Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Bilateral Meeting with Joseph Aoun of Lebanon - July 21, 2026

Thank you very much. It's a great pleasure to be with the President of Lebanon. He's highly respected in his country and actually long beyond his country. We've spoken previously on numerous occasions through representatives, and the relationship is very good. I think that Lebanon has been a very mistreated country for a long period of time.

It's an amazing group of people -- professors, doctors, lawyers, great intellects and it's been hit hard for many, many decades really. It's been hit very, very hard. And yet I have people that live in Lebanon, people that are parents of friends of mine in many cases, and they would never leave. They would not leave under any circumstance.

They love it; they love the country and it's probably a dangerous place in a lot of ways. But they live in areas -- they say we hear bombs going off all the time, but we want to live in Lebanon. They love the country -- very smart people, very successful people, and they live there. But it has been, it's been a country of great intellect, great intellectuals.

They still love it; they want to be there and we're going to help it; we're going to help it a lot. So, it's an honor to have the president and your representatives here. We've already met a couple of times, and we've had some good meetings, and we are going to solve a lot of problems. We've already solved some of them for Lebanon.

As you know, there's a Hezbollah problem, but we've done some things that I think the world will take notice. Again, it's been a very badly treated place and country, and we're going to have it properly treated and treated with respect that it deserves. And, Mr. President, it's an honor having you. Thank you very much.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

I've been looking forward to this visit for a long time.

Thank you very much.

Meeting such a great president like yourself.

Well, that's a very nice thing. See, he knows how to get to me. He's the president; now he can have anything. Would you like to say something?

No, really, I would like to thank President Trump, really, and his team for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together by signing the framework with the ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever. I think, Mr. President, this will be your legacy.

Together, we will be able to achieve this objective. It's about time for Lebanon and for the whole region to be stable and secure. And I know your vision is peace; your vision is stability and I think my vision coincides you re your vision. And together I think we will be able to achieve and to score success in that regard.

I agree with that. I do agree with that. And you have tremendous spirit on your side. You have people that love that country and they're going to make it work.

We're going to make it work.

Right. Thank you very much.

[Crosstalk]

For the president of Lebanon, I have two questions, one for you. President Trump, as you work to expand the Abraham Accords, Lebanon still enforces a 1955 law criminalizing contact with Israeli for over 70 years. You previously stated you would push Lebanon on this issue and people -- there are some people still going to prison last month.

So, did you raise it with -- you will raise it with President Trump today?

I will. The Abraham Accords have been, I think, a tremendous success. I think you're going to see a lot of countries joining pretty soon. As you know, we have our original group and they are -- it's so successful for them, economically successful, it's been that. Nobody left, even during this time of conflict.

So, no, I think, Lebanon has a very important place.

[Crosstalk]

My question for president --

What is your level of concern of a blockade of the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels opening up another front in the war?

We'll have to see what happens. So far, it hasn't happened, might happen, but we take care of things. If something like that happens, we take care of it. You know, we've done that with the Houthis before, and we haven't heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally. It was about 45 days of very powerful action we took against the Houthis.

And we've had no problem with the Houthis; they've had no problem with us for a long period of time, including during this conflict. I think that if there is something like that, we'll just have to take care of business.

[Crosstalk]

The Lebanese parliament rejected the agreement between Lebanon and Israel and said -- he said the sedition it's going to cause civil war. He's the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, and he speaks for Hezbollah, he's Hezbollah big brother. What do you have to say about that?

Well, maybe I'll let you speak to that.

Actually, the framework doesn't require the endorsement of the parliament, OK? It's part of our Constitution; it's a prerogative of the president. And we are committed to it and I think the speaker of the Parliament is really -- wants to see the end of this war. He's from the South, and he knows he did his best to rebuild the South.

But unfortunately, the South being destroyed in front of his eyes. So, he's actually supportive of what we are doing, but we need to be careful that -- his position as a speaker and as a leader of the Shiite community we have to understand how critical is his position. But I can tell you that speaker is a man of state.

He's supportive of what we are doing, and he's supportive of ending the state of hostility, ending the war once for all.

[Crosstalk]

I think when he sees, because I've heard that he's a good person, good man, and when he sees the progress made, I'm sure he's going to come on board.

[Crosstalk]

From Lebanon, from LBCI TV, from Lebanon. I have two questions, please. When will the Israeli army fully withdraw from Lebanon? Is there a clear timeline for that? And last question, please. Last week, you met with the Iraqi Prime Minister and discussed him or described him as handsome and saying he could become one of the best leaders in the Middle East.

