[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"transcript-d620d720-3ee9-47bc-8700-17718d63d440":3,"transcript-neighbors-d620d720-3ee9-47bc-8700-17718d63d440":16},{"id":4,"youtube_url":5,"transcript":6,"created_at":7,"folder_id":8,"name":9,"upload_date":10,"is_public":11,"is_premium":12,"speakers":8,"persona":13},"d620d720-3ee9-47bc-8700-17718d63d440","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=eafk0lNExQE","[00:00] Donald Trump:\nYou'll be thrilled. Are you all set? Well, maybe start where we left off yesterday, and uh we showed you this picture. And now it's opened. So this is now open. And when you see the size of that compared to some of the biggest buildings in the country, actually the biggest. Hey, Peter.\n\n[04:49] Reporter:\nHey, President Trump.\n\n[04:50] Donald Trump:\nAnd uh we have it finished. The water is pouring in as we speak. And maybe we'll show that what it looks like because I'm sure the fake news will be thrilled. Take a look. This is from just a little while ago. Nice clean water. So we here to talk about clean beautiful coal. That's clean beautiful water. That's the longest pool anywhere in the world. And here you can tell they're not progressive because this is not a progressive because progressives never wear or show an American flag. These are proud people from Oklahoma. They came from Oklahoma, a company from Oklahoma to do it. But you notice the American flag. He's proudly showing off his work. You know he's not a liberal and or a progressive. Used to be liberal but they changed their name somewhere along the way because liberal wasn't working. But progressive doesn't work too, although progressive's a beautiful term. They are not progressive, they're degressive. You got that? What do you think, huh? Daniel's great. He's a great reporter. And again, we have a picture of a gentleman in a cart proudly, this is the head of construction for the job. So you can see it's just finished. This is just minutes before. And there's a gentleman named Secretary Burgum from Interior, Doug, who's been doing an incredible job. So Doug, we had we have 22 waterfalls, most of them haven't worked for over 50 years. As of this morning, they all work beautifully. And they're clean, the graffiti's gone, the broken marble is fixed. There was a way of fixing it, use a thing called silicone and you fix them and they look beautiful. All of the hate and everything is removed from them. Some of them were done through stupidity actually, but hey, but here's another picture. Now you can tell this is a proud American because he's got a flag. Protesters never have the bad protesters never have flags up. They somehow don't like the flag too much. But we do. So that's great. Uh, we put in today as you know about Save America, the Save America Act. I don't know, some some day the Senate and the House will get it done, although I must tell you the House has approved it about three times already. Save America Act right here. We have everybody can see that. And then we'll talk about clean beautiful coal. You're not allowed to say coal within the Trump administration unless it's preceded by the words clean beautiful. Complicates our life, but it's good. Right, Chris? Wherever you may be? It is. I got your back. I'll tell you it's effective. So Save America Act is all voters must show photo ID. So you go to vote and you show photo ID. Not complicated, right? You know, who could who could oppose it? They say it's an 80-20, it's not. It's about 99-1 and we'll never find the one person. Andy, congratulations Andy on a big victory. Thank you for your help, sir. That's a great I think I appreciate it. But you're you're very good at what you do and I pre I've been backing you right from the beginning for a long time, right? Backing you too, sir. For years, that's right. You have. Thank you. Congratulations. You won a big election. So you have all voters must show photo ID identification, all voters must show a little thing called proof of citizenship. Would you say that's 99-1, Mr. Pennsylvania? I would say that's maybe 100 to zero, sir. I would think so. They say it should be. No, but they say it's 80-20. It's not 80-20, it's 99-1 and we've never found the one person. There's another one. Then you have no mail-in ballots, but we want to be liberal as they say, or we'll say we want to be progressive. So it's no mail-in ballots. You see that what's happening in California? They're rigging the election. Now maybe we caught them and maybe they won't be able to get away with it. Uh, they tried with me, and they did it successfully the second time. The third time, we made it too big to rig. Too many votes, they couldn't do it. They can only go they sort of gave up at about 9 or 7 when they got slaughtered with the votes that came in. But no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel. So we're being very progressive and we just don't want cheating in our elections. And you see it happening in California. Those numbers are coming down rapidly. They found a lot of mail-in ballots last night shockingly. So we don't want that. Then we added Best Of, this is Best of Trump. No men in women's sports. No transgender mutilation surgery for our children. I would say that's pretty close to 99-1 also. No men in women's sports. I would say that's pretty good. We had the quarterback Jackson was the quarterback is the quarterback for the Giants. He's a big strong guy and I said, 'How do you think you'd do in women's sports, Jackson?' He said, 'Pretty good, sir.' He didn't know I was joking. He was not worried, let me put it that way. He would have been the greatest athlete in the history of women's sports. You got to see the size of this guy. Like a male model and he's going to be a great quarterback. So uh we talk about that and so we just would like the Senate, Democrats, Republicans to pass it. Uh interestingly, Democratic people, Democrat people, not crooked politicians cause most of them are crooked or they're sick or they're Trump-deranged. There is Trump derangement syndrome, but the people uh it's 86-87% Democrats. I mean Democrats are fine, I have a lot of Democrat friends, but they I don't know for some reason when they go into politics they get radical left crazy and they're trying to destroy our country. But we're not going to let that happen. So today we're taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean beautiful coal. Uh, if you look at China, if you look at so many of the successful countries, they're using coal. If you look at some of the real great failures countries, they're using wind. It just keeps blowing, blowing, blowing and puts you right out of business. Very expensive, most expensive energy there is. So wind is not working very well, but they keep it going because uh people get subsidies by countries that are stupid. Doug, I would say we haven't been long on wind. Do you agree with that? He understands numbers very well. You know Doug was very, very successful. Believe it or not, I used to think he was in energy, but he was successful in technology and he sold his company to I think Microsoft, right? And uh for a lot of money and he ran for politics, he ran for office, went to North Dakota, won immediately and won Governor and was very successful for eight years. And I watched him during one of the performances of some very talented people and I said, 'We're going to get him to work for us.' And then I said I was going to put him in charge of energy and he said, 'Sir, there's a better man than me for that one.' Not in all ways you feel that but in one way. In energy too. And that was Chris, right? Where is Chris? Right here. Right back here. Boy, he's a hard one to find. And Chris has done a fantastic job and he's one of the reasons we're here today. We have had uh we're right now double Saudi Arabia and Russia. If you double them up, that's what we produce more than anybody else times two. So think of that. Uh as a result of the 700 million dollar investment that I'm announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines. It's a tremendous number. And build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal because we're exporting coal. Coal is a great business, really a big business and it's real power. I mean, it's in terms of power, there's really nothing like it. Uh you have so many different alternatives they talk about some but there's no no real alternative. Uh China by the way last year built 52 coal plants. They built about two two windmills. You know, the only time they build a windmill is when they're trying to sell them to stupid people from the United States, the the suckers. And and by the way and all over Europe. They sell the windmills but they don't use them. I wonder why? They use coal plants and other things. These actions will support over 14,000 jobs and save the American people 50 billion dollars in electricity costs. We're pleased to be joined by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and he has been great. I don't want to give him a big swollen ego because then all of a sudden he'll leave me and I've been and I'll be stuck with Interior. I don't want to be stuck. But he's really done a great job. