President Trump Participates in a Roundtable

All right. We'll take care of it. It's very—so easy. So, uh, do you have any questions? How about keeping it on farming?

Yes. President Trump, your team answered all of my questions on farming. But in the interest of affordability with this aid package, um, I assume that that's something you want consumers to see before midterms next year. How quickly will that affect prices at the grocery store?

Well, I think the prices are going to be going down already. I mean, the prices are way down. We brought prices way down from what it was. We inherited high prices. We inherited the biggest inflation in the history of our country. That means prices going up. And we've brought it down very substantially. Now inflation is essentially gone. We have it normalized. And it'll go down even a little bit further. You don't want it to be deflation either. You have to be careful. But we brought it way down. We had inflation that was the highest in the history of our country. They say 48 years. But I say the history. 48 years is pretty bad, too, right? Uh, so we're—we're solving those problems. We're bringing them way down, yeah. President, would you consider Maha incentives for farmers that go by Maha guidelines? [39:53] Uh, well, a lot of the farmers like those Maha guidelines, yeah. So I mean, they do. We like Maha. How do you feel about—

Yeah, let me—let me answer that. So this is another reason, I didn't mention it, but this is another reason I think that what we're moving into is a Golden Age for agriculture. As Secretary Kennedy and I and across our cabinet with the President's leadership focusing on making America healthy again, the undergirding foundational effort in that is our agriculture industry. It is our farmers and our ranchers. So as the new dietary guidelines come out in early January, USDA alone spends $400 million a day on nutrition programs. That's a whole other snap fraud, etc. But when you think about what a market mover that is, as we begin to move the market toward more locally produced, American-made, healthier products closer to the schools, the—the hospitals, etc., you again begin to open up so much of the market for the great products produced by these farmers instead of ultra-processed foods out of a box. So there's a lot that's going to be coming on that as well. I'm really—

Mr. President, I have another question. It's not really as for, but if you'll entertain them, I'm Kara from Blinktel TV, Kara Kashenova, and I'm not fake news, just so you know. And, um, everybody's talking about the pipe bomber over the weekend, the suspect that was taken into custody. I reported on Biden's kangaroo court for four years, and I—this is an important question to me. Everyone knows that J6 was a fed-surrection to set you and your supporters up. So my question is, what's your gut instinct about the new pipe bomber suspect taken into custody? Does your instinct tell you that he acted alone? And also, Mr. President, how do you feel about the lead prosecutor on the pipe bomber case? Jocelyn Ballantine is the same prosecutor that allegedly acts at J6 or to lie to frame you for J6 when you did nothing wrong. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, well, thank you. I—I really appreciate that question. It's sort of a statement, and I appreciate it very much. Uh, Jocelyn is being looked at. They all have to be looked at. What they're doing is so bad. This was a whole Democrat hoax. The whole thing was a Democrat hoax. And it's all being looked at. I appreciate that. President, back on the aid package, Mr. President, will there be more help for farmers or or is more expected? Is this the final aid package for— [42:02] It—it depends on where we go. Uh, China's buying a lot, other countries are buying a lot. And, uh, you know, the interesting thing about the farmers, they don't want aid. They want to just have a level playing field. I've seen that more with farmers than anybody else, any other industry, right? We've seen it more with, uh, farmers where I've had meetings like this, and primarily in the first term, and we did a great job. We turned it around. This is going to be the Golden Age. But the farmers don't want aid, they want to have a level playing field because if they have a level playing field, they'll do better than anybody else. They're better than anybody else. Our product is incredible. Our machinery's incredible, right? I mean, we do have the best machines. It's a very big statement I made though. The environmental excess that we have put onto our tractors and all of our machinery. Do you all agree with that, by the way? Do you know what I'm talking about? It's got to go. It doesn't do anything except make the machines break all the time. And, uh, I must say I like to buy old machinery. I say, 'Buy old' because it's better. The new stuff is terrible. It never works. Never works.

Mr. President, Mr. President, you said you would have no—Mr. President, you said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela. Secretary Hegseth now says—

I didn't say that. That's you said that, I didn't say that. This is ABC fake news.

