President Trump hosts NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, everybody.
00:09It's great to be with a friend of mine who was Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
00:13I got to know him very well.
00:15We had a great relationship always.
00:17Mark Rutte.
00:18Now he's Secretary General of NATO and doing a fantastic job.
00:24Everybody every report I've gotten is what a great job he did.
00:27And I'm not at all surprised when I hear we had to support him and we supported him
00:32as soon as I heard the name.
00:34But he was a fantastic prime minister and he's doing a fantastic job, an even tougher
00:40job, which is tougher, being the prime minister of Netherlands or this job is quite tough.
00:45I would think Dutch politics is also brutal.
00:49This is pretty tough.
00:50You're doing you're doing good.
00:53We're going to be discussing a lot of things.
00:54Obviously, we'll be discussing what's happening with respect to Ukraine and Russia.
01:00At this moment, we have people talking in Russia.
01:02We have representatives over there, Steve Whitkoff and others.
01:07And they're in very serious discussions, as you know, Ukraine has agreed subject to this
01:12what's happening today to a complete ceasefire.
01:16And we hope Russia will do the same.
01:18Thousands of people are being killed, young people, usually mostly young people.
01:23You're just talking about it.
01:25Thousands of young people are being killed a week.
01:28And we want to see that stop.
01:30And they're not Americans and they're not from the Netherlands for the most part.
01:34They're not from they're from Russia and they're from Ukraine, but they're people.
01:39And I think everybody feels the same way.
01:41We want it to stop.
01:43It's also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries.
01:48And it's something that would have never happened if I were president.
01:51And it makes me very angry to see that it did happen.
01:54But it happened and we have to stop it.
01:58And Mark has done some really good work over the last week.
02:02We've been working together and he's done some really good work.
02:05So I'm very happy about that.
02:07We'll also be talking about trade and various other things.
02:10And I think we'll have a very, very strong day.
02:13We're going to have lunch afterwards.
02:15That'll go.
02:16And then we'll see you all later.
02:17But Mark, would you like to say something?
02:19First of all, thank you so much, Mr. President, dear Norbert, again for hosting me and also
02:25for taking time in Florida a couple of weeks after you were reelected.
02:31And of course, our phone call a couple of weeks ago and I must say, Trump 45, you basically
02:40you originated the fact that in Europe, you know, spending when you take it to aggregate
02:44700 billion more on defense than when you came in office in 2016, 2017.
02:50But that was Trump 45.
02:51But then when you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering.
02:58The Europeans committing to a package of 800 billion defense spending.
03:02The Germans now potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending.
03:07And then of course, you have Keir Starmer here, the British prime minister and others
03:11all committing to much higher defense spending.
03:13We're not there.
03:14We need to do more.
03:15But I really want to work together with you in a run up to the Hague summit to make sure
03:19that we will have a NATO, which is really reinvigorated under your leadership and we
03:25are getting there.
03:26And we also discuss defense production because we need to produce more weaponry.
03:31We are not doing enough and not in the U.S., not in Europe.
03:35And we are lacking behind when you compare to the Russians and the Chinese.
03:39And you have a huge defense industrial base.
03:42Europeans buying four times more here than the other way around, which is good because
03:47you have a strong defense industry, but we need to do more there to make sure that we
03:50are hand-potting the production and kill the red tape.
03:54So I would love to work with you on that.
03:57And finally, Ukraine, you broke the deadlock.
03:59As you said, all the killing, the young people dying, cities getting destroyed, the fact
04:05that you did that, you started the dialogue with the Russians and the successful talks
04:09in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians.
04:12I really want to commend you for this.
04:13So well, the Hague is my hometown.
04:16I'd love to host you there in the summer and work together to make sure that that will
04:20be a splash, a real success, projecting American power on the world stage.
04:26What Mark is saying is when I first went to NATO, my first meeting, I noticed that very
04:31few people were paying.
04:33And if they were, they weren't paying their fair share.
04:34There were only seven countries that were paying what they were supposed to be paying,
04:39which was, yeah, could be even worse.
04:43But there were just very few countries that were paying.
04:46And even the paying, it was a two percent, which is too low.
04:50It should be higher.
04:51It should be quite a bit higher.
04:53But you had Poland, and I remember Poland was actually paying a little bit more than
04:58they were supposed to, which was very impressed with.
05:01And they've been actually terrific and some of the others, but most of them weren't paying
05:06or they were paying very little.
05:08And I didn't think it was appropriate to bring it up there.
05:11But I said, it's going to be brought up at my next meeting and my next meeting, the first
05:14meeting.
05:15I want to give him a little break.
05:16The second meeting it began and I was able to raise hundreds of billions of dollars.
05:21I just said, we're not going to be involved with you if you're not going to pay.
05:25And the money started pouring in and NATO became much stronger because of my actions
05:30and working along with a lot of people, including Mark.
05:33But they would not pay for other presidents.
05:37And I don't think other presidents even knew that they weren't paid.
05:41I asked first question, has everybody paid up?
05:44And literally, I mean, they showed they told me seven.
05:46You could be right.
05:47It could be three.
05:48But that makes it even worse.
05:49But they just weren't paying.
05:51And I said, no, I won't protect if you're not paying, if you're delinquent or if the
05:55money isn't paid.
05:58Why would we do that?
06:00And as soon as I said that, got a little hit from the press because they said, oh, gee,
06:04that's not very nice.
06:05But if you said the other, nobody would have paid.
06:07And the money started coming in by the billions.
06:10And, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO and NATO became strong.
06:16And you remember that your predecessor, who I thought was a very good man.
06:19Absolutely.
06:20Yes.
