Speaker 1 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
Donald Trump (00:44):
Well, thank you very much. I just said to Mike, "This is fantastic." I didn't think we were going to see this coming for a while. Congratulations. This is a very, very important thing. Thank you very much, everybody. This is a very important thing we're going to be discussing. Please sit down. Thank you very much. This is good news, indeed. People said it couldn't be done. You got it done. I just have to sign, right? That's very good. This is really something. And it has to do with the California Auto Regulation, CRA. It's been a disaster for this country. And I want to thank everybody for being here. We officially rescue the US auto industry from destruction by terminating California electric vehicle mandate once and for all. [inaudible 00:01:38].
(01:37)
So good. They said it couldn't be done, but boy, it's had us tied up in knots for years. And they'd pass these crazy rules in California, and would be 17 states would go by them. The automakers didn't know what to do because they're really building cars for two countries. When you have 17 states, you're building cars for two countries. And I want to congratulate you all, the Senate, the House, the whole thing. It's incredible. I was going to sign a executive order and give it a shot. But the one good thing with this, number one, it holds up forever. And number two, unless somebody votes it out, they'll never do that. And it's just so much better, huh? It's so much better. That's so great. Very proud of you. We're joined today by the great speaker of the House. I think he's going to go down as a great speaker of the House too.
(02:56)
I may be wrong. I may be wrong. Who knows? Who the hell knows? I think he is. And he's doing something. The only thing I would say is more important than this one, and I'll tell you what, it's almost close. That's how big this is today. But the great, big, beautiful … I added the word great. I used the word. The great, big, beautiful bill. It's going to be one of the … I said it this morning to a group. Think it's the most important, one of the most important pieces of legislation ever signed, ever approved. So it's going to be something very special. Thank you very much. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, thank you. Secretary Sean Duffy. And they had a problem in India today [inaudible 00:03:44]. Sean's doing a tremendous job. Secretary Chris Wright, everybody said you'd never be able to get him. He's the most talented man, they say, in the oil and gas industry. I'll let you know in about two years if that's true. Well, Doug Burgum. I wanted Doug Burgum to head up energy because he was so successful in North Dakota, it's governor. And he said, "Sir, there's one person who's much better than me." I said, "Who?" They said Chris Wright. I said, "Who the hell is Chris Wright?" I had no idea. Now everyone knows Chris Wright. He's going to be more famous than me. But he said, "There's a guy named Chris Wright. And if we could get him, he'd be better than I am, sir." And if you know Doug … Doug's not here, is he? If you knew Doug, he's always working someplace. But if you knew Doug, you'd know that he doesn't say that often. And he did. And Chris, you're doing great. But I don't like the oil prices have gone up just a little bit over the last few days. I was going to call and just really start screaming at you.
(04:52)
Are we okay? Nothing wrong, right? It's going to keep going down a little bit, right? Because we have inflation under control perfectly. You probably saw the records. Everyone's on television saying, "What's going on here? Trump has proven to be right." All of these things. We've taken it 88 billion in tariffs in two months. 88 billion with no inflation. And if we're smart, there won't be. Now, would like to get this guy to lower interest rates because if he doesn't, we have to pay. We have a lot of short-term debt. Obama gave it to us originally, and Biden carried it on. They like short term. I like long-term cheap debt. But a lot of the debt comes through because Biden, that's what … Well, he didn't do it. I'm sure he didn't know anything about it, but somebody approved short-term debt. It's all over the place. And it comes due starting very soon.
(05:49)
And if we would lower the interest rates by one point, we'd pay about one point less. That's $300 billion a year. Can you believe? At one point. If he'd lower it by two points, we'd pay $600 billion a year less. That's for years, 10 years, 12 years, whatever we make it. But we can't get this guy to do it. And the fake news is saying, "Oh, if you fired him, it would be so bad. It would be so bad." I don't know why it would be so bad, but I'm not going to fire him. I just want him to … We call him Too Late, right? Too Late is his nick … Like Too Tall Jones, he was too tall, T-O-O. And I just say this because we want to get rid of inflation, and we have, but we're going to be paying more for debt. And all he has to do is lower it.
(06:42)
Europe's done 10 lowerings. We've done none. And nobody understands it. Actually, today, when the numbers came out, they were so good. You saw yesterday's numbers. Incredible. No inflation. Today's numbers … Today just came out. Same thing. No inflation. They're all shocked. All these guys are watching from business, CNBC, and all of these different networks. Maria Bartiromo actually got it right. She's been getting it right for a long time, that one. I hope she's appreciated. And Joe Kernen's been very good at CNBC, I must tell you. But other people aren't so good. But I will say that they can't believe what's happening. But if I could, because we can discuss … Oh, we got a lot of press. We got a lot of cameras rolling right now. Not that I like doing it because I don't.
(07:39)
But if we cut our interest by one point, for years, we save 300 billion. If we cut it by two points, we save because it's pretty equivalent. We're going to save. We're going to spend 600 billion a year. 600 billion because of one numbskull that sits here. "I don't see enough reason to cut the rates now." And the problem he's got is that … And I explained to him, "Look, if inflation went up, cut your rates now." There's no inflation. We got it down, we got prices down, we got gasoline down. And you'll keep it going down.
(08:24)
But gasoline's down. It's drill, baby, drill. That's why it's going down. But where all that … But think of it. I said to him … He was in my office a couple of days ago. I said, "If you think there's inflation, let's find out because I think we're going to keep it down. I think gasoline's going to be so far down. Oil, energy is so much. We have so much energy, we don't know what to do with it. But let's say there was inflation in a year from now. Raise your rates. I don't mind. Raise your rates. I'm all for it. I'll be the one to … I'll be calling you." He'll be too late for that too. But raise your rates. You don't have to keep them up here. If it's going to go up, I'm okay with you raising, but it's down and we're going out to financing and I may have to force something.
(09:16)
Somebody said, "Who's the genius that thought of that?" I said, "It's me." Unlike Biden, I stay awake at night thinking about how to save our country. He was much better at sleeping than me. Could sleep on a beach. He could sleep on a beach with cameras rolling. I can't do that. But I had an idea. I gave it. They said, "This is really … We'll go short term for a year. Let this guy get out of office. Some guy will come and cut it a couple of points and we'll save ourself seven, eight, maybe even $900 billion a year. What is he doing? Why doesn't he lower these rates?" And with that, we'll get onto the California standard, which is a disaster. Okay? So Chris Wright, you're going to get the numbers down. Thank you very much. Lee Zeldin, one of the most important men in this room.
(10:07)
He's the man. I get nervous when I talk to him. You're doing a great job. Nuclear, I say, "Okay. You can take two weeks for that approval." It used to take 20 years. Then they wouldn't approve it. Now I say, "Lee, Nuclear, I'll give you two weeks for an approval. A coal-fired plant, you only get a couple of days. And oil and gas, we'll give you a week. Okay?" Something like that. But he's doing it so fast. And we have so many plants being built right now. It's so beautiful to see. And one of the reasons they're coming here is because they have to produce tremendous … Especially the AI. They have to produce beyond believable amounts of electricity. And they're doing … I said to them, "I think this was more or less my idea." They didn't have the idea only because they didn't think a thing like this was possible.
(11:02)
I said, "As you build your plant, you're going to become a utility and you're going to build a separate plant right alongside of it. You're going to build it. You're going to build a plant that produces electricity. And you'll produce it through natural gas, coal, nuclear." We don't want to produce it through wind because we don't feel like ruining 50 miles of beautiful plains and beautiful vistas, but we want to produce. Interestingly, China's opening up a coal plant every single week, but now I'm finding out it might be two plants every single week. And usually, that's a good gauge. If they're using coal, I guess we're supposed to use coal. And we went to a coal standard. And not that you have to use coal. You're going to use whatever's best.