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright who's fantastic. And maybe our MVP, what do you think Doug? Yes. It's close. What do you think, MVP? Lee Zeldin. And the job he's done is great. We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don't want people to fix their car. I said, 'That's strange, I never heard of that.' They have a thing to nobody's allowed to fix their car. They gave a man seven years in jail actually because he fixed his own car. So I thought we'd do something about that, but we'll get we'll get it all straight anyway. Can you believe it? They want a build that prohibits people from fixing. So if you're mechanically inclined, you know I grew up I went to school with some guys they were in some cases horrible students but they could fix an engine blindfolded, they could take a car apart blindfolded but they weren't too good at arithmetic and other things, but they were great. And so there's a move on to stop people from fixing their car. I didn't understand it but we had a great meeting yesterday with the head of General Motors and uh Roger Penske and the head of Ford. We had a great meeting I think. Thanks as well to West a friend of mine also for a long time, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey who won by 45 points, Patrick. It's not enough. I love those people. In Wyoming, I think maybe even slightly more than West Virginia. Just a little more. You did pretty good. I like this group of people. But Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, a respected guy, great governor, both of them really amazing. And Representatives Dan Meuser, Riley Moore, Derek Van Orden, Juan Ciscomani and Andy Barr. So you have a lot of representatives here that are fantastic. Today we're officially invoking the Defense Production Act to save 13 coal plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wisconsin. These were incredible plants, so productive, really producing a lot of the electricity, right? The electricity and it's it's really the best at that. You know when they when they find something better Chris, I think we'll be all set for it, right? But they're a long ways from finding something better. Coal's critical. And so when you look at that, those states: West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Wisconsin. What do they all have in common? Trump won them. Wisconsin too. I won every one by a lot, right? I'm not even mentioning Pennsylvania, which we won also, right? But we won them all. We won probably we won all 50 if you had an honest count if you want to know the truth. Our action will allow these facilities to invest in upgrades that will extend their operational lives for decades into the future. Reinforce the reliability of our electric grid, which is really the biggest beneficiary and most importantly keep electricity prices very low for the American people. This brings the total number of coal plants that we have saved during my administration just like when we said we saved 25 water fountains. Think of this: these are fountains, beautiful fountains that were so horrible to look at with the graffiti. Over 40 years, many of them closed over 40 to 50 years. Uh the big one, the reflective lake, in fact some people call it a pond, some people it's like a lake. But the reflective lake was built in 1922. It never really worked from the beginning from 1922, that's a long ways. So it's over 100 years old and it never really worked because they had the wrong base. It was always leaking, they didn't have what we have today. So it's pretty amazing what's happened and you know, I hate to say it won't leak but it won't leak because uh we used the material that doesn't allow leaks. You know, it's like like a swimming pool, doesn't leak you use the right this is this is called swimming pool on steroids. So it's great stuff. And uh today's actions we're also supporting coal mines and coal miners in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota and New Mexico. And they're going to they're all going back to work. You know it's interesting with the mines, that famous scene of Hillary while we went to West Virginia. Yeah. And she had just left another state and she was trying to convince everybody that they should go into technology, no longer be miners. And these guys in West Virginia, they didn't want to hear about it. They wanted to be remember that scene around the table they talked to this beautiful big strong miner and they wanted him to make computer chips. She said, 'We'll teach him how to make computer chips.' His hands were so large he couldn't hold a computer chip. He's looking at a guy your fingers are like three inches around and you're talking about making a computer chip. And he didn't like it and he ended up being one of our best ads ever. She wasn't and she did rather poorly, she lost I think she lost by 77 points or something like that. Pretty tough to go knock you knock coal and then you go two weeks later to West Virginia to try and win the state. It didn't work out well for her. But uh the miners love us. What do you think we got uh with the coal miners, would you say we got 90%? 100%? Where do you think we were on the scale? Pretty pretty high. Probably higher than any group in the country. Pretty high. Yeah. Can't it can't be bad. Well we did well with all the groups. I tell you the group that now likes us are the autoworkers because we're building more auto plants now than at any time in the history of our country. So it's uh very it's great to watch and see what's going on with the US. We're the most respected country anywhere in the world and we were a dead country a year and we were a dead country, we were a laughed at, we were a mocked, laughed at country. Starting this summer, the West Gateway project will break ground and by summer 2028, over 12 million tons of clean beautiful coal per year will be shipped to countries all around the world and this project's been delayed over 10 years and uh Biden ended it and then Barack Hussein Obama, have you heard of him? Barack Hussein Obama? Another one, he's another beauty. But uh that delay is now over and it's going to be very productive, it's going to fuel our electric plants in particular, it's going to be amazing. Finally, we're taking nearly 200 million dollars in that was set aside for the Green New Scam and it was set aside for the Green New Scam, but the Green New Scam is history. And repurposing that money so that we restart a coal plant in Maryland and help build two brand new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia. And these are all built with new technology, it's very clean. It's amazing what how that's come along. It's all very clean. And the first new coal plants to open in our country since 2013. Couldn't open, couldn't even think. They were only closing them. They were closing them and you had brownouts all over the place. But you don't have that anymore, do you notice? Under four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the radical left Democrats in Congress, not a single permit was approved for a new coal mining project. But in over one year of our administration, we've already approved 76 permits for clean beautiful coal. Last year, we prevented 17 gigawatts of coal-powered electricity from going offline and that's enough power to for about 13 million homes. Think of that, 13 million homes at a very low price. It's the lowest price. So now I'd like to ask Secretary Burgum to say a few words, followed by Secretary Wright, Administrator Lee Zeldin and then Governor Mark Gordon and whoever else wants to say a few words, including my new friend, my new governor friend. So uh Doug, go ahead.\n\n[23:03] Doug Burgum:\nWell thank you, President Trump. Uh, with these announcements today and everything that your administration's accomplished uh so far since you've taken office, this administration's done more uh to save, protect and expand uh coal in our country uh than any administration perhaps ever. You with the when you took office, the first thing you did was declare an energy emergency. Some people questioned that, but the prior administration under Biden had gone so far down the path of pursuing uh the highly subsidized intermittent weather-dependent sources of electricity that our grid was at risk. You understood that and you understood the key how key coal is. It's the backbone of having affordable, reliable and secure American energy to power our country, power electric grid, power our competitiveness in AI and power uh all the manufacturing that's coming back. As you mentioned with those record coal leases, this is where we take federal public land, lease it to the private sector, they write a check, that comes into the Treasury, they create jobs, help support local communities. So there were zero coal leases held in four years under the Biden administration and you heard the president talk about 76 here. We've slashed red tape. Those took years to get some of these projects for coal mining. We've approved in less than one month under the emergency procedures. And we also have opened up for leasing another 13.1 million acres uh that people can bid on in our country on public land. And this is land that was set aside. This is not National Parks, it's not wilderness area, it's not our wildlife refuges. This is public land that was set aside for the benefit and use of the American people, including energy development, making sure that we've got affordable reliable energy. So using those public lands is what we're doing. And then the last thing within Interior, I would say we did uh uh strategically designate through the US Geological Survey, which is part of Interior, designate uh metallurgical coal as a critical mineral. So it's on the list uh and that opens up a number of opportunities. But without metallurgical coal, we don't have coke, we don't have the steel industry. The Biden administration was indiscriminate trying to shut down our metallurgical coal as well as our thermal coal. So and then the last thing you mentioned the coal export facility, again uh working through all the permitting to drive towards that so that we can be selling clean reliable energy to our allies in the Pacific uh who want to do more trade with us. And lastly again, thank you for creating the National Energy Dominance Council. Our executive director Jared Hagan is here today, but Chris, Lee and I all uh have details on that team and and that's operated right out of the White House and that's why President Trump is able to get so much done so quickly is this is the first time ever we've had a president with a White House Council specifically focused on energy and what an impact it's happening.