Hey, everybody. All right.
Hi.
How are you? Good to see you. Nice to see you. Hi. Good looking people. Good looking group of people, huh?
There is John over there with the whole crew. Hi. Hi.
Congratulations.
Thank you, sir.
Well, thank you very much, everybody. This is a very important day. It's a day that we're delighted to swear in Dr. Mehmet Oz as the next administrator of the Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services, which is a big deal. Congratulations to Dr. Oz and his beautiful wife, Lisa, and their friends and family on this really incredible achievement.
You've come a long way, huh? It's amazing. Dr. Oz comes to this position as one of the nation's most talented and beloved medical professionals. He graduated from Harvard University -- oh, Harvard. Well, how convenient. Should we talk about Harvard? -- before obtaining his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a great one, and really some amazing education while also earning an MBA from the wonderful Wharton School of Business.
He completed his medical residency at the world renowned NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Oz then had a sterling medical career in which he became an internationally acclaimed heart and lung surgeon, highly respected. He served as director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Integrative Medicine Program at NewYork-Presbyterian and as a longtime professor at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Boy, oh, boy. Doctor -- I thought he just did a show. I only know the show. You know why I know the show? Because he said I'm a little overweight. I should lose some weight. I did a show, and that's what I got out of it. That was not good. But I'm looking at all of these others. This is very impressive. Dr. Oz authored more than 400 contributions to academic and scientific publications and holds several patents for technologies that revolutionize cardiovascular surgery.
And Dr. Oz later translated his experience into an extraordinary successful television career, making him one of the most trusted voices on health care. And he also got very high ratings. I can tell you that. He did great with the television thing. As CMS administrator, Dr. Oz will work tirelessly to strengthen and protect Medicare for our nation's seniors and Medicaid for the needy.
Just as I promised, there will be no cuts. We're not going to have any cuts. We're going to have only help. Dr. Oz will work to improve the quality of care for decades to come, and he'll ensure that criminals, fraudsters, and illegal aliens are not permitted to rob America's seniors. They are trying, but they're not going to get away with it. He will also work alongside secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- I've heard of him.
He's a pretty famous guy. He's doing a great job, too -- to address the crisis of chronic illness and to make America healthy again. So, I want to just thank Dr. Oz and -- because this is a big commitment he is making. He has a lot of options, and this is a big, big commitment. And I want to congratulate you and your family on really an amazing life.
And I think this is going to be, by far, the most important part of an already incredible life. So, thank you very much.
God bless you.
Thank you, my friend. Thank you very much. Take care of yourself. Congratulations. It's amazing.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Wow. What a job, huh?
Yeah.
Are you ready, Bobby?
I sure am.
Let's -- let's do it.
You put your hand on the Bible, your left hand, and raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Mehmet Oz, do solemnly swear --
I, Mehmet Oz, do solemnly swear --
That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States --
That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States --
Against all enemies, foreign and domestic --
Against all enemies, foreign and domestic --
That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same --
That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same --
That I take this obligation freely --
That I take this obligation freely --
Without any mental reservation --
Without any mental reservation --
Or purpose of evasion --
Or purpose of evasion --
And that I will well and faithfully --
And that I will well and faithfully --
Discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.
Discharge the duties of the office upon I am about to enter.
So, help me, God.
So, help me, God. God bless you.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
God bless you.
I've got to start off by thanking three people. Mr. President, thank you very much. God bless you for leading our nation, but also courageously leading the MAHA movement really earnestly in your heart, wanting to get America to be healthy again, and for giving me an opportunity to help with that mission.
Secretary Kennedy has been leading the charge at Health and Human Services, a dear friend, like a brother, has done unbelievably courageous work because he's curious and he started answering a lot of important questions. And I will treasure for the rest of my days your trust in me to help you with this progress.
Thank you.
I'm happy.
And, of course, Lisa, the family, but Lisa, in particular, who's had an uncanny ability to identify opportunities and to always keep a clear North Star to keep our family grounded. God bless you, my beautiful one. Let me start with a simple premise. Every great society, everyone, has an opportunity to take care of its most vulnerable and treasures that opportunity, and we're a great people, so we will do the same.
