about it. They got a lot of things they want to do before nuclear weapons." I said, "The last thing they want to do is a nuclear weapon." It didn't work out. And if they did a nuclear weapon before they got even close, that site would be attacked and it would be wiped out. Mr. Mr. President, you're meeting with President Xi in a few weeks. Yeah. If you can't come to an agreement or a deal at that meeting, are we in for a sustained trade war with China? Well, you're in one now. Look, we have 100% tariff. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be exposed as being a nothing. We would have no defense. You know, they've used tariffs on us, but we've never had anybody sitting in that chair that felt the need to do it. And and they've allowed us to be 37 trillion dollars in debt, etc., etc. We uh tariffs are a very important tool for our defense, for our national security. If we don't have tariffs, we're not going to have national security. As an example, uh if you look at Pakistan and Iran, I told them I was in the midst of negotiating a trade deal with actually with Iran and Pakistan was going to be in line and because of tariffs, they all want to negotiate much differently and we were making a good deal. And then I heard that they're shooting at each other. And I said during one of my conversations, are you guys going to go to war? Two nuclear powers we are thinking about. I said, here's the deal. You go to war, I'm going to put a 200% tariff. I'm going to stop you from doing any business in the United States. I said it to both of them. Within 24 hours, the war ended. That would have been a nuclear war. And again, the prime minister of Pakistan, who was here two weeks ago, said that that man saved many millions of lives in front of a whole group of people because he thought it was going to be war. But when it came to war or having to pay massive tariffs, the tariffs overrode. That's why it's so important. Not only the money, we're taking in trillions of dollars. Not only the money, the power to keep peace, the power to be used for good is enormous, but uh a lot of people didn't understand tariffs. It's also made us very rich. We have a big case coming up in the Supreme Court and I will tell you that's one of the most important cases in the history of our country because if we don't win that case we will be a uh weakened troubled financial mess for many many years to come. I don't even know if survivable you know survivable is is a good term. Uh, and if we do, we're going to be the most powerful economic country in the world. And all we're doing is using them as a defense against what's what took place for many years. China would charge us tariffs. It was incredible. But we weren't allowed to charge. We were. So, we're allowed to do whatever we want. We just had presidents that didn't want to do it for whatever reason. And it was nothing. But of the eight wars, I was saying seven. Of the eight wars, I would say tariffs are respon directly responsible for me ending six of them, five or six. Without the tariffs, you have wars raging all over the world. With the tariffs, other than Russia, we have no wars out there. And uh we've made a lot of good friends, too. Tariffs are so important to our new our our national security. If we don't have tariffs, we don't have national security. Our country would would suffer a level that g because they use so strongly on us. As an example, the European Union, they won't take our cars. They won't take our agriculture. They won't take anything. But they send their cars in. Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen by the millions. We don't send any cars. They don't take them. They were tariffing us out. Uh agricultural product. They don't take our agriculture. They want their farmers to do it. I understand that. But it was very unfair. And they were tariffing our product. They they're keeping out by using tariffs and we didn't use them, but I used them. And now we made one of the great deals with Europe. 650 billion dollars they pay us. And uh we've evened it out. It's really a good thing to see. And you have to understand they've all signed Japan, South Korea. I mean, South Korea $350 billion dollars upfront. uh Japan $650 billion dollars and they've all agreed to it. They're all happy. But before it was a total ripoff and if we don't have the use of tariffs, we have no national security. This country will have no financial security. Will not have national security. And the people that brought the lawsuit are people that are aligned with foreign nations that are now being treated fairly as opposed to just ripping us off and ripping us aunder. So if but if we don't if we are not allowed to use what other people use against us, there's no defense. It'll be a disaster for America. That's why I think I'm going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it. I've not done that. And I had some pretty big cases. This is I think it's I think it's one of the most important cases ever brought because uh we will be defenseless against the world. Okay. Mr. >> Did you have one? Yes, please. