Remarks: Donald Trump Announces Plans to Expand U.S. Nuclear Power Capacity - July 24, 2026

Thank you very much. This is going to be very interesting because, uh, we're going to be talking about nuclear. It's a wave of the future, and we have the most brilliant people in the world standing behind me that were big into the world of nuclear. Like my uncle was at MIT. My uncle was very big into nuclear for 41 years at MIT, but they've advanced somewhat since those days, I think.

I hope. So today we're celebrating a historic milestone for civilian nuclear energy and the incredible renaissance of nuclear power in America. Uh, I want to thank Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. The fantastic -- two incredible people. Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios.

Director of the National Energy Dominance Council Jarrod Agen, US Chief Technology Officer Ethan Klein and Director of Idaho National Laboratory John Wagner. Thank you very much for being here, everybody. It's a big day. I also want to recognize and congratulate CEO of Antares Nuclear, Jordan Bramble, CEO of Valar Atomics Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Deployable, not deplorable.

Remember? [Laughter] Remember Hillary, deplorable. [Laughter] Hopefully your company is going to work out a little bit better. [Laughter]

Thank you, sir.

Good luck. Deployable Energy Bobby Gallagher and CEO of Alo Atomics, Matt Loszak. Thank you all for being with us. Last year, I signed four historic executive orders to reignite a wave of progress in America's nuclear power production and promote this abundant, affordable, unlimited supply of energy for the American people.

As part of this effort, I directed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to establish a pilot program for advanced reactors and see at least three cutting edge reactors started up safely by the 4th of July. And what we've done has been pretty much of a miracle.

Most believed it was impossible but I am delighted to say that four companies have succeeded in meeting that deadline for the greatest in the world at this subject. So, these are the first new privately funded advanced reactors to turn on the United States in over four decades. And making sure that these groundbreaking designs were safe to build and test so quickly was a challenge that required a historic partnership between these innovative companies and our administration.

We have brilliant nuclear people -- we have a lot of brilliant people, but we have brilliant nuclear people on our staff. In the past, it often took six years or more to approve a reactor design, if they were ever approved at all. Most of them didn't get approved, and maybe rightfully so. But now America is building again.

America is dreaming again, and we're leading the world in pioneering the next generation of nuclear power and there's nobody even close. We've taken a lead over the last two years that has been, I hope, insurmountable; we'll see. But let me ask Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, who's been absolutely fantastic in the administration, to say a few words, followed by a few other people.

Let's see, Chris Wright will go and Jordan Bramble and Isaiah Taylor, then Bobby Gallagher and Matt Loszak and if you could, don't spend too much time. [Laughter] That's a lot of people. But go ahead and do you want to start it off, Chris, please?

We have Michael Kratsios first.

Sure, go ahead, Michael.

Mr. President, you signed an executive -- four executive orders last year, and you set one of the most ambitious goals in civil nuclear history to essentially have three reactors go critical by the 4th of July. This is an accomplishment that many thought would not be possible. The last time that a privately funded new reactor design went critical was in 1974. So, it was over 50 years ago, and we were able to achieve that and surpass it by having four and these are the great four American companies that got it done.

Great. Go ahead, please.

In the last 30 or 40 years, the American nuclear industry has been quiescent. Most of the reactors built around the world have been built by Russia and China, both in their countries and abroad. President Trump said, enough of that, America is going to be back as the leader in the nuclear space in large reactors and in next generation small reactors.

He set a bold goal; it's been exceeded and I'm incredibly proud to be standing here with these fabulous entrepreneurs next to me.

And brilliant science people, too, brilliant. Please, go ahead.

Mr. President, thank you so much for your leadership. It was really your executive orders that catalyzed this nuclear renaissance. When they first came out, people scoffed at them, they said it couldn't be done. And now there's not only three companies, but four companies here that really met the moment.

Us at Antares, we look forward to being a resilient energy source for Golden Dome, to power high-powered assets in space and eventually undersea autonomy. So, this is a strategic technology for our nation and what we look forward to doing is putting reactors on our military installations before 2028.

