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<start_of_turn>Donald Trump And this was all done by the Biden administration. It's a disgrace that we have to work so hard. And then we have judges that try and protect these people, but they didn't protect us when the people were being let in. But to get them out is never easy with these people. So, I think we're doing a great job.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump The border is the best it's ever been, even as strong as it was. I had a great solid border. I think it might even be tougher right now and stronger. So, people are coming into our country, but they're coming in legally. We have a legal process, and we have that moving along properly because we need people to come into our country, but we want people that can love our country and cherish our country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So that's where we are and, with that, any questions?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question -- the market today and would you be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiations?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, we're not looking at that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us and they're going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they're going to be paying substantial tariffs. They'll be fair deals. As you know, I spoke this morning with the prime minister of Japan, and we had a very good conversation.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They're coming. And I said one thing -- you're going to have to open up your country because we sold no cars, like zero cars, in Japan and they sold millions of cars into our country. They don't really take our agriculture, a little bit of it, just to keep us slightly happy, but they don't take what they're supposed to be taking.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So, we have a great relationship with Japan. We're going to keep it that way, but they're coming in to meet and other countries are coming in. With China, as you know, against my statement, they put a 34 percent tariff on above what their ridiculous tariffs were already. And I said if that tariff isn't removed by tomorrow at 12:00, we're putting a 50 percent tariff on above the tariffs that we put on. So, they've gone for years, they've become a rich country because of people again that were in the White House that allowed this to happen.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Hundreds of billions of dollars a year they'd make on us on trade, and it shouldn't be that way. And I have a great relationship with President Xi, I hope it's going to stay that way. I have great respect for China, but they can't do this with just -- we're going to have one shot at this, and no other president is going to do this, what I'm doing.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And I'll tell you what, it's an honor to do it because we have been just destroyed, what they've done to our system.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know, we have $36 trillion of debt for a reason and the reason is that people are allowed it to get that way, so we'll be talking to China. We'll be talking to a lot of different countries. And I think, if we can make a really fair deal and a good deal for the United States, not a good deal for other -- this is America first.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump It's now America first. And we didn't put America first. We put America last. The people that were in the Oval Office, put America last and we're not going to stand for it. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Two questions. Do you expect any of these deals to be made before April 9th? And secondly, there have been some mixed messages from your administration. You're talking about negotiations and yet others in your administration are saying that these tariffs are actually permanent. What is the actual --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, they can both be true.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations, because there are things that we need beyond tariffs. We need open borders. We almost had a deal with China, where we were going to open up China. It was almost done. Some of you remember it during my first term. And it was very disappointing.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question We ended up making a great deal, $50 billion worth of product was sold, $50 billion. You'd like that in Israel. And I made that deal, but it wasn't the deal that I wanted. The deal that I wanted was that, plus they were going to open up China so that our companies could go into China and compete with other countries and China for a large number of people.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question And at the very end, that deal was terminated and we went to a piece of the deal. And so there are a lot of things outside of tariffs, but tariffs are very important. But there are a lot of things like opening up countries that were totally closed. China's essentially a closed country. In fact, it is a closed country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question And what they do is they charge tariffs so that if you sell cars or if you sell anything, nobody's going to buy it because the price is out of control. But that's true with a lot of other countries also. So we're going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don't, we're going to have nothing to do with them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question They're not going to be allowed to participate in the United States.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Hold it. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Relax. We have time. This gentleman has all day long.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, many of -- thank you for the --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Go ahead.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Many Palestinian Americans who voted for you voted for you and not for Biden because you've promised them to end the war in Gaza.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Correct. I'm very honored by that vote too.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question The war is still going on and there's no hostage deal. Do you have any update on that?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I'd like to see the war stop, and I think the war will stop at some point that won't be in the too distant future. Right now we have a problem with hostages. We're trying to get the hostages out. We've got quite a few of them out, but it's a long process. It shouldn't be that long. We have a big problem that we've done -- I think I'll ask Pete to maybe talk about it for a second, because a lot of people are asking -- the Houthis, we've been very tough and very successful militarily.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We've really damaged them badly. These were people shooting down ships and other things, by the way, flying objects like airplanes and we've put a major hurt on the Houthis, which nobody's been able to do. We've really hit them hard, and they know it, and they don't know what to do. And it's every night, night after night, and we've gotten many of their leaders and their experts, their experts on missiles.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I mean, they actually make missiles. Nobody thought that, but they make missiles. It's highly sophisticated and they're very tough, but they've been very badly damaged. Nobody else was able to do that, but us. Pete, do you want to discuss that, please?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Pete Hegseth Yes, sir. It's been a bad three weeks for the Houthis and it's about to get worse. It's been a devastating campaign, whether it's underground facilities, weapons manufacturing, bunkers, troops in the open, air defense assets. We are not going to relent and it's only to get more unrelenting until the Houthis declare they will stop shooting at our ships.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Pete Hegseth And we've been very clear with the Iranians as well. They should not continue to provide support to the Houthis, and that message has been made very clear. So we have a lot more options and a lot more pressure to apply. And we know, because we see the reports, how devastating this campaign has been in them and we will not relent.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have a great military. There's no military like our military. And despite Biden having given a lot, but nevertheless a pretty small piece, but it was a lot of our military away in Afghanistan. And one of the dumbest situations I think and maybe the most embarrassing situation We've ever been involved in, that short period of time in Afghanistan.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump What a disgrace that was, but left a lot of our military behind. You see them in their annual parades, where they're parading trucks that are armor plated and different things that they can -- but it's many billions of dollars we left behind. But despite that, we have a tremendous military. That was a very small portion because we rebuilt the military during my first term.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And we have great things happening with our military. We also, essentially, approved a budget, which is in the facility. You'll like to hear this, of $1 trillion, $1 trillion. And nobody's seen anything like it. We have to build our military and we're very cost conscious, but the military is something that we have to build and we have to be strong because you got a lot of bad forces out there now.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So we're going to be approving a budget. And I'm proud to say, actually, the biggest one we've ever done for the military. We're cutting other things that were, under DOGE, but under a lot of other -- when you look at a woman getting $2 billion for environmental and it had nothing to do with environmental and they had $100 in the bank and they give her $2 billion.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Many, many of those cases, all that stuff is going to be cut out, but we are getting a very, very powerful military. We have things under order now, the likes of which we've never had before. We've never had the kind of aircraft, the kind of missiles, anything that we have ordered. And it's, in many ways, too bad that we have to do it because hopefully, we're not going to have to use it. But the military is very, very powerful and it's going to remain that way.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Go ahead, please. Please. Yes [Inaudible]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you about Iran because this is the first time we hear that the US is having a direct contact with them. Is it possible to get some more information, at what level is the US --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump High level, very high level. Yeah. We're dealing with the Iranians. We have a very big meeting on Saturday and we're dealing with them directly.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question A lot of people say, oh, maybe you're going through surrogates or you're not dealing directly, you're dealing through other countries. No, we're dealing with them directly. And maybe a deal is going to be made. That would be great. It would be really great for Iran, I can tell you that. But hopefully, we're not going to have to get into that.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question We are meeting very importantly on Saturday at almost the highest level and we'll see how it works out. Please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question How do you assure, Mr. President, that these tariffs don't drive US trading partners into the hands of the Chinese?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it. If they want to be in the hands of the US, they don't want to be in the hands of the Chinese. And the Chinese have turned out to be really, not very good at that. People that are with us, they're with us, but we cannot be taken advantage of any longer. I used to watch these deals for years.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I've been talking about it for years. I've been talking about it for 35 years, how our country is being ripped off. I mean, 30 years ago, it was Japan, then it was something else. Then it was another group. Then it was China. China's doing the best job of it, frankly. And it's just not going to happen, not going to happen.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, [Inaudible] has said that they have offered zero for zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods. Is that not enough?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, the EU -- no, it's not. The EU has been very tough over the years. I always say, it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That's the reason it was formed. It was formed with all of the countries from Europe. I guess, most of them, not all of them, but most of them and they formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States for trade.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So they have NATO, which is largely the same countries and they took advantage of us dollar wise and militarily until I got there. I was able to get $600 billion from NATO, where they paid NATO. Because most of these nations weren't even paying. We were paying for NATO. So we're paying them to guard them militarily and they're screwing us on trade.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So that's not a good combination. So now, it's really turned around. It's the opposite. And the European Union's been very bad to us. They don't take our cars, like Japan in that sense. They don't take our agricultural product. They don't take anything practically, and yet they send millions of cars in a year, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, BMWs.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They're sending millions and millions of cars into the US, but we don't have a car that's been sold to the European Union or other places, but let's go for the European Union and it's not going to be that way. It's got to be fair and reciprocal. It's got to be fair -- it's not fair. We have a deficit with the European Union of $350 billion and it's going to disappear fast.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And one of the reasons and one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they're going to have to buy our energy from us because they need it. They're going to have to buy it from us. They can buy it. We can knock off $350 billion in one week. They have to buy and commit to buy a like amount of energy and we have that -- you know, we have more energy than any country in the world.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I don't know if you know that. He knows everything, but the one thing he may not know we have more energy than any country in the world. We have more of every kind of energy, every form of energy from oil and gas to coal. And people talk about, I call it beautiful clean coal. As you know, Germany is opening up a coal plant a week.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They tried the windmills, and it didn't work. They tried all the other solutions, and they were ready to go out of business. Now they're doing a coal plant a week. China is now up to two coal plants. They're opening two major coal plants every single week in China, all over China and then we're not allowed to use coal.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, we have clean, beautiful coal more than anybody else. We have oil and gas, more than anybody else. We have the most energy of any country in the world including Saudi Arabia, including everybody by a lot. And I took it to number one -- we were number three and I took it to number one during my administration.