How are you? Nice to see you.
Nice to see you. Good. Yes.
Are you all set?
Yep.
You know, we're flying over right now. We're flying over a thing called the Gulf of America, and I'm signing a proclamation that perhaps you could define that.
This is a proclamation declaring today, February 9th 2025, as the first ever Gulf of America Day. This follows the President's Executive Order [Video gap] a name change from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
And we're flying right over it right now. So we thought this would be appropriate, even bigger than the Super Bowl. This is a big thing. And, uh, almost everybody now has assented to that.
Everyone on board, ladies and gentlemen, if you could please direct your attention out the right side of the aircraft. Air Force One is currently in international waters for first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America. Please enjoy the flight. And we are now about to head westbound to Super Bowl VIX.
Wow. He did that well. That's a good [Inaudible]. He did -- isn't that -- isn't that nice? You know, we're all about Make America Great again? Right? That's what we care about. Okay, there we go. So this is a famous pen now, and we'll put it with something. Uh, I'll ask you to do whatever you think we should do with it, Mr. Secretary.
Do you want to talk about -- You know Doug, Secretary of the Interior, and also working with Chris Wright on extracting vast amounts of oil and gas, and making our country rich. Uh, would you like to say something Doug?
Well, with the Gulf of America, this is historic day. Uh, we want to thank President Trump. His executive order is what set this in motion. Uh, we signed a secretarial order from -- as Secretary of Interior, uh, directing the U.S. Geologic Survey, who is responsible for the database, which is the, uh, geographic names information system.
Uh, and so just prior to this signing, uh, if you will, the button was pushed. It became official, uh, with this proclamation to call today Gulf of America Day. Uh, but now it's going out as we're sitting here right now, uh, our team is calling all the, the map providers. So Google Maps, Apple Maps, all the map people, uh, that change will take effect, uh, this afternoon to Gulf of America.
So again, uh, fantastic. Uh, thank you President Trump for setting this all in motion with your executive order.
Thank you.
It's an exciting, uh, exciting fun day and great to do this as we're flying over the Gulf of America.
We thought it would be very appropriate. We thought it would be appropriate, Kathy. Thank you very much for being here.
So happy.
It's been a very important part of his life and, uh, who knows what would've happened to him without you. It might not have been good. Here you go. Okay?
Have you talked to Mexico about this?
Actually, interestingly, I've never spoken to be him about it. It was our call, and I have not spoken to him about -- I've spoken to him about many other things, but I haven't really talked to him about this. They have never brought it up. I'm a little surprised at that, but they've never brought it up.
Sir, can you tell us about your conversation with Vladimir Putin?
I don't want to do that now. You know, we're trying to end that war. It's a war that would've never happened if I were president, would've never happened. Uh, but, uh, we're making progress, but I can't tell you.
You suffered a couple of court losses, Mr. President. And JD Vance said judges aren't allowed to control the executive power. What's your take on that?
Well, we're gonna see what happens. We have a long way to go and, uh, uh, we're talking about fraud, waste abuse. And when a president can't look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don't have a country anymore. So we're very disappointed w- with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go. We have to look -- We have to find all of the fraud that's going on. We have tremendous fraud, tremendous waste, and tremendous abuse.
And, uh, and theft by the way. And the day you're not allowed to look for theft and fraud, etc. then we don't have much of a country. So no judge should be, uh -- no judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It's a disgrace.
Mr. President -- the Gulf of American, Canada, Greenland, Gaza, all these are very muscular foreign policy. How does this align with America First?
Uh, because it makes us bigger, stronger, and better, and more protective. We need, uh, Greenland because of, uh, national security, international security, world security, world peace, and we'll have to do that. Uh, Canada, we'll see what happens with Canada. But the people of Canada would be paying less than half of the tax.
If you look at the tax, they're gonna be paying less than half the tax. Uh, you know, they don't pay very much for military. And the reason they don't pay much is they assume that we're gonna protect them. That's not an assumption they can make, because why are we protecting another country? Now, I love the people of Canada.
