Thank you very much, everybody. And I've been briefed on the Florida State University Tallahassee active shooting. I guess it's an active shooter. Uh, fully briefed as to where we are right now. It's a shame. It's a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place, and we'll have more to say about it later.
In the meantime, it's an honor to have the Prime Minister of Italy with us, Prime Minister Meloni who's, uh, doing a fantastic job. I would say that she has taken Europe by storm and highly respected. Everybody loves her and respects her. And I can't say that about many people. And she's become a friend.
And we really have a great relationship between Italy and ourselves, and we talked about trade. We talked about many, many things during our luncheon, and, uh, she'll be saying a few words. But she's a very special person, and it's nice to have you with us. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you for this occasion, which is aimed to strengthen our relation, our friendship that comes from very far. You know today is April 17th, and April 17th marks the anniversary of the agreement that allowed Cristoforo Colombo to make his trip.
And I say it to remember our [Inaudible] or our ties but also to remind -- to remind that we both share another fight, which is the fight against the work and ideology that would like to erase our history. And as I know that we share lots of things on tackling illegal migration, on fighting against synthetic drugs.
You know, Italy has been one of the nations --
That's right.
That made a plan against fentanyl for example. But we have been talking about many bilateral topics and things that we can do together about defense, about economic -- about economy, about space, about energy. Uh, Italy will have to increase its LNG imports, uh, and also nuclear that we are trying to develop.
I think there can be ways to work together, and the Italian enterprises will, uh, invest as they've been doing for many years as you know, in the next years, I think around 10 billion. That shows how interconnected our economies are. And that's very important, Mr. President. It's not only about Italy, it's about the entire Europe.
The exchange between us is a very big one, investments, trade. It's a topic that we are discussing this week.
That's right.
But at the end of the day, look, somebody calls me, I was saying it before, such a Western nationalism. I don't know if it is the right word, but I know that when I speak about West, mainly, I don't speak about geographical space. I speak about civilization. And I want to make that civilization stronger.
So I think even if we have some problems, OK, between the two shores of the Atlantic, it is the time that we try to sit down and find solutions. So I want to thank President Trump for having accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Rome in the near future and consider a possibility in that occasion to meet also with Europe.
The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together.
We can.
And we will keep on working on that. I'm going to close. I want to say only, I'm proud of sitting here as prime minister of an Italy that today, has a very good situation despite the difficulties, a stable country, a reliable country, one million more jobs in the last two years and half.
Great.
Inflation is going down. So forgive me if I promote a bit, my country, but you're a businessman and you understand me.
Go ahead.
So migration flow is going down 60 percent. So we are trying to do our best, but I think we can do it even better together. Also on Ukraine, I will close, together, we've been defending the freedom of Ukraine. Together we can build a just and lasting peace. We support your efforts, Donald. Thank you.
Good. Thank you very much. And I think we're doing well in that effort, but we want to get it done and we'll see if we can. We want to save on average. Think of it, every week, 2,500 people are being killed, mostly soldiers, Russian, Ukrainian soldiers. And if we can save those lives, that would be a very good thing.
And so we'll see what we can do. And I think we're getting close, but we'll let you know very soon. And you've been very helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any questions?
On Russia. On Russia, Mr. President. How much longer does Vladimir Putin have to respond to your ceasefire proposal before you put secondary tariffs or sanctions on Russia?
We'll see what that will be. We're going to be hearing from them this week, very shortly, actually. And we'll see, but we want it to stop. We want the death and the killing to stop.
Mr. President, on Jerome Powell. On Jerome Powell, you said that the termination of Jerome Powell could not come fast enough. He says he won't leave even if you ask him to.
Oh, he'll leave. If I ask him to, he'll be out of there. But I don't think he's doing the job. He's too late, always too late, a little slow. And I'm not happy with him. I let him know it and, oh, if I want him out, he'll be out of there real fast, believe me. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, please. Question?
Are you trying to remove him, Mr. President?
You got a question?
[Inaudible] in a case against your administration, said the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial order. Do you agree with that statement?
