Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We had a very good conversation one hour ago with the European leaders, many of them involving the war with Russia and Ukraine. We had a long discussion and things are seemingly going well, but we've been saying that for a long time and it's a difficult one. We had, as you know, settled eight wars and one was having a little problem yesterday, Thailand and Cambodia.
We were able to straighten that out. There was some killing going on that shouldn't have happened and we appreciate them working to get it straightened out, and they have. The security protocols yesterday were amazing and they have been amazing, having to do with Russia and Ukraine. And I had a long talk with President Zelenskyy.
Also, I spoke with the heads of Germany, Italy, NATO, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Poland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. We had very long and very good talks. And again, I think things are going along pretty well. 27,000 soldiers were killed last month. It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't have happened, should have never started.
That war should have never, ever started. But it did and we're trying to get it solved. That was Biden's situation. We're trying to get it done. And I think we're closer now and they -- they will tell you that they're closer now. We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia. And I think we're closer now than we have been, ever, and we'll see what we can do. We want to save a lot of lives.
We sell equipment to NATO. We don't spend any money, but we do want to see if we can save a lot of lives. When you're losing 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers, mostly soldiers, other people too from towns and like -- places like Kyiv, various other places throughout Ukraine. It's pretty bad. Nobody's seen anything like it actually since World War II. But we're -- we're getting closer.
We're having tremendous support from European leaders. They want to get it ended also. And at this moment, Russia wants to get it ended. The problem is they'll want to get it ended and then all of a sudden, they won't. And Ukraine will want to get it ended and all of a sudden, they won't. So we have to get them on the same page, but I think that's working along, very good talk.
On day one of my administration, I signed an executive order making it a core mission of the United States military to protect and defend the homeland. And today we're here to honor our military men and women for their central role in the protection of our border, something that I campaigned very, very strongly on and they made me look really good.
They're unbelievable. They made us all look good. I mean, we went from having millions of people pouring over our border to having none in the last eight months, none. In a few moments, we will officially recognize their service by awarding them the Mexican Border Defense Medal, which is a big deal. We're joined for this occasion by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine, Commander of US Northern Command General Gregory Guillot, Commander of the Southern Border Task Force Major General Scott Naumann, Command Sergeant Major Brett Johnson of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency Terry Cole, and many other members of our administration who have done an incredible job on the Border.
You know, people forget now that the border has been secure for actually seven months, think of it, more, they don't mention the border anymore. Nobody talks about the border. They talk about affordability and we're the ones that are bringing the prices down. We were given the worst inflation in our country's history and we're bringing the prices down.
But the affordability is on the Democrats because they have made it unaffordable to be in this country, but we're bringing those prices down and they're coming down quickly. Energy is coming way down. And if you look, gasoline prices are hitting in many locations, $1.99 a gallon, nobody thought they'd see that there were $4, $5 and $6 a gallon under Biden.
In the four years before I took office, our southern border was surrendered to criminals, drug cartels, human traffickers and child smugglers. Our entire southwest border on the Mexican side is under the physical control of cartels that are among the most violent entities. Nobody's ever seen anywhere in the planet, the most violent people on the planet.
Remember, when the Democrats and others, the radical left used to say that the people they're allowing into our country, immigrants are nice people, they're not violent like our people? Well, they make our people look like babies. These are some of the most violent criminals anywhere on Earth, from many countries, not just Venezuela.
Venezuela emptied their jails into our country, but others have also the Congo has so many other countries have, and we don't put up with it. I have to say the drugs coming in by sea are down 94 percent and we're trying to figure out who the other six percent are, but they're down 94 percent and we're going to start hitting them on land, which is a lot easier to do, frankly.
But these are a direct military threat to the United States of America. They're trying to drug out our country and you can look throughout history, look at China when they were loaded up with drugs. They were suffering greatly and others were able to take them over. And other countries also. They're trying to drug out our country and we're reversing it rapidly, actually.
But with the help of our great service members, we've stopped the invasion in its tracks and we're dismantling the cartels very rapidly and they are being declared enemies of the United States of America -- they have been so declared, legally declared. More than 25,000 warriors have served in this historic operation.