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I want to ask you about the Georgia Senate race. I know it's very early, but there's several Republicans in that field that are vying for your endorsement. >> A lot of good people in that field. I know I know all of them. Actually, I haven't made a decision on that, but you have some very good people in the Georgia Senate race. >> Well, Governor has endorsed >> No, I know the governor has. He's spoken to me about it a lot. He likes that candidate a lot. And uh I understand that I haven't made a decision yet. >> Okay. >> But I'm I'm following that race very carefully. I think it's very important for Georgia to get a real senator because the senator they have now is a horrible senator. He he allows all the crime, all the borders. You have open borders. I mean, his whole philosophy is a disaster. That's not representative of the people of Georgia. I know the people of Georgia. I won Georgia three times, but they say twice. Okay. I wanted very big the last time and I wanted big the first time and I wanted big the second time but we had criminals that didn't allow I mean they I hope they're going to go into that. I hope they go into the votes which are being stored in Fulton County and take a look at a real look at those votes. Okay, because I won it the second time too. But I know Georgia very well. I love Georgia. Those people are great and they deserve a good senator because the man they have now is a weak, ineffective person. Okay, >> Mr. President, >> by the way, you won Georgia three times. Just >> I agree. Do you agree with me? The media >> for someone that >> spends a lot of time in Georgia. I believe you won that. >> Uh, I really have a question about >> You know, the word believe isn't strong enough, right? You know, >> there you go. >> It's true. I know I won, too. I Oh, we have the great N. Gingrich. N, you agree with us? Good. In other words, have him dismissed immediately from you know his wife as you know is becoming an ambassador to a great country Kalista. So congratulations and we're going to take a picture and uh the only reason I'm doing he speaks so well of me. He said I'll go down as the greatest president in history and then he blew it. He said I'm not sure if I put him above Washington or Lincoln. So I'm not that happy about that. Dude, >> I've got a question about the weaponization of the DOJ. The media often says your department is weaponizing the DOJ. >> That's the opposite. >> It's the opposite. Todd, you represented President Trump and probably the greatest weaponization uh of the DOJ by Alvin Bragg. You know firsthand. If you can describe what you saw under the Biden administration, how they weaponized the DOJ? Well, I mean, I think it's hard to describe what happened those last four years against President Trump. Alvin Bragg, a local prosecutor, his office staffed by somebody from DOJ. Jack Smith picked as a special counselor, staffs his entire office with DOJ prosecutors. And then there are countless things that happened all all in writing, most of them on the docket that require no explanation except for a complete abomination of of the place that the attorney general run now and director Patel. So when people talk about this department weaponizing, it's embarrassing because there's no scenario in which you can look at what we're doing, restoring justice, doing the right thing in every single case, and say that that's weaponization, and yet remain eerily silent about what happened for the past 3 years. I mean, you read these articles and giggle because it cannot be true that people really think that what they did to him, not once, not twice. I'm still counting three, four times, but we're the ones that are weaponizing. So, this man is not weaponizing the Department of Justice. We're not weaponizing the Department of Justice. It's it's the opposite. I mean, and also, nobody questions what I'm saying because it's true. Cuz we all lived the past four years. So let listen, they never want to bring up the details, but I I watch the fake news and oh, he's weaponized and he wants to send them to prison. He wants all these. They indicted me like five times. I took a mug shot. Who would have thought it turned out to my favor? Because it was a good shot. But I had to take a mug shot. It's right out there on the door, New York Post, front page of the every paper in the world. I had a mug shot. They wanted to send me. Nobody says that. They say he's acting very very tough. He's acting unfair. Let me tell you, uh, if they've been nice to anybody, it's to those criminals because they are so good having to do with all of the things we're talking about today with violent crime. But if anything, I think this Justice Department has been so respectful of the law because the other Justice Department with Rita or Lisa and all of that scum, real scum, what they did to the political opponent of a guy that has a seriously low IQ. Now, in his case, it was it was low based on