President Trump Hosts First Cabinet Meeting, Feb. 26, 2025
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (4)
Transcript
0:00Howard LutnickSa.
0:42Donald TrumpThank you very much. We appreciate you being here. And we've put together a great cabinet and we've had tremendous success. We've been given a lot of credit for having a very successful first month, and we want to make that many months and years, actually.
0:58Donald TrumpBut we're going to have many good months and we're going to have many good years, I hope, and we're going to solve a lot of problems. We're doing very well with Russia, Ukraine.
1:07Donald TrumpPresident Zelensky is going to be coming on Friday, that's now confirmed. And we're going to be signing an agreement which will be a very big agreement. And I want to thank Howard and Scott for the job you guys did and putting it together really did an amazing job that will be on rare earth and other things.
1:28Donald TrumpAnd as you know, we're in for probably $350 billion. Europe is in for $100 billion and that's a big difference. So we're in for probably three times as much.
1:40Donald TrumpAnd yet it's very important to everybody. But Europe is very close. We have a big ocean separating us, so is very important for Europe, and they hopefully will step up and do maybe more than they're doing and maybe a lot more.
1:56Donald TrumpThe previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we've been able to make a deal where we're going to get our money back and we're going to get a lot of money in the future.
2:04Donald TrumpAnd I think that's appropriate because we have taxpayers that are shouldn't be footing the bill and they shouldn't be footing the bill at more than the Europeans are paying.
2:16Donald TrumpSo it's all been worked out. We're happy about it. And I think that very importantly, we're going to be able to make a deal. Most importantly, by far, we're going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people.
2:29Donald TrumpThey'll stop killing young Russian soldiers and young Ukrainian soldiers and other people in addition in the towns and cities. And we will consider that a very important thing and a big accomplishment because it was going nowhere until this administration came in.
2:45Donald TrumpThey hadn't spoken to President Putin in two years. And so we'll keep you advised. Before we begin the Cabinet, I'd like to have Scott and a couple of people say a few things.
3:00Donald TrumpBut most importantly, where are you? This is a gentleman who's going places, the head of hud, and he's going to say, you all know him and you're going to say grace, and then we'll have our Meeting.
3:12Donald TrumpRight. Thank you very much.
3:13Scott TurnerThank you, Mr. President. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this awesome privilege. Father, to be in your presence. God, thank you that you've allowed us to see this day.
3:24Scott TurnerThe Bible says that your mercies are new every morning. And Father God, we give you the glory and the honor. Thank you, God, for President Trump. Father, for appointing us.
3:34Scott TurnerFather God, thank you for anointing us to do this job. Father, we pray you will give the President, the vice president, wisdom. Father God, as they lead. Father, I pray for all of my colleagues that are here, around the table and in this room.
3:47Scott TurnerLord God, we pray that we would lead with a righteous clarity. Father God, that as we serve the people of this country and every prospective agency, every job that we have, Father, we would humble ourselves before you and we would lead in the manner that you've called us to lead and to serve.
4:03Scott TurnerFather, the Bible says that blessed is a nation whose God is the Lord. Father, we today honor you and in your rightful place. Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to restore faith in this country and be a blessing to the people of America.
4:18Scott TurnerAnd Lord God, today in our meeting, we pray that you will be glorified in our conversation. In Jesus name, Amen.
4:26Donald TrumpScott, that was a very good job you did. You've done that before, haven't you? So Scott Turner is a terrific young guy. He's heading up HUD and he's going to make us all very proud.
4:39Donald TrumpRight?
4:39Elon MuskThank you, Mr. President.
4:40Scott TurnerThank you very much.
4:40Donald TrumpGreat job. In just over one month, illegal border crossings have plummeted by numbers that nobody has actually ever seen before, much more than 100%. And we've unleashed American energy at levels that will soon be reported.
4:58Donald TrumpBut we think we're going to get it going very quickly. We have incredible people on the energy front. I think we have really great people on every front. I'll let you know if they're not good, but I think they really are.
5:08Donald TrumpAnd we're fighting every day to get the prices down. The inflation is stopping slowly, but part of the reason it's stopping is because of high interest rates and other problems that we inherited.
5:21Donald TrumpBut we have to get the prices down, not the inflation down, the prices of eggs and various other things. Eggs are a disaster. The Secretary of Agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that's actually mind boggling what's happened, how low they were with us and how high they are now.
5:38Donald TrumpBut I think we can do something about it, Madam Secretary, and I think you're going to do a fantastic job in that position. One of the most important initiatives is Doge, and we have cut billions and billions and billions of dollars.
5:54Donald TrumpWe're looking to get it maybe to a trillion dollars. If we can do that, we're going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets.
6:04Donald TrumpBelieve it or not, something you haven't heard in many, many years, decades, actually. And it's a big. Whether it's this year or next year, I think we'll be very close to balancing budgets.
6:14Donald TrumpAnd the Doge is very important. And Elon is here to give you a summary of what's happening. Some of the things they found, some of the horrible things they found, some of the theft and fraud, and we call it waste and abuse, but a lot of fraud, and probably some fraud that we're not going to be able to prove is fraud.
6:34Donald TrumpBut when you hear the names and the places where this money is going, it's a disgrace. But we've requested that a lot of people, we want to make sure that the people are working.
6:45Donald TrumpSo letters were sent out, and I think everyone at this table is very much behind it. And if they, if they aren't, I'd want them to speak up, but they're very much behind it.
6:55Donald TrumpLetters were sent out to people just to find out if the people exist, do they work, who do they work for, where are they, you know, where have they been working?
7:03Donald TrumpHave they been working for other companies or other entities at all, being paid by the government? So they have two jobs, but they're supposed to have one. And the letter asks some simple questions, like what have you done lately?
7:17Donald TrumpAnd if they can answer that, because I can, I can tell you everything I've done for the last long period of time, a lot more than a week. And in many cases, we haven't gotten responses.
7:29Donald TrumpUsually that means that maybe that person doesn't exist, or that person doesn't want to say they're working for another company while being paid by the United States government. So there's a lot of interesting things.
7:40Donald TrumpIt's very unique, but we have a very unique situation because we have a lot of people that were scamming our country. We have a lot of dishonest people. We have a lot of people that took advantage of a lot of different situations, and we're not going to let that happen.
7:55Donald TrumpSo I'm going to ask if it's possible to have Elon get up first and talk about Doge, because it seems to be of great interest to everyone, I will say that there is a large group of people in this country that have such admiration for what we're doing.
8:11Donald TrumpI got elected with a tremendous vote, winning every swing state, winning the popular vote, winning the counties by thousands of counties. I think it was 2,800 to 500. 2,000.
8:25Donald Trump2,800 counties to 500 counties. Think of that. And so we have a mandate to do this. And this is part of the reason I got elected. I got elected based on taxes and based on many things in the border, but also based on balancing budgets and getting our country back into shape.
8:42Donald TrumpAnd this is a big part of it. So, Elon, if you could get up and explain where you are, how you're doing, and how much we're cutting, and it's an honor to have you been a tremendously successful guy.
8:54Donald TrumpHe's really working so hard and he's got businesses to run. And in many ways they say, how do you do this? You know, it's. He's sacrificing a lot and getting a lot of praise, I'll tell you.