That's great. Great job you're doing.

Thank you, sir.

OK, please, go ahead.

And, Mr. President, thank you so much for your leadership in this moment. I think that the United States has been a leader in nuclear energy since the very beginning. We were the first ever to turn on an advanced reactor in the world. We were also the first to turn on any type of nuclear reactor in the world.

But over the last 30 years, we became more interested in PowerPoint than in power plants and it's your leadership that is changing that. The executive orders that were signed last year, I think if you look forward in 50 to 100 years, when we have nuclear power of every kind, that's allowing us to make steel again, to make aluminum again, to actually be able to go to outer space and all the places that humanity wants to go, you could trace it back to the executive orders that started last year.

So, we're honored to serve our country and be a part of this and thank you again for your leadership.

Thank you. Great job. Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks for setting such an audacious, bold goal. As some of the other CEOs have said, most people thought this was impossible. But the American spirit was unlocked through your vision and through the Department of Energy and the secretary and through the INL and John's team. We couldn't be more proud to be part of this moment.

I do think this is going to be historic. I do think people are going to look back and believe that this is when the tide turned on nuclear and how we unlocked cheap and abundant energy.

Thank you. That's a great job you're doing, too, by the way.

Thank you, sir.

Anybody else like to say anything? Please.

We cut it close, but we went critical at 12:20 a.m. on the 4th of July.

Wow.

So, thank you again so much for setting these executive orders. Like everyone else said, we would not be here without those executive orders, so thank you so much. And what it's unlocking for us is this year, we are going to be raising $1 billion, moving into 1 million square foot facility. And our target market is data centers.

So, we're making the ideal nuclear product to power the data centers with bring your own power, that's our whole goal. So, thank you once again for unlocking this and we really, really cannot be here without you.

That's great. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Have anything to say?

Sure. No, I would just say, I mean, this is exactly why you created the Energy Dominance Council, that you wanted to unlock new forms of energy. People ask us all the time about green energy, and I say, if you want to invest in green energy, invest in nuclear. That's the kind of energy that's going to solve the energy demand that's out there.

And that's baseload energy that's going to solve our solutions and that's the energy of the future.

Sure, thank you.

I would just add we invented nuclear power in this country. Idaho National Laboratory first demonstrated nuclear power in 1951. After that, 52 different reactors were designed and tested there. But it's been -- prior to the last couple of months with these gentlemen, it has been more than 50 years since we had a new reactor go critical on our soil.

And I have to say that in all my years, and I've been around for a while, I've never seen government, private industry and the laboratories working together this effectively, and it's all driven by the bold goals in your executive orders. So, thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. Congratulations. So, first of all, maybe you have some questions for the people behind me? Please, go ahead.

Hi, Mr. President. I want to ask about the Saudi nuclear deal. This man over your shoulder announces a big deal after 18 months of negotiating with the Saudis; seems like it's all done, it's signed. And then you come out, throw some new conditions on top of it, the whole thing blows up. So, did he get out ahead of you or what happened there?

No, nobody got out ahead. I mean, I'd just say that in order to do it, they have to be a member of the Abraham Accords, which have been very successful. But it's time now that they do it. They and others didn't want to do it because of the problem that they had with Iran. You don't have that problem anymore.

You don't have a great power there anymore. You have a problem but the problem is disappearing day by day. They were the bully of the Middle East; they were not going to be that much of a bully anymore. They'll probably, I think, instinctively want to be, but you don't have the same problem that you would have had four or five months ago before they had no Navy, no military, no anti-aircraft, no leaders.

I mean, their leaders are gone, a lot of things have changed with respect to that country. So, no, we want them to -- it's a two-way street, and we think it's very important for the future of the Middle East. The Abraham Accords have been incredibly successful for the countries -- as you know, for the countries in them.

And I think it's very important. So, at some point they'll join, they'll join and they'll do their civil -- I call it civil nuclear but that's what it is, there's no enrichment, it's civil nuclear.