How would you describe --

Which one are we talking about?

The Iraqi prime minister? How would you describe president [Inaudible]

Well, I'd say he's handsome also, and I think he could become one of the most important leaders in the Middle East, actually, if we do this because they've been doing trying to do this for decades, right? Decades and decades. So, if I made that statement about somebody else, I would put him in the same category.

[Crosstalk]

When does the army withdrawal from Lebanon? Is there a clear timeline for that?

They're in the process of doing that. They're in the process of redeploying to other sections. And again, they get along very well. That was a great agreement they signed with Lebanon and they're redeploying.

[Crosstalk]

Thank you, Mr. President. The Lebanese army needs help, and the United States said that it's very important for the Lebanese army to take over the villages that Hezbollah withdraw from. How are you going to help them and how is this going

[Crosstalk]

We'll be speaking about that today with your president and we have some very concrete plans already in store for that with others going in and helping. But they're also becoming much more self-sufficient. And we will be speaking about that; that's one of the subjects we're going to be talking about.

Thank you, Mr. President. My question is -- sorry -- is the Lebanese army said today that Israeli forces opened fire in proximity to the Lebanese trying to deploy in one of these pilot zones. This is day two of the pilot zones. Are you prepared to take any steps, additional steps to put pressure on Israel to withdraw, which I believe President Aoun is planning to ask you?

Well, I'll look -- I just heard about that before this conference. just happened, and we'll be looking at that. yeah.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, there are no signs that Iran is ready to stop fighting. So, what is the plan? Is the plan to just keep bombing until they give up?

How would you know if there are no signs? Why? Do you know something that I don't know?

Well, they continue to attack our allies.

But you don't know what the dialog is behind the scenes, that they want to meet desperately to try and end it because they're getting decimated. You don't get that when you listen to your fake station. You don't know -- you don't know anything.

So, talks are still possible/likely?

You know something that I don't know? Do you know something I don't know?

Well, tell us.

I will tell you they want to desperately meet. And until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in even

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, are you planning on putting any pressure or consequences on China for what you announced about the meddling in the 2020 election?

Well, we're going to talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But look, they do things --

[Audio gap]

-- it's not a one way street, but we'll be talking to them, yeah.

Mr. President -- Something that doesn't get talked about a lot, but the Border Patrol reported 14 consecutive months, no releases at the southern border. This is something you talked a lot about on the campaign trail -- couldn't run on the job you did on the southern border. Do you feel similarly at this point in time with midterms, considering how well the job you've done?

What is the lesson to be learned about Border Patrol?

Well, thank you for that question. The fact is, and maybe it pertains a little bit with respect to you and borders and everything else. We had a border that was totally out of control. I probably won the election at least partially on the border, would you say? And the border now, we literally, in 14 months, I think it came out this morning actually just announced.

And in 14 months, we had nobody coming through, zero, zero people. I have to say, millions came through and we had zero people come in illegally into our country and that's made by people that happen to be Democrats, largely Democrats and people that do those stats. Uh, and I'm sure they don't like saying it, but we really had virtually nobody coming in and actually saying nobody, not even virtually.

So it's amazing what's happened there. And, uh, very people talk about that anymore. You know, they don't like talking about that. They don't like talking about Venezuela, where we lost no people. Uh, I'll be going to Dover for something that I feel is, is, it's a great honor for me to do it. These are people that want it, and they feel like I do, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Very simple. It's a very simple dictum, they cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won't have -- they're not going to have -- they have no chance of having a nuclear weapon. Uh, and as far as Iran is concerned, I'll let Pete maybe say a couple of words, but we are doing very well. We are degrading them at levels that nobody thought was possible.

They're being degraded uh, really, uh, so seriously. They did slip something through in Jordan. And, uh, if we had other operators, you know, would have -- would not have happened, unfortunately. But, uh, we, because we have the best equipment in the world. You know, we've stopped almost everything. But when you let other people do your job, with the United States, we let other people do the job and sometimes it doesn't work out so well.

But, uh, we're going to be going and paying our respects at Dover. Would you like to say just how we're doing, generally speaking?

Well, it'll be an honor as well to join you at Dover to recognize these incredible Americans, um, who committed to the cause just like you are, something no president's been willing to do. For 47 years, they build up conventional capability, like the North Koreans did, remember North that's how North Korea made their way to a bomb.