06:21Stoltenberg.
06:22He sends his best greetings.
06:23It was terrific.
06:24Stoltenberg, Secretary General.
06:25And he made the statement that when Trump came in, the money started coming in like
06:29we never saw before.
06:30Hundreds of actually probably close to six hundred billion dollars came in and NATO became
06:37strong from that standpoint.
06:38And now we have to use it wisely and we have to get this war over with and you'll be back
06:44to a normal, much more normal life.
06:47And maybe we're close.
06:48We're getting words that things are going OK in Russia.
06:52And it doesn't mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is.
06:56But they have very serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others.
07:01And hopefully they all want to end this nightmare.
07:03It's a nightmare.
07:04It's a horrible thing when you look.
07:06I get I get pictures every week.
07:09They give me the pictures of the battlefield, which I almost don't want to see.
07:13It's so horrible to see young people laying arms and legs and heads laying all over the
07:19field.
07:20It's the most terrible thing that you'll ever see.
07:23And it's got to stop.
07:25These are young people with with mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends.
07:30And it's it's got to stop.
07:34So we hopefully are going to be in a good position sometime today to have a good idea.
07:40We'll have we know where we are with Ukraine and we are getting good signals outside of
07:45Russia as to where we are with Russia.
07:49And hopefully they'll do the right thing.
07:50And so really, humanity, we're talking about humanity.
07:53We're not talking about the money.
07:55But then you add the money to it and, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars is being
07:59spent and really wasted.
08:01So unnecessarily, it should have never happened.
08:04So it's an honor to have you here.
08:05They picked a great gentleman.
08:06I'll tell you, that was I was so happy to hear because you had somebody Stoltenberg
08:11was really good.
08:13And you have somebody that's going to do an incredible job.
08:15And I was so much in favor of you.
08:18You have no idea.
08:19They had another person that I did not like.
08:21I was not happy.
08:23And I think I kept him from, you know, what I'm talking about.
08:27I said, this is the right man to do it.
08:29And he really did.
08:30He was a great prime minister of the Netherlands.
08:31He did a great job.
08:33And that's what he's doing right now.
08:35So thank you, everybody, for being here.
08:37And it's very great honor to have you.
08:39And we even have some of our great energy people here today.
08:43We have the governor and we have Chris, you know, Chris, supposed to be the most talented
08:48man in the world of energy, according to the governor.
08:51So I don't know if he's right.
08:53We have general.
08:54You've been fantastic.
08:55Thank you very much.
08:56And we have all a lot of good people that won't be so much involved with this, but they wanted
09:00to see what was happening.
09:02It's become a little bit of a show, but we wanted they wanted to see what was happening.
09:07And I think a lot of good things are happening.
09:09So with that, if anybody would have a question.
09:12What sort of agreement do you hope he comes away from it?
09:21Well, we'd like to see a ceasefire from Russia.
09:24And we have not been working in the dark.
09:28We've been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost
09:34and all of the other elements of a final agreement.
09:39There's a power plant involved, you know, a very big power plant involved.
09:43Who's going to get the power plant and who's going to get this and that?
09:46And so, you know, it's it's not an easy process.
09:50But phase one is the ceasefire.
09:53A lot of the individual subjects have been discussed, though, you know, we've been discussing
09:56concepts of land because you don't want to waste time with a ceasefire if if it's not
10:01going to mean anything.
10:02So we're saying, look, this is what you can get.
10:05This is what you can't get.
10:06They discussed NATO and being in NATO.
10:08And everybody knows what the answer to that is.
10:10They've known that answer for 40 years, in all fairness.
10:14So a lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed.
10:20Now we're going to see whether or not Russia is there.
10:24And if they're not, it'll be a very disappointing moment for the world.
10:27Yeah.
10:28Vladimir Putin just said he is open to a ceasefire, but he does still have some concerns.
10:31He suggested that you two should speak directly.
10:34Do you have plans to speak to him soon?
10:36Well, I don't know how he can get this across.
10:38Sure.
10:39He did say that today.
10:40It was a very promising statement because other people are saying different things and
10:43you don't know if they have anything to really if they have any meaning or I don't know.
10:47I think some of them were making statements.
10:49I don't think they have anything to do with it.
10:52No, he put out a very promising statement, but it wasn't complete.
10:57And yeah, I'd love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast.
11:01You know, every day people are being killed.
11:03It's not like as we sit here, two people will be killed.
11:06Think of it.
11:07Two people are going to be killed during this little period of time.
11:10Thousands of people a week are dying.
11:12So we really don't have very much time.
11:15We have to make this fast.
11:17It shouldn't be very complicated.
11:18Mr. President, a representative of Canada, the finance minister are in town and will
11:24meet members of your administration during the day.
11:27Any chances that you will ban on the tariffs on aluminum and and and and the ones that
11:35are planned for April 2nd?
11:37No, you are not going to change your mind.
11:40Look, we've been ripped off for years and we're not going to be ripped off anymore.
11:43No, I'm not going to bend at all.
11:46Aluminum or steel or cars.
11:49We're not going to bend.
11:50We've been ripped off as a country for many, many years.
11:52We've been subjected to costs that we shouldn't be subjected to.
11:59In the case of Canada, we're spending 200 billion a year to subsidize Canada.
12:03I love Canada.
12:04I love the people of Canada.
12:05I love I have many friends in Canada.
12:08The great one, Wayne Gretzky, the great how good is Wayne Gretzky is the great one.
12:13But we have I know many people from Canada that are good friends of mine.
12:19But, you know, the United States can't subsidize a country for 200 billion dollars a year.
12:25We don't need their cars.