Well, you're going to have to speak to the lawyers. We have great lawyers. I can tell you this, we're doing a fantastic job of getting criminals out of this country who Biden allowed into the country, hundreds of thousands of criminals, murderers and drug dealers. And I was elected because of the fact, I would say maybe that was the number one factor, a lot of reasons, the economy, a lot of things.
But one of the primary reasons I was elected is because I said, I'm going to get the criminals that he allowed to come into our country so stupidly through open borders, I'm going to get them out. And I got a lot of votes, record setting numbers of votes, as you know. We won everything, the popular vote, all seven swing states.
We want everything and that's what the public wanted. That's what I'm doing. But you'll have to speak to the lawyers because it's up to them. Say it.
What do you think of the proposal from France and the UK on a peace mission in Ukraine with soldiers? And do you think that Italy should take part into it?
Well, I think Italy will have to make that determination, but peace missions are always good with me. I'm OK with peace missions. Yeah, please.
Mr. President, have you discussed -- what areas of cooperation have you discussed with the prime minister vis a vis Italy and the United States and Europe and the United States? And China --
We discussed it very briefly. No, we're doing very well with negotiations. I think with all countries. And Scott could tell you a little bit, but we are doing very well. We have a lot of countries that want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make deals more than I do. Go ahead, Scott. Would you say something, please?
Yeah, we've got [Inaudible] in place. We're working on the big 15 economies first. We had a fantastic meeting with Japan yesterday. I believe there have been calls with the EU already. And then we have a South Korea coming in next week. And I believe India is also talking. That's moving very quickly.
Go ahead.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy has said he has evidence that China is supplying weaponry or ammunition to Russia. Do you have any evidence on those lines? And also, he said we could see a minerals deal signed this week. Is that --
Well, we have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday, Scott, next Thursday? Soon? And I assume they're going to live up to the deal, so we'll see. But we have a deal on that. No, I have no comment on that. I have no idea. That's his statement, not mine.
[Inaudible] attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Can you comment on that? Is that accurate?
And they say the attack is what?
That you waived off an Israeli plan to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
I wouldn't say waived off. I'm not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death. And I'd like to see that. That's my first option. If there's a second option, I think it would be very bad for Iran. And I think Iran is wanting to talk.
I hope they're wanting to talk. It's going to be very good for them if they do. And I'd like to see Iran thrive in the future, do fantastically well. I know the Iranian people, they're incredible people, always have been very smart, very energetic, very successful people. And I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt anybody.
I really don't, but Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's pretty simple. It's really simple. We're not looking to take their industry. We're not looking to take their land. All we're saying is you can't have a nuclear weapon. The deal that was made, the deal that was made with Obama, that deal would have expired already.
It was a terrible deal. It would have expired and that gave them a clear path to a nuclear weapon. I wouldn't have accepted. That's why I terminated the deal. Number one, it was way too short. When countries are involved, you don't make short term deals. These are countries with long lives. And I terminated that and it was a great termination because it didn't allow us to do anything once it terminated.
You know what the deal was. It was a terrible deal, really, one of many terrible deals made by the US. But no, I'd like to see Iran thrive. And they can do that, I think very easily, or they can do it the other way. And the other way is not going to be good for them. It's going to be really bad for them.
What do you make of the NVIDIA CEO going to China and met with [Inaudible] officials there?
Well Jensen's an amazing guy. He's become a friend of mine and I don't know. He's a person that's very proud of our country. He loves our country. I'm not worried about Jensen at all.
Mr. President [Inaudible] in contempt, will you take steps to return Kilmer of Borrego Garcia to the United States and put him in front of a judge?
Well, I'm not involved in it. I'm going to respond by saying you'll have to speak to the lawyers, the DOJ. I've heard many things about him and we'll have to find out what the truth is. But I will say this, we were inundated by millions of people, many millions of people during the Biden administration. They say 21 million, and a big percentage of those are criminals, serious criminals.
