Okay, very good. We're going to sign some executive orders. They -- uh, very important in just about every case. And it -- we'll go through the first one, please.
Do you want to --
-- Yeah, Mr. President, this is an executive order on crypto, we're going to be -- oh, sorry, we're -- sorry. Mr. President, this is an executive order on AI. We're basically announcing the administration's policy to make America the world capital in artificial intelligence and to dominate and to lead the world in AI.
Do you want to say your name, your full name and serial number.
David Sacks, AI and crypto czar.
David is one of the greatest in the world at AI, most respected probably there is. So, that should take us to the forefront, right?
Absolutely, we got to win.
Ok. Thank you. Thank you and this, David, is --
-- Yeah, this is the crypto EO. We're going to be forming an internal working group to make crypto -- to make America the world capital in crypto under your leadership.
Which is really going up, right?
Absolutely.
All right, David, that's for you.
Thank you, sir.
You find them exciting? They might not be excited, but they're going to make a lot of money for the country.
Thank you, sir.
And so is David. You have to check him out. There's nobody like this guy. They said how did you get David Sacks; how did you do that? And he's doing it for the country more than anything else. So, we appreciate it, David. Thank you very much.
This is an executive order establishing a presidential commission, an advisory commission on science and technology.
Good. Do you want to explain that a little bit?
The basic idea is to get together top people from government, the private sector, technology industry as well as educational institutions to make sure that America maintains its leadership position with respect to science and technology development in the years ahead.
Good, that's great.
Next, sir, we have a presidential memorandum, encouraging departments and agencies in your government, including the Department of the Interior, to promote federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
I love the Lumbee Tribe. So, this is their first big step, right?
This would be a huge step for them, sir.
Yeah, they were with me all the way. They were great, North Carolina, Lumbee Tribe. OK, you'll send them a copy of that.
Yes, sir.
They were great. Ok.
If you'd like, I could get them that pen, sir, as well.
Yeah, let's do that.
Next we have a set of pardons for peaceful pro-life protesters, who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Do you know how many?
I believe it's 23, sir.
23 people that were prosecuted, they should not have been prosecuted. Many of many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this. They'll be very happy. So, they're all in prison now?
Some are, some are out of custody.
It's ridiculous. Ok.
Lastly, sir, we have an executive order ordering the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
That's a big one, huh? A lot of people are waiting for this -- for a long -- for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed. OK? give that to RFK, Jr.
Yes, sir.
OK. OK. Thank you very much.
Mr. President, a US judge temporarily blocks the birthright citizenship order. Do you have any reaction?
No. Obviously we'll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess, right? And there's no surprises with that judge.
Mr. President, senators Collins and Murkowski have now said they will vote against Pete Hegseth. Are you worried about his confirmation and your reaction?
And no surprises there, it's too bad. It's just the way -- the way it is, too bad.
And when would you adjourn congress to make recess appointments, Mr. President?
Well, I'd take a look at that. I listened to John Thune. He's doing a fantastic job. We're moving along. The Democrats are trying to delay government, as they always do, they can't help themselves. Even John Ratcliffe, who's very, very strong, very popular and liked by the Democrats. I guess he gets a lot of democrat votes.
That's taken a long time, and it shouldn't be taking a long time. They're maxing everything out so they can delay everything as much as possible.
Does Senator Thune support an effort to use recess appointments if you choose to do that?
I'd be willing to use recess appointments. It's up to John. We'll see. And John Thune is a great guy, a great senator and knows his stuff inside out and backwards. But I would use recess appointments if he wants to do that. Absolutely.
[Crosstalk]
The Democrats are just delaying. They always delay.
Mr. President, you spoke with the Saudi crown prince yesterday.
Who?
The Saudi crown prince. How was the call?
Great.
And this $600 million -- billion they can invest.
$600 billion, I'll ask them for a trillion.
You said you can ask for $1 trillion. Will Saudi Arabia be the first foreign country you will visit since they invested that much money?
If they do that, I would -- yeah, I would be glad to do that. I did it, as you know, four years ago we did $450 billion, meaning the money all goes to American companies and they purchase jets, and they purchase computers and everything else. And we did $450 billion, and I guess we're at $600 billion, $650 billion.
Mr. President --
[Crosstalk]
I'll see if I can talk him into it again.
[Crosstalk]
-- again. You showed great confidence in Steve Witkoff. Why you said that you doubt that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold since you appraised his progress?
No, no, I think he's great, but it's a very tricky place. It's very tricky and we'll see. And if it -- if something does happen, they will not be happy.
Sir, following up on that one. In terms of Steve Witkoff, are you going to put him in charge of Iran's strategy? And do you want him talking directly with the Iranians?
