Hello, everybody.
Hello, Mr. President.
It's a very sad day and, uh, glad we made our respects. It's a tough, it's a tough situation. Great people, great parents, wives, family, and a beautiful ceremony. I guess you got to see that at least partially. Uh, any questions?
President Trump, did what you just witnessed make you think differently about going ahead with this war or even putting troops on the ground in the Middle East?
No. We're winning the war by a lot. We've decimated their whole evil empire. It'll continue, I'm sure, for a little while. But, uh, very proud of the people and the parents were so proud of their, their boy, as they call him, my boy, in one case the young lady. The parents are so proud. Many of them are military parents as you know.
So it's, uh, but it's always a very sad thing. The war itself is going unbelievably. It's, uh, as good as it can be. We have, uh, Pete here, Pete, and you have Steve Witkoff here. We have some additional questions.
You're one week in now, sir. You're one week in at this point. How long, uh, as of now do you expect operations to continue.
Well, I think we've accomplished more in one week than anyone thought possible. We've wiped out their Navy, 44 ships. We've wiped out their Air Force, every plane. We've wiped out most of their missiles. You see, the missiles aren't coming much anymore. We've also hit their manufacturing, uh, areas where they make the missiles very hard.
Uh, their drone capacity is way down. And we've heard them where it hurts --
[Inaudible]
-- including, including about every form of leadership you can have, we've wiped out.
You still expect up to six weeks total?
I don't know. I, I don't know. I never reject that, whatever it takes. But we've, uh, their military is almost non-existent, if you look. We could hit that military itself very hard, but maybe we will, maybe we don't. We haven't made that determination.
What do you think of gas prices right now?
Say it?
Are you worried about gas prices right now?
No.
Why?
This is a, this is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years. 47 years it's taken to do this and no president had the guts to do it.
[Crosstalk]
Are you gonna end up coming back to Dover for, for more of these such, uh, dignified transfers.
Oh yeah, I'm sure. I hate to tell them. But it's a part of war; isn't it?
Mr. President --
Who, who are you with?
The Washington Post.
Wouldn't you say it's part of war?
Uh, deaths are, are part of war, yeah.
Yeah. It's part of war. It's a sad part of war. It's the bad part of war.
Mr. President, did the United States bomb a girls' elementary school in Southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people?
No, in my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran.
Is that true, Mr. Hegseth? It was Iran who did that? Pete Hegseth: We're certainly investigating.
Still investigating? Pete Hegseth: But the only, the only side that targets civilians is Iran.
We think it was done, we think it was done by Iran.
[Crosstalk]
Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.
Can you give us an idea of what unconditional surrender looks like to you? I mean, what do you want from Iran?
I said unconditional, not conditional. I said unconditional. It's where they cry uncle or when they can't fight any long- -- longer, there's nobody around to cry uncle. That could happen too, is, you know, we've wiped out their leadership numerous times already. So it's, uh, if they surrender or if there is nobody around to surrender, but they're rendered useless in terms of military.
Mr. President, can I ask you what Peter asked you a question yesterday. He said it wasn't the right time in that event, but he was asking whether you had indications of whether Russia is supporting Iran somehow in this.
No, I haven't, I have had no indication of that whatsoever. If they are, they're not doing a very good job because Iran is, uh, not doing too well.
What about the Strait of Hormuz? There's no traffic really going through it right now.
Well, that's, you know, the ships' choices, but, uh, we have it cleaned out. We've wiped out their Navy. The Navy is now at the bottom of the sea, so that's the choice. This is an excursion. We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. Uh, they'll also come down. They'll come down very fast, and we will have gotten rid of a major, major cancer by the face of the earth.
We will have taken out a cancer. You know, don't forget October 7th. Don't forget all of the things that have happened over the years, all, all caused by these people. So what we're doing is a great thing, not only for our country and not only for Israel, not only for the Middle East, but for the world.
Secretary Bessent announced some moves to temporarily allow certain Russian oil sales to India. Are you considering any other moves, including the SPR?
