President Trump Participates in a Cabinet Meeting, Mar. 26, 2026

Hello. Nice to see you, Brian. Nice to see you too, Mr. President. Good. Brian's been out on an excursion, right? Okay. Hi. How are you? Are you already a lot of a lot of media, as usual? So thank you to the incredible members of my cabinet. They're doing a phenomenal job. Everybody pretty much agrees to that. Including our newest member, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. Thank you, Mark. And we all know him very well, and he was a very popular senator, a very effective senator. Effective probably being the more important word. JD, don't you think? Yes, sir. And we wish you a lot of luck, and I think you'll do fantastically well. Congratulations to you. You have an amazing family. They were here yesterday in the Oval. Sworn in. His family's amazing. So thank you very much. We're now on day 41 of the disgraceful Democrat shutdown of Markwayne's department. Congratulations. You came into a department that's shutdown. Shutdown by the radical Democrats, right? But the Democrats are really punishing the American people. I saw it today on one of the shows where they were interviewing people at the airport and they were all angry at the Democrats. They're saying, they're actually angry at Schumer. I didn't think anyone knew his name. One woman said, 'That Schumer's disgraceful, he's a disgrace to our country.' But they're angry at the Democrats. They know what's happening. But they are punishing the American people, including travelers at airports, all in the quest to return to open borders and give amnesty to illegal alien criminals. They want to give amnesty to some of the criminals that came into our country. Just about all of them, actually, if you look at it. They love sanctuary cities, which is a sanctuary for criminals. They want to make sure they're taken care of. That's what we're fighting about. That's really what they're fighting about. They don't talk about that, but that's what they're fighting about. They want to protect criminals in many cases. 11,888 murders. Many of them, I will say, are gone now because of us. We got them out. But we still have some left. Should have never happened. Should have never been allowed to come into our country. But we're not going to let it happen. We're not going to let the Democrats get away with this stuff. And people are wise to them. So they need to end the shutdown immediately or we'll have to take some very drastic measures. This morning I want to give an update on Operation Epic Fury, which is an appropriate name because we are absolutely obliterating them. Over the past three weeks we've been hitting Iran's military capabilities at a level that few people have ever seen before. People never knew there was such a capability. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world, by far. I built it during my first administration, and I used it during my second administration. Unfortunately, because I'd rather not have to use it. But it's a display of force and precision and skill like nothing the world has really witnessed, although you got a pretty good witnessing of it in Venezuela also. That was a smaller version of what we're doing now. We're crushing their missiles and drone stockpiles, destroying their defense industrial base. We've wiped out their navy completely. Their air force completely. We've wiped out a large percentage of their missiles and the missile launchers. Without the launchers, the missiles don't do any good. And we've knocked out probably close to 90% of the launchers, probably more than 90% of the missiles themselves. Between some they fired and more than they fired, we knocked out. We've also destroyed a lot of the factories. We're continuing to do that, but a lot of the factories where they manufacture the drones and the missiles. The drones too are way down. But the reason they're down is they they go one way and they don't come back, because for the most part we're shooting them down. But we also are able to we've really done tremendous damage to the places where they make them. And just so we set the record straight because I've been watching the Wall Street Journal's fake news and all these stories that get printed, like oh I want to make a deal. They are begging to make a deal, not me. They are begging to make a deal. And anybody that saw what was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal. But they say, 'Oh, we're not talking to them.' Anybody would know they're talking. Only a total fool. And they're not fools. They're very smart, actually, in a certain way. And they're great negotiators. I say they're lousy fighters, but they're great negotiators. And they are begging to work out a deal. I don't know if we'll be able to do that. I don't know if we're willing to do that. They should have done that four weeks ago. They should have done it two years ago. Or they should have done it when we first came into office. Because two years ago they had free rein under Biden. Sleepy Joe. Worst president in the history of our country. When he allowed that to happen to our country at the borders, and even with a thing like this. But not just him. Every president for 47 years. Every president should have done this. They should have done it a long time ago. Because you cannot give lunatics a nuclear weapon. And they would have had a big one. It stopped really when we did the B-2s. But even before that, Barack Hussein Obama. What he did where he gave them the Iran nuclear deal gave them free will toward a nuclear weapon. Basically he chose Iran over Israel and others that didn't want them to do it. But I terminated that deal. Had I not terminated that deal, you would have had a nuclear weapon years ago and it would have been used. Guaranteed. And one of the reasons you know about the guarantee is because their neighbors were sort of like bystanders. They weren't involved very much. They didn't choose heavy sides. They didn't want to because people were concerned with Iran. They were sort of big black cloud over the Middle East. They were concerned. But all of a sudden the war starts and they start shooting at these five in particular. Five countries. They start shooting at Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman. They start shooting at them and they were everyone was shocked, including us. You know why? Because they're sick. And they had a plan to take over the Middle East. And some of those missiles that were shot at them were locked long before we even started this process. They were locked and loaded and aimed at those countries. They wanted to take over the Middle East. But we happened to come along, so it wasn't so easy. So right now their navy is sunk, in the largest elimination of a foreign navy that has taken place, maybe ever, but certainly since World War II. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft and communications capabilities are totally dismantled. And one of the problems they do have when they deal with us is we deal with people and the people aren't able to communicate with anybody else. You know, because all of their leadership has been gone. The first level is gone and they met to pick a new level and they're gone. They're all gone because they didn't make a deal and because they're sick people. They're really sick. They're they're really sinister sick people. And if anybody thinks it was okay to have a group of people like this to have nuclear capability, nuclear weapons. And if we didn't attack with the B-2 bombers, they would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks of that, maybe four weeks. But between two and four weeks they were planning to have a nuclear weapon. If we didn't hit them at that time with the nuclear with the B-2 bombers, in one of the great air raids in history, maybe the greatest. Dark at night, no moon, no light, every single bomb hit its mark and just obliterated that place. So it's now buried deep under earth. And it was an amazing thing. But they would have had a nuclear and they would have used it without question. And you know that because why did they shoot all these countries that weren't even really involved with them? They weren't involved. They had no big problems. Because they're sick. Because they want to take over the Middle East. Not just Israel. Certainly Israel would have been the first on their list. They would have used nuclear weapons. A nuclear, you don't need too many of them. But they would have used a nuclear weapon on Israel and they would have used it on the other their neighbors. And then they would have come after us. And if we had a weak president, they would have done great damage. But fortunately you don't have a weak president. I knew what was happening. And I think we've been proven right. You know they took one missile that went 2,500 miles. They supposedly didn't have a missile like that. They had no missile with that capability. But they shot the now famous Ireland, the island that the UK was very afraid to give us, because they didn't want to get dragged in. But we didn't want to get dragged into their wars either, you know? One thing we're very disappointed, I'll say it publicly, we're very disappointed with NATO. Because NATO has done absolutely nothing. And I've always said, 25 years ago. I mean I was somebody that wasn't a politician, but I was always involved in politics and I understood politics. I said 25 years ago that NATO's a paper tiger. But, more importantly, that we'll come to their rescue but they will never come to ours. And I want you to remember that we said this. They didn't come to our rescue. Now they all want to help. When they're annihilated, the other side is annihilated. They said, 'We'd love to send ships.' They actually made a statement, a couple of them, that 'we want to get involved when the war's over.' No, you're supposed to get involved when the war's beginning, or even before it begins. We had the UK say that we'll send this was three weeks ago we'll send our aircraft carriers, which aren't the best aircraft carriers by the way. They're toys compared to what we have. But we'll send our aircraft carrier when the war's over. I said, 'Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you very much. Don't bother. We don't need it.' And we don't need it, and we don't need them. We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission. And we're way ahead of schedule. If you look at what we've done in terms of the destruction of that country, I mean we're way ahead. Think of it, they have no navy, and they had good ships, 154 ships have been shot down and are resting very nicely at the bottom of the sea. And we did that in a matter of less than a week. Because we have the greatest military in the world by far. Nobody even close. So we estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission. 26 days in, we're extremely really a lot ahead of schedule. The Iranian regime is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated. They they're saying to people, 'This is a disaster.' They know it. That's why they're talking to us. They only if they wouldn't talk otherwise. But they're talking to us because they've got a disaster in their hands. They're defeated. They can't make a comeback. We're free to roam over their cities and towns and destroy all of their crazy nuclear weapons and missiles and drones that they're building. And we're doing that. They now have a chance to make a deal, but that's up to them. And they'll tell you, 'We're not negotiating. We will not negotiate.' Of course they're negotiating. They've been obliterated. Who wouldn't negotiate? They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal. And if they make the right deal, then the then the strait will open up, Hormuz Strait will open up. And even now we don't know if there are any mines. You know we they have 22 mine they call them mine droppers. Think of it, who would have 22 mine droppers? This is a boat that drops a mine. Who has 22 mine droppers, except for people with very evil intention? So every one of those mine droppers has been struck with the same weapon we use to stop drugs from coming into the United States of America. When we hit those boats, it's the exact same weapon. Extremely effective. We have unlimited supplies. And extremely effective. But they have no more mine droppers. By the way, speaking of drugs, we're 98% down drugs coming in by water, by the ocean, by the sea. 98%. And we're trying to find out who are the 2% because we think they're the bravest men anywhere in the world. Maybe women. But whoever's on those boats is very brave or doesn't watch television. But we're drugs coming in by sea, coming in by water are 98% down. And now we'll stop the drugs coming in by land. The land is the easy one. You had to stop the water. A lot of it came in through the water. Now it's all pinched and these people are trying to come in by land and we will that's that's the easy one. But we had to take care of the water first. Nobody's nobody's coming. Virtually nothing is coming in anymore. It was hundreds of millions of dollars a week were coming in by water. But they now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to chart a new path forward. We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away. Unimpeded, unstopped. Well, there's not a thing they can do about it. They can't do anything about it, you know? I tell you if they could if they could, you'd be hearing about it. You'd be hearing about it. You don't hear anything about it. They can't shoot our jets. We have the best we have the best military equipment in the world. Not not even a contest. And you see that with Venezuela. They had other equipment. They didn't have ours. It didn't work. It didn't work. Think of it, we did the the situation in Venezuela it was a great military operation getting a very, very dangerous man who's killed a lot of people, forced people into our country. Incredible, he left he emptied his prisons in Venezuela. Empties his prisons into our country. And I hope that charge will be brought at some point, because that was a big charge that hasn't been brought yet. Should be brought. He emptied his prisons into our country and was a major purveyor of drugs coming into our country. And he's now been captured and he'll, you know, I guess be given a fair trial. But I would imagine there are other trials coming because they have just they've really sued him just on a fraction of the kind of things that he's done. Other cases are going to be brought as you probably know. In the meantime, with Iran we're going to keep doing what we've been doing and nobody's a match for the United States. But they're not a match for the United States. It's small potatoes. That's why I'm so disappointed in NATO, because this was a test for NATO. This was a test for NATO. You don't want to help us, you don't have to. But if you don't have, you know, if you don't do that, we're going to remember. Just remember. Remember this in a number of months from now. Remember my statement. They have an expression, a great expression: never forget. Can never forget. So as we end threats to America abroad, we're focused here at home on building the greatest economy in the history of the world. Now, before this started the Dow hit 50,000. The S&P hit 7,000. Both of those achievements were not were not achievable. Every one of you, most of you, I guess, said you'll never hit 50,000 during a four-year period because it was too high a number. Well, we hit it in our first year. And I said, 'Well, now we have to take an excursion to Iran and we have to stop this maniac who's no longer with us. The supreme leader wasn't so supreme. No longer with us. It's very sad. But we have to stop him from blowing up the world, blowing up the Middle East and blowing up our country. And we did that. And I thought, frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more and I thought the stock market would go down more. Hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought. I think they have confidence in maybe the American president and maybe the people sitting around this table. But Americans filing their taxes this year are receiving record-setting refunds. It's been a very big story. Well, it should be a big story. I don't think you read about it that much. But I speak about it, you know? I speak about it, because if I speak about it, at least people hear you don't write about it. You don't write about the drug prices going down. They'll be going down 30, 40, 50, 60%, 70%. Favorite nation. Call most favored nation. We're going to be paying the lowest price anywhere in the world, before we paid the highest price in the world, Bobby, right? And now we're going to pay the lowest price in the world. That's quite a difference. It's a difference of from 40 to 70 and 80 and even 90%. That's a pretty big difference. But we're slashing regulations and investment is pouring in from all over the world. We have the most investment of any country in history has been put into our country in the last year. And again, we had to take a little detour. Won't be long. Gonna end soon. But we had to take a little detour, go to Iran, and we had to put out a fire. Very dangerous fire that could have blown up big portions of the world, if not the whole thing. So tomorrow we'll be announcing a variety of actions that we're taking to support American farmers, who we never forget. We love the farmers. We gave them $12 billion out of tariff money. We had a tremendous amount of tariff money come in and we continue to have. We've gone, as you know, the Supreme Court gave us a very unfortunate, foolish ruling. A ruling that gives people that have ripped off our country for many years, gives them some money back. But it's one of those things. It's a terrible, terrible, horrible mistake they made. But it's okay because we have another method that's just as good. We'll use the other method. But because the tariff money has been so substantial, we gave our farmers who have been mistreated by some countries, we gave them $12 billion. And they're extremely happy and they deserve it. They've been great. They never complain. They just go out and they farm. And they wouldn't do anything different. They wouldn't trade jobs with any of you, except maybe some of the fake media. I don't know. Some I don't see that. I like I like their job better, actually. I love the farmers. So we gave them $12 billion. So in just a few moments Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will discuss the actions that we're taking to address energy prices, which have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. And, you know, it's not over. So maybe it'll go up a little bit more. It's all going to come back down to where it was and probably lower. And my predictions have been right. Trump was right about everything. They have a new hat: Trump was right about everything. It's pretty right. But Scott's going to address that. And I think before we go very much further, I want to ask Vice President JD Vance to say a few words about where we are with the situation. He's involved with Steve and with Jared on negotiations. And then some of the others will speak. We'll have Mark say a few words. Pete Hegseth, who's who was born for this role. I mean, he's doing a great job. They gave him a hard time. And now people, I'll tell you, somebody came up to me yesterday who gave you a very hard time said, 'You know, I made a mistake. Pete Hegseth is doing a good job.' So when I tell you who, you're not even going to believe it. He used to just he gave you such a nasty hard time. But you're doing you're doing great. And then Steve is going to speak and Scott will speak last. And if we have any questions, we'll take some questions. Or you may have questions. I doubt it, but you may have some questions. So JD, please.

