Thank you very much for seeing me twice today. It's going to be quite an important signing, so we thought we'd let you watch. If we could, I'd ask Will to explain the first, but really more importantly, explain the second and we'll start signing. Go ahead, please.
Yes, sir, just two items for your signature today. The first is the formal commission appointing Chris Rocheleau to be the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Right.
And since the administrator position is currently vacant, he will act as the administrator since he has now been appointed deputy.
And he's a very capable guy.
Extremely experienced in aviation and highly regarded in the industry and in government.
OK.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Second, for your signature, we have a presidential memorandum titled Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety. In light of the damage done to aviation safety by the Biden administration's DEI and woke policies, what this presidential memorandum orders is for your secretary of Transportation and FAA administrator, in this case, acting FAA administrator, to basically ensure that we are actively undoing all of that damage, that we are assessing how much damage was done and that we're ensuring that people hired within the FAA, in keeping with your memorandum of January 21st, are only the most outstanding, capable people for the jobs that they are being hired into.
In other words, competence?
Yes, sir, elevating competence over everything else, instead of the DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration.
I think everyone understands that, and Obama.
Yes.
Both of them. OK. But Biden, much worse, not even a contest. What they've done is just crazy, in so many other ways. OK.
Mr. President, to be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?
It may have, I don't know. Incompetence might have played a role. We'll let you know that, but we want the most competent people. We don't care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. And you're talking about extremely complex things. And if they don't have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they're not going to be very good at what they do and bad things will happen.
Mr. President, there's long been concerns about the amount of congestion out of DC airport. Do you think that there's too many flights coming out of that airport?
No. I think we need very smart people running the flights and doing it. The ones that aren't good, they'll either do one of two things. They'll have too many coming in and they can't handle it, or they'll have the people waiting up in the air, which everyone's been caught in that situation and circling the airports for an hour, and that's no good either.
Mr. President, are you aware --
Say?
The military helicopter training flights that are flying around National Airport all the time, what's your view? Should they be --
Well, my view is fine, if they're in the right locations and if they're not at the same levels. I mean, if a plane coming in is at 300ft or 400ft and a helicopter is training at 300ft or 400ft, why wouldn't they be up 500ft higher? So I certainly would--and that, to a certain extent, is the air traffic controller.
Wait. Please wait just a second.
Do you feel like what happened last night was preventable [inaudible]?
I do. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Obviously, that was something that should not have happened and we're not going to let it happen again. Yes, please?
Mr. President, on a slightly different subject. On your Canada and Mexico tariffs, will oil be included or excluded from those tariffs?
So we'll be announcing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a number of reasons. Number one is the people that have poured into our country so horribly and so much. Number two are the drugs, fentanyl and everything else that have come into the country. And number three are the massive subsidies that we're giving to Canada and to Mexico in the form of deficits.
And I'll be putting the tariff of 25 percent on Canada and separately 25 percent on Mexico, and we will really have to do that because we have very big deficits with those countries. Those tariffs may or may not rise with time.
And will oil be part of that, though, because we get oil from Canada?
Oil is going to have nothing to do with it as far as I'm concerned. Oil has nothing to do with it.
Mr. President [Inaudible] signed yesterday regarding Guantanamo Bay, you [inaudible] 30,000 new beds there. Is there a possibility that will increase almost 30,000 [Inaudible]?
It could increase. Yes.
What would be the maximum?
It depends, but countries that won't take back their criminals that they sent into us, they sent them to us, they put them into the caravans and they came in. As sure as you're standing there, they were sent by those countries, and then they're going to be met very harshly with sanctions etc.
And what are you hoping to help Guantanamo Bay, this new facility up and running?
It'll be up pretty quickly.
How much do you think it's going to cost?
Not very much. A lot of the structure is already there, as you know.
Mr. President, you said that incompetence may have played a role. Are you aware of any performance issues or disciplinary actions that were taken against anyone who was working the tower last night or flying the plane?
No, no. And I hope that's not the case in this case, but certainly over the years, it's been the case. And it's the case with respect to close calls and it's the case with respect to circling for hours on end. Planes circle a lot and they circle because the people bringing them down, these people that have to be very, very smart.
And it's not based on anything other than the brain. We need the smartest people. We need both psychologically smart and just brilliant period, and we are going to have them in our control towers. We are going to have the most competent people in the country in our control towers, not people that are there for any other reason.
Mr. President, you said that you envisioned sending the 80 something thousand IRS agents hired under Biden to the border. What role do you see them playing?
Well, we'll see. I mean, I may do that or I may use different people, but we're going to send more. We're going to give the Border Patrol some help. Although now if you look, they've taken in the lowest number since my administration. The numbers are very low. And that level, we don't need so much help. People know not to come because if they come, they're not going to make it in and they're going to be shipped out.
[Inaudible] president and the King of Jordan have both said that they won't take in displaced people from Gaza like you suggested. Is there anything you can do to make them do that? I mean, tariffs are against those countries, for example?
They will do it. They will do it.
What makes you say that?
They're going to do it. OK? We do a lot for them and they're going to do it.
Mr. President, you've offered over two million federal workers. The option to resign immediately. There are 50,000 FAA employees. Does this tragedy give you reason to reconsider that option of resignations because of concerns [Inaudible] safety?
No. If people aren't coming to work, if they're not going to come into the office and report as per the date that you know what it is, everybody knows what the date is, it's been very well-documented, then they're going to be terminated.