You said that you would have no problem releasing the full bit. Okay, well, Secretary Hegseth—

Whatever—whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me. [43:34] He now says it's under review. Are you ordering the Secretary to release that full video with—? Whatever he decides is okay with me. So every boat we knock out of the water, every boat we save 25,000 American lives. Uh, that was a boat loaded up with drugs. I saw the video. They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float, and we didn't want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs just like everything else. But every boat we shoot down, and I don't know if you know, we're 92 or 94% down in drugs coming in by the sea. And we're trying to find who are the 6% because I don't know, people aren't liking to drive boats right now loaded up with drugs. But every single—think of that—every single boat we shoot out, on average, we save 25,000 American lives. Do you feel okay about that, Cort? Keep us safe. Okay, I do. I know—I know my man. And what about you, Merrill? Are you okay with that? Totally fine with that. Are you going to recommend to the Secretary to release the full video? Didn't I just tell you that? You're the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible, actually a terrible reporter. And it's always the same thing with you. I told you, whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.

Mr. President, on on some long-term terms and I just have a quick question. There's, um, at least 20 Republican House Republicans who have either said they're going to retire or not run again.

And Democrats also. Well, why don't you mention them? How many Democrats are going to retire? How many Democrats? Well, that—well, that's what— Why don't you tell me the number of Democrats too? You tell me about the Republicans. Are you concerned about the narrow margins? And no, I'm not concerned. I think we're going to do well. Congressman Miller among them and Blake Moore who you know as well. Consider running for— We're going to have the greatest economy in history. How many Democrats are retiring? How come you only know the Republicans but not the Democrats? We didn't come prepared to ask you a question about— No, no, you're unprepared because you should know the Democrats. You're totally unprepared. Go ahead. Who are you with? I'm with New York Newsday, and I also have a quick follow-up. Um, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is among those who is, um, running for New York Governor, she—she's great. Bruce Blakeman, who you also know as well, is also great. Do are you planning on making any endorsements or having many talks about—? Well, I'll think about it. But he's great and she's great. They're both great people. We have a lot of great people with the Republican Party. Go ahead.

Can I get back to farming? Um, so you you talked about the profitability issue, the machinery playing a role in that. Then fertilizer plays another role in that. A lot of that, the way I understand it, it comes in from Canada, different countries like that. What are we doing to bolster domestic fertilizer production to help make that more affordable, and then I think that will transition down the—

Well, one of the things, a lot of it does come in from Canada. And so we'll end up putting very severe, uh, tariffs on that if we have to, uh, because, uh, that's the way you want to bolster here. And we can do it here. We can all do that here. But I would say what you do, you put very severe tariffs on, uh, from coming into other countries. You'll be making your own fertilizer very quickly.

In fact, uh, Secretary Burgum, our—this cabinet is so remarkable. Instead of just seeing each other every month, we're literally talking every day multiples of times a day. But our Secretary of the Interior, I, and Secretary Bessent and others, we have a whole plan in place including the reshoring of fertilizer and the opportunity to do it in America. Having said that, we've also per the President's guidance issued a directive: these fertilizer companies, the seed companies, um, the equipment companies, all of the above, as our farmers have struggled year over year. These companies, the meatpacking companies continue to make, you know, a lot of money hand over fist, a lot of foreign-owned companies. So that's why the President has been very unequivocal in saying, 'We got to figure out why all these input costs are skyrocketing and all of our farmers are struggling,' which we're going to do. But it's a great point.

So when they take—when they take like fertilizer out of the country, all of a sudden we don't do it anymore and then they start charging and sending, you know, very high prices from other countries, whether it's Canada or somebody else. Uh, we're not going to let that happen. Yeah, okay. Mr. President, on the quality on the quality of foreign produce, you spoke about soybeans and how the quality here in the United States obviously is a lot better. [47:43] That's what I've heard.

Yeah. Is—is the default of this administration, because that's an issue I understand with root vegetables, citrus as well, is the default of this administration that even if it's more a little bit more expensive homegrown, you will choose homegrown over cheaper produce abroad?

I like homegrown. You know, some things we can't grow because we don't have the heat. There are some things, you know, little delicacies or maybe not such delicacies, but they grow better in warmer climates, very warm climates actually. But for the most part, I like homegrown.