\n\n[25:55] Donald Trump:\nWell, and thank you Doug. Uh perhaps slightly less importantly but I think very important, the National Garden of American Heroes is going to be unbelievable and I'd like to know how are you doing on that, and how are you doing on the great Triumphal Arch. So every city just about every major city has a Triumphal Arch. This is an arch that's a uh a real bow or beautiful bow to your military and military victories. Nobody's had more military victories, including recently, than we have. And they never got the arch built. It's been the Civil War stopped it. That circle has been sitting there for a long time for many, many years. Um I guess you could go back to in 1902 they tried it but in 1860 and 1880, they just never got it done. The Civil War stopped it the first time. That was a good reason, I think that's probably not a bad was a good excuse but uh after that it just never happened and we're going to get it done. And so we're doing it with the Department of Interior and we're also doing the National Garden of American Heroes, which is phenomenal. And we're doing something that just came up, we'll have a little breaking news here because nobody's heard of it, but at the Lincoln Memorial uh the front was supposed to be the back, the back was supposed to be the front. It never got built because they built two roadways behind it after it was built and it shut off the uh gateway to the water. That was really going to be the main entry and we're going to be doing that. We're going to it's called the promenade. It'll be the promenade. They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that. But it's going to be beautiful. It's a beautiful project and it's going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac, which it was always scheduled to do, but when they built the roads, that was the end of that. But we have a way of uh beautifully going over those two roads or highways. Very very strong, very important roads actually as you know from the bridge. But it's going to be great. So could I ask Doug just if for just a couple of seconds to talk about those those three great projects that we're just starting.\n\n[28:08] Doug Burgum:\nWell I'd say that the uh it's important for everyone to know that uh as you described, these are plans and ideas that have existed uh almost since the end of the Civil War. But the McMillan plan, which is the one that designed the National Mall as we see it today uh that was in the early part of the 1900s envisioned uh this connection that you would have a the memorial bridge between uh the Lincoln Memorial uh and Arlington Cemetery. At the halfway point, there's a very large circle. It was designed to hold a monument. Uh the arch that would go there uh is a fantastic compliment and completion of this plan that's over 120 years ago. President Trump's vision of how to build that. Uh and of course uh President Trump has talked to uh President Macron from France. Uh more people visit the Arc de Triomphe than even visit the Eiffel Tower. I mean this would be a a highlight for Americans to come. The views back at the city from the top of the arch would be amazing. Uh the views from this side, from West Potomac where the National Garden of Heroes was, looking across at the arch would be amazing. And of course the the promenade on the backside of the Lincoln is, as President Trump described, right now there's no pedestrian access. You're on the mall, people come from around the world they don't know that 100 yards away is the beautiful Potomac River, which was part of the original plan. That now they'd be able to walk around the Lincoln Memorial, walk on a pedestrian bridge over the first highway, walk over the next one and right down to the water. Uh it would complete the vision, these projects would complete the original vision of the McMillan plan. Uh and how fortunate are we to have the Builder-in-Chief, someone who both has the vision and the understanding of how to get projects done uh that would again make our city safe and beautiful just like the executive order President Trump put out last year has accomplished. And wow, we are ready for for the celebration of our 250th anniversary. The city's never been safer, it's never been more beautiful, but President Trump's not stopping there. The vision that he has for these projects would extend for generations forward. So thank you, President Trump.\n\n[30:04] Donald Trump:\nThank you very much. Great job Doug. And uh Secretary Chris Wright, please.\n\n[30:10] Chris Wright:\nNo coal, no modern world. Sta stated another way, without clean beautiful coal, that modern world is impossible. And we saw 17 years ago President Obama's election an all-out attack on the American coal industry, the industry that built our nation. We wouldn't have the buildings, the factories, the industry, the electricity grid we have today without the critical contribution of coal. It's been the the largest source of global electricity for 125 years in a row and will be for decades to come. In the United States it remains a critical source of our electricity, also critical source for our industry. Can't produce steel and cement and other materials without coal. And beyond the the impacts of coal in our electricity sector, just think of the direct impact on human lives. If President Trump had not been elected and inaugurated in January of 2025, and through his authority at the DOE we were able to force keeping open six coal plants as of today there'll be a seventh one and more than twice as many that voluntarily said, 'Hey, we're not going to have to close, we need to stay open.' 17 coal plants were not closed in 2025 because of President Trump sitting at this desk and in this position right here. That saved that saved 17 gigawatts of electric generating capacity. And the winter storm Fern that hit our country in the last week of January this year, hundreds, conservatively hundreds of Americans would have lost their lives if those 17 coal plants had closed. We pushed the East Coast electricity grid in the United States absolutely to the limit. A a storm Yuri hit five years ago in Texas, smaller in geographic extent, not the same magnitude, over 300 people died. But because we had those coal plants operating and running. And not only did they run, wind power disappeared when the storm hit, solar's irrelevant in the winter so things we talk about didn't even matter to our electricity grid except for cost burdens. Coal stepped up and produced 25% more electricity during this storm than its normal reliable chugging out of electricity. Without those plants, without that increase in electricity production, we lost a lot of Americans untold economic damage. President Trump is the president with the courage and the boldness to defend an industry that has been maligned for far too long and to recognize its importance. Americans are are upset about high electricity prices. Blame closing existing reliable and secure plants and replacing them with subsidized unreliable plants, a guaranteed way to drive electricity prices up. But this administration is commit is committed to reversing all of that. That money we've talked about from the Defense Production Act, thankfully because of the one big beautiful bill and these fantastic congressmen sitting around me and governors, without that legislation we wouldn't have the money and the and the uh Defense Production Act authority to keep open so many plants. It it is hard to overstate the magnitude of this. If you look at our efforts across the whole government so far, 45 coal plants are open today that would not be open. Where would we be to reindustrialize America? Where would electricity prices be if we had let all of those plants close? But we're not doing it. The all of those plants, that's $700 million of government funding, but it's matched with $1.7 billion of private investment from the owners and operators of those plants. All the people in those states that say, 'Phew, we don't have to kick our industry out and and raise electricity prices again,' common sense is returning to Washington DC. Uh and for that, I'm incredibly thankful to be here in the United States government to work for President Trump who will stand up for what's right, bring common sense back and and reinvigorate an industry without which we would not have the America we have today and we are going to reindustrialize America, win in the next generation of technologies and we're going to do it in critical part because of a growing and thriving coal industry. Thank you President Trump.\n\n[34:38] Donald Trump:\nThank you very much. Thank you very much. Secretary Burgum, thank you Lee Zeldin. Good. And Lee Zeldin, how about say a few words.