It goes over there. OK. Jeanine, stand in front.
OK. Judge Jeanine protocol.
Thank you. [Laughter]
Don't tell Monica.
She's a strong leader. She's -- she just made television.
No sir.
OK. Thank you very much, everybody. It's an honor to be here for our friend Sergio -- Sergio Gor. Today we're thrilled to be in a swear in for the next ambassador to India and special envoy to South and Central Asia, which is a big deal. And Sergio will handle it better than anybody could handle it. So I just want to congratulate -- Sergio, come here a minute.
Sergio, we're proud of you. So we are honored to be joined this afternoon by our great Vice President, JD Vance. Thank you, JD.
Yay, JD.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Thank you, Secretary. Secretary Scott Bessent is doing a great job. Attorney General Pam Bondi. And US Attorney Jeanine Pirro. DC is a very safe place, Jeanine, right? Very safe place and we're going to keep it there.
Yes! [Laughter]
Along with Senators Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt and I will give you an exemption because, you know, they're supposed to be right now in the Senate. [Laughter] And if you guys want to sneak out, nobody will see you leaving. Do you want to do that, Lindsey, or do you want to stay?
No. You want me to I will?
OK, you sneak out any time you want?
Thank you.
We don't want to screw up any votes, do we?
Amen, amen.
OK. Thank you. Thank you for being here, but we're also very honored to be joined by Miss -- Mrs. -- a very special woman who I, unfortunately have seen a lot of lately on television for the wrong reasons, a woman who is great, who Charlie said is the greatest of anybody he knew, best friends and best everything, Erika Kirk.
So thank you. And as Erika knows another special woman, Laura Ingraham. Where is Laura? She's here someplace. Thank you, Laura. And many other true American patriots great people. One year ago, Sergio played a key role in helping us secure the most consequential presidential election victory in the history of our country.
And from the day we won, he immediately began working to staff our new administration with the most talented team of any president. And we have had a great team, a couple of mistakes, Sergio, but we won't mention them. [Laughter] They're gone. We got rid of them pretty quick. We found a couple we weren't thrilled with.
We got them out of here. [Laughter] But as my director of office and presidential personnel from the early days of transition, Sergio's leadership was essential to fulfilling the historic mandate entrusted to us by the American people. And that's what we've done with the help. Here at the White House. We set new benchmarks for presidential staffing.
Nobody's done it -- I think hopefully better, but certainly quicker. But I don't think anybody's done it better. We have great people surrounded by the people that I really do love and like and respect. But we hired 4,000 appointees across every federal department in record time, including over 1,000 appointments on day one.
So before we even got started, we had over a thousand people working for us under Sergio's leadership, federal agencies and departments reached staffing levels of 95 percent and it's faster than any administration in modern day history. And prior to his work on behalf of my 2024 campaign, Sergio had tremendous success as an entrepreneur in the publishing world.
He even published my book which went to number one. I was very happy because if it didn't, I wouldn't probably -- [Laughter] -- he wouldn't be here. But now I'm trusting Sergio to help strengthen one of our country's most important international relationships. And that's the strategic partnership with the Republic of India.
It's a big deal. India is home to one of the world's oldest civilization, the largest country in the world actually. And it's got over 1.5 billion people. And we have a fantastic relationship with the Prime Minister Modi and Sergio has only enhanced that because he's become already friendly with the Prime Minister.
Knowing that Sergio is going to be the ambassador they would call constantly to say, let's get to know this man and they like what they see. So I know you're going to have a great success over there. It's a very important relationship, but it's also the fastest growing middle class and it's an important economic and strategic security partner in the Indo-Pacific region.
It's an amazing country, actually 1.5 billion people. China has 1.4 billion. Those are two big countries. As ambassador, Sergio will work to fortify our countries bond, promote investments in key US industries and technologies, increase American energy exports and expand our security cooperation. And, you know, we're making a deal with India a much different deal than we had in the past.
So right now, they don't love me, but they'll love us. Again, uh, we're getting a fair deal, just a fair trade deal. We had pretty unfair trade deals. They're very good negotiators. They're just -- you have to take a look at that, if you would, please. But we're getting close, Scott, I think we're pretty close to doing a deal that's good for everybody, right?