As we enter the -- the main building, the Humphrey's building, where Health and Human Services is located, there's a placard of Hubert Humphrey, and it says that it's a moral opportunity, a moral obligation of government to take care of people in the dawn of their life, the kids; in the twilight of their life, the elderly, the mature, the seniors; and those in the shadows of life, those struggling with disabilities.
We want to provide America with access to great care. We want to save the public health insurance programs of this country. That's what President Trump asked me to do when he took this position to administer the programs at CMS. Now, if we're going to do that, you've got to be honest with each other. And a physician, President Trump, has to always do that, right?
We've got to share news, so do presidents, that folks don't want to hear, but it's important for our well-being. So, I'm going to give you four bullet points to remember. Bullet Point Number 1, and they're all numbered in order for a reason, Medicaid is the No. 1 budget item for many states and it is crowding out education and other important social programs.
The states are having a big problem. And that's what the federal government paying most of the bill. Item Number 2, health care expenditures are increasing at 2 percent higher, higher than the economy is growing. And because of that, we spend more than two times per person on health care than any other country on the planet, and we're not getting value for that because, Number 3, is that we are, in America, experiencing an unfortunate problem, which is medical errors are the No. 3 cause of death.
Did you know that, Mr. President? It's surprising, with that much money invested, we're still having problems. And Number 4, our life expectancy, despite all this investment, is continuing to slip back, and we're now more than four years shorter in our life expectancy than countries that we used to be equal to. But I am optimistic.
Why? Because we control our destiny. Because at its very core, we have a generational opportunity, a unique ability to save the health care system because we control all the big pieces. America is too great for small dreams. So, I've got some big ideas that I like to share that we've worked through with my staff who are cordoned off over there.
And there's a lot of us. We've got almost -- more than 6,000 people at CMS working on this and 40,000 contractors helping. So, we've got a lot of people. What are we going to do? First, we're going to reduce chronic disease. How do you do that? Seventy percent of the health care expenditures of this country are driven by chronic disease.
And it is your patriotic duty, I'll say it again, the patriotic duty of all Americans to take care of themselves because it's important for serving in the military, but it's also important because healthy people don't consume health care resources. The best way to reduce drug spending is to use less drugs because you don't need them because you're healthy.
And it feels a lot better as well. The president and Secretary Kennedy have been pushing the MAHA agenda because it makes it easier for people to do the right thing, especially the mothers of this great land because they're the ones who really get caught with this responsibility. They're the ones deciding for their kids.
They're the ones we want to empower. And curiosity, which is the key word here, truly asking questions you want the answers to, will allow the MAHA movement to thrive. The next big thing we want to focus on is modernizing Medicare and Medicaid. That's how Americans will get the care that they want, need, and deserve.
We need to empower patients and providers, both. The doctors and the patients both have to be equipped with better tools. And the president is showing that he actually does love and cherish Medicare with all these executive orders like the one on transparency, sir, that really helps us by making sure people are equipped with information.
So, you shine a light in the dark shadows where so much of the problems happen with the health care system. And remember, the most expensive care is bad quality care. That's what we want to stamp out. And finally, we want to crush fraud, waste, and abuse. This is stunning to me. I've got a message for all the bad guys from me, the secretary, and the president.
We are going to stop people from stealing from our most vulnerable, from stealing with the taxpayers of America who are honestly trying to support these programs, and we're going to be able to do it in quite a few ways. We are coming for you. I'll give you a couple of examples. Mr. President, these are ones that you may want to use in some of your first -- future conversations.
Almost a quarter million people, American citizens were fraudulently enrolled without their knowledge in exchange programs by brokers who were unscrupulous, stealing from the US government by pretending these people were on programs they never told them about. Tens of millions of dollars, Mr. President, are being spent on illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid in California and they're pushing the bill to us. Should we stop that?
Yes.
I think so. That will not continue. We're spending about $1 billion on Medicaid programs for dual-state eligible patients, which means if you live in one state but the system thinks you're in another state and maybe a third state and we're paying all three states for services you're not getting because you don't live in three states all at once.