\n\n[34:47] Lee Zeldin:\nFor so many Americans, clean beautiful coal is their source of heat, of energy, of warmth, of a job, an economy, a community, a family. And for too long you saw Democrats who were telling these coal miners they should learn to code. And what we saw during the Biden administration at the EPA, for example, was regulation after regulation after regulation trying to strangle out of existence coal. To destroy it. Enter President Trump. Declares a national energy emergency, creates a national energy dominance council and he told us at the EPA at Trump speed to be getting rid of these regulations as quickly as possible on behalf of those Americans who want to just stay warm, who want to live the American Dream, who want to have affordable access to energy. The Democrats were running for power to sit at this desk and to leverage that power to destroy these communities. Enter President Trump, he has saved clean beautiful coal and it's been an honor to be part of that.\n\n[35:53] Donald Trump:\nThank you Lee, thank you very much. Great job too. Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon.\n\n[35:58] Mark Gordon:\nThank you. Mr. President it's an honor to be here. Thank you to the Secretaries who have breathed life into uh an economy in Wyoming that has been there for a long time. Wyoming produces the cleanest most beautiful coal, low sulfur coal. You don't mind if I push em? And it's fun because we have a chance to um to educate our kids. Now let me just talk a little bit about the other side of this. When a kid grows up in Wyoming, their education's paid for in large part by the coal severance taxes, by the royalties that come from mining that coal that was shut down by the Democrats. When they have a chance to get a job, they can go look to the coal mine. And it's not just digging coal the way we used to. It's high-tech jobs. You know at this point, we don't mine coal the way we used to at all. It is very, very technologically proficient and what's more important it's environmentally sound. I would invite you to come and look at the reclamation that's happened in the Powder River Basin and we can demonstrate that it's environmentally sound, that actually wildlife populations thrive and do better. Today, Mr. President, I really want to talk to you a little bit about our recent trip to Japan and to Taiwan. Both countries that were going to forswear coal. And now they realize that they need that reliable dispatchable secure source of energy. But they can't get it as clean as they can from the Powder River Basin. So to be able to open that Oakland port is absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our state and for our coal mines. It is something that we tried to do in your first administration and we almost got there. We actually were prepared to go through that I guess belt that we have on the West Coast with California, Oregon and Washington and finally enforce the commerce clause to allow states like New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah to have access to that Asian market. And let me just tell you one last thing about that. It's not just about clean beautiful coal. We have companies like Peabody that are now saying, 'We believe we can get rare earth minerals and critical minerals from what we're doing.' So we are advancing technology, advancing the opportunities and the security of the state all because of your vision, sir. Thank you.\n\n[38:28] Donald Trump:\nThank you very much. Thank you very much. Very very nice. Would you like to say something on behalf of West Virginia?\n\n[38:34] Patrick Morrisey:\nI would. I would like to say. Mr. President all West Virginians are so deeply grateful to you for your focus on protecting their energy jobs. Uh the coal miners know the incredible importance of why we're here today and to talk about the potential for new coal-fired power plants, that excites them. And I think West Virginians are really inspired because we're America's energy state. When you think about what's happening on the global scene where that fight, that international fight with China for information technology supremacy, we believe that your policies are going to allow America to compete and win, and West Virginia's going to supply the coal, the gas, the nuclear to help make that happen. So I'm very excited by everything you're doing, even some of the relatively small things when you come in and you sign agreements with your administration putting hundreds of people back to work, it's all making a big difference for West Virginia. So thank you Mr. President.\n\n[39:35] Donald Trump:\nElection as an example, the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. It bothered me for many years. We have 92% of the frontage and we made that little change, and Mexico was thrilled. They were thrilled about it. But that was a good one, right? You're telling me before, that was a good one. It's about the United States now for a little while, if it's okay. Uh would you have any questions?\n\n[40:04] Reporter (Daniel):\nYes Mr. President. Uh yes President Trump. This was just crossing as we were heading in here. President Zelensky wrote a letter to President Putin. He wants the two of them to meet to hash out the end of the war in Ukraine because he thinks you are too busy with the war in Iran. Is he right?\n\n[40:21] Donald Trump:\nWell I don't know, I'm glad that they're maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it. I know exactly what you're doing. But uh I think it would be great if they met. They should get it done.\n\n[40:33] Reporter (Peter):\nMr. President. Yes, hey. Uh there's been a lot of talk lately about uh the Treasury putting your face on a 250 dollar bill. Have you seen a mockup of the Trump 250 dollar bill? And if that winds up being currency, would you ever be able to tip anyone anything but that?\n\n[40:53] Donald Trump:\nWell I think I'd probably leave it for that. Uh I have actually seen something just about two days ago. I know it's been pushed by a lot of our supporters and I'm honored that they're doing it, but uh we'll see how that all works out. But I have heard about it and there is a group of people, they really like the job we're doing you know, so that's a great honor. Yes, please.\n\n[41:14] Reporter:\nMr. President. You announced just a few days ago that you're naming Bill Pulte as the acting director of National Intelligence. There's been a little bit of a pushback from some Senate Republicans. Why do you think Mr. President he's the best person for the job?\n\n[41:28] Donald Trump:\nWell he's very smart. He's a person who's got high integrity. He's done a phenomenal job at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Uh you know you probably have a trillion dollars in value there when he took over it was much less and I guess I'm responsible for that too because everybody wanted me to sell it in my first term for 10% of what it's worth right now. If I would have sold it we would have lost 900 billion dollars. We would have lost uh I mean think of it it's probably worth a trillion dollars and I was offered every people wanted me to sell it at 100 billion uh a very small percentage of what it's worth now. So and he built it up a lot. Did a great job. And it's an acting position, it's not a permanent. He's not going to be permanent because you know I don't think he'd want to be permanent. But he's a very smart guy and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc. etc. I think he'd like to do it and I'd like to I think he wants to do it very much. Got a lot of energy. Uh but he'll be very good. Uh again, it's not a permanent position. We're looking at we're interviewing people right now but it's somebody just to take it over for a little while.\n\n[42:37] Reporter:\nDoes he have necessary, in your view Mr. President, the necessary national security experience to take on that position?\n\n[42:42] Donald Trump:\nWell I do and I think he does actually because he's smart. Because a lot of national security Look, I wasn't greatly experienced in national security and I think I've done a really great job with it, a lot of people would say that. I've ended eight wars and soon to be a ninth. I hope that works out too, you know frankly. It's but uh probably and there's another one also that could be 10. No president I don't think a president's ended one war having to do with outside of this country. So you know we've done a good job. Uh I would say that Bill is a guy that will be able to figure it out very quickly. Again, it's short-term but uh he may be very effective for a short period of time.\n\n[43:25] Reporter:\nMr. President. Um so what will there be a proportional share increase of electricity production as a percentage of our nation's electricity output? And my follow-up is, I took that historic trip uh with Secretary Wright of the small modular nuclear reactor uh on the West Coast earlier this year. Are we making more progress? Because I know how critical gas and coal is for the secure grid.\n\n[43:49] Donald Trump:\nWell the answer is we are, but Chris you want to answer that?\n\n[43:51] Chris Wright:\nYes, I mean our electricity grid essentially runs on gas, coal and nuclear. Those are the three key sources, they're the backbone of the America electricity grid. We're in favor of seeing all three of them grow. You will see all three of them grow during this administration. And in fact later today before the sun goes down you'll see a big announcement in the nuclear space related to the trip you came on.