I'm not saying just criminal because they came into the border illegally. I'm saying they're criminals at the highest level, murderers. Many of those people murdered more than one person and they're on the loose. And I was elected to get rid of those criminals, to get them out of our country or to put them away, but to get them out of our country.
And I don't see how judges can take that authority away from a president. We've done an amazing job, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem. We have done an amazing job. Nobody can believe the job we've done. Far greater than what I said. I mean, I got elected on that, but we've done much better. We have right now 99 percent border.
It's at 99 percent. Nobody thought that would even be -- nobody's coming through our border practically. Two weeks ago, we had nine people come through all for medical reasons. We allowed them -- we brought them through because one had a heart attack, one had something else. All for medical reasons. We have a great border.
We had a great border four years ago, but we have a border now that's even tighter, and we did that in a matter of weeks. And, uh -- no -- we have to -- we need -- we need to get murderers and drug dealers and people that were in jail for horrible -- you know, they released jails, Giorgia, from all over the world and release them, not just South America -- all over the world.
The Congo in Africa. Many, many people come from the Congo. I don't know what that is, but they came from the Congo. And all over the world, they came in, opened their jails -- Venezuela, practically all of their prisoners released into our country. We took them because we had an incompetent administration called the Biden administration and to think what they've done to our country.
And I was elected to straighten that out, and I'm doing that. But we have activist judges that don't want murderers to be sent out of our country. They don't want killers and drug dealers and drug lords and people from mental institutions. They want them to stay in our country, I guess. I don't know. Maybe that's the liberal way, or as they call it nowadays the progressive way.
But I don't think it's the way that our country believes, and that's why I won in a landslide.
Mr. President, you did say that you were confident these deals would be done, but you also said that you're in no rush. Americans are seeing prices rise. They're seeing it on their bills. How long can they expect that pain to last?
So, they've already seen it get much better because, if you were truthful, which you're not -- I know you very well are. You have gasoline that hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states. You have gasoline way down. The price of oil has dropped substantially. The price of groceries are substantially down.
The, uh, the price of eggs -- you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there. I was here for one week, and they started screaming at me. Eggs have gone through the roof. I said I just got here. I was there for seven days, and I hear that eggs have gone through the roof before I got there.
And they were screaming at me, the press, the fake news like you. You're fake. And the fake news is screaming at me like about eggs. I said I've only been here -- I just -- this is my seventh day, and they were right. They went up 87 percent, and you couldn't get them. They said you won't have eggs for Easter, which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.
You won't have eggs for Easter, and we did an unbelievable job. And now eggs are all over the place, and the price went down 92 percent. And our Commissioner of Agriculture, Brooke, has done a fantastic job, done really -- done a fantastic job. So, prices haven't gone up. The only thing that's gone up actually is interest rates because we have a Federal Reserve chairman that is playing politics.
Somebody that I've never been very fond of actually. But he's playing politics. Interest rates should be down now. They should be coming down. In Europe, as you know, they reduced them I guess seven times. It looks like they're going to reduce them again and again and again. But our guy wants to play cute.
But, uh, interest rates are pretty much even. Maybe they went up just a slight bit, but that's the only thing. But that's because of the Federal Reserve because they're not very smart people.
[Crosstalk]
Go ahead? Yes, sir. Please. Go ahead please.
Do you regret nominating him, Jerome Powell?
Uh look, in the first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. Stock market went up 88 points. Uh, I think he's terrible, but I can't complain because we had the most successful administration economically in the history of our country. Uh, I think we're going to do even better this time because you will see that the numbers that we're taking in are astronomical.
We're taking in tremendous amounts of money with the tariffs. We were treated very unfairly on trade. And countries are having a hard time getting used to the fact that they can't do that to us anymore because we have a real president. We have a president that understands what it's all about. We had presidents that in some cases were smart, but they didn't understand business, or they didn't like business or, you know, it wasn't like a priority.
And then you had like the last administration. The only thing they were good at was cheating in elections. That's about all they could do. They couldn't do anything. They were useless. They were incompetent. Worst administration in the history of our country. Worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter died a happy man.
