Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Bilat with Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine - July 8, 2026

Well, thank you very much. It's a great honor to be with President Zelenskyy. We've talked a little while and we speak on occasion by phone. We had a great talk the other day, I think, very positive. And I think we have some very good stories to tell what's going on. He wants to see a settlement, and I think President Putin wants to see a settlement.

And usually that means a settlement, but who knows, this is a tough one. But I just -- we just had our NATO meeting, and it was a great meeting. You probably heard it was a great meeting. There was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity. And I don't think it could have been -- Marco, what do you think?

It couldn't have gone much better. Do you have a feeling as to what you just saw?

Very positive, not immunity, strengthening.

Yeah, really good. Scott, what do you think?

Yes, sir. All the Europeans attributed you to saving NATO. And they want to do what they're supposed to do and do the right thing.

Yeah, it was something very special. And I will say that what they've done with Turkey, and President Erdogan has been a friend of mine -- he's been a friend of mine for a long time, strong man, good man and he's done a fantastic job. Every road, it's all -- everything's perfect. From the airport to the destination everything's been perfect.

So, we had a really good meeting, and we thought this would be a good time for President Zelenskyy and I to meet, and we'll see what we can do. But we've actually developed a good relationship, it's hard to believe, right? From the Oval Office to now, we've developed -- I think we've developed a very good relationship.

And --

And this is not the end.

No, this is going to be the beginning, maybe, just the beginning. And, you know, the country has a lot of future. It has such great land, such great assets, such great people. And you have a lot of people. I was with a group in Poland, and they have -- you have a lot of people in Poland, which is a terrific country with a really great president, I happen to endorse him.

And he's doing a very good job. And they were saying they love Poland, but they really want to go back. You know, they're going to get a lot of people back when this is over. They left some and they're all -- I think they're going to come back. A big percentage are going to come back. So, we're going to have a good talk and we're going to see how it all goes.

And Mr. President, would you like to say something?

Thank you so much. Mr. President, thank you very much for this meeting. And we are very thankful, as always, for your support, American support, bipartisan support. And thanks for the invitation to this summit and I think that we really -- I agree with you, we have a lot what to discuss and what to think about.

And of course, we are thankful for the parallel program, and we want to share with you some details what we want to raise during our meeting. Air defense is a priority. The second point, or maybe the first, about negotiations. I think, yes, we understand what to do -- as is our estimation what to do, how to bring this.

And I hope that we will do -- I'm sure that you will do everything to solve this war, yeah. And I'm very happy that our sides began to work on a drone deal and it's very good beginning. And I hope that today I will have possibility also to discuss with you some very important details. Thank you so much.

Well, we've settled a lot of wars, and this one is the one that I thought maybe would be the easiest. But Putin's a difficult character and this guy's a difficult character. It doesn't -- it's not the easiest, not the easiest thing. There's a lot of commitment and there's a lot of love of the countries and everything else.

But I think we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks, and we'll see how it all goes. So, do you have any questions?

With the Iran ceasefire possibly over, can we expect a resumption of --

Well, I just think they are behaving very badly, as they have for 47 years. And we hit them hard last night after they launched. They launched a couple of -- you don't have to know about this, you've got enough on your mind. But they launched a couple of drones and one rocket, one missile and at chips because they were in the Strait, which they have every right to be. And so, we had them very hard last night.

Very, very hard -- probably hit them hard again tonight. I'll give them a little warning we're going to hit them hard tonight. But we'll see how it all works out. No, I'm not happy with them. It's like -- for instance, we'll have a meeting and we'll talk about the denuclearization of Iran because that's what the war is. It's not a war; it's really the denuclearization of Iran.

And we'll have a meeting and we'll talk about just that. Because my whole thing is not about regime change, it's not about -- although I think it's regime change when you knock out the first group, the second group, and now you're the -- I think that's maybe the ultimate regime change. But that's not what it's about.

It's about we don't want them to have nuclear weapons and its denuking or denuclearization and I think we've made a lot of progress. And they'll get out of the room -- we'll talk about it like we're here. They'll agree on everything, and then they'll go and have a news conference and say, we never even talked about it. They're cuckoo.