Well, if there were some, I would do it just to take a little of the pressure off, but I think that, the oil pressure, but there's a lot of oil. We've got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount and we have, there's a lot of oil out there.
Would you consider --
That'll get healed very quickly.
Did you consider using the SPR or tapping into the SPR at some point?
Strategic reserve?
Yeah.
Well, I'm the one that built them up. Biden used them so that he could get some extra votes in the election. It turned out it wasn't even him that ran. It was Kamala. And she obviously didn't get any extra votes because we won in a l- -- in an absolute landslide, so he should have used it for that. He used it to get, I filled it up, and he brought it down to the lowest level it's ever been.
We will start at the appropriate time, which is basically a gut instinct. We will start filling up these strategic reserves.
What are the circumstances where you'd, uh, send in ground troops? How are you thinking about that?
I don't even want to talk about it now. I mean, it's, uh, I don't think it's an appropriate question. You know I'm not gonna answer it. Uh, could there be? Possibly, for a very good reason, happy, have to be very good reason. And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn't be able to fight at the ground level.
Are you thinking about the oil facility there? There's an oil facility kind of on the coast of Iran that could be secured by ground troops. There's been some speculation that could be a target.
Well, I don't know what the speculation is, but I, I certainly wouldn't be able to tell you that. I'd be in trouble with myself if I told you that.
For some reason, don't you need ground troops to secure the enriched uranium at the nuclear sites?
We're gonna find out about that. We haven't talked about it, but, uh, it was a total obliteration. They haven't been able to get to it. Then at some point, maybe we will. You know, that'd be a, would be a great thing. But right now we're, uh, we're just decimating them. But we haven't, uh, we haven't gone after it, but, you know, something we could do later on. We wouldn't do it.
Do you still want it?
We wouldn't do it now. Maybe we'd do it later on.
You said you want to be involved in the selection of the next leader of Iran.
Yeah.
Can you talk to me about that?
Well, because I don't wanna just come back every 10 years. And mostly you'll have presidents, mostly, that won't do that because they don't get it. Uh, but we don't wanna come back every five years or every 10 years and do this. So we wanna pick a president that's not gonna be leading their country into a war.
Do you have any questions for Pete or Steve? Come on up here.
Uh, Mr. Witkoff?
Steve.
Steve, come on up.
Mr. Witkoff, is there still space to do a deal with whatever is left of the Iranian government?
I think there is. I think, I think that's going to be up to the president. That's what I think. But I, but they didn't seem to be very amenable in this, in those first set of negotiations. You heard what I said. They said, "We have the inalienable right to enrich." They, they, they bragged about having, uh, 60%, um, enriched fuel enough for 11 bombs.
They told me and Jared, uh, "We're not gonna give you, uh, diplomatically what you could take militarily." So, you know, and I think they're gonna need a change of attitude.
What sort of thing do you wanna see in a deal? I mean, do you think you have maximum negotiating leverage at this point?
Uh, I think the president has proved that we have.
Iran, Iran today accused the US of paying --
We had a lot of negotiating leverage, maybe maximum, but, uh, we're not looking to settle. They'd like to settle. We're not looking to settle.
Iran accused the --
So the British government has, has now offered use of some b- -- of some -- the British, the British government has offered use of some bases now, and you had previously said you were very disappointed in them.
Aircraft carriers?
I mean, about British bases. They said --
Did you see my response that I just put out?
No.
I just put out a response. You mean the offer to send two aircraft carriers? Maybe, maybe, but they're not sure. I just put out a response to it. I said, "We don't need them. It's not the right time." It would've been nice to have had them two weeks ago. But, uh, the, the response I put out, I think, says it very well for you.
[Crosstalk]
Iran today accused the US of hitting a desalination plant in Iran. And they said that --
I don't know --
-- that opened the door to other strikes on infrastructure, non-military --
It will allow us to also open the door to other strikes against them. Look --
Did you respond to that allegation? Did the US hit the desal --
[Inaudible] in Iran. They are among the most evil people ever on earth. They cut baby's heads off. They chop women in half. What they did. Take a look at October 7th. Take a look at what they've done over the last 47 years. So I know nothing about a desalinization plant, other than to say, uh, if they're [Laughs] complaining about a desalinization plant, uh, we complain about the fact that they shouldn't be chopping babies' heads off, okay?
