LIVE: Trump Announces Reciprocal Tariffs

And it ended into China. The tariff was so high. So everybody went, and they built in China. It was no big secret. So we're going to see. But it's going to mean tremendous amounts of jobs. And ultimately, prices will stay the same, go down. But we're going to have a very dynamic country. The Press But if prices go up, Mr. President, because of these tariffs, who do you think voters should hold responsible? The President Oh, I think what's going to go up is jobs are going to go up. And prices could go up somewhat short-term, but prices will also go down. And I think the farmers are going to be helped by this very much because product is being dumped into our country, and our farmers are getting hurt very badly by the last administration. The last administration hated our farmers, like, at a level that I've never seen before. I think our farmers are going to be helped. Jobs are going to be helped, but our farmers are going to be helped. Our manufacturers are going to be helped. And again, if somebody wants to come in, including the car companies, if they want to come in and build car plants, they'll do it without tariffs. And therefore, prices won't go up. There could be some short-term disturbance, but long-term, it's going to make our country a fortune. The Press So Americans should prepare for some short-term pain, probably? The President No, you said that. I didn't say that. The Press But what if the prices go up? The President Let's see what happens. Nobody really knows what is going to happen other than we know that jobs are going to be produced at levels that we haven't seen before. We know that we think interest rates are going to ultimately be coming down because of things that happen, and they go hand-in-hand with the tariffs. But we think that the prices for some things, many things, it could be all things, will go down. Ultimately, we'll go down. The Press Mr. President, can you explain the timeline here? Sir, there's a period of time for a review, a report, 180 days. What's the earliest date that you think tariffs will actually be implemented in Exeter? The President Well, I would say — maybe I'll ask Howard to answer that because he's going to be the one that's implementing. What do you think? Howard Schmidt Our studies should be all complete by April 1st, so we'll hand the President the opportunity to start on April 2nd if he wants. So I think we'll be ready to go on April 1st, and we'll hand it to the President, and he'll make his decisions. But remember, if they drop their tariffs, prices for Americans are coming down. Our production is going up, and our costs are going down. Remember, it's a two-way street. That's why it's called reciprocal. The Press And have you spoken to any American CEOs directly about this? Are they calling you and asking for exemptions? The President I've spoken to many, and many love it. And they say, this is going to be the thing that makes our country really prosperous again. And this is going to be what pays down to $36 trillion in debt and all the other things. And this is going to be — this is an amazing day. I think this is going to be a very big day in a very positive way for our country. Yes, please. The Press Mr. President, you've talked about the VAT in the EU before and your concerns with how the EU treats you. Do you have a number in mind on the European Union? Do you have an idea of where that number is going to land? The President Well, what they are now is they have a 20 percent VAT tax, which we're considering to be similar or the same as a tariff. Plus, they charge lots of fees. And, you know, they're doing something else. The European Union has been very tough on our companies. They sued Apple. They sued Google. They sued Facebook. They sued many other companies. And they're American companies. And the kind of numbers are staggering. And the court system over there is not very good to our companies. If you know that Apple had to pay, I think, $16 billion in a penalty — a court case that was really shocking because most people thought they would have won that court case — people that watched it. So they've been very tough. Airlines have called me up, and they said, could you help us with Europe because they're charging us so many different fees. I got a call from the head of American United and other airlines saying, every time we land a plane, we get just absolutely killed by the European Union. And so they haven't treated us good. You know, we think the European Union is wonderful. We all love Europe, love the countries in Europe. But European Union has been absolutely brutal on trade. Canada has been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada is going to have to start paying up. And Canada has been tough on the military because they don't have a very — they have a very low military cost. They think we're going to, you know, protect them with our military, which is unfair. So Canada is going to be a very interesting situation because, you know, we just don't need their product. And yet they survive off the fact that we're — you know, we do 95 percent of what they do. And