There's something wrong with these people. And for 47 years, they've been the bully of the Middle East. And they're not the bully anymore. They're not the bully anymore, and all we want, it's very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon. That's what I'm there for because if they did, they'd use it and we're not going to let that happen.

Daniel.

President Trump, sir, you've made a career making deals in very challenging situations. Speaking to President Zelenskyy, speaking to President Putin, in your view, sir, what is the most pragmatic pathway forward to finding a long-term peace deal?

I just think they're going to make a deal. Look, it's been -- this deal has been in the works for a long time; it's got the pluses, the minuses. They know what it is; he knows what it is better than anybody. And I just think it's sometimes -- you know, I used an analogy and it sounds simple, but it's sort of true.

You have two kids in a park, and they don't like each other and they start fighting. Sometimes you have to let them fight, let them see that it's tough. You know, it's tough, fighting is tough. And he's done an amazing job. Look, he's been very effective. He's had the best equipment because he's had our equipment and he's had great.

But somebody has to use that equipment, and you have a lot of brave people that are using that equipment. And Russia, it's a big country, but it's a big force. Russia has always been a big fighting force. But I really believe it's ready. It's very interesting because you'd almost say it's worse than ever and maybe it is. Sometimes with war and you study war -- and I've studied it so long, for years, long before I did this.

Sometimes it's when it gets the worst. And I don't know that it's the worst right now. It's consistently bad; they lost 25,000 people were lost kids, young people lost last month, and we had a month, 35, two months ago. And I would say more Russians. And but it's just they're people, they're people. And there's actually very little difference between the people.

I mean, it's like the Russians and Ukrainian people and they can get along. But it's a nasty war. Thousands and thousands, mostly soldiers, are being killed. The battlefields, I see pictures and it's horrible. He thinks it's horrible. They all -- we all think it's horrible. And the president wants to get it done and I believe that President Putin wants to get it done and that should be a good combination.

Thank you.

Mr. President, what is your assessment on Ukraine's strike on Russian oil refineries and military?

Where are you from?

Ukraine.

Phrase the question differently, please.

Ukraine are delivering our own strikes on Russian military factories and oil refineries, and they ran out of gas.

Marco, why don't you answer that because you're right in the middle of it?

Yeah. No, I think what you're discussing is the ability of Ukraine to reach deep inside of Russia and conduct strikes. I think that's one of the dynamics that's changed in this war over the last few months, and that is that the Russians are finding it more difficult to defend their own airspace. And what we hope that means is that it's going to create the space now to negotiate the end of this war.

It's an escalation, but it's also an escalation that can help lead to an end.

[Crosstalk]

-- that Mr. Putin might be seeking for the settlement?

So, where are you from?

[Inaudible] Europe's Ukrainian Service, I'm from --

OK, good. Because I talked to him. I talked to him; I talked to President Zelenskyy, and I think -- that's all I've done my whole life, I've made deals. I guess becoming president I was making a deal. It was like a lot of little individual things. In the end, it's making a deal and that's what I do. And I do it well and I know when people want to make a deal.

I think he wants to make a deal. And I do feel that President Zelenskyy would like to get back to rebuilding his country as opposed to having all of this death and destruction. Ukraine has tremendous potential; he understands that. We talk about that.

He talks about that more than he talks about the war. You know, to me, I think you might find that more exciting than the war. This is -- it's brutal. The end is the beauty of it, you know. I think he'll build a great country. I think he's going to build it. We have a little stake in that country because we have some land in that country.

But we have minerals. It's among the wealthiest -- it's among the best land anywhere in the world for rare earth. And we have some -- we have some rare earth; I look forward to taking advantage of it at the right time.

[Crosstalk]

Just look at this guy, he's one of my favorite soldiers. I see him -- he's central casting.

You're doing OK?

Yes, sir.

We see him at meetings. He's good; he's done a great job -- great job.

I like to do all the best, sir.

Great -- great hero, actually.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, will you allow Europe to make Patriot interceptors in Europe? Are you comfortable with licensing?

About what?

Patriot interceptors.

And you said it with respect to Ukraine. Well, we're going to talk about that. Look, it's a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon. It's the best -- so, I was saying we have an aircraft carrier, which is one of the most beautiful in the world, it's one of the biggest, the Abraham Lincoln.

