Ready? Hello. Well, what a group this is. These are the best in the whole world. The best in the whole world, IBM, the whole group. What a wonderful culture and what a wonderful group of people. Thank you very much for coming. It's really nice. Thank you. Come on out, slide over here so they can get us. [00:32] To the media, I will tell you, this is a serious group of people. Right? That's great. Thank you very much. Look at them, look at the people. These are seriously the biggest business people anywhere in the world. So I think it's a great tribute. Whatever they're teaching you, they're teaching you well, right? Thank you very much. Welcome to the White House as we celebrate Diwali, because they said there's to be a very heavy emphasis on the V, Diwali, the beautiful Hindu festival of lights, and that's what it is. It's a great festival and it's amazing people. [01:23] I'm pleased to be joined by the Director of the National Intelligence and a woman that's done a fantastic job, Tulsi Gabbard. Wherever you may be, Tulsi. Hi, Tulsi. FBI Director Kash Patel, who's really hitting his stride. Kash, where is Kash? Right here. He is hitting his stride, that's the way we like it. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Hi, Harmeet. And Pastor Paula White, who's been fantastic. She's been with us right from the beginning. We're greatly honored to be joined by the Indian Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Kwatra, and that's very nice. Did I pronounce it perfectly? Oh, I wasn't too far off. And his wonderful wife, and thank you very much. It's a great honor to have you. [02:03] As well as our new Ambassador to India, this is a nice, easy name, Sergio Gor. Sergio, congratulations, Sergio. You're going to do a fantastic job. And thanks as well to incredible Indian-American business leaders, the biggest in the world really. If you look at these companies what they've done, the biggest in the world. CEO of IBM, Arvind Krishna, and Arvind, congratulations. I know you're working hard on a couple of jobs that I'm watching, and good luck with them, right? Good luck, it's amazing what you've done. Chairman and CEO of Adobe, and that Adobe is big stuff, and that's Shantanu Narayen. Thank you very much, Shantanu. Nice to see you, thank you very much. [02:51] CEO of Micron Technology, we know what that is, Sanjay Mehrotra. Sanjay, nice to see you again. And CEO of Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh Arora. And I want to thank you very much for an amazing, and great success. It's a hell of a group of people. And in addition to that, we have a lot of other tremendously successful people gathered. On behalf of all Americans, let me also extend our warmest wishes to the people of India. I just spoke to your Prime Minister today, we had a great conversation. And we talk about trade, we talk about a lot of things, but mostly the world of trade. He's very interested in that. [03:43] Although we did talk a little while ago about let's have no wars with Pakistan, and I think the fact that trade was involved I was able to talk about that, and we have no war with Pakistan and India. That was a very, very good thing. But he's a great person and he's become a great friend of mine over the years. In a few moments we'll light the diya as a symbol of faith in the victory of light over darkness. It's a beautiful term, light over darkness, that's what it's all about. It's knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. [04:06] During Diwali, revelers recall ancient stories of enemies defeated, obstacles removed, and captives freed. The glow of the diya flame reminds us to seek the path of wisdom and to work with diligence and to always give thanks for our many blessings, and we do have many blessings. Everybody in this room has many blessings, and even the, I will say, I'm not going to use the word fake news, I refuse to. The media has some good blessings. One of the blessings is that you didn't have to stand in the mud outside anymore, you know? You now have a beautiful stone surface, the identical color of the White House. For years they had to stand when we had press offerings in the mud because it was grass, and I decided to take care of that, so I hope they appreciate it. [04:51] As we look back on the past year for and really look up to the next number of years and hopefully decades and centuries, we've got much to be thankful for. And think of it, a year ago we were a dead country. This country was a dead country, and now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. These guys can testify to that because I watch their stock prices and they're like rocket ships, right? Do they ever stop? Let's keep it that way, let's not talk about it, right? Let's just keep it that way. It's amazing. [05:23] We have more than $17 trillion, they're part of the reason, more than $17 trillion of investment pouring into the United States. It's going to be, I believe, over $20 trillion by the time the year is up. And as an example, the last administration had less than a trillion dollars in a period of their four-year period, they had less than a