Mr. President, thank you. Um, one on this announcement and then one on foreign policy if I may. Um, are you open to tapping into tariff revenue again should farmers find they need additional relief to get to that level playing field?

Yeah, yeah. If, uh, we're going to make the farmers, um, so strong, and I'm not even talking about financially, I mean because they just want to be able to produce what they can produce. And we're going to make them so strong that, uh, it will be indeed a Golden Age for farmers. You know, we had it going in the first administration and then Biden came in and ruined everything. They had no idea what they were doing—they did, I mean, I think they wanted—they hated the farmer. I love the farmer. That's why I got 94% of the vote from the farmers. But they hated the farmers. I love the farmers. Go ahead.

And then on Russia and Ukraine, obviously your administration has been having talks with each side. Given that there is no peace deal at this point, will your administration stay engaged, uh, in those talks to effort a peace deal?

Well, we just want to see people stop from being killed. You know, we don't, as you know, Joe Biden gave them $350 billion. You know what I gave them? Nothing. I gave them, well, I did give them Javelins at the beginning and knocked out a hell of a lot of tanks. But—and Obama gave sheets. Remember? Obama gave sheets and I gave Javelins. But, uh, no, we have, uh—we have a great situation going over there except for one problem: you got a lot of people dying, and I want to see that stop. So you have Ukrainian, mostly Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers. Last month, 27,000 soldiers died, mostly soldiers. A few people from their—the dropping of a missile in the middle of Kyiv or wherever, which is a terrible thing. But mostly soldiers. 27,000 soldiers died last month. Uh, that's what I want to see stopped. We, as you know, we now sell equipment to NATO at full price, and NATO takes that equipment and probably gives it to Ukraine. I guess they could give it to others too, but for the most part give it to Ukraine. And they're working with Ukraine in terms of distribution of equipment, missiles, etc. But, uh, we aren't spending money. What we are doing is spending time on a humane basis. Uh, we want to see if we can stop the killing of 27—it would have never happened, this war would have never happened if the election weren't rigged. If I were president, this war would have never happened.

President Trump, Mr. President, a question about on the soybean purchases. Um, you've talked a lot obviously about China's soybean purchases. Some lawmakers from North and South Carolina have raised concern that US tobacco farmers were told that China would not purchase flue-cured tobacco this year. Has that come up in your conversations at all with President Xi?

No, it hasn't, but we're doing well. The tobacco people, because of the deals I made, are doing very well. Uh, but that could be an—if it—if it's the case, I can get it solved very quickly.

President Trump, let us know how you settled on this $12 billion or $11 billion plus one more billion dollar figure?

We did it. We looked at how they were hurt, to what extent they were hurt. We did a very, you know, steady, uh, progression of charts, and we figured out a very exact number, and it was about $12 billion, okay?

President Trump, if you had one Christmas wish for America besides making American farmers great again, what would it be?

I would say very simply, and I go by a statement when people ask that question—remember that question was asked by, to Ted Kennedy. And they said, 'Well, what are you going to do to make America great?' And he couldn't answer the question. I have a very simple: we're going to make America greater than ever before, and we're going to do it through a series of tariffs, intelligent taxes, and incentives. And our country has never been stronger. We have $18 trillion coming into our country right now. There's never been anything like it. And if you ask me that, I'll say I just want to keep doing what I'm doing because there's never been anything like what's happening. The most, the biggest number ever in history was $2 trillion, and we're at $18 trillion. This is money pouring into our country on building car plants, on building AI plants. We just want to keep doing exactly what we're doing because nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world, not just our country. There's never been—Scott, would you say that's right? There's never been anything like the investments coming into America. Sir, this is a record year. Record year. Do you support the Paramount deal, sir?

On healthcare, Mr. President, 22 million Americans are expected to see their healthcare insurance premiums start to rise by the beginning of next year.

You're talking about because Obamacare's so bad?

Yes. Well, sir, because the Obamacare subsidies are expiring. Are you going to let that happen on your watch?