So much weaponry that no one was willing to stand up to them. President Trump was and continues to, to this day. Iran's been given every opportunity to negotiate, to show that they're reasonable on the Strait of Hormuz. Uh, but if they're going to shoot a commercial shipping, then we're going to hit them, as the president said, 10 times harder.

Which every night, we're degrading them further and further uh, and the president -- they can talk -- otherwise they can deal with the War Department and --

And the blockade is up and fully, I mean, it's, uh, nobody gets through. Nobody gets through the blockade. It's like a steel wall.

[Crosstalk]

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, yesterday there was another attack on an ICE facility, this time in New York City. What, in your view, is prompting these attacks? And do you have a message for those who are attacking ICE?

You're talking about the fire that was set in front of the federal building?

Yes.

Well, this is, uh, what's happening with the people that they allowed to come into our country. They shouldn't have allowed them to come in. They shouldn't be here. Uh, they're radical lunatics and, uh, I'm getting them out. You know? We're getting them out at a pace -- you know, we've gotten rid of more than any other -- I read stories, they try and give you phony stats.

I was with Tom Homan this morning. He'll give you the statistics, if you want. But we're getting bad people out of our country at levels never seen before. There's never been a time when more bad people. And you take a look just here in Washington, we got almost five -- we took out almost 5,000 hardline, hardcore criminals, most of whom came in during the open border periods of the previous administration.

Uh, and an amazing statistic and this is something that I hate to be talking about in front of the President of Lebanon, but he's got his problems and they're different problems. But we don't have any problems in Washington, DC. We have -- virtually, we've wiped out about 92 percent of the crime uh, and we're going to get very close to, I believe we're going to get close to 100 percent of the crime.

And if you take a look at this city and compare this to what it was 15, 16 months ago, this was a dangerous city. Uh, I don't know -- I better not compare it to Lebanon because I don't exactly have your stats, but, uh, it might have been Lebanon was safer. This was a dangerous city under the previous administration, Biden, and now it's a very safe city.

There was an article that came out two days ago that Washington, DC is -- has made the greatest progress of any city in the nation. Now, Memphis also, and New Orleans also. And if they would ask us for help in Chicago, we would turn that around so fast. If they'd ask us for help in New York, we'd turn that around so fast.

Los Angles, we would turn that around so fast. But the stat that is so amazing is that two percent of the people create 91 percent of the crime. Think of that. It's a great stat. Because if it was 70 percent of the people, that's a problem. If it's 20 percent, that's a -- two percent of the people create 90 percent of the crime.

Think of that. Two percent of the people, you can handle that easily. So Washington DC is now one of the hottest cities in the country. We have the hottest country in the world. But Washington is now hot. And I do have to say one other thing. We just had the world cup, as you know very well. And it was the most successful world cup ever.

We didn't even have a protest. We had no crime. With all those events, was like having many, many super bowls. Each one was like a super bowl. And with all of that, we didn't have crime. We didn't have bedlam. Everybody left here with a different opinion than what they read in the fake news. They love this country.

I saw Scotland, I saw Norway, I saw all these countries, I mean, the level of love -- nobody wanted to leave. And I just want to congratulate everybody. The job that we did, all of us, everybody in this room, because everybody in this room was involved, the vice president was very much involved. It was amazing.

I was with Gianni the other day. The job he did was great. But he said, he never thought in a million years, it could be so free of any difficulty. Think of it, we didn't even have a protest, not only no crime. Now, there's a reason for all this, but part of it were that people just wanted to pull together.

This country, for like a four-week period, just pulled together, really amazing. And I didn't want to say -- before the final, I didn't want to say how well it was doing. I wanted to get the final over with because you never know. It only takes -- but we just had the most successful world cup in history, did five times the business of any world cup in history.

And I can't wait to get them back, but I think we won't be able to get them for the next.

[Crosstalk]

Do you feel save here, especially with this upcoming --

Say what?

Do you feel safe, uh, especially considering --

I feel your life.

-- the threats on your life.

I feel safe. Why wouldn't I feel safe?

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, I'm [Inaudible] from [Inaudible] are you still speaking with Hezbollah? You said in previous interviews that you're speaking --

Well, I don't want to say that, but I would speak to Hezbollah. Yeah, I speak to everybody. I'll speak to people that a lot of people think I shouldn't be speaking to, and things work out.

[Crosstalk]

I would speak, I would speak to Hezbollah. I would say this, if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah.