We have a great relationship. But if they became our 51st state, it'd be the greatest thing they could ever do. It'd be unbelievable. It would be a cherished state. And think of how beautiful that country would be, without that artificial line running right through it. Somebody drew it many years ago with a ruler, just a line.
You look at how beautiful that is, wow. It, it would be very exciting. But if you look at Canada, it would be cherished as a 51st state. Uh, and they don't pay their share of military and NATO. They pay very little for military. They're not protected at all. And the reason is they think we're gonna protect them.
Uh, the other thing is, we subsidize them to the tune of about $200 billion a year. If we stop doing that, if we stop allowing them to make cars through tariffs and other things, cars, trucks, etc. what they make, uh, they're not viable as a country.
Would you, would you, would you agree that it's a, a more aggressive foreign policy than your first term term? And why is that?
It's more aggressive. Uh, it's better. Uh, why? Because I think, uh, I've had a lot of experience. And in my first term, I was fighting everybody because they were very aggressive toward me. Uh, I always said survival and taking care of the country, not necessarily in that order. Uh, but I had to take care of the country.
But I had a bunch of lunatics like Pelosi and all of these people, they fought me, fought me, fought me, and we won. And, uh, you know, I had a lot of other things that were going on there. This time, it's much more -- They've lost their confidence. Uh, I think they've lost the respect of the American people with, you know, men participating in women's sports, with open borders, with transgender for everybody, f- all the things that they're doing is so, so bad.
When you allow people to empty their jails into your country with prisoners, killers, uh, their mental institutions and insane asylums into our country. This is what they're doing. When you allow gang members from Venezuela, but many other countries coming into our country, we're getting 'em all out now.
Uh, they've lost their credibility, but they've also lost their confidence. So, uh, I have more time to do what I want to do. So we're making our country larger. We're making our country stronger. And in the case of Canada, if this should happen -- I don't know how they can do it without us because without the US, Canada really doesn't have a country.
They do almost all of their business with us. And if we say, "We want our cars to be made in Detroit," I -- with a stroke of a pen, I can do that. And other things in addition to that would not allow Canada to be a viable country.
Mr. President, you said- Mr. President, you said you're going to honor first responders today, but you pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted first responders. Why did you do that?
Who? I- I'm sorry?
You -- You are going to meet with first responders today --
Yeah.
-- but you pardoned people who assaulted first responders.
No, I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our Government. I fired -- I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our Government. That's who assaulted, and they were treated unfairly. There's never been a group of people in this country, outside of maybe one instance that I can think of, but I won't get into it, that were treated more horribly than the people of J6. So, uh, no, I didn't assault, they didn't assault.
They were assaulted. And what I did was a great thing for humanity. They were treated very, very unfairly. There's never been an incident like it.
Mr. President, sir, are- Mr. President, two foreign policy -- two foreign policy questions. On Putin, again, you realize if -- if you don't clarify that, everyone's going to assume you're talking to President Putin regularly. Are you --
Well, they can assume that.
So, is it --
It makes sense. Well, I don't want to talk about it. And if we are talking, I don't want to tell you about the conversation. It's too early, but I do believe we're making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia War. And I want to stop it just 'cause I- I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands.
So, you're starting to put together a plan for a peaceful new law or -- or [Inaudible]?
We're talking to both sides. Yeah.
All right. And then on -- on Japan, are you okay with having a foreign country having a controlling interest in a US Steel company?
Well, that -- let's -- let's look at this. Uh, when I came here, they were gonna buy it, and Biden was gonna approve it. All of a sudden, Biden didn't because he heard I wasn't going to. I don't want US Steel being owned by a foreign country.
But a controlling interest is okay?
Uh, they can have -- Not a con -- They're not -- They don't have a controlling, they have an investment. All they're gonna have is an investment.