You're not concerned though that if many people take that offer, there could be shortages that could lead to issues --
Then they'll be replaced with very competent people. We have a lot of competent people in this country.
Have you spoken to any of the families of the victims of the plane crash?
I don't want to comment on that.
Do you have a plan to go visit the site? [Inaudible].
I have a plan to visit, not the site because you tell me, what's the site, the water? You want me to go swimming?
Or to meet first responders down there.
I don't have a plan to do that, but I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt with their family member, obviously. But I'll be meeting with some of the families, yeah.
On birthright citizenship, sir, do you believe that there are five votes in the Supreme Court that would uphold your position?
On what?
Five votes on the Supreme Court --
What position?
Birthright citizenship.
I think so, yeah. Look, birthright citizenship was, if you look back when this was passed and made, that was meant for the children of slaves. This was not meant for the whole world to come in and pile into the United States of America, everybody coming in and totally unqualified people with perhaps unqualified children.
This wasn't meant for that. This was meant, when it was originally done, for the children of slaves and that was a very good and noble thing to do and I'm in favor of that 100 percent. But it wasn't meant for the entire world to occupy the United States.
So you don't see it requiring a constitutional amendment that would be --
I just think that we'll end up winning that court, in the Supreme Court. I think we're going to win that case and I look forward to winning it. This has been going on. At that level, we're the only country in the world that does this. There's no other country, at this level, there's no other country in the world that does it. It's crazy.
Mr. President, if 64 people lost their lives last night, if you aren't confident that DEI had any role, why bring it up?
Well, all I'm talking about is competence. And we want in the -- in that particular position, we have to have the most competent people in our country because we're talking about lives. Now, it may or may not have had to do, but I don't like the fact that the helicopter was at the exact same level as the airplane.
The helicopter should have been 1,000ft or 500ft above it, or something below it. The plane was at 300ft to 400ft, or the plane should have been stopped because -- the helicopter could have stopped. The plane can't be stopped, but the plane was on a schedule that was -- was a long track. They call it a track and it's the same track that every other planes use for many years.
It was going down and landing, and the helicopter got in its way. And if the helicopter was higher or lower or stopped, or turning left or turning right at a quicker time, I mean, it turned, but it turned when it was too late. A tragic, a tragic story. So I don't know. Do you blame it on the air traffic controller too, in addition to the pilots?
Maybe the pilots fault? They should have seen it. I would have thought they should have seen it because it was a plane that was loaded up with lights and everybody -- you can see it from Kennedy Center. You can see it very easily. So all I want is the most competent people in our country to be air traffic controllers.
It's a very important position. And other positions too, by the way. We're not only talking about that, we're talking -- but air traffic controllers maybe in particular. They have to be brilliant with computers, brilliant with graphics. They have to be psychologically really, really smart. And you know there are a lot of people that wouldn't be able to do that.
Were there any signs of foul play? Tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 25 percent, that's coming on Saturday?
That's coming on the first, Saturday.
OK. But no oil tariffs?
No, I don't -- well, I didn't say that. You said that. No.
I don't want to misinterpret.
No. We may or may not. We're going to make that determination probably tonight on oil. Yeah, because they send us oil. We'll see. It depends on what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don't. Look, Mexico and Canada have never been good to us on trade. They've treated us very unfairly on trade.
And we will be able to make that up very quickly because we don't need the products that they have. We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories. In oil, we have more than anybody and we don't need anybody's trees.
We have to free up some of the tree areas that we have. We have great lumber in this country. We have to free them up environmentally, which I can do very quickly, but we don't need what they have. And for us to be subsidizing Canada to the tune of $175 billion a year and subsidizing Mexico to the tune of $250 billion, $300 billion a year and Mexico is a method of China sending in its product.
And with China, I'm also thinking about something because they're sending fentanyl into our country. And because of that, they're causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths. So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that and we're in the process of doing that. We'll make that determination of what it's going to be, but China has to stop sending fentanyl into our country and killing our people.
Mr. President, the Israeli media has reported that conversations between Netanyahu's government and the White House have signaled that the US may be about to pull its troops out of Syria. Have you made a decision to pull US troops --
I don't know who said that. I mean, I don't know who said that, but we'll make a determination on that. We're not involved in Syria. Syria is its own mess. They've got enough messes over there. They don't need us involved in every one.
Mr. President, is there a shortage of staff at the control tower at DCA last night, that you are you aware of?
Well, that's part of the competence right there. They shouldn't have that happen. Right there is what I'm talking about. Competence would be you're not going to have a shortage. But if you had the right people, you wouldn't need as many people either.
Do you know if there was a shortage last night or not?
I don't know. No, I don't know. You're telling me something.
Mr. President, you said earlier today that you had not spoken to Putin about this. When was the last time you spoke with him and has President Xi responded to you or asked to help put pressure to end Ukraine?
Yeah, I won't comment on either of them, but we're doing very well with regard to both.
There are some reports that Xi might ask of you in order to give that help, pressure to disavow potential Taiwan independence. Is that something that you --
No, we never discussed it.
You had said earlier that we would get more details about the victims on the plane. Can you give more on that now?
Yeah, I have a lot of details, but it's something that will be released to you also at the appropriate time. No, I have the full details.
There were a lot of young people?
Young people, great people, great athletes, great skaters, a very sad situation, from numerous countries. OK. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.