(11:46)
I want to introduce also Senate Majority Whip, John Barrasso, who's a tremendous guy, doctor. [inaudible 00:11:52]. And he is a tremendous guy. Tremendously talented doctor. When I have a medical situation for the country, for myself, I haven't used him, but I might have to. Maybe I'll do that. It's serious enough, I think I'd probably do that. But he's a tremendously talented gentleman who happens to be a Senator, and one that's very respected. Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito. And congratulations. I just endorsed your son. Did you know that? I endorsed your son. I endorsed your son who's running in West Virginia. And he's great. In fact, he's all Trump all the time. I think much more so than you, actually [inaudible 00:12:41]. You were his largest impediment. No, I'm only kidding. He's all Trump all the time. And he's going to win big. And so congratulate him. Okay? He's really been fantastic. So many people have told me. Thank you. And House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, who's a brave man. He went through hell. Steve went through hell. And we have a lot of other people here that I won't be able to because I don't have your name down. And I'm looking and I see people's names. I'll do a couple of you, but thanks as well to Markwayne Mullin. Senator Markwayne, thank you. Stand up, Markwayne. Don't fight him.
(13:24)
He's a serious fighter in a lot of ways. And he's a great guy too. Thank you, Markwayne. Deb Fischer. Deb. Thank you, Deb. Hey. Pete Ricketts, who's going to do very well in the upcoming election. Thank you. Thank you, Pete. Jon Husted, who's really moving along in Ohio. Jon, good luck. You're going to do well. All endorsed people. John Curtis, who's doing terrifically. John, thank you. Good job. They all say excellent. What can I tell you? Good job. And Bernie Moreno, who won a race that was not winnable. They all said, "It's not winnable." He won in Ohio. They said, "You can't win that race. It's a waste of time." You're just wasting your time, right, Bernie? Wasn't a waste of time, was it, huh? And he won by like five points too. Won by a lot. Along with representatives Kevin Kiley, Vince Fong, Jay Obernolte, Doug LaMalfa, Darrell Issa. Where's Darrell? I haven't seen you in such a long time. Look at you. How good you look, huh? It's good when you have those big margins. It's easier.
(14:42)
John Joyce, great guy. John, thank you. Thank you, John. Dusty Johnson, Morgan Griffith, Troy Balderson. Troy from a place called Ohio. And he played very cute at one time, but then he got … Boy, I tell you, he's become a good politician. Where is Troy now? Where? I haven't seen him used for years. I endorsed you early when he was early and younger, but you still look young. And you've done fantastically good. Good work. Really good work. Claudia Tenney, New York. Claudia. Thank you, Claudia. John James. John James. I don't know. You know he's running for governor, but I'm not sure I'm happy about that, John. Do we have somebody good to take your seat?
John James (15:34):
[inaudible 00:15:36].
Donald Trump (15:35):
Because otherwise, we're not letting him run for governor. We can't. You have somebody good, right?
John James (15:41):
Yes.
Donald Trump (15:41):
Okay. As long as you like him, they'll win. Tracey Mann. Tracey, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Michael Baumgartner. Michael. Thank you, Michael. Good. Good job. David Rouzer. Rouzer. Thank you. Glenn Grothman. Hi, Glenn. Thank you very much, Glenn. Brett Guthrie. Brett. Thank you, Brett. Rudy Yakym. Thank you. Thank you, Rudy. And I want to thank you all. There's some additional people in the room, but we have to get back to … This is like so big. This is a big one. Under the previous administration … The previous administration. I could go point after point, everything they did. Open borders, men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody. Everybody, let's go transgender. What a group of people you had over there. They must have hated our country. Under the previous administration, the federal government gave left-wing radicals in California dictatorial powers to control the future of the entire car industry all over the country. All over the world, actually. Because they have to build a car. They can't build 19 different cars called the same thing. And really, it was all over the world, what was happening. They approved Governor Gavin Newsom's ridiculous plan to impose a 100% ban on all new gas-powered cars within a very short period of time. Think of this. You couldn't buy any other car, except an electric-powered car. And in California, they have blackouts and brownouts. They don't have enough electricity right now to do the job. And country-wide, you'd have to spend $4 trillion to build the firing plans to be able to … they call it a firing … They call them a lot of things. Charging plants. Firing plants. $4 trillion you'd have to spend. In the Midwest, they built nine of them. Nine individual. It's like a pump. Just like a pump, except instead of gas, electricity comes out. Actually, they built eight of them. $9 billion they spent for eight.
(18:10)
Eight little hoses, $9 billion. Now, I'm sure they could have done it for about one 1,000th of that, but even if they did, it's unaffordable. They approved Governor Gavin's ridiculous … It's so ridiculous. By the way, if I didn't bring the military in, Los Angeles would be burning down right now. It'd be burning just like his damn houses burned down because he didn't have the water that he should have had. He had so much water. They have so much water. We had to send in the military to free up the water. And we did that right after the fires. We told them to do it in the first term. But just like that ridiculous plan, this is a plan to ban. Think of it. A plan to ban 100 … And they call it the 100% ban on all new gas-powered cars and abolish 75% of the gas-powered trucks. 75%. The trucking industry saw me.
(19:08)
They said, "Sir, it doesn't work." Number one, the trucks are so heavy. They're two and a half times heavier than a diesel-powered truck. So one of the big truckers owns 28,000 trucks. Big company. Tremendous company. He said, "I go out of business immediately. I'm not going to play games." Said, "Did you explain these things to the government officials? Like the truck weighs two and a half times more, two and a half times more than a regular truck, a gasoline-powered diesel." And he said, "Based on that, we have to rebuild every bridge in the United States of America because it wasn't designed to hold cars and trucks that heavy," because the batteries are very heavy, probably lead. They have a lot of things in those batteries that weigh a lot. But it's two and a half times. It's a simple number. Two and a half times.
(20:01)
And if you want to do this, you have to spend trillions and trillions of dollars on rebuilding every bridge in the United States, and I guess throughout the world because they do follow us. And the big rig buses and even cement trucks, they want to abolish certain categories of truck, but they want to go … 75% of all of these trucks have to be abolished almost immediately. The time is just crazy. And they don't go far. Another little problem. With a tank of diesel, you can go from New York to Los Angeles, if you want to go to Los Angeles right now, but New York to Los Angeles, and you can go back a little bit. With the electric truck, you'll stop approximately six times.
Donald Trump (21:00):
Enjoy your stop. And the trucker saw me and I said, "Did you just explain this?" Because this is like if you explained it, if a person's reasonable for that, they said, "We explained it, they didn't care." They said, "We're going all electric." They're, they can't be stupid because anybody that can cheat on elections like them is not a stupid person, but they must hate our country. But I said to this big trucker, he said, "Sir, I've been buying trucks my whole damn life." He's a rough guy, smart guy. He said, I got thousands of them. I've been buying them for 50 years, and every single year they got better. They got more efficient, they got bigger, they got stronger. I build apartments in my trucks now for the drivers. So what's an apartment? That's on the cab. They put this thing, and so I know you like luxury, but you wouldn't mind living in one of these.
(21:58)
I said, "Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn't." I mean, it doesn't sound too appealing, but I said, "So what's the problem?" He said, "So I noticed one thing. For 50 years, every single year, one thing happened. They got better. They got stronger, they got more efficient, they got faster. They could carry any load. If we went to this standard, we'd go back beyond 50 years, they wouldn't go as far as a truck from 50 years ago. It would be too heavy and have all the other problems." He said, "We'd be going backwards. We'd be taking a truck and initially we'd be starting all over, but actually it would be worse because it was better 50 years ago than…" So I said, "What are you going to do if I don't win this election?" This was before the election.
