Thank you very much. We have Jonas Gahr Store here, who is as you know, the Prime minister of Norway, a great gentleman highly respected, beloved in his country. And we've had talks on the war with Ukraine, Russia and trade. We're doing very well, I think, on both. We've had some pretty good movement in every respect.
The war is very important that it ends, with -- I used to say 2,500 people a week dying, young people, mostly soldiers from Russia and Ukraine, and we want to end that war. We want to end it quickly and I think we've made a lot of progress and we'll see what happens. This next few days is going to be very important.
Meetings are taking place right now. Additionally, we talked about trade and we will -- definitely, we get along very well on trade. We'll do something. But I think the prime minister knows that over the years, the United States has been very good to a lot of people and it's time for us to benefit also. So we're going to have a good relationship on trade and we discussed other things also, but Mr. Prime Minister, it's an honor to have you with us. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you Mr. President. This year is 200 years since the first immigration from Norway to the US. We come here early in your term. Appreciate that you take time. We have highlighted that very close cooperation. We are allies, we look after security in the north, in the Arctic, a lot of confidence between our services.
We have discussed in detail, the war in Ukraine. I have saluted the president for his initiative to make progress towards something that can be a ceasefire and an end to this terrible conflict. It is a complex picture, but it needs political will and push and we have exchanged ideas on that. And then I think the president and his team have been open to hear our perspectives.
And on trade, we have also emphasized that we can benefit both of us by trading, and we can be complementary and we can find good solutions. But first of all, I appreciate, Mr. President, the spirit and the tone of this conversation, which has been confirmation of a very strong partnership.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Any questions, please? Yes.
Thank you. First, Mr. President, have you spoken about the tariff that you want to impose on Norway? Is there a chance that you could lower --
We spoke about trade and we understand each other very well. I think we'll have no problem.
Do you think that you will get an agreement with Norway?
I think we'll have no problem whatsoever with Norway.
[Inaudible] possible visit to Norway? Did you two discuss a possible visit with President Trump to Norway?
We didn't, but I love it. I mean, I've been there and it is a beautiful place. They have --
And I told the president that he is receiving us early in the term. He's welcome to visit Norway. We would like to have him, and it will be another way of emphasizing this strong friendship.
Mr. President, Norway has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022. Has something been discussed here today that may have altered your views on things?
No, very simply, I have no allegiance to anybody. I have allegiance to saving lives, and I want to save a lot of lives, a lot of young people, mostly young people. It's the war, it's the soldiers and if we can do that. Also, as you know, I got started because the money that's been spent on this war is insane.
It should have never happened, and it would have never happened if I were president. But Biden spent $350 billion on this and it's a shame. And that's what got me involved. And I see the results, it's horrible. It's a killing field, 5,000 soldiers a week on average and we want to stop that. We both want to stop that for a lot of reasons, but I would say that is my number one reason.
[Inaudible] Russia, that you will get Russia to accept a deal that also Ukraine and Europe is willing to?
I think so, yeah. I do. I believe they will accept. And I think we're going to get this over with, I hope so, soon.
You continue to lack support from NATO allies and your goal of obtaining Greenland. How will you proceed if you don't get that support?
Well, Greenland is going to be interesting, but that's for another day. I think we need that for international peace and if you don't have that, I think it's a big threat to our world. So I think Greenland is very important for international peace. Yeah, please, go ahead.
Mr. President this morning in a truth social post, you used the words Vladimir, stop. That seemed like a slightly different message, a personal message. What is your level of frustration with President Putin at this point?
I didn't like last night. I wasn't happy with it. And we're in the midst of talking peace and missiles were fired, and I was not happy with it. That's what I meant and that's what I said. I assume that's what you mean. Yeah? I assume that's what you mean.
If the bombs keep falling, will you consider additional sanctions toward Russia, or what will you do if President Putin does not respond?
I'd rather answer that question in a week. I want to see if we can have a deal. No reason to answer it now, but I won't be happy. Let me put it that way. Things will happen.
Mr. President, why are you not putting more pressure on Russia? I know a lot of Europeans [Inaudible]
Putting a lot of pressure. You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia. They're dealing. You have no idea what pressure I'm putting on Russia. We're putting a lot of pressure.
Can you maybe tell us, then? What kind of pressure on you putting on --
We're putting a lot of pressure on Russia and Russia knows that and some people that are close to it know or he wouldn't be talking right now. The prime minister understands that better than anybody. He wouldn't be talking right now. He's talking and we're putting a lot of pressure. I think he wants to make a deal.
We're going to find out very soon, but it takes two to tango and you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal too and they're being hit very hard. And I do believe they want to make a deal.