You know why? Because he wasn't the worst president. Joe Biden was. So, I think you're going to see some fantastic numbers when this all happens. It's happening now. I mean, everybody wants to make a deal. And if they don't want to make a deal, we'll make the deal for them because that's what's going to happen.
We'll just say this is what it is. But we want to listen to everybody.
[Crosstalk]
I think -- I think I can -- I think I can say for Scott and the other people that are working on it that we're listening, and we're going to be very fair to people. But, you know, we're the one that really sets the deal, and that's what we'll be doing. OK.
[Crosstalk]
Go ahead, please. Please.
My question today, our Prime Minister.
Oh, you have a great Prime Minister. You're so lucky. Yes. Yes
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] In italiano. Presidente Meloni, volevo sapere cosa pensava del fatto che il presidente Trump ha considerato responsabile della guerra in Ucraina. [✧ AI Translation: "In Italian. President Meloni, I wanted to know what you thought about the fact that President Trump held you responsible for the war in Ukraine."]
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] E poi, se avete parlato delle spese militari e qual è il limite massimo a cui ha detto che può arrivare l'Italia? La percentuale delle spese militari. Abbiamo parlato di limiti massimi a cui può arrivare l'Italia. Abbiamo parlato del fatto che l'Italia sta mantenendo. [✧ AI Translation: "And then, if you talked about military spending and what is the maximum limit that he said Italy can reach? The percentage of military spending. We talked about the maximum limits that Italy can reach. We talked about the fact that Italy is maintaining."]
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] I suoi impegni perché arriverà al prossimo vertice della NATO con il 2% che era già previsto, che è stato sottoscritto dai governi precedenti perché siamo una nazione seria, ma non abbiamo parlato poi di quanto vada aumentata questa percentuale anche se siamo ovviamente consapevoli che insomma il tema della difesa sia un tema particolarmente importante di questo tempo per quello che riguarda la guerra in Ucraina. [✧ AI Translation: "His commitments because he will arrive at the next NATO summit with the 2% that was already foreseen, that was signed by previous governments because we are a serious nation, but we have not spoken then about how much this percentage should be increased even if we are obviously aware that the issue of defense is a particularly important issue of this time with regards to the war in Ukraine."]
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] Lei sa come la penso penso che ci sia chiaramente una diciamo ci sia stata un'invasione che l'invasore ha da quel punto di vista fosse Putin e la Russia ma non è questo che diciamo oggi quello che che rivela il fatto che insieme vogliamo lavorare e stiamo lavorando per cercare di arrivare in Ucraina una pace che possa essere giusta e duratura penso che questi siano gli sforzi sui quali condividiamo il nostro lavoro abbiamo condiviso anche oggi il nostro Presidente. [✧ AI Translation: "You know how I think I think that there is clearly a let's say there was an invasion that the invader from that point of view was Putin and Russia but that is not what we say today what reveals the fact that together we want to work and we are working to try to arrive in Ukraine a peace that can be just and lasting I think that these are the efforts on which we share our work we have also shared today our President."]
[Crosstalk]
I -- that sounded absolutely -- that was so beautiful. What the hell did she -- [Laughter] What did she say? Please?
[Crosstalk]
No. I mean, it sounded great. It was beautifully presented, but maybe I could hear what she said. Go ahead.
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] Avete discusso di Cina -- [✧ AI Translation: "You discussed China --"]
It was about asking --
Hold it. Hold it.
Have some respect please.
Thank you. No, no. Wait. Wait. I want to hear what she said. Go ahead please.
President and Prime Minister Meloni was asked whether -- what she thinks about the fact that President Trump holds Zelenskyy responsible for the war in Ukraine, and Prime Minister Meloni answered, well, actually we were -- we have a no -- and also if -- you talked about the military spending, how -- and the raising of the military spending and the -- and the first thing, President -- Prime Minister Meloni said, is that no, actually we didn't talk about the raise in military spending.
Of course, Italy will keep its commitments with two percent, and then we will see because we are absolutely aware of the fact that it is very important to -- to do -- defense is very important.