No, but he's certainly somebody I would use. He's done a fantastic job. He's a great negotiator. He's a very good person, great -- a very popular person, gets along with people. I have great negotiators; they have no personality whatsoever and then have some that do. Steve has a wonderful way about him and people like him.
And even in this case both sides like him and he was able to make a deal. That deal would have never been made without Steve. The Biden people couldn't make the deal. They were working on it for a year and a half. They couldn't make a deal; we got it done prior to the inauguration. We said it has to be before the inauguration.
I mean the deal should hold, but if it doesn't hold, there'll be a lot of problems.
Related to your, AI EO, just hours after you made that big Stargate announcement, Elon Musk tweeted that they don't actually have the money. Is that true?
I don't know if they do, but they're putting up the money. The government is not putting up anything. They're putting up money. They're very rich people. So, I hope they do. And I mean Elon doesn't like one of those people. So --
[Crosstalk]
Are you worried that AI is going to replace many American jobs? Does that worry you?
No, no, no. It's going to create tremendous numbers of jobs. It's going to also create a lot of benefits medically for cancer research and other things. It's going to have a huge positive impact. And we want to be ahead of China. We're right now way ahead of China. David Sacks is one of the all-time experts, you know, that people are amazed that he -- you just met him.
I don't know if he's still here. Oh, there he is. But one of the most respected people in that world, it's a world -- that's a whole different world. And we're ahead of China now because of what I'm doing, and I think it's going to be very successful.
Mr. President, you just asked the Davos forum again that NATO countries should spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. The United States don't spend 5 percent. It should also apply to the United States.
We're protecting them. They're not protecting us, we're protecting them. So, I don't think we should be spending -- I'm not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them. But they should up their 2 percent to 5 percent. Yeah.
Mr. President, you said earlier during your speech at Davos that you would like to see interest rates come down. How much would you like to see them come down? Will you talk to Powell?
I'd like to see them come down a lot and oil prices will come down. And when oil prices come down, everything is going to be cheaper for the American people and actually for the world, but for the American people. So, I'd like to see oil prices come down. And when the energy comes down that's going to knock out a lot of the inflation that's going to automatically bring the interest rates down.
Are you worried that -- Mr. President, you said that you would demand -- Are you worried that there's too much going on at once if you're trying to bring interest rates down and get the economy back going?
No. It just works that way. I mean it just economically works that way. When the oil comes down, it will bring down prices, then you won't have inflation and then the interest rates will come down.
You said that you would demand that the interest rates come down.
Well, I would put in a strong statement.
Do you expect the fed to listen to you?
Yeah.
Are you going to talk to Powell about this and bring the rates down?
At the right time I would.
Sir, do you --
[Crosstalk]
-- people you pardon that were participating in the January 6, 2021 [Inaudible], do you plan to meet with any of them or meet with them at the White House?
I don't know, I'm sure that they probably would like to -- I did them something important, but what they did is they were protesting a crooked election. And I mean, people understand that also and they were treated very badly. Nobody's been treated like that. So, I'd be open to it, certainly. I don't know of anything like that, but I think they're going to meet in some of the congress people, congressmen, women want to meet.
But, I'd certainly be open to it.
Have you spoken to them since you issued the pardons?
I haven't spoken to any of them yet, but I know they're very happy. I gave them their life back. Their life was taken away from them unnecessarily and unfairly. I gave them their life back. So, I can imagine they probably would like to.
Mr. President, what did you mean when you said that Biden took bad advice in not pardoning himself yesterday?
Well, he did. I think he did, because he pardoned all these people that are crooked as hell. Look, the congressmen, they're crooked. What they did is they destroyed evidence. When you destroy evidence, especially criminally like that. They did it criminally. And the reason they destroyed the evidence is because it proved that I was right.
They didn't destroy evidence for no reason, they destroyed it because they found many documents saying that I offered 10,000 soldiers. If they had 500 soldiers or National Guard, there would have been no problem. If they had 200 that would have been -- I offered 10,000 If they needed them, there would have been no problem.
That's been now totally disproven and it's also been disproven by Nancy Pelosi's daughter, who has her on tape saying it was her fault, that she has full responsibility for this. But -- and they have all that stuff. They destroyed everything, and they go through a year and a half, two years of nonsense. They come up with tremendous evidence and they destroyed evidence.
And Schiff knew about it, that's why he's on there. He knew all about the destruction of evidence. A lot of people said he's the one that got them to do it, and he's a crooked guy, a totally crooked politician. And so, he's pardoned, and some other people are pardoned, and these are crooked politicians, every one of them.
Benny Johnson, what he did is incredible. I mean, he was the leader of the committee, and he did it. Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, all of them. They destroyed evidence and deleted everything. There's nothing -- there's no evidence now. They're crooked politicians and they should be punished. You know, that's -- even in a civil trial, you go to jail for a thing like that.
