Hello everybody.
Mr. President.
So we have, uh, a lot of things to talk about, but there's not much I can say to you about. So one of those little problems in life. We had some very good results today, as you probably heard in Iran. Um, very strong results, militarily results. But we're talking to countries about policing the straits because they are the ones, you know, we don't get oil, very little, 1%, 2%. And China, as an example, gets about 90% of its oil from the Hormuz Strait.
And, uh, it'd be nice to have other countries' police it with us. And we'll help. We'll work with them. Militarily, we've, as far as I'm concerned, we've essentially defeated Iran. Uh, I guess they can have a little bit of fight back, but not much. Not much. We've taken out their Air Force, as you know. We've taken out their, we've taken out their air defense.
There's no air defense whatsoever. Uh, we've taken out their leadership times two or three, might be three. We'll find out soon. But, uh, militarily it's been amazing. Uh, we attacked Kharg Island and we left just the one little area standing and the standing part is where they have the pipes, all the oil pipes come in. And we can do that on five minutes' notice.
We have it all locked and loaded and ready to go if we wanna do it. But we chose not to do it. I chose not to do it yet. We'll see what happens. They wanna negotiate. They wanna negotiate badly. I don't think they're ready. Just on what I'm hearing, they wanna negotiate badly, as they should. Uh, but I don't think they're ready to do what they have to do. Uh, but I think they will be ready at some point.
But we're doing very well with respect to that whole situation in Iran. We are talking to other countries about working with us on the policing of the strait. And I think we're getting good response. If we do, that's great. And if we don't, that's great too. But remember, uh, like as an example, in many cases they're NATO countries.
We're always there for NATO. We're helping them with Ukraine. As many, it's, it's got a notion in between us. Doesn't affect us, but we've helped them. It'd be interesting to see what country wouldn't help us with a very small endeavor, which is just keeping the strait open. And that, by comparison, uh, is a small, it's small because Iran has very little firepower left.
Uh, their missiles are down to a low number. You see, they, they're shooting very few of them. You know why? Because they don't have very many of them. And because we've decimated their manufacturing capability. Likewise, the drones are way down. They're down to about 20% of what they had. Still have some.
Uh, and they, you know, pretty tough. But, uh, the drones are down and we're hitting, we're starting hitting, as of yesterday, we're hitting places where they manufacture the drones. We think most of which we know where they are. So it's a very strong military operation, just as it was in Venezuela. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world by far, not even a contest.
And I think people understand that. And, uh, we will finish the job.
Mr. President, which countries have said that they will help with policing the Strait of Hormuz?
Well, I can't say yet. It's a little early. They were contacted today and last night. Uh, but, uh, we've had some positive response. We had a few that would rather not get involved.
Is China one of them?
I don't want to tell you about that. I mean, I, I can't really say for sure, but, uh, China's an interesting case study. They get most of their oil, as you know, by, by far. They get a lot, about 90% through the strait. So I've said, "Would you like to come in?" And we'll find out. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. You know, there's some other deeper reasons where they may not.
They should come in, in my opinion. It never made sense for years. If you go back and look at what I've said years ago, I said, "Why are we maintaining the Hormuz Strait when it's really there for China and many other countries? Why aren't they doing it?" And that's because we had weak leadership, to be honest with you.
But I'm bringing it up now, because I think even long term, I think it's something that other countries should help us with.
How many other countries, Mr. President?
[Crosstalk]
And again, remember, there's about seven, talk to about seven.
About seven?
Uh, just, just remember that it's something that we don't need and these countries do need. And yet for years, it's like, uh, for years, we've been maintaining it, doing a great job. And now that the war is y- -- now that they've been diminished in terms of military, their military has been greatly diminished, I think it's a good thing for other countries to come in. Now, it would have been nice as I said to the Prime Minister of the UK, who sort of was reluctant to put his two aircraft carriers into harm's way.
That would be two weeks ago. And as soon as we demolished, essentially, pretty much demolished them, not over yet, but pretty much. We are in great shape, let's put it that way, as everybody knows. He said, "We'd like to send our aircraft carriers." I said, "I don't want them after we win the war. I want them before we start the war." So whether it's, uh, whether we get support or not, but I can say this, and I said it to them, we will remember.