It is indeed an incredible and historic operation and we've never done anything so effectively and we've had a lot of victories. They've spent night and day enduring, scorching hot and bitter cold and they've given up their holidays and their weekends, working with the officers of Customs and Border Protection.
Our armed forces have already conducted nearly 13,000 patrols along the border and today we give these great warriors the recognition that they have earned, and they have really earned it. The military component of our border security efforts is just the beginning. We're also designating the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a big deal from a legal standpoint and military standpoint.
We've ended catch and release and we endured and ensured that anyone who sets foot across our border illegally is intercepted arrested and immediately deported. Or if they're really bad, they're put into prison because we don't want to ever take a chance if they come back. As a result, illegal border crossings have plummeted to the lowest level ever recorded in the history of our country.
Think of that, the history of our country -- you can all be very proud. For the past seven months, zero, illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States of America. We inherited the worst border in the history of our country, one of the worst borders, I would say in the world. I can't imagine any border in the world being worse.
When they allowed 25 million people to come in and again, many of these people are gang members and from prisons and jails from mental institutions and insane asylums and some of the worst people on earth they allowed to come into our country, we're getting a lot of them out. We're getting -- we've made a big dent.
And the self-deportation is something nobody talks about, but literally millions of people are self-deporting because they don't want to be captured. Once they're captured, they don't have the chance to self-deport and they never have the chance to come back into our country. We inherited that -- that border from an incompetent administration and turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country.
So we took the worst border in the history of our country and in a period of two months, we turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country. During this time, we've also achieved a 50 percent drop in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border and China is working with us very closely on bringing down the number and the amount of fentanyl that's being shipped -- you know, fentanyl is very bad when you mix it with certain ingredients, but it also is very important for medicine, for anesthesias, various other things.
I want people to understand that it's not made necessarily for bad. When it's mixed with certain things it becomes bad.
And that's what's taking place in Mexico and we've got it down to a much lower number. Not satisfactory, but it will be satisfactory soon. In May, we executed the largest fentanyl bust in the history of the US seizing 3 million fentanyl pills all at one time. Think of that 3 million pills, it's amounted to billions of dollars worth of drugs.
And last month we seized another 1.7 million fentanyl pills in the state of Colorado. The poorly run state of Colorado with a governor who's incompetent and frankly with a governor that won't allow our wonderful Tina to come out of a jail, in a high-intensity jail because she caught people cheating on an election and they said she was cheating.
She wasn't cheating, she went over, she looked at one of the election scams going on and because she did that, they put her in jail for nine years. The governor of Colorado is a weak and pathetic man, who was run by Tren de Aragua. The criminals from Venezuela took over sections of Colorado and he was afraid to do anything.
But he puts Tina in jail for nine years because she caught people cheating and when she walked over and got involved in it, they said she was cheating. She wasn't cheating. She caught people cheating on the election, 2020, along with a lot of other people that cheated on that election. You'll see that coming out more and more.
But there's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans. If this were a war that would be one of the worst wars. I believe they killed over the last five or six years per year, 200 to 300,000 people. You hear about 100,000, which is a lot of people, but the numbers are much higher than that.
That's been proven and they've destroyed a lot of families because when they lose a child or even if their child is heavily addicted, you lose that family. The family will never be the same. That's why today I'm taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country.
With this historic executive order I will sign today, we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is. No bomb does what this is doing. Two hundred to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
But before I sign the fentanyl order, we will pin these great service members with their medals. And here today are the first 13 warriors who will receive the Mexican Border Defense Medal, which is a big deal. First, I'd like to ask Secretary Hegseth and Chairman Caine to say a few words. I'd like to have Tom Homan come up, please, if you would say a few words.
And I want to thank all of the people, Pam and everybody. Stephen Miller, great. Stephen Miller, what a job he's doing for being here. Thank you. Both. Appreciate it very much. We have so many great people here, but I do want to ask Tom to say a few words also. So, Pete, why don't you start it off please?
Thank you.
Mr. President, thank you. I would echo what you said. This has been a team effort from the beginning. Tom Homan, Terry Cole, Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Customs and Border Patrol, Protection. It has been one team, one mission to get 100 percent operational control of the southern border. You want to talk about America first?