9:07Donald TrumpBut he's also getting hit. And we would expect that. And that's the way it works. So I'd like to have Elon Musk please say a few words. Thank you, Levi.
9:19Elon MuskThank you, Mr. President. Well, I actually just call myself humble tech support here, because this is actually as crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work that the Doge team is doing is helping fix the government computer systems.
9:36Elon MuskMany of these systems are extremely old. They don't communicate. There are a lot of mistakes in the systems. The software doesn't work. So we are actually tech support. It's ironic, but it's true.
9:52Elon MuskThe overall goal here with the Deutsche team is to help address the enormous deficit we simply cannot sustain as a country. $2 trillion deficits. The interest rates, just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department spending.
10:09Elon MuskWe spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like over a trillion dollars on interest. If this continues, the country will go become de facto bankrupt. It's not an optional thing.
10:20Elon MuskIt is an essential thing. That's the reason I'm here and taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. I mean, I like, stack them up.
10:31Elon MuskBut if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. And I'm confident at this point. Knock on wood. Knock on my wooden head.
10:43Elon MuskThe lot of wood up there that we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings. That would be roughly 15% of the 7 trillion dollar budget. And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room.
10:59Elon MuskAnd I'd like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you very much. This can only be done with your support. So this is really, DOGE is a support function for the president and for the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings and to effectively find 15% in reduction in fraud and waste.
11:23Elon MuskAnd we bring the receipts. So people say, like, well, is this real? Just go to doge.gov, we love line item by line item, we specify each item. And I should say also, we will make mistakes.
11:35Elon MuskWe won't be perfect, but when we make mistakes, we'll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with usaid, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola.
11:47Elon MuskEbola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption. But we do need to move quickly if we are to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026.
12:05Elon MuskIt requires saving $4 billion per day, every day from now through the end of September. But we can do it, and we will do it. Thank you.
12:15Donald TrumpWould you have any questions of Elon while we're on the subject of those? Because we'll finish off with that. And if you would have any questions, please ask. You could ask me or Elon.
12:25Donald TrumpGo ahead, please.
12:26ReporterThank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Musk. I just wanted to ask you that. President Trump put out a truth social today saying that everybody in the Cabinet was happy with you.
12:37ReporterI just wondered if that if you had heard otherwise and if you had heard anything about members of the Cabinet who weren't happy with the way things were going, and if so, what are you doing to address those.
12:47ReporterAny dissatisfaction?
12:50Donald TrumpLet the Cabinet speak just for a second. Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw him out of here. Is anybody unhappy?
13:08Donald TrumpThey are. They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this. And some did disagree a little bit. But I will tell you, for the most part, I think everyone is not only happy, they're thrilled.
13:18Donald TrumpSo go ahead, Elon.
13:20Elon MuskPresident Trump has put together, I think, the best cabinet ever. Literally so. And I do not give false praise. This is an incredible group of people. I don't think such a talented team has actually ever been assembled.
13:37Elon MuskI think it's literally the best cabinet that the country has ever had. And I think the company should be Incredibly appreciative of the people in this room.
13:45Donald TrumpGo ahead, please. Yeah, go ahead, Mr. President.
13:49ReporterThank you.
13:49Donald TrumpMr. Musk, are there about half of the government employees so far appear to have responded to your request for what they've been doing over the past week? Is there a timeline in place for next moves for people being fired?
14:01Donald TrumpAnd when can the American people expect to see results from that?
14:06Elon MuskYes, well, to be clear, like, the. I think that email perhaps was best interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?
14:19Elon MuskDo you have a pulse? And two neurons? So if you have a pulse and two neurons, you can reply to an email. This is, you know, I think not a high bar is what I'm saying.
14:31Elon MuskThis is, should be. Anyone could accomplish this. But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond.
14:44Elon MuskAnd some people who are not real people, like, they're literally fictional individuals that are collecting paychecks. Well, somebody's collecting paychecks on a fictional individual. So we're just literally trying to figure out, are these people real, are they alive?
14:56Elon MuskAnd can they write an email? Which I think is a reasonable expectation for the American public would have at least that expectation of someone in the public sector.
15:06ReporterMr. Master, roughly a million.
15:08Elon MuskThis is not a high bar, guys.
15:10Donald TrumpCome on.
15:11ReporterRoughly a million employees have responded so far to this email. Does that mean that the remaining 1 million or so federal employees now risk being terminated? And is it your understanding and expectation when you post a directive on X that the Cabinet secretaries will follow that order?
15:26ReporterBecause several agencies have instructed employees that this is voluntary or not to respond.
15:32Elon MuskYeah, well, I mean, so I guess it was like, last week, the president encouraged me via Truth Social and also via phone call to be more aggressive. And I was like, okay, you know, yes, sir.
15:47Elon MuskWas President.
15:48Scott TurnerWe.
15:48Elon MuskWe'll indeed do that. The president is the commander in chief. I do what the president asks. So. And I said, can we send out an email to everyone just saying, what did you get done last week?
16:00Elon MuskThe president said, yes. So it did that. And, you know, we got a partial response. We're going to send another email, but our goal is not to be capricious or unfair.
16:15Elon MuskWe want to give people every opportunity to send an email. And the email could simply be what I'm working on is too sensitive or classified to describe. Like, literally just that would be sufficient.
16:27Elon MuskYou know, I think this is just common sense.
16:31ReporterAnd what is your target number for how many workers, employees you're looking to cut total?
16:37Elon MuskWe wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is. Is essential and doing that job well. But if the job is not essential or they're not doing the job well, they obviously should not be on the public peril.
16:53Donald TrumpI'd like to add. Wait a minute. Wait, wait. I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded, though, Elon, they are on the bubble. You know, I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it.
17:05Donald TrumpThey haven't responded. Now, maybe they don't exist. Maybe we're paying people that don't exist. Don't forget, we just got here. This group just got here. But those people are on the bubble, as they say.
17:16Donald TrumpYou know, maybe they're going to be gone, maybe they're not around, maybe they have other jobs, maybe they moved and they're not where they're supposed to be. A lot of things could have happened.
17:27Donald TrumpI wouldn't say that. Biden ran a very tight administration. They spent money like nobody's ever spent money before or wasted money. The green news scam, all of the different things they spent money on.
17:38Donald TrumpAnd you've seen that. You've seen that with some of the things that I read in speeches. I read them and people can't believe when I read them. 20 million here, 30 million here for, you know, a little educational course on something.
17:52Donald TrumpCircumcision, right, circumcision. $20 million to inform the people of such and such a country on other things and other things other than that. So, yeah, those people are. Right now we're trying to find out who those people are that haven't responded.
18:12Donald TrumpNow, there will be some agencies like Marco has people within state that are right now doing very classified, very confidential work. And we understand that. We've talked and, you know, we're being a little more surgical and Marco is doing a lot of things himself.
18:29Donald TrumpHe's. And some of the secretaries are. We're going to be going to them. We're going to be talking about it today. We're going to ask them to do their own doge.
18:36Donald TrumpIn other words, they'll look in their group and who I spoke with Lee Zeldin and he thinks he's going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental and we're going to speed up the process, too.