Mr. Witkoff, have you communicated to the Russians not to send targeting information and other assistance to the Iranians?
Strongly said that.
And do you believe that they are?
I hope they're not.
Do you see any evidence?
We don't know, but it's not doing very well. If they are, it's not helping much. If you take a look at what's happened to Iran in the last week, uh, if they're getting information, uh, it's not helping them much.
What would it mean to you if they were? I mean, even if it's not helping the Iranians particularly much, it's still involving themselves in a conflict that they're not direct --
Because they'd say we do it against them, wouldn't they, huh? Wouldn't they say that, we do it against them? Uh, I don't know. Look, uh, they could give all the information that they want, but the people they're sending it to are overwhelmed. Russia would be overwhelmed too. Anybody would be overwhelmed.
We have the greatest military on Earth and I built it in my first term. And unfortunately, I'm forced to use it now. But when you look at what we did with Venezuela, when you look at what we did with the B-2 bombers, that was a very big moment because Iran was going to have a nuclear weapon within two or three weeks, and that stopped it, and it stopped it cold.
And you ask about maybe going back and getting that, something could happen at the right time 'cause --
Is Iran running out of missiles and drones?
I think so.
Or do you expect those counter-attacks to continue without that much?
Not only that, manufacturing capability also. We've hit the manufacturing very hard. Uh, they're at about 9% of what they sent out in the first two days, and we think that's because they don't have that much. And also, we've knocked out about 70% of the rocket, of the launchers. The launchers are a big deal, very hard to get, very expensive.
If you want to talk about leverage, ev- -- with every passing day, we have more and more leverage because we have more and more capabilities. We're hitting them harder and harder, and they have less of an ability to defend themselves. So, we're pressing the offensive every single day, creating all the leverage the President needs for the outcome he wants.
So, it sounds like you think they're running out of one or both of the drones and the missiles.
I think when you look, I mean, they're sending in much less, much less drones. Uh, they're being decimated. Now, you know, at some point, I don't think there'll be anybody left maybe to say, uh, "We surrender," that they're being decimated. And when you look also, uh, they, all of a sudden, they apologize to the Middle Eastern states that they shot at them.
I was very surprised to see they did that, but you mark that down as a victory for us and for the Middle Eastern states who are really friends of ours. But I guess, they're not gonna be shooting at them anymore, they apologized. And we'll see what happens, but that's a big loss. That's a surrender right there.
I called it a surrender tonight. When they apologized and said they're not shooting at them anymore, that's really a surrender to those states and to us. Say, anything else?
Sir, some Iranians are concerned that the Kurds will carve out kind of an autonomous region as they did in Syria and Iraq.
We're not having, we're not looking to the Kurds going in. Uh, we're, we're very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don't wanna make the war any more complex than it already is. No.
They've ruled that out?
We don't want, yeah, I, I have ruled it out. I don't want the Kurds going in. I don't wanna see the Kurds get hurt, get killed, and we've had a good relation. They're willing to go in, but we really, I've told them I don't want them to go in.
Do you think the map of Iran will look the same?
The war is complicated enough without having, getting the Kurds involved.
And do you think the map of Iran looks the same after this is all done?
That I can't tell you. Probably not.
Do you know if any shipping companies have taken the US o- -- on its offer of insurance to go through the Strait of Hormuz?
No, no. We have it set up. We have a great insurance and reinsurance system, but I don't.
Sir, when you talk about --
When this ends, we're gonna have a much safer world, you know that, so you know this is a minor excursion. But when this ends, we're gonna have a much safer world, and we will have gotten rid of a lot of sick and demented people, the leadership. So, we got rid of the one leadership, then we got rid of the second level of leadership.
Now, they're on their third or fourth level of leadership, and they have leaders right now that nobody even knows who they are. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Mr. President --