Remarks: Donald Trump Attends a Multilateral Meeting with the GCC - September 22, 2026

Well, thank you very much. It's an honor. I just want to make a statement that Steve and Jared had a very productive meeting today with mediators of Iran, merely mediators. Let's see what happens with that, with the mediator for a while, but I think there's a lot of momentum for them to make a deal, but we're hearing from everybody.

And you heard my speech. I don't have to go through it, but we've -- we've knocked him for a loop. We don't brag about it, but they have -- the economy is in really bad shape and I hope they're going to do something that's really good for their people. And I think they are, actually, I really do. The other alternative is not an acceptable alternative for anybody.

But it's an honor to be here with some of America's greatest and closest friends, allies and partners to continue our effort toward a safer and more prosperous Middle East, a special place, and has become more special over the last period of time, since I've been in politics. I haven't been in politics too long, relatively speaking, not too long.

But I've got a lot of great friends sitting around this table. They're amazing people, and we're going to make sure their lives are good. Virtually every nation in this room has been outstanding, and they've done amazing things. And I want to express my gratitude to each of you for being strong and tough partners, for investing in the United States of America.

You know, we have $21 trillion of investment and a good chunk from the people in this room, but $21 trillion, that's a record. No country has ever had that. Part of its tariffs, but frankly, whatever it takes. But it's been -- it's never been anything like it. The record -- the all-time record is $3 trillion.

We're now $21 trillion, so it's been incredible. And really, a lot of it, I could name the people. I could tell you how much you each invested in the United States, and we appreciate it. But the stock market's reached 80 all-time highs since, uh, in a year and a half, which is a record also. So I just want to thank all of my friends sitting around the table.

We don't have to go through the whole list of names because we want to talk a little bit about other things, but I do want to thank also, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's been fantastic and the job he's done. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Scott, thank you very much. Secretary -- uh, special Envoy Steve Witkoff, very powerful man.

I'm very proud of -- I call him Henry Kissinger Junior, but he doesn't leak. Henry leaked a little bit. I knew Henry leaked like -- he leaked like a sieve. Ambassador to the United Nations, somebody who's really done a great job, Mike Waltz. Where are you, Mike? Where are you, Mike? Good. Good job, Mike. Uh, Jared Kushner, who is between Steve and Jared we have two very smart people and doing a job, and I think they're going to get this thing ended.

I have a lot of respect on both sides. They respect him. The Iranians respect them both very much, and I think it's important, but I think we're going to get it done. And CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, Ben Black. Thank you, Ben. That's great, Ben, good job you're doing. So exactly one year ago, many of our nations met here in the sidelines of the United Nations to discuss how we could end the bloody war in Gaza.

And almost the same faces were here, including my friend right over here from Turkey. He's a tough cookie. Don't mess around with him. I hope they translate this right. I hope we have a good translator, but he's fantastic. He's a fantastic guy, right, my friend. And the war was raging with no end in sight, Gaza, just no end in sight.

Because of the progress we made that day, we reached -- this was the same group of people, essentially, we reached a historic peace deal just a few weeks later, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. And with your help, UN Security Council unanimously approved the 20-point Gaza peace plan we jointly developed, creating the Board of Peace, which is fantastic.

And I want to thank, uh, the nation's -- most of the nations around the table. They invested billions of dollars in bringing back Gaza and helping Gaza and helping the people, really to help the people more than anything else, helping the people of Gaza. And it's been, uh, it's been pretty amazing. We also got back all of the hostages, 100 percent of them, both living and dead.

They were dead, both living and dead, we got them all back. And there were people dancing in the streets. Nobody thought it was possible. The people around this table made that possible. This year, many of us have also been in close contact as we sought to address the other long-standing challenge in the Middle East and that's the Iranian regime's pursuit of a nuclear weapon and a nuclear bomb, and we're not going to let that happen.

It's already ended. That aspect of it, in my opinion, has already ended. And the Operation Epic Fury crippled Iran's navy. It eliminated it, actually. I said, they have 159 ships. Every one of them is right now at the bottom of the sea, eliminated its air force. They have no planes. Hit over 90 percent of its weapons factories and destroyed 450 ballistic missile storage facilities and 800 drone storage facilities.