his career, but it got real low. Okay? It was descending rapidly. But what they did to go after his political opponent is legendary. Worse than any third world country, banana republic. And what we're doing is nothing. Are you kidding? Nothing. They write stories. Why aren't they doing this this and we'll leave I I don't have to leave it up to them, but I choose to at this moment at least. But there's never been anybody treated in the history of politics. You know, they say the two worst treated presidents by the media etc. was that man right there, the late great Abraham Lincoln and this great right there, Andrew Jackson. They say Andrew Jackson was treated terribly. They give him number one and number two, but that was before I came along. N I say I have number one times 10. Nobody's been treated like I've been treated and I did a great job. You know, we had a great first term and we had one of the most successful economies in history, etc. I rebuilt the military. We did a tremendous amount. The last part we had a horrible thing called CO and we handled that well. We made ventilators for nations every all over the world. We I mean we did a great job. Probably never get credit for it. Look at the therapeutics, the Regeneron, all the different things, the vaccines, all the things we did. We did a great job, but we had to focus on that. But we had the we had the best economy in the history of our country. We're blowing it away right now. Look at the stock market. hit another all-time high today. That's 48 days out of the few days that I've served. 48 days have already hit record highs and we have maybe most importantly the number we have now I was saying 17 it's over $18 trillion is being poured into our country. It's because of the election and because of tariffs without the tariffs you wouldn't have probably 18 cents. It's because of the tariffs because there are no tariffs if they build in our on our country in our country and they understand that. So we have medical companies coming over. We have the AI. We're dominating China in AI. Everybody said that's impossible. We're dominating. I'm letting these massive plants build their own electric generating plants. They're becoming utilities in addition every maybe they'll make more money with that. Who knows? But they're building their own electric because we have an old grid. You wouldn't be able to do that. And we're dominating China. We're dominating with AI, which seems to be the new big thing. That's the new internet. That's the new whatever. So, we're very happy with the job we're doing. I'm very happy with the job they're doing. But when you tell me about uh attacking a political opponent, there's never been, and I'm a legitimate opponent. I watched my son, he's got the number one bestselling book now. My son Eric, he's a wonderful kid. That guy spent so much time with subpoenas. He got more subpoenas than anybody in the history of our country. Think of it. And he's an innocent good boy. He's a good kid. He's always been a good kid. All of my children are good. They went through hell. My children went through federal grand juries on a hoax. Think of it. You have Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton and others make up a hoax and then wanting to put so they know it's a hoax and they go before the press say Donald Trump Jr. will go to jail because of what he's done with Russia. I'll never forget I get a call from my son Don and he said, "Uh, Dad, I'm being accused of something with Russia. I don't know anything about Russia." He didn't know anything about, think of it, how bad they are. They say he'll go to prison for the rest of his life. He knew nothing about it. On a hoax, the Russian hoax, Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, on a story that they made up. And they made it up in order to explain why Hillary Clinton lost an election that she lost by pretty good numbers. The second one that this one actually second one was even better. But the third one, this one was a too big to rig. It was just too big to rig. They would have rigged. They tried to rig it. But think of it, they want to send my children to jail, but they were after Don in particular. He I'll never forget Adam Shifty Schiff, a total crooked guy, lying in Congress, making up a phone conversation that I have with you. Totally made up. Then when he heard it was taped, he wanted to disappear. And Nancy Pelosi went crazy because they wanted to impeach me based on the conversation that was made up. When they heard the tape, everybody, you know, I won it unanimously in the Republican party. I got every single vote. Something that never happens. And I beat it. But think of it, they want to put my son in jail for something that they made up. So they know they made it up and they say, "He will serve the rest of his life in prison." These are sick, bad people. And don't tell me about us going after them. If anything, we're we've been very, very soft. I wouldn't be that soft. I'll tell you that. Thank you very much, everybody. [Music] out.