My question about Iran, you're talking about blowing up civilian power plants and bridges. Much of the civilized world would consider that a war crime. Do you?

I won't respond to that question. Who are you with?

The New York Times.

I figured so -- the failing New York Times. Yeah, please.

[Inaudible] I just came back from Venezuela, and people there are very happy with you, with Secretary Marco Rubio, with Secretary Wright.

I have good poll numbers in Venezuela, it's pretty amazing. [Laughter]

I know some new plants [Inaudible] around there. And they are amazing I want to give you a thank you. I want to ask you one question because some people there, they are asking with that, when will there be elections? Do you have a date in mind? Senator Bernie Moreno, said that July 24th, 2027, could be a good day in honor of Simon Bolivar.

And my second question is the football player who scored Spain's goal in the final at World Cup, Ferran Torres, celebrated the victory wearing a Make Spain Great Again cap. The communists are attacking him because they say that it's a friend of you and also, they are attacking Argentinian players because of Milei.

What do you think about that?

Well, he's a great player and he was wearing essentially a Make America Great Again cap, so it was a nice tribute, and I think he meant that very nicely and we appreciate it. We have; we've made America great. We have the greatest country in the world now. I will say this, we were -- a year and a half ago, two years ago, this country was in deep trouble.

We had borders that were a disaster, we had everything you could possibly have, including men playing in women's sports. Even the Supreme Court's taking care of most of that problem. But we had a country that was in big trouble; it was being laughed at all over the world. We have the hottest country -- this is the hottest country anywhere in the world.

So, I saw him wearing the essentially Make America Great Again hat, and I know that he meant it as a very great compliment, and we appreciate it. As far as the elections in Venezuela, they're not really ready for them yet but, boy, a lot of progress has been made. Delcy's been doing a fantastic job, as you know.

The amount of-- the amount of oil coming out of Venezuela right now, even before the big companies, you know, Exxon, all the big companies are looking at it they're going there. And it's very fertile territory. But the amount of money being made by Venezuela now is more than they've ever made before. And we're taking a lot also for our, you know, for our efforts.

Uh, and the money is being sent, and the oil is being sent to Houston and Louisiana to be refined. And we paid for the war many times over. It's been an amazing fact. And as you say, you know, I'm very popular in Venezuela because we're bringing tremendous, uh, economics back to the country. And they were absolutely dying.

They were in such trouble. And now Venezuela is becoming extremely successful. Uh, they're taking in billions of dollars, selling millions and millions of barrels of oil, and we're getting some and they're getting some, and everybody's making a lot. And it was dead before we got there. So it's been -- it's been an incredible relationship.

They're not ready yet for the elections, but at some point they will be and we're going to be standing around -- right on top of it.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President -- Mr. President --

And say hello, say hello. They -- I've known them -- for a long time I've known that country. And you know, I own the Miss Universe Pageant, and Miss Venezuela always did very well in that pageant. [Laughter] So I know something about the country, but I've -- I've known it for a long time. They're great people.

Say hello. Okay.

Mr. President? Mr. President?

Peter?

About Iran, what is the exit strategy?

Well, I think there's a lot of them. There's a military exit where we just keep going just the way we are, and we can even make it a heavier dose. And it's knocking out everything they have. Or there's a smarter strategy that you make a deal. And they want to make a deal. I just don't think they're ready yet.

But they do want to make a deal. Uh, sometimes they don't want to say they want to make a deal. They want to be the tough guys. But they do want to make a deal. There's two ways. I mean, it's uh, you can just, uh, keep doing exactly what we're doing and take them apart piece by piece. We can do it at a more rapid fashion, which we might do. Or we can negotiate with them, which we're also doing right now.

I mean, as we speak, we're talking to them.

And you said today that Russia and China are not helping. Earlier this week, the War Secretary Hegseth said that they are enabling. So what is the difference?

Well, I don't know that they're enabling. I mean, I will tell you that President Xi said he will not partake, and President Putin said the same thing. I think, you know, I trust them. Uh, do they -- they've had a long term relationship. There could be some things they do. But, uh, thus far, at least, it has not been major.