18:49Donald TrumpAt the same time, a lot of people that weren't doing their job, they were just obstructionists. And a lot of people that didn't exist, I guess lead to. You found a lot of empty spots that the people weren't there.
19:00Donald TrumpThey didn't exist. And I think education is going to be one of those. You go around Washington, you see all these buildings for Department of Education. We want to move education back to the states where it belongs.
19:12Donald TrumpIowa should have education. Indiana should run their own education. You're going to see education go way up. Right now we're. We're ranked at the very bottom of the list, but we're at the top of the list.
19:24Donald TrumpAnd one, the cost per pupil. We spend more money per pupil than any other country in the world, and yet it's Denmark and Norway, Sweden. And I hate to say this, and you know, we're going to get along very well with China, but it's a competitor.
19:42Donald TrumpThey're at the top of the list. They're among the top 10, usually. And they're a very big country. So we can't use that as an excuse.
19:50ReporterRight.
19:52Donald TrumpBecause we're a very big country, too. But we're. We were ranked last time under Biden. We were ranked 40 out of 40. They do. The 40 certain nations that they've done for a long time.
20:02Donald TrumpIt seems to be 40 for whatever reason. And we were ranked number 40 a year ago. We were 38. Then we were 39. We hit 40. And so we're last in that and we're first in cost per pupil.
20:16Donald TrumpSo I would say that's unacceptable. Lawrence, you have something. Go ahead.
20:19ReporterMr. President, I know you like competition, and I know it's early. So which department are you most impressed with? And then.
20:30ReporterWhich department have you received the most resistance from?
20:35Donald TrumpWell, I think both of those questions are a little bit. Well, you're a pretty controversial guy. Look, it's very early right now. I think I'm impressed with everybody so far.
20:46Donald TrumpEverybody. If I wasn't in the first month and some of them just got here, they just got approved two days ago. Right. But I think I'm very impressed with everybody so far.
20:55Donald TrumpI'm very happy with all of the choices. I think that Elon has done incredibly with some groups, and some groups are much easier than others. It is true. Still, the state is a, you know, very difficult situation.
21:06Donald TrumpWe're right now negotiating very successfully, I think with Russia and with Ukraine, and we have a lot of countries involved, and we have to be a little bit careful what we do and who we're terminating.
21:18Donald TrumpBut Marco is doing that very. I think he's going to be very precise. It's going to be. We're cutting down government. We're cutting down the size of government. We have to.
21:27Donald TrumpWe're bloated, we're sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren't doing their job. We have a lot of people that don't exist. You look at Social Security as an example.
21:37Donald TrumpI mean, you have so many people in Social Security where, if you believe it, they're 200 years old. And what we're doing is finding out are checks going out for that and is somebody cashing those checks who's maybe 35 years old?
21:50Donald TrumpOkay, so there's a lot of dishonesty. There's a lot of fraud. But I think at this moment, I'll take Elon off the spot. I think that he's impressed. He said it very well, better than I can say it, that he's impressed with the people in this room.
22:03Donald TrumpVery impressed. And I am, too. And it's too early to say, but I think everybody is on board. They all know we want to balance a budget. We want to have a balanced budget within a reasonably short period of time, meaning maybe by next year or the year after, but maybe, maybe even sooner than that.
22:19ReporterMr. President, your number one issue was the board. We just got new information that they're doxing. They're putting their personal information out there, these activists, and they're disrupting operations.
22:31ReporterSo you've got Trinidad running on.
22:33Donald TrumpWell, we have activists, that's true. And a lot of those.
22:34ReporterWhat are they going to do about the activists?
22:36Donald TrumpA lot of those activists are acting illegally. And we'll give that to our attorney general and she'll take a look at that very strongly. But we also having tremendous support from Border Patrol, from ice.
22:50Donald TrumpThe ICE agents have been unbelievable. Border Patrol, their leadership at Border Patrol has been incredible, and they're working very well. And as you know, and I saw you reporting it this morning, actually we set records on the least number of illegal aliens coming in, migrants coming into our country that we had, that we've had in more than 50 years.
23:12Donald TrumpAnd we did this all within a period of weeks because we took over a message. The world was pouring in. And remember, they were coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums, and they were gang members and drug dealers.
23:26Donald TrumpAnybody wanted to come in, they came. And from not just South America, from all over the world. So it's amazing what they've done. And Christy and Tom Holman, the job they've done has been absolutely amazing.
23:38Donald TrumpWe set records for and we want people to come into our country, by the way, but they want to come in. They have to come in legally. I want that to be really understood.
23:47Donald TrumpWe want people in our country, but they have to come in legally.
23:51ReporterCan I follow on that, Mr. President, about the Trump Gold Card idea that you unveiled yesterday?
23:56Donald TrumpI hope you like it.
23:58ReporterI have way more information. But the question is, does this reflect a view on your part that the American immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be?
24:10Donald TrumpWell, not so much monetized. It hasn't been properly run. I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school.
24:21Donald TrumpA person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places, and they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools, and they graduate number one in their class.
24:38Donald TrumpAnd they made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. I want to be able to have that person stay in the country.
24:49Donald TrumpThese companies can go and buy a Gold Card and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt.
24:59Donald TrumpWe're going to pay down a lot of debt with that. And I think the Gold Card is going to be used by. Not only for that, it'll be used by companies.
25:07Donald TrumpI mean, I could see Apple. I've spoken with Tim Cook, and by the way, he's going to make a $500 billion investment in the country only because of the results of the election.
25:17Donald TrumpAnd I think because of tariffs. He's going to want to be in the country because of tariffs, because if you're in the country, there is no tariff. If you're out of the country, you've got to pay tariffs.
25:25Donald TrumpAnd that's going to be a great investment, I think, that he's making. I know it's going to be a great, great investment. But we have to be able to get people in the country and we want people that are productive people.
25:37Donald TrumpAnd I will tell you, the people that can pay $5 million, they're going to create jobs. They're going to spend a lot of money on jobs. They're going to have to pay taxes on that, too.
25:45Donald TrumpSo they're going to be hiring people, they're going to be bringing people in and companies in. And I don't know, maybe it will sell like crazy. I happen to think it's going to sell like crazy.
25:54Donald TrumpIt's A bargain. But we'll know fairly soon. I think Howard and Scott, a few of you really are responsible for it. But Howard, if you want to discuss that for a couple of minutes, I think I'd like to have you.
26:08Donald TrumpI think it's going to be a very successful program. This is Commerce.
26:12Howard LutnickSo the EB5 program, which has been around for many years, had investment of a million dollars into projects in America. And those projects were often suspect. They didn't really work out.
26:26Howard LutnickThere wasn't any oversight of it. And so for a million dollar investment, you got a visa and then you came into the country and ended up with a green card.
26:36Howard LutnickSo it was poorly overseen, poorly executed. Then you had our border open where millions of people came through. So the idea is we will have a proper business. We will modify the EB5 agreement.
26:51Howard LutnickChristy and I are working on it together. For $5 million, they'll get a license from the Department of Commerce, then they'll make a proper investment on the EB5.
27:02Donald TrumpRight.