trillion. We have, we're going to have 20 trillion, we have over 17 trillion already. That's investment coming in, and I think it's largely for two reasons: we had a good election on November 5th, but maybe more importantly, of course it wouldn't happen if that election result didn't happen, I think much more importantly we have tariffs. [06:05] That you build in the United States, you don't have a tariff to pay. You build outside and you have to pay a tariff. And we're taking in money at a level that no other country has ever seen. There's never been a country, I don't think, fellas, you agree with that? There's never been a country with an investment in less than a year, and actually to be exact, less than nine months of $17 trillion, right? And I know you're all doing, you're all participating, aren't you? Huh? So that's really good stuff. [06:31] The economy is roaring and incomes are rising and small business confidence is at the highest level in over a decade. So the confidence levels, which they do, which means something, they think over the last 10 years, I don't think they go beyond that, we have the highest level of confidence in our economy. Gasoline prices are way down, grocery prices are way down, energy prices are way down, mortgage rates are down. We have a real stiff at the Federal Reserve but I can't help that, but he's going to be leaving soon. And inflation has been defeated, but even though his rates are too high, we're the economy's been amazing. [07:13] Our border is secure, totally secure. We had nobody, zero, nobody in the last four months coming through illegally, which is actually hard to believe because you know they give me those numbers, but essentially it would be just about nobody. They actually say zero. That's actually hard to believe you get zero when you had millions pouring across a year and a half ago, two years ago, but they actually we have it down to practically nobody. And they are coming in but they're coming in legally. [07:41] And we're forging peace all over the world. We're putting America first, we're getting everybody to sort of get along. And I just got a call from the Middle East, we're doing very well there. We have many, many countries as you know signed on to peace in the Middle East and nobody thought they'd ever see that happening. The Hamas situation where they're they're pretty violent people, I would say, that we can put that out in two minutes. We're giving them a chance, you know, they agreed that they'd be very good, very very straight, they wouldn't be killing people and they have killed people. That wasn't the deal we made, but if we if they don't honor the deal they'll be taken care of very quickly, but I'd rather not have to do that. [08:26] But we have total peace in the Middle East. We have levels of friendship with everybody and and every countries that hated each other now love each other. Nobody ever saw anything like it. I think you guys are pretty surprised over here, right? You're Harmeet, you're surprised. But a lot of people are surprised peace in the Middle East. You've been hearing about it for as long as you've been alive, and it's been a lot longer than that. You're still pretty young, but we have peace in the Middle East. [08:54] And so as we light the diya, we look forward to a new year and a greater peace and a greater everything for all of us. And we want tremendous success, tremendous health. We're doing a lot of things in the world of health, and the autism situation is is just crazy. When you think of it, you go back 20 years it was one in 20,000 and now it's one in 12. Is that hard to believe? When I hear that number it's not even it's not even believable. And we think we're a little we think we're onto it. Bobby is doing a great job and Dr. Oz, all of them, they're really working hard. Nobody's ever seen anything like that, and it's been a very important factor for me. I just say you got to focus on that. We think we have a lot of the answers, we've announced a lot of the answers actually. But we're looking at many things, we've made tremendous progress. [09:49] And maybe the thing we've done the best on is prices for for our drugs. We have favorite nations now, where other nations as you know were paying a fraction, a small fraction of what we were paying. And this was for many, many years this was happening. This was set up 30 years ago where we were paying 10 times more, 12 times more, five times more, always tremendous numbers more. And I said we're not doing that anymore, and the drug companies have agreed and the countries have agreed. Now if I didn't have tariffs I wouldn't have been able to get it. I said well if you don't agree we're going to charge you tariffs for more than the equivalent amount. And amazingly everybody agreed. [10:31] So our drug prices are going to be coming down 100%, 200%, 300, 400, 500% in some cases. A pill that cost $10 in London would cost $120 in think of it, $120 in New York or a place any place in this country. A drug that cost $86 in Berlin cost $1,300 in New York and throughout the United States. And we're not doing that anymore, so we're just