Peace through strength and common sense, it all manifests in one basic phrase down there, border security is national security and we had the task of 100 percent control. And because of these men and women back here, we've achieved that. Nobody is crossing the southern border and I want to give a big shout out to our Northern Command, General Guillot, from day one he this our department didn't look at the border this way before -- before you.
Joe Biden allowed an invasion of this country, tens of millions of people, drugs, gangs violence and the military jumped to it on day one with our partners. But ultimately, it was incredible Americans. There's 13 up here with us today. They all represent about 2,000 people who've served at the border so far.
So 25,000 Americans qualify for this Mexican National Defense Border Medal that we're announcing today. And what's cool about this medal, It was actually first given out in 1918. So we're reviving an old medal that existed was given to men and women who defended the southern border. We found out about it, we used the exact same foundry with the exact same imagery, same color, same metal, same everything.
So our -- our men and women will be wearing that very same medal as Americans 100 years before who were asked to defend the sovereignty of our country. President Trump was elected to do that. You have done that, Mr. President. We're proud of this mission. We're proud to defend the American people and pinning these medals on is an example of how important it is to us. So thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate it.
Thank you. Well, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, I want to echo your thanks and gratitude for the Joint Force. I also want to highlight General Guillot, General Naumann and Command Sergeant Major Johnson but also leaders at every level that came together not just in our joint force but in the interagency.
And I want to specifically highlight our Border Patrol teammates and our Office of Air and Marine teammates who when I went down to the southern border and visited were right there next to the Joint Force. I also want to thank not just these 13 individuals, but the joint force that was also down there and your families who poured in to make this deployment possible on the southern border.
And of course, this time of the year, I'm always thinking about our currently deployed forces who are out there around the world doing our nation's business. And of course our fallen and their families who show us what courage and tenacity really are as they move forward after the loss of a service member.
So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you.
Tom, please.
You know, it's always an honor for me to be in the Oval Office with the greatest president of my lifetime. Yes, I said it and I meant it. You know, I was just -- I just got home last night, I toured the border in California, Arizona and Texas. I did it in four-wheel drive, I did it on the river. I did it from the air.
Hundreds upon hundreds of miles of border, I didn't see one illegal alien. Not a single one. I've done this since 1984. I work for six different presidents. None has done more than President Trump. What he has done has gave us the most secure border in the history of this nation heart stop. I went hundreds of miles of border and didn't see one illegal alien.
Incredible considering the Biden administration, we had ten 12,000 a day most released in the United States. I'm proud to be with these patriots behind me. I'm already proud of being in the Oval Office of the president, but being -- being with these heroes, I met some of these soldiers down on the border and actually a shout out to Fort Drum, New York.
We got some 10th Mountain Division here, so Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, we all love Fort Drum and the 10th mountain. So look, this is a game changer. I want to make something perfectly clear. Can -- we get attacked all the time being inhumane, the Biden administration is much more humane, it's just it's a bunch of crap.
Because there's been studies done that 31 percent of women that make that journey through the cartels get sexually assaulted. They get raped and not just women. Children too, I've done numerous investigations in that. Sex trafficking was historic highs with an open border. Fentanyl, historic highs that killed -- killed a quarter million Americans, no inspector terrorist that came across the border, record, historic.
What happened under Biden administration was the most inhumane thing I've seen in my lifetime. Now that the border is 96 percent decline, 96 percent less people are coming, how many women are being raped? How many children are dying, making that journey? How many women and children aren't being sex trafficked to this country every day?
How many known suspected terrorists aren't just walking across that border? President Trump and this administration is saving thousands of lives every month. Hard stop. That's just a stone cold fact. I'm just proud to be a part of this. I work with Steve Miller every day. Steve Miller is one of the most brilliant people I've met in my entire life.
President Trump brought together one hell of a team here and the success proves we all working together one team, one fight. We're not done yet, we're going to keep going and I guarantee you we're going to continue saving thousands and thousands of lives. Secure border means strong national security, secure border saves lives.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tom. OK, let's do the medals and I'll be signing this. Maybe you'll do the medals first and then I'll sign it, OK? Please.
Nice medal. It's not bad.
There we go. Congratulations. [Inaudible] That's a great job.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
That's great. Thank you.