But will it be a choice --
I don't mind -- I don't mind an investment in a company, but especially US Steel. US Steel for 15 years was the greatest company in the world, the greatest number one company in the world, and I'm not gonna let another country buy it. We had a great meeting on that, but they are allowed to invest in it, and that's different.
Mr. President, on tariffs, sir, you've talked about reciprocal tariffs --
Yeah.
-- coming in this week. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? And are you announcing a plan for it this weekend?
Yeah, I'll be, uh, announcing --
[Inaudible] results to give --
I'll be announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference reciprocal tariffs. And, uh, very simply, it's, if they charge us, we charge them. That's all.
When is it going i- in effect, sir?
Almost immediately, but I'll be announcing the details of it. Highly detailed. And it'll be great for everybody, including the other countries. But if they are charging us 130%, and we're charging them nothing, it's not gonna stay that way.
Is this about every country?
Every country will be reciprocal. That's right. Every --
Mr. President, can you confirm it's --
It won't affect everybody because there's some where we have similar tariffs, but the ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we're gonna have a -- It's reciprocity, it's reciprocal. We're gonna have a reciprocal tariff, but we'll have a, uh, news conference Tuesday or Wednesday.
And just on the steel question, just so I understand you correctly --
We'll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday.
On this t- tomorrow?
Uh, Monday. Yeah. Tomorrow.
What countries will those go on?
Everybody. Steel.
I- Including Canada and Mexico, [Inaudible]?
Yeah. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff.
What about aluminum, sir?
Aluminum too.
10%? Oh, so it's --
10 -- No, 25%.
25 for aluminum as well?
25 for both.
For both. On steel, sir, are you ruling out then Nippon Steel having a 51% stake or higher? They won't have a majority stake?
Nobody can have a majority stake for US Steel. They can for other companies, but not for US Steel. I think you agree with that, Doug, right? US Steel was one of our great companies, and through a lot of stupidity and bad government, and also bad management of the company, it lost that luster, but it's gonna gain it back and tariffs are gonna help.
Tariffs are gonna make it very successful again. And I think it has good management now too. Yeah.
Sorry, sorry. Can I -- May -- May I ask one, please? Thanks. Um, can you tell me -- or can you confirm that you will be meeting with MBS and, uh, CC of Egypt soon? Will that be at the White House or are you --
Well, I'll be meeting with all of them numerous times, by the way, but I'll be meeting with all of them. And yeah, I think that it's a big mistake to allow people, the Palestinians or the people living in Gaza to go back yet another time. And we don't want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it. And we'll slowly, very slowly, we're in no rush, develop it. We're gonna bring stability to the Middle East, to a totally war-t- torn part of the Middle East, a part of the Middle East that has caused tremendous problem, tremendous problem, the Gaza Strip.
And we'll own it. It's totally demolished right now. It's a demolition site. Uh, it'll be reclaimed. It'll be, uh, leveled out, fixed up. There won't be anybody there. Hamas won't be there. We'll be building through, uh, other of the very rich countries in the Middle East. They'll be building some beautiful sites for the people, for the Palestinians to live in. Uh, they'll be living in harmony and peace, probably for the first time in hundreds of years.
And just to clarify, I know you don't want to tell us about your conversation with President Putin, but can you clarify whether you had that since you've been el -- since you've been in office, or whether it happened before you became President?
I've had it. Let's just say I've had it.
As President?
And I -- And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It's gonna end, but we have to get it ended. And we have to get it ended soon. Should have never happened, would have never happened if I was President.
Mr. President, 15 years ago, your Vice President said that the s -- suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way you don't like, just let them enforce it. Do you agree with that?
Say the last part?
The Vice President s- suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way that you don't like, they can just enforce it by themselves. Do you agree with that?
Uh, I don't know even what you're talking about. Neither do you. Who are you with?
Huff Post, sir.
Who?
Huff Post.
Oh, no wonder. I thought they w -- I thought they died. Are they still around? I haven't read them in years. I thought they died. All right, go ahead. Who else?
