Donald Trump Addresses Texas Flooding Tragedy, Military Success in Iran, and Economic Policy in White House Briefing

Thank you very much. We've had a tremendous uh six months and we've had a tremendous two weeks, which now is I guess three weeks. And we have a tremendous group of people here that have done a great unified, beautiful job. Uh I want in particular because of what she's gone through this last few days, done an incredible job as you know. Uh Christie, you uh I'm going to ask you to say a few words about Texas. The uh first person there was was the first person I saw on television was you actually. And you've worked great with the governor who's terrific and uh you might want to tell a little bit about the trials and tribulations, but we appreciate the job that you and everybody have done. you had uh you had people there as fast as anybody's ever seen. So, I really appreciate it. We all do. And maybe you could say a few words. Well, thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you for your leadership. Uh Texas is strong. Um and the people of Texas are incredibly strong. They've gone through something that is absolutely horrific. Um and it is heartbreaking to watch these families um suffer the way that they are. Um, as soon as this uh flash flooding event happened, you know, the governor has has activated uh his emergency responders. Nim Kidd is his emergency management director who is incredible and has um immediately worked with the local first responders to get help to individuals and get them evacuated, put requests into me. Um we we deployed sir right away as I've as you know because you and I were talking a lot during this time the coast guard we also had some assets out of customs and border protection. Our boreac teams went in and helped uh with rescues and and clearing debris so that we could get uh roads open and and people get the help that they need. I think when I got there the most sir that day um as soon as I arrived on site was getting a briefing from all the emergency responders was just how unified they were in and focusing on the fact that they're were there to save lives. They were there to rescue people, find people who were still alive and to reunify them with their family members. Uh we as a federal government don't manage these disasters. The state does. uh we come in and support them and that's exactly what we did here in this situation. FEMA went to an enhanced level immediately, but as soon as you signed uh the major disaster declaration, uh we were able to get them resources and dollars right away, just like you envisioned through state block grants to help them with clean up. Um, and we're still there in presence and FEMA's been deployed and we're cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it much like your vision of how FEMA should operate and it's been a much better response to help these families uh get through this terrible situation. We still are looking for people. We're still looking for a lot of little girls and uh other family members that were camping along that river. uh and uh they will continue until they find every single person and we will continue to help them and assist in that. I was surprised when I got there um at the camp that day right after this happened. The the parents that were there um the parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughter's stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter's shoe that might be laying in the cabin and um just hugging and comforting people matters a lot. I'm extremely grateful for um God's hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved and uh and this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that we were created to serve each other. We were God created us to take care of each other and that when we do that we are happier. we are um more fulfilled and we can walk alongside people on their worst day and help them get through it and come out the other side um knowing uh that we can that we can continue to live a life that God has purposed for us. So they're grateful for you. I several times um the day after the flooding you and Melania were on the phone with me and I want to thank you for that and that meant the world. I was able to tell many of those folks that I had been visiting with you and that you had said whatever they need Christie, let's deploy it and get it down there and be helpful. And on Sunday when the families were waiting at a church to identify their children's bodies, Franklin Graham uh and I called in and and prayed with the families and read some scripture with them and um he was incredible in making himself available to that as well. We'll be back down there in a couple of days and uh continue to do all we can. But this this is a unprecedented event. It really is. There's there's been tragedies like this around the country, but everyone is unique in different situations and uh you know the response the federal government had supporting the state through this. I'm proud of the people that stepped up and immediately came. The Coast Guard when they came in uh they had a difficult time even getting the aircraft in and landed. They had to try several times in the weather to get it in and deploy. And I think we we've heard about, you know, our one Coast Guard member that was responsible for saving over 165 people. But that entire crew did incredible work and all the first responders there did incredible work. And I know people are getting tired now, but um but they're getting reinforcements and volunteers are showing up and I just want to commend the governor and his team for being the leaders. Um and they're so thankful that you're letting them make the decisions and manage the response like it should be uh and then us supporting them with the resources of the federal government. We've already deployed dollars to the state um much like the block grants that you've talked about. So very grateful for that, sir. There's never been a wave like this outside of the breaking of a dam because this was almost a wave that was ended up being 30 ft high more actually. Now with a dam you can understand it but this approached almost with that speed. When you see a dam break it's not a pretty sight. It wipes out everything. And this is the kind of thing that built up so fast. Uh, and it's happened two or three times before over the years, but not to this extent. But, uh, tell them, uh, when you met the father who was picking up the daughter's clothing, and I had walked through the cabin where all the little girls died. Um, and and I I had kind of fallen apart in there, but I walked out of the cabin and what a gentleman was standing there and he said, "Um, that that man over there needs a hug." And so I walked over to him and I hugged him and I said, ' Do you work here? And he said, 'N no, my little girl was in that cabin. And he said, and I just found her best friend about an hour and a half ago. She had passed away. Um, and he just fell apart. And so then we just um hugged and talked for probably an hour uh about that. But then there was another the the grandpa was there looking for his granddaughter as well. There was a dad there of one of the counselors. Um the counselor was alive, but she was dealing with the fact that she had hung on to some of these girls and was trying to keep them out of the flood waters and had gotten hit by something and had lost two of the girls and and wasn't able to hang on to them and was going to live the rest of her life thinking about that moment when she wasn't able to hang on to these girls. If you're a homeowner, you need to listen to this. When's the last time you checked on your home title? That's the legal proof that you own your house. If you're like me, the answer is never. The problem is in today's AI and cyber world, scammers are stealing home titles, and your equity is the target. Here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on one document, use a fake notary stamp, pay a small fee with your county, and boom, your home title has been transferred out of your name. Then they take out loans using your equity, or even sell your property. 