Well, thank you very much, and this is a great story. And it's an honor to be with Ryder Williams, who is a 16 year old lifeguard, California, the Santa Cruz area. And I understand he was a winner right from the time they first saw him as a lifeguard, a lot of training, a lot of work. And he saved this young gentleman, who I had a long talk with.
I said, would you have made it without him? And you said, not really, right, not really, it was trouble. So you're going to have a long and beautiful life.
Thank you.
And I just thought it was -- we were all watching, everybody watched. And, uh, got a lot of publicity because of the ferocity of the waves. I've never seen waves -- I mean, that was sort of violent. We were just discussing and at certain times of the year, mostly like right around now, the waves get very rough in that area and they're swirling and if you don't know what you're doing, it's going to be tough, or if you're small, if you're young.
So I just want to congratulate Nathaniel Rai for, uh, coming through an ordeal. That means you're going to have good luck in life. You know, that's called good luck. I want to say hello to your father and -- came along for the -- we invited them to the Oval Office and to the White House. Uh, after this, if you'd like, we're going to have them brought up to the Lincoln bedroom, where you see the room of Abraham Lincoln.
That's pretty good, right? And also your sister. It's really nice. We have some of the people that Nathaniel and -- uh, that worked so much on the -- the whole process with Nathaniel, and were with Ryder right from the beginning. And the -- I guess you, you learn from these people. They taught you how to do what you do so well, Ryder, right?
Yes, sir. They trained me.
And Nathaniel is very happy about that, Ryder, I have to tell you. Uh, Shane Williams, the father of Ryder, thank you very much, Shane. You did a good job.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I see you. You're in one of my favorite uniforms.
Yes, sir.
I'm a big fan of that. Good. You couldn't be happier, right?
I couldn't be more proud.
When you saw that on television.
Yes.
It was incredible, actually. Um, Shannon Williams, that's the mom. So you did a good job.
Thank you.
It's good genetics. When you look at them, you can see, really good. Uh, Sumit Rai, that's the father. Thanks again, Sumit, appreciate it. Layla Rai, sister of Nathaniel. Thank you, honey. Aaron Bohnen Santa Cruz Lifeguard, who assisted Ryder, and your -- he became quite famous also. That was a good assist.
He helped you a lot, right?
Yes, sir.
He helped you a lot. Thank you very much, great job.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Fantastic. Alex Luscutoff, Chief of Law Enforcement and Emergency Service in Santa Cruz. Thank you, great job you guys are doing.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Justin McHenry, Assistant Chief of Aquatics and Lifeguard Operations, Santa Cruz.
Right here, sir.
Good job.
Thank you, sir.
Were you responsible for the training?
Yes, I helped oversee and guide the training for our lifeguard program.
And for a lot of the lifeguards, right?
We train about 200 lifeguards a year.
Great.
Yep.
At that age, too.
Starting at 16.
Starting at 16. That's a lot. I read that -- uh, that's a lot to do for a 16 year old. That's not easy.
It's a huge responsibility and it requires a lot of --
That he did it so well, right?
Requires a lot of integrity and resilience and I think this particular rescue that Ryder performed really exemplifies what we're looking for in a state park lifeguard.
And you couldn't let go for an instance. If you let go for one instant, it'd be very hard to find, right?
Oh, absolutely. In those conditions, losing a victim would be disastrous.
Yeah, really amazing. You have no idea the respect. Uh, Joel, where's Joel, state park superintendent, uh, lifeguard, Santa Cruz? Joel?
Right here, sir.
Thank you very much. That's, uh, Dunenour, Dunenour, right?
Correct.
Good -- good job, Joel. And Mike McNamee, State Park Superintendent, uh, Santa Cruz.
Yes, sir.
Thank you very much. Well, we're -- we're honored to have all of you. And again, uh, what you did was incredible, and everybody saw it. And you'd watch it over and over. I know when I first saw it, I said, roll that back, I want to see that again, is that really happening? And both of you people have to be very proud.
The whole group is proud. And your father is the happiest man in the world, you know that? Because I asked him a question, I said, so if that didn't happen, your life would be ruined and you said, it would be a whole different life, right?