Canada is just absolutely — I say it, and sometimes people smile and sometimes they say, great idea, but Canada — their taxes would come down greatly. Their security would go up greatly. Amazing things happen to Canada. And really, Canada, in this particular — why would we pay $200 billion a year in subsidies to Canada when they're not a state? You do that for a state, but you don't do that for somebody else's country. So I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state. The Press. government contracts while he is working on donors? The President No, not if there's a conflict. If there's no conflict, I guess, what difference does it make? But we won't let him do anything having to do with a conflict. The Press Are you personally checking to make sure there's no conflicts of interest? The President Yeah, I am. I am. The Press He answers to you. The President Sure, he does. First of all, he wouldn't do it. And second of all, we're not going to let him do anything where there's a conflict of interest. The Press Mr. President, I think your negotiations with the EU are, you know, there's just discussions ongoing already. How quickly do you expect that you'll hear back from them about any of these other measures? The President I don't know. I can't tell you. The EU has been very nasty. It's just been — they haven't treated us properly. Look, we agreed to them on NATO. Essentially, it's a similar group of countries. When I came in, my first term, I raised their fees. I mean, they were not paying. We were paying for, in my opinion, almost all of NATO. And now, you know, I had the bad moment with the press, where the press said, well, does this mean you won't protect him? And I said, I won't protect him if they're not paying. But because I said that, the Secretary General, as you know, said it was the greatest thing he's ever seen because the money came pouring in. And — but they don't treat us right on trade. They don't treat us right on the military either. I mean, if you look at Ukraine, we're in for probably $200 billion more than Europe. Why are we in for more than Europe? We're in for more than Europe. I mean, think of it. Or NATO. I mean, let's call it NATO because Canada is in. By the way, Canada is just about the lowest payer. Also, just be — you know, they shouldn't be. They are just about the lowest payer in NATO, in addition to everything else. So Canada has really been taken advantage of. And if they had to pay just something modestly fair, they wouldn't be able to succeed as a country. And that's why — that's why I feel they have to become a state. Yes, ma'am. The Press Is it your expectation that partners will offer major concessions and that you actually don't end up applying those tariffs? The President No, I think that a lot of them will stay the same, and whatever they pay, I'll pay. I mean, we'll have — we'll have a lot of them stay the same. I think some — look, I heard they, as an example, EU lowered their tax on cars down to the exact same amount. They were much higher. They were approximately five times higher. And they lowered them down to the exact tax that we're charging. That took place, like, yesterday or the day before. Is that a correct statement? I think so. Yeah. The Press Do you expect any exemptions or waivers? The President I don't expect that, no. This is a simple system. I mean, there wouldn't be any. And in the case of Apple, I gave them a waiver, an exemption in my first term because Samsung was in South Korea, and Samsung didn't have to pay the tax because it was a tax on China. And Apple makes a lot of their product in China. So I did that because it wouldn't have been fair. But now this applies to everybody across the board. This is a much simpler way of doing it, a much better way. The Press You had that major call yesterday with President Putin of Russia. President Zelensky responded today, basically saying any agreements they won't accept unless they're made with Ukraine. Will Ukraine have a seat at that table for those negotiations? The President I mean, they're part of it. We would have Ukraine, we'd have Russia, and we'll have other people involved, too. A lot of people, a lot of forks in this game. I'll tell you what, this is a very interesting situation. But the Ukraine war has to end. The young people are being killed at levels that nobody has seen since World War II. And it's a ridiculous war, and it has to end. We had a good talk with President Putin. We had a good talk with President Zelensky. Very good talk. And somebody said, oh, I should have called Zelensky first. I don't think so. I mean, we have to find out whether or not Russia wants to make a deal. I know that Zelensky wants to make a deal because he told me that. But I now know that Russia wants to make a deal. The Press Did you ask Secretary Henderson to walk back his comments yesterday, saying Ukraine won't join NATO and won't go back to pre-2014 borders because those are bargaining chips you could use? The President No, I didn't. Somebody told me to. But I thought his comments were good yesterday. And they're probably good today. They're a little bit softer, perhaps. But