(22:51)
He said, "You don't win the election, I'm going to close up my business because I'm not going to lose my," he said, "I'm not going to lose my ass. I know exactly what's going to happen. It's going to be a catastrophe. It's the craziest thing I've ever heard." They're making you buy stuff that doesn't work. It's no good. It doesn't work, and I'm all for electric. If you want to buy electric, you can buy. Electric cars are great if you buy the right ones. Cars are great, and you should be given the option, buy the electric car, buy a gasoline-powered car, buy a hybrid. Probably not hydrogen, because hydrogen has a tendency that when it blows up, you're done-so. It's over. They find you 75 yards down the road. Where is he? Well, I think that's him, but I'm not sure. So they said, "We think we can solve the problem."
(23:45)
I said, "That's not good enough when they think." No, it's sounds like it's quite severe. If it doesn't work, Steve, it'll work most of the time, but if it doesn't, it's over. It'll make your accident look like peanuts compared. You wouldn't be around, I'll tell you, because it's pretty, but some people like it. I don't know. Let's see what happens, but I would say it's off to a bad start. But because of the size of California's population and the fact that 17 other states follow California, that's the problem. 17 other states follow California. They have the most ridiculous laws I've ever seen for a lot of things. This is just cars and trucks and all. They have a lot of them for other things, but we have, it's called the California Car Standards, and this horrible scheme would effectively abolish the internal combustion engine, which most people prefer.
(24:42)
Like so far, I'd say about 90%. In fact, General Motors announced yesterday they're going to spend about $6 billion because of tariffs and maybe because of my election on November 5th. But because of tariffs, I think more than anything they're all coming back. They're coming back from other countries that took them 25, 30 years ago. They're all coming back. We have now almost $15 trillion. They had almost nothing last year and year before. Very little, nobody wanted to be back here. Nobody wanted to come to our country anymore because we were like stupid people. We looked like stupid people. We were laughed at all over the world. Now we're not laughed at anymore. I can tell you that, but they wanted to shatter our domestic supply chains and literally grind civilization to a halt. We would've gone so far back. It's hard to believe, actually. Hard to believe when you don't have enough electricity to give a person a little air conditioning in the summer and now they want you to take electricity and fire up all these cars, but we're not going to let that happen.
(25:48)
Meanwhile, all of the auto jobs would be shipped to China because they're very strong on electric and it lives off an estimated 200,000 American auto workers would be destroyed. It's one of the reasons I did so well with the United Auto Workers and now I'm really doing well with them. I did phenomenally with them. No Republican ever got any numbers like I got, and the Teamsters too. Sean O'Brien, the head of the Teamsters, these guys, they like Trump because I produce jobs. They know that. Everybody knew that. The auto workers knew better than anybody how good the tariffs were, and the head of the auto workers, I don't know him at all, but he didn't like me at all. Now he's going around saying, "This guy's unbelievable." He was very nice to me the last few months during the campaign. No, but I've proven, I've proven it.
(26:41)
I've done what I said I was going to do and we've brought back tremendous numbers of jobs, and you're having auto plants built all over the country. All over. They've never seen anything like that. They're leaving from Mexico, they're leaving from Canada. They're leaving from other parts of the world. If they want a Mercedes- Benz, you're going to have it made here. It's okay to have a Mercedes, but they're going to make it here. Otherwise, they're going to pay a very big tariff. They already are. That's one of the reasons we have $88 billion. It's a lot of money, but that's peanuts compared to what we're going to be making in another few months. They haven't even kicked in yet, but we're not going to let any of these bad things happen, these stupid projections that I've been reading about for the last six months.
(27:25)
I think these people are either corrupt or really dumb, and they're supposed to be economists. And the campaign I promised to end this disaster, and today our Republican majorities in Congress have delivered. And I don't know, I can't imagine. It's so obvious. It's so good. Did we get any Democrat votes? Did we get one, two?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
35.
Donald Trump (27:48):
Who?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
35 Democrats.
Donald Trump (27:51):
35?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (27:52):
I think that's great. I think that's great. You got 35 Democrats.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
35. Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (27:57):
I think that's great. That, as far as I'm concerned-
Speaker 3 (28:02):
One in the Senate.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
One Senate.
Donald Trump (28:04):
One in the Senate on something that's so good, but who was the one?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Slotkin.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Slotkin, Michigan.
Donald Trump (28:16):
Well, I shouldn't have asked. I congratulate her. I don't care. I think it's great. It's very interesting. Why did I ask that question, Mister? But in a few moments, I'll sign three pieces of legislation that will kill, totally killed, you can't do anything about it. They can't take us to court. They can't do any of the things they can do with the executive orders, and it's permanent. I'll sign three pieces of legislation that will kill the California mandates forever, and they're never coming back. Now, the auto companies are the most happy because now they're going to be designing and building one auto. It will be much cheaper. It's a much less expensive. They were showing me, one of the most respected people were showing me that to save a little, like a half a glass of fuel, cost them thousands of dollars with new computers and stop it, the engine has to stop and then turn on and blah, blah, blah.
(29:19)
And I said, "Does it work as well?" No, it's terrible. It's terrible. And that's to save a little bit of fuel, this much fuel that Chris Wright can produce with one extra little oil well someplace, right? One little small one, a very small one. But think of it, your cars are going to cost you 3,000, $4,000 less and you're going to have what you want. And again, you can get any car you want. You can get electric. A lot of people love the electric. They like Tesla. So do I, in all fairness. I like Tesla and I like others too, but I also like combustion and there are reasons for a lot of things. When I was in Iowa, we had an unbelievable victory, if you remember. Remember? That was nice. You won by so much.
(30:07)
Nobody even talked about anything else, but that was a great victory, but it was unbelievably cold that night and I was going to watch my victory in the area where I was going to make a speech and the whole place was littered with cars. I said, "What happened?" They were electric cars and they don't work in cold. I said, "I didn't know that." And they don't work in extreme heat either. Other than that, they're wonderful. But no, but if you're in a cold climate, how do you do that? But there are electric cars, and I noticed that and then I didn't pay much attention because we won by about 65 points, so I was more interested in that. But I do remember that scene. I said, "What the hell is going on over here?" This historic action will also help us reduce inflation and bring down the price of automobiles and electricity very, very substantially. We're building massive electricity right now. It's already started because of that guy right there. Lee Zeldin, by far the most important man in the room, Mr. Speaker. Stand up, Lee.
(31:15)
He blows you guys away, John. He blows the politicians away. I'm sorry right now. He actually, he's a great politician though. He almost won for governor in New York, which is just missed by a few points. And that was another race that was not winnable, but you almost got it. But I think what you're doing now is even bigger if you want to know the truth. I think it's actually more important if you can believe that. Under the previous regime, car prices skyrocketed as a direct result of the mandates. These mandates, this nonsense that you had to do, and they have so many other rules and regulations that the car companies who are here today appreciate that. And Susie Wiles is here today. Stand up, Susie. The most incredible woman, most powerful woman in the world they say. She's the most powerful, she was rated the most powerful woman in the world, Susie Wiles, one phone call and a nation is destroyed.
(32:13)
She could destroy five nations with five calls and she's doing a great job more importantly, right? Doing a great job. There's nobody like her. Energy prices with likewise soar as a radical left force more electric vehicles onto the grid while blocking approvals for new power plants. They want to block the approvals. They want you to have a car with electric, but they block the production of the juice that runs the cars, and all of them, all forms of cars. It's just the craziest thing. We're in a different sphere now. We're in a whole different planet right now. The result would be rolling blackouts in a collapse of our power systems. We'd have a total collapse. You couldn't do it. You couldn't even do it. Think of it. They're forcing you to do something, and they want you to do, boats also, I assume boats are being covered by this and boats, they want you to go all electric and the batteries are so heavy, the damn boat practically doesn't float.