O- On security clearances, you've been yanking a lot of them. Why does it make the country safer to take away the AG's security clearance, and is that a form of retribution?
If there's somebody -- No, it's -- If -- If some -- If there are people that we don't respect, if there are people that we thought that were breaking the law or came very close to it in previous years, uh, we do it. And we've done it, uh, with some people. We've done it with Biden himself, Biden himself.
Uh, we think our country is not as safe if you gave him clearance. We don't think he knows what he is doing. Now, what he's done to this country is a disgrace. And what he's done in terms of allowing criminals, murderers, drug lords into our country, people from mental institutions into our country, he should be ashamed of himself.
Is that legal valid reason- On, um, deportations, there's been some reporting that you've been upset that there haven't been more deportations.
No.
Can you clarify that?
I think they're doing an incredible job. It's very tough for deportations. Finding murderers is not easy. Some of them are actually very smart. They shouldn't be in our country. There wouldn't have been. We had beautiful, uh, you know, we just set records for closure. We had the, the strongest border we've had many years, since my term.
But, uh, even, maybe even for many, many years, decades before that. Uh, no. Uh, they, uh, they're doing an amazing job, I think. Tom Homan's doing an amazing job. Kristi Noem is doing an amazing job, but it's not easy finding murderers who know they're being looked for. But we're see -- we're sending out thousands of people.
We're getting rid of thousands of criminals from our country.
Do you expect to meet him in person anytime --?
Where?
Putin. Do you an anticipate meeting with him in person?
I would imagine I would be meeting with Putin, yes, at the right time. I think at the right time at the appropriate [Inaudible].
Mr. President, in Gaza. The White House Press Secretary told us last week that your commitment to rebuilding, you're committed to rebuilding Gaza. Steve Witkoff said that process would take 10 to 15 years. Does your commitment to rebuilding Gaza extend beyond your time in office?
I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza. Uh, as far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Uh, other people may do it through our auspices, but we're, uh, committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back. There's nothing to move back into.
The place is a demolition site. Uh, it'll be, uh, the remainder will be demolished. Everything's demolished. I mean, you can't live in those buildings right now. They're very unsafe. But we'll, uh, we'll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody. We'll let other countries develop parts of it. It'll be beautiful.
People can come from all over the world and live there, but we're gonna take care of the Palestinians. We're gonna make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and in peace, and that they're not murdered. This has been the most dangerous site anywhere in the world to live in. Hamas has been a disaster.
And by the way, I have to tell you that I watched the hostages come back today, and they look like Halo, Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors. And I don't know how much longer we could take that, when I watched that.
I know we have a deal where we're supposed to get a dribble in and keep dribbling in, but they are in really bad shape. They have been treated brutally, horribly. Even the ones that came out earlier, they were in a little bit better shape, but mentally, they were treated so badly. Who could, who could take that?
Uh, you know, at some point, we're gonna lose our patience. When I see that scene that I saw today with people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven't had a meal in a month, there's no reason for that. And I don't know how much longer we can take it.
Do you mean you want to recast --?
I don't know how long we can take it. When I watched people that were healthy people a reasonably short number of years ago, and you look at 'em today, they looked like they've aged 25 years. They, they, they literally looked like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors, the same thing. I mean the same thing.
And I don't know how long we're gonna take that.
Have you got some advancement in your proposals for some of the goal for Arab nations to take some of the Palestinian people? And if not --
Yeah.
-- what do you think the reason is for their hesitance? There's some very honest reason that they've either told privately or that you think why their hesitance to take the Palestinian people?
Why are they hesitant to take them?
Right.
Because they never spoke to me. They spoke to other people. They didn't speak to me. When they speak to me, they're gonna take 'em.
Is it because they, they think that you would not allow them to return to Gaza?
No.
Is that part --
No, they don't want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area, the only reason they're talking about returning Ga, to Gaza is they don't have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don't want to return to Gaza. If they had a home that was safe where you don't have Hamas, uh, threatening them, killing them, torturing them, uh, they'd rather not return to Gaza.