I thought his comments from yesterday — I thought his comments yesterday were pretty accurate. I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position could allow them — just in their position — could allow them to join NATO. I don't see that happening. And long before President Putin, Russia was very strong on the fact that — I believe that's the reason the war started, because Biden went out and said that they could join NATO and he shouldn't have said that. As soon as he said that, I said, you know what? You're going to have a war now. And I was right about that. This is a war that would have never happened if I were President. The Press But you don't think it's President Biden's fault, not President Putin? I mean, he's the one — The President I think Biden is incompetent. And I think when he said that they could join NATO, I thought that was a very stupid thing to say. I thought when he said, well, it depends if it's a minor incursion — in other words, it's okay if Russia does a minor incursion — I thought that was a very foolish thing to say. The Press When did we expect it on August 1st? The President The other thing that got it started was how badly Milley and these stupid people — bad generals — how badly they did with Afghanistan. I was going to pull out, but we were pulling out with dignity and strength, and we were going to take our equipment with us and everything else. They are — I mean, what they're doing is — what they did with that — I think Putin looked at that mess and he said, wow, this is a great time, I'm going to go in. But what the Americans said — I'm not blaming Americans, but I will say what they said had a big influence on his deciding to go in. Yeah. The Press When Elon Musk met with Prime Minister Modi earlier today, did he do so as an American CEO or did he do so as a representative of the U.S. government? The President Are you talking about me? The Press No, Elon Musk. The President Elon — I don't know. They met, and I assume he wants to do business in India. But India is a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs. They have the highest tariffs just about in the world, and it's a hard place to do business. No, I would imagine he met possibly because, you know, he's running a company. He's doing this as something that he's felt strongly about for a long time because he sees what's happening and he sees how the country is really being hurt badly by all of the fraud, waste, and abuse. Yeah. The Press So how is Modi on whether he's meeting with the CEO or meeting with a representative of your government? The President Well, he's meeting with me in a little while, so I'm going to ask him that question, all right? I'll ask him that question. Yeah. The Press On auto tariffs, what should we expect, sir? You mentioned Dr. Steele and Illuminati. The President I think autos are coming soon. I think they're all coming more or less at the same time. And it's not going to be a big shock to the system. But what it's going to do is it's going to bring pharmaceuticals back to our country — much more important than the money. It's a lot of money, but it's going to bring pharmaceuticals back to our country. It's going to bring chips back to our country. It's going to bring automobile — we're going to do a lot more automobile manufacturing in our country. You know, when I did this, when I announced this, during the campaign, they were going to build the largest car plant in the world in Mexico. It was almost under construction. It was just starting. And when they heard me make that statement, they thought I was going to win the election, actually. It was a few months before the election itself. China was building the car plant. It was going to be the largest in the world. They immediately stopped construction. You can see the foundations there. They immediately stopped. When they heard I was doing this, that would have destroyed Detroit. It would have destroyed Michigan. This plant would have taken up more than almost the whole state built. And it would have been very destructive. When they heard me speak and they said, wow, if he gets in, we're going to lose our shirt. So they stopped building. That's the impact that tariffs have. Again, you know, I say it, and I say it loudly. It's the most beautiful word, but now I say religion, love, and a couple of other things are more beautiful because I got in a lot of problem with the fake news when they said, oh, other things are more important. God is more important. But these are the words. But I would say it's number four or five. To me, it's the most beautiful. And I'll tell you what, I think really reciprocal tariffs. There's two words. Reciprocal makes tariffs really fair. There would be no exemptions, right? It would be all auto imports. Any exemptions, no, because you don't need to. With reciprocal, you don't need to. Mr. President, did you have an update on the TikTok negotiations? Do you have an update on the TikTok negotiations? Yeah, we have a lot of people. Well, I have 90 days from about two weeks ago, and I'm sure it can be extended, but let's see, I don't think you'll need to. We have a