Well, I will do that. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. I will do that. They've been asking if we raise -- if we decided on defense percentage about the defense spendings.
Right. NATO. NATO.
And I said -- yes, NATO. And I said that Italy is reaching the two percent as it was already decided. We didn't speak about the specific other percentage. But we are aware of the fact that defense is important for the future, and we see what also the work that we are trying to do at the European level.
And I don't hold --
[Crosstalk]
I don't hold Zelenskyy responsible, but I'm not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started. That was a war that would have never started if I were president. You'd have millions of people living right now that are dead. You'd have cities that would be open and thriving, and they'd have their beautiful [Inaudible]. Those [Inaudible] are the most beautiful in the world, but they're not with us any longer.
They're smashed to smithereens, laying on the ground in a million pieces, getting hit by rockets, bombs, and bullets. And so, I'm not happy with him, and I'm not happy with anybody involved. I think it's a war -- I know it's a war. It didn't happen for four years. It was never close to happening.
It was never even a thought. And I spoke to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye, but there's no way he would have ever gone in if I were president. Now I'm trying to get him to stop, because as you know, Russia's a lot bigger. It's a bigger military force. And if you're smart, you don't go involved and get involved in wars.
You can blame the man that was sitting in this seat, Biden. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but I can guarantee you that, and everybody agrees to it, if I were president, that war would have never taken place. I'm not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn't say he's done the greatest job.
OK? I'm not a big fan. I really am, I'm not a big fan. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.
[✧ AI Machine Transcript] Se ne avete discusso di Cina della possibilità che l'Europa ponga dei dazi sulla Cina mi sembra evidente. [✧ AI Translation: "If you have discussed China, the possibility that Europe will impose tariffs on China seems obvious to me."]
Mr. President, are you sure about the [Inaudible]? Would you say again that the European --
He's never said.
Would you say again, that --
What? The European --
Have you ever that Europeans are parasites? Have you said it?
No, I haven't said -- I didn't even know what you're talking about. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. No, no, wait. Wait, next, next, next. Go.
Thank you. Prime Minister Meloni just said we want to make Europe great again and we want it to be together, together --
Sure.
With the West. Yeah.
I guess, that's what you said. And Ms. Prime Minister, how are you going to do that? And are you looking to do it to counter China who is really trying to gather influence against the United States with the help of [Inaudible]
I hope that Europe is going to be great again. Europe has gone through a lot of problems and a lot of it's having to do with immigration. And I'm not a big fan of Europe and what they've done with immigration at all. And I think they've got to get smart, because Europe is being very badly hurt by what they've done with immigration.
Now, I'll say this, that the prime minister has taken a very tough stand on immigration and I commented to her before, I said, I wish more people would be like you having to do with that subject, but they're not. Europe is very important to me. Europe is very important to the world. I want Europe to do very well.
I think they have to get a lot smarter on immigration.
But we are beginning doing it. You will see now the policies of the European Union in the last, let's say, two and a half years have been changing. OK? At the beginning, we were talking only about how we were redistributing illegal migrants coming to Italy. Now, we are talking mainly about how to stop illegal migration, work with the countries of origin and transit and to return people.
The European Commission suggested the new rules about repatriations and things like that. So things are changing, thanks also to the example that Italy brought in lowering the rates of illegal migration. So we are working now together, so I'm optimistic on that.
Good. I hope so. Go ahead, please. Go ahead.
I'd like to ask President Meloni, if you have discussed the option of starting with direct communications? And President Trump, if you want to see the Google [Inaudible]
The Google what?
The Google company.
What about it?
Google business, [Inaudible]
Go ahead, please.
Oh. Well, we didn't discuss about Starlink. We've been discussing about defense, space. We will work together also in the Mars missions. So there are big, big things to do together, but we didn't discuss it.
[Inaudible] prime minister that changed your mind potentially about tariffs and what you plan to do going forward? Is there anything that the prime minister said to you that changed your perspective?