In the old days, do you think Biden would ask that question? I don't think so. [Laughter] I'd say how are we doing with India? He didn't know about India, he didn't know a damn thing, but that's OK. We had him. Eesh. [Laughter] Likewise in Sergio's role as special envoy to South and Central Asia, he'll be a key emissary to a very important group of nations at the crossroads between East and West.
And last week, I was honored to host the leaders of five Central Asian countries here in the White House and Sergio will be helping with all of that. We had an amazing meeting the other night at the White House and I'm confident that Sergio will do an outstanding job and make our country and all of his friends very proud.
But I'm very proud of Sergio. I've known him for a long time, and he's a great guy and most people love him. Some people don't like him so much. I'll be honest with you, Sergio. [Laughter] Some people when they don't like Sergio, they don't like him. But when they like him, they like him more than anybody, but most of them really are the like category. [Laughter] And I just want to say that I think he's going to be an outstanding representative for the United States of America.
And it's a big deal, being the ambassador to India is a big deal. So, Sergio, congratulations. I know you're going to do a fantastic job. Thank you. Now, Mr. Vice President, for swearing.
OK, swearing in here.
Left hand, right hand.
Thank you. Thank you, Judge. I appreciate the assistance. [Laughter] We have such a crowd here. You think we're swearing in a vice president. Sir, OK, please repeat after me. I, Sergio Gor.
I, Sergio Gor.
Do solemnly swear.
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.
Discharge the duties.
Of the office on which I'm about to enter.
Of the office of which I'm about to enter.
So help you God?
So help me God.
Congratulations, Mr. Gor.
Mr. President, this is an honor of a lifetime. I want to thank first you what you have done for this country before you came back in the trouble that this country was facing. I mean, frankly we were screwed. What you have achieved in 10 months has been historic, has surpassed any other presidency and I fully believe what you will achieve in the next three years will never be beaten.
So, it has been an honor to serve you, um, I've been at your side for many years. I will continue to be there, um, and it's just an incredible honor and I look forward to enhancing the relationship between our two nations. Um, but again thank you for entrusting me with this position and I look forward to doing a great job for you.
Thank you very much. JD, would you like to say something?
Well, thank you, sir. First of all, congratulations, Sergio. You're going to be a great ambassador, great Representative to the country of India, which the president and I both love. Uh, as a lot of you know, Sergio was a critical piece of what made the first ten months such a great success. Obviously, the president's leadership is the most important thing, but you can't do a whole lot unless you've got good people around you.
And Sergio did as much as anybody to ensure that the White House was staffed with the very best people, people who were loyal to the president, loyal to the country and loyal to the agenda that we're trying to implement. So thank you all for being here. I think it's a great testament to you, Sergio, that you got multiple cabinet secretaries, Erika Kirk, the president of United States.
This crowd will not turn out for just anybody, but it turned out for Sergio Gor. You're going to do a hell of a job, man. Congratulations.
Just echo what Sergio said, Mr. President, you've done a lot for this country, more than any other president has in such a short period of time. And part of that is putting together a phenomenal team. And I know Sergio was instrumental in helping you achieve that, and so we think he'll do a great job. This is a very impressive collection of people.
There are almost 1.5 billion people in the Oval Office right now. But to reflect, but Sergio is going to do a phenomenal job. Those of us who've known him, so many of his friends that are here and family as well, that know how hard he works, 24 hours, seven days a week. And that's what it takes to work in this administration because of how much you're pushing our country forward around the world and here at home.
And we know Sergio will do a great job. So congratulations, Sergio, you're going to do a phenomenal job.
Thank you.
Thank you. Jeanine, please.
Well, I'm very proud to be here with Sergio, my friend, who's been my friend for many years. He is someone who is loyal, he is trustworthy and he works as hard as anyone I know. And Mr. President, there is in this room a group of people who love you who believe in you and who are so proud to be in this Oval Office and to be part of this amazing day because you have changed the course of America.
You, and thank you, Sergio, for what you've done. God bless you both.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, he was also very good friends with a guy named Charlie. We just knew him as Charlie. And his wife, who he loved so much is here with us and maybe, you know how close they were together. Maybe Erika, you could say a couple of words, please?
I'd be honored to, sir. Charlie loved you. It's hard not to get emotional because I know that he would have been the first phone call when he found out that you were going to be taking this position. And the way that I was able to witness the two of you work together for years and to champion and support the president was absolutely humbling to witness.