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And so it was a and then the director was there comforting everybody who had lost his father the night before too and he was still there trying to facilitate all of these parents grieving their children and find them. So the strength of of people is incredible. One of the things that I asked there today that day was that they all have escorts or counselors when parents come in that so from that point that when they came into the camp that they have somebody with them when they're going and looking for their children's belongings or looking for their children. And so um very emotional um but also um just so tragic. Yeah. The relationship with Texas and the governor has been obviously very good for years with me, but the relationship with Texas and their first responders and us with our first responders and lots of other people. And we brought in a lot of helicopters from all over and we had a lot of helicopters. It was actually dangerous. A lot of helicopters up there, but they were real pros and they were responsible for pulling out a lot of people and we got them there fast. and the uh Texas had some good ones too. But uh the response has been incredible and the fact that we got along so well. I don't know that's not I don't even think that's a political thing, but uh we got along so well and it was so unified. I think a lot of lives have been saved. That could have been as bad as it was and you could have lost double or triple. This thing was just uh really horrible. Well, uh, congratulations on a late job and appreciate I know you're going down. I'll be going down on Friday with, uh, first lady would be taking a trip and we don't want to get in anyone's way because, uh, you know, that's what happens. The president goes and everyone's around focused on I don't want anyone to focus on us, but uh, it's possible they could have they could have somebody saved still. You know, there's a lot of areas. It's a big area and uh you know it's probably unlikely at this point but there could be this they're thinking there could be the possibility but uh what a tragic situation. Good job and we'll see you on Friday and we'll finish out the day here. Uh I think you've been reading a lot about uh it's a a terrible topic when you talk about financial after this but we have a big country and we've been doing very well. Uh the tariffs, as you know, are starting to come in at record levels. Tremendous amounts of money are coming in to our country. We never did that before. We're not used to it. We only have tariffs going out. We only adhere to the rules of other nations who charge us tremendous tariffs because we were led by stupid people or people without any business sense. And I'd like to ask Scott, you could maybe talk a little bit about how well we're doing with regard to the money coming in. And the big money will start coming in on uh August 1st. I think it was made clear today by the letters that were sent out yesterday and today. Go ahead, please. Yes, sir. We will have taken in about a hundred billion dollars in tariff income thus far this year. And that's with the tariffs uh the major tariffs not having started till the second quarter. So we could expect that that could be well over 300 billion by the end of the year. Uh we don't agree with CBO scoring but for those who do uh the CBO scored tariff income over the next 10 years at 2.8 trillion which we think is probably low. And you know, sir, uh, under your leadership, we're witnessing and they gave us no credit during this last little, uh, the great big beautiful bill. I always use the word great. I add that to it because it really is what it is. It's never been anything like it actually. And I want to thank all the Republicans that uh, voted for it. And I I want to, you know, scold the Democrats because they're voting for tax cuts. They're voting for no tax on tips, no tax on social social security, no tax on overtime, and you know, many, many other things far more important than that. Great health care. Uh, and frankly, they every every Democrat should lose their election because it was purely political to vote. They were told not to vote for it. So, think of it. We got 218-2 and then with the Senate, we had 50-3. Democrats didn't vote at all. not not one positive vote with all of the good things in there. Economic development money, tremendous border money. Now you're loaded up on the border. And I don't think we're going to need so much of it because we had a we had zero come in last month. So I'm not sure how much of it we want to spend. You may think about that. You may actually think about saving a lot of money because the walls been largely built and it obviously worked. But you uh you may want to think about that. But uh so I I think it's incredible when I watch the Democrats and they have standard lines like they had Russia, Russia, Russia. Uh they had uh the laptop from hell. It all came from Russia. You know, they mix they make things up and they go with it and they feed it to you people in many cases and they said, "Here's our line." And I I hear the new line is death. Oh, it's death. Everyone's going to die. Has nothing to do with death. In fact, we're saving our country. Death is from allowing 25 million people into our country, of which three or four are stone cold, hard criminals, 11,888 are murderers. Many of them committing more than one murder. That's death. And the Democrats did that. Joe Biden did that by allowing people to come in here just totally unchecked, unvetted, open borders. Open borders. The whole world was dumped into our country from prisons, from gangs, from mental institutions. We have many people walking the streets, walking in areas that we don't know anything about that came out of uh insane asylums. They released their insane asyl the insane asylum population into our country. And we're it's amazing the job that you and Tom Hman are doing, by the way, on that. But uh we have to get them out and we have no choice. We have to get them out and we are getting them out. And so, uh, Pete, you want to tell them about our great military and how well we did with respect to the bombers and the B2? We had the pilots here two days ago and they were incredible people. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Um, truly a historic mission and demonstrated the skill and courage of the United States military. from those B2 pilots and families that we had a chance to meet, sir, uh to the fighter pilots to the refuelers to the maintainers to the air defenders who defended the base. Um what was demonstrated on the world stage was American military might and capability. And it wasn't just Foraux and Esvahan and Natans that took notice in Iran. It was the rest of the world that we have def a decisive commander-in-chief willing to use these capabilities which are the best in the world. As the president pointed out, no one else could have done what America did there on that night and everyone took notice of that. Um, with the one big beautiful bill served, we've got 150 uh billion additional to invest in Golden Dome and all the other weapon systems and stockpiles and ship building priorities of yours. Another month, another historic recruiting uh bump. It's not just the Army and the Marine Corps anymore. It's the Navy, the Air Force, and the Space Force all historically ahead of where they've ever been. So historic spirit inside the military. We had a chance to be at NATO, Marco and I, and see how the world responds to to us saying it's time for you to shoulder the burden and take the lead for your continent. It only happens with President Trump leading. And we're proud to be a part of what's going on at the border, sir. Uh with now a fourth national defense area where we're helping get to that number zero and securing the border. But that