I don't think they'd want to have me disappointed.

[Crosstalk]

And just a different story, not Iran. Um, there's this nasty parasite that is giving people in nine states explosive diarrhea. When is it going to be safe to eat lettuce again?

I don't know. I haven't thought about it. It's the first time I've been asked that question. Are you eating lettuce recently? [Laughter]

I should always have more lettuce.

Because he, if you are, get the hell out of here Peter. [Laughter] No, it's a very interesting question from you. I didn't think you'd ask that kind of a question for you. Nobody wants to ask that question, but it's very interesting. [Laughter]

Well, it --

Well it's exciting. [Laughter]

There's this -- there's this food coming in, I guess, from Mexico. It's tainted. It's making a lot of people sick. That is the CDC's terminology that I was using.

I think -- I think what we're going to do is we're going to put a major tariff on taxing on Mexico because of the lettuce. [Laughter] And we're going to put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke. All right? We'll get a comp -- which would you rather that the lettuce or the smoke? I think I'll take the smoke.

Uh, yeah, the smoke wrecked my daughter's swim meet.

Well, it's closed up a lot of the country. I've told Canada they have to do something about it. You know, we've never had this problem. All of a sudden we have this problem with Canada, so we'll have to talk to them about that.

[Crosstalk]

Only --

Mr. President? Mr. President, a follow up on Iran?

Jeff.

Thank you, sir. A follow up on Iran. Have you made a decision about the major strikes that you're referring to?

No, I haven't.

Okay. Should we expect to see major strikes this week --

Look, we're talking to them right now. I think they're getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason, but we are talking to them right now. We'll see. Look, there are two ways. I consider that the smarter way but the others probably the easier way, doing what we're doing. And we can take that to a much higher level if we want to. You know, we're prepared to do that.

As you know, we're locked and loaded. We're locked and loaded and ready to go, but we're talking to them, so. I think while we're talking, we'll see what comes of it.

And when you say --

I believe -- I believe, Jeff, they're very serious.

Okay.

They should be.

Okay.

We're very serious.

And when you say you're talking, is it Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff or who -- who's involved in those talks?

Inside of everybody, JD and Marco and a lot of people are talking to -- there's a lot of people that talk to. It's a big deal. But really, when you get right down to it, it's not very complex. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. You know, very, very simple actually. But it's a -- it's a big deal. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.

If they have even a thought of a nuclear weapon, we will just continue to go at much higher levels. But we are talking right now, and we'll see what comes of it. I'm not -- you know, despite what everyone says about the election, I'm not in a hurry. I'm not in a hurry. We have to do it right. Uh, elections take care of themselves.

When you -- you know, when I went into Venezuela, everybody was against it. "Oh, what are you doing going into Venezuela?" And then two days later, they said, wow, that's fantastic. Uh, a lot of people are saying that with Iran already. Because it would take them 25 years to rebuild already from what they have.

And again, as you know, no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft, no radar, no nothing. And we, as you know, we just put up -- we instituted reinstituted the, uh, the, uh, I guess you could. It -- I call it the iron wall on the water. Nothing gets through. Nothing, blockade, nothing gets through. And, uh, they sort of have to make a deal.

But we are talking to them. I think they're being serious. I think -- I think they are being by far the most serious that we've seen them. But that doesn't mean we get there. We'll see what happens. But, uh, I always prefer that alternative.

Mr. President? Mr. President?

Yes.

I have an energy question, so you Burgum might be able to help with this. So you have criticized windmills for quite a long time. They're very ugly. They're not -- they tend to use more energy than they actually produce. A lot of people --

That's true. You've done your homework. [Laughter]

A lot of people in middle America, they are so tired of seeing them continue to go up on farmland and stuff like that. Is there any way to -- is our federal government still funding in any way putting these up?

No, we -- we -- we have -- I can speak for Doug, and then I'm going to let Doug speak because he knows --

And is nuclear energy better?