Absolutely, no question.
Amazing.
It's incredible, what Ryder did. I'm just beyond grateful to him and Aaron and the rest of the team and even the good Samaritans that were there. I mean, it's just such a privilege to be sitting next to him today and be able to celebrate his birthday tomorrow.
And I'll bet you'll stay a little bit related to -- to this group of people, because you realize what a fantastic job they did.
Absolutely, what a great job they did.
Probably, you know, it's interesting because they're saying that you have in that area, so many different saves. You -- you're saying that night you helped somebody out, maybe not to that extent, but you helped somebody out. But maybe lifeguards don't get the credit they deserve. This really showed how important it is in certain areas.
So certain areas of the country, you could say, are just very susceptible to people getting in trouble, right? And was this one of the worst in -- on the state, on that entire coast? I mean, do you have other areas, because that looks like a very dangerous place, the way those waves -- on a beautiful day, right?
The characteristics on that given day made it a little more difficult. It was a warm day, so there's lots of folks on the beach recreating and then combine it with that large surf and the strong currents that we had in the area made it treacherous. But California's coastline is very diverse, and we have very remote and rugged sections of coastline that our lifeguards work on every day.
Do you have areas where you don't have lifeguards, that are very dangerous and people innocently go swimming and they don't have a chance, probably, right?
Yeah, there certainly are unguarded areas within the state and around the nation. And, you know, people getting in without the knowledge or ability to recreate in those waters can be extremely dangerous.
And you have a lot of that. Is this one of the more dangerous areas, the swirl?
Um, I would say it's -- during the summer months, it's one of our more dangerous summer beaches, yes.
Yeah, it looked amazing and it didn't stop. You know, the water came in and just keep coming in. It was -- and it looked like you were almost on shore, but you weren't really on shore.
It's deceptive.
It was a fantastic thing. Uh, do you have any questions?
Mr. President, congratulations and congratulations on being honored here, Mr. Williams.
Let's keep the questions for them just for this and then we can ask a couple later. Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. President. So thank you for doing this first of all.
Sure, sure.
Um, what do you hope young Americans in our country take away from this incredible young man's story?
That's a great question. I mean, look, they're going to look up to Ryder. They're going to look up to Nathaniel, the way Nathaniel handled it. He was -- he was cool, considering the problems he -- I was watching. He was -- you were very cool and, uh, they're going to gain respect. I think, you know, very importantly, they're going to gain respect for what these people do, having to do with lifeguards and having to do with safety.
Uh, this was an unbelievable experience. Anybody watching, like, it's not my world, but I -- I respect that world. I always have, but never maybe so much as I do now. So I thought you bring, you know, to your profession, to what you do and what you do so well, you brought tremendous grace and experience, really tremendous grace, uh, tremendous -- uh, a feeling that it's so amazing to see this happen, to see it before your eyes.
And I don't think any other -- I've seen surfs, I've seen rescues before, I've never seen anything quite like this. It's been a great thing for your profession, and people are going to respect it even more, respect you even more. So I just thought it was really a very worthwhile event to have it at the Oval Office.
So congratulations. Yeah.
OK. So I actually have a question -- If you don't mind, can I have a question for the young gentleman as well?
Go ahead. Sure.
So first of all, a lot of people are very inspired by what you did. Can you tell us what was going through your mind at those dangerous moments, and what would you like to do in the future? How has this experience as a lifeguard shaped you?
Um, in those dangerous moments that we have, we always try to fall back on our training. We are trained so well by many to handle that situation as best we can, so I really was thinking about how to get the boy out of the water as fast as I can. And, um, for shaping my future, I want to be a firefighter in the future, hopefully go through paramedic school and hopefully --
He's off to a good start. We'll give them recommendations. You may have our -- some good recommendations. Go ahead.
That's all I had. Thank you.
Can I -- sorry. Uh, first of all, thank you. You are an inspiration for all of us, I think, and especially, you give us hope for your generation. And along those lines, do you have a message for your generation about service and what you're doing?
Um, I hope that everybody can take away from this and try to help more people, try to look out for everybody around you. And, um, just try to help everybody out as much as you can.