(33:15)
I used to have a lot of fun talking about that one on the tours. We'd talk about it and I said, "What would happen if the boat sank?" Because we went to North Carolina, South Carolina, we visited boat factories, unbelievable guys. And they said, "Sir, we have one problem. They're forcing us to go electric for the boat." I said, "How's it going to work?" "The boat will not float, sir. It's so heavy and it won't go fast." And lots of other, and I did ask him a question because I have a lot of background. My uncle was a big shot at MIT, the smartest guy. He never had a smarter guy, and I guess I have a little of that. My first question was, "What would happen if the boat sank? Do you get electrocuted?" Remember I said that? And I used to be decimated by these people back here, right?
(34:04)
I used to be decimated. They'd say, "What kind of a crazy question is that?" I'm actually serious. What happens if you're an electric boat and the boat is going down? You're in trouble, Susie. And I used to say, I remember, oh, I'd get decimated. The audience loved it, but the press would laugh at it. I said, "So if I have my choice of going down or jumping five or six yards away from the boat, but there's a shark there, what do I do?" You know what I said? "I'd rather be electrocuted." I said, "I'll take electrocution every single day." But actually he said, "Nobody's ever asked me that question, sir." He makes boats. "Nobody ever asked me that question. This is really an unusual question." He said, "And honestly, I don't have the answer." He wasn't able to… I said, "Don't worry about it. If I win, you won't have to worry about it."
(34:54)
But today we're saving California and we're saving our entire country from a disaster. Your cars are going to be thousands of dollars less money. And even the ones that if you buy electric, we're not going to make you do certain things that are just a waste of money and just time-consuming waste of money. They make you do things that are no good for anybody, make the car worse and make it much more expensive. Over the past five months, our administration and Republicans in Congress have fought for the American auto worker and for Teamsters and for by the way, right to work. We have them all. We just call them just workers. We fought for workers like no one has ever fought before. I understand that. It's why we won. We won with workers. We won with young people. I just saw with TikTok, I was number one on TikTok and it's history.
(35:48)
Can you believe that? So I guess I like TikTok. That's why they're saying, "Are you saving it?" We probably will save TikTok actually. But on my first day in office, I ended the Green New Scam and abolished the EV mandate at the federal level. We abolished it, which is basically that everybody would be driving an electric car within a very short period of time. Now I know why Elon doesn't like me so much, which he does, actually. He does, and he never had a problem. It's very interesting. This is not something new. This has been there from day one, Speaker, right? We're going to abolish the EV mandate. And Elon still endorsed me, because honestly, he never ever spoke to me about that. And I used to say, "I'm amazed that he's endorsing me because that can't be good for him. I'm abolishing the EV mandate." And I once asked him about it, you never talked to me about that.
(36:42)
He said, "Well, as long as it's happening to everybody, I'll be able to compete." It was a very interesting answer. I thought it was a very honest answer to be honest with you. And I talked about it that, incredible. You would've thought he would've been, from day one, "You got to make sure you don't do the EV mandate, the abolishing," and never did. Very honest in that sense. And he did say to me, I actually asked him because it was really strange how I'm with him. He's a friend of mine and he makes electric cars and we're saying, "You're not going to be able to make electric cars or you're not going to be forced to make all of those cars. You can make them, but it'll be by the market, judged by the market." And that's what he said. He said, "As long as I'm on the same plane as everybody else, we're going to do good. We make a better product."
(37:29)
I said, "That's very cool. That's very cool." That was my answer. After that, he got a little bit strange, but I don't know why, over much smaller things than that. As part of the one Big Beautiful Bill, we'll also further slash the funding for the Green New Scam. As you know, it's the greatest scam in history, saving American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The windmills are killing our country by the way. The fields are littered with them, junk. They're littered with them, and they get older and they get rusty and they get bad and they get, this is other countries also. It's the greatest scam in history. It's the most expensive energy you can buy. They're ugly. A friend of mine comes from Minnesota. He's been in New York. He hit it big. He's a very successful guy actually. And he wanted to go back, see his mother who's not well.
(38:23)
And he went back to Minnesota, hasn't been back there in 20 years, and he said, "It's unbelievable what happened." He said, "I'm driving down a highway and up a certain road and the most beautiful fields. I remember them so well, and I was so looking forward to seeing them again. And I looked at him and they had windmills all over them, these horrible, horrible structures." Very smart guy, this guy. And he said, "These ugly, horrible things." And he said, "It was so bad I actually drove back to see it because I couldn't believe it. Before I even got to my mother, I drove back." I said, "How much do you like your mother?" But no, it hurt him to see it. He said, "I looked at this field that was one of the most beautiful places in my own mind and imagination that I've ever seen." And I said, "It's littered with this garbage."
(39:16)
"It looked like a junkyard," he said, and then you get different manufacturers and they don't look alike and they're not painted alike, different colors. Even if they're white, one's a beige-y white, one's a darker white, one's a lighter white, and then they start to rust after four or five years and then they start to wear out and nobody takes them because you're not allowed to bury the propellers, the props, right? You can't bury the props for some reason. I don't know why, but they say that you can't bury it. It's a certain type of fiber and if it goes in the ground, we're all going to die. It's what bullshit this is. Okay, they can't bury it, so what they do is they leave them up. If you go to Palm Springs, California, take a look, you go into this beautiful community, before you go, it's like you're riding through a junkyard. Windmills all over the place.
(40:10)
Tall ones, short ones, dead ones, they're all dead. Some are hanging over by a thread. They never take them down. They just leave them there and they start to rust. It's one of the greatest scams and it's also the most expensive energy. And the environmentalists say, "Oh, we love wind. It sounds so good," but it's a horrible thing. Environmentally, it's a horrible thing. I say that to you. It's wind, and we are going to have virtually no, one mandate we have, we're going to natural gas, nuclear. We just had a big signing with nuclear, making it easier, safer and better. It's really, I would say probably more than any other form of energy that's come about, it's been amazing what's been done. It's very safe, very good and very inexpensive, but we're not going to let windmills get built because we're not going to destroy our country any further than it's already been destroyed.
(41:08)
You go and look at these beautiful plains and valleys and they're loaded up with this garbage that gets worse and worse looking with time starts when the rust comes, 4.5 years, it starts to rust, and it's very expensive to paint them, so they don't paint them and they're horrible. What's happened is horrible. So we're not going to approve windmills unless something happens that's an emergency. I guess it could happen, but we're not doing any of them. I hope the Senate will soon pass a bill. The house can quickly approve and get to my desk by the 4th of July. We'll have this done. And to further defend our auto workers, I imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign automobiles. Investment in American auto manufacturing is surging because of it. They have Mercedes all over. They pay
Donald Trump (42:00):
… 25% if they don't make the car in the United States, and because of that… And this could have been done long before Trump, this could have been done by any one of the presidents. I did it with China. The reason you don't have Chinese cars here is because I imposed it in my last term. I actually asked that question, I said, "Do we have any Chinese cars here?"
(42:20)
"No."
(42:20)
"Why?"
(42:20)
"Because you imposed a 25% or 27.5% tariff on Chinese cars, so they're not coming here, but they are going to Europe all over the place."
(42:33)
But I love China. We just made a deal and I respect President Xi a lot, and we made a deal that's good for both countries. The deal we made with China is good for both countries. There's going to be a lot of money made and it's going to ultimately open up China, which is the ultimate thing, and I'm going to be working with President Xi. We had a long talk about it, and that's going to be good for China, it's going to be good for us. But we're going to be opening up China, that's bigger than what we signed, and I think had we not signed it, that wouldn't be happening. It's going to happen, it's going to happen fairly soon.