27:03Howard LutnickAnd we think Scott and I will design the EB5 investment model because Scott and I are the best people together to do that. So this is joint. This is exactly the Trump administration.
27:13Howard LutnickWe all work together. We work it out to be the best. And if we sell, just remember 200,000, there's a line for EB5 of 250,000. Right now. 200,000 of these gold green cards is $1 trillion to pay down our debt.
27:33Howard LutnickAnd that's why the President is doing it, because we are going to balance
27:36Donald Trumphis budget and we are going to
27:38Howard Lutnickpay off the debt under President. President Trump.
27:40ReporterAnd to qualify, do you have to promise and make commitments to create a certain number of jobs here in the U.S. no. No.
27:46Donald TrumpBecause not all these people are going to be job builders. They'll be successful people, or they'll be people that were hired from colleges, like, sort of like paying an athlete a bonus.
27:57Donald TrumpApple or one of the companies will go out and they'll. They'll spend five, they'll buy five of them, and they're going to get five people. Look, I've had the complaint where.
28:05Donald TrumpI've had the complaint from a lot of companies where they go out to hire people and they can't hire them out of colleges. And you know what they do?
28:11Donald TrumpThey go back to India or they go back to the country where they came and they open up a company and they become billionaires. They become. And they're employing thousands and thousands.
28:22Donald TrumpThere are a lot of examples. There are some really big examples where they were forced out of the country. They graduated top in their class at a great school and they weren't able to stay.
28:35Donald TrumpThis is all the time you hear it. And the biggest complaint I get from companies other than over regulation, which we took care of, but we're going to have to take care of it here because a lot of that was put back on by Biden.
28:45Donald TrumpBut the biggest complaint is the fact that they can't have any longevity with people this way. They have pretty much unlimited longevity also with the 5 million. You know, that's a path to citizenship.
28:57Donald TrumpSo that's going to be. It's sort of a green card plus and it's a path to citizenship. We're going to call it the gold card. And I think it's going to be very treasured.
29:08Donald TrumpI think it's going to do very well. And we're going to start selling hopefully in about two weeks. Now, just so you understand, if we sell a million, right, a million, that's $5 trillion.
29:20Donald TrumpFive trillion. Howard was using a different number, but that's $5 trillion. If we sell 10 million, which is possible, 10 million highly productive people coming in or people that we're going to make productive.
29:33Donald TrumpThey'll be young, but they're talented, like a talented athlete. That's $50 trillion. That means our debt is totally paid off and we have $15 trillion above that. And now I don't know that we're going to sell that many.
29:47Donald TrumpMaybe we won't sell many at all. But I think we're going to sell a lot because I think there really is a thirst. No other country can do this because people don't want to go to other countries.
29:56Donald TrumpThey want to come here. Everybody wants to come here. Especially since November 5th.
30:03Howard LutnickThey'll all be vetted, by the way. All these people will be vetted.
30:07ReporterOkay, can you talk a little bit about what type of security guarantees you're willing to make?
30:14Donald TrumpWell, I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have, have Europe do that because it's in, you know, we're talking about Europe as their next door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well.
30:26Donald TrumpAnd as you know, we'll be making a, we'll be really partnering with Ukraine in terms of rare earth. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth.
30:37Donald TrumpWe'll be working with Secretary Burgum and with Chris. You'll be working on that together. And we're going to be able to have tremendous, I mean, this gives us, because we don't have that much of it here.
30:49Donald TrumpWe have some, but we don't have that much. And we need a lot more to really propel us to the next level of. To lead in every way. We're leading right now with AI.
30:58Donald TrumpWe're leading with everything right now. But we have to. We need resources. We have to double our electric capacity. We have to do many things. We have to really triple, if you think of it, the electric capacity from what we have right now, if you can believe it.
31:11Donald TrumpSo I just say this so the deal we're making gets us. It brings us great wealth. We get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we're going to be able to settle this up.
31:24Donald TrumpWe want to settle it. We want to stop. I tell you what, I'm doing it for two reasons, but the number one reason by far is to watch all these people being killed.
31:33Donald TrumpI see pictures every week from, I assume satellite pictures mostly, but there's some pictures on site of thousands of soldiers that are being killed. They're being decimated because equipment today, military equipment, is so powerful and so devastating.
31:49Donald TrumpAnd number one, I want to see people stop. And they're not from here. They're from primarily to other countries. And then, by the way, let's talk about the Middle East.
31:57Donald TrumpWe got to solve that problem, too. And that's come a long way. We're doing very well in that also. A lot of things are happening on that. But I'm watching soldiers being killed, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers being killed.
32:09Donald TrumpMy number one thing is to get that stopped. My number two thing is I don't want to have to pay any more money because we've. Biden has spent $350 billion without any chance of getting it back.
32:20Donald TrumpNow we're going to be getting all of that money back, plus a lot more. And we provided a great thing. I mean, we provided something very important. And we'll be working with Ukraine and because we'll be taking that, we're going to be taking what we're entitled to take.
32:35Donald TrumpNow, they spent $350 billion and Europe spent $100 billion. Now, does anybody really think that's fair? But then we find out a little while ago, not so long ago, a few months ago, I found out that the money they spent, they get back.
32:54Donald TrumpBut the money we spent, we don't. We don't get back. I said, well, we're going to get it back and we'll be able to make a deal. And again, President Zelensky is coming to sign the deal and it's a great thing.
33:05Donald TrumpIt's a great deal for Ukraine too because they get us over there and we're going to be working over there, we'll be on the land. And you know, in that way it's, there's sort of automatic security because nobody is going to be messing around with our people when we're there.
33:16Donald TrumpAnd so we'll be there in that way. But Europe will be watching it very closely. I know that UK has said and France has said that they want to put, they volunteered to put so called peacekeepers on the site and I think that's a good thing.
33:31Donald TrumpMr. President, you have been very clued
33:33Reporteron the cost of eggs and we've seen consumer confidence this week have a sharp drop from last month, the biggest dip in I believe three years. Why is that your assessment?
33:43ReporterWhy is that the case and is there?
33:44Donald TrumpMr. Well, I think that consumer confidence, if you look at confidence in the nation, it had the biggest increase in the history of the chart. It went up 42 points in a period of like days after the election, since the election.
33:59Donald TrumpSo since the election, the confidence in our nation, including right track, wrong track, the first time it's ever happened where we were on the right track because this country has been on the wrong track for a long time.
34:14Donald TrumpSo the confidence in business, confidence in the country has reached an all time high. We have never reached levels like we are right now. Okay.
34:23ReporterMr. President, you've been very clear in saying that as long as you're president, Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.
34:29Donald TrumpThat's true.
34:30ReporterIs it also your policy that as long as you're president, China will never take Taiwan by force?
34:36Donald TrumpI never comment on that. I don't comment on anything because I don't want to ever put myself in that position. And if I said it, I certainly wouldn't be saying it to you.
34:45Donald TrumpI'd be saying it to other people, maybe people around this table and very specific people around this table. So I don't want to put myself in that position. But I can tell you what, I have a great relationship with President Xi.
34:59Donald TrumpI've had a great relationship with him. We want them to come in and invest. I see so many things saying that we don't want China in this country. That's not right.