What's the average age of a lifeguard in your area?
I'd say a lot of this last year, a lot of them were 16 to 17 years old.
And you have some that make it a profession, right?
Yes, sir.
A lot. So do you have 35, 40, 45 year old?
Yes, sir.
That's great. And they lead a beautiful life on the surf, right?
Yes, sir.
And they would rather do nothing else, right? That's very good. I think it's great.
Mr. President, on a different topic. Yesterday --
Wait, let's finish on this topic. This is very exciting to me.
Mr. President --
You know, it's so exciting to see something like this happen. He's a real hero. You know, when you see that -- I don't know if I'd do it. I wouldn't, probably.
You're lucky I wasn't -- you're lucky I wasn't on service that day, I don't know. But, uh, no, he's a real hero. It's an amazing thing. And he's a real lucky guy, too. God was watching you, right?
Yeah.
Great. Go ahead, please.
Mr. President, I do have question about Iran, but I would like to ask you something about the rescue as well. Following this, there's been a push in Congress to officially affirm that open water lifeguards should be recognized as first responders. That would apparently really open up access to benefits, more federal programs.
Would you support that push?
Well, I think they have gone a long way to get that done. You know, it's something most people don't talk about. We have a lot of other things we talk about. And first time I've ever heard the question, but this is something that's been going on, I guess. Is that right? I'd like to, uh, put my weight behind it. So let's take a look at it, very important.
Yeah, I like the idea. Why do you ask that question? I mean, is this something that's been, uh, discussed very much?
Members of Congress have been talking about it in the wake of this rescue, so yes.
Well, I think in the wake of what happened here, there's a possibility something like that would happen.
And, Mr. President, you're a memorandum of understanding with Iran expires today. Are you any closer to reaching a final deal on ending Iran's nuclear program today than you were 60 days ago?
Let's finish up with Ryder, and then when we're done, we'll answer a couple of those questions. Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. President, again. So for the young man and for those who trained him here, so as a parent, I'm very concerned when I see moments like those. What's your message to parents across the country who want to really improve their children's safety, especially when they're younger like this?
Well, I think you have to be, uh, going to the right beach, number one, and I think you have to have lifeguards around, right? Because you could go to that water that looks so beautiful. The day, it was such a beautiful day, everything nice. The water didn't look that bad and then all of a sudden, you see these violent waves come in. That's what amazed me so much.
I studied it. I said, this is incredible. I've never seen that kind of roughness in water. I've seen unbelievably -- I've seen tragic things happen, but I've never seen water that looks so calm and then every 15 seconds, the violence comes back in. Uh, I think, really, you probably have areas -- I'll bet you have areas that you think should have, as you call them, guards, uh, that don't have.
Do you think -- do you -- can you imagine having more guards along the coast, parts of the coast that aren't guarded, where people die?
Yeah, certainly. The National Water Safety Action Plan and the California State Action Plan both call for more supervision. And by supervision, we mean --
Do we lose a lot of people due to lack of, you know, covering an area?
It can be challenging in some of those spots because of the, um, the economy to live there is expensive.
Right.
It's a coastal beach community and there's million dollar homes on the beach and our lifeguards are making a little more than minimum wage. But it can be challenging to live in those spaces, so it's hard to retain employees in those areas.
As the lifeguards grow older and they want to make that a profession, which is a noble profession, uh, they make much higher salaries, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So if they become a --
I mean, they make a good living?
If they become a full-time lifeguard, which in our department requires you to become a peace officer --
I see. OK. Well, that helps for that other question.
It does. Um, they -- that's a livable wage, and, you know, they can become members of the community and live where they're working, um, and give back.
So will you be doing it -- you helped so much with Ryder, uh, will you be doing it as a profession or will you be doing other things later?
So I'm actually a full time firefighter paramedic with a fire department in California, and I've stayed on the books with state parks, because I owe this program a lot and it's done a lot for me.
Oh, that's great.
I love being here, helping train people like Ryder, so plan on staying around for a long time.
That's great. Good job. That's fantastic. Yeah, please.
Policy question, Mr. President?
Go ahead.