12:27We don't need their energy.
12:28We don't need their lumber.
12:30We don't need anything that they that they get.
12:34We do it because we want to be helpful.
12:36But it comes a point when you just can't do that.
12:39You have to run your own country.
12:41And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state.
12:44It does.
12:45We don't need anything they have as a state.
12:48Canada would be one of the great states anyway.
12:50This would be the most incredible country visually.
12:53If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the
12:58U.S., just a straight artificial line.
13:01Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago.
13:05And it makes no sense.
13:08It's so perfect as a great and cherished state.
13:14Keeping Oh, Canada, the national anthem.
13:17I love it.
13:18I think it's great.
13:19Keep it.
13:20But it'll be for the state, one of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state.
13:25But why should we subsidize another country for 200 billion?
13:29Of course, it's 200 billion dollars a year.
13:31And again, we don't need their lumber.
13:34We don't need their energy.
13:35We have more than they do.
13:36We don't need anything.
13:37We don't need their cars.
13:38I'd much rather make the cars here.
13:41And there's not a thing that we need.
13:44Now, there'll be a little disruption, but it won't be very long.
13:48But they need us.
13:49We really don't need them.
13:51And we have to do this.
13:52I'm sorry.
13:53We have to do this.
13:54Yes.
13:55Mr. President, you made it very clear that NATO needs to step up, although great progress
14:01has been made in the first mandate.
14:03How do you envision this new transatlantic?
14:05You're talking about NATO stepping up?
14:07Well, NATO is stepping up for this man.
14:09This man is a man that only knows how to step up.
14:14And we have the same goal in mind.
14:15We want the war ended.
14:18And he's doing his job.
14:19He only knows how to do a good job.
14:21That's one thing.
14:22That's why I fought for him to get that job, because they had some other candidates that
14:26I'll tell you would not have done a very good job.
14:29I need this part of the move for my family.
14:31We're going to get you a clip.
14:34We're going to get him a clip of that little last statement.
14:37The rest of the statements, he doesn't care.
14:39How does this new transatlantic cooperation, how do you envision it?
14:45Well, we have.
14:46That's one thing.
14:47I mean, you know, we're on the other side of the ocean and they're right there.
14:52And yet we're in for three hundred and fifty billion dollars because of Biden and they're
14:58in for a hundred billion dollars.
15:00So it's a big difference.
15:02And it's unfair.
15:03And I said, you have to equalize.
15:05They should equalize.
15:06They should have.
15:07And it never happened where Biden just gave this money away.
15:11Now, as you know, we're we have an agreement with Ukraine on the rare earths and other
15:16things.
15:17And that'll get us something back, a lot back and get us our money back.
15:24We're not doing it for that, though we're doing.
15:25I'm just doing this to get the worst up.
15:27I'm doing it really to save lives.
15:29But at the same time, we were treated very unfairly, as we always are by every country.
15:36And we're in for very substantially more than the European nations are in for.
15:41And that shouldn't be, you know, they're much more affected by it than we are, because we
15:45do have an ocean in between.
15:48But I don't know.
15:49I think good things are going to happen.
15:51I really do.
15:52I think good things are going to happen.
15:53I do say we were talking before and Mark was very nice.
15:57He said, if you were to get involved, there would be no you'd just be going on.
16:02This thing would have gone on for a long time and that was crucial.
16:05We broke a deadlock.
16:06We did break a deadlock.
16:07I hope I hope it's meaningful.
16:08Yes.
16:09Did you have one?
16:10Yes.
16:11Thank you, Mr. President.
16:12And I had just the news on the southern border.
16:14You've got DHS and ICE who are reporting that there was a little bit of fudging of numbers
16:18during the Biden administration on both the catch and the release side.
16:22With respect to reporting the number of illegals coming into the numbers, they were the numbers.
16:27I love that question.
16:28Who are you with?
16:29Just the news.
16:30Very nice.
16:31That's good.
16:33Do you know how many of those are criminal, illegal aliens and Biden's out of office?
16:37Alejandro Mayorkas.
16:38Who gets held accountable?
16:39Biden fudged the numbers.
16:40The numbers were totally fake and he gave fake numbers.
16:44I knew they were fake.
16:45Everybody knew they were fake.
16:46But now it came out and terrible what what they did.
16:51That administration was a horror show for this country.
16:53Can you hold anyone accountable?
16:56Well, I don't know.
16:58They gave phony numbers and phony numbers are a very bad thing to give.
17:03But I'm not sure about that.
17:04I don't know how it would play.
17:06We want to get it straight down.
17:07We have we're after many, many bad people that were let into our country.
17:11And Kristi Noem and and my friend Holman.
17:17How good is Tom Holman doing right?
17:19And they're after him.
17:20And they can't.
17:21I mean, you see they're taking them out in record numbers.
17:23Gang members, gang leaders, drug dealers.
17:27There's a problem the Netherlands does not have.
17:30The Netherlands never had this problem.
17:31If you'd like to take it, I can deliver some people, I can deliver some nice people to
17:37the Netherlands.
17:38And I'm not sure what what what he did to this country, letting 21 million people flow
17:45through an open border.
17:47Many of those people were hard criminals from prisons and jails, from mental institutions.
17:53And I always say insane asylums because they were seriously deranged.
17:59And they're here from not South America, from all over the world, from South America,
18:04but from all over the world.
18:06And it's so it's so sad.
18:08You'd say, why would anybody do this?
18:10Why?
18:11Go ahead.
18:12And one more.
18:13There's some new internal Democrat polling that doesn't look great for Democrats, but
18:16it also has 54 percent unfavorability for Republicans in swing states and battlegrounds
18:21for the midterms.