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And the reason that we were hurt so badly and the reason that we went into such incredible inflation during Biden is energy. It was also their bad spending. But energy because they played around with this incredible thing that we had built, this administration had built, and the energy costs went through the roof.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And when that went up, everything else followed. Now if you look at what's happening, you're going to see this today, I said we're going to try and get groceries down, right, an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term -- eggs. So, when I got in the press went absolutely crazy the first week. They said eggs have quadrupled in price.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I said I just got here, tell me about it. And Brooke Rollins and our team did a great job and eggs are down now 79 percent and they're all over the place. And this was a problem that somebody else would have taken a long time to cure. We have -- energy is down, we have interest rates are down, we have groceries, meaning food is down.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have -- everything is down at levels that nobody ever thought possible. Wnergy looks like it's going to be in the $2.50 a gallon range and maybe below that for a car. So, for gasoline. So, we're really doing amazing. I mean, we're cutting prices because prices got so high, people couldn't live. I mean the prices for groceries, the prices for standard -- standard groceries, standard things were going through the roof, they couldn't live.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And now those prices are coming down, so call them groceries, but that's down. Energy is down and interest rates are down, everything's down. And the interest rates, the beauty there is when we refinance debt -- you know, debt has become such a big factor in this country. We're going to get -- we're going to start paying debt off with tariffs and other things.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But it's such a big factor because the interest rates so high. Well, now that's coming way down. So, our budget's going to look a lot better because interest costs are way down, and I guess I've done that.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question Many Israelis are watching you now on live show.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Good. I hope they like me.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question -- to getting the hostages out from the horrific captivity?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We are trying very hard to get the hostages out. We're looking at another ceasefire; we'll see what happens. But we want to get the hostages out. The Israeli people want the hostages out; more than anything they want the hostages out. This man is working very hard with us to do that. I mean, I don't know.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I hope he's being appreciated because he's been a great leader. He's working very, very hard on the hostages and many other things. And there are plenty of things you have to work on. It's a tough place in the world, isn't it?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Benjamin Netanyahu I have a good partner.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah, you do have a good partner and so do we. We're working very hard on the hostages.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question If you're going to negotiate a new deal with Iran, can you elaborate how it's going to be more effective than the JCPOA?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I can't really say that, but I think it will be different and maybe a lot stronger. But they were so happy when we made that first deal because we did get a lot out. You know, I had people right in this office, this beautiful Oval Office. They came in, 10 people, hostages, you know that. And I said to them, so how was it? And the stories they told me. I mean as an example, I said to them, was there any sign of love?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You were there, 10 people, it's only 10, but it's pretty representative. Did the Hamas show any signs of like help or liking you? Did they wink at you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like you know, you think of doing -- like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress. They said no. I said all of them. I said, did they ever wink at you like you'll be OK, you're going to be OK? No, they didn't do that. They'd slap us. The hatred is unbelievable. And the lives -- you know, they lived in a pipe, not really a tunnel, it was a pipe and they always thought they were suffocating, they were going to suffocate.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And then they'd open up the pipe and it was like 3.5 feet high. This isn't -- you know, we hear tunnel is bad, but pipes are worse and the stories I heard were incredible. But I just said, was there any sign of potential love or affection? And there were none whatsoever. It was amazing to me. There was nothing like, here, take this, it's a little extra meal or something.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They lived like hell. I don't know. They seem to be -- they were amazing to me because they seemed to be pretty normal. They weren't scarred, but I guarantee underneath they have to be scarred. And one was there for 356 days, another was there for about 180 days, you know, a long time. These are people that have been really, really horribly treated.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I've never seen anything like it actually. I was very surprised to hear the answer.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Thank you, Mr. President. Are there two or three countries that are on your list that you feel are farther along in getting their tariffs lowered?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I think -- well, I think there are many that want to get rid of tariffs right now. European Union, I mean, as badly as they've treated us -- you know, they've brought their car tariffs essentially off. I guess they brought it down to 2.5, and I hear maybe to nothing. But it's not only tariffs, it's non-monetary tariffs.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump It's tariffs where they put things on that make it impossible for you to sell a car. It's not a money thing. It's -- they make it so difficult, the standards and the tests. They drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the air. And if there's a little dent, they say no, I'm sorry, your car doesn't qualify.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump When the same car from Germany or anything would dent likewise, unless you can have an army tank, it's going to dent. So, they come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason, that you can't sell your product in those countries. And we're not going to let that happen. Those are called non-monetary barriers.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They make barriers that are so tough that it's impossible to qualify. So, tariffs are a big part of it, but there's another big part of it and that's barriers. They also do something else. They manipulate their currency, and they drive it down. They want to drive it -- they want to have low currencies. You know, it sounds better to have a high currency, a strong dollar or whatever, but they bring their currency down.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And when it competes with our currency, it's very hard to sell a tractor, it's very hard to sell product because their currency is low and ours is much higher, relatively. And so, it makes it very hard. I speak to a lot of companies that do business -- tractor companies, and they say it's so hard to sell because what they've done is they've lowered the yen, or they've lowered the wan or they've lowered their currency so that it's very hard to compete.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We don't want that either. So, we have a lot of things that we're talking about, but we're going to fix it properly and it's going to be fair to everybody. And in the end, I think we're going to have a world that does a lot better, you know. But they have to respect the United States --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- and nobody but me would do this. Nobody but me would do this. You know, it would be nice to serve a nice easy term, but we have an opportunity to change the fabric of our country. We have an opportunity to reset the table on trade. We lose billions of dollars. We lose close to $2 trillion a year on trade.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We lose $1 trillion a year to China, a trillion. We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade to China. We lose hundreds of billions of dollars overall, probably close to $2 trillion. Why would we do that? Number one, why would we do that? And then you have to say is it sustainable? Then you hear about all of the people that say, well deficits, if we have a deficit with the country or if the country has a big surplus with us, like China has a massive surplus that they take and they spend on their military.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, we don't want that. I don't want them to take five -- $600 billion a year and spend it on their military, I don't want them spending money on their military. And I shouldn't have to spend money, we shouldn't have to spend it either because hopefully, and I said this to President Xi, hopefully it's money that we're never going to use.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump In other words, because we're not going to use those incredible weapons that we have and that they have. We don't want that. So it's going to be very interesting. It's the only chance our country will have to reset the table because no other president would be willing to do what I'm doing or to even go through it. Now, I don't mind going through it because I see a beautiful picture at the end, but we are making tremendous progress with a lot of countries.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And the countries that really took advantage of us are now saying please negotiate. You know why, because they're getting beaten badly because of what's happening. They're getting beaten badly. They're being devalued as countries. But it's the only chance we're going to have to reset the table on trade. And when we do, we're going to come out unbelievably well.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump We're going to have a strong country economically again and we're going to have those factories that are empty all over the United States. We've lost 90,000 plants and factories. Think of this, 90,000 -- you wouldn't think it's possible, 90,000 plants and factories since NAFTA. Which was, by the way, the worst trade deal ever developed, ever had by any country, anywhere, NAFTA. And I terminated NAFTA. Everybody said it would be impossible and I terminated, through Congress.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We terminated it. You had to get it through Congress. It was a trap. It was a horrible thing and we got it done, and we went to the USMCA, which was much better. The problem is they cheat. They cheat like crazy. Canada cheats. Mexico cheats. Just one of those things. But we are resetting a table and we're going to have great trade and we're going to have a very strong country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Our country is going to be at a level that it has maybe never been or maybe -- our country was the strongest, believe it or not, from 1870 to 1913. You know why? It was all tariff based. We had no income tax. Then in 1913, some genius came up with the idea of let's charge the people of our country, not foreign countries that are ripping off our country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And the country was never, relatively, was never that kind of wealth. We had so much wealth, we didn't know what to do with our money. We had meetings. We had committees. And these committees worked tirelessly to study one subject. We have so much money. What are we going to do with it? Who are we going to give it to? And I hope we're going to be in that position again.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Do you plan to reduce the tariffs that your government put on Israeli goods?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump On where?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question On Israeli goods, the 70 percent. Do you plan --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, we're talking about a whole new trade, maybe not, maybe not. Don't forget, we help Israel a lot. We give Israel $4 billion a year. That's a lot. Congratulations, by the way. That's pretty good. But we give Israel billions of dollars a year, billions.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question It's one of the highest of any -- we give a lot of countries money. You wouldn't believe if I said we give Afghanistan a lot of money, because that was a Biden deal, another Biden deal. Not only did he embarrass us with that, but they give them billions of dollars, Afghanistan, right? But no, we take good care of our friends and we don't take care of our enemies.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question We're not taking care of our enemies anymore, but we do take care of our friends.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question [Inaudible] from the Times of Israel. The IDF is fighting again in the Gaza Strip. I myself might be called up in a month. Do you think that's the way to pressure Hamas to get to a deal? And do you think blocking humanitarian aid is also an effective pressure?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, you know how I feel about the Gaza Strip. I think it's an incredible piece of important real estate and I think it's something that we would be involved in, but having a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing. Because right now, all it is, is for years and years, all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And if you take the people, the Palestinians and move them around to different countries and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom zone. You call it the freedom zone, a free zone, a zone where people aren't going to be killed every day. That's a hell of a place. You know what I call it, a great location that nobody wants to live in, because they really don't. And when they have good living, real living, where Hamas and all of the problems they have, the level of death on the Gaza Strip is just incredible.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And I've said it, I don't understand why Israel ever gave it up. Israel owned it. It wasn't this man's -- I can say it. He wouldn't have given it up. I know him very well. There's no way. They took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Sir, Mr. President, is the immigration plan still on the agenda?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Which immigration?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Gaza. In Gaza.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump All it is, is a concept that I had that I think is good and now people are copying it. Bibi, do you want to tell -- people are talking about the Trump plan. Gee, why don't we do that? Would you like to answer that question?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Benjamin Netanyahu I think what the president talked about is first of all to give people a choice. Gazans were closed in. In every other place including in arenas of battle. I mean, whether it's Ukraine or Syria or any other place, people could leave. Gaza was the only place where they locked them in. We didn't lock them in. They are locked in. And what is wrong with giving people a choice?