There's a lot of debate right now about these license plate scanners that are going up across the country. They're called flock cameras. People are worried that the police might misuse them. Have you heard of them?
Yep.
What's your stance?
Well, it's being studied right now. You know, you have pros and cons, right? It's being studied right now. We'll have an answer sort of as to our views on it over the next couple of weeks.
[Inaudible] Jon Ossoff said that you'd rather travel with your aide, Natalie Harp and build the ballroom than do your job as president. What is your response?
Who said that?
Jon Ossoff.
You mean Pee Wee Herman? Pee Wee Herman look alike? Uh, no I would much rather do other things. It's a -- we're building a great facility here. We're fixing a White House that hasn't been taken care of. You can look at this. This room was a disgraceful situation, the Oval Office, and it was -- it was, uh, let go, the whole building.
The White House was let go. The exteriors were falling apart. The columns were falling apart. The whole place was a mess. In addition, they've been trying to get a ballroom for the last 150 years. And when I said I was going to build a ballroom, the military asked if they could see me and they say, sir, we have an opportunity to go down deep into the ground and build a military facility to go with the White House and to go with all of Washington, DC, which would be so valuable.
And then they came up with the drone port on top, which would be a major drone port to protect the White House and all of DC. And all of those things added up and it became much more than just a ballroom. And I said to myself, wow, what an opportunity. I mean, if I was just going to build a ballroom, I could have had it built very quickly.
Because I do these -- I build very well and very quickly. We went five stories down into the ground. We did a lot of tremendous things for the military, things that they could never get. They said, this is an opportunity that we have because you're building the ballroom, that if you would be willing to spend more time, we would love to be able -- we've been trying to do this at the White House for many, many years.
And they've been trying to have a ballroom at the at the White House for many, many years. Now, what happened is we used to use tents, and the tents are usually made of either plastic, a plastic material or canvas, and they wouldn't stop a 22 caliber. They wouldn't stop anything, in terms of safety, be very dangerous.
And they haven't used a tent for years. They haven't had any big -- like we have President Xi coming on September 24th or so. I think it's September 24th. And we'd love to have 2,000 people coming to dinner and celebrating a nice evening et cetera, et cetera. But we only have a room that's going to hold 89 people.
And 89 people is not appropriate. So maybe more importantly, it's totally secure with bulletproof windows, bulletproof sides. Uh, it's drone proof. It's missile -- every -- the top of the line. And we need it and especially with what's happened, unfortunately to the world, you could say. Yeah, please.
On Iran, this morning -- this morning you said you would bomb the s out of Oman if they got in the way of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Would you say you're out of patience with Oman, a strategic partner?
No, I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things.
Mr. President, I have actually two questions.
Go ahead.
There was a report by Central Square that nearly two dozen Democratic attorney generals, months before your reelection were basically planning already lawsuits against you, and wanting to see what your comment is on that? Second question is --
Well, I heard about that I'm not surprised because they've weaponized this country like never before. The Democrats or the Dumocrats, as they call them they've weaponized the country like nobody's ever seen anything like it. When you see the reports that are coming out now, that you would have never seen if I had not won the election in a landslide, but you would have never seen it if I didn't win the election.
But the reports that you see coming out now, and the kind of illegal activity that they used on the 2020 election and beyond is -- is earth-shattering. These are very dishonest people, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear that.
Sorry, this is on DC. You have mentioned before, if the Democrats get in again that they may eliminate the filibuster next time and make DC a state. A while back, Senator Mike Lee had floated an --
It wouldn't be a state, it wouldn't be -- I mean, if we're talking about us, we have, as you know, a very radically left person elected mayor, who I haven't met. I'm sure she's very nice, but very, very, very radical left. Uh, and we would have to federalize DC. You know, we've made DC great. Uh, when I got here, it was a very dangerous capital.
I would have said to Ryder, don't come, it's too dangerous. Now, I can say, you can walk down the street. You can grab Nathaniel and all your friends, you can walk, you're going to be very safe. But if you were here a year and a half ago, the numbers were horrible. The crime stats, the murders, the death, the drug dealing, everything was up. We have one of the safest -- we've taken it from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to as safe a city as there is. Uh, amazing what's happened to Washington and it's our capital.