18:22Do you consider those voters capturable for for Republicans?
18:25Yeah, well, we did.
18:26You know, I won every swing state, as you know, by a lot.
18:29And I won the popular vote by a lot.
18:32And we won the counties.
18:33If you look at the counties and district plan, we had two thousand seven hundred and twenty
18:39five and they had five hundred and one.
18:42That's a real that's why the map is all red.
18:45So we had a great thing.
18:46Yeah, I think I think winning from the Democrats.
18:49I saw if you look the other night, I made a speech and I introduced two young ladies
18:54who were killed, two killed, viciously, violently killed young, unbelievable, both outstanding
19:02people.
19:03They were killed by illegal aliens.
19:06And the Democrats wouldn't get up and applaud.
19:08The mothers were, I mean, inconsolable.
19:12They were crying and everybody was crying.
19:15The Democrats sat there with stone faces.
19:17They didn't clap.
19:18They didn't stand.
19:19They didn't do anything.
19:20We had a young man with very serious cancer.
19:24His dream is to be with the police department someday.
19:28And he was introduced.
19:29I didn't even clap.
19:30I mean, they they were disgusting, frankly, they were disgusting.
19:34There's something wrong with them.
19:37They're deranged, deranged like Jack Smith.
19:40They're deranged people.
19:43And I never saw anything like it.
19:44And I'm standing up and I introduced the mother and the parents of these two young
19:50girls that we just just recently essentially killed, violently killed.
19:57And the Democrats elected.
20:00It's so sad.
20:03And I saw this morning with one of them is pretty well known when he's arguing, fighting
20:08like crazy over men being able to play in women's sports.
20:12I said, yeah, I thought that was tried.
20:14I thought that was about a ninety five.
20:15I think it's a ninety five percent issue.
20:18But in a way, I want him to keep doing it because I don't think they can win a race.
20:22I mean, I tell the Republicans, I said, don't bring that subject up because there's no election
20:26right now, but about a week before the election, bring it up because you can't lose.
20:32And everything's transgender, this transgender that, you know, it's they have bad politics.
20:39But one thing they stick together, you know, I wish.
20:43The Republicans stick together mostly, but we have a couple that are grandstanders.
20:47You know, you always have grandstanders in life, but the Democrats, they don't seem they
20:52have grandstanders.
20:53But when it comes to a vote, they do stick together.
20:56Right, sir.
20:57So they'll stick together on the shutdown.
20:58Will that hurt Democrats going into midterms?
21:01Well, if they do a shutdown and ultimately that might lead to very, very high taxes,
21:06because we're talking about a shutdown.
21:07We're talking about getting to work immediately on the greatest tax bill ever passed.
21:12That was the one we did.
21:13It was a renewal.
21:14And it's an addition to it.
21:17And we're going to cut people's taxes.
21:20And if the if we don't open, the Democrats are stopping all of these good things that
21:25we're providing.
21:26We're we're providing the greatest package of benefits that this country has ever provided.
21:32The biggest part of that is going to be tax cuts for the middle class and for businesses,
21:36small businesses, employers, people that hire people and jobs.
21:42And if it's shut down, it's only going to be if there's a shutdown, it's only because
21:46of the Democrats.
21:47And they would really be taken away a lot from our country and from the people of our
21:51country.
21:52Mr. President, on tariffs, you made clear you're not backing down from this, but many
21:56American small business owners say they are concerned that these tariffs are going to
21:59hurt them.
22:00What's your message to them?
22:01They're going to be so much richer than they are right now.
22:04And we have many yesterday.
22:07General Motors was in.
22:08They want to invest 60 billion dollars.
22:12The people from Facebook were in yesterday.
22:15They're going to invest 60 billion by the end of the year.
22:18Other people are talking about numbers.
22:21Apple, as you know, a few days ago, announced 500 billion dollar investment.
22:26They're going to build their plants in the United States, which, as you know, almost
22:31all of their plants are in China.
22:32Now they're building in the United States.
22:35Nobody.
22:36I was like, look, the reason is two things.
22:39Number one, the election, November 5th.
22:41And the other thing is tariffs, I think probably in that order.
22:45But Tim Cook came in and he announced 500.
22:50Think of it 500 billion, not million, 500 million is a lot when you think about it.
22:54Right.
22:55So I would have been happy with 500 million, but it's 500 billion dollar investment by
22:59Apple in the United States.
23:01And that's because of the election result and it's because of the tariffs and the tax
23:05incentives to, you know, tariffs and tax incentives.
23:10And I've never seen anything like it.
23:11We have plants going up now in Indiana.
23:14We have plants going up in Michigan, a lot of plants going to be planned for.
23:18I'm trying to steer to Michigan because Michigan got so badly beaten by, you know, what happened
23:24with Europe.
23:25You know, if you look at Europe, take a look at the EU.
23:28We're not allowed to sell cars there.
23:30It's prohibitive because of their policies and also their non-monetary tariffs.
23:35That's they put obstacles in your way that you can do nothing about.
23:40But if you take a look at what happened.
23:41So we sell no cars to Europe.
23:43I mean, virtually no cars.
23:45And they sell millions of cars to us.
23:47They don't take our agriculture.
23:49We take their.
23:50It's like a one way street with them.
23:51The European Union is very, very nasty.
23:55They sue our companies.
23:56Google was forced to pay 16 billion dollars on a case that like very much like my case
24:02is that I want they shouldn't have been even cases, but we felt they had no case and they
24:07ended up having an extremely favorable judge and to say decision.
24:13But they're suing Google.
24:14They're suing Facebook.
24:15They're suing all of these companies.
