Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Air Force One Departure - July 1, 2026

So, this will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built. I said to Boeing, what's the best one? They said this is the best plane ever built, and you're going to have the privilege of flying it. And I have a privilege also of flying it, but this is the first flight.

We're going to the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library opening, and that'll be very good, that'll be a lot of fun. But I think, to be honest with you, I'm excited about the first flight. It's something -- nobody's ever seen anything like it. Even you people with all your experience and all of your talent, you will never see anything like this.

So, they just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on, very complex stuff, but it's really quite something. And this is a plane that the United States of America should have. Our Air Force One was 35, 36 years old, and it would be parked next to the new ones like this.

And it really didn't look appropriate for our country. So, we're very proud of this; the country is very proud of it. And you can do two things: you can low key it or you can show it. And I think the country should be very proud of it and it's beautiful, and you'll see that in a little while when you board.

As far as things are going, the denuclearization of Iran is moving along well. They've had very good meetings, and we'll see. We hit them very hard for three nights, as you know, but we're getting along very well. So, I call it denuclearization and it's all taking place, it's all going well. The stock market is setting records virtually every day.

The oil price is way down. We're down at $68, I see it hit $68 today. That's lower than when I started the -- I guess you could call it an attack on Iran so that they'd never have a nuclear weapon. So, the oil price is now lower, the retail prices, the gasoline is coming down rapidly. And if you have any questions, let's go.

Mr. President, what's your favorite upgrade to the new plane and how much did it cost American taxpayers to upgrade the plane?

Well, it cost very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way. So, this was a gift from a country that's treated us very well, and they're an ally of us over in the Middle East, Qatar. And I went to Boeing; I said who has the best one. They said Qatar, there's never been a plane like it. Frankly, we couldn't build a plane like this because we wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money necessary.

They spent top dollar. So, the head of Boeing said this is considered the best 747 they've ever built. And I went to Qatar; I said, I'd like to use it for a period of time because the other ones, as you know, are under construction, they'll be here in two years and because the plane is 35 years old. So, I said I'd like to use it. And the emir, Tamim, who's a great gentleman, he said, no, no, I'd like to make a contribution to the country.

So, it was very nice, and we were able to do it in about five months, you know, bring it up to the presidential standard, meaning security wise. And you're going to get a kick out of it. There's just nothing like it.

Mr. President, [Inaudible] disclosures show that you had a very lucrative year last year. What message does this send to average Americans, especially those who maybe --

[Crosstalk]

Well, you know, I don't get involved in my personal -- we have funds that run my money.

But you are benefiting.

Well, I made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money and I don't talk to them. I never -- I don't even speak to them. So, I have many people, I don't know what they call it, closed accounts or something. You put your money in and that's it. I don't talk to them; they're big institutions and they run it. But yeah, I've had a great career -- in business I've had a great career.

[Inaudible]

I don't know if I've had a better career in politics or business, but I had a great career in business. And you saw the cash and you reported the different things. And what they do is we gave it, I think it's called a blind account, but they -- basically they take it. And I purposely -- I never speak to any of the people that run the money, but they're in big institutions and they invest in whatever they invest.

[Inaudible] critics who say you're profiting off the presidency.

Well, you know why I'm profiting? Because the stock market's going up; everybody's profiting. Do you have a 401(k)? How's your 401(k) done? It's about -- up 85 percent. Thank you, President Trump. So, we're all profiting. I'm profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash. And I give it to institutions.

I don't know if they know what they're doing or not, but they buy a vast array of things.

[Inaudible] meeting with Secretary Hegseth and General Caine about potentially returning to an all-out war with Iran seeing you've been unhappy with Iran's adherence to the MoU?

Well, I think they've come a long way. We hit them very hard last week. I think they're fine. I think we're going to -- it's the denuclearization of Iran, it's very simple. And Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, otherwise all of this stuff that we look at, all of these things that we do, the country has never had activity like it's got right now.

So, we're building more factories and car plants and other things. We went for years without ever building one car plant, now we're building many car plants. We're building AI, we're building all over the country. $19.1 trillion being invested. The record was like $2 trillion and we've got $19.1 trillion.

And it's going to continue. And when those buildings open, you're going to see something like the country has never seen before. That's why the stock market's going up every day. That's why your 401(k) -- because everybody benefits. When the stock market goes up everybody benefits; more jobs, more everything, and we're creating more jobs.

We have more people working today than have ever worked in the history of our country, it's great. And that's before these places open. They'll be opening up over the next year and we have them coming into Taiwan. We have -- from Taiwan we have more chip makers and the biggest -- the biggest company in the world, actually the chip maker.

But they're coming in, they're building in Arizona, and they just announced they're going to double the size. We could have 50 percent of the chip market by the time I leave office. You know what we had now? Nothing. And then I got as a gift, another gift -- I said to Intel, give the United States -- they needed something, they needed some help, the chip maker.

I said, give the United States of America -- I'll do it for you but give the United States of America 10 percent of your company. He said you have a deal. He said it so fast I said, I should have asked for more. But he said you have a deal, and that stake is now worth $80 billion. I made $80 billion for the country in eight months.

Does anybody talk about it? No. Have a good time, have a good flight, enjoy the plane.

Real quick question. You've got DNI Pulte over there as the new director. We also know you have the task force set up on declassification maybe looking -- talking about international, maybe looking at some declassification. Are you able to give us an update on that?

We classify almost everything. And you know, by the way, we have Jay Clayton is going in. You know, Bill Pulte is a very talented guy, but he's just there temporarily until Jay Clayton. And Jay Clayton is going through the process. And Jay Clayton, highly respected, and so is Bill Pulte. But Bill is there just for a fairly short period of time.

But while he's there, I said you can declassify whatever you want.

Do you think you're going to get done soon?

I told him he could do it as fast -- you've got to ask him. But I think he's a friend of yours. I think that Bill will declassify. I told him you can declassify whatever you want. So, Bill is there just for maybe a month or two months or something. And Jay is going through the process; he's got a hearing in two weeks.

Highly respected man, Jay Clayton. OK? Thank you. Did you get any more Pulitzer Prizes? You know why a Pulitzer Prize? A picture of the plane. Margo, are you taking care of everybody? How's Margo? OK? Thank you, everybody.