We have to have a safe capital, and we did it through a lot of different reasons but we also put the National Guard here. But in addition to that, the cleanliness, the new grass, the graffiti is all gone. We fixed up 82 monuments, fountains and other things. Uh, the places -- and when you see it in six months from now, it's going to be even beyond that.
We're proud of our capital. I think these things are important, whether you build -- uh, whether you do something to fix the White House, where, you know, now they've never had a real estate developer, a good one, a real good one, uh, here before. They might not ever have one again. But, you know, fixing up our great capital is a very important thing.
I think it's very important psychologically. It's very important from the standpoint of people being able to come to the country and not get murdered in the capital. People would come here.
We had one of the worse, one of the most unsafe cities in the country now we have one of the safest. Just to finish, we have -- we had a real problem with restaurants; nobody wanted to have restaurants, entrepreneurs, restaurant entrepreneurs. Now you can't get space. Every restaurant is packed; the place is booming.
People aren't going to get mugged and raped and beat to hell and shot and killed in Washington, DC, one of the safest places. Crime is down 84 percent, and that I did that in a short period of time. It's also down in Memphis where we went specifically, and it's also down in New Orleans. I was asked by the governor, could I do something, because they were having Mardi Gras, it was very bad.
And they had the best Mardi Gras they've ever had, the safest Mardi Gras that they've ever had. And we could do it in New York, we could do it in California, we could do it in Chicago if we were asked to do it. But the crime stats in the whole country, we have down 15, 16, 17 percent -- a record.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, why hasn't Kim Jong Un responded to your request to have a conversation?
How do you know he hasn't responded?
Has he?
Um, yeah, he has.
Did you speak to him?
[Crosstalk]
Where are you in conversation with him?
Very positive. Well, just so you understand with South Korea -- look, South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years. And during my first term, they agreed to pay close to $3 billion a year for protection because we don't -- you know, they essentially weren't paying and I asked him to do that at my request, I said no. They weren't happy about it, but they agreed.
I asked for $10 billion and they were very unhappy. But we agreed for a short term that it would be $3 billion, and next year it would go up, and the next year would go up, so they start paying for their protection. When the election was rigged and I ended up watching for four years and then coming back, I watched Biden rescind that $3 billion a year for whatever reason.
When I called recently the president of South Korea, who I like, I think he's very nice, actually. But I called him, I said would you like to give us a little hand? We don't need help with Iran, but if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran. He said, no, thanks. And I said, wait a minute, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran, that's strange.
No, no, we'd rather not get involved. I see. Well, why are we involved in helping you? So -- and I want to help them. But, you know, when you ask somebody, would you like to give us a hand? And they say, no, thanks. And then we're guarding them from a country and paying ourselves billions of dollars -- it's costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect not only them, but other countries.
Look at NATO. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars protecting Europe from Russia. Hundreds of billions, mostly from Russia, but from other things, too. And then they say, well, they don't want to get involved with getting -- you know, guarding the Strait where they get most of their oil, they get 50 percent of their oil, and they don't want to get involved.
Why are we doing it? So, all I want is fairness. And South Korea, I get along with them very well, but they were paying $3 billion a year and then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person and they shouldn't. And he immediately rescinded that order. So, we were getting paid; we would have been getting paid a lot more.
But we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us.
[Crosstalk]
On the expiration of the Memorandum of Understanding, are you any closer today to reaching a final deal to end Iran's nuclear program than you were 60 days ago?
They want to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. Look, we're in there for one reason -- Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that -- Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon. And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the B-2 bombers, it's going to be a long time.
But Iran cannot have -- it's very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, how do you respond to folks who say that you are prioritizing the interest of adversaries in North Korea over our long-time partners by scaling back these military exercises?
No, I'm making it much safer. You see, I'm actually making it much safer. Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect, and we've met on numerous occasions, actually two primary occasions, spoken and spent time. I understand him, he understands me. You're doing war games -- I get along with him. You know, he didn't like Biden, he didn't like Obama, he didn't like anybody, but I get along with him very well.