24:18And they're taking billions of dollars out of American companies, many more than the
24:21ones I just mentioned.
24:23And I guess they're using it to run Europe or something.
24:26I don't know what they're using it for, but they treat they treat us very badly.
24:30China obviously treats us very badly.
24:33Almost everybody does.
24:34And I blame past presidents, to be honest, because when I was president, I we received
24:41so far about 700 billion dollars from China over the years on the tariffs that I put in.
24:46No other president got 10 cents from China.
24:49And that was only beginning, except for Covid.
24:51And it would have I would have been able to finish the process process.
24:54But we had to fight the Covid thing and we did really well with it.
24:58But we had to fight.
24:59And then we had actually, as you remember, Mark, we actually handed over the stock market.
25:05It was higher than just previous to Covid coming in, which is sort of a miracle, frankly.
25:10We did a good job, but the tariffs are very important.
25:14And I think the psychology, there's great spirit.
25:16When Mark came in, he said, congratulations, there's a whole new spirit, there's a whole
25:20new light over this country and really over the world, because you have somebody that
25:26a whole group of people, really, because I talk about this whole group that we know what
25:30we're doing and a lot of great things are happening.
25:33But I've never seen investment like this.
25:35Trillions of dollars is being invested in the United States now that would have never
25:39our country could have failed another four years of this.
25:43What happened in the last four years, our country would have been a crime ridden mess.
25:47And I don't know if you noticed a little thing they call it, but it's not a little
25:51thing.
25:52If you don't have if you like eggs and you don't have a lot of money, eggs have gone
25:56down 25 percent in the last couple of weeks.
26:01We inherited that problem, eggs, groceries have gone down a little bit.
26:07Energy's gone down.
26:08Do you want to speak to that for a second, Governor?
26:11Would you just say a couple of words, you and Chris, about energy?
26:15What's happened?
26:16Well, happy to.
26:17Chris and I just came from Sarah Week, which is the largest conference in the world.
26:21So global leaders, people from the EU, officials from all the energy producing countries all
26:28there and all the global nationals, all the U.S.
26:32The spirit of that group is through the roof because now they realize that in the United
26:37States that President Trump's policies are pro-developing more energy as opposed to we're
26:42trying to shut down energy and that pro-growth, pro-business, pro-energy approach is giving
26:49people the optimism.
26:50So then the markets are reacting to that and energy prices on the futures market are going
26:53to go down because people know we're not going to be killing off the energy we need for prosperity
26:59in all of our countries, but also for peace because people have used energy to fuel these
27:04wars that President Trump is working so hard to end.
27:08And we know that energy, high energy prices were driving the inflation that he talked
27:11about.
27:12So that really accomplishes two goals for us, which is prosperity for the world, peace
27:16for the world when we have smart energy policies.
27:19And President Trump has brought common sense back to how we think about energy and it's
27:23brought down now $65 a barrel.
27:26I saw this morning.
27:27That's phenomenal news.
27:28And that's going to break.
27:29That's what brought it up.
27:31The energy went.
27:32They took our beautiful energy policies and they just messed them up.
27:35And then they went immediately back to them because.
27:38But by that time they lost it.
27:39They lost that Bronco is the expression goes, Chris, do you have something to say?
27:43Oh, I think Doug said it well, but you just can't overstate how important the return of
27:48common sense, the return of knowledge about energy and pro-American consumers, pro-investment
27:54in our country.
27:56I think globally that was welcomed.
27:59Means capital flows.
28:00It means more sobriety and lower energy prices, more economic opportunity for Americans.
28:05So yeah, it was elated atmosphere at a global energy conference.
28:09Well, we're working on one project.
28:11It should be very easy.
28:13It's a pipeline going through a small section of New York.
28:17New York's held it up for years, actually, for years.
28:20They wanted to do it for years and years, and it will reduce the the most expensive
28:26energy almost in the world is in New England because they have no way of getting it there
28:30because it's been held up by New York and the whole of New England and Connecticut and
28:36New York.
28:37And the energy prices are through the roof.
28:38And this one pipeline will say for per family, two thousand five hundred dollars just on
28:44heating and another two thousand five hundred dollars on everything else.
28:48So the energy by just a simple pipeline going through an area that wants it, an area that's
28:53not a rich area.
28:54It's actually a very poor area would create jobs and everything else.
28:58And it's going to be way underground.
28:59Nobody's going to see it once they fill it up.
29:01Nobody's going to see it.
29:02Nobody's going to know it's there.
29:03And families in New York and Connecticut and New England are going to save five thousand
29:09dollars a family.
29:11Think of that, because right now they have the highest energy prices maybe in the world.
29:15They say New England is a disaster.
29:17So we're working on that.
29:18In fact, the governor is coming in.
29:19Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, who's a very nice woman.
29:24She's coming in tomorrow morning at nine o'clock to meet me on that and other things.
29:28Not only that, but other things.
29:31So I hope we don't have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it
29:35done.
29:36But if we have to, we will.
29:38But I don't think we'll have to.
29:39I can tell you, Connecticut wants it and all of New England wants it.
29:43And who wouldn't want it?
29:44And it's also jobs on top of everything else.
29:47So that's going to be very exciting.
29:49So we're meeting with the governor tomorrow morning.
29:51Thank you, Mr. President.
29:54Greenland.
29:56What is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland and getting the potentially?
30:02Well, I think it'll happen.
30:04And I'm just thinking I didn't give it much thought before, but I'm sitting with a man
30:09that could be very instrumental.
30:10You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security, international.
30:17We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful.
30:23And we'll be talking to you.
30:25It's a very appropriate, really a very appropriate question.
30:28So the Arctic.