mission, Operation Midnight Hammer, re-established deterrence. It reversed what happened in Afghanistan. You saw the debacle of what Biden allowed to happen in Afghanistan and the what that did to our image. President Trump said uh with Operation Midnight Hammer reestablishing American leadership and deterrence and we were proud to be a part of it, sir. And our so-called enemies were watching. They watched every minute of it. They watched. There was very few people that weren't watching actually, but they watched every minute. was a perfect military performance the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. I mean, if you compare that to the same country, the hostages from years ago, Jimmy Carter, it was unfortunate for Jimmy Carter. He was a nice man, but with the helicopters going down, the sandstorms, the prisoners, they got captured, then the election and the prisoners and Reagan and all the problem. It was nothing but problems. And uh and that was a failure. And ours was not only the pilots. I mean, those machines flew for 37 straight hours. They didn't stop. They went scuaddle. You know the word scuaddle? It means scued. They dropped the bombs and they somebody said scued. Let's get the hell out of here. And every bomb hit its mark uh and hit it be hit it incredibly. And as you know the atomic energy commission said it's gone. That place is gone. We had a lot of fake reporting mostly from CNN where uh a scammer writer a writer for CNN who should be fired by the way she was involved with the 51 fake intelligence agents if you remember that she did that story created a story out of it. She created a story out of the laptop from hell saying it came from Russia but it actually came from Hunter Biden's bedroom or worse. Uh and uh just a scammer and she's still at CNN which is pretty amazing. But uh we'll we'll ask you a question about her. But they came up with this concept that maybe the attack wasn't that good. Maybe it and I saw it happen right after the attack. I saw this person on CNN. actually watch. I like to watch the enemy. You learn from the enemy. And I watch because you have to know where they're coming from. And I watch her say, uh, Anderson, you know, I'm hearing stories that maybe they didn't hit their target. Maybe it wasn't that good a hit. And you were hearing stories. The next day it was a little more. And the next day a little more. After three, four days she was saying, you know, I don't know. I don't think it was that. Except by that time everybody knew it was hit perfectly. Uh the evidence is in the planes. The evidence will the pilots are their best evidence. But they actually came out of their plane because they were here the other day and they said it was so sad. We did such a good job. We flew into very dangerous airspace. I'll never forget we were in the situation room and they said they have entered Iranian airspace and everyone took a deep breath because they had more missiles pointed at them but the equipment is so good. stealth way up in the air and it was stealth and they went right through that and they sort of by the time they found out they were there they were already gone. That was the word scuaddle. Get the hell out of here. But they were right in the most dangerous airspace in the world and they took those big beautiful very fast. They're unbelievable planes. I mean they become really beautiful works of art. You know I always thought they sort of were cool but now they look better than just cool don't they? Huh? But they uh dropped the loads and literally uh they would hit if you look at this table from here to there they had a a half a refrigerator door is the way to best explain it. Take a refrigerator door average size cut it in half that was their target. They hit every single one. Then we had 30 missiles tomahawk shot from submarines 300 miles away. Every one of them hit their target. It was a perfect mission. And then they came back almost 37 hours. Every plane worked perfectly. The mechanics were here too. I said, "You got to get the mechanics here." We didn't have any problems. Uh if you remember, they had a lot of problems with the helicopters, but they did fly through a dust storm, which they shouldn't have done. Sometimes you say, "Let's go back and try it on a nicer day." Dust and sand don't work well with helicopters if you know much about helicopters. But that was a horrible embarrassment to us. Then we had Afghanistan which I think was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country and we would have gotten out. I was I was the one that got him down. I would have kept Bram the big air base which right now is controlled by China among the most powerful runways in the world thick thick with concrete and steel. Anything could land. And right now they were one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. I was keeping it outside of that. we were leaving and I would have been out faster than them, but we would have gotten out with strength and dignity. Instead, that was the most botched up mess I've ever seen. They left all that equipment behind. And every year they have a a parade running down some third rate street with the equipment. You know, it's supposed to be Fifth Avenue. It doesn't work. But, uh, with all that equipment that they left, they should have taken every ounce of it. I was taking every in. I said, "Every screw, every bolt, every nail you take out of there." And uh Millie said, I remember one time, so we're better off leaving the equipment. Why? Well, it's cheaper. I said, cheaper? You mean it's cheaper to leave a $150 million airplane rather than flying into Pakistan or India or someplace or just flying it straight home? It's cheap. Yes, sir. That's when I knew he was an idiot. Uh didn't take long to figure that one out. But uh they left all that equipment, but they left their dignity behind. It was the most embarrassing moment in my opinion in the history of our country. Not that we got out. We should have not been there, but that we got out the way we got out with great embarrassment and death. You had 13 young people. I've gotten to know their families very well. But you had hundreds of people killed that nobody talks about. Yet the other side, many people were killed. Many people are walking around with no legs, no arms from that whole thing. They left from the wrong airport. They should have left from Bram because Bram was a big base with hundreds of miles of of you know fencing and territory around it. Nobody would be able to get near it and uh they left. So, you know, we've done uh we've done a great job and I think people are really starting to see it. They're starting to appreciate it. Pete's done fantastically. that mission was was a work of art. And I have spoken to some of our uh perceived I don't know if they're enemies, but they're perceived as being potential enemies. And they essentially said the same thing. Very impressive. Uh there wasn't a thing that we didn't even we didn't lose an engine. We didn't lose it. Just they landed and they were cheered. But the sad thing was they were cheered and one of the pilots said, "You know, we were a little concerned because when we got out, we were told that on television they were reporting that we may have missed our targets." Sir, we hit every target. That's what I do for a living. We hit every target. In fact, when I saw when we dropped when the bombs hit, a yellow haze came over the horizon that I've never seen before. It just lit up the whole horizon. Brighter than the sun. It was like looking into the sun. He goes, "We hit our target." Because you know what that was that was exploding. And uh but they were a little downbeat because they would listen to that fake CNN reporting and the fake New York Times. They worked together to try and say that it wasn't uh wasn't perfect. They couldn't say what they missed. All they could say is maybe it wasn't perfect. And you ought to fire that reporter immediately. You should fire her. a real fake and uh