I had a great conversation with the highly respected president of Syria, and all of the things having to do with Syria and that area are working out very, very well. So, we are very happy about it. Tom Homan, as you know, is in Minnesota now. He's meeting with the governor and he's meeting with the mayor, I think later.
And I hear that's all going very well also. I'm going to Iowa, some of you are coming with me, but I'm going to Iowa. And what can I say? The economy is good. It's all good. Prices are coming way down, and we have a lot of very positive news.
Mr. President -- do you believe that Alex Pretti's death was justified?
Well, you know, we're doing a big investigation. I want to see the investigation. I'm going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.
Is Kristi Noem going to step down?
No.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, the president of Venezuela said that he is done taking orders from you. What do you have to say about that?
Well, I don't know exactly what's going on there, but I haven't heard that at all. No, we have a very good relationship.
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How far would you like to see mortgage rates drop to?
I'd like to see interest rates go down, everything else is going down. We have the energy and fuel going down. We have gasoline in many states now at $1.99. Groceries are going down. We inherited a mess with very, very high prices -- very, very high prices. And I will tell you we've made a lot of progress.
So, we have the groceries going down. We have the energy going down, we have gasoline going down at a record clip. And that's what I want to do. We're doing well.
What do you say, Mr. President, to Alex Pretti's family?
Well, I'm looking at that whole situation. I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family and it's a very sad situation. Yeah, please.
Are you -- are you happy with Kristi Noem right now?
I have, yeah. I think she's doing a very good job. I think she's doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You forget, we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through now. We have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally. So, you have to remember those things.
You know, people forget as soon as you accomplish something, it goes into history and nobody ever wants to talk about it. We had a border that caused all of this problem. Biden caused and the Democrats caused this problem. They allowed tens of millions of people to come in. Many of them were murderers, many were drug dealers, drug addicts, people from mental institutions.
They allowed these people to violate our country -- to come into our country and that's what we're talking about. So, if you remember, we had a horrible border, the worst border we've ever had ever in history, people were flowing through by we think 25 million people, not to mention drugs and everything else.
And that border is absolutely closed.
[Crosstalk]
What's your message to unite Americans right now after everything going on in Minneapolis? How could you unite --
Our country is doing so well, prices are coming down. The border is really strong. If you remember, I probably got elected, more than anything else, on the border. We had a border that was open with 25 million people coming through with an open border policy which was insane and that's the one -- that that's the policy that caused the problem that we have.
With all of that being said, with the -- other than I would say, just to put it accurately, Minnesota and in particular Minneapolis because it's not all of Minnesota. Every city that we've gone to has been -- like literally crime has gone down 50, 60, 70, 80. In Washington it has gone down to practically no crime.
You know Washington is a great example, but you take a look at other cities, Memphis, Tennessee, the crime is down 78 percent. And you know where else It's down? It's down in Minnesota, it's down in Minneapolis and it's down very much because of the fact that we're there. So, we have to -- we can't lose sight of the fact that we have to take murderers and drug lords and people from mental institutions that were dumped into our country through open borders of Joe -- of the Democrats, of Biden, and we're doing a great job.
[Crosstalk]
The other thing is that Tom Homan is there right now. He's with the governor and he's with the mayor. And I hear things are going very nicely.
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How [Inaudible] in Abu Dhabi [Inaudible] Jared Kushner if you're meeting with President Putin in Budapest back in play?
We're looking at some very good things happening on Ukraine and Russia, very good things. Very good things are happening on Ukraine and Russia.
[Crosstalk]
On the foreign policy, Mr. President, where do we stand on Gaza, Mr. President?
I think Gaza is going very well. As you know, we got the last hostage back, the body of the hostage, and a lot of people thought that was impossible. So, we got all of the hostages back, both living and dead. And I can tell you, you have parents that really appreciate it.
[Crosstalk]
Sir, was Mr. Pretti acting as an assassin? Do you think he was acting as an assassin in Minneapolis?
Who is that?
Mr. Pretti. Your deputy chief of staff said that. You don't think so?
No, I don't think so.
[Crosstalk]
With that being said, you know, you can't have guns, you can't walk in with guns, you just can't. And you can't -- listen, you can't walk in with guns. You can't do that, but, uh, it's just a very unfortunate incident.
[Crosstalk]
Are you encouraging parents to --
We'll work something out. We'll work something out.