President Trump held a press gaggle on Air Force One on his flight from Saudi Arabia to Doha, Qatar.
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00:00Hello everybody, the jet fighters will be surrounding the plane in about seven minutes.
00:14Oh, I heard they threw you out at the press conference.
00:17They tried, but Caroline stopped them.
00:18Caroline, save you.
00:19You're lucky.
00:21You're lucky.
00:22You're really out of control.
00:23How's the trip going so far?
00:24I'm imagining you're meeting with the Syria.
00:26I think it's going going well.
00:28Great relationships.
00:30And now we're meeting with a group that's fantastic.
00:33The mayor is a great guy.
00:34I know him all very well.
00:37Who are you?
00:37Good.
00:38I do.
00:39You're going to be surrounded by eight fighters in about seven minutes.
00:44Then you say, do we need them?
00:46And when they say yes, that doesn't make me feel good, right?
00:50What's the threat?
00:51Can they tell you what the threat is?
00:54No, there's no threat.
00:58We have to assert that.
00:59How did you find the Syrian president?
01:01Great.
01:02Right.
01:02I think very good.
01:04Young, attractive guy.
01:05Tough guy.
01:07You know, strong pass.
01:09Very strong pass fighter.
01:11Does that worry you at all?
01:12He's got a real shot at pulling it together.
01:15I spoke with the president, heard a lot of them.
01:18We're very friendly with it.
01:19He feels he's got a shot.
01:22It's a torn up country.
01:27Do you think Syria will join them?
01:29What about Lebanon?
01:40Do you think there's a path for Lebanon to globalize the nations of Lebanon?
01:45You know, a friend of mine is the new ambassador to Lebanon, and I didn't even know, and I never knew his relationship, but he was born in Lebanon.
01:52And he said, I'd like to be the ambassador to a very successful guy.
01:58And I said, you know, that's very dangerous.
02:01He said, I don't care.
02:02I love my country, and it's worth it to do.
02:05You know, there's a danger there for a very successful man to go and do that.
02:22I said, are you sure you know what?
02:24You do it.
02:24It's like taking pictures, right?
02:26So you got some good shots, I guess.
02:30It's a beautiful scene.
02:31The last scene at the airport, I thought, was beautiful.
02:37We rode out together.
02:39They generally don't do that.
02:42They don't generally meet presidents.
02:44There have been some of the points of the Syrian president wanting a Trump Tower in Damascus.
02:50Did that come up at all?
02:51No, that I haven't learned.
02:54We'll have to wait a little while.
02:56Everything's gotten out a little while with the, you know, the country.
02:59I think he's going to do, he's got the potential to do, he's a real leader.
03:04And, you know, he led a charge, and he's pretty amazing.
03:08But did you see him?
03:09Did you get to see him?
03:10Yeah.
03:10He was there.
03:12You know, he was with us at the event.
03:14Did the PGA tour or the golf come up at all in your conversations with the brown prince?
03:19No, no.
03:21You mean he lived?
03:22Yeah.
03:22No, it didn't.
03:23We need to see him.
03:24Mr. President, the Saudi, the Saudi intelligence agent, the 9-11 family has wanted a Saudi intelligence agent to be extradited to the United States to face charges.
03:35Did that come up in conversation?
03:37No, but I know all about it, but it didn't come up.
03:40It's not Israel.
03:41You're not going to Israel.
03:42Does this trip sideline Israel at all?
03:46No, not at all, no.
03:47This is good for Israel.
03:48Having a relationship like I have with these countries, the Middle Eastern countries, essentially all of them, I think it's very good for Israel.
03:58Can I ask you again on Israel, on the hostage deal, did any of your people speak with Israel about the release of the American hostage, I'm sorry, on the sanctions lifting of Syria?
04:10On the hostage deal.
04:11On even, well, let me ask on the frost.
04:14What credit does Israel deserve if any for that release of the hostage?
04:20Well, they've been fighting a long time.
04:22They've been warring.
04:24And I think they deserve a lot of credit.
04:27I think my people deserve a lot of credit, maybe the most credit.
04:32If he wouldn't be there before, for us, he wouldn't be living right now.
04:36Probably none of the hostages would be living right now.
04:38We probably have 20 that are living, and we'll be getting out step-by-step.
04:45You know, we've gotten a lot of them out.
04:49And last time, a couple of weeks ago, 10 people walked into my office, the Oval Office,
04:57and they said they had a 59 on their shirt in the front.
05:03And I said, what does that represent, the number of hostages?
05:06I said, oh, that's a lot.