And finally, and this one really bothers me, there are states who are using Medicaid -- Medicaid dollars for people who are vulnerable are being used for non-medical purposes. For example, public labor unions are getting child care through some of this money. That doesn't make sense to me. Housekeeping. I wish I could get that for my home.
There's a big problem with student loan repayments taking place with Medicaid dollars. That's not where it should be used. And we are paying for DEI programs. I could go on, but these are all programs, Mr. President, that we have created a war room at CMS to go after, to catch the fraud in real time before the money leaves the federal coffers so we have the money to reinvest in health care to make it even stronger than it's been before.
Together, we're going to make the care better, we're going to make it -- the outcomes improve, and we're going to make sure that America can actually be the healthiest country that could ever possibly be. We will make America healthy again. God bless you both, sir.
Any questions for Dr. Oz? OK. Any questions?
Sir -- Mr. President -- Mr. President -- Secretary Rubio --
Easy. Easy. Go ahead.
Secretary Rubio said that the US will have to figure out whether a deal can be done between Russia and Ukraine in a matter of days or you will just move on.
Yeah, very shortly.
How many days is that?
No specific number of days. But quickly, we want to get it done. We're talking about here people dying. We're talking about over there people are dying also like, on average, 2,500 young people, soldiers. They're not from America, they're not from anywhere else other than Ukraine and Russia, but we want to save these lives.
So, it's 2,500 a week are being killed in battle. It's a vicious battle, with the best equipment, the best everything, and it is brutal. Two thousand five hundred young people a week. Some of them not so young, actually. They're getting older -- they're getting older by the month. But 2,500 a week, and we're going to get it stopped ideally.
Now, if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say, "You're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people," and we're going to just take a pass. But hopefully, we won't have to do that. And Marco --
When you say --
And Marco is right in saying it. We're getting -- we want to see it end. Think of it. Every day, a lot of people are being killed as we talk about, you know -- as they play games. So, we're not going to -- we're not going to take that, and we will -- we'll see. I think we have a good chance of solving the problem, however.
Yes?
What do you need to see? Are you prepared to walk away completely from these efforts and these talks?
Well, I don't want to say that, but we want to see it end. We want to see it end. Yeah.
Is Vladimir Putin stalling in your view, Mr. President?
I hope not. We're going to let you know about that soon if he is, but I hope not. He's -- he's got a big force out there, big force. It's a war that should have never happened. It would have never happened if I was president. That's a war -- and it didn't happen for four years. That's a war that should have never happened.
October 7th, Israel would have never happened. Iran was broke. And now, we'll see what happens with Iran. We have a lot of them out there. We have a lot of things that we're working on right now that shouldn't have happened. None of it. Ukraine would have never happened with Russia. October 7th would have never happened.
So, you wouldn't have had all the problems in the Middle East. The Afghanistan embarrassment, probably the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, would have never happened. Inflation would have never happened. By the way, prices are down. Groceries are down. Eggs, which they -- you hit me so hard.
I'll never forget, the first -- the first day -- first week in office, they were screaming at me about eggs. I said, "What's going on with eggs?" "They were doubling and tripling." I said, "I just got here." They were up like double, triple, and you couldn't get any. They said you won't have eggs for Easter.
Well, you can have all the eggs you want. I'll tell you, Brooke Rollins, secretary of agriculture, did a great job, and the egg prices are down 87 percent. But nobody talks about that. You can have all the eggs you want. We have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low.
Sir, what do you --
So, I just want to let you know, prices are down. Gasoline, yesterday, at -- in three states hit $1.98 a gallon, and it looks like it's at a level that it hasn't seen since my -- my days, my -- my four years. So, it's about two -- I'd say maybe I think we're going to average -- we're going to be averaging $2.25 very soon.
So, I just want to let you know, though, because I keep hearing about prices and inflation, prices are coming down, not going up. Only the fake news says they're going up. The only thing that's even are interest rates. And if we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down, too.
He should -- he should bring them down. Yeah. Please.
Mr. President, what do you need to see from both sides in order to keep negotiations going? What do you want to see from Russia and Ukraine?