No, what I'm doing is making things safer, just the opposite.
[Crosstalk]
He asked you to scale back on those.
Quiet, quiet, quiet, you're very disrespectful in front of this young man, OK? Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with?
I'm with CNN.
Fake news. You're fake news.
I just wanted to follow up on the South --
You're a loud -- you're a loud, boisterous person. You're fake news. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet.
If you had been talking to Kim Jong Un, if he had asked you to scale back on those military exercises.
You're a fake reporter and you report fake news. Go ahead.
Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln?
Yeah, there is. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, good period of time. But over the years we've had them out there much longer. I was at a group meeting, and an Admiral came up to see me over the weekend. And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral, retired.
He said I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir, and I know people on the Lincoln. They say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of. And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, there is a report that a senior intelligence official with the CCP just bought a historical building overlooking the White House. Have you heard about this? Do you have a reaction to that?
No, I haven't heard about that.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President? Yes. Mr. President --
Yeah, go ahead -- behind you.
The British Prime Minister recently reportedly sent texts to someone impersonating Susie Wiles. Are you concerned about his judgment or the state of communication between the two countries?
No. But -- who happened? What? What happened? They sent texts.
Apparently, the Prime Minister sent texts to somebody impersonating Susie Wiles, and it was --
No, I'm sure that -- I'm sure that he had a miscommunication.
Mr. President.
[Crosstalk]
He's the Prime Minister and I spoke to him. We had a good conversation, a couple of them. We had a good conversation. One of the things he is going to do, I think he's going to open up the North Sea. That'll make -- that'll make UK pretty rich, I'll tell you. If he opened up the North Sea, now he's got an immigration problem and he has an energy problem, he would have solved one of his problems.
That would be a big thing. That would make UK rich. If you open up the North Sea, it's one of the great finds anywhere in the world. And if they would open up the North Sea, UK would be rich again.
[Crosstalk]
Yes, Mr. President, have the people, the people who are --
Do you find them nice? Huh? Nice people, right? Look at him, he'd say --
We're not all [Inaudible].
He's saying, where do people like this come from? Your son is saying where do people like this come from? Go ahead. Especially her.
The people who are opposing the ballroom and challenging it, have they offered any sort of solution or sort of compromise? Or are they just saying there should be a hole there?
The people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal to our country, very, very disloyal to our country. And I think we're doing very well. We're way ahead of schedule; we're under budget. It's going to be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind. You know, when I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China.
It was this big, beautiful building and we don't have anything like that. And we have to have that, it's very important. But we also are getting tremendous military protection; drone protection, the building is drone proof, it's missile proof as much as something can be missile proof, it's totally bullet proof.
Any bullet, nothing can go through the windows. We have, you know, all top-of-the-line stuff. It's very safe. And, you know, the one thing -- it's not for me because I'm going to be here a very short period of time when it's finished -- if it finishes right on time, on budget, on time, I'll be there for four, five, six months.
This is for future presidents. This isn't for me; this is for future presidents for and it's a gift. We're making a gift to our country, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a ballroom and it's a gift from great patriots of this country, from -- as an example, I mean, I'll give you names. I'd release some of the names.
In fact, I wanted to put them out today, but we got a little busy and this was -- frankly, being with this group of people was very important to me. But we'll be putting them out, some of the people that contributed. But this is a gift to the United States of America, no taxpayer money is necessary. And you're going to have the finest ballroom anywhere in the world.
It's not something I wanted to do, but it's something that's needed. And again, I'm not going to get to use it very much because by the time it's completed, I'll have four or five months left, three months, who knows? But we're ahead of schedule, it's going to be the best of it -- in the world, of its kind in the world, there'll be nothing like it in the world.
It -- It fits beautifully with the White House. It's gotten fantastic reviews, architectural reviews. People think it's incredible. And when you see it, you'll say, wow, that's really something. And that's what the United States is all about. We have to have that. But in addition to the ballroom, we're building a great military complex.
The people that started the lawsuit, the head person, I believe, was fired. And she was fired from another event just before that, and she's the one that started it. It's a national trust. But the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Now, they say it's a United States. They use the word united, but it's not related to the United States.