And I am so proud of you and Charlie is going to be with you every single day in spirit and I will be praying for you every day because I know that this is just the beginning of an incredible opportunity for you. And sir, thank you for um allowing Sergio to have this beautiful moment.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, darling. And that man's watching over us right now, right? OK. Any questions?
You mentioned the senators that are here, Mr. President, do you personally approve of the deal that's happening right now on Capitol Hill to end the government shutdown?
Well, it depends what deal we're talking about, but if it's a deal I heard about, that's certainly -- you know, they want to change the deal a little bit. But I would say so. I think based on everything I'm hearing, they haven't changed anything and we have support from enough Democrats and we're going to be opening up our country.
It's too bad it was closed, but we'll be opening up our country very quickly.
Mr. President, that deal does reverse the mass firings your administration put through during the shutdown. Did you sign off on that? And will you abide by that if this passes?
Well, I will be. I'll abide by the deal. The deal is very good. We're not going to be giving $1.5 trillion to people that came in from jails and from, you know, the gangs and drug dealers and all of these others that they wanted to be given healthcare which would have hurt our healthcare system. I hope that we're going to be able to have a healthcare where Lindsey and I were discussing it, Jim and I were discussing and Katie, we discussed it. We want a healthcare system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies.
And I tell you, we're going to be working on that very hard over the next short period of time, where the people get the money. We're talking about trillions and trillions of dollars where the people get the money. Yes, please.
Mr. President, the Syrian, sir, could you update us on your meeting? Did you come to any agreements?
Say it.
With the leader of Syria you had earlier, did you come to any agreements today?
Well, we had an agreement with him. He's a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place and he's a tough guy. I liked him. I get along with him, the president, the new president of Syria. And we'll do everything we can to make serious successful because that's part of the Middle East. We have peace now in the Middle East, first time that anyone can remember that ever happening.
As you know, Syria is a very big -- a very big part of the Middle East, very important part. If you look back at Syria for years, they had the doctors, the lawyers, the -- they had so many of the great intellects. It was -- it's an amazing place with great people. And we want to see Syria be successful along with the rest of the Middle East.
So I have confidence that he'll be able to do the job, absolutely.
How close are you to a deal on a trade deal with India?
Right.
Are you willing to consider lowering the current tariff rate?
Well, right now the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil and they've stopped doing the Russian oil. It's been reduced very substantially. Yeah, we're going to be bringing the tariffs down on India.
What level are we talking about here?
I mean, at some point -- no, at some point, we're going to be bringing them down. Without tariffs, we would be -- this country would be in such trouble, as they were for many years. That's why we owe $38 trillion. And one of the things we're going to do, we're going to issue a dividend to our middle-income people and lower income people of about $2,000. And we're going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt.
We're going to be lowering our debt, which is a national security thing. So we're doing a lot of good work and the numbers were reported so incorrectly. The real numbers are trillions of dollars have been taken in or gotten in terms of investment from the tariffs. And so if that were ever reversed, it would be a disaster.
Frankly, it would be a national security problem for our country. And nobody thinks it's going to be reversed. I think we had a very good court case. As you know, it's before the Supreme Court right now. But if that were ever reversed, you know, people are saying, oh, it's $1 billion. Some people said, oh, it's $2 billion.
Well, that, obviously we can handle very easily. But this is trillions of dollars we're talking about in terms of the tariff income and all the investment income that's come into our country. You know, we have more than -- I would say right now more than $18 trillion. The biggest number ever is a tiny fraction of that for any country, China, the United States, the biggest number ever.
If you look at the past administration, Biden, he did less than $1 trillion in four years. We're over $18 trillion. By the time my first year ends, we're going to have over $20 trillion of investment coming into the United States. It's unheard of. We have AI factories. We're leading China by a lot. We have cars and -- you know, car plants coming in by more than we've ever had built before.
All of that would go away if we lose the tariff case. So all of it would go away. So they're not giving the right numbers. It would be an economic disaster. It would be a national security disaster if we lost the case in the Supreme Court. Daniel.
Back to that tariff rebate.
Yes.
This is an idea that you've been talking about for months, This is going to directly and positively impact millions of Americans. Why was this important for you to do and when can Americans expect that?
So I've been talking about it for a long time. The dividend to people that, you know, have suffered under the Biden administration. So Biden had the highest inflation in history street and we now are at a very low point. We're going to be hitting 1.5 percent pretty soon. So we're at a low point and he was a high point.