Yes, sir. Well, thank you. It's good to see everybody. Proud to be part of this team, proud to be serving the president in the country. Let me just say a couple of things. The first of all is the president summarized this very ably. But look, the Iranian conventional military is effectively destroyed. They don't have a navy, they don't have the ability to hit us like they could have even a few weeks ago. And what that does is that gives us options, Mr. President. Now, there's been a lot of reporting about diplomatic options, about negotiations. There's, of course, Pete and his team, there are further military options. But what we have now that we didn't have when the president took over just a little over a year ago is the ability to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. Because when I say options, I think it's important the American people know options for what? And it's options to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on. And they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed and that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people? That is the most important American national security objective that exists for any administration at any time is you don't want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon. That's why the president is doing this. That's why the president cares so much about this particular issue. I'll let Steve talk a little bit about the details of the negotiation. But the last thing I'll say before I I turn it over to Marco is I am very mindful, of course, that we have a lot of folks overseas fighting very ably for the United States of America. I know Pete and the whole team are very proud of them. But they're fighting at a time where we are about to enter as Christians the most important week of the Christian calendar, the Holy Week that celebrates the return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem. And so I want to say to all of my fellow American Christians, but particularly those serving in the Gulf, that I wish you all a very blessed Easter, a very blessed Holy Week, and we continue to stand behind you and continue to support you every step of the way. Thank you, sir.