You know, he's lived with Hezbollah for a long time. And if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would. I would.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, on Iran. If the Iranians do not make a deal, ultimately, how long will it take for you to stamp out their threats to the strait and enable coal shipping?

So if we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild. OK? And we're not finished at all. But if we left right now, it would take them a long time, years, years to rebuild, but we're not leaving right now. So we've had a big impact on Iran. Uh, if we didn't do what I did with regard to two things, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama, I terminated that.

If I didn't terminate it, you wouldn't have Israel right now, because they would have had a nuclear weapon years ago. And if we didn't do the B-2 bombers knocking out the nuclear sites a year ago, one of the first things we did early in the administration, they would have a nuclear weapon. And you wouldn't have Israel and, in my opinion, you wouldn't have various other countries in the Middle East.

They'd all be gone. They would have been terminated, extinguished. But I believe that by doing what we did, by terminating Iran, whose very evil people leading that country -- you saw the number of protesters that they killed, 52, 000 plus. I put a couple of them up today, young kids, they kill them. They kill them like they're like they're candy.

It's crazy, what they do. They treat them so badly. They're just killing people just at random, over 52,000 people and nobody talks about it. But if I didn't do the attack on their nuclear sites or if I didn't terminate the Obama agreement with Iran, which was an absolute -- it was an absolute hit on having them get -- that was a road to a nuclear weapon.

And our deal will be a wall, it already is. They can't have a nuclear weapon right now; it would take them years to produce it. And we will absolutely attack. We -- you know, the new site that they're talking about.

I mean, how about these people? They're in this because of nuclear weapons and they're trying to possibly reconstitute a site. We'll hit that site. Any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully. Now, nobody knows except the Iranians, the damage that we've done to them.

We have done damage that will take them 20, 25 years to recover from. So, if we left tomorrow, we had a big success, but we're not leaving tomorrow.

[Crosstalk]

Your ability to threaten the street, though, that's the question. There's a bill right now that's being considered that would allow illegal aliens who are working in farming to get legal status. Do you support that legislation?

I don't know about it. I'll take a look at it.

[Crosstalk]

Last night, the Canada tariffs -- one, are those a response to the wildfires in Canada?

No, no, that's separate. We're looking at that separately.

And is there anything

[Crosstalk]

It's only a response to the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Canada's been very, very tough on us over the years; for many years. And no other president has done anything about it. I love Canada; I love the people of Canada, many friends that live in Canada. But their leadership from Trudeau to the current leadership, I mean, in all fairness to them, they need us to survive.

Without us, there's no way they can survive. But they've been very, very tough over a period of the last 50 years, actually.

On Syria -- Tony Baroud from CIB TV from Lebanon. Do you still support Syria entering Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah?

You mean coming in and doing something with Hezbollah?

Yes.

Well, it's a concept. We get along very well with the president of Syria; he's done a very good job. I wouldn't be surprised if this gentleman's going to do a job just like that. He's done a very good job; he's pulled Syria together. He would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah. They've been fighting, he's been fighting Hezbollah for a long time.

I think it'd be very effective. So, it's something I think

[Crosstalk]

[Crosstalk]

On tariffs, you increased the tariffs on Canada yesterday. Can you say if you still expect to impose tariffs on the wildfire problem and can you say

[Crosstalk]

We're looking at that. A lot of damage has been done. They're not managing their forests properly and the wind has a tendency to blow right over New York City, right over -- you saw Detroit, they had to close the whole place. Michigan was really affected; they had to close businesses for four days. It's very serious what they're doing, and they don't seem to be able to do anything about it. If they managed their forests, they wouldn't have the fires.

[Crosstalk]

Do you believe that Iran is trying to impact the midterm elections by threatening the Strait of Hormuz?

Probably. They won't have any impact on me. I'm just going to do the right thing. I don't view it as, gee, we're having an election in a period of time. Everyone says, oh, I'm doing something before -- no. The election -- I can't think about that having to do with this. I think people are very impressed.

I mean, we took over Venezuela; we now have a great relationship with Venezuela. We went to war with Venezuela, and the war ended in one day. And we have now an incredible relationship with Venezuela. We're taking out millions of barrels of oil. They're making more money now than they ever made before, ever.

And we're making a lot of money; we've paid for the war many times over with Venezuela. We lost nobody. We lost nobody. We didn't lose one -- and it was a violent attack, as you know. We took out a man who was a very evil man. What he did was very evil -- many, many -- in many different ways we took him out.