05:08They said, well, 24 are living, and now it's 20.
05:13The number is 20 and living.
05:15And the four have died, and the young people.
05:18Young people don't die.
05:20Young people are killed, they don't die.
05:23So the 24 living of the 59, 24 living is now down to 20.
05:29And we got Edan out, and we were so thankful.
05:34We did a good job with it, and we'll continue to do it.
05:37What happens on Thursday if President Putin doesn't show up in Turkey for the talks with Ukraine?
05:42What will you do?
05:43Well, I don't know if he's showing up.
05:44I know he would like me to be there.
05:47And that's a possibility.
05:49We could end the war.
05:51I'd be thinking about that.
05:53And tomorrow we're all built down.
05:55You understand that.
05:56We're all set.
05:57But you know if he does?
05:58We're going to go to UAE tomorrow.
06:00And so we have a very full situation now.
06:04That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it to save a lot of lives and come back.
06:08But, yeah, I think they're thinking about something.
06:11I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there.
06:14We're going to find out.
06:15Marco's going.
06:16And Marco's been very effective.
06:18How are you feeling about how Putin is handling this?
06:21I know you've had said a few weeks ago.
06:22You thought maybe how Putin is handling this.
06:25You said a few weeks ago.
06:26You thought maybe it was tapping you.
06:27I'll let you know in a few days.
06:30Mr. President, on Israel again, has any of your team been in touch with Israel,
06:35your team, about lifting the sanctions on Syria?
06:39There was reaction.
06:40Well, in touch.
06:42I mean, we told them we're doing it.
06:43The reason I did it, and I think it's been very popular actually,
06:46certainly in the Middle East has been popular with virtually everybody.
06:50But the reason I did it is because I spoke with President Erdogan,
06:55we get a little bit very well.
06:57And I spoke to Mohammed, as you know.
07:00And they thought it was very important to do.
07:03It gives them a much better chance of survival as a country.
07:08Can you show what Netanyahu thinks about it?
07:10I think what's happened is Turkey feels we should do it in other countries.
07:15If you looked at my speech last night, which I assume most of you were at,
07:19I think the biggest applause was when I said that they're lifting these sanctions on Syria.
07:26And that's because they want to give Syria a chance to live and to be great.
07:31You know what I'm saying?
07:32Mr. President, an Emirati government backed for, did a $2 million deal.
07:37How did that deal come about?
07:47I don't know anything about it.
07:49I really don't know anything about it.
07:50But I'm a big crypto fan.
07:52I'm a big crypto fan, I will tell you.
07:54I've been that from the beginning, right from the campaign.
07:56I'm a believer in crypto.
07:58And if we're not going to do it, China's going to do it.
08:00The way I look at it's like AI.
08:02I'm a believer in AI because we have to have it.
08:04We're leading China by a lot.
08:06And in crypto, we're leading China by a lot.
08:08So I'm a big crypto fan.
08:09Do you need to know about that?
08:10No, no.
08:11Senator Schumer said he wants to block your Justice Department political acquaintance
08:16until he gets answers about questions about the Qatari plane.
08:20What's your response?
08:21Schumer has, you know, he's become a Palestinian.
08:23There's something wrong with him.
08:24I don't know.
08:25I've known him a long time.
08:26There's something wrong.
08:28He's lost his confidence.
08:29Totally.
08:30And there's just something wrong with him.
08:32I don't know what it is with Schumer.
08:34Yeah, did you have a question?
08:36Go ahead.
08:37Well, I've got two questions on Iran and Russia.
08:40Are you still considering secondary sanctions on Iran's oil exports?
08:45Let's see what happens over the next week.
08:48I don't really want to answer it because I want to see what happens over the next week.
08:52Go ahead.
08:53And then on Iran and Russia, are you considering sanctions on Russia or supporting Iran and
08:59for the continued war of Ukraine?
09:01Well, again, I don't want to talk about it, but I'm always considering the secondary sanctions.
09:05I had the secondary sanctions on Iran and drove them into bankruptcy and it would have been
09:10no October 7th.
09:11There would have been no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or anybody else.
09:15I'm always, as you know, I went secondary sanctions on Iran again.
09:20And hopefully they're going to make the right decision because something's going to happen
09:25one way or the other.
09:26Very simple.
09:27It's going to happen one way or the other.
09:29They can't do it very unfriendly.
09:32We're going to do it very unfriendly and that won't be pleasant.
09:36Thank you very much.
09:37On the Katori plane, Mr. President.
09:41Thank you, Mr. President.