\n\n[44:15] Reporter:\nThank you. Thank you. Mr. President. Uh President Putin said today that he was willing to make compromises that you requested to end the war with Ukraine if Ukraine was willing to make similar compromises. Yeah. What were the compromises that you asked Putin?\n\n[44:28] Donald Trump:\nWell, I'd rather not say because Peter asked me and I think it was meant as a little wise guy question but I'm not sure, but I'm very responsible when that happens. It's going to happen. Uh they're going to make both make compromises. I suggested those compromises. And you know, we've had a lot to do with it. We'd love to see they're two very good people. They're two very I mean incredible countries, beautiful countries. They got to stop. Uh last month they had 25,000 people killed, soldiers, mostly soldiers. Some people but mostly soldiers. Uh and it's been averaging probably almost 25,000 people every month of soldiers killed. And uh I've uh been very strong on the fact that they've got to get that over with. So but they do, I want them each to make certain compromises. I think they're going to do that.\n\n[45:17] Reporter (Daniel):\nMr. President. Thank you. You through your actions have saved and supported more than 100 coal plants in your second term. When you hear something like that and you try to create an environment where they're not just surviving, they're thriving. What does that do to the reliability of our energy grid, but to the economies as well of states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming? How does it bolster those economies?\n\n[45:37] Donald Trump:\nWell we were destroying our grid because we're relying on wind and other things that don't have the power, they don't have the strength. They're very expensive. Wind is the most expensive form of energy. It sounds good. Wind, beautiful wind, but you know it's very intermittent. But those windmills cost a fortune, they break, they kill the birds, they're bad for the environment. Nobody wants to be near the houses. I don't know how they got popular. They got they're not popular with the people. They're popular with investors because they get subsidy. But we pretty much cut that subsidy out I think, Doug, right?\n\n[46:08] Doug Burgum:\nAbsolutely. In the Working Families Tax Cut bill it all expires and since the since the subsidies have gone away there's virtually no one uh particularly offshore, no one is trying to build one of those projects in America. Turns out they weren't trying to generate electricity, they were just trying to generate tax credits.\n\n[46:25] Donald Trump:\nThat's right. You're supposed to be making money with uh you know with that, with energy. And here wind needed subsidy. Energy shouldn't need subsidy. We have so much so many different forms of energy, but you know I I've talked about it for years. Wind is the most expensive, it's the worst. Uh it causes tremendous problems. And it does, it kills millions and millions of birds a year. Nobody mentions that. Uh you'd think if that were the or anything else they'd they'd be everybody would be sued. You know if you kill a bald eagle to put you in jail for like four years or something. And yet windmills knock them out of the air all the time. Nothing happens. It's uh it's disgraceful. So uh we're into energy that really works and works powerfully. Yes, go ahead.\n\n[47:13] Reporter:\nAnd we're waiting outside to come into the Oval Office. Everyone's looking at the UFC structure, the claw. Are you happy with how that's coming along and what's your expectations?\n\n[47:22] Donald Trump:\nIncredible. We put it up in uh five days. It's incredible. And I I told yesterday the story of the Eiffel Tower, in it was 1889 it was put up. It was going to be brought down right after the World's Fair ended, which was up for a short while, and uh they said, 'Well let's leave it a little bit longer.' Then they said, 'Let's leave it a little bit longer.' It never came down, that was 18 I think 1889 the World's Fair in Paris. So I jokingly said, 'You know, um let me tell you a story about the Eiffel Tower.' No no, it'll come down after the after the fight. There were actually some people said he wants to leave it up. Yes, please.\n\n[47:53] Reporter:\nMr. President, how about the Columbus statue, Columbus fountain at Union Station? It looks amazing. Thank you. And what does that mean for the relations between Italy and the United States?\n\n[48:03] Donald Trump:\nWhat it means is Italian people love Trump. And because you know that was controversial. People want to rip it down. You see how beautiful it is. And we not only did not rip it down, but Doug and his group and all of us together we we beautified it. It's uh I didn't know the marble was going to be so beautiful when we once we cleaned it up. You wouldn't believe it when you saw that thing was loaded for 50 years with filth and graffiti and everything else. It's amazing. It's amazing how good they did a really great job. Uh please.\n\n[48:35] Reporter:\nOn the Strait of Hormuz Mr. President. Do you still want um European allies' help? We're discussing energy today and and what kind of help what kind of help would you want? Do you have any plans?\n\n[48:46] Donald Trump:\nWell we don't need them. We're the most powerful military in the world. We gave them a chance to help but they uh chose not to, NATO. We went to the NATO countries, we went to others too in all fairness to NATO. and I wouldn't say I gave them a hard sell but I said, 'Hey, if you'd like to help it'll be wonderful.' And they all turned us down. And you know it's going to be an expensive proposition for them because they shouldn't have done that. They should have helped. You know, we don't need it. We have our own, we have much more than we need in terms of oil and energy generally. But but European countries and other countries they need it. Tremendous some of the European countries need it really big. And they should have said we'd love to help, but they didn't. But if you could Mr. President, if you could choose, what would you ask them to do, sir, if you wanted?\n[49:33] Well I would have asked them. There's not much look. We won them, they have there's no Navy, there's no Air Force. We've wiped them out, we've wiped out their leadership and almost all of it. We've wiped out all their military leaders. They're down on the third. Now maybe they're very good. I don't know, I can't tell you that. But uh certainly the first ones didn't do very good because they weren't they were literally after three days almost the entire military was wiped out. They had to get new generals. And then after that they had to get more new generals. And uh we knocked out their anti-aircraft, their air force, just about everything you can knock out. So um and then you'd read in the fake news that they're doing really well in the war. I mean, it's unbelievable. We knocked out everything there is to knock out and you'd pick up the fake news and they'd say how well they've done. They're doing brilliantly. They have no Air Force. You know they exactly, we knew that. 159 ships. Andy, out of 159 ships, uh all 159 lie beautifully at the bottom of the ocean. We actually took pictures of them down there. And then you read the fake news, they say well their Navy is really great. You know what they have now? Little runabouts with a machine gun on the front. It's uh the ships don't even really deal with them. They're just they're like a gnat. You know like get off. That's all they have. It's uh it's crazy. You know this country needs a fair press. And one thing I think that's done is expose how corrupt our media is. Um and I really do while we're here, I hope the media looks at this election that's taking place in California where they think it'll take seven or eight days to count the votes. Can you believe this? Sir. I mean we're supposed they spend all that money on the on the machines, the big voting machines. Uh they think it's going to be seven or eight days before we know who won the election. But the numbers are looking strange because without any vote counting, the numbers dropped very precipitously for two Republicans that are doing well, that had been doing well, and uh I hope you're all watching it because I'm watching it very closely.\n\n[51:48] Reporter:\nMr. President. Are you worried that China is funding an anti-data center movement here in the US?\n\n[51:52] Donald Trump:\nNo, I'm not worried about it. We had a great meeting with China and you know they do things to us and we do things to them. I said it all the time. They say, 'Oh are you worried about China tapping your phones?' I said, 'Well you know they're worried about the same thing.' No we're very highly sophist we've become very highly sophisticated. We had four years I rebuilt the military. We had a military that was not good and we rebuilt it and I didn't know I'd use it quite as much, but we used it. Um Ukraine has been given a tremendous amount of our mil without our military and our equipment Ukraine wouldn't uh be alive to fight today. You know, I mean just in terms of the question. Uh we gave them hundreds of billions of dollars worth of equipment. And the best equipment. We make the best equipment anywhere in the world. But they wouldn't they wouldn't have lasted one or two days. They wouldn't have been able to do it. Remember the uh the anti-tank missiles. Remember that, right? When the tanks got stuck in the mud and then they went around and boom boom boom. And those were uh given by yours truly. They said, 'Obama gave sheets and Trump gave uh the anti-the as one of the most devastating weapons.' But uh you check that out. But we have we have the greatest military we have the greatest um military equipment anybody's ever seen before. Look at Venezuela. We went in there it was over after about 48 minutes. And you know they have a strong military, different kind of a military, but uh a lot of soldiers. And uh you look at Iran where we essentially wiped out wiped out their military. Now there's some missiles left but very few compared to what they had.