so I just want to congratulate those pilots and you know a lot of people don't like bringing things like that up. I do. I always like confronting because otherwise the public doesn't know that you're a bunch of crooked people but uh but they know they've learned and the media has to straighten out their act. You know the media is down to 17% approval. You got to do a little better than that. It's important for the country that you do better. I think they ought to make a lot of changes. I think changes are going to be made to the media, but uh it's hard to have a really successful country if you have a corrupt media and we really have a corrupt media and nobody really knows why. I mean, why would you want to have open borders and criminals pouring into our country? Why would you want to have men playing in women's sports, transgender for everyone? You know, you'll have to figure that out. But some of you don't. I mean, I'm looking at some people, they love the country, but I look at other people and they can't. But, uh, we were really proud of our military. It was uh and and and the people that maybe don't like us or want to play games with us because I think that had you not had the situation in Afghanistan, I don't think Putin would have gone in. I think when Putin looked at how stupid and incompetent that operation was, he said, "Wow, this might be a chance." And uh he's uh we're dealing with him now too. That's we're not happy with Putin. I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now because he's killing a lot of people and a lot of them are his soldiers. His soldiers and their soldiers mostly. And it's now up to 7,000 a week. And I'm not happy with Putin. Okay. Any questions? Yes. Uh yes, sir. You just said that you're not happy with Vladimir Putin. Is there anything that you plan to do to act on that feeling about having telling you don't we want to have a little surprise? You know, one of the things we did with the attack is that uh and you asked that question. I wish I don't want I didn't mean to be rude, but I'm in a rude because I'm looking at some of these crooked people up here, so I'm rude, but your question was asked very nicely. But one of the things we did is we we uh went over every fact. We wanted to get every fact straight. We want to have the distance straight, the number of pilots straight, everything had to be correct because we want to be this was a very important mission. If we failed on this mission, it's it was beyond uh the the war that you know obviously we had with Iran and Israel, a lot of hatred, a lot of years and years of hatred, centuries of hatred. Uh they've never people have never seen anything like it. So we wanted to be correct with all our facts. So, you know what I was doing is just asking it would be great if if uh if the media would be correct with FX. That's all we ask for. So, and go ahead. So, finish it up. Oh, yes. Um just returning back to Russia. If there's anything that you would signal about your displeasure with them. Well, I'm just Look, I'm very unhappy with them. There's no reason for this. It's uh it's turned out to be tougher, but it's it's only tougher. And and I will say the Ukrainians were brave, but we gave them the best equipment ever made. We gave them uh the anti-tank busters that knocked out tanks. I mean, you just aim them in the direction of the tank and the tank is gone. We gave them uh missiles, the latest and the greatest. They were able to shoot down a lot of things that would have normally wiped out. You know, probably would have been a very quick war. It would have been a war that lasted three four days, but they had the benefit of unbelievable equipment and Europe gave them to we gave them far more because Biden shouldn't have done that. He should have equalized it. We should have given him the same or we should have given actually less than Europe. It affects Europe much more than us. But we're in there for over $300 billion. Europe's in there for over 100 billion. But still, Europe gave a lot. And I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it's unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn't be operating it. They wouldn't have the courage to do it. So they fought very bravely. But we gave them the the best equipment in the world. We make the best military equipment by far. There's nobody close. You look at other equipment from other countries, it's not even close. That's why everybody wants to buy our equipment. And that's why we're going to step up these contractors now that make it and they're brilliant, but they make it too slowly. And we have to step them up, Pete, and let them make it at a much higher rate. Unfortunately, we have to do that. But if you look at our Patriots, if you look at our Tomahawks, uh if you look at our uh well, what we do with tanks is you wouldn't want to be driving a tank. you would feel nice and secure. But they are javelins they're called. And I gave them the javelins. Remember they said uh Trump gave the javelins and Obama gave them sheets, right? They called Obama at that time. Barack Hussein Obama, if you haven't heard, did a terrible job. But that was a war that that was a war that should have never happened. And a lot of people are dying and it should end. And I don't know, we get we get we get a lot of thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. Do you want to sanction him? Lindsey Graham has a sanctions bill on Russia. Do you want him to I'm looking at it. Yeah. No, I'm looking the Senate is passing and passed a very very tough sanctions bill. Yeah, I'm looking at it. Can you sign that? It's an optional bill. It's totally at my option. and they pass it totally at my option and to terminate totally at my option and I'm looking at it very strongly. Yesterday the Council of Economic Adviserss released a new report saying that that imported goods uh have actually decreased in price um from December. I know well my my questions well the Fed chairman keeps saying that tariffs are going to cause price increases. Are the prices just not chairman of the Fed? Yes, exactly. You do a better job than him. Thank you. Are the prices just not passed through yet? No, I think what's happening is everything's evening out. You know, when we charge See, what people don't understand the other countries have been charged almost every country charges us tariffs. We had deficits with everybody for years for for decades. And we were like this big monolith that made bad deals with everybody. You know, we rebuilt South Korea and we stayed there. It's okay. We rebuilt it and we stayed there and they pay us very little for the military. I got them to pay billions of dollars and Biden then cancelled it when he came in. You know, I sent to South Korea as an example. You know, we give you free military essentially, very little. And uh I think you should pay us $10 billion a year. And they went crazy, but they agreed to three. So I got three with a phone call and I was satisfied. I said, "But next year we have to talk." And then we had a rigged election and we never got to talk. And you know what Biden did? He they probably went to him and they said, "Listen, Trump treated us terribly." And we shouldn't be paying anything and he cut it down to nothing. So that's what happens. It's ridiculous. That's the other thing. We're talking to countries about contributing to the military. Not only just paying more in NATO, but contributing. You know, we have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in Germany. 