We did that. Food prices are way down. It's all coming down. And the biggest decrease of course is energy. And you know, as goes energy, goes everything else. Because when energy comes down, the oil, the electric all -- but we -- I think you're going to see $2 gasoline or something very close to that. In fact, we're already in the twos.
But I think you're going to be seeing very soon, $2 gasoline. That's like the equivalent of a massive tax cut. But in addition to that, the great Big, Beautiful Bill gives you a very, very big tax cut. And then you have no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security and no tax on overtime for the middle income and for even, frankly, anybody.
But you have no tax -- and no tax on tips has turned out to be a tremendous thing. But when you think no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our seniors, it's -- the great Big, Beautiful Bill, which has been mischaracterized. But now people even they don't want to talk about it because it's so good the enemy because it's so good for everybody.
It's the greatest piece of legislation ever passed in the history of our country in terms of size. And hence, it's called -- they call it the Big, Beautiful Bill or the One Big, Beautiful. I call it the great Big, Beautiful Bill. It's a -- an amazing bill for the middle-class. It's amazing, bill for jobs.
We've never passed anything like it. And in my first administration, so we had the greatest economy, we had -- everything was good, but we're really outdoing it this time because we have investments coming in largely because of tariffs and I think because of November 5th, the election result. But we have investments coming in like we've never had before.
The deal -- Mr. President --
Behind you. Caitlyn, behind you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Caitlyn.
On Syria, can we expect an announcement on between Syria and Israel or an announcement on them joining the anti-ISIS coalition?
Yeah, you can expect some announcements on Syria. We want to see Syria become a country that's very successful. And I think this leader can do it, I really do. I think this leader can do it. And people said he's had a rough past. We've all had rough pasts, but he has had a rough past and I think frankly, if you didn't have a rough past, you wouldn't have a chance.
Uh, he gets along very well with Turkey, with President Erdogan, who's a great leader. Erdogan is a great leader and very much in favor of what's happening in Syria. We have to make Syria work. Syria is a big part of the Middle East. And I will tell you, I think it is working and really well. We're working also with Israel on, you know, getting along with Syria, getting along with everybody.
And that's working amazingly, as you know, Hamas has given us back numerous bodies. It sounds pretty gruesome, but it's something the parents want more than if their son had been living hard to believe. It's -- I've seen, uh, all of the parents, so many of the parents and getting back the body of their son -- their dead son is as vital to them as important to them as if the boy was -- generally, the boy -- the boy was alive.
And, as you know, over the last four or five days, we've gotten a lot of the additional bodies that they said they were -- they've worked very hard to do that. So, uh, we have peace in the Middle East. It's a great thing, and nobody's ever seen anything quite like it.
After your meeting with the Syrian president today, Mr. President --
[Crosstalk]
-- posted last week about trade talks with Switzerland. We're reporting that you're near a deal that would lower their rate.
With Switzerland?
Yeah.
We're working on a deal to get their tariffs a little bit lower because --
Fifteen percent is what we're hearing. Is that right?
No. I haven't said any number, but we're going to be working on something to help. Switzerland along. We hit Switzerland very hard. We want Switzerland to remain successful and, you know, we're a part of Switzerland in the sense that they've been a very good ally. Uh, yeah, we're working on them and some others and we're working on others to increase them a little bit too.
How close is it to Switzerland?
Switzerland? What do you have something to do with Switzerland? [Laughter]
You must want to buy a watch. He wants a watch.
He wants to buy a nice watch. He's a cheap guy. He wants to buy a nice Rolex, right? We'll give Rolex the publicity because Rolex has been -- they've been very nice, you know? His Rolex has.
[Crosstalk]
-- that's why.
No, look, it's a -- it's a beautiful country. It's a -- it's a small country, but economically very big. So we're working on something. Caitlin?
After your meeting with the Syrian president earlier today, Marjorie Taylor Greene who is a big ally of yours, said that she would rather see you focused on non-stop domestic policy meetings here at the White House instead of nonstop foreign policy meetings. What's your response to her saying that? And also saying that grocery prices are up and not down as you said?
Yeah, so, uh, I don't know what happened to Marjorie. Nice woman, but I don't know what happened. She's lost her way, I think. But, uh, I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally. I mean we could have a world that's on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily. If you had a bad president, we had a horrible president and we ended up with Russia-Ukraine and we ended up with other disasters too.