In fact, the United States doesn't even contribute to it. It has nothing to do with it. It stopped contributing when they realized there were nothing but troublemakers. Years ago, it stopped contributing. So this isn't like an official United States bureau, a United States agency. Uh, they stopped contributing to the National Trust, and it's called the National Trust.
It has this great name, National Trust for Historic Preservation. They are a bunch of troublemakers that the United States, many years ago, long before me, stopped contributing to. The woman that started it, was fired. She's no longer there, so this is the remnants of it. And the bottom line is they're trying to stop something, and they won't be successful, but they're trying to stop something that's almost completed.
When you say -- when you say -- when they brought a suit, why didn't they bring the suit a year before? Why did they bring the suit in the middle of construction, when $400 million almost is spent on its construction? Why wouldn't they have started the suit a year earlier? Everybody knew it was going to -- I made -- It was no secret.
Everybody knew that it was taking place, so they should have done that. But the National Trust is very disloyal to the country because they reveal things. You know, I said the problem with the suit -- I told them this, is that we have many military things in this ballroom, and ideally, they shouldn't be revealed.
But now they are revealed, so the world knows about it. That's OK. They shouldn't have done it. They're very disloyal. But I think we're doing really well. We're way ahead of schedule, and somebody -- and many presidents are going to use it for many years to come. The country will have one of the greatest gifts it's ever received.
One more, one more.
[Crosstalk]
Last week, you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate --
Well, I just think it's a great idea, yeah. I mean, we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with the blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We could -- we have total control over the strait now. They can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water.
And people don't like having mines hit their billion dollar ships, you know, etc., but the blockade has been very effective. And, you know, we're taking out -- now, maybe that will stop or maybe it'll open up even further, but we're taking out millions of barrels of oil a week, if you look at the kind of numbers that we're doing.
We're doing -- the Strait is open and the oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we're doing. Uh, Iran is in big trouble. They have, uh, 300 percent inflation. The country is a mess, and the military is totally defeated. Thank you very much, everybody.
Mr. President, are you are you seeking an extension to the MOU?
Quiet, quiet, quiet, you're very disrespectful in front of this young man, OK? Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with?
I'm with CNN.
Fake news. You're fake news.
I just wanted to follow up on the South --
You're a loud -- you're a loud, boisterous person. You're fake news. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet.
If you had been talking to Kim Jong Un, if he had asked you to scale back on those military exercises.
You're a fake reporter and you report fake news. Go ahead.
Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln?
Yeah, there is. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, good period of time. But over the years we've had them out there much longer. I was at a group meeting, and an Admiral came up to see me over the weekend. And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral, retired.
He said I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir, and I know people on the Lincoln. They say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of. And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, there is a report that a senior intelligence official with the CCP just bought a historical building overlooking the White House. Have you heard about this? Do you have a reaction to that?
No, I haven't heard about that.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President? Yes. Mr. President --
Yeah, go ahead -- behind you.
The British Prime Minister recently reportedly sent texts to someone impersonating Susie Wiles. Are you concerned about his judgment or the state of communication between the two countries?
No. But -- who happened? What? What happened? They sent texts.
Apparently, the Prime Minister sent texts to somebody impersonating Susie Wiles, and it was --
No, I'm sure that -- I'm sure that he had a miscommunication.
Mr. President.
[Crosstalk]
He's the Prime Minister and I spoke to him. We had a good conversation, a couple of them. We had a good conversation. One of the things he is going to do, I think he's going to open up the North Sea. That'll make -- that'll make UK pretty rich, I'll tell you. If he opened up the North Sea, now he's got an immigration problem and he has an energy problem, he would have solved one of his problems.
That would be a big thing. That would make UK rich. If you open up the North Sea, it's one of the great finds anywhere in the world. And if they would open up the North Sea, UK would be rich again.
[Crosstalk]
Yes, Mr. President, have the people, the people who are --
Do you find them nice? Huh? Nice people, right? Look at him, he'd say --
We're not all [Inaudible].
He's saying, where do people like this come from? Your son is saying where do people like this come from? Go ahead. Especially her.
