What a nice grouping this is. This is really nice. Look at this. Uh, any, it's gonna be very rough in about 10 minutes, so we'll have to go a little bit quickly.
Okay.
They just said, uh, very, very rough.
Sir, on Iran, have they crossed your red line yet to a trigger response?
They're Starting to, it looks like, and there seem to be some people killed that aren't supposed to be killed. These are violent, if you call them leaders, I don't know if they're leaders or just they, they rule through violence. But we're looking at it very seriously. The military's looking at it. And, uh, we're looking at some very strong options.
We'll make a determination.
Which options have you been briefed on? Are you meeting with senior officials? Are you meeting with your [Inaudible]
Am I gonna really, are you asking me to say what will I do? Where will we attack? When? And at what angle will we attack from?
Are you considering --
Who are you with?
I'm, I'm with this US White House TV pool. I'm wondering, are you being briefed on options?
What network are you with?
I'm with CNN, sir.
Why don't you just say I'm with CNN? She says, "I'm with the White House pool."
Yeah.
And I say, "What --" You're with CNN. You're with --
I'm with CNN.
You're with fake news.
Iran said --
'Cause CNN is fake news. Go ahead. Give me, give me a question.
Can I ask how you're balancing and how you're deciding your response, the balance between helping protestors versus hindering them? 'Cause I imagine that's a delicate balance to strike.
I mean, some of the protestors were killed through the stampeding. I mean, you know, there's so many of them. And some were shot. We're getting a full report. I'm getting an hourly report and we're gonna make a determination.
Sir, the son of the disposed Shah, the son of the disposed Shah and some military leaders are encouraging you to take action in Iran. Are you, are, is that a serious option and [Inaudible]
People have been shot and we're looking at it. Yeah, please.
Are you gonna go to Venezuela or is Secretary Rubio gonna go to Venezuela anytime soon?
At some point, yeah. We're doing well. Venezuela is really working out well. We're working along really well with the leadership and we'll see how it all works out.
Sir, how did your meeting with Delcy go?
Uh, at some point, I'll meet. Yeah. She's been very good. Look.
What, what --
She asked us, can we take 50 million barrels of oil? And I said, "Yes, we can." It's four billion, 4.2 billion dollars.
Sir --
And it's on its way right now to the United States.
When will you meet with, um, with Machado this week?
I'm looking for something to grab here. Because it's, it's getting, it's going to get rough, and I don't seem to be in a very, I think you did this to me. You put me in a position where there's absolutely nothing to grab.
Mr. President --
So I'm looking for something to grab, and it's not going to be Karoline.
Mr. President, have any oil companies made commitments to you, sir? Have any oil companies made commitments to the United States after your meeting on Friday, sir?
Yeah.
Which has, have Exxon --
No, I don't want to say, no, I didn't like Exxon's response. I, you know, we have so many that want and I'd probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn't like their response. They're, they're playing too cute.
So what, what backstops or guarantees have you, have you told the oil companies that you're willing to provide?
Guarantees that they're gonna be safe, that, uh, there's gonna be no problem, and there won't be. There's not gonna be a problem. They had problems in the past because they didn't have Trump as a president. They had stupid people.
What kind of deal are you looking for from Cuba? What kind of deal are you looking for from Cuba?
You're gonna find out pretty soon. We're talking to Cuba, and you'll find out pretty soon. And one of the things I want taken care of, and one of the groups I want taken care of are the people that came from Cuba, that were forced out or left under duress, and they're great citizens of the United States right now.
[Inaudible]
You have a lot of people forced out of Cuba unfairly, so we're gonna take care, most importantly right now, we're gonna take care of the people that came from Cuba that are American citizens or in our country.
Do you plan to, to seize any oil tankers that are headed to Cuba?
Well, we have a lot of oil people really interested. You saw that the other day, and that was just a small group because the room in the White House, we needed, we need the ballroom, actually. We could have filled up the ballroom practically. We have so many people that want to go in for oil. So, uh, you saw great, some great companies.
Are you going to set Starlink to Iran, sir, to help the people in the ground with the internet blackout for 70, more than 72 hours?
We're going to be talking about that. We may get the internet going, if that's possible.
Are you talking to Musk about it?
We may speak to Elon 'cause as you know, he's very good at that kind of thing. He's got a very good company, so we may speak to Elon Musk. And, uh, in fact, I'm gonna call him as soon as I'm finished with you.