Oh, thank you very much. Marco.

The most important job any president has is to keep the American people safe. And every president says it, but we have a president that means it and does something about it. As the president outlined very clearly to the world on the night this operation began, Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years. For 47 years Iran has been killing Americans and attacking Americans across this planet. And other presidents had an opportunity to do something about it. And they all warned about how Iran was dangerous, but they refused to act. And this president's not someone that's going to refuse to act. He's not going to leave a danger like this in place. He's going to address it and that is what he is doing. From the very first night of this operation, the president made it very clear. People like this, and now what I'm talking about is not the people of Iran. The people that run this country are radical Shia clerics. These are religious fanatics. Look what they are doing now, at their weakest point. This is the weakest Iran has ever been, and look what they're doing. They're attacking embassies, their embassies. They're attacking hotels. They imagine what these people would do if they had a nuclear weapon. That is an unacceptable risk for the world. By the way, the president's not just doing a favor to the United States and to our people. This is for the world. He defined very clearly on the first night of this operation what the goal was. We were going to destroy Iran's navy. And that is happening. We were going to if it hasn't already happened, I'll let Pete speak to the specifics of it, we were going to destroy their missile launching capabilities. And we're well on our way to achieving that goal. We were going to destroy the factories so they couldn't make more missiles and more drones. And that is moving forward. Every single objective the president clearly laid out on the first night of this operation is being effectuated. Again, Pete'll speak to the specifics of it. This has been an incredibly successful operation. Every day, it may not get covered because, you know, we're unlike them, we're not we're not bombing embassies and hotels, we're hitting military targets. But every day, the Department of War lets the drummer get wicked over every portion of Iran that has these military capabilities, and the results are going to bear fruit for the world. The world is going to be a safer and a better place when President Trump's mission here is achieved. And frankly, I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that's willing to confront a threat like this and not allow it to continue to persist. Because these people will kill as many Americans as they have a chance to do. And if they have a nuclear weapon, as the vice president pointed out, they could kill millions of Americans in the future. And that is a risk that was not going to continue to exist as long as we had this president.

Thank you, Marco. You know it's very interesting because yesterday I was watching is it Antony Blinken? And he was saying that they should have done it. But they didn't do it. Nobody did it. Nobody did it for 47 years, Marco. That's the number, 47. I guess now it's 48, because we've been saying 47 for long time, it's probably 48. But for 47, 48 years every president should have done this. And some are saying now that they made a big mistake in not doing it. But we're taking care of business. Steve Witkoff, please.

Mr. President, it is my distinct honor to be a member of your cabinet and to report to you and your team on our negotiations with Iran. Mr. President, you directed Jared and I to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran prior to Operation Epic Fury, which we did. However, it became quite clear during these meetings with the Iranian negotiating team that we could not make a deal that fulfilled your objectives of the following: no enrichment whatsoever, no chance of weaponization whatsoever, decommissioning of Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan, which you destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer, no stockpiling of any material, which they flagrantly violated, turning all enriched material over to us, and a cutback in Iran's missile inventory and range capability of those same missiles. Throughout our meetings with the Iranians, we heard the following from them: 'The Iranians have the inalienable right to enrich.' Then we heard they possessed enough 60% enriched material, 460 kilograms, to make 11 atomic bombs. Finally we heard the following statement: 'They would not give up diplomatically what we could not win militarily.' In other words, they were again miscalculating the success of Midnight Hammer, which was a total success. These are incontrovertible signs among many other signs, sir, that their regime had not given their negotiating team authority to make a deal required by you. We conferred with you and all the other members of your foreign policy team, Susie Wiles, Pete Hegseth, the chairman, Marco Rubio, JD, Scott Bessent, Chris Wright, John Ratcliffe, throughout all of these negotiations and we were repeatedly rebuffed on everything we asked for. I have no doubt that we exhausted all efforts on behalf of a peaceful resolution as you directed. Jared and I both agreed that the Iranians were there to buy time until a weaker president arrived. This was a flawed strategy, as your clear direction was to never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon today or any time in the future. Against that backdrop and our compelling military successes in Epic Fury, we have had multiple reach-outs from the region and others who want to play a role in ending this conflict peacefully. I can report to you today that we have along with your foreign policy team presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal. This has been circulated through the Pakistani government, acting as the mediator. And this has resulted in strong and positive messaging in talks as you just indicated to the press. But these are sensitive diplomatic discussions and you have directed us to maintain confidentiality on the specific terms and not negotiate through the news media as others do. I can say this: we will see where things lead and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction. We have strong signs that this is a possibility and if a deal happens it will be great for the country of Iran, for the entire region and the world at large. Your policy of peace through strength is the most effective tool for a diplomatic resolution here, just as it was this policy was an effective tool in each and every one of all of the other conflicts you settled in your first year. Iran is looking for an off-ramp following your powerful threat on Saturday. Your indications that you are willing to listen to peace proposals have been well received. You have instructed us that your preference is always peace and that we should make that our priority. We have delivered that message, sir, along with the 15 points for peace. Finally, we have told Iran one last thing: don't miscalculate again.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Great job. Everybody around this table's done a great job. Pete Hegseth, please.