Great job. Great job, fellas.
Thank you, Mr. President.
No auto pen, none, ever. We don't like auto pens, right?
We don't, sir.
We don't like auto pens. How about gathering around me and we'll hold this up. Congratulations. That's an amazing job. Come on around, come on around. Let's take a good picture. Fantastic job. You guys, fantastic job. Thank you very much. Great job.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.
Great job. What you've done is unprecedented. How about holding that up? You guys hold it up. Hold it up high. You deserve it more than me. So I'm going to give you another medal, though, that may be more beautiful. I'm not sure it means as much, but it's really good. OK? This is gunmetal. This is the one the military loves.
So we're going to start. OK?
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Here you go.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.
It's pretty nice. Want to compare it? Let me see. Compare it. Let me see how that looks. I don't know. That looks pretty good.
Thank you, Mr. President.
But that means something very special.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. President.
Thank you very much.
Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Inaudible] can do, tie it around your neck. Get a nice ribbon. I think you'll like it. It's special. We don't give them to many people.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.
Come on over here. Come here. Look at this guy.
This is the man who made it happen, sir.
That's four sides -- that big. That means a lot up there. Thank you very much. And General, come on over here, even though you have one. I gave him one. No, this general right here, General Razin Caine. He's a great general. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's an honor. This is a fantastic moment. I haven't done this before. And the job they've done on the border is unthinkable. What they left us with, that they would have open borders with millions of people, 25 million people, probably more than that pouring into our border, totally unchecked and unvetted.
Now we have the opposite. And we allow -- we want people in our country, but they have to come in legally. And they know that and they know they're not getting through, so now they don't even try. So all of the death that Tom Homan talked about, the rape and the death and all the problems doesn't happen -- really happened because the caravans, a name I think I came up with, maybe, maybe not.
But the caravans are very small. In fact, for the most part, they don't even exist anymore because they know they're not going to get through. In a little while, you'll be seeing I'm suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth, literally. They put words in my mouth. They had me saying things that I never said coming out.
I guess they used AI or something, so we'll be bringing that lawsuit. A lot of people are asking when are you bringing that lawsuit. Even the media can't believe that one. They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn't say. And the beautiful words that I said, right, the beautiful words talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said, they didn't say that, but they put terrible words.
They actually have me speaking with words that I never said. And they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported. That's called fake news. So we'll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I want to thank all of you for being here. If you have any questions, I guess you could ask, but this is really a day of celebration for these people.
The job they've done is really unprecedented. So go ahead.
On Brown University, Mr. President, do you know what the motive of the shooter was? Is it -- was it a targeted attack, sir?
No, no, that's moving along now, and we don't -- and we'll -- we're going to see what happens. Hopefully, they're going to capture this animal. Hopefully, they're going to capture.
Has Kash Patel told you why it's been so difficult for the FBI to identify who the shooter is?
Well, it's always difficult. So far, we've done a very good job of doing it, with Charlie, with, you know, the various times this has happened, they've done it in pretty much record time. But you really have to ask the school a little bit more about that because you know, this was a school problem. They had their own guards.
They had their own police. They had their own everything. But you'd have to ask that question, really, to the school, not to the FBI. We came in after the fact. And the FBI will do a good job, but they came in after the fact.
Do you know if it was targeted, Mr. President, the shooter --
No, they don't know that yet. No.
Sir, on the issue of drugs, is it -- is it accurate that you are considering an executive order to reclassify marijuana under the control --
We are considering that, yeah.
Are you planning --
Because a lot of people want to see it, the reclassification because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can't be done unless you reclassify. So we are looking at that very strongly.
Mr. President? Mr. President.
Katie.
Is it true that the reports that you rebuked to the Israeli Prime Minister --
Up, please.
Are the reports that you rebuked the Israeli Prime Minister for the hit on Hamas general true? And is Israel undermining your efforts to be a peacemaker?
No, Israel and I have gotten along very well. My relationship with Bibi Netanyahu has been obviously a very good one. Look, we -- we took out Iran. We -- we -- we wiped out, with that plane right there, we wiped out the B-2 bomber. We wiped out the Iran nuclear threat and because of that we were able to make peace -- peace in the Middle East.
