[Salena Zito interviewed Donald Trump after the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit held at Carnegie Mellon University. This was the only video and audio released of the interview and is unedited. Video courtesy and copyright the Washington Examiner. Source: https://cqrc.al/examiner-20250715]
You said in 2017, I think it was, um, that you were the president of Paris, uh, I mean of Pittsburgh, not Paris. When you were talking about that, um, the, the, the, um, uh, Iran deal. Um, I wonder if you could just talk about how that has come full circle here today.
Well, they had a thing called the Paris Accords. I said, "No, I want the Pittsburgh Accords. I'm not interested in that." And that was an environmental deal that they were putting out in Europe. And, you know, they, I'm sure they meant well, but it was very unfair to America, and I terminated it. I got out paying a trillion dollars or some ridiculous number to be involved, and other countries are paying nothing, like always.
So, uh, yeah, it was the Paris Accords. And I said, "No, I want the Pittsburgh Accords." It's so interesting, and here we are in Pittsburgh.
I thought today was so amazing. You see such a diverse crowd. People of different, you know, um, different trades, different things that they're involved, but, and all coming together. And I think it changes things for a generation or two, right? Like this is a game changer.
Well, it does. Would you like to say something?
Well, it's just the continued -- Yes, sir. It's just the continuation of the agenda that President Trump campaigned on, and here it's coming into reality. That here's someone who ran on a, on an a -- agenda and actually is doing it. And, uh, and so energy dominance and unlocking the possibilities of natural gas and drill baby drill, and helping working families.
That's why this summit was so successful is that the policies of President Trump would in place, people believing, and they wanna invest behind, uh, that vision. And so, uh --
Those investments today that were announced were unbelievable. I mean, not, there's never been a number like this.
There's never been a group assembled like this. And now, you'd only know that, 'cause these are people that you've never heard of. Most people have never heard of them. But a person like me that's in the world of finance --
Right.
-- or David --
Yeah.
-- uh, we, you know, are there, because they're the biggest people in the world actually. And they came from all over the world and they're in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania investing, you heard 20 billion, 25 billion, 15 billion. The poor ones are gone for five billion.
[Laughs]
And five billion is a lot of money.
Yeah.
There's no, no such thing as five billion for most people. And it's really great. Uh, but you know, and I can say it, I can come up with some, uh, good, really good ideas, common sense ideas, but it takes people like David and some of his friends in the Senate and the House --
Yeah.
-- to get it done. And you've done a fantastic job.
Yeah.