Mr. President. I'll start kind of where you left off, Mr. President. Thank you for doing the work of the free world and having the courage to step up and stop the Iranian terror regime from holding the world hostage. That's really what it is. And 27 days ago Iran had a modern military. Never in recorded history has a nation's military been so quickly and effectively neutralized. Operation Epic Fury is not an endless war. It's a decisive campaign with clear objectives to destroy Iran's military offensive military capabilities and ensure they never obtain a nuclear weapon. This is stuff for the history books. This is stuff for legacy. Mr. President, you are acting now to ensure future generations do not have to live under the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. However, you wouldn't know it if you listened to the dishonest hate Trump media as you referenced. The folks here in the room, these cameras, they have a choice. You're either informing the American people of the truth or or you're not. Because I hear it from my people every day. Behind every headline you write, there's a helicopter crew in the air. And behind every news banner you write, there's a battalion on the move. And behind every fake news story, there's an F-35 pilot executing a dangerous mission. My message to the media is get it right. This actually isn't something new to me. I may be a young guy, Mr. President, but I'm not a rookie in this realm. In 2007 in 2007 I helped lead the surge, the public fight for the Iraq surge. Stood and watched people stand in the Senate and declare the war is lost before it even started. Who was that? That was Harry Reid. That was the Democrats and the media working hand in glove. Back then it was three years into a war, now we're three weeks into an operation. But see, unlike Iraq, this isn't a tie. This is not parity. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success, on plan and as the president said, ahead of pace. Over a 10,000 enemy targets destroyed. Over 140, I think now you're right, Mr. President, over 150 naval vessels sunk. Underground facilities destroyed. Their defense industrial base in shambles. And overnight, not only do they not have a navy, Mr. President, they no longer have a navy commander. IRGC's navy commander was killed overnight in operations. So no navy, no navy leader. Now, that's he's here's the thing about the media, though. If President Trump had not acted, you'd be screaming, 'Why not?' And now that he has taken decisive action, you're asking, 'Well, why why did you?' It's the same old tired playbook. TDS, in your DNA. But the hardworking, God-fearing, patriotic Americans out there know better. And you alluded to this, President Obama, Mr. President. Here's a fact that you don't hear on your networks, but we know. Many of the Iranian military factories and bases that we're systematically destroying were paid for by the pallets of American cash that Barack Obama flew into Tehran under the Iran deal. A you might call it an inconvenient truth. Iran took our money and turned it into weapons and bunkers and ammo. And now we're destroying those weapons and we're writing you're writing, Mr. President, that grievous wrong. And make no mistake, we had to act. And our objectives are clear. No nukes, no navy, and a complete dismantlement of their missile program and defense industrial base. And as Marco pointed out, that mission and the VP as well has not changed since day one. Yet, two days ago they shot two failed missiles on a target 4,000 kilometers away. For years they told the world that their missiles could only range 2 kilometers. Surprise. Yet again, Iran lied. And to the world I say London is 4,000 kilometers from Iran. Washington DC is 3,300 kilometers from Venezuela, another country President Trump did something about that partnered for a long time with Iran. So you're telling us that Iran is not a threat to the world or to the US? President Trump knows better. And here's what success actually looks like right now. You mentioned it, Mr. President. A-10 Warthogs, if you know them you love them, and Apache helicopter gunships are flying strike missions inside Iranian airspace and throughout the Strait of Hormuz at will. See, you only send these slow, low-flying close air support platforms when the enemy has no meaningful air defenses left. Their presence is proof that Iran's air defenses are gone. Their command and control is shattered, their top leaders hiding in underground bunkers while their mid-level commanders are being crushed in the field, the morale of their fighters plummeting, and we see that disconnect daily. They're privately admitting, as you said, Mr. President, very heavy losses. We know that. President Trump has given us a clear mission. Our capabilities are only going up and Iran's are plummeting. We are here to win and we're full-speed speed ahead. So Steve, we appreciate your efforts. We pray for a deal and we welcome a deal. And we have the ultimate dealmaker to make it happen. But in the meantime, as I said yesterday, the Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs. War is negotiation by other means. And finally I want to thank our incredible troops. Our pilots, crews, sailors, refuelers, air defenders, the absolute best of America, the real 1% of our country. This president, President Trump has your back. And I know this cabinet prays for you every single day and we ask the American people to do the same as they continue in this mission. God bless. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you very much. That's great. I think before I ask Scott to say a few words, it would be great if people like the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, 'Please come in and stop the crime.' A beautiful young lady was killed the other day and the father was a very good friend of Dan Scavino. And he took it very hard, Dan took it very hard. Liked the father, friends, they grew up together. And a young lady who whose life would be saved if we had if we did what we did as an example in Washington DC, which is now a safe city. All the time people come up to me in the building, people that work here they say, 'Thank you so much.' I know immediately what they're talking about. They're able to walk to work. They walk to work. You all walk to work. Some of you were mugged, I know you told me stories, some of you were mugged. One person in particular was viciously mugged in the group right here. It's not happening anymore. You have a safe city. Louisiana, the governor of Louisiana called me, 'Could you help me with New Orleans? They just had the Mardi Gras.' He said it was the safest Mardi Gras we've ever had. Sounds terrible to say, no murders. You know, it sounds like who would say this? No murders. But they always had murders, they had a lot of crime during Mardi Gras. He said virtually no crime. We had the troops down there. Memphis, Tennessee, I just got back we were there. Crime is down 75% in a short period of time, we're there five months. We could do that for Chicago, we could do that for New York, we could do that for LA, and we could do that for frankly San Francisco. I know they have a mayor who's trying very hard, he's a Democrat but he's trying very hard. But we can do it much more effectively because he can't do what we do. He can't take people out from the city and bring them to back to the country from where they came where they were in prisons. They were allowed to go in prisons. They were drug dealers, the highest level drug dealers, murderers. 11,888 murders. We do things that they can't do. I had friends calling me up from San Francisco, 'Could you give him a chance?' I said, 'Absolutely, if you want, I'm going to give him a chance.' And he's he's trying, he's doing okay, but we could do much better. We could make it a lot safer than it is. San Francisco, what a great city was a great city could quickly become a great city again. But, you know, they're going very slowly. I tell my friends they're very substantial people. They're in a certain business where people have made a lot of money, I hope that lasts. But they have a a tremendous a tremendous potential. It was one of the greatest cities in the world, now it's got a lot of crime. And the mayor is really trying, again, a Democrat trying. And I spoke to him, he just wants to have a chance. And I said we'll give you a chance, but we can solve it very quickly. This young lady would be around today if we were around, because we have nobody coming through our border. I mean literally for nine months it's zero. I I'm it's hard to believe that that number could be possible, because millions of people came in through Biden. But nobody even tries. We don't have the caravans of thousands, 25, 30, 000 people pouring into our border. They come up in caravans. We don't have caravans anymore. There's no such thing anymore. It's a name that I think I developed, but somebody developed it, but I think it was me. I thought it was an appropriate name. Thousands of people would come up and just barge into our country. Totally unchecked, totally unvetted. And this man came in, Dan, right? And he came in through the ridiculous open border of Biden. If we were there, the election was rigged, what are you going to do? Came back, big comeback. But if we were there we wouldn't have had people coming through. It's amazing, you know, it's so easy now because everyone knows they're not getting through. We don't have any caravans. Once they know that, when it was easy to come through. When I heard that they had an open border policy, I said, 'Boy, this is going to be' I I couldn't believe it. But when it was actually you know, it dawned on me because I had built 1,000 miles of wall and we were finishing up some and he didn't want to finish it up, Biden. I said they really do want to have an open border and they got it finished. But that young lady would be alive today. And she'd be alive for another reason, because we would have the National Guard in Chicago and in New York and in other places. And they love doing it. It's like training, to be honest. It's actually training. I never want to take them out of DC. I mean maybe somebody later on will do it, but I never want to take you know, the people they look they say, 'We feel so good, we feel so safe. We see these beautiful, strong people and they're so nice. They help they open the doors for people, they carry bags, they pick up paper when they see paper on the ground.' You I looked at DC last night I drove to make a speech and I drove through and I said, 'Take me this way, take me that way.' The city's clean, the fences are down. You don't have homeless all over your parks. I mean, we had parks you couldn't there was no room for anything else other than homeless. It's all clean and nice. It's and it'll be even more beautiful in a year from now. And we have some projects that are great. This ballroom is going to be something that's so beautiful for the city, so desperately needed by presidents. I mean, now it's no secret the military wanted it more than anybody. It was supposed to be secret but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things. But doesn't matter, doesn't matter. It's going to be great. We're building an arc, a triumphal arc, which will be incredible for the city, incredible. We're fixing up the what was the Kennedy Center. Now they I was honored when the board changed the name a little bit. It actually showed that the Republican and the Democrats, they work together. It's really something we work together. So I think it's a great symbol, actually. But we're doing a lot of work. That building's ready to fall down. It's in it's in terrible shape. We're closing it, we're going to open it with a bang in less than two years. It'll come in under budget ahead of schedule. That's what I do. It won't be like the Federal Reserve that's costing $4 billion or something thereabouts. Think of it, $4 billion. You know, it's amazing I said to the group before I said everything I do I get sued. I build under budget ahead of schedule. I get sued over a ballroom that's going to be the most beautiful ballroom in the country, so desperately needed. You won't have to have tents sitting on the wet White House lawn, if it rains you get wiped out, to honor the president of China or the president of France or the president of somewhere. Uh, you'd have the greatest we get sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Uh, they don't know what they're doing. Then I just found out we got sued by that group and another group, I guess, on the on the fixing up of again, I'll use the old name, Kennedy Center, because they're not fixing up Trump Kennedy what it's going to be beautiful when you add the name Trump. But we got sued. And all I'm doing is fixing it up. We're fixing broken marble. We're putting on a roof because it leaks like a sieve. We're fixing steel that's broken. It's the same building, same exact building. We're fixing it's going to be beautiful, it's going to be so beautiful and safe. It's actually unsafe. You had some of those columns on the outside that were painted a fake gold. Now we painted them a beautiful white color. Beautiful cream white, it's beautiful. Everyone says it's so much more beautiful now instead of a cheap you can't imitate gold. See, I'm a gold person. It's all real stuff. You can't imitate it. They've someday they'll discover a paint that will look like gold and the guy's going to be the richest man in the world. But you can't imitate real gold. Just doesn't uh that's 24 karat, which is what this building deserves. But think of it, I get sued because I'm fixing up the Trump Kennedy Center. We're going to make it gorgeous and safe. We're fixing new windows, new this, but just all fixing. I got sued by preservationists. But you know who they didn't sue? The man that took this beautiful Federal Reserve building that's small, much smaller than the hotel I built. I built the Waldorf Astoria hotel down the road and it was a beautiful job for 200 million $201 million. It's bigger, I think, than the Federal Reserve building and it's got rooms and bathrooms and it's not like just an open office space, which is much cheaper to build. Think of this, I hear he's going to be over $4 billion for a little building. He doesn't get sued by anybody but me. I sue because it's either somebody is very crooked, which has to be, because what happened to all that money? You can't sue I would have done that building for $25 million. It's going to cost maybe $4 billion and we have a great new person coming in to take over the Fed. And Kevin may not ever have an office, because I don't know if they're going to be able to build. I passed that building the other day, it's a see-through. You know what see-through means? There's no walls up. And they're going to spend But the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a joke, by the way, they didn't sue that building. They didn't sue anybody. But they sue me and I build and by the way, my building's it's all donations. Rich people and people are putting up the money. Zero taxpayer dollars. Is that right, Scott? Zero taxpayer dollars. This stuff is all done for free and I get sued. This could only happen to Trump. But they don't sue the guy whose interest rates are too high, that's why we call him Too Late. His name is Jerome Powell, we call him Jerome Too Late Powell. And done a terrible job. He suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome, as he probably should because I hit him pretty hard, but so I don't I don't blame him. But but they don't sue a man who has taken this gorgeous building, ripped it down from the inside, taken ceilings that are as beautiful as you've ever seen, taken the ceilings down instead of leaving them, taking walls down that were 2 feet thick of solid concrete and plaster, replacing them with 6-inch walls with no insulation. I said, 'Let me ask you, are you going to put insulation in?' 'No, it's not in the budget.' Oh. Insulation's going to cost him five dollars. Now you're going to hear the guy next door, if he's next door to me I'll be able to hear his military plan. I'll know exactly. If Lutnick is in there I'll say, 'Oh, I know exactly what Lutnick's got planned.' It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. They've ripped this gorgeous building apart and you can never build it again. You can I could, but it would cost a lot of money. But a normal person can never build. So you're going to have crummy little walls, a flat little ceiling, eventually, but right now you don't have anything. And nobody sues this guy. And then when Jeanine Pirro, working with Pam and others, has the courage to sue to find out what happened to maybe $4 billion and a building that may never be occupied by Kevin Warsh. He may never get there. We're going to have to find him some space in the White House. We'll put him in the basement of the ballroom. But but when, now think of it, when Jeanine Pirro and Pam and the group, when they bring a suit, it's like oh this ter terrible thing. And then we have a judge that attacks us. She attacks us. So we've got to get our priority straight, you know? It's uh it's a very sad thing that's happened with the Fed. And then just one other thing very quickly, you have Gavin Newsom in California railroad. That's a hundred times over budget. It's out of control. It was supposed to go from the middle of San Francisco to the middle of LA. Well now it stops way short of both. It now goes into areas that nobody ever heard of. It's it's billions and billions of dollars over budget, years and years, maybe decades late. And that's why we have a country that has a lot of problems, you know? We have incompetent people. It's all people. Think of this, Federal Reserve, I would have had that building done for $25 million. I would have if I did it, if it was up to somebody else would have done it for more. So maybe 50. But you could have done that building, if it was properly done and planned, you would have done that building for I would have done it for 25 million and it would be better. It would be better. See this pen right here? This pen's an interesting example, it's the same thing. So this pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well. I like it. But I can't have the pen the way it was. You know what it is? I don't want to give him too much publicity, but they do treat me well, Sharpie. So so I came here, they have thousand-dollar pens. And you know you hand pens out, you're signing and you hand them out, you're handing them to all these people, sometimes you have 30, 40 people. And they were a thousand dollars apiece. Beautiful pen, ballpoint. Thousand, it was gold, silver, gorgeous. But I'm handing them out to kids that don't even know what the hell. 'What is this, Mommy?' This kids, they're getting a pen for a thousand dollars, they have no idea what it is. And I'm and I feel guilty because I'm like, you know, I'm by nature I don't you know, it's the government, I love the government like I love myself economically. I want to save money. So I'm saying this is crazy. And it had another problem, they didn't write well. So I take it out and I sign and there's no ink. And I got all you people looking and you're saying, 'There must be something wrong with Trump.' And I'm signing and there's no ink in the pen and it costs a thousand dollars. That's when I called the guy. I said I'd like to use your pen, but I can't have a grey thing with the big S on it saying Sharpie as I'm signing a trillion-dollar airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets, brand new B-2 bombers, of which we just ordered plenty. I can't do that with the press. Use your pen, but I like the pen the best. But I'll sign it. I could do like Biden did, you know? Give it to somebody else to sign or an autopen. Or maybe sign it separately in another room. But I can't use your pen. He said, 'Well, I can make it nicer.' I said, 'What can you do?' He said, 'I'll paint it black.' I said, 'That's nice.' 'And I can even paint the White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold. Almost real gold, not bad. And I can even do your signature, sir.' And by the way, this was not staged, I just saw the pen sitting there and I thought of this as an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve building would be a better job than $4 billion that they're spending. And you know one of the things that Kevin Warsh told me, he said they ripped down the nicest building. I don't know what building they're talking about. They ripped down a building, Scott, right? Kevin Warsh said it's the most beautiful building in Washington. He said the most beautiful space. They ripped it down. Why did they do that? I don't know. Do you know what he's talking about? Is it true? Yes, sir. They ripped it down. We have a moron at the Fed. Who wouldn't be lowering interest rates right now? But I want to thank Jeanine Pirro and Pam and her group for having the courage to bring this suit. And I believe that the contractor on that job is probably one of the richest men in the country right now. I believe that it's not possible to spend that kind of money. $3 billion, $4 billion, nobody knows, nobody has any idea what it is. But it's over $3 billion, and it's probably going to be over $4 billion by the time they finish. And it may never get finished, unless I take it over. I'll get it finished. But it can never be what it was. It's never going to have those beautiful ceilings. It's never going to have those incredible walls. The walls were a foot and a half thick of solid masonry. They ripped them down for no reason. And I just give you the story. And just to finish on this one. So I told that story to somebody. They said, 'Yeah, but I mean but it's not the same thing.' I said, 'You're right. This one is better. It writes.' So the guy said to me, 'You don't have to pay me, sir. I'll give them to you for nothing.' I said, 'No, I don't want that. Let me pay you. I want to pay you.' 'No, sir, you don't have to. You're the president of the United States.' He was shocked. The head of Sharpie gets a call. I don't even know who the hell he is. He said, 'Is this really the president?' He said, 'No, you don't have to pay me, sir. This is such an honor.' I said, 'No, I want to pay you.' And he said, 'What would you like to pay?' I said, 'How about five bucks a pen?' They said said, 'That's all right.' Whatever the hell we agreed to. Peanuts, as opposed to a thousand. And these were thousand-dollar pens. And we were given them out. Sometimes you know, you were there for signings, I'd have 30, 40 people standing behind me. Give out 40 pens to people. Then somebody would say, 'Could I have a couple extra?' This way I go like this, 'Here, you want five? Here, take five.' But the bottom line is they're better pens. It's a business story. So for five dollars, could be zero, but for five dollars I get a much better pen than for a thousand dollars. And I could hand them out and actually they become hot as a pistol. So what can I tell you? With that, could I give it to please a man who's done a great job at Treasury, Scott? Good luck, Scott.