35:07Donald TrumpWe want them to invest in the United States. That's good. There's a lot of money coming in and we'll invest in China. We'll do things with China. The relationship we'll have with China will be a very good one.
35:17Donald TrumpI see all of these phony reports that we don't want their money, we don't want anything to do with them. That's wrong. We're going to have a good relationship with China, but they won't be able to take advantage of us.
35:27Donald TrumpWhat they did to Biden was he didn't know what was happening. He didn't know what he was doing. The administration didn't know what they were doing. It was very sad to watch.
35:36Donald TrumpBut we're going to have a good relationship with China and Russia and Ukraine and the Middle East. We're doing things. And look, when I left, we had no wars.
35:45Donald TrumpWe had defeated ISIS totally. We had no inflation. We didn't have the Afghanistan withdrawal, the worst withdrawal anybody has ever seen. I think that's one of the reasons that President Putin looked at that.
35:58Donald TrumpHe said, wow, these guys are a paper tiger. Look at it. We're no paper tiger. Don't forget, we got rid of ISIS in three weeks. People said it would take five years.
36:06Donald TrumpWe did it because when I came in, I let them do what they had to do. And the man that headed that operation is now going to be your chairman, right?
36:15Donald TrumpChairman of the Joint Chiefs.
36:16ReporterYes, sir.
36:17Donald TrumpAnd Raisin Cain. I liked him right from the beginning. As soon as I heard his name, I said, that's my guy. Okay. Any other questions?
36:25ReporterDecreases in crossings at the border to continue the pause on tariffs against Mexico and Canada.
36:32Donald TrumpNo, no, I'm not. I'm not stopping the tariffs.
36:35Elon MuskNo.
36:36Donald TrumpMillions of people have. Have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border.
36:41Reporter90% drop in border crossings, though.
36:43Donald TrumpWell, that's compared to about a year ago. Yeah, they've been good. But that's also due to us. Mostly due to us. I mean, it's very hard. It's right now very hard to come through the border.
36:53Donald TrumpBut the. Look, the damage has been done. We've lost millions of people due to fentanyl. It comes mostly from China, but it comes through Mexico and it comes through Canada.
37:04Donald TrumpAnd I have to tell you that, you know, on April 2nd. I was going to do it on April 1st, but I'm a little bit superstitious, so I made it April 2.
37:12Donald TrumpThe tariffs go on. Not all of them, but a lot of them. And I think you're going to see something that's going to be amazing. We've been taken advantage of as a country for a long period of time.
37:22Donald TrumpWe've been. We've been tariffed, but we didn't tariff. Now, I did when I was here, I tariffed. We took in $700 billion from China. 700 billion. Not one president in this, in the history of our country took in 10 cents from China.
37:37Donald Trumpthe same time, China respected us. Now, when Covid came in, that was a different deal. I used to call it the China virus. I guess I can call it the China virus again, but, you know, it's an accurate term.
37:49Donald TrumpBut I won't do that out of respect to China.
37:53ReporterOn the immigration enforcement.
37:55Donald TrumpSay it again on Gaza.
37:57ReporterI just wondered if there's any progress towards the second phase of the ceasefire.
38:02Donald TrumpWell, I'm very disappointed when I see four bodies came into. These are young people. Young people don't die, okay? Young people don't die. These are young people. Four bodies came in today.
38:14Donald TrumpThey think they're doing us a favor by sending us bodies. So look, that's a decision has to be made by Israel, by Bibi, but Israel has to make that decision.
38:29Donald TrumpWe got a lot of hostages back. But it's very sad what happened to those people. I mean, you had a young lady with her hand practically blown off. You know why it blew up?
38:38Donald TrumpBecause she put up her hand to try and stop a bullet that was coming her way and it hit her hand and blew off her fingers. Big part of her hand.
38:46Donald TrumpThis is a vicious group of people, and Israel is going to have to decide what they're doing. Phase one is going to be ending. Think of it. Today they sent in four bodies.
38:58Donald TrumpBodies. And I will say one thing, though. I've spoken to a lot of the parents and a lot of the people involved. They want those bodies almost as much and maybe even just as much as they wanted their son or their daughter.
39:13Donald TrumpAmazing. Please, sir, please. My son is dead, but they have his body. Please, can you get it for us? It's the biggest thing. It's incredible the level they. They want the bodies of these people.
39:25Donald TrumpThey're dead. They're dead. And you know, when I saw the ones that came in two weeks ago, they look like they just got out of a concentration camp. Then the following week, a group came in and they weren't as bad, in as bad a shape.
39:38Donald TrumpBut Israel is going to have to make a decision. You're right. Phase one. And now Phase two has started. And today we got some, you know, very, very. We knew they were down.
39:49Donald TrumpDid, by the way. We knew there were going to be bodies as opposed to people that were living. But it's a very sad situation. At some point, somebody is Going to say, we've got to do something about this.
40:01ReporterMr. President, you were just talking about Afghanistan and the box withdrawal. Have all the generals or command staff that were involved with the withdrawal been fired or relieved of duty?
40:13Donald TrumpWell, that's a great idea, as I'm not going to tell this man what to do, but I will say that if I had his place, I'd fire every single one of them.
40:21Donald TrumpPete, that's a very good question.
40:24Pete HegsethWell, it's a question we've thought a lot about. We're doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability.
40:34Pete HegsethIt's one of the first things we announced at the Defense Department for that reason, sir. Certainly General Raisin Cain, who's on his way in, was not a part of that.
40:43Pete HegsethInstead was a part of leading the effort against ISIS by untying the hands of war fighters and finishing the job properly and then bringing our troops home. So we're taking a very different view, obviously, than the previous administration, and there will be full accountability.
40:55Donald TrumpI don't see big promotions in that group, and I think they're going to be largely gone. I know the man on my left, I think they're going to be largely gone.
41:03Donald TrumpThat was a horrible display. And, you know, I've dealt with the parents and the family of the 13 that were killed, but, you know, nobody ever talks about the 40 that were so badly hurt with the arms and the legs and the face and the whole thing, the missing arms and legs.
41:19Donald TrumpIt was so terrible the way that was handled. And it should have been gone through Bagram, we have a big base with big fences and nobody can get in.
41:26Donald TrumpAnd you have, you know, hundreds of acres instead of a little local airport where the whole place went crazy. That was so badly handled. And I would think that most of those people are going to be gone.
41:37ReporterAre we going to take Bagel back?
41:39Donald TrumpSo I'll tell you what has bothered me very much, Very, very much. We give billions of dollars to Afghanistan. Nobody knows that. Nobody knew that. Do you know we give billions of dollars to Afghanistan, and yet we left behind all of that equipment, which wouldn't have happened.
41:59Donald TrumpYou know, we were getting out under me. I'm the one that got it down to 5,000 people. We were going to get out, but we were going to keep Bagram not because of Afghanistan, but because of China, because it's exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.
42:12Donald TrumpSo we're going to keep Bagram. We were Going to keep a small force on Bagram. We're going to have Bagram Air Base, one of the biggest air bases in the world.