Mr. Prime Minister, if I may? You've said that the Ukraine have to give some territory to win peace, among them, Crimea. Do you stand by that? And I know that former NATO general secretary today has told you that he does not agree and he believes the territorial integrity of the Ukraine. How will you deal with that with your allies and do you stand by that Ukraine have to give --
Former secretary general happens to be right here, so they can't put words in his mouth. He's been a great general, frankly, because that's what you are, really, you're a general, but he's been a great secretary general. We had a tremendous relationship, very successful and I think he could speak for himself.
He's right here.
But do you still agree that Ukraine had to give some territory away to win peace?
Well, it depends what territory. They've been fighting. They've lost a lot of territory and we'll do the best we can. Working with Ukraine, we'll do the best we can, but they lost a lot of territory. When you say Crimea, that was handed over during a president named Barack Hussein Obama. That had nothing to do with me, Crimea.
That was 11 years ago with Obama and they made a decision. There wasn't a bullet fire. There was no fighting. There was no anything. They just handed it over. Now they say, well, can you get it back? I think that's going to be a very difficult thing to do. That was given by uh Barack Obama when he was president, not by Donald Trump.
Thank you, Mr. President. [Inaudible] proposal that you put on the table, it's a 30-day ceasefire proposal. Your national security team presented it to both Ukraine and Russia. Two months ago, Ukraine agreed to that ceasefire proposal immediately. Russia has not. And my question is, is Russia the obstacle to peace based upon that, just getting to that 30-day ceasefire.
I don't think so. I think that they both want peace right now. They're ready to do something. We'll see what happens. Complicated, very complicated, but I think they are both very much looking to make a deal. Marco, what would you say?
Well, first of all, what was put before our partners was options to discuss about things that it would take to end a war. This war is ended, both sides just have to agree to it. We've shown them a pathway forward. We've discussed those ideas. It was a good meeting yesterday. There'll be good meetings over the weekend.
We've shown them the finish line. We need both of them to say yes. But what happened last night with those missile strikes should remind everybody of why this war needs to end. It's horrible those missiles landed; what's even worse is there are today people that were alive yesterday that are not alive today because this war continues, and the president wants to stop it. And everyone should be thanking the president for being a peacemaker and trying to save lives.
That's what we're trying to do here. It's not our war, we didn't start it, as you know. But we're trying to end the dying. We're trying to end the destruction. And we've shown the path forward, we can see the finish line but both of them have to get there. And we're going to do everything we can to help them get there.
But they have to ultimately say yes, both of them.
We are using a lot of pressure on both. You know, if you think we're just in there because we're nice people, and we are nice people, but we're using a lot of pressure on both.
What concessions, Mr. President? And to your national security team, what concessions has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you're closer to peace?
Stopping the war, stopping, taking the whole country, pretty big concession.
Mr. President, if you are going to take down the tariffs, what do you want Norway to buy more of from the US?
To buy more? Well, you don't need snow [Laughter], you don't need skis, you don't need ski champions either, right? You have a lot of them. We just want to keep the relationship the way it is. We've had a great relationship. I think now maybe closer than ever. But we've had a great relationship with Norway.
I think just keep it the way it is. You can't do better.
Really? Not even by, say --
[Crosstalk]
Well, if they want to give us some additional concessions that's OK. You can't do much better. Yes. Yes.
Mr. President, you had a long meeting with Norway today. You said that Norway is doing a lot of things right. But on the Ukraine, if I can ask both you and the prime minister, did you find common ground today on Ukraine and the peace plan?
Totally, it's totally common ground. The prime minister can speak about it, but I can just say he wants to see people stop dying more than anything else and he'd like to see it end. He's going to help us end it.
Mr. President --
[Crosstalk]
Can I say that to move towards an end of this war, US engagement is critical. And President Trump made that possible. That is clear. That is obvious. It's really happening. Now the important thing is that both parties have to know that they have to deliver, and they have to feel the pressure to deliver. Ukraine is under attack; they are defending themselves.
Lives are being lost, and we believe very firmly that there needs to be a ceasefire, the initiative taken by the US some time ago needs to be respected. And then to move on to something which both parties can own. That is the complicated part in such a dramatic war. And here I believe Europeans and Americans working together, as we do much closer now, and I salute the team of President Trump of being -- you know, opening that process.
We had a good discussion on this today, and then we have to move on and we cannot lose time because this is too much drama happening. One thing is people losing their lives, but it is a bad thing for Europe and it's a bad thing for the world to have such a broad conflict going on. It can have ramifications far beyond Ukraine.
Mr. President, a follow-up question on China. Mr. President, if -- I forgot my question. I wanted to ask about -- it happens sometimes. Yeah. No, Mr. President, I wanted to ask about the -- well, actually Zelenskyy has said that he wants more Patriot missiles. So far there has been no response from the United States.