Well, sir, as always, you're a tough act to follow, but that is very illustrative. Your economic leadership has made our military mission possible. Mr. President, national security, as you always say, is economic security. Your leadership has shown the American people that there is no prosperity without security. That our mighty military on one side but the US economic strength is fighting off this evil regime. The Iranians believe they are fighting a two-front war. It is the military war that our great warriors are prosecuting. But on the other side, they are trying to take control of the global economy through a choke point that we believe does not exist and that we will overcome. Your historic Operation Epic Fury seized a generational opportunity to demolish a regime that has coordinated over four decades of global terror and claimed thousands of American lives. Many people, especially the Democrats, underestimate the will of the American people for short-term volatility for 50 years of safety that we are going to have on the other side of this. And I believe energy prices will be lower, inflation will be lower. Before we had the appearance of security, which is not real security. Now the American people and the world will have absolute security. Through your maximum pressure campaign, Treasury has worked to uncover all financial lifelines to the regime and cut them off. You gave that order last March. This was not the this was not something that happened overnight. This is something that has been contemplated for almost a year. Their finan- the Iranian financial system collapsed in December. We have systematically weakened Iran's ability to fund operations and procure weapons, and that required months of preparation. Threats to American national security have no place in the global economic system. The oil market is well supplied. We have taken actions to ensure oil supplies stranded at sea are made available to the global market. Your bold actions like the Development Finance Corporation's maritime reinsurance program in conjunction with central command will soon provide shippers through the Gulf region with a level of security we had never seen before. Mr. President, we are starting to see more and more movement in and out of the Gulf today, and this is more than yesterday, and this is the beginning. I am confident that shipping traffic will continue to increase on a daily basis even before we secure the straits. Turning to the home front, the US economy remains strong. We had a strong economy thanks to you. We are the best insulated in the world thanks to your energy efforts in term one and term two. The US is an energy superpower. American workers' purchasing power is finally being restored. The latest figures indicate robust real compensation increases. We are starting to see the working family tax cuts benefits bearing fruit this tax season. 44% of tax returns have claimed at least one of your signature policies: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, deductibility of auto loans. The average tax refund is up more than 10% for working Americans. The economy you revitalized through your pro-growth policies is well positioned to withstand these temporary disruptions. The United States dollar has reasserted itself as a safe haven asset. The US dollar has appreciated since the hostilities began because everyone knows, thanks to your efforts, the US economy is the best position in the world and capital is flowing in. Efforts to reprioritize economic security are ensuring the United States remains secure, resilient, and prepared for the challenges ahead. As we approach the 250th anniversary, America will never be safer and more secure militarily and economically. Thank you.