30:29So what you did.
30:31So when it comes to Greenland, yes, or not joining the U.S., I would leave that outside
30:34for me this discussion because I don't want to direct NATO in that.
30:39But when it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right.
30:43The Chinese are now using these routes.
30:44We know that the Russians are rearming.
30:46We know we have a lack of icebreakers.
30:49So the fact that the seven outside Russia, the seven Arctic countries working together
30:54on this under U.S. leadership is very important to make sure that that region, that that part
30:59of the world stays safe.
31:00And we know things are changing there and we have to be there.
31:03Well, we just had an election there the other day.
31:06Do you see a referendum, a plebiscite where the people of Greenland would be in a position
31:12to decide if they want to become part of the United States?
31:17Yeah, it was a good election for us.
31:19As you know, it was not a referendum.
31:22It wouldn't be called that.
31:23It was an individual election.
31:25But the person that did the best is a very good person as far as we're concerned.
31:30And so we'll be talking about it.
31:33And it's very important.
31:35Mark mentioned the word icebreaker.
31:36So we've ordered.
31:38We're in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers.
31:42And Canada wants to know if they could use them.
31:45I said, well, you know, you got to pay for them.
31:48Think of it.
31:49Canada.
31:50We pay for their military.
31:51You know, Canada pays very little for their military because they think we're going to
31:53protect them.
31:55But even with the icebreakers.
31:56So we're going to order 48.
31:59And Canada wants to be part of the deal.
32:00I say you got to get your own icebreakers.
32:04And if you're a state, you can be part of the deal.
32:06But if you're you're a separate country, you've got to get your own icebreakers.
32:09Russia, as you know, has about 40 of them.
32:13And we have one big icebreaker.
32:16But that whole area is becoming very important.
32:18And for a lot of reasons, the routes are, you know, very direct to Asia, to Russia.
32:26And you have ships all over the place and we have to have protection.
32:30So we're going to have to make a deal on that.
32:32And Denmark is not able to do that.
32:34You know, Denmark is very far away and really has nothing to do.
32:39What happens if a boat landed there 200 years ago or something and they say they have rights
32:43to it?
32:44I don't know if that's true.
32:46I don't think it is, actually.
32:47But we've been dealing with Denmark.
32:49We've been dealing with Greenland and we have to do it.
32:51We really need it for national security.
32:54I think that's why NATO might be have to get involved in a way, because we really need
32:59Greenland for national security.
33:01It's very important.
33:02You know, we have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers and
33:08maybe you'll see more and more soldiers go there.
33:10I don't know.
33:11What do you think about that, Pete?
33:13So don't answer that, Pete.
33:16Don't answer that.
33:17But we have we have bases and we have quite a few soldiers on Greenland.
33:21Your commitment to NATO.
33:23Will anything change?
33:24Your commitment to NATO.
33:25Will anything change?
33:26Same amount of money?
33:27Well, I think they made a great step by putting Mark in charge.
33:36I think to me, that's a great step because he and I have seen eye to eye on everything
33:40for a long time.
33:42We've been doing this a long time now.
33:44And so that's a great step.
33:48You have to keep NATO strong.
33:49You have to keep it relevant.
33:53But the biggest thing we have to worry about right now is what's going on right now.
33:57I think the rest is going to take care of itself.
33:59I don't see this.
34:00This was a fluke.
34:01This was something that if we had a competent president, it would not have happened.
34:05The man was grossly incompetent.
34:08All you have to do is look and take a look at he signs by auto pen.
34:12Who was signing all this stuff by auto pen?
34:14Who would think you signed important documents by auto pen?
34:19You know, these are major documents you're signing.
34:21You're proud to sign them.
34:22You have your signature on something in 300 years.
34:24They say, oh, look, can you imagine everything was signed by auto pen?
34:28Almost everything.
34:29Nobody's ever heard of such a thing.
34:31So should have never happened.
34:34Tomorrow in the Justice Department about law and order.
34:37Could you tell us a little bit about that?
34:38Yeah, we're going to be with the Justice Department.
34:42We have a great Justice Department.
34:44Pam Bondi is so fantastic.
34:46And Todd Blanch and Emil, you got to know him a little bit.
34:49He was acting for a little while.
34:52And some other people are incredible in the Justice Department.
34:56And I consider the FBI to be a part of it, in a sense.
35:00And Cash is going to be fantastic and all the people he's Dan Bongino.
35:04I love that.
35:05I love that.
35:06I think Dan is great.
35:07I think we have unbelievable people.
35:10And all I'm going to do is set out my vision.
35:12It's going to be their vision, really.
35:14But it's it's my ideas.
35:17And basically, we don't want to have crime in the streets.
35:20We don't want to have people pushed into subways and killed.
35:23And then the the person that did the pushing ends up in a 15 year trial and gets off scot-free.
35:33We want to have justice and we want to have we want to have safety in our cities as well
35:37as our communities.
35:39And we'll be talking about immigration.
35:41We'll be talking about a lot of things, the complete gamut.
35:44So I look forward to that.
35:45I'll be tomorrow at the Justice Department.
35:47Mr. President, you are a man of peace.
35:49You said it several times and you made it very clear.
35:53A man of peace dealing with belligerent people.
35:57And I'm thinking we saw you handled Zelensky in this very own room.
36:02What is your leverage on Putin?
36:05I'm thinking sanctions.
36:06What if he refuses?
36:07Well, I do have leverage, but I don't want to talk about leverage because right now we're
36:11talking to him.
36:12And based on the statements he made today, they were pretty positive, I think.
36:17So I don't want to talk about that.
36:18I hope Russia is going to make the deal, too.