(43:06)
But to further defend our autoworkers, I imposed this 25% tariff on all foreign automobiles and investment in American manufacturing and auto manufacturing, all manufacturing is surging, and I might go up with that tariff in the not-too-distant future. The higher you go, the more likely it is they build a plant here. Ford has just announced that it's going to invest $500 million in some of the things involved in what we just did. General Motors is going to spend $4 billion, they just announced that yesterday. Stellantis announced that it's going to reopen its Belvedere assembly plant, that's good. I know the plant very well, had a lot of problems, they're going to spend $5 billion.
(43:52)
And Hyundai announced that it will invest $21 billion in America. They wouldn't have invested 10 cents if we didn't have tariffs. Including for manufacturing, American Steel, which is doing great. American Steel is doing great now because of what we did. If I didn't put tariffs on steel, China and a lot of other countries were dumping steel in our country, garbage steel, dirty steel, bad steel, not structurally sound steel, real garbage, but it was still there, lots of it. And if I didn't put tariffs, I put 25% and 50% tariffs on steel, John James would put tariffs in steel and we were doing great with steel. Now, we're really doing great.
(44:37)
Big investments being made in Pennsylvania, you've been reading about it. They're going to spend $17 billion on US Steel and all the steel workers wanted it. And we have a golden stock, we have a golden share, which I control, or the president controls. Now, I'm a little concerned whoever the president might be, but that gives you total control, it's 51% ownership by Americans. And we have a great company, Nippon, they're coming in from Japan, they're going to spend $17 billion. And somebody says, "Well, what happens if it doesn't work out?" I said, "They spent $17 billion." We can't put it on a trailer and drive it to Japan, this is steel. Some businesses you can move, you move your office and that's where the business is. With this business, they're spending 17, think of that, $17 billion, they're going to have them all over the country.
(45:34)
I want to introduce several of the great Americans representing the millions of people whose livelihoods we're saving with today's action. I just can't tell you how incredible this action is, because nobody thought… This was one that I wasn't… I would've rather had it than almost anything. But I was told by everybody, except that guy right there, that you couldn't get it. Bill Kent runs a chain of family- owned convenience stores that opened in West Texas in 1957, known as Kent Quick. And Bill, if you could come up and say a few words about what the signing means to you, please.
Bill Kent (46:21):
Wow. You're probably wondering why I've called you all here today, right? What a great day. From my perspective, I'm in the convenience store and petroleum marketing business, and what this does is it gives us freedom. It gives the consumers freedom to pick what kind of car they want, but more importantly for us, it gives us the ability to plan going forward. Because with mandates, we were forced to have to look at putting in infrastructure that frankly is extremely expensive and doesn't give you any return, so this allows us, it's going to free me up and our companies up to invest in what people want, in the cars they want, and it's a great day. So Mr. President, Congress, thank you, Steve, everybody, thank you so much. Thank you.
Donald Trump (47:16):
And a friend of mine for a long time is John Hess. He's one of the top CEOs in the country, and he's now the CEO of Hess Corporation, one of the biggest oil producers, and he's a fantastic person with great knowledge of the subject matter. Can you say a few words, John? I see you in the audience. Come on. Thanks.
John Hess (47:46):
Hi, I'm John Hess and CEO of Hess Corporation, a proud producer of oil and gas in North Dakota and the Gulf of America, so you all know. I was born in New Jersey, grew up in New York, and my father started our company by driving a secondhand oil truck. So Mr. President, it's an honor to be before you today, and thank you for that.
(48:23)
Mr. President, during your campaign, you made a commitment to the American people to repeal unworkable and costly mandates for cars and trucks, and let the consumer choose what type of vehicle they drive. Today, with the bipartisan support of Congress, you're making good on that promise. I'd like to recognize Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, other members of Congress, whose tireless efforts were critical to the outcome we're celebrating today. And a special thank you to Senator Capito for her leadership. This announcement today is about consumer choice and affordability for American families. It's also about making our country auto industry more competitive, Mr. President, and you said that very eloquently. As you know, Mr. President, one-size-fits-all policies, like those adopted in California, do not work. America, in every state, every American should be able to choose what they want to drive, not the government. We as a country would be basically leaning into our competitive advantage with this repeal on oil and gas. Oil and gas are a strategic industry for our country, underpinning energy dominance, economic prosperity and national security. We are truly energy-independent. So Mr. President on behalf of Hess Corporation, on behalf of the oil and gas industry and every family across our country, thank you for your courageous leadership and your commitment to consumer choice and energy affordability. Thank you very much.
Donald Trump (50:20):
Very respected guy. The California EV mandates would also have devastated our nation's incredible truck drivers and the trucking industry, and I gave you a little bit of a rundown on that. But a diesel-powered semi-truck can drive from Reno, Nevada, I'll give you some other locations, Nevada to Los Angeles, California and back, on a single tank of diesel oil, diesel fuel. But the same exact journey would require an electric truck driver to stop also six times at recharging stations, adding an estimated nine hours to the trip. I don't know too much about the trucking industry, but this is not sounding good. Here to discuss a little bit about the trucking industry, Gina Jones, and Gina, a real expert on trucks, I can tell you that, she's going to come up and tell us about trucks. Thank you, Gina.
Gina Jones (51:29):
Thank you, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (51:29):
Thank you very much.
Gina Jones (51:30):
And thank you, members and Congress. The trucking industry has America's back, and we are grateful that a president and the administration that have our back too. Today, trucks are 99% cleaner than a generation ago. We need great partners in government to continue that process. We cannot allow one state's regulations to disrupt our entire nation's supply chain. Allowing California to do so would have negativity impacted the hundreds and thousands of truck drivers who deliver critical goods across the country each and every day. In order to deliver for American families and businesses, we need realistic national standards. With the signing of this resolution, Mr. President, you have delivered the leadership that trucking industries need, promises made, promises kept. On behalf of the eight and a half million Americans who work throughout the trucking industry, I thank you.
Donald Trump (53:13):
Thank you very much. Great job.
(53:20)
So just to wrap it up, like I say, under the Trump administration, we will restore the full strength, might and glory of the American auto and trucking industry. We'll protect our truck drivers, auto workers, small business people and manufacturers all over our country, and actually all over the world, and that's okay too. They'll be doing a product that works, a product that's much more efficient, that's better, much better, less expensive, and we'll put affordable energy and affordable car ownership back on the center of the American dream as we make America great again. And that's what's happening, we're making America great.
(54:03)
When I went over to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, just a couple of weeks ago, the leaders of those countries, and they're very smart people, they said, "You've made in a short period of time America the hottest nation in the world. You're the only one we talk about now. And six months ago, it was a laughingstock." They said that to me, those words, "It was a laughingstock," and it was an absolute laughingstock. We've got the hottest nation right now in the whole world and the numbers are reflecting it too, so I just think it's great. And what I'll do is I'll sign this, then we can take a couple of questions if you want, and we will be finished, and you're going to go off and you're going to build the most beautiful automobiles for 20% less money. And I want to thank you, man, you have done some job. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, everybody. You guys want to come up here? Come on, sit around.
(54:54)
Okay, we're going to sign three bills that do everything I just said. No auto pens allowed. That's for you. Keep that, Mike. That pen was so good, give it back to me.
Speaker 4 (55:52):
[inaudible 00:55:53]
Donald Trump (55:52):
That was a good one, I'll sign all three of them, because you never know what you get with [inaudible 00:55:58] number two. Very steady hand, it's very important, very steady. Only a steady hand can sign like that.