52,000 actually. And you know that's a huge economic development for them. That's tremendous amount. That's like having a city. It's tremendous money for them and it's a tremendous loss for us. So we're talking in a very nice way. We're talking to them about it. It's very unfair. We supply the militaries to many very successful country. I mean South Korea is making a lot of money and they're very good. They're very good. But you know they should be paying for their own military. Could I ask you a question about Jerome Pal as well? And then the question to the attorney general. Uh Jerome Pal. Um and then I have a question for the attorney general. Uh Jerome Pal who you've been pressuring to lower interest rates. Uh he's facing accusations of lying to Congress which is a potential crime about the Well, then he should resign immediately. We should get somebody in there that's going to lower interest rates. Do you want congressional Why don't you call for his resignation? Do do you want congressional Republicans to investigate? Stay with me. I think he's terrible. I think, look, we're paying I call him too late. Too late. Like two tall Jones for the Dallas Cowboys, right? Too late. Uh he's always late, but he wasn't late with Biden before the election. He was cutting him like crazy. It didn't help too much, did it? But he was cutting him like crazy before the election with Kamala and Biden. He was trying to get them in, I guess. I don't know. He was recommended by somebody that worked for me. Uh I like you better. the attorney general question. Sure. Um your memo and released yesterday on Jeffrey Epstein, it left some lingering mysteries of one of the biggest ones is whether he ever worked for a American or foreign intelligence agency. Um the former labor secretary who was Miami US attorney um Alex Costa. He allegedly said that he did work for an intelligence agency. So could you resolve whether or not he did? And also, can you say why there was a minute missing from the jail house tape on the night of the day? Yeah, sure. If I could I just interrupt a second? Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy? This creep that is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time and do you feel like answering? I I don't mind answering. I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we're having some of the greatest success and and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems uh like a desecration. But you go ahead. Sure. Sure. First to back up on that, in February I did an interview on Fox and it's been getting a lot of attention because I said I was asked a question about the client list and my response was it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed meaning the file along with the JFK MLK files as well. That's what I meant by that. Also to the tens of thousands of video, they turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Child porn is what they were never going to be released. Never going to see the light of day. To him being an agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that. and the minute missing from the video. We released the video showing definitively the video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide. And what was on that there was a minute that was off the counter. And what we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year, every um night they redo that video. It's old from like 1999. So every night the video is reset and every night should have the same minute missing. So we're looking for that video to release that as well showing that a minute is missing every night and that's it on epste on the tariffs again first you said is the deadline. What incentives do countries have to negotiate? It seems that deadline keeps moving it April second. Now it's we didn't move no it's always been August 1. That's why we're paying it. A statement was be put out today and I put it out just to make it clear. It wasn't a change. It was August 1. We don't change very much. You know, every time we put out a statement they say he made a change. I didn't make a change. Clarification maybe. Uh no, August 1st they pay and everybody pays. Everybody has to pay. And the incentive is that they have the right to deal in the United States. If they don't want to, they don't have to pay and they don't have to deal here. But if they want to uh buy and make a lot of money and sell in the United States, they have to do that. You know, if you go back and look at some of the good presidents, our country was the wealthiest proportionately the wealthiest from 1870 to 1913, it was an all tariff country. We didn't have income tax. That came due in n that came in in 1913. We had tariffs and we had so much money we didn't know what to do with it. We had uh I mean we had a couple of presidents that were very very strong. McKinley I guess more than anybody but he was the tariff king but he was very very strong. It's sort of sad. He uh he made a fortune for this country became very rich and then uh Teddy Roosevelt went out and vice president and he spent the money and they said Roosevelt was a great president and let's say he was a great president but the money was paid by McKenley with tariffs. Tariffs are charged by other countries at levels that are ridiculous. And you know I call those other countries to say and every one of them is willing to give us everything. Now, by the way, just so you know, sir, we'll charge you no tariffs, nothing. We'll give you everything. We'll give you access to our markets. We'll give you everything. Is that a correct statement, Scott? Yes, sir. Howard, would you say that's a correct statement? Exactly correct. It's like uh they just don't because they're very spoiled because for years they ripped us off and we didn't have a president that understood it or secretary of treasury or or secretary of of a lot of different secretaries are involved but certainly commerce secretary was you know not doing their job. I don't know about Kelly she's small business we we'll keep it that way. Okay. Her small business is bigger than almost all big businesses when you have it all up. But uh no they are uh very respectful of our country but the incentive is that they have the right to do business with us. Without that they don't have the right to do business and that will be okay too. In the next 24 hours will hear a flurry of deals. Yeah we have a lot of them going out but the deals are mostly my deal to them. Uh we're picking a number that's low. We don't want to hurt them and fair. Uh we're picking a number that's lower than in most cases lower than what they charge us. But it's amazing when you've paid all this money for years and they get one president that's a little bit different and a little tougher on this subject and they're willing to drop everything they've been charging us for years and years. I mean we have countries called we will have no you don't have to pay any tariff to come in and do business. They're giving us total access to their countries. They gave us no access to the country. They say you cannot go into a Okay, good. Now it's we will give you total access and you don't have to pay any tariffs, but please don't charge us tariffs. And we don't like that deal. So the letters I sent out are we have made some deals. We can make a lot more deals. It's just too time consuming. It's just makes it more complicated. And we can do things over the years, too. you know, we're going to we're not going to we're not hardline, but it's about time the United States of America started collecting money from countries that were ripping us off. Ripping us off and laughing behind our back at how stupid we were. Okay. Thank you, Mr. On the tariff issue. So you've talked about India coming um but then a couple days ago you issued a new tariff threat to members of the BRICS countries for if they aligned with anti-American 10% charge that would be India, Brazil. That's right. They have to pay 10% if they're in bricks because bricks was set up to hurt us. Bricks was set up to uh degenerate our dollar and take our dollar as the standard, take it off as the standard. And that's okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too. So anybody that's in BRICS is getting a 10% charge. Is that immediate, sir? Or is that if they engage in some behavior? Well, if they're a member of BRICS, they're going to have to pay 10% tariff just for that one thing. And they won't be a member long. I thought BRICS was, you