not doing it anymore. So I just want to, and I think that's going to be that's going to be huge for our for our anything, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, anything having to do with health, because the drug prices are going to be coming down. [11:19] And I tell the story, my last administration, my fourth year, I was so honored because I brought drug prices down first time in 28 years prices were brought down by a certain amount. I'll tell you what the amount was in a second, but by a certain amount. And so at the beginning of the year to the end of the year I actually brought them down, first time in 28 years that happened. And the number was 1/8 of 1%. That's all I say, but I was proud because first time it had ever happened. And now I'm bringing prices down 600%, 700%, 900%, 200%. So I can't believe I actually had a news conference to celebrate 1/8 and 1/4 of 1%. But that was, you know, you learn, right? You learn. [12:08] So we're doing and you guys know more about favorite nations than anybody. So we're going favorite nations, we're demanding it and we've got it. And as you know we had Pfizer, we had all we had the big companies, they're all they're all in agreement or close to agreement. But the countries have agreed to. Actually, the countries would be generally more difficult. If we didn't have the power of tariffs they wouldn't have agreed. They would have said nope, you got to pay 10 times more than we're paying. We were paying 10 and 12 times more than other countries for the exact same pill made in the exact same lab or factory. So it's a it's an amazing thing. I think it's an absolute game changer, there's nobody's ever even heard of a thing like that and you'll see the results over the next year, year and a half, and I think it's great. [12:52] So, I'd like to ask a person who's really been fantastic, we'll ask a few of the people to say a few words. You're on international television, so don't get nervous. Kash, would you say a few words please? Done a fantastic job.
President Trump Participates in a Diwali Celebration
Well, thank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to be a first-generation Indian-American whose parents lawfully immigrated to this country, and under your leadership, so many more millions of Americans are living that dream. And to celebrate here in the Oval Office on Diwali, which you said rightfully so, is a triumph of good over evil, is just an incredible honor, it's incredibly humbling. Indian-Americans around the world and Indians around the world are thrilled that you are such a profound leader in sharing this diversity with the world, and we can't thank you enough and Happy Diwali.
Thank you, and congratulations on everything. And how about a great company IBM? He's taken this company from it was a little troubled as I remember a few years ago, like 10 years ago, to being one of the hottest companies anywhere in the world. Arvind, could you say a few words?
Thank you, Mr. President. In the spirit of Diwali, we should also acknowledge all that the President and the administration is doing to really boost technology, innovation, and that leading to economic growth. I want to point out people forget often how much public and private partnerships in the United States have mattered to boost technology. You look at semiconductors, you look at space, you look at the internet, mobile, and hopefully quantum down the road. So Mr. President, I'd like to thank you for all that you're doing to boost our technology leadership.
Well, you have done amazingly and I just think it's incredible. I know exactly what you've been through because it was a troubled company until you came along, and you made it very untroubled. You made it a rocket ship, so I congratulate you. Thank you, Arvind, very much. We have a very, very great company Adobe, and Shantanu, could you say maybe a few words please?
Sure, thank you, Mr. President. And first, it's such an honor, you know, to be here in the Oval Office and to celebrate Diwali, which for all of us growing up, as you pointed out, was, you know, the victory over triumph over evil, light over darkness. I think what you're doing, Mr. President, to have peace and prosperity and investment in this country is just amazing. And as a company, I think hopefully everybody here is using Photoshop in order to, you know, take all these pictures. But I would really like to thank you for your leadership and we will continue to invest in in the U.S. to make sure that we continue to drive innovation.
And your investment's been very large. So how much have you invested and do you plan to invest in the U.S.?
As far as our investment is concerned, it's all intellectual property, it's people. So we make everything here, so that's the software. And so we're a $20 billion revenue company now, one of the largest software companies in the world, and headquartered is Silicon Valley. So thank you, Mr. President.
Fantastic job. How much are you investing, IBM?
150 billion over the next five years.
150 billion, that's good. Micron's doing pretty good. How's how's Micron doing? Okay, pretty good.