And a few months ago we had 100 -- I told this story yesterday -- we had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan. They were shot at the aircraft carrier over a period of about one hour. 111 missiles going to a very expensive ship, and every one of those missiles was knocked down, pretty much most by Patriots but by other means also, as you know, other less expensive means.

It's even better when you do that. But out of the 111 missiles, every one of them was shot down. It didn't hit the ship and, you know, bad things happen, right, when that happens. So, think of that, over a period of one hour, these missiles are coming at you and every one of them shot down. So, I think one of the things we're going to be talking about is -- as you know, the companies, we have great power over the companies.

Those companies that make the Patriot and make all of the great stuff, the Tomahawks, all of the great stuff. We have the best stuff, many things. The Patriot is great, but we have many, many great things. You see that with Venezuela. You see it with Iran. Look, Iran has been wiped out. Iran, their Navy's gone, their Air Force is gone, everything's gone.

But one of the things I think we're going to be talking about today, just a little birdie told me this, about the fact that we'll give them the right to make Patriots. We'll show them how to do it. It's very complex, actually. But you'll figure out the complexity quickly. And we're talking about that and we'll -- the company that makes them, which is building now four plants.

You know, all of our companies will be able to do this in two to three months. If you order a Patriot now, you have to wait a long time for them. Same thing with Tomahawks. We have a lot of certain equipment, but with, they call it the elite equipment. And you don't need elite equipment necessarily for a war, but -- so, one of the things we're going to be talking about is we're going to give a license to you to make Patriots.

That's pretty cool, right? This way you can't complain that we're not giving them enough. I say make them yourself. We haven't informed the company of that yet, but that'll work out all right. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. But they'll be able to do it, you'll be able to figure that out. Most countries couldn't do that.

If I said that to most countries, they wouldn't know what I'm talking about. But this is a very ingenious group. And what I like about that; it's a defensive situation as opposed to an offensive. But I think one of the things you might want to be talking about is -- that's what I heard. A little birdie told me that.

Go ahead.

[Crosstalk]

Does the end of the ceasefire mean that we're back to a full-scale war --conflict?

As far as I'm concerned, look, they violate the agreement every day. They lie, they cheat, they kill people. They've been killing people for 47 years. They knocked out the USS Cole; we lost, what, 200 people, more? It was a long time ago. For 47 years, no president did anything about them. Obama actually gave them vast amounts of money.

You'd like this; he gave them a plane load of money, $1.7 billion in green cash. They loaded up a Boeing 757. Remember the old 757? It was a beautiful plane loaded up with cash. They took all the seats out, and they took all of the cash from Virginia, Maryland and DC banks. They had no money, they took every ounce of cash, put it in, flew it to Iran and gave them the money.

I wonder what these guys thought of when the door opened and cash fell out of this big plane, beautiful plane. And then on top of that, they gave them billions and billions of dollars. And by the way, they gave it to the wrong country frankly, if you want to know the truth. And it began -- that was pretty much -- the Obama nuclear deal, Obama deal, that was one of the worst tragedies that happened.

That's what happened in the Middle East. That deal set back that whole situation. They went with -- frankly, they picked the wrong country. They picked the wrong country, JCPOC. What a terrible -- what a terrible deal. I call it the Obama nuclear waste deal because what he did with that deal is he caused tremendous hardship in the Middle East.

It was a terrible, terrible thing to do. And we've been just the opposite. Our deal is a wall to a nuclear weapon. His deal was a road to a nuclear weapon. We couldn't -- they'll never build a nuclear weapon under our deal. But I don't know if we're going to have a deal. We may just do it without a deal because, you know what?

It's easier because these people -- they lie and they cheat and you have an agreement and they'll go outside. For instance, they agreed we will never have a nuclear weapon, they agreed. Then they go outside, they have a news conference where they leak that we never discussed the subject. Now, who would believe we never discussed the subject?

Because for me, that's 99.9 percent of what we're doing. It's denuclearization of Iran, OK? So, when you ask, our guys can continue, you know Steve is great and Jared, all the guys. They know him very well. He actually -- they're working on your stuff too. I wonder which -- I picked two beauties. You know what, we settled eight wars; I got a couple of beauties here.