lot of people interested in TikTok, and I hope to be able to make a deal. I think it would be good. You know, people have learned it's very popular, and we'll have to probably get approval from China to do it, but we have a lot of people that are interested, and a lot of people, I think China will be interested because it's to their benefit, too. So, I look forward to that, but we have a lot of people that are interested in TikTok, quite a few. Mr. President, Doge workers arrived today, Gavin Clagher and others arrived today at the IRS. Do you expect to close the IRS, or what are you expecting? No, I don't expect it, but I think that the Internal Revenue Service will be looked at like everybody else. Just about everybody is going to be looked at, so they're doing a hell of a job. It's an amazing job they're doing. And, you know, that force is building. I call it the force of super geniuses, but it's building. And, you know, they go up and they talk to some of the people about certain deals, and the people get all tongue-tied. They can't talk because these people get it. They're very smart people. We need smart people. Yes. Brian? On tariff, sir. Yes, sir. Mr. President, I know that during the campaign, it was huge in Pennsylvania as far as bringing back manufacturing. Have you talked to any CEOs since the tariffs were announced on steel and aluminum? They are in love with it, as you know. In Pennsylvania, U.S. steel is through the roof. They're all through the roof. That's why I didn't want U.S. steel to make a deal with Japan or anybody else. I think it's going to do great. But I think maybe more than anybody else, the steel companies and aluminum companies, they're in love with what's happened. And this will eventually be the car companies and chip companies. We have to have chips made in this country. Right now, everything's made in Taiwan, practically. Almost all of it. A little bit in South Korea. But everything, almost all of it is made in Taiwan. And we want it to be made. We want those companies to come to our country, in all due respect. You know, they took the business away. Taiwan took our chip business away. We had Intel. We had these great companies that did so well. And it was taken from us. And we want that business back. We want it back in the United States. And if they don't bring it back, we're not going to be very happy. Pharmaceuticals as well. And China, that's national security to bring that back. China and other places. We want to get the pharmaceutical and drug business back into the United States, where it should be. Sir, on tariffs, are you concerned that the countries that would be most affected, like India, would just shift their trading to China? No, I'm not concerned about anything, really. I mean, I'm just doing what's fair. This is a very fair thing. This should have been done a long time ago. I would have done it, but then COVID hit. I was getting ready to do this years ago, and first time we had the most successful economy in history, and then COVID hit. And I was — this was going to be the thing that I was most waiting to do. But it was awfully hard to do this with Italy and France and Spain and these — all those people who were dying. And then we put tariffs on. I have a — I have a big heart. Sir, on Ukraine, when Putin says that he really wants peace, do you believe him? Yeah, I do. I believe he wants peace. I believe that President Putin — when I spoke to him yesterday, I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn't. I think he'd — I'd like to see peace. Do you trust President Putin? I believe that — yeah, I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject. I think he'd like to see something happen. I think it could have happened a long time ago. I think Biden — number one, it shouldn't have started, but it did. And now all those cities are knocked down, like demolition sites. All those beautiful Golden Towers are knocked down. There's nothing going to replace them. But much more importantly, you lost millions of people. A lot of soldiers, but you lost millions of people. When they knock down those cities — and they're all laying down on the side. They're laying down just in ashes and all crumbled up concrete. They literally look like a world-class demolition site. And many of them — almost all of them, but many of them. And this should have been done by Biden years ago. This should have never been allowed to happen. I know he's a friend of yours. But couldn't Putin just withdraw his — He's a friend of CNN. That's why nobody watches CNN anymore, because they have no credibility. Okay, who else? Yes, please. If you could find a buyer in the United States for TikTok, do you think Xi Jinping will authorize the sale of it I'm going to make it worthwhile for China to do it. I think so. I mean, I got to know TikTok because during the election, I ended up with 36 percent higher than my opponent with youth. Okay, that never happened before. I mean, you know, that's always been a Democrat thing, youth. It became a Trump thing. And I think TikTok, I think Joe Rogan was a part of it. Some of the great people that I did interviews with were