Don't forget I put out eight wars, nine to come. I think I'll get the other one taken care of. But I put out eight wars and look at the damage that Russia-Ukraine has done to us as a country. I mean we spent $350 billion. We're not spending any money anymore. Now they pay us through NATO. You know, I got NATO to go from 2 percent to 5 percent.
Well, that's very important. When you're president, you really sort of have to watch over the world because you're going to be dragged into it. Otherwise, you're going to be dragged into a world war. I think if I weren't president if -- first of all that war would have never happened if I was president. And if I weren't president that war could have led to World War III.
It won't -- It's not going to anymore, but when I first got in, I said, wow, this situation could lead to World War III and I got NATO together. I got everybody together. But with all of that, I passed a great Big, Beautiful Bill, which is the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. So when somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's now catering to the other side, I don't know what, you know, I guess she's, you know, got some kind of an act on, but I'm surprised at her.
But when somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn't know. I don't devote a lot of my time. Let me give you another example. China. China was going to hit us with rare earth now everybody says what does that mean? Magnets. If China refused to give magnets because they have a monopoly on magnets because they were allowed to happen over a 32-year period, uh, there wouldn't be a car made in the entire world.
There wouldn't be a radio, there wouldn't be a television, there wouldn't be internet. There wouldn't be anything because magnets are such a part. Now, nobody knows what magnets are and not overly sophisticated, but to build a magnet system would take two years. So if I weren't able to say to China, look if you're going to do that to us, we're going to charge you 158 percent tariff, it was 100 percent on top of 58 percent and China called up immediately said we will make peace and we made peace.
We made a great deal. We made an unbelievable deal. China is paying tariffs to the United States, not the United States paying tariffs to China, which has always been the way it was. Nobody can believe these deals. But so when somebody makes a statement about he's devoting time to the world, well, the world is the United States because of the world's in trouble or if the world is ripping us off -- you know, the world was ripping us off before I came here.
Europe was getting massive tariffs. They were sending us nine, 10 million cars a year. We were sending them none. They were not taking our -- our agriculture, we were taking massive amounts of their -- it was so unfair. Now we have a deal where $950 billion is coming into the United States because of me and because of tariffs.
So, if I don't do all these things, our country is doing very poorly. So, you know, it's easy to say, oh, don't worry about the world, but the world is turning out to be our biggest customer. The world is -- the world was on fire and we could have been in that fire very easily if you didn't have a president that knew what he was doing.
Can you guarantee to Americans that travel is going to go back to normal once the government --
-- Travel?
That travel, all the aircraft and --
-- That travel is? It's better than normal, you know why?
When the government reopens [Inaudible]
Yeah, sure, it'll be much better than normal because we're buying the most sophisticated avionics and, you know, technology for our control towers and we didn't have that. We had a guy named Buttigieg, Buttigieg. This is the best way, just say two edges like off the edge of a cliff, which is where they were taking us by the way. [Laughter] Uh, Buttigieg was the secretary of Transportation, and he spent billions of dollars trying to patch together our air control -- our air traffic control system, which was a conglomeration of all different systems in all different cities.
He spent -- they had hundreds of countries where companies working on it and they were spending billions of dollars. And when they turned it on, it didn't work, it didn't even work a little bit. That's why you had a helicopter crashing into an airplane that if we had a great system, bells and whistles would have started going off.
So we are now in the process. We're in final bids of getting the finest system anywhere in the world. I've analyzed it. Sean Duffy has been working really hard on it, doing a fantastic job, by the way. And over the next two or three weeks, we'll be handing out the finest air traffic control system anywhere in the world.
All the towers will be equipped. They were going copper wire into glass wire into other types of wire. And if you knew anything, you know copper wire doesn't work with glass. You know, glass doesn't work with other substances and they spend billions of dollars and when they turn it on, nothing happened, okay.
We're getting the most sophisticated -- all brand new -- all brand new, every control tower will have the same exact system. It'll be the most sophisticated system by far in the world. And what we've done is we've looked around other countries and we've taken the absolute best systems in every different form because there are different -- you have lots of different companies like IBM and Raytheon and a lot of great companies.
They're all bidding. And we're going to pick the best one, and it'll get built relatively quickly and we're going to have the greatest air traffic control system anywhere in the world. Thank you, very much everybody.
Sir, you called air traffic control --
[Crosstalk]
Thank you.
Thanks, guys. Thank you. Let's go. Start moving.