Hello, everybody.
Hi, Mr. President.
How are you? Very good. Wow, it's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. Any questions?
On Russia, have you made a final decision about what sanctions or tariffs you might impose on Russia, and when that might be?
We're looking at a lot of things. We have big meetings coming up as you know, in Saudi Arabia. That's going to include Russia. It'll be Ukraine. We'll see if we can get something done. I'd like to get something done. A lot of people died this week, as you know, in Ukraine, not only Ukrainians, but Russians.
So I think everybody wants to see it get done. We're going to make a lot of progress, I believe, this week.
Mr. President, [Inaudible] disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine when you --
Who? Who?
President Putin disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine when you're trying to make peace there?
What did he do?
Well, he's attacking Ukraine.
Is he disrespecting me?
Yeah.
Who are you with?
I'm Michael Birnbaum from Washington Post.
You've lost a lot of credibility. Go ahead. What else?
Robert, go ahead.
[Inaudible] Americans have seen their retirement accounts fall in recent days. They're getting very nervous about the tariff conversation.
Oh, I think the tariffs are going to be the greatest thing we've ever done as a country. It's going to make our country rich again. We have many companies, as you know, auto companies are opening up plants now. We've had four or five announced already, but many more are coming and we're basically going to take back the money, a lot of the money that we've given away over many decades.
We've lost our jobs. We've lost our factories. We've lost 90,000 factories since the beginning of NAFTA. It's not that long ago, 90,000 factories. Think of that. And we're going to get them back and they're coming back and they're coming back in records. Look at what happened with the big chip company, the biggest in the world, by far the most powerful chip company in the world from Taiwan.
And they're going in with $200 billion of money and they're going to build something that's going to give us 35, 40 percent of the chip market just in one company. No, it's going to bring it back. And I think it's going to bring us to a level that we've never had before.
[Inaudible] shutdown? Many of your supporters are concerned about conservatives -- your supporters are attacking, Scotus Justice, Amy Coney Barrett. You put her on the bench. They're saying she's DEI hired. Do you regret putting her on the bench?
Look, she's a very good woman. She's very smart. And I don't know about people attacking her. I really don't know. I think she's a very good woman and she's very smart.
Is there going to be a government shutdown at the end of this week?
Could happen. I mean, the democrats want that. They want to destroy the country. So I can't tell you, but it could happen. It shouldn't have happened. And it probably won't. I think the CR is going to get passed. We'll see, but it could happen. You never know. The democrats are out of control. You saw that the other night during the speech, when they wouldn't stand up for two of the young ladies were killed by illegal aliens, one with the cancer, the young man with the cancer and all you want to do is stand up and applaud the man, the boy, the young boy.
And nobody's ever seen anything like that. They're out of control. They've lost their minds.
Mr. President, are you alarmed by escalatory rhetoric from the Chinese response to your tariffs? And are you planning to meet with Xi Jinping about trading?
No. They took that rhetoric back, as you know. They were very tough and I said, whoa, what's that all about? That rhetoric was taken back. You know that, right?
My question to you is --
I mean, but if you know that, why would you ask that question?
Are you planning to meet with Xi Jinping anytime --
Yeah, at some point I will. I have a very good relationship with President Xi, very good and at some point, I'll be meeting with him.
Do you think there's going to be a deal on TikTok?
There could be. We're dealing with four different groups and a lot of people want it and it's up to me. So there could be.
Who are you leaning towards?
All four are good.
Mr. President, [Inaudible] between your cabinet members and Elon Musk. They even had dinner with him last night and Secretary Rubio. However, tensions are high between your cabinet and Mr. Musk. How are you going to simmer down tensions? Does Mr. Musk need to back off?
Well, I don't think the tensions are high. Look, Elon's a very special person and these cabinet people are special people. These are very successful people or they wouldn't have gotten -- they've attained the highest heights of government and I think they have a fantastic relationship to Elon and DOGE has been incredible.
Hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud and abuse has been found, already found. And that doesn't mean they don't have a little bit of an argument here and there about something or maybe personal arguments. There's not too many contract arguments. This is much more than just personnel, and we found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent contracts or very wasteful, but I think fraud.
I think it's fraud.
[Inaudible].
And I actually think -- I think, really, the cabinet, for the most part, I think they get along really well with Elon.
There was just a plane crash [Inaudible] Secretary [Inaudible] big concern is his department is being gutted. He's been dealing with these crashes ever since he was sworn in. Does he have a legitimate concern --
Well, that has nothing to do with the department. That was a small plane and that would have happened whether he had a big department or a small department, as you understand. It's just, they have space like this. You know, they have times when things happen a little bit more often than normal and then it goes back and you go many years without having a problem.
I'll tell you, I think the Southwest pilot did a fantastic job last week when he lifted that plane off the air, because if he put the brakes on, that wouldn't have been good. And I think the license should be maybe revoked for the plane they got, and away from the pilot, revoked for the plane that got in his way.
But the way he immediately stepped on the gas and lifted up as opposed to thinking for about three seconds when it would have been too late. The Southwest pilot or pilots, they did a great job.
Russia, China and Iran are doing military exercises together. Does that concern you?
No, not at all. Not at all.
Why not?
Because we're stronger than all of them. We have more power than all of them. I rebuilt the military. Unfortunately, Biden did nothing with it, but I rebuilt the military. But we don't to even talk about that. I think if you look at what's happening and if you see what we've done and if you see where we've come and let's see what happens with the whole Russia, Ukraine thing.
I think you're going to have, eventually, and maybe not in the distant future, you're going to have some pretty good results coming out of Saudi Arabia this week.
Are you going to resume aid to Ukraine if they sign the minerals deal?
Well, I think they will sign the minerals deal, but I want them to want peace. Right now --
How do they show that? How do they show they want peace?
Well, right now they haven't shown it to the extent that they should. I think right now, they haven't, but I think they will be and I think it's going to become evident over the next two or three days. I think eventually, look, we have to have peace. And I'm doing this -- money is one thing. We spent $350 billion on this, but the big thing, human life.
Thousands of people this week, thousands of young soldiers died this week. Hundreds of people died in cities, in Ukraine, and we got to get it stopped. It would have never happened if I was president and it didn't happen. This was not going to happen -- by the way, October 7th wouldn't have happened. Inflation wouldn't have happened.
The Afghanistan, the way they -- not that they left, but the way that they left. It looked so bad, probably the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. That wouldn't have happened. A lot of things wouldn't have happened, but it is what it is. I think we're going to have a good time. I think we're going to have a good result in Saudi Arabia, meaning they're hosting the various talks and we have a lot of good people going out there.
And I think Ukraine's going to do well and I think Russia's going to do well. I think some very big things could happen this week. I hope so. So 2,000 people, at least 2,000 young soldiers have died this week and this is almost on a constant basis, a couple of thousand soldiers a week. It's a killing field and we got to stop it. And if I can stop it, I'll be very happy.
Would you consider lifting the [Inaudible] pause on Ukraine? What does Ukraine have to do?
Well, we just about have. I mean, we really just about have and we want to do anything we can to get Ukraine to be serious about getting something done. I say they don't have the cards. Nobody really has the cards. Russia doesn't have the cards. They don't have -- what you have to do is you have to make a deal and you have to stop the killing.
It's a senseless war and we're going to get it stopped.
You [Inaudible] Maria Bartiromo --
Where are we? Are we just about --
We're close.
We're just about ready to land.
Are you worried about a recession? Maria Bartiromo asked you and you kind of hesitated.
I'll tell you what, of course you hesitate, who knows? All I know is this, we're going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and we're going to become so rich, you're not going to know where to spend all that money. I'm telling you. You just watch. We're going to have jobs. We're going to have open factories.
It's going to be great and the plane is landing and --
We got to go.
-- thank you for a lot of good questions. OK? Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you, Mr. President.