You guys ready? Well, thank you very much. I'm a big sports fan. There are no people tougher in sports than the people behind me. These are the toughest people and I know them all. I know the football players, I know just about everybody you can know, and they come to the Oval Office. We give out all championships, baseball, football, basketball, everything. They're always up here, we take the champions. And these are the great champions, and as you know, on June 14th, we're having a big fight. It's never going to happen again, never happened before, and it's all of the best fighters, best four fighters standing right behind me, and all champions. And it's going to happen right in front of the White House. Here's a picture, I think a lot of people haven't seen this yet. [01:11] Championship belt. Dana White was here last night, did you know that? He was here last night. He loves this guy, he loves all of them. Here's another one, this is another, they're going all the way out, all online, it's all people invited, our country is invited to this, it's free. And you know, in the park right across the street, they're going to have, I guess, anywhere from 75 to 100,000 people, free. They're going to set up eight big screens, and they're going to have the fight. And then out here, we're going to have 4,000 seats right in front of the front door of the White House. Hardest ticket I've ever had to give out. This will be the greatest show on earth. At night, that's all lighting and cover. [02:07] And I think you get the idea. So, it's going to be June 14th and it's going to be great, and this is a little different for these political people. And but these, these are real, these are real warriors. When we talk about warriors, these are warriors. Cyril Gane, these are all champions, I don't have to say champions, and most of you know, many of you know who they are. Cyril, a great honor. Alex Pereira, who I've seen knock out a lot of people, that's what he does, he knocks out people. Congratulations on an unbelievable career. Wow. Ilia Topuria, who they, they say does not get tougher, so it's pretty much, I mean, that's it, you're very special. And a friend of mine, Justin Gaethje, who is just a fighter like you've never seen. You see the kind of pounding he'll take and then all of a sudden, it's over and the other guy's not in good shape, right? Not in good shape. So these are the, these are the toughest people, these are the greatest fighters in the world, they're all champions, and they'll be fighting against very tough people also. But I think you always go in thinking you're going to win. But they fight against Olympians, they come from all over the world, some come from extreme poverty, some come from... not too many people come from Fifth Avenue, for the most part, I would say Fifth Avenue's not well covered in this sport. But it's a special group of people with tremendous heart and really tremendous talent. And, and I really believe you're probably born with the punch and you're born with an ability to take a punch too. I was talking to Dana White last night, he was talking about that. Some people can take a punch and some people can't, and in life it's always good to be able to do that. And if you guys want to say anything, I don't want to pick out individual, but if you want to say anything you could, but we're going to see you all here on June 14th.
President Trump Delivers Remarks, May 6, 2026
Yeah, I mean, what an unbelievable honor. I mean, I'm not sure many know how big of a part you were to the UFC coming on and becoming mainstream in the early 90s when nobody would let us in, nobody believed in us, and they thought we were just absolute animals, and you gave us a chance to fight in your properties.
Well, they're right about that though. Justin, it's great being with you. You know, what he's saying is right. They couldn't get, Dana says it better than anybody can say it. They couldn't get any arenas because it was so violent that they couldn't get arenas. I was able to give them, I guess, the first four or five fights, then I went and I said, 'This sport is unbelievable.' They had some of the greatest fighting I've ever seen and it's continued on. Now it's really at a new level because the talent is much greater than it was even then, and much tougher. These are the best in the world right here. So, I think you're going to, a lot of the press is going to be there, and I think this is going to be one, this is going to be the event you're really going to like. Anybody want to say? We have all of the great representatives there. They're making a lot of money, they're making a lot of money. Look at that guy over there, don't fight that one right there. But do you have anything to say? How about you? Manager?
Ah, you know, like Justin said, without President Trump, probably the UFC would be 20 years behind. He gave us the jumpstart from the beginning, and I think this is going to be the greatest sports event ever created on planet earth. It's going to be the most watched sports event on planet earth. What an honor to fight on the ground of red, white, and blue. You know, I know Justin is only American, but it's an honor for guys from France, Spain, Brazil. But America is the dream. All these guys live in the American dream, and all of us live in an American dream. It's an honor to be in the Oval Office and it's an honor to have a president actually welcome the people. You know, welcome the people. Most of the presidents just too good to do other things with other people, but this is the greatest president of all time in any country, in any world, in any time, and thank you, President Trump.
I tell you, I like him. I made a good move by asking him to speak, that was very good, thank you. I really do, I appreciate it. Well, you're one of the greats and one of the great managers too, and a very good friend of a very special fighter that we know, right? Khabib, who fought 29 fights, I think he won 29 fights, right? He had a tough fight with this guy right here.
That was his 29th.
That was, that was some fight. So they're going to be going outside. Would you guys, anybody like to say something? I mean, if you want.
Queria agradecer a oportunidade de estar lutando na Casa Branca, como o senhor falou, um evento único onde todos queriam estar lutando e a gente está fazendo parte, isso é muito especial. I would like to thank the opportunity to be fight on the White House, we know it's a special event that everybody would like to be present, to make the feels special. Thank you.
Thank you very much. One of the greatest punches in the history of the business. I just shook his hand, he's a large hand. That's a powerful hand, I tell you. It's, they're very unusual people, born with great talent and then they hone the talent. I'll save you for last, I guess, because he loves this country so much, but I'll save you for last. Please, would you like to say something?
Yeah, I just want to say thank you. It's an honor and I'm really proud. It's going to be really special, one time in the life, so I just want to say thank you. Thank you, President.