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Benjamin Netanyahu Now we've been talking over lunch about some countries, I won't go into them right now, that are saying, if Gazans want to leave, we want to take them in. And I think this is the right thing to do. It's going to take years to rebuild Gaza. In the meantime, people can have an option. The president has a vision.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Benjamin Netanyahu Countries are responding to that vision. We're working on it. I hope we'll have good news for you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I will say, people love -- excuse me. People really do love that vision. It's a long-term vision, but so importantly is to have that be a safe field because you're right smack in the middle of the Middle East. You're right along Israel. It should have never ever been given away. It shouldn't have been given away by Israel.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I don't know why they did it. I mean, I do know why, because they were promised peace, but that didn't work out too well because it's one of the most dangerous pieces of land anywhere in the world. Gaza is one of the most dangerous places in the world, so they gave it away for good intention and it didn't work out that way.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And a lot of people like my concept, but there are other concepts that I like too. And there are some concepts I don't like. You know what I don't like, the way it is now, because right now it's a dangerous death trap, Gaza. Yeah.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Thank you, sir. Can you talk a little bit about your meeting, potential meeting with Vladimir Putin? Do you still plan to meet with him? Could that happen in Saudi Arabia? And maybe you could elaborate as well a little bit on not providing tariffs on Russia, sir.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump So the reason we're not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we're not doing business, essentially, with Russia because they're in a war. And I'm not happy about what's going on with the bombing because they're bombing like crazy right now. They're bombing. I don't know what's happening there. That's not a good situation.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So we're meeting with Russia. We're meeting with Ukraine and we're getting sort of close, but I'm not happy with all the bombing that's going on in the last week or so. Horrible. It's a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing. Yeah.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Can countries negotiate to get below 10 percent?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump In terms of tariffs?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question In terms of tarrifs, yes.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Look, we've been ripped off and taken advantage of for 40, 50, 60 years. And the reason we got ripped off and the way they did it was tariffs. They would charge tariffs, massive numbers of dollars. And when you look at China, when I took over, it was at $507 billion they were making. I call it, making a lot of people say, oh, it doesn't mean anything.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Having a surplus means a lot, in my opinion. It's almost like a profit or loss statement. And when I took over, it was $507 billion that China -- this is originally first term, and we were very, very tough on them because they were taking that money and they were building a military with it. Then when Biden came in, he let them get away with murder.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump He had no idea. I'll tell you what, that man had no idea what was happening, whether it was the border or China or anything else. He had no idea what was going on, and they went wild. China went wild and the money they make is ridiculous. OK? It's just not going to happen and hopefully we'll get along with China.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump If we do, that's great. And if we don't, that's Ok too, but we can't let that continue because that's an abuse -- they abused the poor people that sat in the seat, that poor Biden. He was abused by them. They took advantage of him. And I'm surprised. They have smart people. They were radical left lunatics, but they're smart.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I'm surprised they'd allow that to happen, but we are going to bring great trade, and we're going to be fair to other countries. And I will say this, virtually every country wants to negotiate. If I didn't do what I did over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn't have anybody who wants to negotiate. We would have gone to these countries -- you want to talk, and they were -- well, we don't want to talk.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Now they're coming to us, they're offering things like -- even Bibi, and this is unrelated because it's a different kind of a relationship. But he started off our conversation today that he's cutting all of the tariffs, he's cutting everything, he's going to get down to a free base. He's going to do things that, in all fairness, other countries, if they said that, would have never even thought about doing it. Now they're offering things to us that we would have never even thought of asking them for because they're experiencing a lot of hurt.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And the hurt is that they've taken advantage of us and we finally fought back. Tariffs will make this country very rich. We're rich anyway, but we're rich in a certain way. We have $36 trillion in debt; I want to get rid of it and we can do it quickly with proper deals. So, when countries don't allow us to sell our product, but we allow them to sell their product, when they charge us massive amounts of money for the privilege of going into their country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Those days are over. Ok. Yeah. Go ahead, sir.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Me?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah, he sounds so surprised.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question Thank you, Mr. President. On Iran, two questions please. First, can give us more details about where the meeting on Saturday is going to take place?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I can't tell you that. I can just tell you there's a major meeting going on between us and Iran and that will take place on Saturday and it's at top level.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question And second question about this, a lot of people think that those talks are not going to lead anywhere because the Iranians will never give up their nuclear program.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You may be right. I think that's a possibility.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question It fails if diplomacy fails, is the United States, under your leadership, ready to take military action to destroy the Iranian nuclear program and remove this threat?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I think if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it, great danger because they can't have a nuclear weapon.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question So, is that a yes?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know, it's not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that's all there is, can't have it. Right now --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- we have countries that have nuclear power that shouldn't have it, but I'm sure we'll be able to negotiate out of that too as part of this later on down the line. But Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran if that's the case.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, on manufacturing --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah, please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, was October 7th, the deathblow of the two-state solution? And would you consider classifying the Palestinian Authority as a terrorist organization for its continued pay-for-slay terror financing payments?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So, October 7th, was a horrible day that some people, they deny it. Now, I can't believe they deny it from the standpoint of they do it because they think it's good politically. But October -- I've seen the tapes. I've seen things that you don't want to see. October 7th, was a horrible day and it will go down as one of the really bad days in the history of the world.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump It was a horrible, horrible thing that happened. And they grabbed some of these people -- I'll give you an example. When I was with the 10 hostages a few weeks ago, I said, so how many are there? 59? I said, oh, so 59. So, we can get 59. They sort of knew the territory pretty good and I said, how are they doing?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They said, well, only 24 are living, the rest are dead. And these are young people, largely. Young people don't die. You know, young people have an amazing ability to live. They can live through horrible things. But these are young people and when they said that 24 are living and the rest are dead. And you know, I've had parents come up, Israeli parents largely, we have some Americans.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And we had -- I guess we have one left, Alex, we have the one left. But I've had Israeli parents come up to me at events and say my son is there. I said, well, how's he doing? Well, he's dead. But would you do me the biggest favor ever? Could you bring his body back home? They talked about a young dead boy and a young dead girl like they were living.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And that could have something to do with religion that could have something to do with -- I guess maybe any parent would be. But I was surprised. They said, sir, my son is dead. It is just as important to bring that body back home. I asked that question as if he were alive. So, you have a lot of them dead and we'll be able to bring them back.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But it's a horrible thing that's happened. These are young -- largely young people, some old ones too, frankly. And those people have lived in hell when they came off. The second group that came out, they looked like they just got out of a concentration camp. They looked exactly like the pictures that I see from the 1940s, the concentration camps.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump And then they got a little bit better, you know, but that second group, those people came out and I said this is unbelievable. We're going back into a chapter in history that is one of the worst ever. It's really very bad. OK?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, you said it could take two years to get American manufacturing fully up to speed in response to these tariffs. What happens in the meantime? Should Americans be prepared for years of disruption?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have now $7 trillion -- think of this, $7 trillion of commitments from companies wanting to go in from Apple to -- many, many companies.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question But that takes time.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Many from Taiwan. What?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question It takes time to --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, are you asking me a question or are you telling me? Yeah, it takes time. You know, you've got to build a thing called a factory, you have to build your energy. You have to do a lot of things. I'm giving them energy. You know, we're going to let them build their own power plants, they'll be their own.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Essentially, they're going to be in charge of the power plant because our power is not reliable enough. You have a grid that's old and susceptible to a lot of things, including bombing and weather and a lot of other things. And we're going to give them record timing in terms of approvals of electric plants.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Most of them want to build electric plants. We need massive amounts of electricity if we're going to compete with China and others. And interestingly, we're way ahead right now in the AI race with China. But the way we lose that race is if we can't give them electric. But we have more plants being built.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have everything -- we're doing so great, and we want to keep it that way. And tariffs will be an important part of it. But one of the other things, Lee Zeldin has done a fantastic job, head of environmental protection. And he's doing very rapid approvals for people to get -- for big companies that are going to build a plant that's going to cost billions of dollars.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And we're going to get them their approvals. They have to be environmentally perfect, everything good, but they're going to be in record time, a matter of months versus a matter of many, many years.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question But in the meantime --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Note [Crosstalk]<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Go ahead.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Yeah, [Inaudible]. Turkey claims it will stabilize the situation in Syria.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Turkey?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Yeah. Israel doesn't want Turkey to influence in Syria. What do you think? Do you think Turkey's influence in Syria can actually make it a better, more peaceful country or vice versa?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I have a great relationship with a man named Erdogan. Have you heard of him? And I happen to like him, and he likes me, and I know the press will get very angry. He likes Erdogan. But I do and he likes me, and we've never had a problem. And we've gone through a lot and we've never had a problem. We've always got -- as you remember, we got our minister back from Turkey.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump You remember that. And this was a big deal at the time, and we got him back. And I told the prime minister, I said just, Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I'm going to be able to work it out. You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader and I think we'll be able to work it out.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So, I hope that's not going to be a problem. I don't think it will be a problem. Now with that being said, I believe it was Turkey, and I said that to him. I said it, I said congratulations, you've done what nobody's been able to do in 2,000 years, you've taken over Syria with different names, but same thing.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I said, you've taken it over. He's taken it over through surrogates. He goes no, no, no, no, no, no, it was not me. I said it was you, but that's OK, you don't have to say -- well, it sort of maybe was me, OK. But what he did -- look, he's a tough guy and he's very smart and he did something that nobody was able to do. You've got to hand it to him.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think I can solve, I mean as long as you're reasonable. You have to be reasonable; we have to be reasonable. Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much everybody. Well, this is a tough one. And we -- just -- we just were making a little tour of the area. It's hard to believe the devastation. Trees that are 100 years old just ripped out of the ground. I've never seen anything like it. I've seen a lot of bad ones.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I've gone to a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tornadoes. I've never seen anything like this. This is a -- this is a bad one. We just visited with incredible families that uh, I mean, look, they've been devastated. They lost their child or two children. And uh, just hard to believe what -- I've never seen anything like it. A little narrow river that becomes a monster.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And that's what happened. But the first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood. Nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen. It's uh, and by the way, I have to tell you the people here first responders, the sheriff's office, all of the police, law enforcement, they've done an unbelievable job.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And in speaking to the parents, they said everybody has been so professional from the governor to the Senators all the way down to the local people on the site that really are a little bit used to this. But they've been looking at this for years, but in much smaller doses and a much, much smaller doses 12 years ago.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And then in 1932, they had a real bad one, but that bad one was half of what this was. But I was speaking to some of the great people in the town. And they said, no. Every year we get a little bit, but it was like a little bit of a flood, right. You were telling me. And it was just a flood, we got used to it. We had people and we took care of it. And this year it was -- it was like what's going on, right?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump So all across the country, Americans hearts are shattered. I had to be here as president. The first lady wanted to be here. And all the beautiful souls. And we're filled with grief and devastation of this and the loss of life. And unfortunately, they're still looking. They're still looking. There's a lot of missing children, possibly, mostly.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We don't know, but they're still looking. And they'll find everybody. But it's not an easy thing. You would think it would be easy. It's very tough. I looked at what they're going through, what they have to do. But dozens and dozens of precious children taken from us with such -- I looked at the pictures of almost all of them, and it's terrible.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Following a torrential downpour, the worst that anyone's ever seen, the Guadalupe River rose 26ft in less than 45 minutes. And I've even heard it went well over 30ft. There's one story that one person said it had to be 60ft at one moment. This is like a giant, giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And it unleashed a catastrophic flooding as the most -- most residents were asleep in their beds. Very dark evening. The waters claimed at least 135, 140 lives. They're getting that count. But the count that they don't have is how many are still missing. There's a lot of lives. A lot of young angels. At the girls Christian summer camp, known as Camp Mystic, a legendary camp, a camp that people would want to go to from all over the country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump People, parents, they come, and they would stay with their children. They'd stay in other cabins just to be with their children, but a legendary place. They were there because they loved God. And as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little, beautiful girls into his comforting arms in heaven, and we believe that, have to believe that, and we do. And we lost some wonderful people beyond the little girls.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump We lost some very brave men and women that tried to save the girls. As our nation, we mourn for every single life that was swept away in the flood and we pray for the families that are left behind. It's amazing, the incredible spirit from those families. I don't know. I don't even know how they do it. But moments ago, Melania and I spent a lot of time I'm with them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump That's why we're a little late. I think this was a good reason to be late, frankly, and we just gave our warmest condolences. But you say to yourself, how do you give condolences, how do you do that to a young person that three days ago was here, four days ago was here, and vibrant and now is no longer here?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable people, that you couldn't get better people than this anywhere. Kristi, right? No, anywhere in the world, you couldn't get better people and they're doing the job like I don't think anybody else could, frankly. And I want to thank them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I want to thank all of these great first responders who raced into very grave danger. We have some people that were incredible. The single Coast Guard rescue crews saved an incredible 169 children at Camp Mystic, 169, and the camp staff was also incredibly courageous. Are those Coast Guard people around here someplace?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Because I hear some incredible people and I actually, Scott Ruskin, is he around?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristi Noem He's not here right now, sir, but he will be here later and I will be presenting him with some --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Oh, OK. Well, you let him know.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem I'll let him know.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And John Dunn, the owner of the Hunt Store, was a flood. Where are you? OK, good. We spoke a little while ago and it sort of -- John was telling me some stories about that store and it was just really amazing.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn Yes, Mr. President. First, let me correct, I was the owner of the Hunt Store from 2013 till April of last year, where I actually sold the store to Haley and Bebe Lehrman, who were excellent operators and there on the ground right now in Hunt, leading the effort there, together with the fire department, the churches, the schools, what have you.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump OK.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn And they're doing a phenomenal job.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Good job.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn My role in it is, seller finance the deal and --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You going to bring it back?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>John Dunn I'm absolutely going to bring it back.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And the walls are up, the two walls are up and you're going to --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn There's belief out there that it was a total loss. It's not. A gentleman by the name of Larry Graham put up some incredible walls in 1973, and he's a great engineer and those walls are still standing.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Save the walls.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn Save the walls.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump OK.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn And the goal is, and I think we can get it done between Haley, Bebe, myself and some outside help that we're going to be getting, I think we're going to get it reopened very quickly.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Good.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn I think it's important to get it open quickly because once we do the community can get back to a sense of normalcy. I think it'll be good for the community. I think it'll accelerate the recovery process. There's a lot that has to be done, but I'm impressed and very pleased with the resources that I think are going to become available through the conversations with Chip Roy, Governor Abbott's office and others that we will get it done quickly.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>John Dunn Yes, sir.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thanks, John. Good luck with it. OK. I'm sure you will. The search for the missing is continuing, as you know. And today, I especially want to thank all of these incredible people from the Coast Guard and you'll give my regards in particular to some of the people we mentioned. Every American should be inspired by what's taken place during this short period of time.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And I want to thank Governor Abbott. He's an amazing guy. We come very, very close politically and personally and we've had a tremendous relationship with Texas. I guess Texas brought us together. We were together fine, but now we're together a lot more. And I want to thank Cecilia, your great wife, who's been our friend for a long time.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump The job you do is really incredible in so many different ways, including the border and every different way, admired by everybody. Secretaries Kristi Noem, Brooke Rollins, Scott Turner and Administrator Kelly Loeffler, they all wanted to be here. Some of them hopped on the plane with me. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, you're here among us and thank you very much.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Our great lieutenant, Governor, I see you sitting there. I don't know if they even have your name down, but when I'm here, your name is down, right? He's doing a good job, always did, always did. Also, numerous members of Congress, including Chip Roy from the district. This is Chip's district. I had a lot of time last week we spent with Chip Roy getting that great, Big, Beautiful Bill passed.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And who would have thought? And he's not easy, but he's good. Where is he? Where's Chip? Who would have thought this was going to happen? And he called because we had a big ceremony set up and he said, you know, we have a little bit of a flood here and I think it's going to be a little bit. I better stay here, I better not come back and go to it and he wanted to be there.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump He was a part of it, a big part of it. And then he called again and he said, this is bad and then it got really bad, far beyond your worst, wildest imagination, right? So thank you very much, Chip. I appreciate it. And Brian Babin also is -- I don't know if Brian's here. But we do have -- and I have to just give some of the names because it's very unusual.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Nathaniel Moran, Dan Crenshaw, all of these people wanted to be here Keith Self, Jake Ellzey, August Pfluger, Greg Goldman, Ronny Jackson, where are you people? Are you here? You're all here. Where is Ronny Jackson? Ronny Jackson, what a person. Every one of these people is so incredible. Randy Weber, Pete Sessions, Tony Gonzales.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Wow, we have everybody. Beth Van Duyne. Hi, Beth. Hi, Beth. Roger Williams, Brandon Gill. Hi, Roger. Brandon, you're here. Yes, thanks, Brandon. Doing a good job, Brandon. Michael Cloud, John Carter and Wesley Hunt. And we have others, but I'm not -- we have to get on with it. But, I did want to ask Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick -- he's been my friend from the beginning.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump He's been the chairman of all three of my campaigns and all I know is we won by record amounts, so I guess you were a pretty good chairman, right, Dan? And his son is fantastic too. But attorney General Ken Paxton, Ken's around here someplace? Hi, Ken. Hi. And director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Freeman Martin?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Freeman, thank you very much. You're doing an amazing job. Texas chief of emergency management, Nim Kidd. Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you for greeting us too. Major General Thomas Seltzer of the Texas Military Department. Thomas, great job. Thank you. Really good job. And many, many other officials.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump And everybody is here. It's amazing. I do these things and often, you just don't have a turnout like this. Half of government is here. But my administration is doing everything in its power to help Texas. And I can tell you that -- and the governor will be the first to tell you that when the request was made for the emergency funds, Kristi, I think we gave it within about two minutes, maybe less and they had everything they needed, right?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Right, immediately? So we've deployed over 400 first responders and assisted or enabled more than 1,500 rescues, amazing, 1,500. Customs and Border Protection and the US Coast Guard have deployed numerous search and rescue crews. And they're all over the territory, and trauma teams. And beyond this area.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump The governor was saying we've gone a little bit beyond this area. Oh, there's Dr. Phil. Look at Dr. Phil. You're looking good, Phil. This is a hell of a situation, isn't it, huh? FEMA has deployed multiple emergency response units and FEMA has been really headed by some very good people. We have some good people running FEMA. It's about time, right, we get some good ones?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump They failed us in North Carolina. But when we got in on January 20th, they fixed it up in no time. And the Army Corps of Engineers is always around and always strong and brilliant. We're also taking historic action to ensure that such a nightmare never happens again. We're going to look and see how can a thing like this -- they could say it's 100 years, somebody said it's a 500-year event, it doesn't -- we're not going to let a thing like this happen again, where it can wreak this kind of devastation.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Earlier this year, I directed a sweeping review of the preparedness and critical infrastructure. I think again, I have to say when I -- whenever I say that I have to say that the level of professionalism was incredible, but we'll all work together to find out exactly what can be done. Because they do want to rebuild, and they're going to. I just want to say.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have a wonderful first lady. And she's done a great job as first lady. And she really is a very special woman. When she saw what and met the people that we met just a little while ago, it's very devastating. And would you like to say a few words, honey?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Melania Trump My deepest sympathy to all of the parents who lost beautiful young souls, deepest sympathy from all of us to the community to everybody who lost a loved one. We are grieving with you. Our nation is grieving with you. We just met with the wonderful families. We pray with them. We hug. We hold hands. They shared stories.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Melania Trump And I met beautiful young ladies. Uh, they gave me this special bracelet from the camp, uh, in honor of the -- all of the little girls that they lost their lives. So we are here to honor them and also to give the support, help. And I will be back, uh, I promise to them. And uh, I just pray for them and giving them my strength and love.