They destroyed every document from what I understand, every document because it proved that I was totally innocent.
Do you plan to send up to 10,000 troops to the southern border, sir?
Yeah, southern border?
Yes, the border.
You said southern border. When I said 10,000 troops, I was referring to the capital.
Oh, I see. And --
[Crosstalk]
-- when is that -- when do you plan to do that?
You've got to look; I was referring to the -- I offered 10,000 troops for the capital before January 6th.
And as for the 1,500 at the southern border, sir, to clarify -- what exactly do you want them to be doing right now?
Making sure that the border is safe and secure and that criminals don't come into our country.
Mr. President, do you think that sanctions on Russia will force President Putin to negotiate?
I don't know. But I think he should make a deal.
Mr. President, does it bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you made publicly that he said that he tweeted that?
No, it doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deals.
Have you spoken to him since then?
No, no. Well, I've spoken to Elon, but I've spoken to all of them actually. No, the people in the deal are very, very smart people. But Elon, one of the people he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too.
Sir, on China, what do you think Xi Jinping can do on the Ukraine-Russia war?
Which one?
Ukraine-Russia war, what can Xi Jinping do about that?
China?
Yeah.
They have a lot of power over Russia. They supply energy to Russia. And Russia supplies energy to them, they supply other things too. It's really a very big trade. It's a very big trading partner, but Russia supplies a lot of energy to China that China pays them a lot of money for that. And I think they have a lot of power over Russia.
So, I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think, from what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we'll meet as soon as we can. I'd meet immediately. Every day we don't meet soldiers are being killed on the battlefield. And that battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II, that's --
[Crosstalk]
-- and I have pictures that you don't want to see. Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven't seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It's a ridiculous war.
You said that Ukraine is ready to make a deal. Did President Zelenskyy tell you that personally?
Well, sure. He's ready to negotiate a deal. He'd like to stop. He's somebody that lost a lot of soldiers. And so did Russia, lost a lot -- Russia lost more soldiers, they lost 800,000 soldiers. Would you say that's a lot? I'd say it's a lot.
You said that you wanted to make Dr. King's dream a reality. What's your response to his children and civil rights leaders who say that your DEI orders are a contradiction of his dream and could further drive racial [Inaudible]?
I haven't heard.
Mr. President, you put the Houthis back on the terror list, how do you see the war in Yemen?
Well, we'll see what happens, but they can't shoot down our ships. The Houthis, they can't shoot down our ships or any ships and that's what they've been doing. So, they're on the terror list. That's not good for them.
Sir, why did you revoke security protections for former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and Brian Hook?
Well, the same reason I do. When you have protection, you can't have it for the rest of your life. Do you want to have a large detail of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there's risks to everything.
So, would you support us tracking Iran's nuclear facilities?
Say it.
Would you support Israel, for example, striking Iran's nuclear facilities?
Well, I'm not going to answer that -- obviously, I'm not going to answer that question. We'll have to see. I'm going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days and we'll see. But hopefully that can be worked out without having to worry about it. It would be nice -- it would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step.
And who are you going to meet with?
Well, I'd rather not say that. But very high-level people, but hopefully that can be worked out. You know, look, Iran hopefully will make a deal. And if they don't make a deal, I guess that's Ok too.
And Mr. President, just to follow up, you said you think the fed should listen to you. Can you elaborate on why you think it should?
With regard to interest rates?
Correct, yes.
Because I think I know interest rates much better than they do. And I think I know certainly much better than the one who's primarily in charge of making that decision. But no, I'm guided by them very much, but if I disagree, I will let it be known.
Sir, your terrorist plans for China and Mexico are much tougher -- the ones for Canada and Mexico are much tougher than the one for China. Why is it softer for China?
Well, China is already paying a lot of tariffs because of me. And when you add them up, I'd say they're paying a lot. They've paid hundreds of billions of dollars. They never paid $0.10 until I came along. When I came along, they pay hundreds of -- they've paid hundreds of billions of dollars, never paid anything.
And so, they've already started at a higher base.
Is February 1st the date for the Chinese tariffs as well, sir? February 1? Or was that just Mexico and Canada?
It's Mexico and Canada, but we're talking about China too. Look, China is sending us tremendous amounts of bad drugs, fentanyl, really bad stuff. Most of it comes through Mexico and we're losing I think 300,000 lives a year because of that. People say 150,000, 100,000, 120,000. I think 300,000 lives a year.
Those are old numbers. The lower number is a low number, and we can't have that. They've got to stop sending it. I had a deal with President Xi, but it was a deal that wasn't followed up by Biden of course, where they were going to issue the death penalty to people that make fentanyl and that would have stopped it. But we'll have to stop it with tariffs.
Ok, thank you very much, everybody.