Speaker 4 (56:25):
Absolutely.
Donald Trump (56:25):
I've been told that, actually. And here's number three. And it all goes into effect, everything I said goes into effect, lower prices, better cars and choice.
Speaker 5 (56:36):
Common sense.
Donald Trump (56:36):
You can say choice. We have choice for education and you have choice for cars now. Common sense is right.
Speaker 5 (56:41):
Right, common sense.
Donald Trump (56:43):
You're right. Common sense is right. Okay. Now, I can give you the pen. I'll give you these [inaudible 00:56:55] congratulations.
Speaker 6 (56:55):
Thank you, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (57:07):
Okay. Take these. Pass these around, fellas.
Speaker 6 (57:10):
Where's John James [inaudible 00:57:11].
John James (57:11):
Oh, thank you.
Donald Trump (57:13):
Do you have one, John?
John James (57:14):
Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (57:18):
Pass them around. Okay, everybody. There's a few extra, you're going to take them [inaudible 00:57:37] okay.
(57:38)
Go ahead, please.
Crowd (57:38):
[inaudible 00:57:39]
Donald Trump (57:46):
All right, Brian, yeah, please.
Brian (57:50):
I have some very close friends who run some of the largest auto dealerships in Southern California, [inaudible 00:57:56].
Donald Trump (57:55):
Good.
Brian (57:58):
Their message is to you, they're 100% behind you right now, they know they're going through some soft sales period.
Donald Trump (58:05):
It's true.
Brian (58:05):
They're in it for the long haul. What's your message to thousands of auto dealerships across this country that are navigating through this territory?
Donald Trump (58:13):
Yeah, they're going to do better than ever before, they're going to sell cars in America at levels that they've never even thought of before, and they're going to make more money than they ever made before. It's going to be great. They're going to be selling a better car too, it's going to be a better product.
Brian (58:27):
And they're behind you, 100%.
Donald Trump (58:29):
I know, I know that, they have been behind me. They knew it was right. They've been asking for this for 25, 30 years, in all fairness, they're very happy. I told you, the Auto Workers Union, we got tremendous votes. But they like me today even better than they did on election day on November 5th, because they see the results now, they're all happening.
Brian (58:52):
They said thank you.
Donald Trump (58:52):
Yeah, and they have plants moving in. Brian, a lot of plants are moving in. Thank you very much for that question.
Crowd (58:55):
[inaudible 00:58:57].
Donald Trump (58:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (58:59):
[inaudible 00:58:59] the auto industry then.
Donald Trump (59:04):
Oh, he was killing the auto industry. I don't think he knew it, I think he's a guy who… He's just got a faulty thought process. You look at that train, the train is the most… I've seen people, stupid people with cost overruns, for years I've watched, where something would cost twice as much or three times. But this thing is costing 20 times more, it's the most incredible disaster I've ever seen, that's one. The cars are just as bad, everything's bad, and now you have this situation.
(59:39)
So his own sheriff, who's a good man, by the way, said two days ago or three days ago that we could not have done this without the military, they were going to take over this whole… They couldn't have done it. Now, today, they got him to change his tune. He said, "Oh, I think we could have handled it." It's so sad. He was so honest. I was using his quote all over the place and they got him to change. But he knows, Los Angeles would be right now burning to the ground, just like their houses burned to the ground.
(01:00:09)
It's so sad, what's going on in Los Angeles. Think of it. They had a fire they should have never had because they should have listened to me in the water. Eventually, we broke in and we had the water come down from the Pacific Northwest. I could show you pictures now with the big half pipes coming all the way down California. Water, so much water. They don't have any droughts, they have so much water. They sent it all out to the Pacific Ocean for 20 years, so ridiculous. We got them to take it now.
(01:00:42)
But what they do and what they're doing, this is a big problem. And what they really want to do is keep criminals, because they're trying to protect criminals. Sanctuary cities are a disaster in this country, and most of the voters don't want them. Politicians like them for whatever reason, but I think the politicians are wrong. That's why we won in such a convincing fashion. We won all seven swing states, we won by millions of votes. We won 2,750 districts as opposed to 505. That's why, when you look at the map, it's almost all red. It's got two little blue stripes on each side of it, it's almost all red. But now you have to…
(01:01:24)
I always got along with Gavin, I like Gavin, I've liked him always. He said I never called him. They asked him a question on Fox, I guess. I never spoke to him, he doesn't remember the call, he doesn't remember I never spoke. And then, I produced a phone call, I had it, it took me about two minutes. I said, "Well, here's the call. It lasted 16 minutes and four seconds, and it was at 12:30 in the evening." I actually made a call, he didn't pick up. I called him a second time and he picked up. And I told him, I said, "You have to get your ass in gear because you're going to have a problem there." And he would've, if we didn't bring the military in, you would have right now something…
(01:02:06)
And I went through it, because I follow the rules 100%, and I watched in Minnesota where you have the men who ran for Vice President of the United States fortunately, he was a disaster, but he wouldn't call in the National Guard. And I eventually called in the National Guard, but it was seven days late. I said, "I'll never do that again." If I see problems brewing, if they're not going to deal with the problem, I'm not going to wait two weeks, because that city, Minneapolis burned down. If you remember the CNN anchor, he was standing there saying, "Yes, this is a peaceful rally," and behind him, the entire city was on fire. It looked like World War Two. I appreciate the question.
Crowd (01:02:49):
[inaudible 01:02:51].
Donald Trump (01:02:52):
Please.
Speaker 8 (01:02:53):
Mr. President, thank you very much for [inaudible 01:02:54].
Donald Trump (01:02:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (01:02:53):
First, the terrible, horrific plane crash in India
Speaker 9 (01:03:00):
… [inaudible 01:03:00] on TV. Your reaction to that first, and will you speak to Prime Minister Modi?
Donald Trump (01:03:06):
The plane crash was terrible. I've already told them anything we can do. It's a big country, a strong country. They'll handle it, I'm sure, but I let them know that anything we can do, we'll be over there immediately. But it was a horrific crash. It looks like most are gone. They actually maybe have a couple survivors, which is just hurt. But that was a horrible crash. Nobody has any idea what it might be. I gave them a couple of pointers. I said, "Maybe you'll look at this or that." We saw the plane. It looked like it was flying pretty well. It didn't look like there was an explosion. It just looked like the engines maybe lost power. But boy, that is a terrible crash. It's one of the worst in aviation history. Yeah. Second.
Speaker 9 (01:03:50):
[inaudible 01:03:49]. How confident you, sir, that conflict with Iran can be avoided?
Donald Trump (01:03:55):
Well, I'd love to avoid the conflict. Iran is going to have to negotiate a little bit tougher, meaning they're going to have to give us some things that they're not willing to give us right now. I'm the last person… I've kept this out of wars. We defeated ISIS completely, a hundred percent, and I haven't had a… It's peace through strength. I believe in peace through strength. We're the greatest military in the world. I rebuilt the military, as you remember, for four years. I rebuilt the military and then we gave a chunk of it away, but it was still peanuts. It was a lot, but it was peanuts compared to what we rebuilt, gave it to Afghanistan. One of the most embarrassing moments in the history of our country with the whole withdrawal. The way they withdrew was very embarrassing. But we rebuilt the military. We have the greatest, strongest military. We defeated ISIS. We defeated ISIS.
(01:04:52)
We defeated ISIS in four weeks. It was told to be five years, it was going to take five years, anywhere from four to five years. We did it in four weeks with the way headed by the general who's now the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's why he's there. He said it would be take four weeks and he did it in four weeks. He did actually a little bit faster. So we have a great country and we're going to keep it that way. And when it comes to Los Angeles or other cities, if we see other cities are gearing up… And these people are agitators, they're paid, they're professionals, they're insurrectionists, they're troublemakers, they're all of those things. But I believe they're paid. And we're going to find out through Pam Bondi and her great staff or great people just as who they are.