If you and the United States decides to pull out of negotiating for peace, trying to broker peace, does that also mean a no on Patriot missiles, a no on sharing intelligence with Ukraine?
Let's see what happens. I think we're going to make a deal. And if we make a deal that'll be wonderful, we won't have to worry about your question. You can ask that question in two weeks, and we'll see, but I think we're getting very close. The prime minister feels the same way and we'll hopefully not have to answer that question.
Mr. President, Norway is the third country to be officially invited to the White House after Liberation Day. Why did you invite Norway so soon to the White House?
Because I like them [Laughter], and I like your prime minister, and I like the way your government runs. And I respect the king. He's highly respected in Norway, it's a great thing, not an easy thing to do. He's done it. He's done a great job. Yeah.
Would you like an invitation to visit the king?
Absolutely. You get me that invitation.
I just told the president, he's welcome to visit Norway.
Mr. President --
[Crosstalk]
-- you've said before that you like the Norwegian Petroleum Fund and I'm wondering if that has been up for discussion today, the way that [Inaudible] our [Inaudible] whether or not --
Well, this fund was created in the late 1990s to save for future generations the income from our oil and gas. Norwegians should continue to work as hard, dedicated, innovate and move forward despite having these incomes, which we happen to be in the period of our history where we can harvest. And we have transferred that into investments, half of them, by the way, here in the United States.
So, I think this is a model which we have been able to explore if we can share experiences, and we do with our colleagues in the US. You never copy this 1 to 1, but there can be techniques and a way of working that we have used in organizing our front. Jens Stoltenberg was the finance minister when the first dollar entered that fund, so he is a safe hand to have as a finance minister today.
What do you say?
No, and as you said, Mr. Prime Minister, we are ready to sit down with the US to also work with them on if they want to establish a sovereign wealth fund because we have very good experience with our fund. And I think that one example of how we work together with United States is that half of the fund, close to US$1 trillion are invested in the United States, mainly in equity, but also some in fixed income including government bonds.
So, this is an expression of trust in the United States expressed by the strong investment of the sovereign wealth fund. Just briefly on Ukraine, since it was mentioned, we had a very good and extensive discussion about Ukraine, the path forward to peace. And as the prime minister said, we commend the US for pushing forward to try to find a negotiated solution.
At the same time, we need to continue to support Ukraine, and therefore I'm proud that Norway has actually tripled the military support to Ukraine. And this year, we will allocate close to US$8 billion to Ukraine; that will strengthen them and also their hand on the negotiating table.
And we add to that, if there is a peace, and there will be a peace, we have a common responsibility in securing democratic Ukraine for the future. And the best security guarantee they can have is the ability to defend themselves. And we are investing in that.
Mr. Prime Minister --
[Crosstalk]
If I may, as it relates to tariffs, Mr. President, when you unveiled your reciprocal tariffs on April 2nd, the tariff rate for Norway was 15 percent. Based upon your conversations that you've had today with the prime minister; do you see that tariff rate coming down from what you proposed just a few weeks ago?
Well, they have a great fund of $2 trillion, it's a big fund, and they don't have any debt. So, I think they'd probably be willing to pay us more than that, I hope.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, in 2018, your former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, called for an end to Russian occupation of Crimea. Why does this administration -- why has this administration changed its stance on territorial concessions with them?
Well, the war started. It would have never started if I were president. This is a war that is a horrible -- a horrible -- all wars are horrible. This one is, in particular, bad. And I don't know that you can ever say there's going to be a winner to this because so many lives have been lost, not only soldiers.
I mean, a lot of lives have been lost. I think that we want to do one very simple thing. It would have never happened if I were president, zero chance it was going to and it didn't. You know, people say how do you know that? Number one, it didn't happen. We never even discussed it. I would talk to Putin about it, it was the apple of his eye.
You know, Ukraine was the apple of Putin's eye, but we never -- there was never even a thought that he'd go in and I think he understood that I would not be happy if he did. And it was only when I got out -- and you know, when you mentioned what happened to Ukraine, years ago under President Obama and a vice president that was also president later, unfortunately for this country, what happened is large chunks of land were given up and it was called Crimea and that was a big thing.
That was a big moment. But this is in my war, this is Biden's war. This is a war that Biden was president when this war happened. But I'm trying to put out the fire and I think we'll be successful. And if we do, we're going to save a lot of lives, otherwise, and the prime minister had a statement, he said, This is just a point in time.
We're very lucky because this is a point, and if this doesn't happen, this could go on for a long time.
Mr. President, will you have meetings with other world leaders when you're in Rome, sir? [Inaudible] future Democrat president?
I don't think he will. I think he wants to make peace. I think he wants to end it, and I feel pretty confident of that, but we're going to know pretty soon.