is this guy central casting? I'm looking at him, I mean, Treasury. He might not be so good for war, I don't know. He looks pretty good, too. No, I'm looking at this guy. He's central casting. He's even the glasses are perfect. Where'd you get those glasses? I think I'm going to get glasses like that. That's beautiful. Great job. That's really good. No, he's done a great job and you all have proud of you all. Uh, do you have any questions?

Yes. Mr. President, are you going to go in for the uranium? Like, how do you secure Iran and end the nuclear threat?

Let's assume I was or I wasn't. Why would I ever answer a question? What kind of a question? Am I going to go in for the oh yeah, I'm going in, we're going in tomorrow at 3:00. How could you possibly ask a question like that and expect an answer? I don't know. But, I don't know, I think you're a friendly person, too. It's just such a ridiculous question. Uh, who else?

Mr. President? Mr. President?

Yes, over here, please.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, there's been a report that potentially the US is looking at diverting some munitions, air defenses that were meant for Ukraine to the Middle East. Is there any accuracy to that? Is that something you're considering?

Well, I'd have to ask Pete, but we do that all the time. You know, we have tremendous amounts of ammunition. We have them in other countries, like in Germany and all over Europe, we have, you know, we're packed. And we take sometimes we take from one and we use for another. We help Ukraine. It Biden started and he gave $350 billion away, too much, way too much. And um we sell it now to NATO. We sell it to NATO and they probably give it to Ukraine mostly, I think. They give it to Ukraine. But um we get paid for everything that we we give. We don't give anything anymore. That's a tough situation, that whole Ukraine situation, very, very tough. Uh, we're working very hard on uh getting that one solved. It doesn't have any impact on us. Virtually nothing. If anything, I mean we sell a lot of equipment for that unfortunate war. 25,000 people died last month. 25,000 sol- mostly soldiers. Some in the towns, but for the most part soldiers. They're dying like nobody's seen anything like it since World War II. Uh, it's a it's a terrible situation and hopefully that's going to get settled. You know, I settled eight wars. And many of them I think were more difficult than this one. In theory, they would have been more difficult. But there's tremendous hatred between President Putin and President Zelensky. Tremendous hatred. I've seen it before, but I've never seen maybe to this extent. Uh, and I think that's calming down a little bit. And I think we have a chance of getting it done. But we it doesn't affect us, thousands of miles away. That's why when I heard the head of Germany say, 'This is not our war,' about Iran. I said, 'Well, Ukraine's not our war, we helped, but Ukraine's not our war.' I thought it was a very inappropriate statement to make. Uh, but uh he made it, you can't erase it. But he felt that way and I said, 'Well, you know, Ukraine's not our war.' But and it's not, but I would like to see all those young people stop being killed. I mean they're being killed, it's like a slaughterhouse. What's happening there is horrible. 25,000 on average last two months ago it was 31,000 people died in one month, Marco, right? I look I said it's getting crazy, it's getting worse. Think of it, 31,000 soldiers, both Russian and Ukraine, died two months ago. 25,000 last month. And if I can solve that, it'll be a great honor to do it. I wish it could have gone faster. The you know, I solved other ones in one day that had been going for 32 years. We solved we stopped one that was starting, it was already started, India and Pakistan and the prime minister of Pakistan, a very fine gentleman, said, 'President Trump solved something that was going to cost 10 million lives.' That was going to cost a lot of lives, two nuclear nations. And those were complicated, but we got them done quickly. This one is uh it's a shame and and the only reason I'm doing it frankly is because I want to stop death. I want to stop the death from happening. I think I'll go with a man that I've missed, Brian. I haven't seen you in a long time. I missed he's been on a very strange location, I don't know. He's it's he said he's had a strange thing happen, but anyway. Go ahead, Brian.

