Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters After Air Force One Arrival - June 23, 2026

Hello, everybody. We're in Pennsylvania. We're celebrating the great steel numbers. We are back in the steel business in a big way, one of the biggest in the world again. And, uh, we're here to have a good time with a very big crowd of people.

Mr. President, the Department of War is asking for 8 billion more dollars for the Iran War. Do you think Americans support this at a time when so many are financially struggling?

Who are you with?

I'm with NewsNation, sir.

Not a very good group. Not doing very well. Uh, not only do they support it, not only do they support it, they demand it because they won't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. You wanna see trouble? Let them have a nuclear weapon. We're doing very well with Iran. They've been decimated and we're making a deal with them and we'll see how that all goes.

And right now, as you probably heard yesterday, we had 19 barrels of oil, 19 million barrels of oil come off, and that's the biggest in the history of the Strait, the Hormuz Strait. Uh, our stock market is through the roof and oil prices are tumbling. We actually hit for a moment today. In fact, I think it's going to break at $70 a barrel.

That's lower than we were when we started, and it's been amazing. And the big thing is, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, what's on your agenda for your meeting tomorrow with senators at the lunch about Save America Act?

Well, we've got to talk about Save America. We have to get, we have to pass the Save America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship, et cetera. We have to pass it. So we're gonna have to talk about that and many other things. A lot of good relations.

The Senate authority leader, John Fu has told you many times, he doesn't believe that they have to vote to pass it.

You know, he's a leader. John's a leader. That's what being as a leader of that, look, we have to be able to get proof of citizenship when you vote. Otherwise, we don't have elections. We have to be able to get voter ID. So John is a leader and hopefully he can get the votes.

[Crosstalk]

Iranians are saying there's no schedule isn't for the IAE inspectors. Is that part of your agreement?

They're wrong. They're wrong. They're wrong. They know they're wrong. They told us inside and we have it down 100% inspection. And if they were right, I'd cancel the meetings right now.

Mr. President, when will those inspectors actually be on the ground?

At the appropriate time. At the appropriate time. There's no rush, but they'll be on the ground at the appropriate time.

Two people. Are you confident that the ceasefire is holding it?

Well, see what that, look, they've been fighting each other for many, many years, decades and, uh, we'll see. But it's, it's gonna come along.

There's a note that our Brian Entin reported on that says that she's dead. She's with nature. Is there any hope that the FBI and investigators find her?

I hope they find her. I mean, Savannah's gone through a rough, that family's gone through hell, but I hope they find her.

You mentioned yesterday that the interior department has video and photos. We reached out to them and they haven't shared it with us. Are you going to come --

No, they've, they've arrested, I think, six people on the reflecting pool. So the reflecting pool looks fantastic. I just got pictures of it. It's beautiful. But somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good and then they cut a 200, 350 foot slip in the form of lots of little slip, a real, horrible stuff and they destroyed the grass.

We put a brand new big load of grass out there and they destroyed it so it's all being fixed. But, uh, it's a shame. So I understand five or six people are arrested. The, uh, interior department can refer to you on that. And I hear, I hear that, I hear they have six people under investigated.

You're about to speak to truckers. Truckers are at high risk of losing their jobs to AI because of --

Right now, they're not. You can't get a job. Right now we have the highest job numbers we've ever had in the country, in the history of the country. And I'm just with a couple of the great senators and congressmen, we're talking, it's actually hard to build a job, you know, nobody's ever seen a time like this.

We have, right now, so many jobs that are going to be available and the biggest problem we have is getting the people. So we're really doing spectacular. In this area, in Pennsylvania, for steel, uh, Eli Lilly just announced billions of dollars worth of plants. We have more plants being built right now in the United States than at any time in the history of our country.

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What will you say to allies like Senator Cruz who've been critical of the Iran [Inaudible] - --

Well, I think anybody that's been critical of it, uh, has to be educated, even if they're friends of mine because we have Iran in a position that nobody's ever had. Th- -- this should have been done for 47 years by other presidents and we have Iran in a position where their military has been totally wiped out, their leadership has been wiped out, their radar has been wiped out, everything's been wiped out.

They have, they have not a good negotiating position. But despite that and, and money that will be taken out of Iran is gonna go to our farm- -- farmers to give corn, soybeans, wheat to Iran, because they have a hunger problem, they have a food problem, they have a medicine problem, they got a lot of problem, and they have an inflation.

Their inflation now just hit 300%. So they have a lot of problem.

[Crosstalk]

Are you planning to do a federal takeover of these museums that were likely that a social --

So we have a radical left communist elected, I guess, soon to be elected mayor of DC. DC is now a safe, you people know better than anybody, it's a safe, beautiful city. When I came here, it was an unsafe, unkempt, horrible ci- -- y- -- it was horrible. The monuments and the waterfalls and the statues and everything were graffiti written, hadn't been fixed in 50 years.

Cleaned. Now it's beautiful. We did 52 statues, monuments, uh, waterfalls, including the thing that, you know, where the vandals hit the, the, uh, reflecting pool, but we'll get that back very quickly. In fact, I will say, this morning I sent people over, they say it looks absolutely beautiful, but we're gonna have to let a little water out and fix it and then we'll put the water back in.

Mr. President --

But, but just so you understand, so our country is doing really well and we're gonna keep it that way. And any, any senator that didn't vote for all of the things we need because we're, uh, making an amazing deal with Iran. We're making a deal that's gonna keep our country and the world safe 'cause we're not gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon and they know that and they agree to that.

Thank you very much.