No, tariffs are making us rich. We were uh losing a lot of money under Biden, trillions of dollars, trillions on trade. And now, that whole tide has turned. We're making a lot of money. We're taking a lot of money. Don't forget, we're taking in 25 percent on cars, 25 percent on steel, 25 percent on aluminum, 10 percent baseline.
We put penalties on China for sending us fentanyl. We put penalties on Mexico and Canada, 25 percent for allowing fentanyl and allowing the borders to be weak. No, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars while I sit here and talk to you. And we didn't take in anything before, other than the tariffs that I put on previous to Biden, which were the tariffs I put on China, where we took in, up until this point, probably $700 billion.
They were Trump tariffs. He tried to weaken them. He did everything he could. You know, he got paid money by China, right? The family got paid money, he did. So I don't know, maybe that was the reason or maybe it wasn't, but he tried to weaken them. But he couldn't because there was so much money that his budgets, they couldn't stand not doing it. But I took in, up until this point, my tariffs on China, nobody ever took in $0.10 from China.
No other president took in $0.10, I took in more than $700 billion from China. So we're doing very well. I mean, our country is doing very well. They had a bad report today from one of the health care companies that had an impact on the stock market, but this isn't about that. This is really, we're building a base.
We're building a country like no other. And again, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country by far, history of any country probably, but the history of our country in four years and I think this has a chance to be much better.
Can you just clarify on the minerals deal, will not be signed here at the White House with Ukraine on Thursday? Will President Zelenskyy be coming here for that?
I don't know exactly. I'm going to leave that to Scott. What do you think? Where would it be signed and when?
We're still working on the details we're shooting for around April 25th.
Is there any more detail that you could tell us about what's in that deal and how it came together?
It's substantially what we'd agreed on previously when the president was here. We had a memorandum of understanding. We went straight to the big deal and I think it's an 80-page agreement, and that's what we'll be signing.
Can you clarify on rate cuts, do you intend to seek Powell's firing if he doesn't change his stance on rate cuts, or is that on the table or is that --
Well, I think he should do the rate cuts because I think if Europe has done it, it puts us at a disadvantage to Europe. I mean, he plays right into their hands. So I think he should do the rate cuts. We don't have really inflation now. I just said, the major things are going down. Oil is great. Oil is way ahead of schedule and that's because of our policies.
But oil is down into the $65 range now per barrel. And I told you, in certain states we have less than $2 for gasoline. And food is down, groceries as we call it, are down. Other than interest rates, everything's down. Interest rates are pretty flat. It's not that they're up, but we should be better than flat.
If he would lower the interest rate, I think it would have a good impact on that too. But the costs are down. We have very little inflation. I would say we have essentially no inflation. Hard to have inflation when oil goes down and oil goes down. When Biden came in, oil went through the roof. That's what caused our problem, that and his very dumb spending.
But when the oil prices go down, and they have gone down a lot, we've gotten it down really good. We've opened it up and we've gotten them down and that means that people driving cars are going to be paying $2 and $2.50 instead of $4.50. And even at the end, they tried just for the purpose of the election to get it down, but they had really lost that sucker.
That was really -- it was not good. But if they had won, oil right now would be at $7 or $8 because of their policy and we're going to be at about $2, could be even a little bit less than that, and you're starting to see it. So I don't know how you can have inflation when oil has come down quite a bit. And I would say the fed really owes it to the American people to get interest rates down.
That's the only thing he's good for, and he would have an effect on that if he lowered them. And I think at some point he will. He's going to have a lot of political pressure. They are political also. And I think there's a lot of political pressure for him to lower interest rates. OK? Yeah, go ahead. Please.
Do you think Italy can be your best ally in Europe? And also, do you ever notice when you [Inaudible]
Only if the prime minister remains the prime minister, can it be our best. No, she's doing a great job. And yeah, certainly one of our great allies, not just in Europe, anywhere. She's a fantastic person and doing a great job, and our relationship is -- is great. And we have a lot of Italians in this country, I tell you, and they like Trump and they voted for Trump. [Laughter] Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you.