\n\n[53:41] Reporter:\nAnd speaking of our military and Iran. I wanted to ask you about this report that you would only restart the conflict with Iran if they killed US troops. Is that your red line for ending the ceasefire?\n\n[53:51] Donald Trump:\nIf they killed US troops? What does that mean? That you would restart the war with Iran if they killed US troops. Well I it would be a good reason. I'd be honest with you. If they kill US troops, I think I would do that very quickly. Yeah that's a very interesting question.\n\n[54:06] Reporter:\nMr. President on Iran. You've responded to the vote in the House yesterday of the war powers resolution. Also we've seen Hezbollah reject the US-brokered peace in Lebanon. You said that the negotiato negotiations are in final stages. Iran's saying they're stalled.\n\n[54:22] Donald Trump:\nThey want to reject me. They didn't reject. No they're looking. I think Hezbollah I will tell you they called us and they said, 'How about stopping?' And I think you're going to see things happen over there. That that's been like um a little bit of a different world but it's interconnected with Iran and it would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace. Lebanon's been under attack for so many years and always like an underdog. And it would be really nice if it could end. and I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu about that and I speak to them about it and I actually spoke to Hezbollah about it. and I think progress is made. That's been going on for a long time, you know when you look at that for years and years, 48 years. I say, 'Well let's get this settled. How long has it been going on?' 48 years. I said, 'That's a long time.' Not that easy but go ahead.\n\n[55:12] Reporter:\nMr. President as we get closer to the midterms, are you starting to factor in domestic reaction to this in your handling of these?\n\n[55:18] Donald Trump:\nNo I I just do what's right. Indefinitely. No and I mean look, it was like Venezuela was very unpopular. Then we won and my numbers went through the roof. I have very high poll numbers. They went through the roof. It was very unpopular when I went to Venezuela. They said, 'Oh we don't want' Well first of all that one's relatively close, it's sort of a semi-neighbor right? And the relationship with Venezuela is incredible. We've taken out millions and millions of barrels of oil out of Venezuela. It's very oil prone I guess Chris one of the most right? Yes. And we've taken out you're sort of leading it, but do you want to just tell them real fast about the relationship we have with Venezuela Chris?\n\n[55:58] Chris Wright:\nYeah things in Venezuela have gone very well. Venezuelan oil exports today are three times higher than they were right before we went in. So it is been a meaningful incremental supply of oil to the world and one of the reasons we're solving a 47-year-old problem of of Iran's race for nuclear weapons. And oil prices uh in the US we wish they were lower, but uh gasoline prices in the US are you know a little over four dollars. They're ten dollars in Europe, they're higher in Asia, they're very high in California. The bigger threat to energy prices in the United States is Democratic green energy policies. They have driven up energy prices far more than a conflict in Iran and the conflict in Iran will come to an end. We hope uh the crazy green energy drive-up energy prices policy the Democrats at federal and state levels we hope that comes to an end too.\n\n[56:50] Donald Trump:\nAnd remember this. With if you want to call it a war or if you want to call it a military operation, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon and everybody agrees to that, no matter almost everybody. But wait a minute. Our gasoline prices are lower than they were with Biden without that. And he would have let them have in fact he inspired them to have frankly a nuclear weapon. Him and Obama. Obama picked the wrong country, you know that. And the Obama deal I terminated that or they would have had a nuclear that was a road to a nuclear weapon. Our deal if we make that deal and it's going well but who knows, if we make that deal it's the exact opposite that they will not have they will never have a nuclear weapon. Sounds like you're in it for as long as it takes. I'm not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. No. With Obama it was a road you know that. It was a road to a nuclear weapon. That was a short-term agreement and at the end of which they would have a nuclear weapon. So they would have had it four years ago. Then we attacked with this beautiful plane right here, the B-2 bomber, we attacked 10 months ago, we attacked their nuclear sites and they were obliterated. It turned out that you know CNN was wrong, they said well maybe they weren't hit that hard. They were hit so hard nobody knows if you can even get it out. But the only ones that have the capability of getting out is us and China. We're the only ones with that kind of equipment that's uh powerful enough to go down that deep into a mountain. But that mountain crushed it. That mountain literally collapsed on top of it. Those pilots did one hell of a job. And now the atomic energy as you know has backed us up on that they think it's a very very hard thing to get it. uh but we'll get it anyway. But we're the only one and China, I believe China too, but we're the only two that have the capability.\n\n[58:38] Reporter:\nMr. President Joe Biden is out promoting a new book this week. When you met with Joe Biden, President Joe Biden right here in the Oval Office on November the 13th of 2024, could you detect any cognitive decline in President Biden at that time?\n\n[58:53] Donald Trump:\nNo, not really. I mean he was the same guy I've been watching for a long time. I mean you could go back 40 years I watched him 40 years ago, 30 years ago. He was never the sharpest guy, you do know that, right? It wasn't like he was sharp as a tack. But uh no, it was the same guy. They actually invited me here before the election which was strange. You know we went here before, but then I met also as you know, uh we did the ritual and uh I mean he was fine as far as I was concerned. I don't know, something happened to him during the debate. It could have been me. You know I thought I had a very good debate. Nobody ever says that. They say that they say that Biden did badly. What about me? Did I do well? You know there's a reason he did badly. So the question is did he do badly because he choked or because he didn't have it. But he didn't have a good I would say this he did not have a good night. But during that during that time period you you met with him for about two hours you didn't feel he was slowing down. He he spoke softly, very softly, and as we started to speak he you know I I mention this to people. He spoke very very softly, very low very low. and as we talked we got along really well and I thought he was fine, I thought he was fine. What I say fine, I mean was he like talking to Doug Burgum? Was he like talking to Chris? Was he like talking to any of these monsters up here all these tremendous politicians and environmental geniuses? Was he like talking to Andy Barr? No. He was fine.\n\n[60:32] Reporter:\nMr. President. I have a question about Hunter Biden. He's on social media now and he has suggested, maybe joking I don't know, that he could run for President in 2028. How would he do, Hunter Biden, in a 2028 Democratic primary?\n\n[60:47] Donald Trump:\nWell you would think that that you know past has something to do with winning an election and I would say his past is not the greatest. Where's Hunter, right? Remember my where's Hunter? It became the number one shirt anywhere in the world for about three weeks. Um I'm not going to say bad. I'm sure you know, hey if the guy from Maine can do well, I guess Hunter could do well too because the guy from Maine is a basket case. And I would say worse than him is the one from Texas. That looks like Alfred E. Neuman. I would say that if he can do well, maybe Hunter could do well. I'm not sure. It'd be pretty close as far as I'm concerned.\n\n[61:26] Reporter:\nAnd I've got a question about the nuclear dust. So the bombers go in, they entomb a lot of this enriched uranium. Yeah. At this point, do you need a deal with Iran to go get it or have you thought about just a covert daring, send in the SEALs, send in the Rangers?