It's an honor to have you. It's an honor, yeah. And we'll all be there watching and you guys are something special, so we'll all be there watching. I don't know how the hell you do it, but they wouldn't have it any other way. They love the sport, they really love the sport. They come out of a ring or the most incredible fight you've ever seen and they say 'this is the greatest sport.' I could do a, you know, I'd rather take a three-footer personally. But this, there's no better thing to watch than this. And Justin is known as just one of the truly, obviously talented and everything else, but he's got more heart and he's just has an ability they call a motor. He's got a motor that doesn't stop, and that all starts, it all starts right up here.
Yep, here and here, and I mean I learned that growing up in small town Safford, Arizona. Copper kettle and cotton, that's what we do down there. Three generations in the copper mine. So yeah, like, like you said, none of us come from opportunity or wealth, and this is one of the truest merit-based systems in the world, this sport right here. Everybody has an opportunity and we all get a chance, and we will get a chance. And so of course my faith is as strong as his, and I've committed my whole life to this. And so to have a president that's willing to go against an upstream and against the norms is truly special, it's why you got my vote, and it's why we're such a great nation right now compared to where we were.
Well, we all love you. He's got tremendous fan base. Each one of these people, these in the sporting world, really because I think most of the sporting world is watching the UFC. But Dana White was here last night, we were talking about it. He said they've never had anything like what's happening. They all, the problem was everybody wanted to fight, you know, we had so many guys, they all they're all saying 'we want to fight at the White House.' Well they also we don't want to because of optics and then they cry when they didn't get in, so that's right, now they're crying. But it's true. But anyway, so they're going to go outside, they're going to have some pictures taken on the balcony, the Truman Balcony, I think they're going up to Truman, and it's a beautiful balcony on the White House. And do you have any questions? Only for the fighters now, I think is, I mean they they want to ask about Iran and a couple of other things.
I could try on Iran. Go ahead, let me I'll bridge this. Here, yes sir. Well try on. Wait, wait, this will work. You're facing an opponent right now in Iran that has refused to submit. You seem optimistic now that you may be closer to a deal. What's different about this moment now than in other moments where a deal has seemed close?
Well why do you say they refused to submit? You don't know that. You don't know what's going on. They fired on US ships a few days ago. Yeah, a few days ago is a long time ago. You know, in the world of war, a few days ago. No, they want to make a deal badly, and we'll see if we get there. If we get there, they can't have nuclear weapons, you know, it's very simple. But what's not to submit? So they had a navy with 159 ships and now every ship is blown to pieces and lying at the bottom of the water. They had an air force, lots of planes, and they don't have any planes. They don't have any anti-aircraft. They don't have any radar left. Their missiles are mostly decimated. They have some, they have probably 18-19 percent but not a lot by comparison to what they had. And their leaders are all dead. So I think we won. Now it's only a question of, look, if we left right now Iran, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. You would call that we're in good shape, right? Fantastic, Ali, we're in good shape. And now we're doing well and we have to get what we have to get. If we don't do that, we'll have to go a big step further. But with that being said, they want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it's very possible that we'll make a deal. Yeah, please.
Thank you, Mr. President, good to see you. What what are the status of these talks? You say they're very good. Could you just give us some insight as to where we are with them at this point?
Well, we've had talks and we've had some good talks before, as you know, and all of a sudden the next day they're like they forgot what happened. You know, they're proud like like these guys are proud. Nobody more proud than these guys. Sometimes they fight on pride because you know they're injured, they're hurt, no matter how great you are, you get hit by somebody else that looks like them, it's it's very tough. But they have great pride. These people have great pride. The others do too, enemies have great pride. We went into Venezuela, smart people, great people, they have a really strong military. We won it very quickly and we have a it's been a fantastic thing for Venezuela. The people are really happy, they're dancing in the streets because they have a lot of money coming in through the big oil companies that are all moving in. I was with Exxon Mobil last night, the chairman was here, and we were talking about Venezuela along with a lot of them, Chevron, they're all they were all here last night, they all want to go there and elsewhere. We just hit a new high in the stock market. The stock market's the highest it's ever been. And I expected that the market would be down 20-25 percent. I was willing to do that to get rid of a crazy country, crazy, the people. Look, you know, you talk about regime change, their first level leaders are dead, their second level leaders are dead, some of their third level leaders are dead. I call that regime change. But I thought we'd be down maybe 20 percent and we're up. The stock market's higher now than when we started this war. And I thought oil prices would go to 200, 250 dollars, it's at 100 dollars now. And I think you're surprised and I'm surprised. But even if it went to 200, it would have been worth it. I understood that. We had just set a record 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the S&P, a record. And I said, 'I hate to do this, but we have to make an excursion down to Iran because we can't let them have a a nuclear weapon.' Look, and this is very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon because as tough as they are, we want to keep them alive, we want to keep all of you alive. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won't, and they've agreed to that, among other things. Yeah.
Mr. President, you've had some recent back and forth with Pope Leo. I understand Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to meet with the Pope tomorrow. What message do you hope he delivers to the Holy Father?
Well, I can tell you this, that as far as the Pope is concerned, and it's very simple, whether I make him happy or I don't make him happy, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And he seemed to be saying that they can, and I say they cannot because if that happened, the entire world would be hostage and we're not going to let that happen. That's my only message. Okay? So they're going to go out now and they're going to have some great pictures taken, and we'll see you guys on June 14th, but I know in your case we're going to see a lot more. We'll see you probably tomorrow.
Of all the events on the South Lawn, why this event?
I think it's going to be the biggest event we've ever had. We, well, the White House doesn't really do athletic events for the most part, and this is these are all the greatest champions in the world, they're the greatest fighters in the world. You can tell by looking at them. These are the greatest fighters in the world. How do you think if you went into heavy training? Huh? You think you'd be... it would be a little tough, right? Have a good time everybody, thank you. Never a deadline. It'll happen but never a deadline. Thank you. Thank you very much.