What I'm going to do is, if the Democrats go along with it, which they don't want to because they want to make the insurance companies very rich, okay? Uh, I want the money to be paid to the people to go out and buy their own healthcare instead of paying to the insurance—you know, the insurance companies, their stock has gone up 1,700% in a short period of time. Did you know that? 1,700. You wish your corn went up that much. But the insurance companies' stock has gone up by 1,700%, 1,800%. They're taking in trillions of dollars. I don't want to pay the insurance companies anything. And I know a lot of them, but they're owned by the Democrats, and the Democrats have—Obamacare is a set-up to make insurance companies rich. And I want to pay the people, and I want the people to go out and buy their own healthcare. And that's what we want to do, and that's what the Republicans want to do because Obamacare is a disaster. And I said it five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, it was always a disaster. It's bad healthcare that's too expensive for people. And now your premiums, as you said it, better than I said it, you said the Obamacare premiums are going to go up, they're going way up. And what I want to do is have the money—and you know who's getting that money, a lot of it, is the insurance companies. I want the people to get the money and go out and buy their own healthcare through an account. They can buy their own healthcare. And everybody loves that, right? Okay. What else?

Mr. President, do you have a new reaction on the fine that was imposed to X by the European—?

For what?

To X, to the platform X, the fine that the European—

Oh, that was pretty amazing. You're talking about, is that European Union or is it who did that? European Union or UK?

The European Commission.

Whoa, that's a nasty one. Elon has not called me to ask for help on that one. But no, it's a tough thing. I don't think it's right. No, I don't think it's right. I don't see, you know, how they can do that. No, I'm not—I'm going to—I'll speak about it later, I'm going to get a full report on it. Look, Europe has to be very careful. They're doing a lot of things. We want to keep Europe, Europe. Europe is going in some bad directions. It's very bad, very bad for the people. We don't want Europe to change so much. They're going in some very bad directions. That was a big—that was a big thing.

You directed a review of the childhood vaccine schedule possibly to match what is on par with peer nations in Europe. Would you support ending federal mandates and just making those recommendations for schools?

You're going to have to say it again. Louder, louder. As far as the vaccine schedule for children, would you support ending the federal mandates and making it optional for schools? Well, we're looking at a lot of things having to do with vaccines and with the—you know, the different—I think we take like 88 different shots all wrapped up in one, one big glass of stuff like that. And we're going to be reducing it very substantially. [56:09] It'll be safe, but we're going to be reducing it very substantially.

Do you support the Paramount bid for Warner Brothers that came in this morning?

I don't know anything about it. You spoke about Netflix last night saying you have concerns about them. Yeah, I know—I know the companies very well, I know what they're doing, but I have to see, I have to see what percentage of market they have. We have to see the Netflix percentage of market, Paramount the percentage of market. I mean, none of them are particularly great friends of mine. You know, I just—I want to do what's right. That's all. It's very important to do what's right.

Is the Paramount deal supported by Jared Kushner, Mr. President? Would that impact your decision?

If Paramount is? No, I don't—I don't—I have never spoken to him about it. He's really trying to work on Gaza. I think Gaza's his primary thing is Gaza.

You're making house visits on Christmas Eve as he suggested? Does the Beast need to be fitted with sleigh rails?

You want to answer that question?

Absolutely. We should put sleigh rails on the Beast. Yeah. He's the Secretary, do you support that?

That Republican plan that you just talked about when it comes to healthcare, when do you expect Republicans to put that—?

Well, we're looking at it very strongly, and we're also going to the Democrats and asking them to do it. The Democrats want to make the insurance companies rich. They're all paid off by the insurance companies, there's a tremendous amount of insurance company funding goes to Democrats. Why don't you ask that question of the Democrats? Because I would love to do it. I'd like all of the money to go to the people. They go to the people. You know, I put that out two weeks ago, it became number one viral. People love it. I want the money to go for healthcare, to go to the people and let the people buy their own healthcare through an account. They can buy their own healthcare. And everybody loves it, except for the Democrats. And you know why they don't? Because they're paid off by the insurance companies. Okay, what else?

Yeah, Alina Habba says she is stepping down as US Attorney for the District of New Jersey after the court's disqualified her. Do you have any comment on that? Any—?