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you, honey. That's very nice. Thank you very much. So I just want to say God bless you all. And I'd like to ask Governor Abbott to say a few words, please. Thank you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Well, first of all, thank you, Mr. President and thank you, first lady. The first thing both of you mentioned were the lives that were affected by this. Uh, whenever there's a disaster or catastrophe, the first thing we focus on is saving lives, prioritizing those lives. Every minute, every hour counts. And that's what Chief Nim Kidd focused on, what the local officials focused on, what the state focused on, but also what your administration did.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Greg Abbott On the very day of the flood, you had the Coast Guard literally saving lives right and left. And we cannot thank you enough for deploying the Coast Guard, deploying the resources. And as you pointed out, immediately when I made a request for a disaster declaration, you and your administration granted that.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott This is the fastest that I'm aware of, of any administration, responding so swiftly, so collaboratively, so coordinated as we have in response to this. Thank you for that major disaster declaration. It ensures that we're going to be able to more effectively respond and help rebuild. And let me make one thing clear about the Hunt Store.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott We will rebuild the Hunt Store very quickly right here in Hunt, Texas.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Unidentified Thank you, governor.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Uh, also I too want to thank all the first responders. And we have many of our legislators over here. I want to thank them for stepping up and being here constantly, uh, as well as state officials who join with us. And as we've said before, we remain committed. We're here for the long run. We will maintain our operations to search and find everybody that we can as well as ensure that we're going to rebuild this community.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Greg Abbott From Hunt to Camp Mystic to Kerrville, down below, uh, we are committed for the long run, not just to rebuild, but to rebuild in a better way. I have received a lot of detail, even from the president himself, about ways that we can do a better job in the rebuilding process. And we will put all of that to work.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott We have a special session beginning in 10 days when we're going to start working legislatively to make sure that we address every challenge that the people of this entire region, including the Central Texas region, make sure we help rebuild the families and communities of all of them. But we would not have been able to do that the way that we have had it not been for you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Your commitment to Texas. I know you love Texas.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I do.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott And Texas loves you. We appreciate you showing up. And because of your swift and effective response, we're better positioned to deliver on all those commitments than ever before.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you, governor. That's very nice. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Kristi, would you like to say something? Fantastic job you've done.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem Well, Mr. President. I just want to thank you for coming and being here today. And to our first lady as well. Your heart is evident for the people of Texas. And by you coming here and spending the day and taking the time to spend so much time with the families. I've spoken with many of them over the last several days and they're so grateful for you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem That not only are you here to come and walk alongside of them, but to spend time with them. And to deploy resources to help support the governor and his team, I think, has meant the world, not just to those that are making the decisions, but to all of those down to the ones who have lost their children and are those who are still looking for their children.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem So that's the hardest part about the situation we have here today, sir, is that, um, when you have a disaster like this, I believe this is an unprecedented event. I haven't heard in -- in my knowledge, know of a flood that happened like this before. Um. So you know, in our experience we know that it's at least a one in 1000 year flood that hit this area in an unprecedented way.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem And emergencies and disasters are always locally executed. The state manages them. And then the federal government comes in and supports that. What -- what -- what we are doing here, sir, is empowering the state and the local officials to make the best decisions for their people. Because they know their people, they know their community.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristi Noem And when they ask, then we come in and support them. So thank you for being a president who trusts people, who lets them use the responsibility that they have to make the best decisions for their families, for their communities. And we come in and we support them in that. So I can't thank you for -- for helping us making such quick decisions for Nim and his team.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem And the governor is absolutely fantastic. Every time I picked up the phone and -- and was here, um, the lieutenant governor was available. The entire team. The Coast Guard and the Border Patrol were absolute amazing resources on the ground immediately. And we've had over 700 different FEMA employees and volunteers here as well that are engaged.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Right.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem And so all of your assets that you have as a federal government are deployed to help this community restore but also to heal. I would just ask everybody in the room to remember to -- to love on each other, too. And to, uh, tell stories and memories and of -- that's how -- the greatest fear when you lose someone in your life is that people will forget them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristi Noem So tell -- tell the stories that you knew and write them down and remember them. Because nobody wants their loved one that they don't have any more to ever be forgotten -- so.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thanks, Kristi. Appreciate it. Uh, Nim, would you say a few words, please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd Thank you, Mr. President and --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You've done a fantastic job working with Kristi and everybody else. Thank you. Go ahead.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. I -- our hearts are broken. But they fuel the engine that drives this response for this community. These local first responders are the best in the nation. They put their lives on the line. Our volunteer firefighters that were out there putting their lives on the line knowing that their homes were at risk.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd You have the best in the nation right here at the local level. Governor Abbott declared 21 Texas counties for this weather event under a State of Disaster Declaration. Your immediate declaration for individual assistance and public assistance will help us rebuild and recover. We've had over 2200 state agency response personnel assisting our local government partners.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Nim Kidd But Mr. President, here's a staggering number. Over 12,300 volunteers have shown up here out of love to support this community. Just imagine. Working ten hours a day, seven days into this event right now. That's over 861,000 hours of volunteer support right here.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd 19 other states have sent resources to us. Secretary Noem, thank you for the coordination and the effort on that. Your team has been phenomenal. We will continue the search nonstop. We will continue debris removal. And we will help this community rebuild. We're ready, sir.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you. Really great job you've done. And the coordination has been incredible with us and everybody else. Thank you very much.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd Yes.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Doctor Phil, I see you sitting there. And this might be a time for you to give us some of your words of wisdom if you would. Thank you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw Well, thank you. Um, I would -- I've talked to families and survivors, parents and -- and grandparents. And the truth is we know psychologically that the number one stressor that we can experience in life is the loss of a child. And the -- the worst situation that we can experience that is when it's sudden and when it's violent.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw That's the worst thing that can happen stress wise in life. And uh, you know, it's -- people say, well, you know, you get over it in time. You will. The truth is you never get over it, you get through it. And one of the things, uh, Secretary Noem was just talking about no truer words could be said, um, that it's cathartic to talk about this.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw And there's a collective consciousness in these communities down here. This is -- this is my country here. Texas is home for me.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Right.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Phil McGraw And -- and there's a collective consciousness here. And everybody in these communities suffered this loss at some level. And so everybody shares that and so everybody shares the healing, and that will come through here. Everybody will rally together and this is about faith and it's about family and it's truly about community.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw And it says Texas strong on the desk that you're sitting at. And that's true, because people will come together. And we need to realize that giving this a voice and if you see someone in the store, everybody wonders, do I say something to them? I know they lost a child or a grandchild. Do I bring it up, because they look like they're doing OK? The answer to that question is an unambiguous yes.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw You don't ever let them think you've moved on from it. It's OK to go and say, hey, look, I know about the loss, I share that with you and I love you and we won't forget this. Because these bright lights will go away, another headline will come along and people move on. Let them know we don't forget, we don't forget the loss.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw It will never go away and we remember it. And these first responders down here, men and women that were diving into those waters, I've talked to a woman whose husband was standing on the bank of the river yelling to a father, throw me your baby, throw me your baby, let me help you. Mr. President, there is a depth of root and caring here like you just can't believe until you see it and everybody here knows that.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw And it's so inspiring for you and the first lady to come here and share this and see the fiber of these communities. That's why they rally around you and everything that that you stand for here, from the border to the Ð disasters. And it's not just a photo op for you to be here, people see your heart and believe in what you stand for and God bless you for coming here and doing this.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Phil McGraw It means a lot. God bless you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you. Thank you. That was really beautiful. I'm glad I asked him to say a few words. Dan, do you want to say a couple of words, Dan, please? Lieutenant governor.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Phil McGraw We spoke this morning. Immediately, you and I talked the very next morning and he was right there.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Dan Patrick First of all, Mr. President, First Lady, a long time ago, I asked a pastor when I was going to see a person in the hospital who didn't have long to live, and I said, what do I say? And they said, don't worry about what you say, just be there. So you, and Madam First Lady, the two of you being here sends a message.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Dan Patrick It paints a picture that words can't express and it gives them hope and the people of this community have become a family. I didn't know the mayor last week. I wish I didn't know him today under these circumstances, but we've become a family around this room and it starts with you at the top, down to the governor, down to the statewide, down to the secretary.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Dan Patrick I mean, Kristi Noem coming in, she called Saturday morning and said, the president wants me to be there today, and she came. And so that message is so important. Two things will get us through, our faith. So the people along this river are not standing on the rock of the banks of the river, they're standing on the rock of their faith.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Dan Patrick And that will get them through the struggles that you talk about. But you and the federal government will help us get through everything, all the debris that has to be taken away.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We will.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Dan Patrick All the rebuilding, and I know we can count on you. So from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of all of these families, thank you for being here. You just can't measure how much it means to them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much, Dan. Great job, appreciate it. Do you want to take a couple of questions, Governor? Would you want to do that? Do you want to --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Sure.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Is the press going to be respectful of this event, this horrible event, this horrible tragedy? Please. Yes. Go ahead, please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Mr. President, [Inaudible] with CBS News Texas. Several families that we've heard from are, obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those words didn't go out in time and they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances. This was, I guess, Kristi said, a 1 in 500, 1 in 1,000 years. And I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There's just admiration. Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I think this has been heroism. This has been incredible, really, the job you've all done. It's easy to sit back and say, oh, what could have happened here or there, maybe we could have done something differently. This was a thing that has never happened before and nobody's ever seen anything -- I've never seen anything like this.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I've gone to some real bad ones. I've never seen anything like this. So I admire you and I consider you heroes and heroine. And I think you've done an amazing job. Brian, go ahead please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. If I could ask you, who was the first person to contact you to notify you that this tragedy was unfolding?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Probably Kristi, but I was notified by a lot, and Chip called also. Chip was here for -- he thought it was going to be a little flood. He was going to miss the signing for the Big, Beautiful Bill, and he called to apologize. He said he's going to be delayed because of a little flood and the little flood turned out to be the biggest flood anyone's ever seen.