President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting, Mar. 19, 2026

Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's great to have you, and we have a very special person. Just won a tremendous election in a record-setting fashion, so we have something in common. And I was very proud and honored to endorse the Prime Minister because of the fact that I felt she was really good. I thought she did a fantastic job. I respect her a lot, so I gave her an endorsement, and she had the most successful election in my opinion in the history of Japan, won by the most ever. So we have a very popular, powerful woman, and she's a great woman. We have a very fine relationship, and we're going to be talking about trade and many other things, and it's an honor to have you. Thank you very much.

皆様ありがとうございます。本日は非常に特別な方にいらしていただいております。歴史的な選挙での圧勝ということで、私たち共通するものがあると思います。私たち素晴らしい絆を持っておりまして、だからこそ私の方からも応援のメッセージを出させていただきました。素晴らしい人であり、私も心から尊敬している方です。日本の歴史上最も素晴らしい選挙で圧勝したということで、人気の高い女性であり、強い方だと私も思っております。本日に関しては、貿易その他の課題について多く話をする予定です。

Yes, thank you for inviting me to the White House today. Thank you. My visit is timely, so given the current situation. Oh, please, yes, absolutely. You're a very good interpreter, we've known for a long time. With Shinzo, you're a friend. 今、あの中東情勢も含めて、それから世界中、あの安全保障環境が非常に厳しい状況にあります。

Right now, situations in the Middle East and also the entire world, we are actually experiencing a very severe security environment.

そして、まあ世界経済も、あのかなり厳しい影響を受けつつあります。

And also the global economy is now about to experience a huge hit because of this development.

でも私は、ええ世界の繁栄と、そしてま平和に貢献できる、ま世界中に平和と繁栄をもたらすのはドナルドだけだと思っています。

But even against that backdrop, I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.

そのために、あの私はえ諸外国に働きかけてしっかりを応援をしたいと思ってます。

And to do so, I am ready to reach out to many of the partners in the international community to achieve our objective together.

今日私はそれを伝えに来ました。

So today, I came here at the White House to directly convey this message to you.

そして、あのイランに関しては、もう核兵器の開発、まこれは許されてはならないことですから、あの日本も働きかけをしてきました。

And speaking of the situation in Iran, Iran's development of nuclear weapons must never be allowed, and that is why we, Japan, have been urging them and also reaching out to other partners in the world.

そしてわが国は、あの周辺国に対する攻撃、ホルムズ海峡の、まあ実質的な封鎖についても、えこれは非難をし、そして茂木外務大臣からもイランの外務大臣に対して、もうそういうそれをやめるように申し入れをしてきました。

In addition, Japan condemns Iran's actions such as attacking the neighboring region and also the de facto or effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As a matter of fact, my fellow minister, Minister Motegi, Foreign Minister Motegi, also had direct exchange with the Iranian Foreign Minister and urged Iran to stop such activities. Condemns.

Yes, you let me know. You let me know.

それであの、とにかく、あの今、え中東だけでなくインド太平洋の安全保障環境も大変厳しい中にあります。まそんな中で、ドナルドが日本に日本に深い信頼を寄せてくれて、で揺るぎない同盟にコミットメントしてくれていることに感謝をいたします。

And also the security environment in the Indo-Pacific region is also becoming increasingly severe. And against that backdrop, Donald, you have shown deep trust in Japan and also the unwavering commitment to the Japan-U.S. alliance. Once again, thank you very much for that.

今日は日本とアメリカが共に強く豊かになっていくための話し合いをしたいと思ってます。

And today, I look forward to having a discussion on how we can cooperate to make our two nations, both Japan and the United States, stronger and more prosperous.

それから、世界のエネルギーマーケットを落ち着かせるための提案も持ってまいりました。

And I also brought specific proposals to calm down the global energy market.

この後あの主に経済安全保障、ま重要鉱物ですとかエネルギーに関する協力、そしてお互いに強い経済を作るための成長のための話し合い、経済成長のための話し合いをしたいと思ってます。サンキュードナルド。

So today, I really look forward to having our discussion, particularly focusing on our collaboration in economic security in the important areas such as energy and rare earth minerals. And also I look forward to discussing with you how we can make our two economies stronger moving forward. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you very much, and you're doing a great job. Again, congratulations on the biggest win in the history of Japan. That's not bad. That's a pretty long history. That's a large nation with a lot—really with a great, a great reputation, but it's a tremendous victory. Congratulations to everybody. I'm very proud of you, very proud of you. We've become friends, and I'm very proud of the job you've done. It's not easy. Any questions, please?

Mr. President, are you fully satisfied with the level of support that you're getting from Japan on Iran, including around mine sweepers?

日本から掃海艇などの支援に関して、その点について今の状況に満足していらっしゃいますか？

We're doing—we're going to be speaking about it today. We've had tremendous support and relationship with Japan on everything. And I believe that based on statements that were given to us yesterday, the day before yesterday, having to do with Japan, they are really stepping up to the plate. Yes.