They still have some, but not very much. We annihilated its air defense systems, taking out almost completely, decimated its terrorist leadership and destroyed its economy. The economy right now, they're are over 300 percent inflation and their money is valueless. So now, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, and you look at that and Scott Bessent has done a great job with all of it, all of you.

We're completely isolating Iran financially and we're just putting the pressure on because hopefully they'll do the right thing fast before it's too late. You know, it's going to be a time when it's too late and we won't have a chance of letting them survive as a nation. I would like to see that. I can tell you the people around this table would like to see it. Some people are surprised to hear that, but they would like to see it. As you know, the US Navy has cleared Iranian mines out of the way and channels, the Hormuz strait, and we're now facilitating the renewed flow of oil.

We recently announced we have escorted more than one billion barrels of oil out of the Gulf. That's not a lot to me, but it's a lot to most people. Right, one billion barrels, that's a lot of oil, no matter -- no matter how you figure it. But we recently announced that we've escorted, again, more than one billion barrels of oil out just in the recent period of time.

And we're taking out 25 to 30 ships a night, sometimes during the day but a lot of it's during the night. The blockade is the strongest thing that anyone's ever seen. We call it a wall of steel and our Navy is amazing. Our military is amazing. It's amazing. We now have more oil flowing through the strait than at any point by far since the conflict began.

And again, a big portion of what we've done, maybe 99 percent of it, is to make sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. Those sites have been blown up. We may have to blow up another one, Pickaxe Mountain. That's -- we're not seeing a lot of activity there but if we do, we'll blow it up immediately.

While this is all excellent news, Iran's terrorist attacks on commercial shipping and neighboring countries have shown the need to shift Middle East energy infrastructure away from the Iranian checkpoints. That's why my administration strongly supports the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and other places of the form of getting oil out, whether it's pipelines or anything else.

And together, we're on the verge of overcoming challenges that have plagued this region for decades. This has gone on for decades. So they called Iran the bully of the Middle East for 51 years. I was saying 47, but I've been saying it for four years, so the real number is 51 years. And they're really not the bully anymore.

They can create problems, but they're not the bully anymore. But they were the bully of the Middle East, and everybody was very concerned, in a way, afraid, maybe rightfully so, but they're not afraid any longer. We continue to stand together. We are all together, very much united. We're with them 100 percent, and we'll create a future for this region in the world that is brighter than ever before.

It's a region which probably has maybe the most potential of any region, anywhere in the world. And it's not just the oil, it's the mines, it's the brilliance, it's the genius. I know these people, they're brilliant people, high energy, maybe sometimes too high energy, right? We could use the brilliance and a little bit lower energy on occasion.

That would be pretty good. But they're brilliant people and they're great people and they're my friends and they're doing a fantastic job. So we think that the situation with Iran could end right after the midterm elections and maybe before, I don't know. You never know. But they don't understand what -- they really don't, is that I won the election in a landslide.

I won all seven swing states. I won by millions of votes, the popular vote. I won the counties by 86 percent, which never happened before. It's the highest ever, and the Electoral College by a lot, by a tremendous amount. And I'm not running. Other people are running, other Republicans are running. They're great people.

And I'll help them get elected but I'm not running. And I don't think about the election at all when I think about ending the nuclear threat from Iran. I just think about ending the nuclear threat from Iran. And that's all I do, I think about that. And it has nothing to do with the election. If we do well, we should do well, because there's never been a time like it in the United States.

There's never been any time like it. A man that happens to be sitting at this table right now said that a couple of years ago, said that a year ago, your nation, sir, was dead, and now you have the hottest nation anywhere in the world. And we do, we're the hottest in the world. We have the best military, the strongest military, and we use it to help our friends and these are great friends.

So we're going to get rid of the Iran threat. I think that they'll do something maybe after the war. I think it's going to go quickly. Look, it's going to go one way or the other. It's either going to -- we're going to make a deal or it's going to end very, very quickly. It'll end very -- so quickly your head will spin.

So I just want to thank everybody for being here, very special. I had a good time making a nice speech today. I've gotten actually very good marks. They gave me good marks. I don't know what that means. That's, uh -- hello, Mr. Prime Minister, how are you? Everything good? Look at -- look at your people. It's amazing how I've gotten to know these people, and I'm here because -- and I'll tell you what I'm here largely because I know how good they are.

They're great. So thank you all very much and we appreciate it. And thank you to the media. The media has been very respectful. It's been very, very respectful. We appreciate it very much.