I really do know that subject well. Uh, we have not approved anything having to do with windmills. They are horrible. They are unsightly. They ruin housing values of people. If you're looking at a windmill or hearing a windmill because they're noisy. You know, they kill all the birds. They kill all the eagles.

You know, if you shoot an eagle, you go to jail for two years. If you kill an eagle with a windmill, you don't go to jail. And they have hundreds of them laying on the ground. You know, it's terrible. Uh, and they're very expensive energy. And they're all made in China. But China has very few windmills. You know, they have -- they're made in China, but China doesn't use them for the most part.

China actually uses coal, oil and gas. They use nuclear, by the way. They're getting very big in nuclear, I want to tell you, this little group. But, uh, they don't -- they don't use wind. Wind is inconsistent. It's unattractive. It's very expensive. It's probably the most expensive form of energy. So I've been talking about it. We essentially unless it's for -- unless there's a trick reason, we will have, hopefully, no wind farms approved.

We -- we're doing more than anybody ever in history having to do with energy, but I've restricted wind farms, windmills. Uh, take a look at Palm Springs, California, where they have a wind farm as you enter beautiful Palm Springs, California. It looks like a junkyard. You have old ones, rotted ones. They're falling down all over the place.

Uh, they don't want to bury them because they say the fiber that the blades are made out of should not go in the ground because it's going to poison the ground. Now, I don't know if that's true or not. But if it's not going to go in the ground, what do you do with it? Put it up in the air?

Yeah, because that's --

So, uh, good, I see you're not a fan of windmills.

No, I'm not a fan of windmills, Mr. President.

Then you happen to be very smart.

I'm very passionate about this.

Doug, do you want to speak about that for a second?

No, but I would say, uh, yes, uh, President Trump has wisely understood that, uh, wind was unreliable, intermittent, depending on the weather. Uh, only existed particularly offshore, because of massive subsidies. So not only was it expensive, uh, to generate electricity on the grid, it was also expensive for taxpayers because the subsidies.

And so again, President Trump shifting the policy towards energy dominance, which is reliable, affordable, 7/24 energy that's not dependent on the weather. Uh, and that includes nuclear. It includes hydro. It includes geothermal. Uh, it includes oil and gas. It includes beautiful coal. Uh, and -- and again, China, 60 percent of their electricity is coming from coal.

Uh, coal was the number one electric producer in the world 125 years ago. And it was for the last 125 years in a row, and it will be again this year. 120 is quite, quite a streak if you're an athletic team that they've won 126 years in a row. But President Trump --

But we were restricted from using it.

Yep.

Every coal mine was going to be closed down within the next year, if we didn't come along -- if we didn't win the election. And it's, uh, I call it clean, beautiful coal.

It is. What they do today with coal is amazing. But it is the most powerful. And with that, go ahead.

Well, as you say, with under President Trump's leadership, uh, and then working together as a team across a government with Chris Wright, Lee Zeldin, Energy Dominance Council, we've kept open 35 gigawatts of coal this last year. And if that, 35 gigawatts was not up this past winter during the cold streak and Storm Fern, we would have seen, uh, brownouts, blackouts, and literally people dying in America during that cold weather.

Uh, so again, President Trump's -- the elections matter. When he came in, he turned the direction back towards reliable, affordable energy. Uh, nuclear is a key part of that with these amazing entrepreneurs. And I just would add to this up here, people need to understand the four guys that are standing up here did not get a government grant.

This is private sector. President Trump unleashed capital going back in -- billions of dollars of capital going back into the nuclear industry. President Trump understands innovation is the source of American greatness. You get rid of the regulation, you support entrepreneurs, the capital flows, America wins.

And Mr. Secretary, the -- the -- you know, the starting for this nuclear, you know, dominance, what does that look like for the American people out there? Like, what are those first steps that we can see in these -- these coming months and years?

Well, I -- I'd just say I'll go on and you can see it right now.

Yeah.