But Steve's great and Jared's great. You know, they're the right guys and we'll see what happens. But I will say this, Iran -- they misbehaved for 47 years. They've killed our soldiers, they've killed our people, and they've killed a lot of people all over the Middle East and elsewhere. And the roadside bomb was their preferred -- you know, the preferred weapon was by Soleimani, the roadside bomb, where it would explode under a truck.

We actually built trucks with floors, steel this thick, and then all they did was they made bigger bombs. And we have young guys around, not walking around because they have no legs, but their legs were blown off, their arms were blown off, their face was blown off, and they lived because with modern medicine you can do anything.

But they're living -- they're living like in hell. Their whole life changed because of Iran. And that was -- 96 percent of the people that used that, they were made in Iran. And so, we have a score to settle too.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, you say that President Putin is ready to finish this war. What if he doesn't? Do you -- are you ready to put pressure on Russia? Are you ready to put offenses --

Well, we have a lot of pressure. We have a lot of pressure on President Putin. You know, I don't think he likes what's going on. I don't think he likes -- I don't think he's thrilled with what's happening. There's a lot of pressure on President Putin to get it done. I think there's pressure on everybody to get that one done, a lot of pressure.

[Crosstalk]

What's your security guarantee for Ukraine?

The guarantee.

Yes, security guarantee for Ukraine?

A security guarantee you're talking about? I mean, not that we want to do it; we'll do it to save lives. Look, Ukraine is very far away, we have an ocean separating us. What I'm doing is I'm trying to save lives. A lot of lives are being lost. I also think that it's a country with great potential. I think if this kind of brainpower can go toward rebuilding the country instead of fighting a war, I think it's going to do -- I think that country is going to do fantastically well.

And likewise, Russia, you know, look, they're devoting a lot of energy, a lot of energy. Do you have a question for President Putin, please. President -- President -- do you have a question for President Putin, not -- not Zelenskyy, Putin. Yeah, what would you like to ask him, because I'm going to ask him that question.

I have a question. Last year -- last year, you called Russia a paper tiger, referring that they're not doing --

Who did I call?

Russia

[Inaudible] media --

No, no, give us a question, not for Zelenskyy. Give us a question for Putin, because I'm speaking to him today. And give me a good, hard question.

When will he end this war?

That's a good question. I don't think I've ever asked him that question. I'm going to ask him that question.

Mr. President, what's the status [Inaudible]

Say it.

What's the --

By the way, I will tell you, though, he's going to tell you that he wants it ended as soon as he can end it. He wants it ended -- he wants to end it soon. And I ask him and we talk -- I talked to him a lot. I talked to him a little bit less, but the relationship is very good, but I talked to President Putin a lot, and he wants to end the war.

And a lot of -- and a lot of people don't -- a lot of people don't believe that. I'm telling you.

[Crosstalk]

What are Putin's conditions for ending the war? Do you know what they are?

Well, they were certain conditions that were a little bit different. I think they're changing. I think they're probably getting a little bit better toward some of the things that you'd like. It's been tough on Russia. It's been a lot tougher than it was supposed to be. I mean, in all fairness, this was supposed to be a -- this is a war that would have never happened if I were president, would have never happened.

You'd have a full country, you know, I mean, just a shame that it happened. But no, this is a -- this is something that I think Zelenskyy wants to do and Putin wants to do. They want to -- they want to get it done. Ask, uh, ask the president that question. Ask him.

[Crosstalk]

[✧ AI transcript] Ви знаєте, на яких зараз умовах Володимир Путін готовий надати Україні? [✧ AI Translation "Do you know on what terms Vladimir Putin is ready to provide Ukraine?"]

Go ahead.

No, I don't know what, uh, I don't know what conditions Putin now or wants for this peace. I think that they are changing in any way because the very beginning of full-scale war, he was stronger. And now, uh, I think he -- he is losing initiative on the battlefield. I think his army but that's why I think that -- because of technologies, because it's not the question now of number of people.

People are -- our heroic people are very important. But now it's not the question of only number of people. First of all, people and technologies, people with technologies. Now, I think that we, uh, better steps, technological steps further than Russia, maybe quicker, because they also, they, you know, that they produce a lot of different things, which are tough, uh, strong against us but we are quicker.