know, I said this about a year ago and it largely broke up. But, you know, there are a couple that hang around, but I thought it largely broke up. Bricks is not, in my opinion, not a serious threat. But what they're trying to do is destroy the dollar. so that another country can take over and be the standard. And we're not going to lose the standard at any time. If you have a smart president, you will never lose the standard. If you have a stupid president like the last one, you would lose the standard. You wouldn't you wouldn't have the dollar as you. And if we lost the uh the world standard dollar, that would be like losing a war, a major world war. We would not be the same country any longer. We're not going to let that happen. the dollar. You ever hear the expression dollar is king? The dollar is king. We're going to keep it that way. Okay? And and I'm just saying if people want to challenge it, they can, but they're going to have to pay a big price. And I don't think any of them are willing to pay that price. Thank you, Mr. President. Are you optimistic about the Paris deal with the European Union soon? Well, the European Union has been speaking to us, Ursula, and the whole group, and they've been very nice. They treated us very badly until recently. Now they're treating us very nicely. It's like a different world actually. Uh they've treated us very badly. They were among the toughest to deal with actually in many respects. They were much worse than China. Look at what they do to our companies. They sue Apple. They sue Google. 17 billion they got from Apple on a lawsuit that they didn't have a case. uh they have, you know, judges that are European Union judges and they ruled they take so much money away from our country in terms of that, in terms of other things that they do. They're very tough, but now they're being very nice to us and uh we'll see what happens. Uh we're probably two days off from sending them a letter. We are talking to them. I I just want you to know a letter means a deal. You know, a lot of people said you we got 200 countries. We can't meet with 200 countries. is we have a few trusted people that know what they're doing that are doing a good job, but you can't do it. You have to do it in a more general way, but it's a very good way. It's a better way. It's a more powerful way. And we sent him a letter. You read the letter. I think it was wellcraftrafted. And uh mostly it's just a little number in there. You'll pay 25%, 35%. We have some at 60 70. Those are ones with massive, you know, where we have massive trade deficits because they've treated us very badly. But I would say in every case, I'm treating them better than they treated us over the years. Don't you agree with that? I'm I'm I could have done much I could have been much harsher. I don't want to do that. We want to have relationships, but but in every case, they treated us far worse than I'm treating them. I'm treating them very good. I could go higher with the tariffs, but I don't want to hurt them. That's why when you just read, you come up with the number. It's so incredible that prices are actually going down. Just so you know, when I got in, everyone said, "Oh, eggs. Eggs are going through the roof." That was the first I was in for about four days and they started screaming at me about eggs. They said, "That's Biden's problem. I didn't know about eggs." But eggs went up about five times. You did a fantastic job. And we ended up shortly getting, in fact, for Easter they said, "Go out and buy plastic eggs. You can't use real eggs." Well, we bought 200,000 eggs for the White House for the Easter egg hunt that we have at the White House and there were eggs. We had the price down and now the prices lower than it was before. We did a good job with eggs, but we did a good good job with groceries. Our prices are down in this country. A big part of it oil, the oil. You You've have you had a couple of places last week you had a $1.99 for oil for gasoline. Nobody thought they'd see that. I want to get it lower if I can, but we're we've done a good job. You've done a very good job. Do you want to say a couple of words about that, you and Chris, about what's happening with energy? Well, absolutely. But I would say uh on the on the pricing side, President Trump, uh the fact that you've uh endorsed and supported uh a policy of energy dominance. Uh that sends a signal to the market that we're going to have more supply. Uh you talked uh during the campaign about inflation being a country buster. You've broken in the back of inflation. in six months among all the other things you've accomplished. We have no inflation and we've got uh and heading into the 4th of July, these were the lowest gas prices at the pump uh in four years. Uh and again for Americans uh this is this is like hundreds of billions of dollars of that stay in their pockets because we lower the price of gas at the pump. But when we lower the price of energy, it lowers the price of food. It lowers the price of every the clothes you wear. It's the biggest thing. It's the biggest thing. It's like a big tax cut. When you get energy down, every 50 cents is like a massive tax cut. And we've gotten it down much below that. You know, we had great energy, great low prices, everything else when the election turned over. Be I'm being I'm trying to be nice about it. It turned over shockingly, but nevertheless, it happened. Um, energy started going up and it went up really bad. And then he went back to the Trump policy. The problem was they didn't know how to do that and he lost it. He lost that sucker. That big sucker was out of control and his energy prices went way up and that's what caused it. But it was also stupid spending. He they spent money like they used to use the term drunken sailors, but I won't use that term although it is very descriptive. I won't use that term. I refuse to use it. But they spent money uh at levels that nobody had ever seen before. and uh trillions and trillions of dollars wasted on the Green New scam, greatest scam in the history of our country, other than maybe Russia, Russia, Russia, that might have been, but uh the Green New Scam was the single greatest scam in the history of our country and continues to be, but it's weakened badly. It's hobbling along because people are finally they're finally getting it. But, uh they spent trillions of dollars on the Green New Scam getting nothing for it. devised by a couple of young people that weren't even good college students, you know, not even good students. Check out their marks. Yeah. Mr. Mr. President, not for CNN. Go ahead. The last jobs in the last jobs report, Mr. President, in the last jobs report, the manufacturing jobs actually lost 7,000 jobs. When will the investments that you've been talking about have an effect? Well, they're building the plants now. Uh about seven have started. We're gonna have hundreds started within a short period of time. Lee Zeldon, who may be the most important man in this room, I'm sorry, but he's the one that gets the permits. Whereas, he's the one that has to get the permits for the plants and the factories and permits that used to take five years. He's getting in record setting times. Uh AI, we're leading China a lot in AI. And if we go with this, you know, I'm allowing the plants to build their own electric. They're be I'm allowing them to become a an electric utility so they can produce their own electricity because we need double the to be successful with AI which is the biggest thing now. We need double the electricity that we have which is hard to believe. We need even more than that and they're building plants with their own electricity substations. They don't have to use the grid and anything they build extra they're putting into the grid. So, we're supplying the grid with brand new electric sources. And you know, it's funny. When they came to see me, they never even asked for that. I told them about it. The reason they didn't, they thought that was an