Because when you take a look across the whole world, President Trump's policies, whether it's, you know, Venezuela, whether it's Alaska, whether it's reinstating, uh, export for, you know, 18 months ago, we had a ban on LNG exports from our country. Now we're the world's largest exporter of LNG. President Trump's policy was, let's sell energy to our friends and allies, keep it affordable at home.

So our -- our friends and allies can stop buying from our adversaries. Russia was selling virtually all of the natural gas into Western Europe. Uh, two thirds of that -- that gas has been displaced by America. America has turned those into our customers, supporting our allies. And with Venezuela, as President Trump said, that flowing to our refineries on the south coast, that's lowering gas prices for America.

Unleashing Alaska, which the previous administration had sanctioned more than Iran. Uh, that's going to -- that's going to, again, help provide low cost energy for Americans. So today we have the lowest priced, most secure energy of any country in the world. That's going to change -- change the course of this country for decades to come.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President, why -- The Justice Department last night withdrew those subpoenas to the New York Times journalists who reported on Air Force One. Do you support these type of subpoenas to journalists or are you going to incur -- are you going to encourage the administration to stop subpoenas --

We're not after journalists. We're after leakers. We're after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous, in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists, and the journalists probably know they shouldn't write, they shouldn't be giving, uh, information out like that particular information or others.

We had a lot of -- look at the Supreme Court where they leaked the opinion of Roe v Wade early. That person should be found. And the way you find them is to tell the journalists if it's something having to do with national security you tell the journalist, who is it? And we have a long way to go with that case.

So you think it's appropriate to subpoena family members of journalists to find out information?

Uh, would you say it again.

There was subpoenas to family members of the journalists, too.

I don't know what's appropriate, what's not. We do it legally. Barack Hussein Obama did it all the time. He went after journalists and nobody said anything about it. He went after journalists. They said, who was the leaker? Who was the leaker? And if you don't give us the leaker, you're going to jail. You know that.

But when, you know, Obama does it, it's okay. When I do it, it's not. Uh, in many cases, that's the only way you're going to find out who the leaker is. And it has to do with national security. Uh, it's amazing. He did it many times and nobody said anything about it. But when a Republican does it, when, in particular, Trump does it, everybody makes a big deal.

Now, the way you find out is you say to the journalists, if it's national security, I would say I really put it down to national security, not all in all cases. But when you have somebody doing a national security leak or a leak of great importance, uh, and you have somebody inside the walls of, let's say, the White House leaking, uh, I think that's a national security concern.

I think it's, uh, I think it's absolutely fine. And again, I'm not knocking Obama for doing it. I'm knocking the press for not even wanting to cover it. But Obama did that often. Other presidents have done it also. They go to the journalist or the reporter. They say national security, who gave you this information?

I'm okay with that.

Mr. President? Mr. President, did you authorize for Secretary Wright to sign the Saudi nuclear deal? If not, why did he sign it?

Well, we didn't talk about it, but it was always understood. And Chris knew and Saudi Arabia knew that if they didn't join the Abraham Accords, the deals not -- I'm not going to do the deal.

So why did he sign it? Senator -- Senator John --

Because I -- they understood that in order, you know, subject to Congress and everything else, in order for that deal to go through, they had to sign into the Abraham Accords. And they've had great success. The Abraham Accords have been very successful. But in order to do that, we wanted them -- uh, we want them in. We think it's very good.

We think the Abraham Accords bring peace in the Middle East. And now there's no longer an Iran factor. There's no longer Iran to worry about because they've been reduced in terms of their capability and power by many fold.

Thank you. Um, Senator John Thune has suggested that if the White House thinks that there are votes to pass the Save America Act, you should be picking up the phone.

Who are you with?

Uh, I'm with the Washington Examiner, sir. Um, what -- could you be doing more to help that legislation pass?

Well, I do. I do more. I got, uh, three Congressmen, maybe four to settle, you know, to -- to send it to the Senate. We got the vote, as you know, in Congress. I got a call from, uh, Mike Johnson, who's fantastic. Uh, he's a fantastic speaker, one of the best I've ever seen. And I think he's going to go down as one of the best.