Well, good to see you and actually good to see the entire cabinet, good to be here as well, too. Um, you talked about gas prices coming down. Obviously, they will. But would you ever consider suspending the federal gas tax in order to kind of temporarily alleviate some of the

Well, some people should do that uh as an example in California, every time prices go down his prices go up because they so, you know, the gas tax is bigger than the tax itself, bigger than the product itself. Uh, it hasn't been I mean, we've we've thought about it, I guess, but uh honestly when I did this I knew it was going to be a little bit na- we had the greatest economy ever. We had the greatest stock market in history. I said we're going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit, it's going to end up going much higher than it was in my opinion. I said, I said we're going to have a great stock market. Nobody thought we could get to 50,000 or 7,000 in the respective indices. Nobody thought that that was going to happen. But it did. In the first year. They said it couldn't happen in four years. That you wouldn't hit 50 in four years, but you could maybe get close. We hit it in the first year. And I said, 'This is a good time to solve a problem that you had to solve.' And that's what I did. But but uh the gas tax, you know people have talked about it. Uh, it's something we have in our pocket if if we think it's necessary.

Well, and if I can follow up real quickly, you just recently took off, Secretary Duffy, 17,000 truckers off the road that quite frankly could not speak English, which is a safety issue. Yeah. Could we ever extend that to Uber drivers, Lyft drivers, cab drivers? For someone who takes a lot of Ubers, a lot of my drivers can't speak

Oh, well, that's not good. I didn't like that. Go ahead, Sean.

Well, so, it's actually a really good point. The problem is that our states are the ones that issue these licenses. So with commercial drivers' licenses, we do have some federal control. But again, we have thousands of people who can't speak the language, long-standing rule. Uh, and it's a safety issue, right? If you can't understand road signs, if you can't communicate with law enforcement when you're pulled over and communicate what's on your rig, huge problem. But the last administration, Mr. President, they let uh truck driving schools self-certify that they were qualified to train truck drivers. And so this is like the Elian Center. So you pay $800 and uh you get a certificate that you passed a CDL driving school and again they have no skills, they never they don't they don't have the knowledge and they don't have the skills, they haven't gone through any of the testing. And then they get licenses and they're killing Americans on our roads. So it's remarkable uh the rot that the last administration allowed to take place. We are ending that and uh I need partnership with our states. Even California's started to come on board, even Gavin has started to play ball with us, which is surprising. Not all the way, a little bit, a little bit of ball.

You know it's interesting because I just saw something that the uh nursing home business and the daycare centers in particular they went out and inspected them in Minnesota and they didn't exist. They're knocking on doors it happens to be a young man Nick, nice young man, he's done a very good job. They're knocking on doors and it's like homes and they're getting hundreds of thousands of dollars they didn't exist. And in California it's worse, it's even worse. And I talked I spoke with Russell Vote, I said, 'Russell, don't send them any more money.' He said, 'But we have a court order that we have to,' can you believe it? A judge. The judges are really hurting this country. Our judges, Justice Roberts doesn't like what I say, but the judges are really hurting this country. And frankly the justices, the Supreme Court has really hurt our country, too.

Mr. President, do you have a new deadline given that that there are some talks now? Do you have a new deadline before taking further action?

No, I'll announce I mean, right now you're talking about a deadline for doing some pretty big damage, even bigger than we've we've done. Uh, we'll see we look we have very substantial talks going on with respect to Iran. With the right people. You know I told you about a present, right? Steve, can I reveal the present? You can do anything you want. They said, 'To show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil.' Eight boats, eight big boats of oil. This was two days ago. And they'll sail up tomorrow, that was three days ago. And I didn't think much about it. And then I watched the news and they said, a very good anchor actually, happened to be Fox, but I watched it and he said uh 'Something unusual's happening, there are eight boats that are going right up the middle of the Hormuz Strait. Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right up' and I said, 'Well, I guess I guess they were right and they were they were real. And I think they were Pakistani flagged.' Yes. And uh I said, 'Well, I guess we're dealing with the right people.' And actually they then apologized for something they said and they said, 'We're going to send two more boats.' And it ended up being 10 boats. I hope I haven't screwed up your negotiations, but I thought it was appropriate to say because I did taunt you the other day by saying they're going to give us a present.

Mr. President, many illegal immigrants were arrested at San Francisco airport for ignoring deportation orders at the same time as you highlighted really great reception from American travelers for ICE agents. Is there a PR aspect of this that can allow future deportations to go on with less protest and less outrage?

Yeah, it's amazing because by putting ICE there look uh the the press was very unfair to ICE. So was everyone else. These are great American patriots, they have a tough job. They have to find murderers and take them out of our country. I wouldn't want to do it, you wouldn't want to do it, most people wouldn't want to do it. They do it and, you know, 11,888 murderers. And that's murderers. That's not drug dealers, that's not lots of other things. It's not people from mental institutions. Uh, entire jail populations were released from major countries and let into our country through the open border. And ICE has done an amazing job. I wouldn't want that job, it's a tough job, dangerous job. But anyway, so what happens is um by putting them at the airport and I did say, 'Do me a favor, take off your masks.' And they did, for that. Not for when they're looking for some, you know, cold-blooded killers and they're in their nest. But for that and they did, they took them off. And the passengers, I see the interviews of people they're saying, 'These are nice people.' One person said, 'He's a very strong man, but he's a nice guy, he grabbed my bag he helped a woman with a bag that she couldn't lift.' And uh I'll tell you I don't want to use the word rehab because there was nothing to rehab, but rehab from the press, you know? Because the press is so tough on them. And these crooks in Minnesota, these crooked politicians and dirty cops. They're dirty cops, they're dirty politicians. Walz is a dirty crooked politician. The attorney general is a crooked guy, zero investigation, and I hope JD's going to do a great job. He's in charge of it now with somebody who's very talented. But I think it's easy stuff. They say $19 billion. Think of it, is missing. 19 billion. You know, if we were to solve half of the fraud problem, Pam, in this country, we'd have more than a balanced budget. We'd have we'd have a surplus. And in the case of Minnesota it's a lot it's very Somalia oriented. Think of it, these people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world. Acknowledged to be one of the worst countries in the world, some people say it's the worst. They have no money, they have nothing. They come to our country, low IQs and they they rob us blind. Stupid people. And they rob us blind because we have crooked politicians and we have dirty cops. The attorney general's a dirty cop. It's my opinion. It's only my opinion. And something should be done about him. Yes, our country.

Mr. President? Mr. President, yesterday you said you paid a toll to Iran? Excuse me? Should Iran be able to charge a toll for the Strait of Hormuz? They're charging some vessels to go through.

Oh, uh well, should they be able to? No. I mean they shouldn't be able to. But they're doing it a little bit. I don't know look look, their capability is a lot less than it was two weeks ago. Uh and with every week and every day frankly it gets less and less. All I can tell you is they're begging to make a deal. So let's see what happens. We may make a deal.

Mr. President! Mr. President! Mr. President!

Tell me about mail-in ballots, go ahead. I you mean I used a mail-in ballot? You probably said yeah I did. You know why? Because I'm president of the United States. And because of the fact that I'm president of the United States I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida. Because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine taking

But you were in Palm Beach, sir, the last few weekends.