How soon, how soon, sir, would this begin? These-
Well, they'll start immediately, but we'll take a little time to get here. Some of the countries have mine sweepers. That's good. Some of the countries have a certain type of boat that could help us. Uh, some of the countries would be, you know, helpful. Remember, but it only takes a couple of people to screw up the Strait, a couple of terrorists.
You don't need their, their militaries to beat it. But all you need is a few people dropping mines here and there and, you know, you, you louse it up. So, uh, we need, I, I, really I'm demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory. It's, it's the place from which they get their energy and they should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn't even be there at all because we don't need it. We have a lot of oil.
We- -- we're the number one producer anywhere in the world times two, by double, at least double. Now I think it's much higher than that. But we do it. It's almost like we do it for habit. But we also do it for some very good allies that we have in the Middle East.
Sir, you mentioned that Iran wants to make a deal. However, earlier today, we heard their foreign minister say they'd never said they wanted to make a deal and that they'll do whatever they can to defend Iran.
They tell you-
What's your response?
And what they tell the public, you know, I just put out a Truth about their disinformation. I assume most of you saw it. And they use A- -- AI. They said they attacked the USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the largest ships in the world, an aircraft carrier. And they showed pictures of it burning. It was never attacked.
It was never burning. The Wall Street Journal put out a false story that five of our big, beautiful tankers that we feed the planes with, the, we give the planes, uh, the gas, the jet fuel, uh, hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline, that they were all essentially destroyed. They weren't destroyed at all.
In fact, uh, four of them weren't, were not even, I mean, literally were not damaged. And one of them has slight damage and it'll be back in the air soon. But they, if you, if you read The Wall Street Journal, it's like they were totally decimated and destroyed like Iran has been. So they put out pho- -- phony stories.
The kamikaze boats. The kamikaze boats don't exist. They're fake. And you can almost see that when you look at them. It looks like y- -- because if they did exist, we'd hit them just like we hit other boats all over the place. But they don't exist. In fact, some of the people say, "Where are the boats?" Well, well, how come nobody seen the boats?
You know why? 'Cause it's AI generated. It's fake. And I found, I didn't realize this before tha- -- we started, but Iran is known for a lot of fake news and they deal with our fake news. And I, I actually think it's pretty criminal because our media companies who have no credibility whatsoever are putting out information that they know is false.
And it's a very dangerous thing for the country. I think it's, I think they could be in serious jeopardy, frankly.
Mr. President, your PAC put out an, uh, fundraising email a couple of days ago and it's being criticized for using official White House photos of you at the dignified transfer. And the PAC is also promising access to secret-
Well, I was at-
-- briefings.
-- the dignified transfer, unlike a lot of other people.
Do you think it's appropriate email to send? Your critics-
I do.
-- are saying that you're fundraising [Inaudible]
I didn't see it. I mean, somebody puts it out. We have a lot of people working for us, but, uh, there's nobody that's better than the, to the military than me. And all you have to do is look at the election, look at the election results, uh, look at the kind of votes that we get. Look at the poll numbers.
There's nobody that's ever been higher as a president than me with the military.
Okay. Can you give us an update on the, the six dead soldiers?
Who are you with? Who are you with?
ABC News.
The wor- -- one of the worst, most fake, most corrupt or-
Can you give a comment on the dead soldiers?
You know what, ABC News? I think it's maybe the most corrupt news organizations on the planet. I think they're terrible. Okay?
Can you give a comment on the soldier?
I don't want anymore from ABC.
[Inaudible] right here. Um, what, what's Israel-
Much better.
Thank you, sir. Uh, what, what's Israel doing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz?
They're doing, they're working with us. The relationship with Israel, that was other fake news. They were saying, "Oh, did I have an argument with Bibi?" No, we really get along well. And, uh, he would tell you we're leading the whole thing. And I, I don't, they could say it or not say it. It doesn't matter.
The main thing is to get it done. But, uh, my relationship with Bibi Netanyahu's, I would say extraordinary, actually.
[Inaudible] sir. Um, if I, if I can, one more.
Go ahead.
Um, when, when you called for the people of Iran to rise up, overthrow their government-
I did.
-- what, what's going on there? They, they haven't done that as you expected to.
You're dealing with thugs. You're dealing with horrible people. Uh, you're dealing with people that are violent and vicious, and that's the leadership and the people right under them. They're military or they're police. And they've notified everybody and they've put out statements that if you protest, you're going to be shot and killed.