\n\n[61:44] Donald Trump:\nBut I didn't want to be Jimmy Carter, you know? I didn't feel like being Jimmy Carter. So we did. Well we thought about it right at the very beginning before you saw before we did what we did, before we destroyed their entire military. Um we thought about it and I didn't want to be in a position where you had to be you know to get there it's not like it's not like Venezuela like you go in you're there for a matter of minutes and you're out and everybody's waving goodbye as you you know take off. And you've you brought the cargo back. Uh this is different. You'd have to be there for two weeks. You'd need massive equipment. You'd have to airlift the equipment in. You know you're in a war zone. and there was a time at the very beginning when we thought about doing that because they would have not been watching but they would have found out. I mean during a period of a week to two weeks, you know that's you you would have had a major construction operation because that plane and more importantly those people that operate those planes including the mechanics, you know they flew for 37 hours round trip. Think of that. and the tankers that refilled them four times. and what an operation it was. Amazing. and uh but we would have been Peter we would have been there for a period of from a week to two weeks. We would have gotten it. But I said I don't like the idea of that. All of a sudden they you know pinpoint they still had missiles left. That means they would pinpoint you and just keep lobbing them in until one gets through and people would have gotten killed. So I didn't like it. Uh we could get it right now. I don't think they could stop us if we wanted, but there's no reason to. It's entombed, you use a good word. It's entombed. We also have cameras on it through space force. We have uh very powerful cameras. Every door there's a door you know where the doors go? They go to bad places. But every single uh place on that on those mountains, there's three um basically three uh because we also hit it with Tomahawks after. You know after that we hit it with Tomahawk. Uh every inch of that land is cameras on it. We have about nine of them and they're on and we cover it. So if anybody even got near it we would know what we had to do.\n\n[63:58] Reporter:\nAnd would you meet with the new Ayatollah, the new Supreme Leader?\n\n[64:03] Donald Trump:\nI don't want to meet, but if if I did meet, I'd be honored to meet him. I'd like to see if we make a deal. But if we make a deal, it's possible that I would meet. I'd be okay with it. Would that happen here in the US, White House? Camp David?\n[64:14] Oh I don't know, I haven't really heard too much about it and I didn't suggest it but some people have suggested it. If it happened it would happen, I'd be I'd be respectful.\n\n[64:24] Reporter:\nDo you think because Epic Fury killed his dad and his wife and his kid that he's got hard feelings and wouldn't want to meet? Have you thought about that?\n\n[64:33] Donald Trump:\nWell I would say I'm not his favorite person. But with that being said he's probably a professional, I don't know. He's probably a professional, in some circles he has a very good reputation actually. You know sometimes some people say bad but a lot of people say bad about me. Totally false of course.\n\n[64:52] Reporter:\nMr. President on jobs. Um tomorrow the jobs report will will be released. Um while the unemployment rate has been steady at 4.3%, the black unemployment rate has been at 7.3%. When you ran for President, you courted black voters and talked about what you described as black jobs. How do you describe why why this disparity is happening, what can you do to close that?\n\n[65:11] Donald Trump:\nWell we're doing very well with uh the black jobs, African-American jobs. We're doing what I saw some numbers that we're doing really well. But where we're really going to do well is when all these plants are open. You know we're building many car plants, we're bringing cars back from Germany, we're bringing you know we lost the car industry years ago. 54% of of the industry went to Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico. It's all coming back. It's amazing. And uh where your black worker is really going to do well is when those factories open. So I think they're going to be great. You we've been doing very well. It's been a big focus for me. Yeah please.\n\n[65:47] Reporter:\nThank you Mr. President. Um on today's announcement, how do you ensure the estimated cost savings are passed on to the consumers and not held by the company? And then on Iran, what specific progress has been made today in talks with them and where are the sticking points still?\n\n[65:59] Donald Trump:\nSo we're uh really lowering costs. You know when I came into this job we had the highest inflation in the history of our country. 48 years they say, but I I think the history of our country, whether it's 48 years or more. But we had tremendous inflation with Biden during the Biden. They had the highest they had one of the highest ever. And uh I inherited that. The costs were very, very high. And at my first uh news conference, Peter and others were screaming at me about eggs. Remember Peter, eggs? What about eggs? Maybe it wasn't you but I I had want to inject Peter into it. But he was screaming to me about eggs. And I said, 'What tell me about eggs? This is two days in.' They said eggs had quadrupled. I said, 'Well they didn't quadruple under me, they quadruple' And they didn't want me to order eggs for the Easter egg hunt that was going to take place in a few months, right? And I said, 'Nope, we're not going to' they wanted me to order plastic eggs. and I said, 'Nope.' and we got eggs down to lower than what it was long prior to when I took over. And eggs today are about 15% lower. Um what we had is a bunch of con artists, the Democrat the dumbocrats. And what they did is they said they left, they gave the highest prices that we've ever had for all products, groceries everything, and they started saying affordability. They'd say, 'This is about affordability.' It's a con job. I inherited their high prices. We brought those prices way down. And when the and if you go back three months ago, if you go back before the the war started, think of it, three months. So uh with Vietnam we were there for 19 years. with Iraq it was about nine years. with another one it was about 12 years and with another one we had all these wars that lasted for 9, 10, 12, 19 years for Vietnam, think of it. And they said you're in there for three months. This is a terrible thing. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in these other wars. We lost not one soldier in Venezuela. We didn't lose one soldier. and we lost a total of 13, which is 13 too many. But when you look at hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed in these various wars, they lasted many, many years. We're in there for a few months and what we've done is amazing. and they won't have a nuclear weapon. And we did it was tough because we just got Doug and everybody came in to see me. We just got the best numbers. Well today again, the New York Stock Exchange and every other exchange just hit a new all-time high. That's 73 days out of my short term, we've hit brand new highs. Every 401k is setting records. A 401k is a lot of people have, you probably all have 401ks. Every look at your 401k. You happy about your 401k? You know the nice reporters are smiling at me and the stupid reporters are like that, but their 401ks are setting records. They should be happy. They shouldn't be angry, they should be very happy. But 401ks are setting records, they've never had anything like it. So you know we've done a good job. As far as Iran's concerned, you're going to find out what the deal is. But uh the main parts of the deal is that can't have a nuclear weapon, uh the strait will open immediately, you know it's going to open immediately. and we've largely swept for mines. We have the most sophisticated mines, they're underwater minesweepers. I actually said to somebody, one of the generals, 'Why underwater?' He said because usually it's hostile. You know when you're looking for mines typically it's not in a good neighborhood, right? So underwater made a lot of sense, and it didn't take long to figure that one out. So uh I think we're doing very well but we're going to see. If we we're going to win one way or the other. We're going to win on paper or we're going to win military. One one way or the other. It's going to be militarily or on paper.\n\n[69:55] Reporter:\nMr. President. Mr. President. Thank you Mr. President. How critical is energy dominance whether it be coal, whether it be LNG, whether it be oil to national security?\n\n[70:04] Donald Trump:\nWithout it you can't win. As an example AI is a big deal. Whether we like it, not like it. It's going to be amazing in many ways. It's going to be I think for medical it'll be amazing. But without massive amounts of energy you can't even play the game. And we're leading China by a lot in AI. I was talking to President Xi about it. Uh but if we didn't do Lee Zeldin's son so great because number one fast approvals from professionals. You know you'd have the best firms in the world submit papers to him. And we didn't keep them waiting for 10 years and then vote against them after 10 years. That was guys would file with the environmental for a plant of some kind. After 15 years, they would be rejected. It was terrible. Now we have great professionals there and we accept we only accept plans from great professionals, but we give them fast turnaround and it's it's been really amazing. I I think the biggest thing we've done Lee is we let these geniuses with all this money build their own electric plant. We don't take it from our grid, we let them build their own plant. They become a utility. So they're building a plant and at the same time they're building electricity because if we didn't do that you couldn't have anything you couldn't and we're letting that happen too with car plants and other plants. If they want to build their own electric plant with the AI, you know you hear so much about it. But one of the biggest things they build their own and then excess energy that they create will go back into the grid. Yeah please.