42:20Donald TrumpOne of the biggest runways, one of the most powerful runways in the sense that it was very heavy concrete and steel. You could carry about anything, you could land anything on those runways.
42:31Donald TrumpWe gave it up. And you know who's occupying it right now? China. China. Biden gave it up. So we're going to keep that and we're going to have a withdrawal and we're going to take our equipment.
42:40Donald TrumpWe're going to do it properly, we're going to do it very. We're going to keep the equipment. Well, they ran out. It was what happened. There was a, in fact, you know, in all fairness to Putin, when, when he saw that, he said, well, this is our time to go and go into Ukraine.
42:56Donald TrumpI guess because it was, the timing seemed to be about right. But we send them billions of dollars in aid, which nobody knows. If the American public knew that, they know it now.
43:07Donald TrumpAnd if we're doing that, I think they should give our equipment back. And I told Pete to study that. But we left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment, equipment behind brand new trucks.
43:17Donald TrumpYou see them display it every year on their little roadway, someplace where they have a road and they drive the, you know, waving the flag and talking about America, beautiful equipment.
43:29Donald TrumpThat's all. I mean, the top of the line stuff, brand new stuff. Now it's getting older, but you know what we're going to pay them. I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.
43:39Donald TrumpYou know that Afghanistan is one of the biggest sellers of military, military equipment in the world. You know why they're selling the equipment that we left? We're first. They were second or third.
43:48Donald TrumpCan you believe it? They're selling 777,000 rifles, 70,000 armor plated, many of them were armor plated trucks and vehicles. 70,000. If you think of a used car lot, the biggest one in the country, if I would say, J.D.
44:05Donald Trumpif somebody had 500 cars, that would be a lot. This is 70,000 vehicles we had there. And we left it for them. I think we should get it back.
44:17ReporterThe spending bill that passed last night aims to cut $2 trillion. Can you guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security will not be touched?
44:25Donald TrumpYeah, I mean, I have said it so many times. You shouldn't be asking me that question. Okay, this will not be read my lips. There won't be read my lips anymore.
44:36Donald TrumpWe're not going to touch it. Now we are going to look for fraud. I'm sure you're okay with that. Like people that shouldn't be on people that are illegal aliens and others criminals in many cases.
44:48Donald TrumpAnd that's with Social Security. We have a lot of people. You see that immediately when you see people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks for Social Security.
44:57Donald TrumpSome of them are actually being sent checks. So we're tracing that down and I have a feeling that Pam is going to do a very good job with that.
45:04Donald TrumpBut you have a lot of fraud. But no, I'm not. We're not doing anything on this. Mr. President, part of your mission, sir.
45:10ReporterPart of your mission has been. Thank you. I'm sorry. Part of your mission has been to restore executive control over the executive branch. Is it your view of your authority that you have the power to call up any one of or all of the people seated at this table and they issue orders if they're bound to follow?
45:28Donald TrumpOh yeah, they'll follow the orders. Yes, they will.
45:31ReporterNo exceptions.
45:33Donald TrumpNo exceptions. Well, let's see, let me think. Oh yeah, yeah. She'll have an exception, of course. No exceptions. You know that.
45:42ReporterMr. President, can you clarify the Canada Mexico tariffs? You had put that 30 day pause
45:47Donald Trumpyou just referred to 25%.
45:49Reporter25%. When does it go into effect?
45:51Donald TrumpApril 2nd.
45:52ReporterApril 2nd for Canada Mix. Correct.
45:55Donald TrumpAnd for everything?
45:56Howard LutnickWell, we have the fentanyl related. It's a pause. If they can prove to the President they've done an excellent job, that's what they first do in 30 days. But then the overall is April 2nd.
46:10Howard LutnickSo the big transaction is April 2nd. But the fentanyl related things, they're working
46:15Donald Trumphard on the border.
46:16Howard LutnickAt the end of that 30 days, they have to prove to the President that they've satisfied him to that regard.
46:22Donald TrumpIf they have, it's going to be hard to.
46:23Howard LutnickHe'll give them a pause or he won't.
46:25Donald TrumpIt's going to be hard to Satisfy. We lose 300,000 people a year to fentanyl. Not 100, not 95, not 60 like you read. You know, you've been reading it for years.
46:37Donald TrumpWe lost, in my opinion, over the last couple of years, on average, maybe close to 300,000 people dead. And the families are ruined. You know, when they lose a daughter, when they lose a son, the families are never the same.
46:50Donald TrumpYou're never going to be the same. So you're talking about a million people. But when the daughters die, I see it. Daughters die and the sons die because of Fentanyl.
47:00Donald TrumpAnd in some cases, I don't even know they're taking it. They're buying something else and it's laced with fentanyl, and they end up dying. And I've known many people who have lost children to fentanyl and for other reasons, but to fentanyl is such a big killer.
47:15Donald TrumpAnd those people are never the same people. I mean, I've seen people that for the rest of their lives, they're not the same people. They're so different. It's not even believable.
47:24Donald TrumpDynamic people, happy people that are. They die a miserable death. And that's because of the crap that comes in through China and through Mexico and through. Through Canada comes.
47:36Donald TrumpA lot of it comes through Canada. Canada, look, we support Canada. $200 billion a year in subsidies, one way or the other. We let them make millions of cars.
47:50Donald TrumpWe let them send us lumber. We don't need their lumber. We're going to free up our lumber. Lee is going to do that. Head of Environmental we're going to free up our lumber.
47:59Donald TrumpWe have the best lumber there is. We don't need their lumber. What do we need their lumber for? When you look at the. We subsidize them $200 billion a year.
48:10Donald TrumpWithout us, Canada can't make it. You know, Canada relies on us 95%. We rely on them. 4%, big difference. And I say Canada should be our 51st state. There's no tariffs, no nothing.
48:26Donald TrumpAnd I say that we give them military protection. They have a very small military. They spend very little money on military. On NATO, they're just about last in terms of payment because they say, why should we spend on military?
48:39Donald TrumpThat's a tremendous cost. Most nations can't afford to even think about it. Why should we spend on military? The United States protects us. And I would say that's largely true.
48:49Donald TrumpWe protect Canada, but it's not fair. It's not fair that they're not paying their way. And if they had to pay their way, they couldn't exist. When I spoke to.
49:02Donald TrumpLet's call the Prime Minister rather than the governor. But when I spoke to him, I said, why are we giving you $200 billion a year? He was unable to answer the question.
49:11Donald TrumpI said, why are we letting you make millions of cars and send them in? He was unable to answer the question. Justin Trudeau, nice guy. I think he's a very good guy.
49:22Donald TrumpI call him Governor Trudeau. He should be governor because the fact is that if we don't give them cars, we don't have to give them cars. The tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell cars into the United States.
49:35Donald TrumpThe tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell lumber or anything else into the United States. And all I'm asking to do is break even or lose a little bit, but not lose $200 billion.
49:47Donald TrumpAnd we love Canada. I love Canada. I love the people of Canada, and. But honestly, it's not fair for us to be supporting Canada. And if we don't support them, they don't subsist as a nation.
50:00Donald TrumpOkay, Mr. President.
50:02Elon MuskMr. President, have you made a decision on what level you will seek on tariffs in the European Union?