a part of it. But I think that TikTok was a — I think it was a big part. Look, as you know, we were up by 36 percent with youth. The Republican was never up with youth. And I focused on TikTok, and I found it to be amazing, actually, and very fair. And I think the image of TikTok is different than it was before the election. I think people saw it, and they view it as a positive, not a negative. I think it'll be to China's advantage to have the deal be made. Yeah. How much money do you think you'll raise from tariffs on an annual basis? That's the most interesting question. I think it'll be a staggering amount. It will be the external — I call it the External Revenue Service. That was a name that was devised by a few of us. But it's — I think it's going to be a staggering amount. We've heard it's the number one trillion floated in meetings with senators. Is that a number you've thought of? I don't know. But already the Senate is saying, well, wait a minute — you know, they're looking at some of the numbers, and they're saying, whoa, this is — look, we want to — I say, America first. I say, make America great again. That's what we're doing. This is — I think it's the most important thing I've signed. I've signed some very important things. Right to try was so important. I mean, a lot of important things. Space Force, the biggest tax cuts in history. You know, this could be one of the most important things that we've ever signed. Do you expect the Russians and President Putin to attend the summit in Saudi Arabia? Eventually, yeah. Not quite yet. It's a little early. They're having a meeting in Munich tomorrow. Russia is going to be there with our people. Ukraine is also invited, by the way. I'm not sure exactly who is going to be there from any country. But high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine, and from the United States. Do you want to have Russia back to the G7, sir? I'd love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it's not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8. And, you know, I said, what are you doing? You guys — all you talk about is Russia, and they should be sitting at the table. I think Putin would love to be back. Obama and a couple of other people made a mistake, and they got Russia out. It's very possible that if that was the G8, you wouldn't have had the problem with Ukraine. And if I was President, you definitely wouldn't have had the problem with Ukraine. Russia would have never attacked Ukraine. But you ask a very good question. The G8. It used to be the G8, and then these people threw them out. And I was arguing with Trudeau and with numerous of the people. Actually, Prime Minister Abe, a great man from Japan, agreed with me 100 percent. And some of the others did too. But I got there. It was the G7, as you know. They had already been terminated. I think it would have been very helpful — and it still would be helpful — to have Russia be a part of that mix. And I think if they were, I don't think you would have had the problem that you have right now. Russia is part of the G20. They kicked them out, of course, because they illegally annexed Crimea. I mean, how would you have responded if Russia invaded or took over? They took Crimea during Obama. They took — now they're looking to take the whole thing. Then they took a big chunk of land and people, as you know, during Bush. And now they're trying to take the whole thing during Biden. You know, the only one that didn't give them anything is Trump. They never took anything with Trump. Nothing. Not two inches of property of land. But Crimea was Obama. And then Bush gave them a lot, you remember. And then, in fact, it's just sort of a standard little phrase. And Biden is giving them everything because this is a war that shouldn't have been had. And the only one that didn't give them anything is Trump. It's just the way it is. What's your position on Wall Street about these tariffs? There's been some nervousness on Wall Street about the impact. I don't think so. I mean, there hasn't been very much. And I think it's going to make the United States stronger. And in many ways, it could make other countries stronger, too. You know, other countries want to have a strong United States. They want to have a strong America. And I think it's going to make us very, very strong — much stronger. And we have a lot of work we're doing on the military already. I've authorized some contracts to be built that are very substantial. We're building the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest military equipment in the world. We're building it. At some point, when things settle down, I'm going to meet with China and I'm going to meet with Russia, in particular, those two. And I'm going to say there's no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on military. There's no reason for you to be spending $400 billion. China is going to be at $400 billion. We're at a trillion. We're going to be at close to a trillion. And I'm going to say we can settle this or we can spend this on other things. We don't have to spend this on military because — and I'm going to be meeting with