Mr. President, really, really great honor to be here today celebrating Diwali with these excellent peers of ours from the tech industry. And Diwali stands for light, hope, renewal, and the United States is a light to the rest of the world. And particularly on the renewal piece, I just want to really applaud you and your team in terms of bringing renaissance in semiconductor manufacturing here to the U.S. So Micron is investing $200 billion over.
200 billion?
200 billion dollars in leading-edge memory manufacturing. And in a course of next few years, we'll have 40% of our manufacturing here in the U.S. And this will add over the course of years 90,000 jobs, yeah, and 1 and 1/2 trillion dollar impact to the economy. So we're very thankful for the support that we get from your team and Mr. President, from you, in terms of bringing memory here to the U.S. And memory is key with AI today, right?
Yeah, you always talk about memory. I have a good memory as well. Those machines have a better memory, right? No matter what you do. That's fantastic, really fantastic. Nikesh, Palo Alto is a hot one. And tell me about that. Go ahead please.
Mr. President, thank you for having me here and it's a pleasure and honor to be here to celebrate Diwali with you. As my colleagues have said, this is triumph of good over evil and prosperity and what you've done the last nine months in terms of making the United States one of the most business-friendly administrations and giving allowing us all opportunity to go invest not just in technology but in our people is just amazing. We are now the largest cybersecurity company in the world. Wow, that's good. We just in recently spent $25 billion in sourcing technology, so all cybersecurity is made in the United States, because we believe that the next bastion in the world is going to be cyberwar, and we just want to make sure we're prepared as a country and we show off for our companies and our critical infrastructure.
Fantastic job. It's amazing what you've done. And all of these people to me they mean two things: big investment, but the big investment I like because of jobs, it's tremendous number of jobs that they've produced. Would you say a couple of things about your great company, please?
Oh, well thank you, Mr. President. I'm with Stone Point Capital, private equity, which I'm sure you know. And we we just raised a new $11.5 billion fund, and we obviously invest very heavily in financial services and financial services technology. And so it's it's actually an honor to be here in the Oval Office with you, and as a fellow West Point member too, I've always it's always a pleasure to be with you. And I gotta tell you, you're the best president that I've ever seen, and we're so proud of you.
Thank you very much. I'm glad I asked him to say. Would you like to say something about the great job you're doing? Right here. Anybody back here? They're all these are all incredible people that everybody looks in the business world, everybody looks up to. Please, go ahead. You'd like to say something?
Thank you for your thank you for your leadership. I like that, I love this. I didn't ask him. I'm running a tech business for many, many years. We've built products on the AI and machine learning. Thank you, Mr. President.
And it's going great, right? Good. How about over here? We have some very unshy people. Harmeet, how about saying a few words?
Well, thank you, Mr. President. It's a tremendous honor to have supported you three times and been part of your administration. And on this day of Diwali, I say on behalf of the United States Department of Justice that the message of the triumph of good over evil and knowledge over ignorance and justice over injustice is something that your administration is personifying and it's a tremendous honor to be part of it. And thank you very much for having us here today.
But then you're at the DOJ and doing a fantastic job, I hear. She's doing a good job, Kash, right? She's doing fantastic. And Tulsi, we know is doing a good job. What do you think, Tulsi?
Yes, sir. Thank you very much. You are doing today what you have done throughout your time in service is bringing people together from all across the country in all different backgrounds. And this day is, of course, very special to so many of us because while it is the celebration of hope and light and renewal, we can never forget that the source of that hope, light, and renewal comes from God's love for every single one of us. And so today, we celebrate God, His love, and the blessings that He has shared with all of us.
Oh, fantastic. Thank you all very much. Anybody like to say anything? Would you like to say something, please?