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So Chip and -- but Kristi called right away. She was there. I looked the next morning, she was right there, on the ball.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question So I just want to say, as a native Texan, I've received hundreds of messages. I told you that the other day, but I want to tell our representatives that are here in the crowd today. Thank you for your response. This is Texas strong. President Trump, this is America First policy in terms to responding to a tragedy like this.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question Thank you on behalf of Texas as well.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much. Well, that's a nice reporter. That's a nice question. That's a nice -- but I like his statement even better. Thank you very much, Brian. That's very nice. Yeah, please, go ahead.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Great to see you, President Trump.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Question Thank you, First Lady Melania for being here. I'm born and raised in Texas and there's not a person in our state who hasn't been impacted by this tragedy. But what's been so disheartening recently are these ghouls on the left, like Jasmine Crockett and the left wing media who want to point fingers and play partisan games and fundraise off of this crisis.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Question And what I love about Texas is we come together in a crisis across party lines, ideological lines. So what is your message, and maybe Governor Abbott as well, to these folks on the left who are using this to gain partisan points in viral videos?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I'll start off by just saying, they've lost their confidence. They've had a tremendous run of bad talent. I don't say bad luck, I say bad talent and all they want to do is criticize and I hope we can someday be bipartisan. But all they like to do is criticize and they're getting just absolutely clobbered because everyone sees what an incredible job the governor did.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Everybody in this room, everybody at this table in particular, but everybody in this room did an incredible job and the public knows it. You know, the public is wise to it. They have automatic, they have their sound bite, they send out a sound bite and it's supposed to be -- you're supposed to say that. And if you don't say that they throw you out of the party.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump No, they've lost -- honestly, they've lost their confidence. I see some of the people they're putting forward and those people will only ruin our nation. Our nation a year ago was dead and it was going down, but it was dead and now we have the most successful nation anywhere in the world. You take a look, I was with the king of Saudi Arabia, I was with the leaders of the world recently at NATO. Every one of them said the same thing they said, you know, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Your nation was dead one year ago and now you have the hottest nation, the hottest nation, hottest in quotes. It's the hottest nation anywhere in the world. Every leader is saying that. We are. We're the hottest nation in the world. We've all gotten together. We've done a great job. This state has been unbelievable.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I work so well with the governor and with these Senators and with everybody in this state. We get it done. We've had some pretty big problems here with the floods and all the different things that we've worked out and we respond very quickly and they respond very quickly, and they spend their money wisely.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know, we give them a lot of money, but they spend it wisely. I can't say that's true always. Sometimes we give money and they don't spend it so wisely. They spend it very, very foolishly. So Governor, do you want to say a few words?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Sure. One thing that you pointed out that we all know about Texans, it's part of our bloodstream, and that is we're Texas tough. We're made for challenges. I read a piece the other day, I'll just quote one line from it and that is, "when the rivers rise, so do we and we rise to the occasion." And the way that we do that is by everybody working together.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott We are one team united. We are Texans. And fighting as Texans, we're going to rebuild not just Kerrville or Hunt or Kerr County, but across the entire state, across regions. We're going to come together and fight together and ensure that we elevate even better, keeping foremost in mind exactly what Dr. Phil was talking about.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott As we rebuild, we've got to constantly comfort the families of those who have suffered a loss. Those two things combined, and we will be our quintessential selves and that is Texas tough. Texas resilient.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much. Go ahead, sir. In the blue.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy Mr. President --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump The blue shirt.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy First of all --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Joe Pags Oh, no, I'll wait for Chip. He's my -- he's my representative. I wait for him.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Chip Roy Mr. President, if I could just jump in and just say one thing?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Chip?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy Which is um, I can't thank you enough. When -- when I called you on Friday, you said whatever you need. When I called the secretary's office, she called me within 15 minutes and said whatever you need. And then she came here this weekend. I've never seen such a quick response and such a focus on delivering for the people.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy But importantly, I want to thank all of my colleagues in the House sitting right over there. Every single one of them called me personally. Every single one of them reached out to this team that the governor was just talking about, the team effort, to deliver for the people of Texas. They're here now not here to microphone.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy They're here just to be here. Because they believe in this state. And they believe in what you're doing as the president. And they believe in what the governor is doing. And importantly, this morning, I was at a press conference for the Community Foundation of the Hill Country, which has raised over $30 million from the great, you know, people of this state and from around the country.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Chip Roy And they sent checks out today of $5 million to people in this community to help them with cash for people, for small businesses, first responders and all the people that need help to reunite. And the final point I'll just say, for all of the media clamoring to ask that ridiculous first question and try to point fingers, the governor said it best when he said that pointing fingers is for losers.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy This state is about looking forward. And we'll figure out how to make our systems the best they can be. But importantly, when you see 26ft of water rising a foot per minute, don't go around pointing fingers. The people in this community rallied around to help people. And that's the enduring image, those little girls from Camp Mystic, who were singing hymns as they watched the damage as they left that camp coming out of there.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Chip Roy And that's who the people of Texas are. And I thank you, Mr. President.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much. And you know, two words, unity and competence. If you were to ask me two words that I've seen here. One is unity. The unity has been unbelievable. And then the competence. The competence of the Coast Guard and some of the people within the Coast Guard that saved a lot of lives. They went out and they saved a lot of lives.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But there were others other than the Coast Guard. But I would say competence and unity. The -- the -- the way everyone has just pulled together. It's rare that you see this.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Joe Pags Mr. President.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Again, I've been to so many. And I've seen bickering and fighting. And you know, just it doesn't work the same way. This has been amazing. This is -- and this is the biggest because I've never seen one like this, neither has anybody else by the way. Yes, please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Joe Pags It's Joe Pags, Mr. President. It's been a while since we've seen each other. Obviously the staffing was where it needed to be. In fact, it was heavier than it should have been because of the holiday weekend. Whatever they're saying in the -- in the left news isn't the truth. You're a developer though. At 1:00 in the morning, the technology only goes as far as it goes.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Joe Pags Kids don't have their phones, phones are dead, people by the riverside don't have electricity. They're not going to get a phone alert that way. As a developer going forward, knowing that everything was done lightning fast by Secretary Gnome, by you, by the governor and everybody else. You did everything right.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Joe Pags What do we do next time, though, to make sure that people are alerted if they're dead asleep? Maybe an alarm system, maybe a siren system. You might know better than I. But what do we do going forward? Because we've got to make sure that people get the alert when it's time to get the alert. Thank you.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Yeah, you'll probably have to do that. You'll probably come up with something very unique. Because there is no system right now. There's been no -- this is not -- a thing like this has never happened that anybody knows. Certainly not to this extent. But I know the governor and everybody is working on it. They're meeting, and they'll figure something out.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Go ahead, governor.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott Yeah, so we begin a session in ten days. We will address every single question that you just asked. Uh, you mentioned some of the ideas. There are many more. And we want to hear them. Most importantly, we have to devise a response that's right for this community. And this community has to weigh in. And they need time to be able to convey that to us. But we're going to -- we're going to work on alerts.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Greg Abbott We're going to work on every single solution to make sure things like this don't happen again, not just in this community but in other river basins across the state also. So we will work to get it right. And we've jotted down, Joe, every idea that you just mentioned.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Ted Cruz. Go ahead please, Ted.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Ted Cruz Well, Mr. President, I want to say thank you for being here. First lady, thank you for being here. Where we are right now, the Hill Country, is a very special part of this state. It is universally considered the most beautiful part of the state. You've got rolling hills. You've got these incredible peaceful, wonderful rivers.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz The Guadalupe River. Just about all of us have been swimming in that river, floating in that river. And one of the things that's really special about Kerr County is there are 40 summer camps here. This is a place where all across Texas, our kids go. The governor's daughter came every year to camp here. Both of you know our girls really well.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz Heidi, the week before this flood was -- was here in Hunt, picking up our daughter Katherine from camp. And -- and Camp Mystic that faced such devastating loss is an institution in this state. It's 100 years old. It was founded in 1926. And I'll tell you, in Texas, it's not just here that the hurt is felt.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz It's every part of the state. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, West Texas, East Texas. Texans have gone, and what's amazing is you see at the closing ceremonies of these camps, you see multiple generations, you'll see grandmothers and moms and little girls who have all gone to the same camp. And -- and the pain that the state is feeling.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz And on Monday, I went and walked through Camp Mystic. The center of the -- the camp is -- is a cabin called the Bubble Inn where the littlest girls were staying. And in front of the Bubble Inn are right now 17 small white crosses in the ground. And each cross has the name of another little girl who lost her life.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Ted Cruz The final cross has the name of Dick Eastland, the camp director who gave his life trying to save his girls. And the water rose in that camp and in that cabin 8ft high. You can see the water line 8ft high. It blew the windows out of the cabin, and it swept those girls out. I will tell you. I've never seen anything more horrible in my life.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz And I just sat there, crying. I saw Mom and Dad come up to one of those crosses, drop to their knees and kiss that cross. And the mom was weeping. I also want to tell you. And you said this, you talked about unity. The way this community, the way the state is coming together is incredible. There are stories of heroism.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz I met a mom and dad who had a 14 year old boy at Camp La Junta, a boys camp. Their 14 year old son was awakened at three in the morning. The water was rising. The counselor said let's go save the little boys. And they went down to the seven, eight, nine year old boys and pulled them out of their camps through the crashing water.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz And this mom and dad were crying. Now their son survived. And I said, look, your son will always have this trauma. You will always have this trauma. But at the same time, your son will always know when he was 14 years old that there are little boys and one day there are men who are alive because he had the courage as a 14 year old to risk his life to save them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz And so we are grateful you're here. And I and I will say something Chip referenced is very true. There's a video of a school bus full of campers from Mystic after this crisis, riding past the devastation. And they are singing Christian hymns. And I promise you, there's not a person here who can watch that video and not weep tears of sorrow, but -- but also tears of joy.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Ted Cruz So we are grateful for the response, governor, the first responders, everyone who's come together. And to all the moms and dads just know we love you. The -- the agony. My street at home, every house has a green ribbon around it for the girls at Mystic. And that's true in a lot of streets all throughout Texas.