He called, he said, we have problems with three or four people, could you call them? I called them. Every one of them, after I called them, voted, and we got it passed up to the Senate. And I'd certainly be willing. I mean, he's got 45 people that are very difficult. A couple of them I put out of office, so I understand how it feels.

I mean, they're doing the wrong thing. Look, who cannot approve voter ID, who cannot approve proof of citizenship, who cannot approve funding military when you're winning a war? And what are you supposed to do? Stop fighting. We're winning a war by a lot. We're talking to them right now. They're willing to do things that they would have never done.

Other presidents should have done this a long time ago. I say 47, but now it's actually 50 years we've been saying 47 for three years, so it's 50 years. For 50 years they should have done it. But who -- who wouldn't approve voter ID? And that's photo ID. who wouldn't approve proof of citizenship? And the Democrats don't want it because they cheat.

But no Republicans should put us in a position where they don't approve something like that. Yeah, please.

Um, and then, earlier today, you reposted Laura Loomer's interview with President Zelenskyy. What do you make of growing MAGA support for the war in Iran -- or war in Ukraine? Sorry.

Well, I think they support what I support. You know, we just had a complete win in Arizona. Uh, the young gentleman who's Harry Enten, I believe his name is the pollster, said Trump's 100 percent favorable. He gets everybody to endorse wins, which is pretty much true. Everyone I endorse just about wins so there seems to be a natural bond between me and MAGA.

But I'm the one that created MAGA, and I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else. You know, MAGA knows what . Wants. And MAGA is very happy. They want to see this done. And they're not going to be happy if it's not done. Make America Great Again. It's all about making -- you know, we started that a long time ago.

But the, uh, the concept of not approving, uh, voter ID or not approving, uh, proof of citizenship. And I won't even get into the ballot thing because, you know, we'll hold that maybe for another time, I think the two are 97-98 percent issues. I think the ballots are a 75 percent issue. But even at 75, they should do the ballots.

The ballots are, in many ways, more important than even the first two. But they're a little more controversial because some people don't want to go and vote. But most great Americans want to go and vote. Uh, the corrupt ballot stuff that -- you saw that with the recent election in Los Angeles, the mayor's election, where the young guy, I don't know him, he came to the office recently after he lost.

And they find all these ballots all of a sudden out of the -- they -- they came down from heaven, hundreds of thousands of ballots. Isn't it wonderful? He had no chance of losing, you know, Spencer Pratt. He had no chance. He was going to be in second place or first place. But -- and I saw it happen. I said, oh, he's not going to win.

He had to beat somebody. He was way up on a person that nobody ever heard of, a young woman who nobody ever heard of. She cried that night that she lost. But all of a sudden, time went by, time, and the election's long over. And I heard a report that Spencer Pratt's not doing that well. I said, watch, he's going to lose, and he lost.

It's crooked. We have crooked elections in some places. Yeah.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President? Mr. President? President Trump, uh, today, it was announced LeBron James has decided that he wants his next team to be the 76ers.

Where do you stand on LeBron vs Michael Jordan as the best ever.

Well, Michael Jordan's a guy that's a friend of mine. I play golf with him. He's a really good guy. And I think LeBron -- LeBron is -- maybe he's a racist but maybe he doesn't like Trump, I don't know, but. I only like people that like me, so I would say Michael Jordan all the way.

Mr. President -- And Mr. President, another sports -- another sports question. Um, when Tiger Woods was about to get arrested, he called you.

Yeah.

Now, we know that when Bryson DeChambeau was having a dispute with a rules official this week, he wanted to call you. You got involved with a red card for the US men's soccer team. Is there a precedent for somebody with your job becoming a fixer for the world's best athletes?

Well, it's not a fixing. It's me being a judge. Like, you know, I -- I thought the Bryson call was a tough call. You know, I saw him walking around. I see a lot of people there walking around looking for their ball and weeds, okay. But I've been watching that so, you know, I thought it was a tough call against him.