But right now, Gaza is the only alternative. As far as the other regions, the only reason they maybe don't act enthusiastic is they haven't talked to me. They talk to other people, but not to me. When they talk to me, they'll be enthusiastic
And on, on spending, you found some maybe questionable expenditures or Elon Musk has found them?
Not some questionable. Uh, the whole country looks like it's a fraud. It's fraud, waste, abuse. But it's a tremendous fraud. And what Elon and his group of geniuses have found is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And that's just an USAID. Soon, we're going into education. It'll, you'll find the same thing, but bigger.
Soon, we're going into the military. And you're gonna find a lot of bad things happening there. Uh, you'll find it because our government has not functioned properly for many, many years, and we're gonna make it function properly. Uh, we're even looking at treasuries. There could be a problem. You've been reading about that with treasuries.
And that could be an interesting problem because it could be that a lot of those things don't count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we're finding is very fraudulent. Therefore, maybe we have less debt than we thought of. Think of that. So, a lot of things are happening, but Elon's doing an excellent job.
We started with 12 guys with high IQs, and now we have a hundred guys with very high IQs.
Do you think Congress has failed to do their oversight?
Yeah.
Or do you think your first administrations of your cabinet agencies -- ?
I think everybody failed. I think everybody failed.
[Inaudible] Why does Elon's financial disclosure remain secret?
Uh, because nobody's looking at that. We're looking at all the corruption that's taken place. I mean, his financial disclosure is largely the number of shares that he's got in very public companies. And, and that's not secret at all. If you read that, you'll see a lot. I mean, he talks about his whole thing.
I read one where it really gave a very good history of him. But basically, it's a number of shares times a certain stock price.
So, why is that not public?
It is public. All you have to do is read it.
[Crosstalk]
On USAID, Sir -- would you expect -- On USAID, Sir, what is kind of like the message to countries that depend on humanitarian aid distributed through USAID? What is your message to those?
Uh, the ones that have been, the few that have been legitimate in terms of getting legitimate money will probably put it through the State Department. It'll be handled by Marco Rubio, a highly respected man, Secretary of State. There's no reason for USAID when you look at the politicians that have been in there sucking the blood out of it, when you look at all of the fake deals.
I mean, look, all you have to do is get a list of all of the things you can see by the, the heading, it's fake. It's fraudulent. It's probably kickbacks where they send the money, and then it gets kicked back to the person that sent it. So, the ones that are good, and there are not many of 'em, but the ones that are good, and there are some, uh, will probably have that be handled by Marco Rubio in the State Department.
Will they take on some of the USAID workers?
They could. They could, if they like.
Mr. President. How --
[Crosstalk]
-- called USAID, Mr. President, or will it not?
I dunno that it's gonna exist. Why would you need it? The State Department can take that.
Do you think the amount of spending on foreign aid will decrease also? Or just the number of employees?
It should decrease. Uh, I, I hope it decreases.
Yeah. By how much?.
When we have, when we have $36 trillion in debt, and we're taking care of countries that are very rich, and sending aid to countries, in some cases that are rich and in some cases they're not rich. But no, it should, uh, very much decrease.
Mr. President another question --
But it won't be, it won't be the scams that you've seen.
Another [Inaudible] NIH put out a memo on Friday night, it's gonna cut four billion from, from the percentage that they play to -- pay to universities and public colleges. But all those things, not foreign countries. Four billion. Is that okay to take that off the top?
Sure, sure. It could be okay. I mean, you have to look at the university. Some are legit. Uh, you could also say, "Why are we giving money to Harvard when it's got a $50 billion endowment?" 50 billion, and yet they don't use that endowment to help their students.
Is this for research, like biomedical research and what --
Yeah, that's fine. Look, we want to take care of research, we want to do a lot of things. But when you look at, uh, the USAID, and you look at all the things and all the, the scams that was with, I don't have to go through it now, but I'll get you a little list, and you'll see one after another. There were very few legitimate.