No, we've had a very good relationship with Israel. We actually have a very good relationship with just about everybody in the Middle East.
But was that a violation of the cease fire, the strike on the Hamas general?
We're going to have to see. We're looking into that. Yeah, we'll look into it.
On the Syria ambush of US forces --
Yeah.
-- do you still have confidence in the Syrian president?
I do. I mean, this had nothing to do with him. This is a part of Syria that they really don't have much control over. And it was a surprise. He feels very badly about it. He's working on it. He's a strong man. And no, this had nothing to do with the Syrian government. This had to do -- this had to do with ISIS.
What would the US response be?
As a response? They'll be hit hard, yeah.
[Inaudible] First of all, thanks for honoring these --
Thank you.
-- heroes. The communists have lost Chile. The pro-Trump candidate, Jose Antonio Kast, won the elections. Do you think this right-wing wave in the Spanish world is due to your influence?
Well, I just -- we just had a good one in Honduras, as you know, had a great election there. I endorsed somebody that was not leading and he won the election and we had a good one just a little -- a couple of hours ago. I found out in Chile, the person I endorsed who was not leading, ended up winning quite easily.
So I look forward to paying my respects to him. I hear he's a very good person. Yeah.
Mr. President? Thank you, Mr. President. This year, you fired Democrats from a number of federal agencies and now going into 2026, there are some key regulators like the SEC, the CFTC that are going to have zero Democrats. Do you plan to appoint Democrats to fill those empty spots or do you think that federal agencies shouldn't have Democrat commissioners?
Well, do you think they would be appointing Republicans if it were up to them? So you know, we'll look at it. Look, we want to be fair, but typically, they're not appointing Republicans. So you're asking me the question whether or not I'd appoint Democrats. But there are certain areas that we do look at and there are certain areas that we do share and share power and I'm open to that.
Please. Yeah.
Mr. President, a number of Republicans have denounced your statement on Truth Social after the murder of Rob Reiner. Do you stand by that post?
Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said he liked, he knew it was false. In fact, it's the exact opposite that I was, uh, a friend of Russia controlled by Russia. You know it was the Russia hoax, he was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself in career wise.
He became like a deranged person, Trump derangement syndrome. So I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country. Yeah?
Mr. President, Leader Thune doesn't seem like he wants to get rid of blue slips. Will there be consequences for the Senate?
Well, I think they should get rid of blue slips because as a Republican president, I am unable to put anybody in office having to do with US attorneys or having to do with judges. In other words, if you have one, not two, you don't need two, just one, if you have one Democrat Senator -- well, we have a lot of them, you have one Democrat Senator in a state, it is not possible to appoint because of blue slips a judge.
It's not possible to appoint a US attorney, you see that happening. And I think it's a disgrace. I think blue slips are a disgrace. They've long since, uh. I mean, they're not -- they should not be relevant anymore. This is a different world than it was 15, 20 years ago. You know, that was a gentleman and gentlewoman world.
This is a little bit different unfortunately. Yeah, please. Mr. President, what do you want to see Congress do this week as it relates to health care and the expiring ACA? Yeah, that's a good question. I'd like to see the people get the money. I'd like to see all of the money that's going to the Democrat insurance companies.
You know, the insurance companies are making a fortune, they're up 1,700 percent and more, and they're taking in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars and Obamacare gives you terrible health care. Just so you understand Obamacare was set up -- and I said it right from the beginning for the benefit of the health insurance -- uh, insurance companies -- of the insurance companies.
They're making billions and billions of dollars. Their stock is through the roof. I don't want to give them anything. I want all money going to the people and let the people buy their own health care. It will be unbelievable. They'll do a great job. They'll get much better health care at a much lower cost.
Sir, would you like Republicans next year to just use -- excuse me, use reconciliation to do with health care exactly what you laid out and they wouldn't have to worry about Democratic votes?
Well, that would knock out the filibuster. If you knocked out the filibuster, it would all go away, but we have a few people that wouldn't do that. It's crazy. Look, we should knock out the filibuster. And if you did that, we'd get voter ID, you'd have, uh, no mail in voting, all things that make our elections dishonest.