Mr. President, let me start first of all by expressing a deep sense of gratitude for opening up White House, Oval Office, your home to mark Diwali, a festival of lights, which is celebrated by over one-fifth of humanity. And as Kash said, you are showcasing the strength of diversity through this celebration. So it's truly a great honor, and thank you very much for that. May I also on behalf of my Prime Minister and my own behalf bring to you and your loved ones very, very Happy Diwali greetings, particularly to our five million strong Indian diaspora in the U.S. And may I close by making a wish which is known to be for Diwali: we wish that the light of Diwali continues to shine on your success and on the strength of India-U.S. partnership.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador. Spoke to him today, he's doing well. And your country is doing very well, you know that. Thank you, Mr. President. So we're supposed to light something, but I thought maybe because he's had such an outstanding year, I'm going to ask Arvind to maybe do the honors. Can you handle it for me, Arvind? I think you might do a better job than me. So if you could take care of that, it'd be great. [22:27] He's doing a good job. I didn't know he was supposed to do that. I'm glad I asked him because he did it very well. Would you like to come and light one too? [23:01] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you all, thank you. Would you like some questions, or go back?
Mr. President, the meeting with Vladimir Putin is canceled or put on hold. Do you know what happened there and does that affect your decision whether or not to send Tomahawks?
No, no, I want I don't want to have a wasted meeting, I don't want to have a waste of time. So we'll see what happens, but we did all of these great deals, great peace deals, they're all peace deals, they're agreements, solid agreements, every one of them. But this one where they said go to the line, go to the line of battle or the battlefield lines and you pull back and you go home and everybody takes some time off because you got two countries that are killing each other. You got two countries that are losing five to seven thousand soldiers a week. So we'll see what happens, it's we haven't made a determination.
Mr. President, I'm asking the Justice Department to look into the federal investigations into you and look for compensation, and how much are you asking for?
Who's asking for what?
Are you asking the Justice Department to pay you compensation for your federal the federal investigations into you? Are you asking them to pay compensation and how much?
Into me? I don't get any compensation. I do it for nothing, I gave up my salary. Into me? I don't get it.
No, it's going to be the the Justice Department. Are you asking them to pay you compensation for the federal investigations that happened to you and how much are you asking for?
Well, I guess they probably owe me a lot of money for that. So probably yeah, that's true, that's very interesting. No, I get no salary, I gave up my salary. It's a good salary, not as much as these guys make but that's okay. It's a lot of money and I don't as you know, I didn't take it in the first four years, I'm not taking it in these four years either. But as far as all of the litigation everything that's been involved, yeah, they probably owe me a lot of money. But if I get money from our country, I'll do something nice with it, like give it to charity or give it to the White House where we restore the White House. And we're doing a great job on the White House. The as you know, the ballroom is under construction. It's going to be they've been trying to get it for 150 years and it's really, I think it's going to be fantastic. [25:24] But we'll see what happens. I mean, we have numerous cases having to do with the fraud of the election, the 2020 election. And because of everything that we found out, I guess they owe me a lot of money. But I'm not looking for money, I'm looking for really I think it's got to be it's got to be handled in a proper way. If it's not handled in a proper way it could we don't want it to happen again. We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again, we just can't let that happen. And so the way we go, I know Kash is working on it, everybody's working on it, but and certainly Tulsi's working on it, we can't let that happen again to our country. [26:03] Look at what's happened where you have millions of people being allowed to come into our country all because of a crooked election. Where they come from prisons, they come from jails, they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. They're drug dealers. The people that they've allowed to come into our country. We cleaned them out in Washington, D.C. We have a very safe capital right now. We have a capital that's as safe as it can be. But I don't know anything about money, you'd have to ask the lawyers about that.
Mr. President, what did you have in the Kremlin? Mr. President, a comment and a question, please, for you. First of all, you have just won billion plus hearts around the globe, including in India, by celebrating the Diwali in the White House right here. And my other comments is, Mr. President, I like his question all right. In February, you and the White House staff welcomed, gave a warm welcome to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi. And after that, I decided to make a short trip to India for you, how popular you are in India. And I went there in a holiest also festival there, millions of people were there. And also Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a media event, 5,000 people. I was one of them there listening to him. And when I went to several states in India, what I found out, Mr. President, three people are most popular there: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Donald Trump, Mr. Kash Patel, and also with the surprise our White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
She's doing good, right? She's doing good, she's popular. That's much.
And Mr. President, my question is, you had a great relationship with the people of India when you visited India and with the with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and also with the Indian-American community. Where do we stand today, all those relation from 45 to 47 in the future, Mr. President, please. Thank you.