That's right. And I yeah and I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there because I had a lot of different things. But you know we have exceptions for mail-in ballots, you do know that, right? So if you're away, we have an exception. If you're in the military, we have an exception. If you're on a business trip, we have an exception. If you're disabled, we have an exception. And if you're ill, if you're not feeling good, whatever. So I was away mostly in Washington DC so I used a mail-in ballot. But I appreciate the question because I know I know it was so well meaning. Yeah. Mr. President, I actually just looked up the company that owns Sharpie and their stock component after you mentioned it, the pressure pen. [77:16] By the way, they deserve it. It's a good product. Yeah.

Question on Iran. You gave a five-day deadline with oil tankers going through the Strait of Hormuz, is that a condition to move that five-day deadline?

Well we want we don't want anything uh impeded. We want ships to go through. We don't know that they've dropped any mines, by the way. Because we blew up all their mine droppers, right? We blew up every one of them. They're going to have to take them out on a rowboat or something. I don't know how the hell they get them out there. But we don't really know, you might speak to it. We don't know there could be a few of them out there, but that's a lot. You know, if you have a billion-dollar ship and you get hit by a mine, it's not the greatest thing in the world. So if you think the problem with that, that's not like you've decimated a military. If you think there may be a mine, that's a bad thought and it stops things up. How are we doing in that regard, Pete?

We've, Mr. President, you're right, we have so heavily degraded their coastal defense capabilities and their naval capabilities that any strategic or operational attempts to do those types of things are extremely limited. And we continue to move over the top of that. Now, whether Iran makes a wise choice or not to try to execute that is part of how this deal comes together, but with every passing day, the military pressure that we're putting on them lessens their ability to really hold that militarily at issue.

I mean the problem the problem with the issue of the Hormuz Strait is this. We've decimated them as a military. No air force, no navy, very few rockets left, we blew up so many. Hard to manufacture. Same thing with drones. The leadership is gone. The problem with the straits is this. Let's say we do a great job and we say we got 99%. 1% is unacceptable. Because 1% is a missile going into the hull of a ship that costs a billion dollars, right? So 1% is un- we can't if we do a 99% decimation, that's no good. Mr. President. So it's so it's really, you know, a little bit but I have a feeling it's going to clean up pretty quickly. I can just say this. They want to make they want to make and I probably hurt our little negotiation, it gives them a little impetus to say, 'Well, I wish you didn't say that.' But they said yesterday that we weren't negotiating with them and now they admit that we were negotiating with them. So they want to make a deal. The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat to shit. So the friend, are you thinking to take control of Iran's oil? It's an option. I mean I wouldn't talk about it, but it's an option. Is that something you thought about? Well, in Venezuela we've done very well working with Venezuela, certainly. And we've taken in billions and billions of dollars. And by the way, Venezuela's doing better right now than they've ever done in the history of their country. And sort of like a joint venture. But the United States has made a lot of money, Marco, right? With it. You want to talk about that for a second? About Venezuela? Yeah.

I mean, I think Venezuela in the first two months of this year generated more revenue from oil sales than they had most of all of last year. But the money's not being stolen anymore. And it's being held in a US Treasury blocked account, and to the extent it's flowing to the Venezuelan government, it's going to help people, like fund hospitals, pay teachers. It's not being stolen.

And we get a lot of it. And they got more than they have in many years. Think of it, we get a lot of it. We have a deal. We get a lot of it. We had a hundred million think of this, a hundred million barrels we took in in the first two weeks. A hundred million barrels, that's a lot of oil. That's a lot of ships. Um and we got some and they got some. We paid for the ships, with a lot of money left over. And Venezuela has done better now with us, call it a partner, call it whatever you want. We've made a lot of money and they've made a lot of money. We've paid for the cost of that military hit many, many times over. And we've only just started. Our relationship with Venezuela's been amazing. Uh the people actually I'm the highest polling person in other words after the presidency I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Elsie. I may run against Elsie. It's an option. No, I I they like me in Venezuela. But uh that's an option for me. It's a wonderful option. Yes, sir.

Mr. President, there's some reports that Gulf allies are concerned about winding down the war too soon and potentially leaving Iran as a threat. The concern is that they might want

Well, they probably like us to stay. But if we if we don't stay, look it's a beautiful thing about airplanes that go 2,000 miles an hour, you can get back there very quickly. Uh if we don't stay, we're going to be protecting them. We know we you know, they've been very good. Hey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, in particular, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the three of them. Um Kuwait, Bahrain, they've been 100%. Now, in all fairness, you know, they could have gone the other way. They were surprisingly missiled. They were shot at. Nobody ever thought they'd be shot at. Uh UAE had 1,400 missiles aimed at them. Fortunately, they had the greatest anti-missile weapon in history, called the Patriot. Almost every single missile was shot down. You know, we had an incident recently where 101 missiles were shot at a certain thing that we own that's very valuable. 101 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour, right? Out of the 101 missiles, every single one of them was shot down in midair and fell into the ocean. It's amazing technology. There's nobody has equipment like we have.

Mr. President? Mr. President, what if Iran still has that enriched uranium, is it even possible to walk away?

Well, you you're going to have to see. But you know, I think we'll be we're in just very good shape. We're roam- you know what you know the word roaming free? We're over their skies with the most beautiful planes you've ever seen. Roaming free, there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Mr. President. And it it would be nice if like the fake news New York Times, which writes so fake. And the Wall Street Journal is terrible, terrible. I mean I read a story today that I'm desperate to make a deal. I'm not if I was desperate, he'd be the first to know. Pete, let's get the hell out of there. I'm I'm the opposite of desperate. I don't care. I want a not in fact we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We're hitting them on a daily basis. Uranium? No, I don't talk about uranium. I can't talk about specifics. A lot of people said that wouldn't matter, maybe it does matter, who knows. But I wouldn't talk it's like the question this young lady asked. Sorry about I embarrassed her. I don't want to embarrass her because I think she's a I think she's a friendly reporter, so I'm sorry. But, you know, I can't say what we're going to do. Because if I did I wouldn't be sitting here for long. They'd probably what is it called, the 25th Amendment? Uh that institute the 25th Amendment. Which they which they didn't do with Biden, which is shocking.

Mr. President, it is apparently low and safe enough to leave the region, because Steve said that they've got enough uranium to make 11 bombs. That's a very scary thing. So

Well, and again, I can't talk to you about that. You're asking me a question, you're essentially saying, 'Will I go in and do something?' I can't talk to you about that. Mr. President, you were looking at a coalition of ships to help more ships to help protect tankers. How close are you getting that coalition? [84:53] Well we have a coalition formed, but they should have been up here a long time ago. And you know they're affected. The amazing thing is we don't need the Hormuz Strait. We don't need it. We don't need it at all. We don't we have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this. We have more we have twice the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia or Russia and soon it'll be three times the amount. Chris, you want to speak to that for a second?

That is correct. Our total oil production is greater than Saudi Arabia's plus Russia, and more than we consume in the United States. So we're the largest.

Pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good. You know what they you know what they call it? Drill baby drill. Yes. [85:33] Mr. President. Anything else you want to say?

Well, same thing for natural gas. We weeks before your first term we were the largest exporter of natural gas in the world. Today we're just by far the largest and we were the largest importer and now we're by far the largest exporter. And it's growing rapidly this year. New facilities are coming online. Production's ramping up. We're doing an amazing job. We're getting a lot of help from that man right over there. He's getting approvals done quickly and and very environmental. He's an environmentalist actually, he does a great job but he gives you a fast approval or rejection. Uh, do you have anything to say?

Well, back on Venezuela where Chris and I both had a chance to be there, I literally think they're going to put up a statue to President Trump. And I'm not being it's not a political statement, it's an actual thing.

I hope so. That would be a great honor. No, because