\n\n[71:35] Reporter:\nMr. President. On Cuba are you Mr. President. Secretary Rubio was in Delhi last week, he delivered a letter from you to Prime Minister Modi. and sir you also addressed people of India through your favorite ambassador Sergio Gor. That's right. Yeah. Both of them have said this trade deal is around the corner. Where do you stand on trade deals with India?\n\n[71:52] Donald Trump:\nWell we have it and you know Look. India for years has and I don't blame them, I blame us because we had stupid people here. India for years really took advantage of the United States. You know that. Are you from India by any chance? Huh? Both people. I'm from India sir. I'm only kidding. Um you're central casting, okay? and that's a very good thing. India for years took advantage of this country. They charged us tremendous tariffs uh and they paid nothing. Uh they wouldn't let hardly as an example in the past. They wouldn't let Harley-Davidson sell its motorbikes. They would charge 200% tariff. So Harley-Davidson was precluded. They ended up going to India and building their own plant, which is unfortunate. That that happened. That was before me. But uh they charged tremendous amounts of tariffs to our company. and and we didn't charge them anything. You know they sell sold motorbikes here too. You know what we charged them? Nothing. And now it's the exact reverse. and we're making a lot of money with India. But we'll get to a deal because I like you know I like your Prime Minister a lot. He's a good friend of mine. Get along great. And we're going to make a deal. We have a very good relationship.\n\n[73:08] Reporter:\nMr. President. Speaking of deals Mr. President. On Cuba, are your sanctions on Cuba meant to accelerate its collapse?\n\n[73:15] Donald Trump:\nNo, it's just we just want them to be uh a nicely run country that can feed its people. Look, it's a failed nation. Without Venezuela, you know Venezuela because it has such wealth in the ground, mostly in the ground. But uh Venezuela took care of them for years. And they took care of Venezuela. They were like the bodyguards. When we went in and uh burst into their country the Venezuelans were guarding Maduro and everybody else. It was mostly, I mean the soldiers were in that case. We had we had a lot of Cubans were guarding. The Cubans were the guards and and they're good soldiers. But the country's starving and it's got no energy, it's got no oil, it's got no money, it's got nothing. It's got a beautiful piece of land. You could have beautiful resorts, doesn't have oil, but uh Venezuela was giving them the money to survive and now, you know the money is I guess you could say is coming to us and is going to Venezuela. Venezuela has been an amazing thing because we've paid for the cost of the attack many many times over and it's been a long time since you burst in.\n\n[74:25] Reporter:\nDo you think they're close to collapsing though? Based on everything you just laid out, do you think that Cuba is close to collapsing?\n\n[74:30] Donald Trump:\nIt's sort of collapsed um and we're going to handle that as soon as we finish I like to do one thing at a time and we'll take care of uh the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as soon as that's done on our way back we'll just make a little brief stop. Mr. President. We'll take care of it. We want to help them out. Look, um we have a lot of people that voted for Trump whether they did or not, it didn't matter. But I had 95% of the Cubans voted for me. They're unbelievable people, they're energetic, they're entrepreneurial. You know some of the richest people in Miami are Cuban. They're unbelievable. And uh I'm going to take good care of them. I'm going to let them go back to their land. They want to be back with family. You know they have a lot of family over there. Uh they've been treated very badly by Cuba. But we're going to treat Cuba well and we're going to let our people go back and let them invest in Cuba if they'd like. So we have some we have some very good plans for Cuba. I think you know we have to get rid of the the regime was was very tough very nasty. The difference is now they don't have money coming in. They had a lot of money coming in from Venezuela. They don't have any money coming in. They had oil coming in, they had money coming in. Uh but we're going to take care of Cuba. and they you know what? They want us to. The people want us there so bad.\n\n[75:49] Reporter:\nMr. President sir, last night huge night for the city of New York. The Knicks won game one of the NBA finals. There's been a lot of speculation. Have you decided whether or not you want to attend a game at Madison Square Garden?\n\n[76:00] Donald Trump:\nWell I've been a Nick fan for a long time and I'm also a Jim Dolan fan. He's a nice guy, okay? He's been a long time wanting to win and he's he's a competitive guy and he's got a team that's amazing, you know they I don't think they've lost a playoff game. 12 straight wins. Can you imagine that? And uh it was not looking good. I saw the beginning of the game and it was not looking good. I missed the middle because I talked to generals all night long now. But uh I watched that end of the game and they were dominant. Really amazing. and Wemby's a great player, going to be a great player and he is already a great player. I say, 'How do you guard this guy? He's 7 foot 5 and he's got a great shot, right?' But they find a way to do it. They're really great. They're a great team. and I'm happy for Jim because Jim has really been fighting hard to, you know produce such a team. So you never know. Um the answer is yes, he's invited me, I'm going. Which game have you decided sir? Game 3? Game 4? Are you excited? It could be Monday, yeah Monday. Maybe I'll do both.\n\n[77:01] Reporter:\nMr. President you spoke in New York with the automakers yesterday. Can you tell us a little bit about that, more about that in particular. Did you discuss trade, tariffs, US?\n\n[77:08] Donald Trump:\nWe did. We had a great meeting with the auto workers. I mean most of them were here. They were really talking about the fix your own car kind of a thing, right? But um they're doing very well since I'm in office because I got rid of a lot of environmental restrictions that in fact you might just tell them a little bit about that Lee where we made it so much easier for them to build a car. They can build a less expensive car that's much better. and uh they were so choked up with environmental nonsense that in order to save four ounces of gasoline you had to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. Lee you want to go into that?\n\n[77:41] Lee Zeldin:\nPresident Trump we sent to Congress, congressional the three Biden EPA waivers to California that Congress passed, President Trump signed last year getting rid of the electric vehicle mandate that a whole bunch of other states had signed on to. Uh just a couple months ago President Trump announced here at the White House the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding. All the greenhouse gas emission standards on light medium and heavy duty vehicles we're following the law, and what that means for cost of living, just on that act alone $2,400 more affordable per vehicle for Americans. Uh the the victories come out every single day. Uh President Trump gave us very clear guidance, he wanted us to act at Trump speed to get this done as fast as possible and what you see now all across America is billions upon billions of investments all across this country with new factories being built. They believe in America, they're investing in America with the American jobs that come come up with it. And by the way consumer choice, we got rid of that climate participation trophy for that annoying start-stop feature in cars to make your car die at every stop site a stop uh sign and red light. Uh so yeah the the gifts the the receipts the wins they keep coming in and uh we're just getting started.\n\n[78:56] Reporter:\nDo they ask you for any tariff changes on auto imports?\n\n[78:59] Donald Trump:\nNo, they didn't. They didn't have. They're making so much money now because uh you know I did something else that I don't know if Peter likes it but because we have no tax on tips and no tax on social security, no tax on overtime, right? So that's really been big. That's turned out to be much bigger than anyone knew. If you look at the people, they're saving from five to seven eight thousand dollars even uh on average because of that. So it's been good but I did something else that nobody talks about. If you buy a car and you borrow money, you're allowed to deduct the interest for income tax purposes. Never happened before. And deductions uh were always meant for rich people, they weren't meant for middle class people or other people wanting to buy a car. So now you're allowed to get a deduction of your interest payment. That's a tremendous thing. I mean it's a but what's the key? Only if the car is made in America. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you guys.","2026-09-04T15:22:59.162524+00:00",null,"President Trump Makes an Announcement on Beautiful, Clean Coal 2026-06-04 19:18","20260603",true,false,{"name":14,"slug":15,"image_url":8},"Donald Trump","donald-trump",{"prev":17,"next":20},{"id":18,"name":19},"af41199c-a58b-4018-b8fa-667bb0510e5d","President Trump Signs Executive Orders, Jun. 3, 2026 2026-06-03 20:18",{"id":21,"name":22},"44b822c0-d11a-4f1b-a50e-09a6fd5e6b10","President Trump Participates in a Wreath Laying Ceremony and Delivers Remarks 2026-05-25 16:18"]