impossibility. You're not allowed to build your own electric. These are massive investments that are being made in building electricity for their plants. And they're going to have, I think, Doug a lot of electricity left over. And that electricity is going to be passed into the grid and give us no more, you know, like you look at California, they have blackouts and brownouts every week. It's they they're totally out of control. They have a really incompetent governor. Where's Chris? Is he here? Do you want to do you want to speak to the subject? Yeah. I think a huge thing in the one big beautiful bill, Mr. president, because of your leadership, is the ending of these subsidies, as you call them, the Green New Scam. That saves our country a half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. But American taxpayers were paying twice. They're paying that money, a half a trillion dollars in the subsidies, and they were paying more expensive electricity price. If you subsidize something, you should at least lower the cost of it. Um, but in this case, we were subsidizing something and paying more for it. So the big one big beautiful bill had two huge things ending wasteful spending wind solar and batteries combined are 3% of US total primary energy 3% for a trillion dollars another half a trillion dollars coming that's just not a good investment hurting our businesses hurting our consumers and the one big beautiful bill also unshackled oil gas and coal development in the United States onshore and offshore secretary Bergam has been working tirelessly on how by getting getting the government out of the way, private businesses will develop more resources in the United States, lowering costs for American consumers, and making much better uh leverage for the United States to help our allies abroad and reduce the power of our adversaries abroad. So, just a huge win in the energy front all around. And I thank you for your leadership. We're we're setting we're setting records now on energy and they'll be nothing compared to what they'll be in about a year from now. But we're setting records and wind is a very expensive form of energy. It's very bad for your beautiful surroundings, the plains and the valleys and the birds are dying all over the place. You know, the whole thing is a disaster. Uh they're almost exclusively made in China. Not that I have anything against China because I don't have a great relationship with President Xi, but uh I asked him, "How many wind farms do you have?" He makes them, but they don't have a lot of wind farms. I'll tell you, very, very few. And uh it wind is tremendously expensive and is very ugly. And if you own a house that's inside of a windmill, your house is worth less than half. And people and you hear noises. And uh interestingly in New England, you probably read where for 50 years they had two whales washed up 50 years. And last summer they had 14 washed up. Now I'm not saying that's the wind farm that was built, but maybe it is, right? Probably is. Uh it's tremendously expensive and it can only be done with subsidy. And I know a man that's in that business and one of the biggest in the world actually runs a company that builds these stupid windmills. And he said, "I hate the business because it's the only energy where you need subsidy." He said, "Energy shouldn't need subsidy. You should make money with energy." So when the other one is the solar, those big solar fields, they're taking our farmland. Our farmers are like mortified by it. They hate it. It's very, very inefficient and very ugly, too. You know, probably better than a windmill. You go around and you see all these things that are three miles long by three miles wide and you say, "What the hell is that?" And it's a lot of plastic from China. It's plastic, black plastic from China. No, we don't. We want to be smart. We're going with uh Look, China right now is building 58 coal fired plants. 58 big ones. Uh they have 62 on the books to build. Uh we are we've reintroduced clean beautiful coal because you know you can do a lot with coal now. Clean beautiful coal and natural gas and all of the other things that we have but we don't want wind and we don't want solar because they're a blight on our country. They hurt our country very badly and smart countries don't use it. Uh solar sounds good I will say and I like on occasion you'll see a roof which is made out of solar brick and but it's a a smaller use. uh we need the kind of thing that's going to fire up our plants and it's not going to be wind. You know that is very intermittent as you probably know but we uh they have they've spent a fortune they've spent trillions of dollars on this stuff and uh and I'll just give you one other story. A friend of mine is very successful guy. He went back to see his mother in Minnesota. Hadn't seen her in a long time and he wasn't back for 10 years which isn't a nice story. I mean, you don't see your mother for 10 years. She's got some difficulties, which I know the guy, he does have some difficulties. He's very successful, but probably not the nicest person. It was actually longer than 10 years, but he went back and he told me he wanted to go and look at the valley. There's a valley in Minnesota that he thought was so beautiful and I hadn't seen it in a long time. He's driving along the road. He said, "Oh my," I'll use the word gosh. "Oh my gosh." He said, "Oh, oh." He said it looked like a junkyard. You had 159 windmills. They were all over the place. Some were old, some were newer, different companies, different shapes, different sizes, different colors. Many of them were terminated. Terminated meaning clothes. You can't take them down because the environmentalists don't let you bury the blades because they're made out of a fiber they say is bad for the earth. So, they want you to put them up, but they don't let you take them down. But many of them were turned off. He said it looked like a junkyard. Go to Palm Springs, California. And take a look at that pile of junk. And you go, you go into a wealthy neighborhood. Before you get there, you have to ride through hundreds of windmills that are most of them are turned off. They're rotting. They're rusting. They're 30 years old, 20 years old. And uh they have a very short life. You know, those windmills have a very short life. Especially the ones that are in the nice salty Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean where the salt just gets under that steel and decimates it. No, it's a horrible horrible thing for our country. And I speak out. It would be nice to say wind because it sounds so good, doesn't it, Doug? Wind. Wind. But it's not. It's these ugly machines and they're all made. You got to see some are a little taller, a little shorter. They're made by different companies. They have different stocks. They have different blades. They have different every it is so horrible. And if you look at smart countries, they don't use it. Smart countries don't use it. And we're now a smart country. We're not a We're a brilliant country. We're not smart. We're brilliant now. We're going to be a brilliant country. We have to be because we have to catch up for some really stupid people that did a bad job. Yes, Brad. Yes. Uh Mr. President, I've got a quick comment, some feedback. as a native Texan, someone that I grew up bringing my kids to a camp very near the the affected camp. Now, thank you on behalf of Texans. I've gotten hundreds of messages that want to thank if you're in the cabinet room, you can tell the president and his team on behalf of Texans, thank you so much for the quick response and the loving and the hugs I saw that that you gave. Quick, two quick questions. I got a Palestinian senator. His name is Schumer. He's a great Palestinian. No, he's a Palestinian. He's become a Palestinian. He's abandoned the Jews. But I saw him say, "Uh, it's Trump's fault." Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's Trump's fault. He was actually Do you ever see John Loveitz the liar? Where he goes, "Yeah, yeah, I went to Harvard. That's right. I'm This was Schumer." He goes, "Yeah, yeah, it's Trump's fault." That's right. It's Trump. I actually saw that stupid guy try and blame it on me and I said, "Man, that's that's a tough one to take, but he's his career is limited because I hear AOC is going to beat him and and she's no bargain either, by the way." Go ahead. Well, I would just say that's an example of an America First team effort to bring to get this country back. So, that's what America First looks like for the viewers watching us at home. My two questions. Looks like we have a rogue judge, an Obama backed rogue judge that is attempting to block the funding to Planned Parenthood, which the big beautiful bill cuts off the funding to Planned Parenthood. Any plans to challenge that? Go ahead. Absolutely. Yes, we're on. We're on it. And I texted I believe um I talked to yesterday Secretary Lutnik and um Secretary Besson. I reached out to you to let you know that that we were on it in the big beautiful bill. Wonderful. And then my I let her handle that question. Did you notice? I said, "Go ahead, handle that." That's all I'll say to her. Uh then my second question was Secretary Rollins. You did an amazing press conference today in front of the Department of Agriculture. You talked about the Farm Act and the need to get China out of our country, owning farmland. For the viewers at home that might have missed that, can you recap what that means to national security to make sure we can grow our own food? Well, thank you, Brian, sir, if you don't mind. Yes. Uh this morning, Secretary Hegsth, uh Secretary Gnome, and Attorney General Bondi and I had a press conference at the USDA. I just happened to have a chart, uh in case it came up, but obviously the Chinese owning of farmland in our country is a massive national security issue. And for the media, you can see the yellow is where all of the farms have been purchased over the last number of years. and the red is around all of the military bases where that farmland has been purchased. So, this is a massive national security issue. The press conference this morning included three of our greatest governors as well. Uh Sarah Sanders from Arkansas, Jim Pan from Nebraska, and Bill Lee from Tennessee. The states have begun taking a leadership role to ban the uh purchasing of China farmland. Obviously, Congress needs to step up and catch up and we're going to be working alongside of them as well. We had some of our members, great members of Congress there. But uh but it is time and I think that this morning was symbolic of many things. The first of this administration working every day to effectuate President Trump's leadership and unequivocal support of America first, but second just how close we are as a cabinet. I don't know in any other administration that you'd have four cabinet members at the USDA on a Tuesday morning when it's about 110 degrees outside uh with the sun beating down on us talking about sir your vision. So uh I think it was a great day. It was just the start. There's an executive order coming and some other things coming behind that. But protecting America's farms isn't just about protecting our farmers. It's also about national security. So that's what we discussed this morning. I do want to say that I think we have had a really good relationship with China lately and uh we're getting along with them very well. They've been uh very fair on our trade deal honestly and uh I hope we're going to have a great relationship. It's a big strong powerful country. We're more powerful than they are. We have much better military equipment than they do, but we are getting along with them very well. I'm getting along with President Xi very well. We speak often and uh with all of that being said and I understand what you're saying, but I think we're getting along with China very well. Mr. President, you want to send more weapons to Ukraine as you said last night. Last week, the Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine. Did you approve of that? We want to put defensive weapons because Putin is not he's not treating human beings right. He's killing too many people. So, we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I've approved that. So, who ordered the pause last week? I don't know. Why don't you tell me? I think that's a question. Go ahead, Mr. President. On immigration, the secretary of the agriculture did say this morning that undocumented workers would not be covered up by any amnesty who working on farms. You had said maybe that the ISA folks won't go after those folks on farms. So, so No, no, there's no amnesty. What we're doing is we're getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program. Do you want to explain that please? Yeah, this morning uh we talked about, of course, this was a top of mind question. This morning we talked about protecting the farmers in the farmland, but obviously this president's vision of no amnesty, mass deportation continues, but in a strategic way, and then ensuring that our farmers have the labor that they need. Secretary Chavez Derimer has been a leader on this. Obviously, this comes out of the labor department, but moving toward automation, ensuring that our our farmers have that workforce and moving toward an American workforce. So, all of the above. You want to give the farmers the people they need, but uh we're not talking amnesty. Lori, do you want to say something about Yeah, thank you, Mr. President, on this. Um, thank you, Secretary Rollins. How important this is never to displace the American worker. What the Department of Labor is doing is focusing on what the law entails now being more modernized, more streamlining to work through the H programs. We're going to have a concierge approach to that where we have um you know developed a new office to answer the need of our farmers and ranchers and producers and not to displace the American worker and follow within the law. Now, and that does not include an amnesty program at all. And we've seen um that working and we'll continue to have that roll out. On the other topics that we've somewhat talked about, the jobs numbers, Mr. President, four months in a row, we've seen those jobs numbers increase. That's an exciting time for our manufacturers. That was asked earlier. Um, we know it's going to take some time, but through that deregulation process that Lee and I are working on as well. The Department of Labor has rolled out 63 63 new deregulations that we're going to be moving through. In the first Trump administration, it was successful with over 30. We've just rolled out 63 new ones in order to double down on those manufacturing companies to let them know that we have signaled um through this process that we will assist them in getting the workforce that they need. Um it's an exciting time. That one big beautiful bill that was the signal to my former colleagues in Congress to get this done. Um it's been an important time. I spent time on the ground visiting seven states in nine days prior to that bill being passed because it was the most proworker piece of legislation that we will ever see really in this country right now. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security. That matters to the American worker because we don't want to take their money and give it back. We want them to keep more of their hard-earned dollars in their pockets currently and that's what they're excited about. And as I move forward with these tariff talks, I heard a company, orthopedic company in Indiana say to me for the first time since you have taken office, Mr. President, um their increase in uh their bottom line by 8% since these tariff talks have happened. Not one company has said the president is not doing a good job. These tariff talks are working. They're feeling it on the ground. the media has told a false story because what's happening on the ground is positive and that's what we're seeing in these jobs num