And you'd get a lot of other things having not even to do with voting, but, uh, Republicans should knock out the filibuster and we should approve a lot of things. You wouldn't have January 30th looming because you know you have -- you have the 30th of January looming. You know that, right? And if we knocked out the filibuster, it would be just a simple approval.
But you have some Republicans that they're unable to explain why you know they -- if you ask them, why they're unable to explain it, they cannot win the debate, but they should knock out the filibuster and frankly, they should get rid of the blue slips too. Yeah?
Mr. President, the Democrats won Miami where you won the election one year ago. Do you think it's because of the Hispanic media like Telemundo that are publishing fake news about the ICE operations? How do you plan to win back those votes for midterms?
Yeah, well, I won that whole election and, you know, it's interesting when I'm not running, we don't do as well and I'm going to try and get that changed for the midterms. But we did have a big win in Tennessee, as you know. Matt Van Epps -- Van Epps, uh, had a big win in Tennessee against a very strong candidate, attractive candidate who a lot of people thought would do very well and Matt won by a lot and I won Tennessee by a real lot.
You know, we had a great -- we had a great election, we won every single swing state. We won the popular vote. We won everything and, uh, there's a -- there's a thing that they have now districts, which is a big deal. Uh, I think in a way it's the most important stat from the standpoint of, you know, looking at numbers accurately.
So out of thousands of districts I won 2,750 versus 525. Think of that 2,750 versus 525. It was great. That's why the map when you see a map of the election, it's all red other than two little narrow lines on the other side. Please?
Sir, Jimmy Lai was convicted today in Hong Kong. Do you have any reactions?
I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it and uh, I asked to consider his release. He's not well, he's an older man and he's not well. So I did put that request out. We'll see what happens, OK? Yeah, please, Katie?
A question about Ukraine, now that the meetings in Berlin have wrapped up with Zelenskyy, is there a timetable for going to Moscow? Is a delegation going?
Well, I think that the delegation is largely there right now. Actually they're in Europe and they met with those people that I called out before the various countries plus some others. Uh, they want to see it end, Katie, they want to see it end. They -- they all want to see it end, they want to see it end.
I actually think that President Putin wants to see it end. You know, I've had good talks. We've had good talks with Russia and I think they'd like to get back to a more normal way of life.
Mr. President, follow up an Article V like, deal seems to be emerging without NATO membership for Ukraine. If such a security guarantee is offered, what incentive is there for Ukraine to give up any sort of territory?
Well, look, you have -- well, they've already lost the territory, to be honest. I mean, the territory is lost, but -- but in terms of security guarantee, we're working, we're working with Europe on it. Europe would be a big part of that and we're working on the security guarantees. So the war doesn't start up again.
We don't want to have a war start up again. You know, as I said with Thailand and Cambodia, two people I get along with great and I dealt with them and I called them and I said look, fellas, you got to relax. You got to take it easy, they lost, you know, they started the war again, I got it ended and things like that are going to happen.
War, there's nothing, nothing pretty about war, nothing good and there's nothing you can do to predict what's going to happen. But I think we've made a lot of progress with respect to Russia and Ukraine, I hope -- I hope. You know, last -- last month it was close to 27,000 soldiers were killed, mostly soldiers, but 27,000 people, but mostly soldiers were killed last month in Russia versus Ukraine.
Is there a time limit on security guarantees?
Well, there's no time limit. We just -- the time limit is whenever we get it done. I mean, we're going to try to get it done. We're making progress. It's more difficult than anybody could have thought. I would have said that half of the wars that I got settled, some were going for over 30 years, that half of them should have been more difficult and they actually haven't been.
There's a lot of dislike between the two leaders, you know that and so it probably makes it a little bit tough.
Have you spoken directly to Putin? Have you spoken directly to Putin?
Yeah, I have, yeah.
On Syria, Mr. President, on the US troops killed in Syria over the weekend. Why do we have troops in Syria?
Because we're trying to make sure that there's going to be and remain peace in the Middle East and Syria is a big part of it. The new leader is a strong person and that's what you need. This is a rough part of the world and we've -- it's been amazing what -- what's taken place in Syria. We got rid of Assad.