And, uh, that's why I think that now initiative moved to our hands, not totally, but moved. We are trying to move this war to the sky from the battlefield. That's why we now began to control the battlefield. This is very important. It's difficult when you have less people to move them back but we found another way, how to do it, to cut their logistics for their army.

It's about weapon petrol, diesel without massive human losses. That is the difference between us, by the way. Russia --

He's got a lot of support. I just left the room with, you know, where they have -- I mean, mostly European, Canada, but mostly European countries and they have a great support for --

Israel.

-- for Ukraine. And, uh, you know, really great support. One of the things you talk about questions for Putin, but one of the things that I talked to him about was where would you want to meet? And he said, ideally in Moscow. I said, you're not going to meet in Moscow. You know, it just doesn't work. You can't do that.

But, uh, he'll meet and Zelenskyy's going to meet and something's going to happen that's going to be positive. And I think -- I hope it's going to happen soon because they have, number one lives, but number two, building your country because it's got a -- it's got a tremendous future, in my opinion. Yeah.

Where would it be held and when would that happen?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, President Putin said, I would love to meet in Moscow. And I said, I don't think -- you know, I have to put myself in his position. I don't know that he'd go to Moscow. Maybe he would. Would you go to Moscow?

It's difficult. There are a lot of Ukrainian drones there. That's right. Dangerous for me, be dangerous. Europe --

No, would you -- it's hard to go to Moscow. It's a little hard to -- I thought I'd answer that question for him. I didn't want to -- I didn't want to ask him that question.

Mr. President, how would you ensure that Ukraine will not be attacked again by Russia?

What about?

How to make sure that Ukraine will not be attacked by Russia again?

Well, look, you mean in the future? You mean after there's an agreement? Well, we're going to work on a security guarantee that -- and Russia respects us a lot. And we're going to work on some kind of a -- if we can make the right deal, we'll help Europe. I mean, Europe is going to be watching it, but we're going to be helping them.

And we'll work on some kind of a security package that will make sure -- I don't think that's going to happen. I think that if we make a deal, Russia is going to be very happy and they're going to get on with other things. They have -- by the way, as a country, too, they have tremendous potential. They have tremendous land, valuable land that they can do things with, and they have tremendous potential.

But I don't think it's going to happen. I don't see -- that question is, oh, they're going to attack again. I don't see it at all. I think they've had it. They've had -- this has been going on for five almost five years.

Yeah.

Who would have thought? I mean, it's a tribute because it's a bigger country strong country. And it's an amazing tribute. Anything else?

[Crosstalk]

President Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine needs Patriot missiles now. Over 50 Ukrainians have died in recent airstrikes just in the last few days. So in addition to these production licenses, which will take time but --

Not that much time, actually.

Would you consider providing any to Ukraine immediately?

We have patriots, but we don't have that many. We need them for ourselves too, you know? Uh, some. Yeah, I mean some, but I think they can produce them pretty quickly. Once we explain it, we'll bring the company here. You work with the company. They have a great ability to produce weapons, pretty complex weapons.

[Crosstalk]

Go ahead.

When are you going to Ukraine?

Will I go to Ukraine?

Will you go to Ukraine?

I would, yeah, when it's over. I'd rather have the war be over. I'm not sure our Secret Service would be thrilled right now. But, you know what, I would. I would like to go. I think it's -- I think the people are incredible. And I mean, like Kyiv, it would be nice to get it before any more damage is done, to be honest.

It's such a beautiful city, right? And yeah, I would go to Ukraine at the right time.

[Crosstalk]

Do you have any deadline -- any deadline you want to reach a deal between Ukraine and Russia but having a deadline in that regard?

No, I don't have a -- you can't have a deadline. It's -- you know, it's too much going on, but I think you're going to have a deal. I think, you know, I've been -- I've been very good. You know, we had certain deals like Azerbaijan and some of the deals that were made, and they've been going on for 32 years.

And they said it's an impossible thing to get them solved, eight -- eight different deals, even in the Congo. It was, think of it, you have the Congo and Rwanda. That was 14 million people dead, a lot of them with machetes. It's a horrible -- we got that one solved, or, you know, they go -- it flares up every once in a while, I must say.