Just quickly, Iran said that they would consider military and commercial bases as legitimate targets if you struck. Are you concerned about --
Well, if they do that. We'll consider things targets they wouldn't, that they wouldn't believe. If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they've never been hit before --
Do you think --
-- they won't even believe it.
Do you think the --
I have, I have options that are so strong. So, I mean, if they did that, uh, it'll be met with a very, very powerful force.
Do you think Iran takes your threats seriously?
I think so.
Yeah?
Don't you think so, CNN? Don't you think so? Wouldn't you say that they probably do at this point? After going through it for years with me --
Right.
-- being hit. Soleimani, Al Baghdadi, the Iran nuclear threat wiped out, don't you think, and then you just had Venezuela. Don't you think, she says, CNN, "Do you think they take your threat seriously?" Wouldn't you say they do after all of the things we've done? What a stupid question. Go ahead.
Are you coordinating with allies on the response to Iran?
Yeah.
Mr. President, when will you meet with Maria Corina Machado this week?
I don't know. I hear Tuesday or Wednesday. I look forward to that.
Have you named your board of peace for Gaza yet? Where do those plans stand?
We have a board of peace that's being formed, but essentially it's the most important leaders of the most important nations. All nations, but the most important. You take the most important leaders and nations, that's who the board of peace is going to be. Everybody wants to be on it.
Sir, one group taking your threat seriously as a group, why are they not taking your threats --
Who are you with?
The New York Post.
I like the New York Post. The New York Post treats me semi-fairly. So go ahead.
One group taking your threats very seriously is Greenland. Are you still thinking of military action there or is anything that can --
What, what? Where? Military --
Greenland. Is there anything they can offer you for a deal?
Yeah. If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will. And I'm not letting that happen.
But, sir --
If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland, and I am not gonna let that happen.
Is there any deal they can offer you either like --
Yeah, sure. I've looked if I make a deal with them. It's easier.
Yeah. Just as --
But one way or the other, we're gonna have Greenland.
Are you okay if that compromises NATO? If NATO effectively ceases to exist --
Oh, and I've done a great job. I'm the one that saved NATO. I'm the one that got them to pay five points, five percent of GDP.
But the, no, but --
Wait a minute. It was two, two percent and they didn't pay. Now they're paying 5%. I'm the one that saved NATO. You wouldn't have NATO if I weren't president.
Would you pull the US out of NATO? Would you consider doing that?
Well, maybe NATO would be upset if I did it. Maybe NATO would, would save a lot of money. But I like NATO. I just wonder whether or not if we needed NATO, would they be there for us? I'm not sure they would. You know, we spend a lot of money on NATO. And I'm not sure they would.
But what would you say that --
Now, what's happened is, uh, as you know, Sleepy Joe Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine, uh, and got nothing for it. I got rare earth back. I got, I think value back far greater than that, but, and that's what he should have done. Now, if you look at what's going on with respect to NATO, we have a very good relationship. 5% GDP and they pay us. We send them military equipment and they pay us back the full cost of the equipment.
The war is, we make money with the war, but I don't even want to talk about that. I want to save the lives. They're Russian and Ukrainian lives.
You --
I want to save the lives. That's the only reason I'm doing it. This is Biden's war. Should have never happened. Would have never happened if I were president. This is Biden's war. It's not Trump's war. All I can do is stop it. And I think we're making progress towards stopping it.
Mr. President, have --
Which would be number nine and a quarter. You know what the quarter is, right? Right? Thailand and Cambodia went at it again, but I got it stopped very quick.
Mr. President, has --
I consider that one quarter of a war.
Have you made a tangible offer to Greenland yet? Have you made an actual operative deadline?
Well, I haven't done that, but Greenland should make the deal because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over. They don't go there. It's very far away from Greenland. And Greenland basically, their defense is two dog sleds. Do you know that? You know what their defense is? Two dogs sleds.
In the meantime, you have, uh, Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place. We're not going to let that happen.
In the meantime, are you --
And if it affects NATO then it affects NATO, but, you know, they need us much more than we need them. I will tell you that right now.
Mr. President, are you going to increase our military bases?
That's a war that should have never happened with Ukraine.
The UK and Germany are discussing plans for a joint NATO mission to protect Arctic security in Greenland. Does that change your calculus at all --
No.
-- in terms of acquiring?
Look. No. We're talking about acquiring, not leasing, not having it short term. We're talking about acquiring.