The protestors have no guns. And I know you're a brave person, but I don't think you'd be protesting. And so I think it's very hard for them to protest. I fully understand it. They said, "If you protest, you will be killed." A week ago and two weeks ago, they killed 32,000 protestors, at least. We think the number's much higher than that.
They shot and killed 32,000 protesters who were greatly enthusiastic and wanna see a change because they've destroyed the country. The people that are running it destroyed the country. But think of it. They shot and killed much more than 32,000 people. Now, they put out a notice two days ago that, "We're going to kill, we'll shoot and kill any protestor." And they don't have guns, meaning the protestors.
They have no guns. So I can fully understand why they're not doing it. Oh, one other thing that was, uh, AI generated. They showed about 250,000 people in a square saying how much they love Khamenei. Uh, totally AI generated. It never took place. The media knew it didn't take place, but they built it up like they have great support.
They don't have support. And that whole rally that they had three days ago, four days ago that they said was fake, it was AI generated. AI can be very dangerous. We have to be very careful with it. But the rally, because I was actually surprised to see, because I know how much they, their, the people hate this leadership.
This leadership has destroyed the country. The rally that everybody, including ABC fake news, your new, your network is the worst. But everybody put that rally on, like, "Oh." And even I was surprised. I looked. Uh, it turned out, I found out today it was a totally AI generated, fake news story put out by news organizations in the US and elsewhere.
And honestly, they, they really shouldn't be allowed to do it.
Mr. President, do you have, are there any diplomatic talks going on between the US and Iran at all right now?
Yeah, yeah.
With who?
We, we're talking to 'em.
What are the [Inaudible]?
But I don't think they're ready. But they're getting pretty close.
Mr. President, you mentioned that-
I don't know that I want to make a deal because you know what? First of all, nobody even knows who you're dealing with because most of their leadership has been killed, as you know, right? So I don't even know that we want to make a deal.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, you mentioned that Iran's military-
They want to make it deal badly, yes.
Mr. President, you mentioned that Iran's military has been decimated-
Yeah.
-- economically, in other ways.
Yeah.
Are you ready to officially declare victory against Iran?
No [Inaudible] There's no reason to. I, I think I just say they're decimated, but I would do that.
Mr. President, you-
I think that we've done damage to them, right now, if we left right now, it would take them 10 years at war to rebuild. But I'm still not declaring it over.
Sir-
Our military is incredible. The job they've done is just incredible.
Can you-
And the problem is, the problem is that when you look at fake stories written by you people, written by, uh, and generated by AI, uh, it's incredible. And I just wonder, like, Jeff, do you know that these are fake stories? Did you know that the rally of 250,000 people, the supposed rally was fake? Did you know that?
I saw the reporting line.
But you wrote about it. You talked about it, and you knew it was fake. It was AI generated.
No, I didn't know it was fake, sir.
Ah, s- -- you did. You know it. You know it.
Sir, sometimes [Inaudible]
Anybody, anybody that knew the country knew there's not 250,000 people willing to stand in a circle and say how great Khamenei is, okay?
You talk a lot about, you talk about the military, uh, objectives.
Yeah.
What about political leadership in Iran? What type of leadership needs to be-
We have people. Some are dead. But we have some people that we think would be good. I mean, we'll see about that.
Is that a requirement, sir?
It's something we talk about. See what happens.
Sir, when you talked about selling, can you explain why we're sending 5,000 marines and sailors? Can you explain why you're-
Shh, hey. You're a very obnoxious person. Go ahead. What were you gonna say?
I, I wanted to ask you if you talked about, uh, capping, about selling oil futures, uh, as a way of capping prices, trying to keep prices down at the pump?
The prices are gonna come tumbling down as soon as it's over and it's gonna be over pretty quickly.
Do you have any concerns about the political impacts of this? I mean-
I have to do what's right. You know, political imp- -- sure, everybody has concern. I have to do what's right.
Is there a t-
Uh, I can't say that, you know, gee, I, I don't wanna have any impact on oil prices for three or four weeks, or two months, and we're gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon and blow up the entire place and beyond, right? Because, you know, they're, they were gonna blow up the Middle East. If I didn't terminate the Obama horrible deal, the Iran nuclear deal, it's called, if I didn't terminate that in my first term, they would've already had a nuclear weapon and they would've used it immediately upon getting it. And if I didn't send in the B-2 bombers that bombed the hell out of it and obliterate, and that's what it was, we obliterated that site and stopped all their potential nuclear, if I didn't do that, you would've had Israel and the Middle East hit by nuclear weapons.