50:08Donald TrumpWe have made a decision. We'll be announcing it very soon, and it'll be 25%, generally speaking, and that'll be on cars and all of the things. And European Union is a different case than Canada.
50:22Donald TrumpDifferent kind of case. They've really taken advantage of us in a different way. They don't accept our cars. They don't accept, essentially our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not.
50:33Donald TrumpAnd we accept everything of them. And we have about a $300 billion debt deficit with the European Union. Now, I love the countries of Europe, I guess I'm from there at some point, a long time ago.
50:44Donald TrumpRight. But indirectly, pretty directly too, I guess. But I love the countries of Europe. I love all countries, frankly. All different. But European Union has been. It was formed in order to screw the United States.
50:58Donald TrumpI mean, look, let's be honest. The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That's the purpose of it. And they've done a good job of it.
51:07Donald TrumpBut now I'm president.
51:08Elon MuskWhat will happen in these countries where the EU retaliate?
51:12Donald TrumpThey can't. I mean, they can try, but they can't.
51:14ReporterChina did. They went into effect. China's retaliation.
51:18Donald TrumpThat's right. That's right.
51:19Reporter10 February. Has there been any.
51:22Donald TrumpThat's right. No. They can do it and they can try, but the numbers can never equal what rsp. Because we can go off. We are the pot of gold.
51:31Donald TrumpWe're the one that everybody wants. And they can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation because we just go cold turkey. We don't buy anymore. And if that happens, we win.
51:43Donald TrumpAre you talking to Eric Prince about privatizing deportation? No. No, I haven't.
51:48ReporterMr. President, you're in litigation with CBS News. Is this a case that you'd like to see go to trial, or are
51:53Donald Trumpyou open with who?
51:54ReporterCbs.
51:56Donald TrumpCbs, yes. Well, CBS did something that was amazing. Kamala was unable to answer a question properly. And they took the question that they asked and they inserted an answer.
52:09Donald TrumpThey gave her an answer. This was two days before the election, right before the Sunday night before the election. And they wrote out a. They put her words from another question that was asked about a half an hour later.
52:25Donald TrumpAnd they put that into the question. Nobody has ever even heard of it before. Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before. But they then did it, they say on numerous occasions.
52:36Donald TrumpAnd the FCC is looking at it very strongly and everybody is looking at it and I'm. But nobody has ever seen anything think of it. They took her answers and they changed them.
52:48Donald TrumpAnd I don't mean they changed a word or two or they cut off a half a sentence or they cut off a couple of words. I mean, I've had that happen too.
52:55Donald TrumpBut that you just say, you know, then they say, well, we want brevity. You know, we wanted to do it for time. They took out her answer and they inserted an entirely different answer that made her sound competent.
53:07Donald TrumpAnd they did this. And nobody's ever. I thought, I've heard of everything when it comes to that stuff. No, I've never heard of it. Nobody's ever seen. So we sued and we are in discussions of settlement.
53:19ReporterWhat would a number be like? What's the number that you would.
53:24Donald TrumpI think it's a lot.
53:30Donald TrumpIt could have. It probably did affect the election. I mean, we won by a lot, as I said, too big to rig, but it probably did affect the election.
53:38Donald TrumpYeah, I probably could have won by more, but I could have lost the election because of that. It's. We have to, we have to get to honest elections. We have to go back to paper ballots.
53:50Donald TrumpWe have to go back to voter ID. One day election, ideally, or short term, not these 48 day and 60 one day elections where boxes are put in a room and oh, let's move the boxes because we're putting in a new air conditioning system.
54:03Donald TrumpThen you see the boxes move and then you say, well, where are all the boxes? You know, what happened to the boxes that never came back? Now our elections are extremely dishonest.
54:16Donald TrumpWe're the only country in the world that has mail in voting and all of these different things that we put in. Nobody, no other country in the world has it.
54:23Donald TrumpYou know, France went to, they had some of the things that we had and they went to same day voting or wallpaper. And you know, paper is very sophisticated now.
54:34Donald TrumpIt's a Very sophisticated. It's a very sophisticated form of voting right now. It's a very safe form of voting. You know, the other things for the governors, I wish the governors would do it because the paper ballots will cost 9% of the machines and they're 100%.
54:50Donald TrumpYou know, they're, I don't, nothing is foolproof, but they're as close as you get. So we'll see what happens. But on the 60 minute thing, nobody's ever seen anything like it.
54:59ReporterWould you link the FCC action to the litigation?
55:02Donald TrumpAnd I don't think it's linked, but probably the lawyers look at it, you know, because I know it's going along. FCC is headed by a very competent person and you have some very competent people on the board.
55:14Donald TrumpAnd so I think they're looking at adversaries. So for the deals that you've done
55:17Reporterin your life, all the people you've sat across from and negotiated with, is
55:22Donald TrumpPresident Putin distinct in any way? He's a very smart guy, he's a very cunning person. But I've dealt with some people that I've dealt with some really bad people.
55:33Donald TrumpBut I will tell you, as far as this is concerned, we've, you have to understand, he was, he had no intention, in my opinion, of settling this war. I think he wanted the whole thing.
55:47Donald TrumpWhen I got elected, we spoke and I think we're going to have a deal. I can't guarantee that, you know, a deal is a deal. Lots of crazy things happen in deals, right?
55:57Donald TrumpBut I think we're going to have a deal. If I didn't get elected, I believe he would have just continued to go through Ukraine and over a period of time, a lot of people, a lot of people would have been killed, would have lasted for a period of time.
56:12Donald TrumpAnd the reason that Ukraine and I give, I have great respect for, for the Ukraine as fighters. They're great fighters, but without our equipment, that war would have been over, like people said, in a very short period of time.
56:24ReporterIs there a time.
56:24Donald TrumpAnd if you remember, I gave the javelins and the javelins are the things that knocked out those tanks right at the beginning of the war. They said that Obama at the time gave sheets and Trump gave javelins.
56:36Donald TrumpWell, I was the one that did that, but I want to see it come to an end.
56:40ReporterWill he have to make concessions?
56:41Elon MuskPresident?
56:43Donald TrumpYeah, he will. He's going to have to. And I think, I believe that because we got elected, that war will come to an end. And I also believe if we didn't get elected if this administration didn't win the election by a lot, that that war would go on for a long time and he would want to take the whole thing.
57:09Donald TrumpThe big question I had is, does he want to take the whole thing? But the reason. And the Ukrainians are good fighters, I have to say. But without the equipment, without our equipment, we have the best equipment in the world.
57:20Donald TrumpWe have the best military equipment in the world. Without our equipment, that would have been over very quick.
57:26ReporterWhat concessions would you like to see?
57:28Donald TrumpOh, I don't want to tell right now, but I can tell you that NATO, you can forget about. That's been. I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started.
57:38Donald TrumpAnd I think. J.D. we can say that. Do you have a statement on that? You've been very much involved. I gave him the beauty.
57:46JD VanceMaybe the hardest question, sir. I mean, look, as the President said, we're not going to do the negotiation in public with the American media. He's going to do it in private with the President of Russia, with the President of Ukraine and with other leaders.