非常に状況はいいと思います。素晴らしい支援を受けていると思います。一昨日のコメントから、日本からはそれに対して非常に力強いメッセージを得ていると私は思っています。

Unlike NATO.

NATOとは全く違いますね。

Mr. President, do you intend to lift sanctions on Iranian oil, and do you intend to potentially put U.S. troops or more troops in the region?

No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops. And we will do whatever is necessary to keep the price as low—I actually thought when I did this—the Dow just hit 50,000 a couple of weeks ago. They said that couldn't happen for four years, it wouldn't happen in my term. It was such an outrageous thing because I said it would happen. I didn't know it was going to happen that fast, but it just hit 50,000, and we did that in one year, not four. S&P had just hit 7,000, they said that was even more impossible than the Dow hitting 50, and we did that in one year. So it's all done, everything was going great, the economy was great, oil prices were very low, gasoline was dropping to—I mean, we had $1.99, $1.85, we had great everything. And I saw what was happening in Iran, and I said I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion, and when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world. And the Prime Minister agrees with me on this. She considers it to be terrible what Iran did. I think every country does, just about every country does. Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world, and everybody agrees with me. I think virtually every country agrees with me on that. So I wanted to put out that fire, and I said in order to do that, oil prices would go up, the economy would go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse, much worse actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad, and it's going to be over with pretty soon. We've obliterated their navy, we've obliterated their—just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership. Their navy's gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft equipment is gone. We're flying wherever we want, we have nobody even shooting at us. They have—I mean, and as you know, their leadership is gone. Their leaders are gone, they pick new leaders, they're gone, they pick new leaders, they're gone. And now they're looking for new leaders again. We can take out the island anytime we want, I call it the little oil island that sits there so totally unprotected. We've taken out everything but the pipes. We left the pipes because to rebuild the pipes would take years for, you know, for them to do. But we are, I would say, we are substantially ahead of schedule, and I had to do this. I had to—I call it an excursion. I had to take this little excursion and do something that no other President had the courage to do, and everybody wanted to do it, but they never had the courage to do it. And I don't blame them. I'm not blaming them. It was left to me, and we've done a great job. Our military is incredible. We have an incredible military. [11:29] We have the strongest military in the world by far. We have the greatest equipment in the world by far. In fact, Japan buys our equipment, buys a lot of it, and we're honored by that. And that's one of the things we'll be talking—they want to buy a lot of the military equipment. So it's just an honor to have the Prime Minister. We've had a tremendous relationship. Okay. I think she's going to have to go before you go. Is that okay? You understand? It's very good, I'll tell you. I mean, it's so nice that we don't have to—no, it's very good. I haven't picked up your language, so the next time you come, I'll have your language mastered. Okay, all right. Go ahead.

With the war is almost over, why is the Pentagon going to ask Congress for an additional $200 billion?

Well, we're asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we're talking about in Iran. We're in a very volatile world, and the military equipment—the power of some of this weaponry is unthinkable. You don't even want to know about it. Oh, you could end this thing in two seconds if you wanted to. But we are—we're being very judicious, but we want to—don't forget, Biden gave away—I rebuilt the military my first time. Biden gave away so stupidly to Afghanistan a lot. He—he didn't want to move it, he was too lazy, too stupid to move it. But it was a very small amount—it was a lot, but it was very small relative to what I purchased and what I built. We want to have a good—we want to have vast amounts of ammunition, which we have right now. We have a lot of ammunition, but it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine. They gave so much—you know, Biden gave $350 billion worth of cash and military equipment to Ukraine, and he didn't rebuild anything. Fortunately, we have a lot. We have a tremendous unlimited supply of what you'd call middle and upper middle armaments and military equipment, munitions. Armaments, but munitions in particular. At the high end, we have a lot, but we're preserving it, we don't really need it. But we're building—our manufacturers of military equipment are building at a level they've never seen before, they've never done before. Pete's in charge of it, with—well, with all of us really, but Pete's been very, very strong on it. The General and Pete, myself, the whole group. And Raytheon is building four factories, Lockheed is building five or six factories, and they're building them fast because we had a very tough meeting with them. They were going out and buying—buying back stock for $51 billion in one case. They spent $51 billion buying back stock. Now they're not allowed to do that. And they are now building a tremendous—there's never been anything like what's taking place right now. So we're in very good shape, but we want to be in the best shape, the best shape we've ever been in. We were that, you know, when I rebuilt the military, we were in great shape, and then Biden blew it and he didn't do anything, he didn't build—he didn't do anything. And if you listen to the Democrats, they don't even want to have a military. Now you see how important it is. But we have the strongest military in the world. We have the best equipment. We make by far the best equipment. The other night, they had 114 rockets shot at a certain location. And out of 100—highly sophisticated rockets—out of 114 sophisticated rockets, every single one of them was shot down with our equipment. All our equipment. It's amazing actually how good it is. So we want to be sure, and that's a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy-top.