36:23And I think once that deal happens, you're never going to be in a process.
36:28I don't think they're going back to shooting again.
36:30I really believe that we had a we get a peace treaty, a ceasefire treaty.
36:37I think that leads to peace.
36:38That's going to really lead to it.
36:40I don't think anyone wants to go back.
36:42They've been doing this for a long time and it's vicious and violent.
36:46And I think if if President Putin agrees and does a ceasefire, I think we're going to we're
36:54going to be in very good shape to get it done.
36:56We want to get it over with.
36:57That's why it was very important.
37:00I instructed everybody, including Steve, what we're looking for, to discuss concepts of
37:05land, concepts of power plants, because it's complicated.
37:10You know, you have a whole you're sort of creating the edge of a of a country.
37:16The sad part is that country, if they didn't, if this didn't happen and it wouldn't have
37:21happened, I don't know if they would have to give anything back.
37:26I guess Crimea, you know, I said it last time, Crimea was given by Obama.
37:35Biden gave the whole thing and Bush gave him Georgia and Trump didn't give him anything.
37:39I gave him you know what I gave him.
37:41I gave him Jeff.
37:42I gave them javelins and the javelins were very effective, as you know.
37:47I gave him nothing.
37:49Twenty nineteen.
37:50And then also, if you take a look, I was the one that stopped the pipeline going into Europe.
37:56It was totally stopped.
37:57Nord Stream 2.
37:58Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 before I came along.
38:02But I got along very well with President Putin.
38:05I got along with most of them.
38:06I get along great with President Xi.
38:08I got along great with Kim Jong Un.
38:11I got along great with all of them.
38:14And we had no wars.
38:15We had no problems.
38:16We wiped out ISIS in record time.
38:19General Raisin Cain and he wiped them out.
38:22And he was going to be our new chief.
38:23Right.
38:25The head of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
38:29And he's a highly respected man.
38:30He's going to be great.
38:31Pete's going to be fantastic.
38:32I have no doubt about it.
38:34We have a great team.
38:36Really great team.
38:37Yeah, please.
38:38Go ahead, please.
38:39Mr. President, some of our allies have said that they're worried that they could be the
38:43next to be attacked by Russia.
38:45You've spoken directly with the Russian president.
38:47Do you think those fears are justified?
38:49No, I don't.
38:50I think when this gets done, it's done.
38:53They're going to all want to go home and rest.
38:55I don't see it happening.
38:56No, I don't see that happening.
39:00And we'll make sure it doesn't happen.
39:02Not going to happen.
39:03But we'll make sure it doesn't happen.
39:04Yeah, go ahead, please.
39:05Leaders from Russia and Iran are heading to Beijing tomorrow to discuss nuclear programs.
39:11What do you hope to get out of that?
39:12Well, maybe they're going to talk about non-nuclear programs.
39:16Maybe they're going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons.
39:19Because, you know, I was talking about that with President Putin very strongly.
39:24And we could have done something had had that election not been rigged.
39:29We would have had something.
39:30I think I would have made a deal with Putin on de-escalation, de-nuclearization, as they
39:36say.
39:37But we would have de-escalated nuclear weapons because the power of nuclear weapons is so
39:41great and so devastating.
39:43And right now, Russia and us have by far the most.
39:48But China will catch us within five years.
39:50China doesn't have, but they're in the process of building and they build.
39:55And within four or five years, they'll probably have the same.
39:58And by the way, this is a Republican tradition.
40:01Ronald Reagan, when he negotiated with Gorbachev in the 1980s about bringing down the number
40:07of nuclear weapons, it's what you have been doing your first term.
40:10And it is important.
40:11It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number.
40:15We have so many weapons and the power is so great.
40:20And number one, you don't need them to that extent.
40:23And then we'd have to get others because, as you know, in a smaller way, Kim Jong Un
40:27has a lot of nuclear weapons, by the way, a lot.
40:31And others do also.
40:32You have India, you have Pakistan, you have others that have them.
40:38And we get them involved.
40:39But we started off with Russia and us.
40:41We have by far, actually, by far the most.
40:44And we were going to de-nuclearize and that was going to happen.
40:48And then we were going to China.
40:49And I spoke to China.
40:50I spoke to President Xi about it.
40:52And he really liked the idea, you know, like not to spend trillions of dollars building
40:57weapons that hopefully he's never going to have to use.
41:01And because they are very expensive also.
41:03So that would have been great.
41:05OK, one or two more.
41:07We're looking at an impending government shutdown Friday midnight.
41:15Democrats for 30 years straight have said if there's a shutdown, bad things happen.
41:20Do you anticipate direct negotiations yourself with conference leader of the Democrats, Chuck
41:27Schumer?
41:28If they need me, I'm there 100 percent.
41:31Right now, it's it's two or three people.
41:35If it shuts down, it's not the Republicans fault.
41:38You know, we passed a bill where we had an incredible Republican vote.
41:44We only had one negative vote.
41:45A grandstander.
41:46You know, one grandstander.
41:47There's always a grandstander in the lot.
41:50But it was amazing.
41:52People were amazed that the Republicans were able to vote in unison like that.
41:57So so strongly.
41:59If there's a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault.
42:04And I'm hearing a lot of Democrats are going to vote for it.
42:06And I hope they do.
42:07This is an extension.
42:09But ultimately, we want to vote for one big, beautiful bill where we put the taxes and
42:14we put everything and we're going to have big tax cuts.
42:17We're going to have tremendous incentives for companies coming into our country and
42:21employing lots of people.
42:23It'll be I called it in a rare moment.
42:29One big, beautiful bill.
42:30That's what I like.