Does that require US --
And, and if we don't do it, Russia or China will, and that's not gonna happen when I'm president.
Are you gonna increase the amount of military basis on Greenland in the meantime?
Well, we have bases on Greenland. Yeah.
Are you gonna make, do more?
We can put a lot of soldiers there right now if I want, but, uh, you need more than that. You need ownership. You really have --
Do you think that --
You really need title, as they say in the real estate position.
You're on Minneapolis. Uh, your administration has advocated for absolute immunity for the ICE officer, uh, who shot Renee Good. Um, how do you define absolute immunity? What does that mean?
Um, everyone's seen it. And a woman who's very violent. She's a, you know, very radical person. Very sad what happened. Her friend was very radical, you know, go and drive, drive and, and --
But for the officer, absolute immunity, how would you define that?
Well, I'm gonna let the people define it. But immunity, you know what immunity knows is, means as well as I do.
So that officer should be back on the force?
But, you know, people can't be treating law enforcement that way. Whether it's ICE, or Border Patrol, or our police and men and women. You can't, you can't do that. We have, you know, the, the law enforcement in our country is doing really well, despite the fact that Sleepy Joe Biden allowed people to pour through an open border.
Uh, crime stats just came out. We have the best crime stats on record despite all the criminals he allowed into our country. We've gotten a lot of them out. We have to respect our law enforcement. At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement. And you heard the same noises.
You saw the same crunch that I saw. You can't do that with law enforcement, whether it's police, or ICE, or Border Patrol, or anybody else.
When it comes to ICE, when it comes to ICE officials though --
[Inaudible]
Mr. President, you, um, well, just to clarify on the absolute immunity, do you believe ICE officers should have absolute immunity?
Oh, some --
[Technical issue. The audio is interrupted for four seconds.]
-- generally speaking, I mean, these people have been harassed. They're threatened every day. Uh, they had vans out playing so they couldn't sleep at the hotel. I, I see what they're doing to them. They're threatening them constantly. And all they're doing is doing what I got elected on. We had millions of people that came into our country that are, uh, horrible people that shouldn't be in our country.
They're murderers. They're drug dealers. They're people from mental institutions. They're the criminally insane. They're people from prisons. They were allowed to come into our country because Biden was a stupid person and the people surrounding him, very smart, very vicious, but they have no common sense and they're radicalized people.
They're radical left people. Not radical right. They're radical left people. And all they're doing is what I campaigned on. I won in a landslide. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote. We won the districts. We won everything. We won the counties. We won the counties by 79%, I believe. I campaigned on the great border, and now we have a great border.
But Biden let 25 million people come into this country, and many of those people are criminals, including 11,888 murderers. And we want them out. And I won on that. Now, people don't talk about it because the border is so, so secure. Nobody wants to talk about it anymore. The border was one of the reasons I won the election.
I've done such a good job on it, but nobody wants to talk about it anymore. The border is totally secure. And now the crime stats just came out, and they're the best numbers since they were taken, and that's like 50 years ago. We have the best crime numbers, despite the fact that a lot of criminals were allowed into our country.
Do you think that --
We have to respect our law enforcement.
Sir, do you believe that deadly force was necessary after watching all the footage of the[ ] that passed? What's your assessment there?
It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement. The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement. You saw that. They were harassing them. We were following for, for days and for hours. Uh, and I, I think, frankly, they're professional agitators.
But does disrespecting mean that --
And I'd like to find out, and we are gonna find out who's paying for it --
But just disrespecting --
-- with their brand new signs and all the different things. But these are professional agitators. And law enforcement should not be in a position where they have to put up with this stuff. What that woman and what her friend and what their other friends were doing to law enforcement, not just ICE, law enforcement is outrageous.
Mr. President, can you tell us about, uh, your trip to Detroit on Tuesday?
I'm gonna be making a trip to Detroit to talk about our unbelievable amount of factories that are opening up all over the country, many of which are car factories and car plants. We have manufacturing plants opening up at levels that nobody's ever seen before because of tariffs. Uh, if we didn't have tariffs, you wouldn't have them opening, although they were very happy with the November 5th election.
But we have, from Canada, they're coming, from Mexico, they're coming, from Germany, from Japan, from all over Europe, and from Japan, other places, and from China. They're opening up car factories, car manufacturing plants, at levels that we've never seen before. So I'm going to Detroit because they're gonna be opening up plants in Detroit or redoing plants, but they're really ripping down old plants and building new.