And y- -- we wouldn't be talking about this right now.
[Inaudible]
What I did in terminating the Iran nuclear deal, and what I did in, uh, sending of the B-2 bombers who were, it was one of the most incredible attacks anyone's ever seen. Late at night, dark, no moon, and every single bomb went right down those shoots and blew the whole place apart. If I didn't do that, you'd have, you would've had nuclear warfare in the Middle East.
And I think Israel would've been obliterated. I think lots of the Middle East would've been. And you saw that. When they sent thousands of missiles to countries that didn't expect anything, they didn't think they were gonna be involved. And yet, you look at what happened with Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, uh, Qatar.
If you take a look at Qatar, I mean, they, they sorta got along, and all of a sudden they're being barraged by missiles. These people would've used nuclear on the entire Middle East. And that was their plan, take over the whole Middle East. And it failed with the nuclear, and then they had thousands of missiles.
And for the most part, largely, we've now destroyed those missiles. Thank you very much, everybody.
[Crosstalk]
Tell us about Cuba.
Yeah.
That you're talking to Cuba. What do you want to hear from them and what is that risk for that?
Well, I, I, I am holding Cuba. Cuba's a failed nation. Cuba also wants to make a deal. And I think we will pretty soon, or either make a deal, or do whatever we have to do. Uh, we have a lot of great people that happened to vote for Trump, nothing that matters, but we have a lot of great people from Cuba that were violently and viciously thrown out of the country and worse, their families were killed.
And so, we're talking to Cuba, but we're gonna do Iran before Cuba.
And what, what is at risk for Cuba?
You know, people have been waiting 50 years to hear this story with Cuba. And when I left Palm Beach today, there were thousands of people on the road. I'm sure you saw them. And they were from Cuba and from Venezuela, all friendly, all friendly, waving the flag and waving the American flag. They've been waiting 50 years for what's happening with Cuba.
So, I think something will happen with Cuba pretty quickly.
I think when you s- -- when, do you believe that on the Iran school strike, is it looking more likely that it was the US's fault, maybe the Iran school strike that happened on the first day of the war?
We don't know. That's under investigation.
Mr. President, what, what do you want to see in a, um, a deal with Iran to end, end the war? And how does that differ from Israel's objectives?
Um, I, I --
You said the other day, "They might have different objectives."
You know, I think we have similar objectives really, but could be a little bit different. You know, they're there and we're very far away, but I think we probably have pretty similar with Israel. Uh, the relationship has been very good. The militaries are very well coordinated. Ours is the strongest by far in the world, and they have a real good military, you know, really good.
They have a lot of our weapons. They have our planes, they have our missiles, they have our Patriots, they have a lot of our, our weapons. We have the best, we make the best weapons in the world. And now, what we're doing, as you probably saw, we have the Raytheon and all of the Lockheed, all of these companies are now building plants because we don't wanna wait.
Uh, we make the best weapons, but we don't like to have to wait for them. What we do have though is at a very high level, we have unlimited weapons at a medium to high level, and, uh, they're really doing the trick. And we're not using the, they call it the elite weapons, because frankly, they haven't, outside of the original attack, they haven't been necessary.
Sir, last time, you --
But these, these companies, these companies are building, uh, facilities, and they have already started all over the, many of them are building many buildings right now to make sure that we wait two weeks instead of two years for weapons.
And what, what do you s- -- sir, last time you said that we are nowhere near sending ground tram- -- troops to the Middle East. Are we still in that situation?
There's so many people like you about that. I mean, why would I tell you I'm sending or not sending?
Do you w-
I don't talk about a military strategy. Who would talk about, I mean, who would answer a question like that?
Do you have a comment on the six service members who passed last week?
Uh, who else? Uh, you.
What do you want to see in the deal? Because earlier you've said reportedly that the deal wasn't good enough.
Well, well, there will be no nuclear weapons. That's where it starts. And then on top of that, there's plenty of things that we're going to get. Thank you very much.
Any comment about Israel? No. Guys, don't forget --