(01:05:40)
And Mike, I think you're doing some investigations in that in Congress, but we're going to find out who they are because I think what they're doing is unbelievably illegal. Just one thing. So they took the bricks away from people. They're walking in with satchels of bricks. Now, why do you have bricks? You have bricks because you throw bricks. They're very potent. If they hit you, they kill you. And they took them away. The military took them away. They saw him. What the hell is this? The guy could hardly carry. He had many bricks. He's strong guy, couldn't carry them. And they saw that and they took them away. Then they found others with bricks. But they're ingenious. They also brought hammers along, very heavy hammers. And I saw them pounding the curb and pounding the sidewalk. And it was like a military operation.
(01:06:28)
This guy's pounding strong, boom, big shots. And it was breaking up granite, the granite curbs. And the granite was breaking up and the concrete was breaking up and there was lines of people standing there and handing them, and then he stopped handing them. They just went down and picked him up. It was so professional. I said, "That's a professional organization." This is not like people at random. This guy's breaking up because they couldn't use the bricks. So who would think of this even? Did a lot of damage. A lot of curbs are broken. A lot of sidewalks broken. But I never saw that before. That's one I haven't seen. I thought I saw it all. And they have it on tape. And with that, people get killed. They go to the bridges and they drop the concrete off the top of the bridge with a car coming along at 70 miles an hour and the person dies.
(01:07:16)
And we had a lot of car problems. You saw that. They were all over the road. They were littered all over the road where the cars got stopped by concrete going through the front windshield. Now these are bad people. If we didn't go, Los Angeles right now would be on fire. It would be a disaster, and we stopped it. And last night was very good. Nobody showed up. You know why they didn't show up? Because we were there. If it was just the police, because the police are great. I know those police, they're great, but they're told not to do anything. They're not allowed to act. Thank you.
Reporters (01:07:49):
Mr. President. Mr. President.
Speaker 11 (01:07:49):
Mr. President.
Speaker 10 (01:07:54):
Mr. President, how imminent is the Israeli strike on Iran?
Donald Trump (01:08:00):
Well, I don't want to say imminent, but it looks like it's something that could very well happen. Look, it's very simple, not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, I want them to be successful. We'll help them be successful. We'll trade with them. We'll do whatever is necessary. I stopped a war between India and Pakistan and I stopped it with trade. I don't think I've ever seen a story written about it, but it was pretty cool. They were getting ready. Pakistan was their turn to hit, and eventually they're going to go nuclear, and I stopped it. I called each. I respect each leader greatly. I know them. And I spoke to them and I talked about trade.
(01:08:42)
I said, "But you're not trading with us if you're going to go to war if you're going to start throwing nuclear weapons around." And I said it to both of them. And they were both unbelievable actually. They understood it exactly. They stopped. I stopped that war with phone calls and trade. And India's here right now negotiating a trade deal, and Pakistan is coming I think next week, and I'm very proud of that. Nobody died. The nuclear weapons, they each have very severe, very substantial numbers of nuclear weapons. And I think we should get some credit for that. The whole Republican Party should, because that's their mindset. Please.
Speaker 12 (01:09:21):
[inaudible 01:09:24].
Donald Trump (01:09:25):
Yes, ma'am. What?
Speaker 12 (01:09:26):
[inaudible 01:09:27], Mr. President. Are you still concerned about national security issues that Chinese students [inaudible 01:09:34]?
Donald Trump (01:09:34):
Look, I've always been in favor of students coming in from other countries. That includes China and we have 500,000 Chinese students coming in. I've always been in favor of it. Does it mean that you have to watch people? Yeah, you have to watch students, but you have to watch other people also. I've always been strongly in favor of it. I think it's a great thing. It's good for our schools. I think it's good for our country. I am also in favor of having them stay. I've been in favor of letting them stay. If you get educated for four years, you're willing to get educated for four years. I like people being able to stay. They have some great students. These are Republicans clapping because a lot of Republicans don't like that idea.
(01:10:20)
I happen to like it. I'm a real Republican, believe it or not, but I like the idea they go four years. To me, that's almost like just buying your way in a very legitimate way. And you have stories where Apple wants to hire somebody and they can't hire because he can't stay. He went to a great school. He finished first in his class. They made him a big offer and everything's done, but he has no idea whether or not he is going to be able to stay.
(01:10:49)
And I'm all for making sure that people like that can go to work for all of our great companies. And you know what they do? They go back to their country and there are stories that are all over the place. They go back to their company and they start a company just like they were going to start here. They end up starting it in China or India or someplace else, and now they're among the richest people in the world. They've got thousands and thousands of employees that make a great… This is happening all the time because they're not allowed to stay. I think we'll probably end up doing something about that, right?
Reporters (01:11:21):
Mr. President.
Speaker 13 (01:11:21):
Mr. President.
Donald Trump (01:11:26):
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. You in the blue, please, light blue.
Speaker 14 (01:11:34):
Thank you, Mr. President. How [inaudible 01:11:35] are you to step back home between Ukraine and Russia to see a very bad escalation? Are you going to [inaudible 01:11:40] go here?
Donald Trump (01:11:40):
I'm very close to the situation. I'm very disappointed in Russia, but I'm disappointed in Ukraine also because I think deals could have been made and we're losing five, 6,000 people a week, soldiers mostly but also people living in towns because they're getting hit by missiles again. How would you like to live in a building and you think a missile has a good chance of hitting your building during the evening? It's horrible. It must be horrible to live like that. I mean, we'll get it, but I'm disappointed that it's not done. We did great with India and Pakistan. We did very good with Israel. I thought, look, October 7th was a disaster. People forget. They like to forget. That was a horrible thing. But none of these things would've happened if I were president. If I were president, none of it would've happened. You wouldn't have the Israel problem. Iran was broke. They had no money. We had big sanctions on them. Biden immediately let them get rich. The 300 billion they have right now. But they had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah. They had no money for anything. It was perfect.
(01:12:47)
We wouldn't have had inflation that was caused by oil. Chris, the oil price went through the roof. It was also caused by their spending, but it was caused more by oil than anything else. The oil went so high, got close to a hundred dollars a barrel. And that also kept the war going with Putin because a hundred dollars a barrel, that was a big money-making experience. But now it's down to where it's not so good for them anymore. No, it's very important to get that sell. That's a bloodbath. That's a terrible bloodbath that's going on. Yeah, please go ahead.
Speaker 15 (01:13:20):
Mr. President.
Speaker 16 (01:13:20):
[inaudible 01:13:21].
Speaker 15 (01:13:24):
Mr. President.
Speaker 17 (01:13:24):
[inaudible 01:13:25] again Pakistan. First off, [inaudible 01:13:28]. They cannot talk to Pakistan unless Pakistan takes actions [inaudible 01:13:32].
Donald Trump (01:13:33):
We're going to get those two getting together. I told them, India and Pakistan, they've had a long-time-
Speaker 18 (01:13:40):
Can we just use this?
Donald Trump (01:13:40):
… rivalry over Kashmir.
Speaker 19 (01:13:42):
Yeah, [inaudible 01:13:42]. Okay, yeah.
Donald Trump (01:13:44):
I said, "I can solve anything. I'll be your arbitrator. I will be your arbitrator. I can solve anything." And I saw the first question, how long is it'd be going along?
Speaker 19 (01:13:50):
They said they only use this one.
Donald Trump (01:13:50):
They said 2000 years. I said, "Oh, that's a [inaudible 01:13:59]."