58:00JD VanceAnd I think that's how this has to go. I think the. I just want to push back against some of the criticism I've seen of the administration on this, because every single time the president engages in diplomacy, you guys preemptively accuse him of conceding to Russia.
58:14JD VanceHe hasn't conceded anything to anyone. He's doing the job of a diplomat, and he is, of course, the diplomat in chief, as the President of the United States,
58:25Elon Muska little bit more of a vetting process.
58:27Donald TrumpHe'll go through a process. The process is being worked out right now, and we're going to be very careful.
58:33Elon MuskWill there be restrictions on, for instance, can Chinese nationals.
58:36Donald TrumpNo, we're not going to restrict. We're probably not going to be restricting too much in terms of countries, but maybe in terms of individuals, we want to make sure we have people that love our country and are capable of loving the country.
58:49ReporterBreak in Texas at the moment in which a child is reported to have died. Do you have concerns about that and have you asked Secretary Kennedy to look into that?
58:57Donald TrumpWell, why don't we. Bobby, do you want to speak on that? We are following the measles epidemic every day. I think there's 124 people who have contracted measles at this point, mainly in Gaines County, Texas.
59:13Donald TrumpMainly, we're told in the Mennonite community there are two people who have died. But we're watching it, and There are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine. We're watching it.
59:32Donald TrumpWe put out a post on it yesterday, and we're going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16.
59:45Donald TrumpSo it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.
59:49ReporterYou sound a little under the weather yourself.
59:51Donald TrumpI just. I have a permanently bad throat.
59:54ReporterMr. President, would you send us peacekeepers to support the European peacekeepers? Would you do any sort of us.
1:00:04Donald TrumpNo, we're going to support Europe.
1:00:05Elon MuskYeah.
1:00:05ReporterAnd how would.
1:00:06Donald TrumpWe're very friendly with Europe. We have a great relationship with Europe. I mean, you could ask. You could talk about France, you could talk about any of them. I mean, we have a great relationship with Europe.
1:00:16ReporterBut how will the United States do that? Would there be.
1:00:19Donald TrumpWell, how. I mean, you're asking me a question. What are we doing in the field? Let's worry. I hope we have that problem where we could worry about peacekeeping.
1:00:25Donald TrumpWe got to get there first, but I hope we have the problem of worrying about peacekeeping. That will be the easiest problem, I think, JD that we've ever had.
1:00:37Donald TrumpWe'll do it at the time, but we'll. Peacekeeping is very easy. It's making the deal that's very tough. And again, nobody was speaking to Russia at all. And, you know, probably a million and a half soldiers have been killed.
1:00:52Donald TrumpClose to a million and a half soldiers, not to mention a tremendous. I will tell you, the thing with that horrible war that should have never started, would have never started if.
1:01:02Donald TrumpIf I were president. And it didn't start for four years and it was not even thought about starting. But the thing with that war is that you're highly underestimating the number of people that have been killed.
1:01:13Donald TrumpFar more people have been killed in that war than you talk about. You know, you like to talk about numbers like a million people. Well, they had much more than a million soldiers killed.
1:01:23Donald TrumpBut you have a lot of cities that have been knocked to the ground. Their demolition sites, literally demolition sites. Sites. Every single building is knocked in the ground, and a lot of people were killed in those buildings.
1:01:33Donald TrumpAnd you'll hear a report. Two people were minorly injured or just injured a little bit. No, no. People were killed by the thousands. And there are a lot more people killed in that war than the media wants to talk about because Biden did a horrible, horrible job.
1:01:51Donald TrumpHe should have prevented that war. He could have prevented that war. Putin would have never gone in. I'll tell you one thing. He would have never gone in that War would never have taken place if I were president.
1:02:00ReporterI think what people are trying to understand is how would the United States. What would you be willing to do to support this European peacekeeping effort?
1:02:08Donald TrumpWould there be. Again, you're asking me the same question. How many times do you have to answer? You're talking about after we make peace. Let me make peace first.
1:02:18Donald TrumpOnce we make peace, I'll give you all the answers you want. But how many times can you ask the same question?
1:02:24Elon MuskIs loosening of sanctions on.
1:02:26Donald TrumpGo ahead, Spehat.
1:02:27Elon MuskIs loosening of sanctions on Russia a potential option as part of.
1:02:30Donald TrumpMr. Not now. No, no, we have sanctions on Russia. No, I want to see if we make a deal first, but I think we will. I've had very good conversations with President Putin.
1:02:40Donald TrumpI've had very good conversations with President Zelensky, and until four weeks ago, nobody had conversations with anybody. It wasn't even a consideration. Nobody thought you could make peace. I think you can.
1:02:53ReporterBut if Mr. Putin gets to keep the land that was claimed by force, if the Russians get to keep the territory that they claim by force, doesn't that send a dangerous message, let's say,
1:03:03Donald Trumpto China, oh, okay, you try and take it away. Right. We're going to, we're going to do the best we can. We're going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides.
1:03:13Donald TrumpBut for Ukraine, we're going to try, try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much back as possible. We want to get as much back as possible.
1:03:22ReporterMr. President, just to bring this.
1:03:24Donald TrumpWe'll cut it out after maybe this question. Go ahead.
1:03:26ReporterTo bring this full circle.
1:03:27Donald TrumpUnless it's a bad question and then we'll get that. You always like to finish on a good one, sir.
1:03:32JD VanceThey want you to negotiate with them instead of.
1:03:35Donald TrumpThey want to continue to talk about the peacekeepers. You have a lot of confidence in us because, because you assume there's going to be peace. You know, it's possible.
1:03:43Donald TrumpIt doesn't work out. There is possibility, but I hope it does for the sake of humanity. Because if you look at the pictures that I've looked at, you don't want to look at them.
1:03:53Donald TrumpGo ahead.
1:03:53ReporterI have a question back on these cuts to the federal workforce you mentioned you're interested in doing another round of this email. When would you like to see that?
1:04:00Donald TrumpWhat would be the difference?
1:04:00Howard LutnickI'm not.
1:04:01Donald TrumpI think Elon. I think Elon wants to, and I think it's a good idea because Those people, as I said before, they're on the bubble. You've got a lot of people that have not responded.
1:04:09Donald TrumpSo we're trying to figure out, do they exist? Who are they? And it's possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired. And if that happened, that's okay, because that's what we're trying to do.
1:04:22Donald TrumpThis country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run. I think we had the worst president in the history of our country. He just left office. I think he's a dispute disgrace, what he's done to our country by allowing millions of people to come into our country like that.
1:04:38Donald TrumpAnd all of the other things, the inflation which he caused because of energy and stupid spending to spend hundreds of millions, trillions and trillions of dollars on the green news scam, a total scam.
1:04:52Donald TrumpI have the best energy people, the best environmental people in the world around this table, and they can't even believe he got away with it. And then in leaving office to send $20 billion here and $20 million there and $10 million and $5 million, and they couldn't spend the money fast enough.
1:05:11Donald TrumpAnd let's get it out before Trump gets in. Let's just get it out to anybody. This is a disgrace to our nation and you don't write the fair thing.
1:05:20Donald TrumpBut look, you know the good news, the people see it and that's why we won the election by so much to thank you very much, everybody.