But we got deals done that weren't doable. But if you look at, well, India and Pakistan, they were at it. We got that w-- we get them done. And when we get them done, I find that people are not anxious to go back into it. I think we'll have you -- you once mentioned the word security guarantee in the Oval Office.

Yeah.

And, you know, I think they're going to need some kind of a security guarantee, but we're going to work with them. That's important. I think he thinks that's a very important thing.

The security guarantees are very important.

And they'll live by it.

Partially, president said about Patriots and licenses. Patriot system is the best you know in the world for today, the best anti-ballistic system, so we used a lot of --

That's the best.

Yeah, they're the best one. Which was, I mean, checked everything during the war, so this is true. So with all respect to other partners, we are thankful for all the systems. Patriots are --

Well, they had different systems in Venezuela. So Venezuela had systems that didn't work. We didn't have one plane shot down. We didn't have one -- we had one helicopter operator, who was incredible. He landed it perfectly and his leg was almost blown off and we gave him the Congressional Medal of Honor because very few people could have landed that.

You know, you land them with your feet, really, more than anything else and he landed it. He was really in bad shape. And at the state of the Union we gave him, it was a handsome guy, big, handsome guy, but we gave him the Congressional Medal at the state of the Union. So, look, he wants to get it done, and we're going to get it done.

[Crosstalk]

deal between Ukraine and the US?

And what's this?

What's the status of a drone deal between Ukraine and the US?

Well, we would buy their drones and we make drones, we make great drones. But they have an ability to make a lot of them, which is -- right, Marco -- amazing that in a war situation, they make them. They make them in basements; they make them wherever the hell you have a little shelter, even if you don't have shelter, I think -- I suspect, right?

It's an amazing ability, very few -- well, that's why I say with the Patriots, they would be able to do it. Most countries would not be able; they don't have the talent. You have very talented people. So, yeah, I think we're going to make that deal.

[Crosstalk]

And you know, if we made that deal, we'd have great protection. I love the protection. Think if you had a lot of Patriots, you'd never be hit. And as an example, in Kyiv where they get hit with missiles, those missiles -- like what I said about the Abraham Lincoln, the missiles would be shot down. And I think you'd start making them pretty quickly, right?

Do you like the idea?

No, no, it's a great idea.

I think everybody likes that one. Yeah.

[Inaudible]

[Crosstalk]

As far as security guarantees, are you ready to close the skies in case Russia is expecting --

For what?

To close the skies over Ukraine, in case Russia --

Close the skies.

It's been air defense and jets when you use jets.

It is necessary, yeah, I mean, look, I tell you, when we have a deal, we're going to have a deal, security guarantee and no security guarantee. If we have a deal, we're going to have a deal. We're not going to have to worry about what you're saying, we're going to have a deal. I think if we come to a solution, which I think we will, we're going to have a deal.

Now, we want to make sure the deal sticks, some people don't think it will, I think it will, I think if -- I'm sure it will. I'm not sure it will with Iran. If we make a deal with Iran, I'm not sure that will stick.

May I ask you --

[Crosstalk]

Because I found them to be very dishonorable people. Yeah. I don't find that with him and, I mean, I don't want to upset him, but everything I've done with President Putin has been OK, it's been good. He's going to say, oh no. But I would expect you to say that, but it's good. I don't think anything's going to be broken, and we're going to do a security guarantee in case it is. But with Iran, 47 years, this should have been done by another president a long time ago, or somebody else, another country.

But they got stronger and stronger and now they're weak.

Are you going to reimpose --

You know, don't forget, we knocked out 159 ships in one week, that's good even for you, right? 159 -- their entire Navy is at the bottom of the sea. And now they have little boats, little, tiny boats that go around and we knocked about 28 of them out last night with the same weapon we used for the drug people.

You know, drugs are down, by the way. Drugs by sea are down 97 percent, meaning nobody wants to get into those boats and take drugs into -- they're down 97 percent. And we're using the same thing for the mine boats. They have they like to drop mines in, and we hit a lot of them last night, like 28. We knocked out 28 boats last night, little ones.

That's all they have is little ones.

Are you going to try to take out more tonight?

Will we go tonight? You know, normally I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't tell you but, you know what? There's not a thing they can do about it. So, the answer is probably.