Mr. President, the Treasury Secretary this morning said there were defections among Iranian leadership. Are you aware of that, and is there anybody the US can work with as a leader going forward?

Well, we have a man named the Treasury Secretary here, so maybe—maybe he wants to discuss it. Does anybody know—do you know who he is? Central casting.

Yeah, so and we are seeing the defections at all levels as they're starting to sense what's going on with the regime. It doesn't get reported here in the US very well, but you know, we are trouncing them from the air and the regime will probably collapse within itself. At Treasury, we've seen where they've wired their money out of the country, we're coming for that, we're going to get it back to the Iranian people.

And you are seeing defections.

Yes.

And on Israel, have you—

A lot of military defections also. You have a lot of military defections in Iran.

I don't—I don't blame them.

Thank you, Mr. President. Have you talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu about attacking oil and gas fields?

I did, I did. I told him don't do that, and he's won't do that. We didn't discuss—you know, we do—we're independent but get along great. It's coordinated, but on occasion he'll do something and if I don't like it—and so we're not doing that anymore.

And the last one if I could, the Fed Chairman told me yesterday that he plans to stay until a new Fed Chairman is confirmed, and he also plans to stay on the board until the investigation into Federal Reserve is done.

Well, he's under investigation because he's building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it's supposed to cost. The building you see over there is under budget and ahead of schedule, that's the ballroom. The ballroom is a much bigger building, it's a much more complex building than what he's doing, and it's at a fraction of the cost. Something is going on, whether it's contractors—that's what I do best in the world, I build. I build great buildings. I've always done it. And I build them under budget and ahead of schedule. They could have four billion dollars—this is a renovation job for four billion dollars. And if you look at the building, it's not even—I don't know if Kevin Warsh is ever going to be able to move into it. It's been under construction for years. It's the most expensive building ever built. Now, it—I know it's gross incompetence because I happen to think he's grossly incompetent. Today certainly he should be lowering interest rates, all right. Certainly, who would not lower them? But he's stubborn and he's got Trump Derangement Syndrome, but a lot of people have that, you know. It's not a curable disease. But he's also building—he should be lowering rates immediately. But he won't do that because he's—he's a stubborn incompetent person. And that's a bad thing, you know. When you're stubborn and incompetent, I think it's the worst combination. And he's also not a smart person. But he's building a complex over there that's under his jurisdiction. He started it and it's out of control. It's billions of dollars for a little building. I could have done that building and made it beautiful for $25 million. $25 million and it would have been beautiful. Look what I've done at the White House, fixing it up and—I mean, the place was in bad shape. You see the floors and everything. It was in bad shape. I could have—I could have made that building beautiful for $25 million. They're spending $4 billion. [19:00] All right. So it's—there is criminality, maybe it's with the contractor. But because I know more about contractors than any human being maybe that's ever lived. But that contractor is a very rich man. Whoever the contractor is, and we know, but whoever the contractor is is an extremely rich man. He's going to make—I mean, he could make billions of dollars. I don't—I'm hearing numbers from three to four billion dollars. That would make it the most expensive building on a square foot basis ever built in history. And you're not even building a building, it's a renovation. The exterior skin is staying, the steel is staying, the structure. So all I want to do is bring out to the public that this guy is an incompetent, he's a very incompetent guy, and he may be a dishonest guy. But somebody's dishonest because there's no way that building could be three to four billion dollars. [20:05] Please. Mr. President, you just mentioned Japan—this looks like one of your favorites. Thank you. Is he good or bad? Is he a good reporter or bad? You know. So-so. All right. Looks like a NASCAR. Go ahead.

Mr. President, you just mentioned Japan is stepping up. What kind of support do you expect from Japan in the future?

Look, I expect Japan to step up because, you know, we have that kind of relationship. And we—we step up for Japan. We have 45,000 soldiers in Japan, we have—we spend a lot of money on Japan, so and we've had that kind of a relationship. So I—I expect—I'm not surprised that they would step up. We don't need much. We don't need anything. I mean, honestly, we don't need anything from Japan or from anyone else, but I think it's appropriate that people step up. In the case of Japan, I hear they get more than 90% of their oil through the—the strait. So that's a big reason to step up. I mean, we've—we've demolished—that country is close to demolished. The only thing is the strait. It's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water and the whole thing's up. We don't want that to happen. But honestly, Japan, China, Europe—parts of Europe—get a lot of their oil through the strait. We get none, practically. We're less than—we're less than 1%. We don't have to be any percent. We don't even—I think we do it just to be nice. But we—think of it. We don't use the strait. We're defending the strait for everybody else. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the strait, and they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. They're getting much nicer. But it's— [22:01] As far as I'm concerned, it's too late. You know, UK wants to send aircraft carriers now. And I said I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I don't want them after the war is won. They want to send me aircraft carriers after the war is—there's practically nobody to shoot at. You know, their missile count is down—Pete, maybe you could discuss it—by about 90-something percent. The drones are way down, and the factories are being demolished.