42:31And it seems to be that's where they're heading.
42:34And we'll have to take care of something to do with Los Angeles, a place called Los Angeles
42:38almost burned to the ground.
42:40By the way, I broke into Los Angeles.
42:43Can you believe it?
42:44I had a break in.
42:45I, I invaded Los Angeles and we opened up the water and the water is now flowing down.
42:50They have so much water.
42:51They don't know what to do.
42:52They were sending it out to the Pacific for environmental reasons.
42:56OK, can you believe it?
42:58And in the meantime, they lost twenty five thousand houses.
43:02They lost and nobody's ever seen anything like it.
43:04But we have the water.
43:07I'd love to show you a picture.
43:09You've seen the picture.
43:10The water is flowing through the half pipes.
43:12You know, we have the big half pipes that go down.
43:14Used to twenty five years ago.
43:15They used to have plenty of water, but they turned it off for again, for environmental
43:20reasons.
43:21Well, I turned it on for environmental reasons and also fire reasons.
43:24But and I've been asking them to do that during my first term.
43:28I said, do it.
43:29I didn't think anything like could happen like this, but they didn't have enough water.
43:34Now the farmers are going to have water for their land and the water is in there.
43:38But I actually had to break in.
43:39We broke in to do it because we had people that were afraid to give water.
43:45They were in particular.
43:47They were trying to protect a certain little fish.
43:50And I say, how do you protect the fish if you don't have water?
43:53They didn't have any water.
43:54So they're protecting a fish.
43:56And that didn't work out too well, by the way.
43:59So they have a lot of water going down throughout California, all coming out from the Pacific
44:05Northwest, even some from Canada.
44:07Thank you, Canada, very much.
44:08I appreciate it.
44:09Next thing you know, they'll want to turn the water off.
44:11They want to charge us for the water.
44:13But it comes up from the Pacific Northwest, and it's it's a beautiful thing to see.
44:18I mean, it is brimming with water.
44:20Now, if they would have had that done, you wouldn't have had the damage because the fire
44:25would have been put out.
44:26The fire hydrants would have been loaded.
44:28The sprinklers in people's living rooms and bedrooms would have been loaded up with what
44:32they had.
44:33No water.
44:34The government makes them put sprinklers and they had no water in the sprinklers because
44:36they had no water.
44:39So the water is flowing and we're going to have to give a lot of money to Los Angeles
44:46to help them.
44:47And the Democrats are going to want to do that.
44:50So that's the one thing different.
44:51And frankly, I think that makes it a lot easier.
44:54But one of the the big thing is we have the big, beautiful bill.
44:57We got to get that done and that will put our our country in a position like it's never
45:02been.
45:03It's a reduction of taxes.
45:05It's tremendous incentives for companies to come from all over the world into our country.
45:11It's great environmentally, but it's not this environmental scam that we went through that
45:16we all went through.
45:18It provides for everything.
45:20It's a big, beautiful bill, and I hope we can get it approved.
45:22And that'll be next.
45:24In the meantime, we have the continuing resolution and the Republicans have approved it.
45:31And now the Democrats have to approve it, and I hope they will.
45:34And I think a lot of them, I can tell you, they want to.
45:38I've spoken to some of them.
45:39They really want to.
45:41Their leadership may not want them to.
45:43And if it closes, it's purely on the Democrats.
45:48One more on Korea, sir.
45:50We've seen tension increasing in the peninsula.
45:52You've talked about Kim Jong-un.
45:53Do you have any plans of getting of re-establishing the relationship you had during the first
45:58mandate?
45:59Well, I would.
46:00I had a great relationship with Kim Jong-un, North Korea.
46:04If I wasn't elected, if Hillary got in, you would have had a nuclear war with North Korea.
46:08He expected it.
46:09He expected it.
46:10And they said, oh, thousands of people, no, millions of people would have been killed.
46:15But I got in.
46:17We went to Singapore.
46:18We met.
46:19We went to Vietnam.
46:22We met.
46:23We got along really good.
46:24We had a very good relationship.
46:26And we still do.
46:29We still do.
46:30You don't have that threat that you had.
46:31I mean, look, when I was running the first time, it looked like there was going to be
46:34a war with North Korea.
46:36You know that better than me.
46:37Tensions were high.
46:38Yeah.
46:39And everybody was startled that you invited him for talks, but you did.
46:45It started off very rough.
46:46And he wouldn't meet with Obama, wouldn't take his calls.
46:49They said, how many times did you call?
46:51They called a lot.
46:52He wouldn't take that call.
46:53He told me I wouldn't take his call.
46:55But with me, it did start off rough, if you remember.
46:59Very rough, actually.
47:00Very nasty.
47:01That was in Singapore?
47:02Yeah.
47:03But then, no, before that, then it stopped.
47:07The rhetoric was extremely tough.
47:09It was.
47:10It was a little bit.
47:11You were speaking to the UN, you remember.
47:12Yeah, that's right.
47:13It was a little bit dangerous.
47:14And then we met.
47:16They asked for a meeting, and then we met.
47:19And the meeting caused the Olympics, which was in South Korea, to become a tremendous
47:23success.
47:24Nobody was buying tickets for the Olympics because they didn't want to be nuked.
47:28And I met.
47:30And not only did the Olympics become successful, but North Korea participated in the Olympics.
47:35A sister visited.
47:36It was an amazing thing.
47:38And that was something that was an achievement of the Trump administration, great achievement.
47:43And so I have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un, and we'll see what happens.
47:50But certainly, he's a nuclear power.
47:51Okay?
47:52Thank you very much, everybody.
47:54Thank you very much.
47:56Thank you, guys.