[Crosstalk]

It's a terrible military strategy -- he just said he's going to the -- yeah -- because they deserve it, they deserve it. Daniel.

President Trump, what is the effectiveness of last night's attack? What message does that send with what's left of Iran?

Which attack are you talking about?

The attack that you guys had on last night. The strikes last night?

Oh, I think it has a tremendous impact. Well, first of all, we took out additional -- you know, they were trying to rebuild their radar and they had about 60 percent built. Now they have to start all over again. Look, we're not attacking at the highest level. The highest level are bridges, which we can knock down.

I would say in one day we knocked down every single bridge in Iran. There's not a thing they can do about it. Their electric manufacturing facilities, right? Their electric plants where they make their electricity and their -- we will -- if we have to we'll take them out. I don't want to do that but if we have to, we'll take them out.

They have desalinization plants. We'll take them out if we have to. I hate to do that. That's probably the one I would like not to do at least. We attacked Kharg Island last night; we knocked out a piece -- I said, don't touch the oil because maybe we'll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island, there's not a thing they can do about it. But I said, don't hit the pipes, just hit everything else.

And they hit it. They may hit it again tonight. So, as for your question, normally I'm not that way. But they really deserve it because they're saying they want to make a deal, but they don't. You know, they asked for a time out, they wanted to go to the funeral of Khomeini. And I said, give it to them and they start shooting missiles.

I mean, it was a crazy thing. Now, we did kill him, you know, so I guess you have to look at it that way. But the funeral took place and they wanted to have a period of time. And they also asked that we not kill them. And we said we're not going to kill you. They were worried we kill them during the funeral I mean, if you can believe.

What a crazy -- did you ever think I'd be doing this for a living? Marco? Did anybody ever think I'm doing -- maybe Pete, but this wasn't supposed to be for me. Pete loved this stuff from day one. But they said this, please don't kill us during the funeral. I said, I won't. And we didn't. We didn't do anything.

In fact, we made it safe for them, actually. But what happens? They try and knock out two ships, a Saudi and I guess Kuwait, right, Kuwaiti -- oh, no Qatari. In addition, really three. So, you had three of them and they're just, I don't know, I just don't know with them. A lot of people say that they're very dishonorable people and they can't keep a deal.

So, we'll see. Now as to whether or not Steve Witkoff, Jared and JD and everybody working on that, will talk, I guess they can talk, but I'm not seeing it with them -- you know, with the people. My whole life is deals; I don't see it. I don't see it with them.

[Crosstalk]

And there may be a big attack, and it'll knock out a lot of stuff.

We don't knock out nothing; we knock out a lot. Pete, do you want to tell them about last night?

Yes, sir. Last night, as you said, a lot of small craft that they were trying to harass shipping with. So, that was a big part of what we targeted. Underground facilities where they were storing drones or missiles, coastal defense sites, radar sites, surveillance sites, anything used to harass shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

So, anything they thought they had rebuilt or capability they were using was a target last night. And tonight, if we need to, on your order, Mr. President, we will hit even more and even deeper because that's the consequence.

We may put down the blockade. We may put it back, the blockade. And it'll only be a blockade for Iran; anybody else can have whatever they want. Now, of course, they'll drop some mines if they can, if they can do it, but it's hard because we're taking out those little boats now with the same weapon we used to take out the drug lords and the boats coming in by sea.

Think of it, 97 percent. For years we had fentanyl and all the other drugs coming in from different countries, including Venezuela. And it was, you know, they'd arrest him, they'd bring him to a court, they'd be released and they'd be back on another boat the next. 97 percent that had -- what was done in the past had no impact.

97 percent drugs down coming in by sea. And now we're going to start doing it by land. The land is the easy one; we had to do sea first. And nobody -- I mean, I think the 3 percent of the people that still do that, I think they're the bravest people in the world. Maybe we should probably give them a medal for bravery because it's a -- and we're using the same exact missile to take out the mine drop.

They call mine droppers, but we have minesweepers. And one of the things that came up today is the European nations, a NATO group, they're sending minesweepers. We don't need them now, we have -- pretty much the mines are cleared up, but they'll probably drop some more. They're evil people, they're sick people, they're really -- they're mentally disturbed people.

And it should have been done 47 years ago. Thank you, everybody.