I have to say my whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and I know when they're not, and I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it. And I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides.
Do you think Russia is playing you?
But you're going to know soon.
Do you think Russia is playing?
No, nobody's playing me. I'm trying to help. You know, this was Biden's war. By the way, by me getting involved, you know, they'll say, "Oh, it's Trump." This is not Trump's war. This is Biden. This is a war that should have never happened, OK? Think of it. Those cities are crushed and crashed. And all those beautiful steeples, the most beautiful in the world -- actually considered the most beautiful in the world, most of them are now smashed to smithereens, as they say, and lying on the ground in a million pieces.
Those towns are crushed, the whole place. It's so horrible. And millions of people are dead, far more than you think. That's one thing you're going to get out of this war. You're going to find out that your estimates are far lower than -- it's far worse than people think. Nobody's playing anybody. We are going to see if we can get it done.
I think we have a really good chance of getting it done. And it's coming to a head right now.
Mr. President -- Sir -- Mr. President, would you -- Ukraine militarily.
Say it.
If you do decide to move on or take a pass, Mr. President, would you then continue to support Ukraine militarily?
Well, I'm not going to say that because I think we're going to get it done.
Mr. President -- There's a group -- [Inaudible] having Iran -- There's a group of Venezuelan men down in Texas who have been alerted that they are soon going to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act. Have you authorized that operation and where are they going to go?
I don't know about the group you're talking about, but if they're bad people, I would certainly authorize it. Yeah. You know, I won an election in a landslide. We won all seven swing states. We won by millions of votes. We won 2,750 districts to 505 districts, 2,750 to 50 -- that's why the -- the map, when you look at it, is all red.
And one of the biggest reasons -- I think the biggest single reason -- actually, I'd like to say it's because of this because I think they're going to come up with things that are incredible, but probably the biggest reason was because of the border and because of illegal immigration and the people of this country want those people out because what Biden did and his -- I don't know if he did it. I'm not even sure he knows what the hell he was doing.
But what his people did representing him was allowed millions and millions of people from jails, from prisons all over the world, people from mental institutions and insane asylums, gang members, drug dealers pouring into our place. And you know what, our people voted for me to get them out. They want them out.
They want them out. And we've done a hell of a job. And by the way, Ecuador and various places, but El Salvador, we've been helped by a lot of other states where they're helping us, actually, because you couldn't -- look, what this man was thinking when they allowed open borders and people to come in. If you look at Venezuela, their crime is down by 72 percent.
You know why? They took all their criminals off the street. They took all their prisoners from jail. They took murderers. Eleven thousand and eighty-eight murderers were released into our country. Bad things are going to happen, bad things. And we're getting them out. And that's why I was elected. A judge wasn't elected to do that.
I was elected to do that. And we're doing it in record fashion. We have the safest border, the most secure border we've ever had. See the Declaration of Independence? You should all read that before you leave. That's the real deal. You should all read it before you leave. Yeah.
Sir --
Sir.
Mr. President, photos have emerged of Senator Van Hollen sipping what appears to be margaritas with Abrego Garcia down in El Salvador. Do you encourage other Democrats to fly down to El Salvador to meet with this illegal alien who is an accused wife beater?
I like this guy. See, now this is -- this is the kind of reporter we like. There aren't enough of them. We got to get some more of them. But no, I appreciate that question. No, look, he's a fake. I know him. I know them all. They're all fake, and they have no interest in that prisoner. That prisoner's record is unbelievably bad.
If you would go into the room, you might -- if you would, Karoline, maybe go into the room and see if you can find that little slip. I wrote some things down. I don't know why you'd want to keep them. But I just -- we got a little biography of him. Not --
Did you help set up that meeting?
Not a very -- not a very innocent guy.
Did you help set up that meeting, sir? On that -- Mr. President, in -- in the spirit -- in the spirit of Easter Sunday --
While we're on the subject, right? So, you're talking about Abrego Garcia. Is that the one? Yeah. Is an illegal alien, MS-13 gang member, and foreign terrorist. This comes out of the State Department and very legitimate sources. I mean, I assume. I'm reading -- I'm just giving you what they handed to me, but this was supposed to be certified stuff.