Reporters (01:13:50):
Mr. President.
Speaker 20 (01:13:50):
[inaudible 01:14:03].
Speaker 21 (01:13:50):
On Biden, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (01:14:06):
When I heard 2000 years, they said, maybe I'll have John Hess solve that problem.
Reporters (01:14:09):
Mr. President.
Speaker 23 (01:14:09):
[inaudible 01:14:10].
Speaker 22 (01:14:09):
Mr. President, will you punish Israel for striking Iran?
Speaker 21 (01:14:09):
On Biden, Mr. President, on Biden.
Donald Trump (01:14:09):
Peter.
Speaker 24 (01:14:14):
Thank you, President Trump. I have two. First on immigration. What made you change your mind about targeting in California farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business?
Donald Trump (01:14:27):
Well, we're not targeting. In fact, if you look today, I put out a statement today about farmers. Our farmers are being hurt badly by… They have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be great, and we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not.
(01:14:53)
And you know it's going to happen. And what is happening? They get rid of some of the people because you go into a farm and you look and people don't… They've been there for 20, 25 years and they've worked great and the owner of the farm loves them and everything else and then you're supposed to throw them out. And you know what happens? They end up hiring the people, the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else. So we're going to have an order on that pretty soon. I think we can't do that to our farmers and leisure too, hotels. We're going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.
Speaker 24 (01:15:25):
And my other question about the Middle East, as the Israelis apparently gear up for some kind of an attack, a possible attack on Iran, are you trying to talk Netanyahu out of doing that, or are you so against Iran having a nuclear weapon that you're okay, he does his thing because it's not an American [inaudible 01:15:45]?
Donald Trump (01:15:44):
Yeah, it's a very fair question. Look, I want to have an agreement with Iran. We're fairly close to an agreement. We are fairly close to a pretty good agreement. It's got to be better than pretty good though but it's got to be… I much prefer an agreement. As long as I think there is an agreement, I don't want them going in because I think that would blow it. It might help it actually, but it also could blow it. But we've had very good discussions with Iran. Whether or not we get there, I can't tell you, but it'll happen soon. I say this, Peter, very strongly, whether it's going in or not going in, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I'd prefer the more friendly path.
Speaker 24 (01:16:26):
And can you tell us what the Israelis told you [inaudible 01:16:29] to evacuate the dependents of servicemen and women who are stationed in the Middle East?
Donald Trump (01:16:34):
They didn't tell me anything, but I said, "Look, there's a chance of massive conflict. We have a lot of American people in this area." And I said, "We got to tell them to get out because something could happen soon." And I don't want to be the one that didn't give any warning and missiles are flying into their buildings. It's possible. So I had to do it. I had the choice, do I do it or not doing? Doing it has its downside, but it also has its upside, like you could save a lot of lives if it should happen. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Right. Thank you.
Speaker 25 (01:17:06):
Mr. President.
Speaker 26 (01:17:06):
[inaudible 01:17:07].
Speaker 27 (01:17:06):
[inaudible 01:17:07].
Speaker 25 (01:17:07):
Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. For Americans that are coming to Washington on Saturday for military parade-
Donald Trump (01:17:17):
It'll be a great day.
Speaker 25 (01:17:18):
… what would you like folks to take away from that day? What would you hope that they would remember?
Donald Trump (01:17:24):
How great our country is, very simple and how strong our military is. We have the strongest military in the world. It's very interesting. Three weeks ago, it was the end of world anniversary, end of World War II, and I called France, and Macron was a good man. I said, "What are you doing?" He goes, "We're celebrating World War II, our victory." I said, "You're victory. You're victory. Tell me about that." And then I called somebody else and I happened to speak to President Putin at the time. Now, in all fairness to him, he lost 51 million people and he did fight. Russia fought. Sort of interesting, isn't it? He fought with us in World War II and everybody hates him and Germany and Japan, they're fine. Someday somebody will explain that. But I like Germany and Japan too. But Putin is a little confused by that. He said, "We lost 51 million people and we were your ally and now everybody hates Russia and they love Germany and Japan."
(01:18:25)
I said, "Let's explain that sometime, okay?" But it's a strange world. But I will say this, look, I want them to go away saying how great our country is and how great our military is. And I was making all these calls. For some reason, I spoke to four different places. "Sir, you're celebrating." And I said, "We won World War II and World War I, right? We won them, and yet we're the only country that doesn't celebrate. Everybody's celebrating except us." And I said, "We should celebrate too."
Speaker 28 (01:18:55):
[inaudible 01:18:57].
Speaker 29 (01:18:55):
Mr. President.
Speaker 30 (01:18:58):
Mr. President.
Speaker 25 (01:18:59):
There are several No Kings protests planned across the country on Saturday as well. What are your thoughts on those?
Donald Trump (01:19:05):
What are they called? No King?
Speaker 25 (01:19:06):
No Kings.
Donald Trump (01:19:06):
I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved. A king would say, "I'm not going to get this." A king would've never had the California mandate to even be talking to him. He wouldn't have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune and say, "Fellas, you got to pull this off. And after years, we get it done." No, no, we're not a king. We're not a king at all. Thank you very much.
Speaker 31 (01:19:27):
Mr. President.
Speaker 29 (01:19:28):
Mr. President. [inaudible 01:19:29].
Donald Trump (01:19:30):
Go ahead. Yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 32 (01:19:31):
Mr. President.
Speaker 33 (01:19:32):
Mr. President, sir, you made a lengthy posting today on Truth Social about Senator Rand Paul. Do you expect to see him at the picnic tonight, sir?
Donald Trump (01:19:39):
I do. I look forward to seeing him actually. I like him. He's the hardest vote in the history of the US Senate to get… Probably won't get him, but he's a very tough vote. I mean, he's a very tough vote. He's always been a friend of mine. I endorsed him and got him elected. I got him elected twice. But I don't think he understands how great this bill is. This is a great bill. No tax on tips, no tax on the social security payments. It's unbelievable what happens. No tax on overtime. You work overtime, no more tax. Those are big, but they're minor compared to the big things. Taxes reduced. And let's look at the other side. If it doesn't get approved, a 68% tax increase, 68%, including the fact that the Trump tax cuts kick in, but it's a 68% tax increase and many other bad things. Some of them are so bad, I don't even want to talk about them.
(01:20:41)
I think it's one of the greatest bills we'll ever pass in this country. And I think that leader Thune and this gentleman right here, what he's gone through on this with… We started off with a majority of one. Now I guess we have seven, so it's easier, but it's really sort of three. It's seven, but it really equates to three, right? And we have great support. I mean, I can't tell you, I can't guarantee, but when you have a majority of essentially three where you can't lose anything more than three votes and you get it passed, it's pretty amazing. And I think it's going to haunt the Democrats because most of the bill is common sense. It's tax cuts, it's border wall funding, it's military funding properly spent.
(01:21:31)
It's all things that are like common sense. They're all good. There's nothing tricky about it. It's basic stuff. And we don't intend on getting one. Think of it, not one Democrat vote in the House, Mike, not one. Maybe somebody will come along. I don't know how they can run for office. So many different things. Very important. Medicare and Medicaid are going to be strengthened, not hurt. They're using fake narrative. Now they're going to be strengthened. We're going to strengthen them. They're going to destroy them because under their policies, Medicare and Medicaid go away. Social security under them is going to be devastated. With us, it's going to be kept but much stronger than before. And very interestingly, I saw this and I proved it because for four years I never hurt Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. I've already been there. But they're going to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They're going to wipe them out in my opinion, because their policies are so bad, the country will have no money to pay for them. We're going to make them stronger than ever before. Thank you very much everybody.