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Ted Cruz And we will come through this one way or the other. And I'll tell you, the Hunt Store, right now, the sign says Hunt Store, except today it doesn't. It says Hunt Strong. They redid the sign. [Laughter] That's the spirit of who we are.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you, Ted, very much. Well -- Mr. President -- Yes, please.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd I wanted to respond just to something that Joe said and the governor, the speaker and I announced yesterday that we will begin our hearings in two weeks. But in three weeks we're going to have a hearing in this room so that the residents and the people in this area don't have to come to Austin. We're going to come to them.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Nim Kidd And we'll stay here as long as it takes to hear their stories and their needs and their wants. So we're going to be here in three weeks in this room to hear them.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Good day. Very good. Well, I just want to thank everybody for coming together. And the word unity again, but I just want to thank you very much. And we'll be helping you from Washington, DC like no other president would do. Nobody else, nobody else would do it. Nobody else would -- would be even get back to you.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know, you're fully funded as you know. And Kristi, I would say they were fully funded within minutes of hearing about this. And you know, the state of Texas, number one, they do it right. And they've done it right for a long time. And it's you know, a very special place to me. I will tell you that politically, I don't want to say politics, but politically, it's been a very special place to me.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Our great Secretary of Agriculture, who you've done such a great job. Brooke Rollins, you come from Texas and I just want to thank you. She even got the cost of eggs right down. You know, they hit me with that one and she got them down so quickly. Nobody knew what -- by Easter, everybody was having eggs at a lower price than they ever thought possible, but you've done a fantastic job.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But it's just been a special -- it's been a very special state to me and it's my honor and we will continue to work together and it's a bad situation and you can never say, oh, it's going to be bigger, better, stronger. It's just so many lives have been lost, you can't say that, but uh, we're going to make it back.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We're going to make it back and we're going to make it good again and everybody wants to do it. And I just want to thank you and I want to congratulate you. You guys have been unbelievable. Thank you for your words before. It was unbelievable. The job you've done, Kim, everybody, every single one of you, so you should be very proud, and we're very proud of you.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you all very much for doing such a good job. Thank you very much.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a real honor, and we've all worked very hard to get here. And I want to thank you for the tremendous support that we had. Just about 88 percent. I'd say that's good. I said why didn't we hit 90, but it's pretty good. [Laughter] And all friends and everybody in this room is very special friend.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I want to pay great homage to the White House. There's no place like it. I've been in many houses. I've seen the nicest of the nice, and there's nothing like it. And really what it represents and being here with you in the middle of Holy Week as we remember two of the most monumental events in all of history, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I want to thank Pastor Paula White and Reverend Franklin Graham. All of the incredible, respected -- highly respected members of clergy and friends. Just friends, friends of great faith. Many thanks, as well, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio who has been fantastic. Many faith leaders that are here tonight.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Angel mom, Patty Moran, who's been through hell. Where is Patty? Patty. Stand up, Patty, please. Yes, an incredible daughter. And her daughter is looking down on Patty today. This was some day for you, and we appreciate it, Patty, and we're all with you 100 percent. And you are indeed an angel mom. Thank you very much.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And a very special thanks to Charles Billingsley for the magnificent performance. Thank you, Charles. It was -- Nearly 2,000 years ago during the sacred week, the living Son of God entered Jerusalem in triumph. Soon after the Savior of mankind who brought truth and light into the world was betrayed, arrested, and tried, beaten, and nailed to a cross and crucified.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump For our sake he gave up his life, and as the very great Reverend Billy Graham once said God proved his love on the cross. When Christ hung and bled and died, it was God saying to the world I love you. Those are beautiful words from a great man, Franklin, right? A great man, Franklin's incredible father. I went to Yankee Stadium with my father many years ago to watch your father.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And you think we have big crowds today? It was some crowd. Never forget it. So, thank you very much and thank you for being here, Franklin, very much. Three days -- your father would be very proud of you by the way. Incredible job you did. Three days later, Christ's followers found the empty tomb. Jesus said -- defeated darkness and death and promised new life to all of humankind, and that's what we celebrate each year at Easter.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump As we joyfully proclaim on Sunday, he is risen. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the essence of the Christian faith. Whether rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, or in times of peace or war, Christians everywhere find solace and hope in the knowledge that Christ died for them and that they could be united with him in heaven.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And that's what we want. That's what we all want. The miracles of Holy Week set in motion a transformation in human existence. Countless millions of Americans have been moved by Christ's example to heal the sick, defend their families, lift up their communities, and make our country stronger, better, and greater than ever before with God's grace over these past three months.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And we have had a great three months. They say may be the best three months ever for a president. And in administration. It was really great. We have fantastic people, and they re people that believe like you do. But we've achieved more than most administrations. They've been saying do in four years or even eight years just in a short period of time.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump And I think there's a whole new spirit in our country, and I think there's a whole new respect for our country. Our country was not respected five months ago, six months ago. Although I think November 5th did a lot to get that respect, Franklin. I think it was, uh, I think it was a big day. I hope it was -- it s going to go down as one of the most important days in the history of our country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump November 5th. We're restoring our prosperity, securing our borders. We're rebuilding the US military. We've -- I did it once. Now I'm going to do it again and even more so. We're standing up for a persecuted Christian and so many Christians that have been persecuted all over the world. It's so horrible what's happened and defending religious liberty.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We had nobody fighting for our Christians in other parts of the world that were being so incredibly destroyed, killed, injured, hurt. But they died. So many died. You wouldn't think that could happen in this time, in this sort of modern time. I proudly created the White House Faith Office and a brand new DOJ task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And there is anti-Christian -- you don't hear about that very much, but there is anti-Christian bias. We're stopping the radical indoctrination in our schools and supporting school choice, and we're going to be moving our education department and various educational departments down to the states where they belong.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We spend more money per pupil than any country in the world, and we don't get the answer -- we -- we are in the lower tier of 40 nations, the 40 nations that they rate. And I think when we do this, it's going to make a tremendous difference. Think of it. We spend more per pupil than any country in the world, and yet it's Denmark and Norway, Sweden, even China does very well in top ten.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump And so, we can't blame it on size. We're big. China is really big, and we're going to be there. We're going to be there soon. When the states run their education department instead of some bureaucrat in Washington, it's going to make a very big -- I think it's going to make a very big difference. And I also -- and this was a very easy one for me. I guess some people still fight it because I saw on television today a Democrat congressman fighting so hard.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I banned men from women's sports. Seems easy. And I signed an executive order making it official. And the official policy of the United States that God created two genders, male and female. That's not too difficult. So, there's so much to celebrate this Easter. This is really, I hope, going to be one of the great Easters ever because we have something going that I don't think this country has seen in 100 years.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And as we gather with family and friends, we'll not forget the true source of our joy and our strength. America has put our trust in God. It will always be in God, we trust. We will never change that. You know there's a movement to change it. It will not happen. We won't let that happen. Can you imagine a movement to change that, Robert?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You're not happy about that when you hear that. Look at him. He's getting angrier and angrier. We can get angry, too, can't we. Huh? No. It's never going to change. And with God's help, we can overcome every challenge, triumph over every evil, and restore the spirit of faith in the United States for generations to come.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have a very simple slogan, Make America Great Again, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're making America great again, and I like to say -- I like to add that I really believe greater than ever before. So, once again, let me wish you all a very joyful and blessed Easter, and I would now like to ask Pastor Jentezen Franklin -- a supporter right from day one.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump He's been right -- he's been here I think, Paula, from the first moment that we -- we started. And who would have known that it was going to turn out this way? But the support I've had from evangelicals, Christians, and everybody people of faith really has been incredible. I believe it's been unprecedented actually by a lot, not just by a little bit.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump So, Pastor Franklin, if you would please come up. Thank you very much. Thank you for your support.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Note [Kristen Welker conducted a 64-minute sit-down interview and an additional 18½-minute walk-and-talk interview at Mar-a-Lago on May 2, 2025. The full interview aired and was released in two parts on May 4, 2025. The official transcript was cross-checked and confirmed for accuracy. Video and transcript courtesy and copyright NBC News. Source: https://cqrc.al/nbc-20250504]<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker President Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Thank you very much.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Thank you so much for being here to mark your first 100 days in office. It has been an incredibly busy 100 days. You've signed more than 140 executive orders. You've been focused on the border, the economy, foreign policy. What is your biggest goal in the next 100 days?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I think we're going to see a lot of results. We've already seen them. On the border, we have the best border in the history of our country. It was 99.999, and nobody ever thought that was possible. In fact, Biden, if you remember, said he has to get legislation. And I said, "No, you just need a new president." And I guess I was right.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump We have the best border we've ever had. We're doing great on illegal immigration. We are being hit hard by judges that I think they're trying to take away the power of the presidency. I was elected in a massive landslide and a big, you know, big vote. We won the swing states. We won the popular vote. We won the district votes by tremendous numbers.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We won everything. And one of the reasons -- one of the primary reasons I was elected was to get people out of our country that were allowed. We have prisoners. We have murderers. We have terrorists in our country. We have people from mental institutions that are seriously insane. They all came in through Biden's open border policy.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And I was elected to get them out and to seal the border, but to get them out. And we'll have judges, they're activist judges. They're saying, "Well, you know, you don't have the right to take out murderers and -- and people that you don't even want to talk about." These are really some really bad criminal people.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And they're here illegally. So, you know they talk about -- your next question will be due process. But they talk about due process, but do you get due process when you're here illegally?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker We're going to talk about all of that. We are going to talk about deportation. But I want to start on the economy, sir, which obviously -- obviously the biggest issue for voters. We got new numbers today, better than expected job numbers.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Much better.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker At the same time, the economy shrank in the first quarter. You've been arguing all week that this is President Biden's economy. Is this now your economy, sir?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I think certain aspects of it are. Costs are. I was able to get down the costs. But even that, it takes a while to get them down, but we got them down good. We lost 5 to 6 billion dollars a day with Biden. Five to 6 billion. And I've got that down to a great number right now in a very -- in a record time.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know, we're talking about 100 days. But just think of what that is. Five billion dollars a day we're losing on trade. And we were very tough with China, as you know. We put 145% tariff on. Nobody's ever heard of such a thing. And we've essentially cut off trade relationships by putting that much of a tariff on. And that's okay.