Well, we stand great, and the people of India I love the people of India and we're working on some great deals between our countries. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi today as I mentioned before, and we just have a very good relationship. And he's not going to buy much oil from Russia, he wants to see that war end as much as I do. He wants to see the war end with Russia-Ukraine. And as you know, they're not going to be buying too much oil, so they've cut it way back and they're continuing to cut it way back.
Mr. President, what did the Kremlin say? Mr. President, an appeals court recently ruled that you can send the National Guard into Portland, Oregon. Do you feel unfettered to send the National Guard to whatever city you want now?
Well, I guess that was the decision that I can send the National Guard if I see problems. I looked at Portland over the weekend, the place is burning down, I mean just burning down. We weren't there, we weren't we didn't spend much time there because we were waiting for that decision. But the court probably that maybe that influenced the court. But you look at a place like Portland, it's just it's ridiculous when they say that there's no problem. The place was it was on fire over the weekend. But we did we won the case in court of appeals. I think it was the Ninth Circuit, so that's pretty good. And very strong opinion that we have the right to use the National Guard. You would think that would be common sense. We have the right to use the National Guard to put out trouble. Well, that's, you know, how I got elected. One of the reasons I got elected.
Mr. President, what what changed your mind after talking to Vladimir Putin between then and now? Why did you think that a Budapest summit would be might be wasted might be wasted time?
Well, I didn't say anything. I didn't say it would, and you never know what's going to happen. But a lot of things are happening on that front, on the war front with Ukraine and Russia, and we'll be notifying you over the next two days as to what we're doing. But a lot of a lot of things are happening in that itself. Yeah, please.
Mr. President, on Ukraine, do you still see a chance for a ceasefire and what is Putin asking for? Say it again. Do you still see a chance for a ceasefire and what is Putin asking for?
I do, it's a vicious look, it's a vicious war. It doesn't really affect us, we sell equipment to them, we sell equipment to NATO, and NATO gives it to Ukraine. But we don't pay anything anymore. Biden spent $350 billion, the war would have never happened if I were president, would have never not even a million years, and Putin knows that too, would have never happened. But it did happen, and I came in and I I have to see if I can put it out. But it doesn't affect us because we're not losing soldiers there. Although when I first came in there could have been ended, it's not going to happen, but it could have ended up in World War III. That was really out of control. So now it's they're shooting and they're killing people, and I think Putin wants it to end, and I think Zelensky wants it to end, and I think it's going to end.
Mr. President, Schumer and Jeffries reached out to you about meeting on the government shutdown. Will you meet with them before you leave for Asia on Friday?
Well, I will actually, I'd love to meet with them. I just want them to open up the country first. You know, the country's is so hot right now, and they've never voted against, you know, continuation. They've never voted against, they've never done that. They're doing this because they have Trump derangement syndrome. But I will I would love to meet, I would like to meet with both of them, but I I set one little caveat: I will only meet if they let the country open. Let the country open, the people want to go back to work, they want to be served, they want they need the services of some people, and a lot of people need the money, the payroll. So I'll do it as soon as they open up the country, I'd like to meet with them.
So you won't meet with them until Asia, Mr. President. Just to be clear, you won't meet with them until the government's open.
The government has to be open, yeah. The government has to be open. You know how long it would take for them to do that? Just say okay, government's open, that's it. There is no they're not negotiating. What they're doing is saying they lost a negotiation when we got the great big beautiful deal done, they lost that negotiation. Now they're saying well, we want to get some of the things we lost. But the problem is the things they lost are very bad for our country. We don't want to have people come over from all over the world from prisons and all and have them have their health care paid for. We want to take care of people that are here that are American citizens and all. So they want $1.5 trillion of money to be wasted and jeopardize the health care of other people, we're not going to do that. So we're going to I would love to meet with them, we want the country open first.
Mr. President, a new poll shows that if Curtis Sliwa dropped out of the New York mayoral race, then Andrew Cuomo would only trail Mon Doni by four points. Would you call Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the race so that that can happen?