In 2019, Garcia was issued a deportation order. Two separate judges affirmed Garcia was a member of MS-13, which is a gang that may be even worse than Tren de Aragua. They may be worse. They -- they kill people with knives because it's more painful. Very famous for the knifing and killing of two young 16-year-old girls walking to school one day, and they sliced them up into little pieces and killed them.
That's MS-13. And two separate judges affirmed, affirmed Garcia was a member of MS-13. When Garcia was originally arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt with rolls of money pouring out and -- and an MS-13 gang symbol that he was driving with two other known violent MS-13 gang members, two of the most violent members that we know of in the MS-13 gang of thugs.
In 2022, Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and was found to be transporting seven people from Texas to Maryland, and he had no driver's license. He was driving violently. In 2020 and 2021, Garcia's wife filed for a protective order from him and said he was violent and abusive and really scary, including allegations that he punched and scratched her on the eye, left her bleeding after throwing her laptop on the floor at her, ripped her shirt, and ripped off her shorts.
He then grabbed her arm, leaving very severe marks. Garcia's wife also wrote in court, "At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I just don't want to be close. I have multiple photos and videos how violent he can be and all of the bruises that he's left on me." She just didn't want to -- couldn't get anywhere near him.
This is the man that the Democrats are wanting us to fly back from El Salvador to be a happily ensconced member of the USA family. Isn't it -- isn't it a shame? And -- and by the way, I've been hit pretty hard by fake shows, fake news, MSDNC, in particular, where they talk about how evil I am that this man would be thrown out of our country.
This man is a -- according to certified statements that we get is a very violent person. And they want this man to be brought back into our country where he can be free and to stay as a happily -- you know, happily -- they call him the Maryland man. He's a Maryland father. No, this is a violent person. Who they don't talk about is that wonderful angel mom who lost her daughter, who had five beautiful children, and she was killed violently, killed violently.
And, you know, she spoke, and she spoke unbelievably. I saw it. And the fake news didn't pick it up. She spoke. She was in tears. She's devastated. Her life is, you know, essentially -- she's told me her life is like over. But there was like I think no stories. Isn't that true? No stories.
Yes, sir.
Zero stories.
Yeah.
It was the most emotional thing. Everybody that watched it, they couldn't believe it. The fake news refused to put it up. So, it's very sad. And yet, they talk about this guy like he's an angel. See the angel up there? They think he's like that, like that little angel.
Do you -- Sir, on Iran, would you be -- Encourage other Democrats to visit? Would you be open to letting Iran --
[Inaudible] no impact, the way she -- look at it, no impact. It's just like on balance, would you do that? Go ahead.
Sir, on Iran, would you be open to letting Iran keep some kind of civil nuclear program --
See. No impact, whatsoever.
Or would the entire program need to be dismantled?
I'm -- I'm for stopping Iran very simply from having a nuclear weapon. They can't have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran --
So, the entire program dismantled?
To be great and prosperous and terrific. I stopped them once. They were broke, and they didn't have any money for Hamas. They didn't have any money for Hezbollah. There wouldn't have been an October 7th disaster. They were broke. They had no money, and they weren't spending it to terrorist organizations because they had none.
When Biden came in, he took all the sanctions off. China wasn't allowed to buy. I said, "You buy -- if you buy --" Because they're their biggest customer. I said, "You buy one barrel of oil, just one barrel of oil from Iran, then you can't do business in the United States." And by the way, we have nice conversations going with China, just to intercede.
You know, it's like really very good.
Have you spoken to Xi?
But with -- with Iran -- with Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. And if they have a nuclear weapon, you'll all be very unhappy. You'll all be very unhappy because your life --
Have you spoken to Xi?
Your life -- your life would be --
Who is leading those trade talks?
In great danger.
Mr. President --
Yeah.
Philo fainted. Philo fainted. Dad, go.
Press out. Everybody out. Yeah. Thank you, press. Get out right now.
She's OK. She's OK. She's OK.
Thank you, press.
She's OK.
Thank you, guys. Everybody out there, please. Keep moving. Please, no. No photos. Are you serious?