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We've gone cold turkey. That means that we're not losing. You know, we lost a trillion dollars to China. A trillion dollars. That means we're not losing a trillion dollars when we go cold turkey because we're not doing business with them right now. And they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal very badly.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump We'll see how that all turns out, but it's got to be a fair deal. But think of it. We were losing a trillion dollars. And that was a big part of the 5 million dollars a day.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker And I want to talk about China, but just staying on this idea of the economy. On the eve of your inauguration, the stock market spiked. You called it the "Trump Effect." Are you --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump It spiked because I was elected president. It didn't spike because of anybody else. It spiked because they see what I'm going to do. They know what I'm going to do with the tariffs and everything else. And I think it's actually working out better than we anticipated. Did you see oil prices? Did you see gasoline is now below, in many cases, in many states, below 2 dollars a gallon? $1.98, $1.99, $1.97?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well, my question, sir, is you -- when the stock market spiked, you said this is the "Trump effect." When the numbers weren't so good earlier this week, you said it's the Biden effect. Are you only taking ownership of the good numbers and not the bad numbers?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I think he did a lot of very bad things. And despite some of the bad things, we're overcoming them. But he was bad on the border. He was bad on the economy. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country. Look, Biden gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country. People -- it didn't matter what they made because they were losing their shirt because of costs.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Now take a look at what happened. Oil is down. Gasoline is down. Groceries are down. Eggs. You were the one that asked me. You asked me about eggs. It was the first week. I didn't even know anything about what you -- we were talking about. Egg prices were so high, you couldn't buy eggs. They didn't have any eggs.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And they said, "Easter is going to be a disaster." Well, we had Easter at the White House, and we had thousands of eggs. And they were down 87%.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Yeah. A lot of that, of course, spike was because of bird flu. But when does it become --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I don't know --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- the Trump economy?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- what it was. Why do you say that?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well, tell me. When --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We had the same bird flu as he had.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker When does it become the Trump economy?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump It partially is right now. And I really mean this. I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he's done a terrible job. He did a terrible job on everything, from his autopen -- which I'm sure he knew nothing about, some of the things he was supposedly signing -- to immigration.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump You look at what happened with immigration, how bad it was. Think of it. We have murderers, 11,888 murderers, many of them murdered more than one person. Think of that. And they're in our country. Now, we've gotten a lot of them out, and we know who many of them are. And we're on the hunt. But why would anybody do that?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Why would anybody -- who could do such a thing where they'd allow hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people into our country -- or criminals and murderers at the highest level. Who would do this?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But, sir, you acknowledge when you announced your tariffs, for example, the stock market dropped. It's been volatile. It has --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- since gone up.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- it is, but now it's --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Do you take responsibility --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Look at today. I take responsibility.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- for that? Yeah. Do you take responsibility when it drops?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything. But I've only just been here for a little more than three months. But the stock market, look at what's happened in the last short period of time. Didn't it have nine or ten days in a row, or 11 days, where it's gone up? And the tariffs have just started kicking in. And we're doing really well.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Psychologically, I mean, the fake news was giving me such press on the tariffs. The tariffs are going to make us rich. We're going to be a very rich country.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker So let's talk about the tariffs. And I want to ask you about something you said this week. Got a lot of attention. You were at your Cabinet meeting. You said, quote -- I'm going to quote what you said -- "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally." Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump No. I think tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But you said some dolls are going to cost more.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Sure.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Isn't that an acknowledgment --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I don't think --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- that some prices --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- children --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- will go up?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump I don't think that a beautiful baby girl needs -- that's 11 years old -- needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker When you say, "They could have three dolls instead of 30 dolls," are you saying you're --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I'm saying they don't need to have 30 dolls --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- that Americans could see empty store shelves?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump No. No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying they don't need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But you're basically saying there could be some supply shortages --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I'm basically saying --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- because of the tariffs.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- we don't have to waste money on a trade deficit with China for things we don't need, for junk that we don't need.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well, prices are already going up on some popular items --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- from tires to strollers --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Whoa, whoa. This is such a dishonest interview already.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker No, no.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Prices are down on groceries. Prices are down for oil. Prices are down for all energy. Prices are down at tremendous numbers for gasoline. And let me tell you, when you have -- the big thing, what he did, he spent like a stupid person, which he was. But he spent like a very stupid person. And that was bad for inflation.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump But what really killed us with inflation was the price of energy. It went up to $3.90, even $4. And in California, $5 and $6. Right? Okay. I have it down to $1.98 in many states right now. When you go that much lower on energy -- which is ahead of my prediction because I really thought I could get it down into the $2.50s -- we have it down at $1.98 in numerous places.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But when you say costs are going up, even mortgage rates are going down. You know, we have mortgage rates --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But let me give you some examples. These are -- I mean, these are actual examples. So you're saying the prices that are going down. Some prices are going up. Tires, strollers, some clothing in the wake of your tariffs --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Excuse me. That's peanuts compared to --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- energy. Energy is 60% of the cost.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But, sir, you campaigned --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Energy is a big --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- on a promise to bring prices down on day one.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Well, I don't know, when you say strollers are going up, what kind of a thing? I'm saying that gasoline is going down. Gasoline is thousands of times more important than a stroller or some place?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But what do you say to Americans who say they voted for you because they want and they need relief right now?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And they're getting it.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Right now? What about those --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Even mortgage rates. It was just announced --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- different items I just mentioned?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- mortgage rates are going down, despite the fact that we have a stubborn Fed.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker But you said dolls -- even dolls could cost a couple bucks more.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Maybe they might. But you don't need to have, as I said, 35 dolls. You can have two, three, four, and save a lot of money. We don't need to feed the beast.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker I guess -- you're talking about this transition cost. How long should people expect that transition to last, Mr. President?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I can't tell you that. I can tell you that we're making a lot of money. We're doing great. Again, we were losing more than $5 billion a day. $5 billion a day. You don't talk about that. And right now, we're going to be at a point very soon where we're making money every day. Look --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker How soon?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump -- we were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we're essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we're saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Very simple.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker You take me to my next question, which is about China. They've been making a number of public statements.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Very positive statements in the last 24 hours.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well, and most recently, they said before talks could happen, the U.S. would need to remove unilateral tariffs. Would you consider dropping the tariffs to get China to the negotiating table?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump No. They -- first of all, you're giving me a statement that was said a week ago. You're not giving the statement that was said today.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker I have May 2nd, Chinese Commerce Ministry.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Do you know what they say today?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker If the U.S. wants to negotiate, it should show sincerity --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump We're looking forward --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- by preparing to take actions in correcting its mistakes and canceling the unilateral tariffs.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump No, no, no. They made -- first of all, they made numerous statements.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Yes. They've made numerous statements.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump You know how many people speak for China?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Yes.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump It's like, you have 15 different --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker They've made numerous statements --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump I can give you a statement for any occasion.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Yes. Yes, yes.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump But they said today they want to talk. Look, China -- and I don't like this. I'm not happy about this. China's getting killed right now. They're getting absolutely destroyed. Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I'm not looking to do that to China. Now, at the same time, I'm not looking to have China make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more army tanks and more airplanes.<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker So you're not prepared -- just to be very clear, you're not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to the negotiating table?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Why would I --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Those tariffs are staying on?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Why would I do that?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Would you lower them?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Donald Trump At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them. And they want to do business very much. Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker So small businesses say they are being hurt by the Chinese tariffs. And some could be forced to shut down.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump And many businesses are being helped.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Are you considering --<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Look at the automobile --<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>Kristen Welker -- tariff relief for small businesses?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump Why do you always mention that. You know, you pick up a couple of little businesses. What about the car business? They're going to make a fortune because of the tariffs. Do you know that the union, the head of the union, who was no fan of mine, Fain, Shawn Fain I guess his name is, right? He didn't endorse me. The Teamsters did.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump A lot of people did. A lot of unions did. But he didn't. He couldn't stand me. Now he's saying, "Wow. What Trump's done for the automobile, I can't believe it." I assume he's going to probably now say -- the next thing he can say is, "I endorse this guy. He's the greatest I've ever seen." He can't believe it's happened.<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Donald Trump He said, "We've been waiting 40 years for somebody to do what Trump is doing." So why don't you mention the big car industry instead of mentioning somebody that's doing strollers?<end_of_turn> <start_of_turn>Kristen Welker Well, I'm just asking you about small businesses. Are there any discussions about giving any relief to small businesses?<end_of_turn>

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