We got rid of other people that were really bad people and that were in the way of peace in the Middle East. You know, we have legitimate peace in the Middle East, first time in 3,000 years and we have 59 countries backing it and we'll see what happens with Hamas. We'll see what happens with Hezbollah. But regardless, I mean we have countries that want to go in and clean that out if we want them to do it. But they said in the case of Hamas, they said that they're going to disarm and we're going to find out whether or not that's true.
Uh, Hezbollah in Lebanon has been a problem. We'll see what happens there. But there is legitimate large-scale peace in the Middle East and if there weren't, we wouldn't have been able to make all of those deals that we've made with the various countries. They would have never been able to do that if, for instance, if Iran -- if we didn't with that B-2 bomber right there on the desk, if we didn't, uh, of which we just ordered a lot more of the newer version totally stealth, they could not see it. They knew it was coming.
They had no idea where it was. It was pretty amazing actually. Every bomb hit its mark perfectly despite CNN trying to say differently. They didn't know they just, you know, hoped -- they hoped that we didn't but turned out that they did. Atomic Energy Commission confirmed it. So did -- actually, so did Iran confirm it, They got knocked to hell.
But if we didn't knock out their nuclear capability, we would have never had peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and all the other countries. And they would have never, ever been able to sign an agreement. Yeah, please.
How soon do you expect that international stabilization force to be up and running in Gaza?
I think that it's -- in a form, it's already running. In a very strong form, it's already -- but it'll get stronger and stronger and more and more countries are coming into it. They're already in, but they'll send -- they'll send any number of troops that I asked them to send. They want to see peace. We have more than 59 countries.
We have many countries that aren't even in the Middle East, but they're fairly close to the Middle East, they want to be involved. So it's been pretty amazing.
Mr. President, this week, a man named Keoni Rodriguez is going to federal prison for creating crypto privacy software. The case was started under the Biden administration, but your DOG -- DOJ kept it going and secured the conviction. A lot of people in crypto are saying that this man should be pardoned. Are you familiar with the case at all or would you be interested in looking at it?
I've heard about it. I'll look at it. Why, you think he should be pardoned? Sounds like it. Sounds like it, based on your question.
Many people --
Rodriguez. We'll look at that, Pam. OK? Let's take a look at it. You know, you'll have to tell me. I don't know anything about it, but we'll take a look.
On Friday --
Yeah, please.
Mr. President, market analysts are calling for a Santa rally. Typically, it's five training days going into Christmas, and in the first two trading days of January. That's a sign of market optimism. Do you anticipate, along with the historical low gas prices, that continuing into the first quarter [Inaudible]
Well, we've had the greatest stock market in history, Brian. We have a stock market that's gone up 52 times to new highs during a 10-month period, my 10 months. My first 10 months we set a record, 52 days. We had the highest stock market in history, including a day ago. And I didn't look today, maybe it's up today.
I don't know. But we had 52 all together and there's never been anything like it. And the reason are the tariffs have brought vast amounts of wealth into our country, that countries that have taken our car companies, those car companies are all coming back. The AI is coming at levels that nobody's ever seen before.
That's going to be a massive industry. Without the tariffs, we wouldn't have that. Chips are coming in. Chip companies are coming in from Taiwan and other places, but mostly from Taiwan, which has almost 100 percent of the market. And we're now making chips and we're not paying anything. It's not the CHIPS Act where they give billions of dollars to companies and then they just take the money and they run.
That was under -- under Biden. The fact that I set tariffs up and that if they don't make their chips here, they have to pay a big tariff in order to send them into the US. They have to be here. You know, tariffs really work. In my opinion, almost only in the United States. They've been used against us successfully because we had presidents that had no clue, but tariffs really work.
We have taken in hundreds of billions of dollars with tariffs. And more importantly, we've -- we've taken in countries and companies where -- and even countries have sent their -- their car-making people into the United States in order to avoid paying tariffs. And they'll build a plant and they'll hire our people to make the cars.
But we now have -- as you know, Toyota just approved $10 billion in manufacturing plants in the United States using our people. Without tariffs, none of that would have happened. Tariffs have given us great national security. There is nothing like what's happened in the last 10 months. Tariffs have given us tremendous national security and tremendous wealth.
Thank you all very much. Thank you.