Uh, I thought the red card was a very tough call. And it worked out brilliantly. Look, supposing that they didn't let him play and we lost, everyone would have been angry, right? The way it was that they lost with their best player now everyone's happy, including Belgium. Of course, they lost the next game, so they might -- they're not that happy, either.

But it worked out great. Johnny did a good job in making that call. All I did, I asked for a review. I thought that call was not a good call.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President? Mr. President, the White House said -- Mr. President, your administration announced new tariffs today. And you did a -- a post earlier also about a probe against the EU. Are you confident that the new tariffs and tariffs that may come from this probe will withstand legal scrutiny?

Well, these tariffs have been up for a long time. They've been approved for years. Thousands of cases, they've been approved. Of course, with me, you know, it's different. I'm different. I go up and I don't get treated fairly. Uh, but I've lived with it. And here we are in the Oval Office. I guess I somehow figured it out.

But no, we put the tariffs on. They're very standard tariffs. The other way was easier. I thought the decision by the Supreme Court was not a good one. Uh, but, uh, we have many forms of tariffs. And all we did is go to, uh, B, you know, follow the line B. Now B is, uh, uh, something that's been used many, many times for years and very standard.

And we've used that. And we're taking in billions of dollars. And because of tariffs, largely, I think the election November 5th, but largely because of tariffs, we have $19.2 trillion being invested in our country. And without tariffs, we wouldn't -- you know, we'd be in big trouble. Think of it. So the Sleepy Joe Biden administration has less than a trillion being invested, much less for four years.

We have $19.2 trillion for one year. There's never been anything like it in history, and that's because of tariffs. So the Supreme Court said, please do it a different way. You have other ways to do it. And we did that last month.

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Mr. President? Last time I was here, you mentioned Iran child -- You told -- child labor was one of the -- the things that USTR cited as a reason for --

Well, it seems to be that that's what they decided. They go all over the world, and they look and they examine and they see and they see. And, uh, child labor was one of the things that -- that -- one of the reasons. And they had a big problem with that. Yeah.

You told Axios that you were considering a, quote, "massive attack" on Iran. What is the tipping point for you to make the decision to --

Well, I can tell you that right now we're talking to them --

And also, sir --

So, you know, maybe there won't be a tipping point. And maybe they will. We're ready to go. Look, we're locked and loaded. We're ready to go. But we're talking to them so maybe there will be maybe there won't be a tipping point.

But at what point with Iran do you think they're going to cry uncle, and come to the -- actually come to the table?

Well, I -- you know, maybe they will cry uncle or maybe they'll just give up. Or maybe they'll just go into a cave and hide. You know, they have caves very deep in the ground and they can hide. It's -- they get shaken up pretty good, but they can hide. But we've taken out their first level of leadership.

We've then taken out their second level of leadership. We've taken out some of the third level. And we're negotiating with the rest. And we'll see how it all works. Right now we are talking to them seriously. But, you know, I've talked to them before and, uh, they don't seem to be able to get there. Maybe now they will.

But, uh, you know, look, if I thought they were anywhere near getting a nuclear weapon, if I didn't come -- if I wasn't elected, Israel would, in my opinion, not be around anymore. They would have been hit by a nuclear weapon. And that includes right at the beginning with Barack Hussein Obama's nuclear deal that was so bad with Iran.

That was a road to a nuclear weapon, and maybe even more so the B-2 bombers. If that plane right there, that plane, that beautiful plane, the wing, it carries the largest bombs in the world. If that bomb didn't go over there, a 17 hour flight. And it hit, every one of those bombs hit their target. And the target was an air shaft at 2:00 in the morning.

It's hard to believe, right? Going at very tremendous speeds. Every one of them hit and blew it to hell. If that didn't happen, they would have had a nuclear weapon and there would be no Israel. If I wasn't here, if I wasn't president, there would be no Israel, and there probably would be no Middle East.

And you saw that when they shockingly started shooting at everybody all over the Middle East. If they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used that. There might not be a Middle East as we know it today. But there definitely -- in my opinion, there would not have been an Israel. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks for all the questions.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you.