Will you have meetings with other world leaders when you're in Rome?
Yes, I will.
Which leaders do you want to meet, sir?
Well, I'd like to meet them all. That would be nice. I'd like to take care of all of them, but we have many of them there and they all want to meet. They want to meet about trade. And we are making some great inroads and great deals. You might want to speak about that, Mr. Secretary.
We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of South Korea today. We may be moving faster than I thought and we will be talking technical terms as early as next week, as we reach an agreement on understanding as soon as next week. So South Koreans came early. They came with their A game and we will see if they follow through on that.
Do you think you deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if you manage to --
Do I deserve the Nobel Prize? Well, maybe for the Abraham Accords. I don't want to get ahead of myself on this one, but they say for the Abraham Accords. And by the way, speaking of that, we're going to be filling it up. A lot of countries want to come into the Abraham Accords. You know we have four, and Biden did nothing on that one too.
It's the same four, but they're great countries and they were brave doing it and it's worked out very well. And we're going to be filling up the Abraham Accords. They're going to be, I think, filling it up very rapidly. Marco, could you say something about that?
There's great, enormous opportunity to grow the Abraham Accords, but I would just point to one thing, of all the leaders in the world today, no leader is working harder to prevent wars or end them than President Trump is right now. That's why we're talking to Iran. That's why we're engaged with Ukraine and Russia.
It's the desire to prevent these wars from breaking out and to end the ones that exist already. And again, I just think it's tremendous for our country to be led by a president who desires to bring peace and establish peace and protect peace. So it's hard work.
You know, Marco just mentioned something that maybe we should talk about for just a second if we could, Mr. Prime Minister, and you're involved in it too because you've been involved in the world and peace. But I think we're doing very well with respect to Iran and we're having very serious meetings. And there are only two options.
And the one option is not a good option. It's not a good option at all. And I think we're doing very well on an agreement with Iran. But that one -- we're doing a lot of things, I will say, but that one is well on its way. We could have a very, very good decision and a lot of lives will be saved.
Mr. President, on --
Yeah, please.
On the economy, there was a slowdown as it relates to home sales in the month of March, the slowest pace since 2009. Is that an economic indicator? And perhaps the treasury secretary can weigh in on this as well. Is that an economic indicator that concerns you about the broader US economy?
No, they had very good numbers on housing today, extremely good numbers. And that's despite interest rates, because if you look at what happened, everyone said, oh, I said I was going to get prices down. I did. Energy just hit $1.98 in a couple of states. It's way down. Energy is down and we're about $64 a barrel.
When I came in and we were looking at $89, $90, $95. And by the way, that helps us solve the war too, having those energy prices is a big incentive for Russia to also agree with solving the war problem. Groceries are down. When I was with you two months ago, you were complaining about eggs. I said, I just got here.
I was here for about a week when the press started saying about eggs have gone through the roof. I said, I just got here, tell me about eggs and they have been. They went through the roof and you couldn't get them. So we just had a big Easter egg hunt at the White House, thousands and thousands of eggs and the price was down 87 percent, so we did a great job.
Housing is doing very well. We should lower interest rates, that's the fed, I hope they lower interest rates. That's the smart thing to do, be ahead a little bit, although already it's a little bit late. But in the end, we just have a great country. We have a very strong country and we have -- every other country, I can't think of one country that doesn't want to negotiate a deal and they either negotiate a deal or we set a deal that we think is fair, because we don't have to go through all of these.
It would be physically impossible. You have so many people that really understand it, which is a very small group of people here and we are going to, at some point, just set prices for deals. Some will be tariffed. Some treated us very unfairly. They'll be tariffed higher than others, but we've been ripped off for many, many years.
The United States has been ripped off like no country, probably in the history of the world has been ripped off, for 45, 50 years. And countries have gone rich by doing that with the United States. We've taken care of their militaries. And military is another subject we talk about. We're not going to make that subject to any of the deals.
But you know the same countries that I do, where we virtually take care of their military and then don't get treated fairly on trade. So the people -- and I don't blame those countries. I blame the people that sat at that beautiful desk right behind you, because those people didn't do the job for this country and they let us lose $4 billion a day on trade.
We were losing $4 billion or $5 billion a day on trade when I got here and now we're going to be much better than breaking even and we're going to be making $4 billion or $5 billion a day on trade. I don't blame any country, not the worst. I mean, we were abused by countries. I blame the president of the United States that happened to be sitting when these deals were made, disgraceful. When I was here, we had a great four years. We had the most successful economy in the history of our country, my first term, and we were very tough on trade. And with China, as you know, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, but nobody else ever did that. China paid not $0.10 to any other president. And they, but not only China, virtually every country got away with murder and we just can't let that happen. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.