We are going to be, we're the hottest country right now anywhere in the world.
I mean, think of it. A year and a half ago, we were a dead country and now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world.
Mr. President, the House passed a three year extension of the ACA. It's in the Senate. If it passed the Senate, would you veto it or allow it to --
I might. Yeah. I might.
Sir, do you have any information about the suspicious object that was found at Palm Beach International Airport before takeoff?
No. I know nothing about it.
Okay. And back on Iran, the Ayatollah said that he thinks that the protestors are trying to quote, "please you." Do you see it that way? What's your message to the Iranian people right now?
I don't know that they're trying to please me. They named a boulevard after me, but that's pretty pleasing. But I don't think they're trying to plea- -- I think they just want peace. They want to have freedom. The protestors are after freedom. Uh, Iran has not allowed freedom for a long time. And the protests, I don't think they're trying to plea- -- to appease me. They're trying to get somebody to help them.
They're under siege. And now it looks like they're being shot, which is a very bad thing.
Is the administration in contact with Iranian opposition leaders --
Yeah.
What's the message to them?
Yeah. Uh, you're gonna find out pretty soon.
You said that helping them --
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. With a, with the beautiful red hair.
Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, the premiere of Melania. Have you seen the movie yet and what are your thoughts on it?
I've seen pieces of it. It's incredible. I tell you.
[Inaudeible]
I think it's gonna do very, you know, she did a book. And the book was a big number one bestseller. And this is a movie, and, uh, it seems to be captivating a lot of people's attention. It's, uh, it's very good.
[Inaudible] Trump Kennedy Center?
Because here we go again, yeah, it's gonna be doing the premiere at the Trump Kennedy Center. Yeah. It'd be very exciting. It's, it's a very hard ticket, I can tell you. Everybody, Wayne Gretzky and his wife, Janet, beautiful wife, great wife, they said last night, "Gee, I want to go to --" A lot of, everybody wants tickets to the premier.
[Inaudible]
I think it's gonna be great.
Mr. President, is there any timing on the mortgage bond purchases you announced last week?
On the what? Mortgage?
Mortgage bond purchase, purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
No, they're already doing it. They've started.
They're already doing it?
Yeah, they started the process. And it's having a great impact. Interest rates are falling ra- -- very rapidly. Not only for that reason, for other reasons too, but interest rates are falling very rapidly.
Do you have any sense that Iran wants --
With no help from the Fed, because we have a total stiff at the Fed.
Do you have any, can I ask you, um, the announcement on the cap on credit card interest rates --
Yeah.
-- that you put out on Friday, um, what happens if the credit card companies don't comply by the January date you set?
Well, then they, then they're in violation of the law.
Do you have Congressional support --
Very severe things. No, I want a cap on credit card interest rates because, you know, some of them are 28, almost 30 percent. And that, people don't know they're paying 30 percent. The people out there, you know, they're working and they have no idea that they're paying 30 percent. No way. We're putting a one year cap at 10 percent and that's it. They know it.
[Inaudible]
And they really, they've really abused the public. The credit card companies have totally abused, I'm not gonna let it happen.
Do you sense a willingness from Iran to engage diplomatically with you or perhaps negotiate on nuclear, with their nuclear program?
With, with Iran?
Yeah, do you think they wanna engage diplomatically with you?
They do. They called --
They called you?
Yes they did.
Is it still an option? Is it still an option?
Iran called to negotiate.
Yesterday?
Yesterday. The leaders of Iran called, they want to negotiate. I think they're tired of being beat up by the United States.
Can you share any details about that call?
Iran wants to negotiate, yes.
Negotiate what?
We may meet with them. I mean, it's, a meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what's happening before the meeting.
Right.
But a meeting is being set up. Iran called. They want to negotiate. Thank you very much, everybody.
Mr. President, what are you gonna do on --
Be careful, a lot of bumps.
What's your plan for East Potomac? Are you gonna renovate the golf course?
Yeah, we're gonna make it a beautiful world-class US Open, uh, caliber course that ideally we're gonna have major tournaments there and everything else. It's gonna bring a lot of business into Washington. By the way, the crime stats just came out on Washington, DC. There is virtually no crime. It's gone from tremendous crime, murder, and everything else.
There's virtually no crime in Washington, DC. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you.