The people who are opposing the ballroom and challenging it, have they offered any sort of solution or sort of compromise? Or are they just saying there should be a hole there?
The people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal to our country, very, very disloyal to our country. And I think we're doing very well. We're way ahead of schedule; we're under budget. It's going to be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind. You know, when I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China.
It was this big, beautiful building and we don't have anything like that. And we have to have that, it's very important. But we also are getting tremendous military protection; drone protection, the building is drone proof, it's missile proof as much as something can be missile proof, it's totally bullet proof.
Any bullet, nothing can go through the windows. We have, you know, all top-of-the-line stuff. It's very safe. And, you know, the one thing -- it's not for me because I'm going to be here a very short period of time when it's finished -- if it finishes right on time, on budget, on time, I'll be there for four, five, six months.
This is for future presidents. This isn't for me; this is for future presidents for and it's a gift. We're making a gift to our country, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a ballroom and it's a gift from great patriots of this country, from -- as an example, I mean, I'll give you names. I'd release some of the names.
In fact, I wanted to put them out today, but we got a little busy and this was -- frankly, being with this group of people was very important to me. But we'll be putting them out, some of the people that contributed. But this is a gift to the United States of America, no taxpayer money is necessary. And you're going to have the finest ballroom anywhere in the world.
It's not something I wanted to do, but it's something that's needed. And again, I'm not going to get to use it very much because by the time it's completed, I'll have four or five months left, three months, who knows? But we're ahead of schedule, it's going to be the best of it -- in the world, of its kind in the world, there'll be nothing like it in the world.
It -- It fits beautifully with the White House. It's gotten fantastic reviews, architectural reviews. People think it's incredible. And when you see it, you'll say, wow, that's really something. And that's what the United States is all about. We have to have that. But in addition to the ballroom, we're building a great military complex.
The people that started the lawsuit, the head person, I believe, was fired. And she was fired from another event just before that, and she's the one that started it. It's a national trust. But the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Now, they say it's a United States. They use the word united, but it's not related to the United States.
In fact, the United States doesn't even contribute to it. It has nothing to do with it. It stopped contributing when they realized there were nothing but troublemakers. Years ago, it stopped contributing. So this isn't like an official United States bureau, a United States agency. Uh, they stopped contributing to the National Trust, and it's called the National Trust.
It has this great name, National Trust for Historic Preservation. They are a bunch of troublemakers that the United States, many years ago, long before me, stopped contributing to. The woman that started it, was fired. She's no longer there, so this is the remnants of it. And the bottom line is they're trying to stop something, and they won't be successful, but they're trying to stop something that's almost completed.
When you say -- when you say -- when they brought a suit, why didn't they bring the suit a year before? Why did they bring the suit in the middle of construction, when $400 million almost is spent on its construction? Why wouldn't they have started the suit a year earlier? Everybody knew it was going to -- I made -- It was no secret.
Everybody knew that it was taking place, so they should have done that. But the National Trust is very disloyal to the country because they reveal things. You know, I said the problem with the suit -- I told them this, is that we have many military things in this ballroom, and ideally, they shouldn't be revealed.
But now they are revealed, so the world knows about it. That's OK. They shouldn't have done it. They're very disloyal. But I think we're doing really well. We're way ahead of schedule, and somebody -- and many presidents are going to use it for many years to come. The country will have one of the greatest gifts it's ever received.
One more, one more.
[Crosstalk]
Last week, you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate --
Well, I just think it's a great idea, yeah. I mean, we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with the blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We could -- we have total control over the strait now. They can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water.
And people don't like having mines hit their billion dollar ships, you know, etc., but the blockade has been very effective. And, you know, we're taking out -- now, maybe that will stop or maybe it'll open up even further, but we're taking out millions of barrels of oil a week, if you look at the kind of numbers that we're doing.
We're doing -- the Strait is open and the oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we're doing. Uh, Iran is in big trouble. They have, uh, 300 percent inflation. The country is a mess, and the military is totally defeated. Thank you very much, everybody.
Mr. President, are you are you seeking an extension to the MOU?