It was the opposite. Usually, you find something wrong, like one out of 100, but this is the opposite. Here, almost everything was wrong. You find very few that were good. But there were some that were good that'll be handled by the State Department, I assume. That's not final yet. But I think the best would be Marco Rubio at the State Department. One or two more.
[Crosstalk]
-- is the Pentagon spending too much to launch services to space?
I think space is gonna be a very important element. You know, I'm the one that came up with, uh, Space Force. I'm very proud of it. Biden tried to get out of it, and he was really rebuked by the military. I think space is gonna be one of the most important things we do. It's gonna be all about space, especially defense.
So, uh, space is very important.
You're going, you're going -- Would you accept Palestinian refugees into the United States, since you're looking to other countries to have to [Inaudible]?
I'd have to look. I think it's a very far distance for them to travel. Uh, but I'd have to look at individual cases. But I do think that coming into the United States -- Been taking a lot of people. But coming into the United States, it's a long way for them to travel. They're far away from their families and their friends, and everything else.
I think they'd be very happy staying in the general area with a -- in a place that was safe, where they could be safe and lead a good life. They don't want to go back to Gaza. A- as I said, I've said it a lot, "They only go back because they have no alternative. They don't want to go back to Gaza." So we'll see.
We hope that we'll be helped by Egypt. We hope that we'll be helped by Jordan. We hope that we'll be helped by other countries. We hope, hope, hope that some of the, uh, like Saudi Arabia and others, can spend some money on it. They have tremendous amounts of money. They'll spend some money on, uh, making people comfortable and safe.
One question about the Super Bowl. Uh, you're going to the game. One of the big things that you've done so far in office is cracking down on DEI. I saw that the NFL commissioner said, I think this week that they're happy with their diversity programs. What's your take on that, would you like to see any changes there?
I don't know what their diversity program is. Uh, to be honest, I know Roger very well. I'd have to look at what he said he's happy with. He was happy also with the flag, and a lot of other things that didn't work out too well. Uh, we'll have to see what he was happy with. But, uh, uh, right now that's, uh, you know what the law is. The law is the law, and it changed, and it's been backed up by the U.S. Supreme Court.
But, uh, we'll, we'll see. There are a lot of interesting things going on right now. I'll tell you what, there's a light over the United States. People are happy, they're more confident. The, uh, approval ratings for this country have gone through the sky, more than at any time. We've had approval ratings that there's never been anything like it. We've never seen 49 points up. 49 points up. And I think, uh, there's a light actually long beyond this country, all over the world.
I've been called by other leaders. They said, "Sir, there's a light over our country right now. There's a light over the world." We got rid of a horrible and a totally inept administration, an administration where the president wouldn't even go and do a Super Bowl interview for four years. I mean, he didn't do a Super Bowl interview.
I did. You'll see it in about, uh, one or two hours.
One more question --
-- what is your analysis of --
Do you have an opinion, sir, on whether the referees have been throwing the games to the Chiefs all season?
I don't believe that. No, I don't think.
What is your analysis at the games? What are you going to [Inaudible]?
Well, I think you're gonna have a great game. It's two great teams. I don't, who knows who's gonna win? You have great players though. You have really superstars playing on both teams. So I, I think it's gonna be a great game.
Why do you want to be chairman of the Kennedy Center Board?
Because I want to make sure it runs properly. We don't need woke at the Kennedy Center. We don't need -- Some of the shows were terrible. They're are disgrace that they were even put on. So I'll be there until such time as it gets to be running right. And --
Have you seen any shows there? How do you know that [Inaudible]?
I didn't go, no. I, I get reports. It was so bad, I didn't want to. I didn't want to go. There was nothing I wanted to see. Thank you very much everybody.
Thank you.
[Crosstalk]
He was great.
[Inaudible]
He's a great guy. He's, he's, uh, very sad over his mother's pass. He's a great guy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you Mr. President.