But you know, Venezuela, they said the same thing. When I did Venezuela, everyone said, because look at the drugs, look at what they did when they took all of their prisons, they opened up their prisons, and they have everybody in a prison come in through Biden's absolutely insane open borders policy. And we did that in one day, think of it. And now we are working very closely with the administration, and we get along very well.

Venezuela is a very happy place. They had a tragic incident with the event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple -- a week ago. What a terrible thing that was. They had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. Nobody's ever -- they've never seen anything like it, a lot of people were killed.

So, it's all unrelated but, by the way, we were the first ones there to help. We were there to help Venezuela. It was an earthquake; I guess you'd call it. It was a pretty massive earthquake, and we were able to do a lot of good, but they lost a lot of people. Venezuela, the people are so happy that we're there, the jobs, everything's happening.

And we're taking out many, many times the money that we spent on the war. This one, Iran is bigger, it's a more complex situation. But we're probably doing equally as well if you look at the damage that's been done. And again, as I said to the young man that just posed the question over here, if we left today, it would take them decades to rebuild.

And I don't believe they could ever rebuild. And honestly, they haven't seen anything yet. We've been nice. We've been nice.

Haley [Inaudible], thank you for the question. Do you believe that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickax Mountain? And when you say we're not done yet, what is left to finish?

Well, I think that they may have -- we don't have it on record. All we do is read the fake news, you know, we --

[Audio gap]

-- so -- maybe this one they have right, but it's OK. It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. You're talking about the centrifuges. It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material.

They don't have it. We follow the material, that's where the action is, and we'll be hitting that area probably pretty soon and there's not a thing they can do about it. Normally I wouldn't say that. If I thought they could do something about it I would never say that. But we'll be hitting that area pretty soon and very heavily.

[Crosstalk]

Please go ahead.

Two years ago, during the campaign, I interviewed you and you told me on MTV Lebanon that the peace will happen in Lebanon. And every word you said during the interview, it's happening today. Like from the first day in the administration, you were working hard for peace.

True, because I understood Lebanon. And I understood how horribly Lebanon has been treated as a country. They've been like a whipping post, what's happened with Iran and with Hezbollah. But Lebanon has been treated very -- incredibly badly. And maybe I'm a little prejudiced in favor of Lebanon because I have so many Lebanese friends.

You're not that old.

Well, no, but there are so many Lebanese friends. And so, I know, I understand Lebanon. Tom Barrack is Lebanese, the ambassador.

[Crosstalk]

The Lebanese army. President Aoun, does the Lebanese army currently have the funding, equipment and manpower necessary to implement the agreement -- or you are asking today President Trump for additional US assistance today to do the job?

Definitely. With the support of President Trump, and we spoke of it on the phone, and I told him I need two things from you: political support and supporting of the LAF, which the LAF is the most trusted institution in the country and it has the most powerful weapon, which is the trust of the public. Like any other -- any armed forces in the world, the Lebanese armed forces is a backbone of security and stability.

We need to support the LAF; the LAF maintains the country safe and stable. Without the LAF, everything will collapse. We don't want that; I think President Trump doesn't want that. In 1975, the first institution to collapse was the LAF and, as a result, we saw the emergence of many local militias and the South was empty, allowing the Palestinians to roam the South end and launch attack against Israel.

We don't want to see them back again. All we're asking is keep supporting the LAF. And they know that the LAF is doing a great job performing its duty to the fullest. I fully trust the LAF; I fully trust the leadership of the LAF.

[Crosstalk]

A great step forward with the recent signing with Israel. That was a big step.

[Inaudible] direct flight from America to Lebanon again [Inaudible]

I could see that happening, absolutely.

[Inaudible] from [Inaudible] TV. So, Ambassador Michel Issa -- the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, told me that the president would not leave Washington empty handed. What concrete outcomes will you bring it back to Lebanon?

You'll find out. Thank you all very much. We're doing very well with Iran. We're doing unbelievably with the economy. We have investment -- as you know, Toyota is coming in with the biggest plant I understand anywhere in the world. They're leaving Mexico. They're coming into our country, going to come into Texas, to be specific.

Uh, we have more plants under construction now than at any time, by far, by many times. Uh, we have over $19.2 trillion being spent in America, and they're going to be opening up in a year or a year and a half.

And there has never been a time like this in America. Truly, it's the golden age of America. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.