China. You know, we were trying to de-escalate nuclear, and I was in a position where Russia had agreed and China had agreed we were going to start. And then we had a rigged election, so that never took place. But this one was too big to rig. We won by so much that it was too big to rig. Were you going to a China meeting in the United States or would you travel to China for that? For what? A China meeting. I tell people all the time, you know, the question is, who's going to have the first meeting? We're going to — I say this to Putin, to President Xi. I say to everybody. Never bothered me, you know. I'm willing to say, I'll go first. It doesn't matter. It's the end result that counts. So it doesn't make any difference to me. When do you want to have a conversation about global defense spending, you, China, Russia? Well, I'd like to have that — as soon as things settle down, I'm going to have that conference, primarily with China and Russia, because those are the two that really are out there. And we're going to have them spend a lot less money, and we're going to spend a lot less money. And I know they're going to do it. They agreed to it. We were talking about de-nuking, de-nuclearize — de-nuking, and President Putin and I agreed that we were going to do it in a very big way. There's no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. We already have so many. You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they're building nuclear weapons, and China is building new nuclear weapons. And China is trying to catch up because, you know, they're very substantially behind. But within five or six years, they'll be even. And we're all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive. Hopefully, there'll never be a time when we need those weapons. If there's ever a time when we need nuclear weapons like the kind of weapons that we're building and that Russia has and that China has, to a lesser extent, but will have, that's going to be a very sad day. That's going to be probably oblivion. Do you see that as separate conversations, or do you see one giant summit with you, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin? Yeah, I could see that. Let things calm down a little bit. You know, when I left, we had no Middle East problem. We had no Russia going into Ukraine. They never would have done it. Putin never would have done it. And I came back, and we got like the whole world is blowing up. So when we straighten it all out, then I want to have one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, let's cut our military budget in half. And we can do that. And I think we'll be able to do it. If Elon Musk identifies wasteful spending in the Defense Department, defense contractors and the like, are you willing to go after that spending as well? That's been- We have to go waste, fraud, and abuse. Yeah, and we're doing that. You know, I'm just wondering about your conversations on defense spending. Would you want to do that as a trilateral, or would you use the existing body that also already includes China and Russia, the G20? No, it's the people. It's President Putin, President Xi. I don't need bodies. I don't need anything. It's people. It's all about people. It's about relationship and people. And, you know, I've had a good relationship with President Putin. I've had a good relationship with President Xi. It's about people. And I think when things straighten out, which I hope will be in the not-too-distant future, the meeting I want to have first is a meeting with China and a meeting with Russia on slowing down, stopping, and reducing nuclear weapons in particular, and also on not having to spend the kind of money we're all spending on weapons, military weapons generally. I think my question is, would you have those meetings separately with each of those leaders, or would you try to bring them all together? Both. You start off separately, and that's what was happening. I was dealing with President Putin. We had really an understanding where we were gonna denuclearize. What a beautiful term that is, right? Denuclearize. What a great thing if we could do that. And we were gonna, he really liked the idea, and so did I. And we had then called China, and China was very open to it. And then COVID hit, and then we had a rigged election. But now, there was no rigged election. Now we have an election that was too big to rig. My whole theme was, too big to rig. And they tried, but they didn't pull it off. Sir, as part of the reciprocal tariffs, would you also direct agencies to study the impact they would have on prices in the U.S.? No, there's nothing to study. There's nothing to study. It's gonna go well. The United States is gonna become a very, very strong economically country. Yeah. Mr. President, in the past, you have spoken against BRICS. India is part of BRICS. Do you want to dismantle BRICS, or do you want the U.S. to be part of it? I don't care, but BRICS was put there for a bad purpose. And most of those people, they don't even want to talk about it now. They're afraid to talk about it, because I told them, if they want to play games with the dollar, then they're gonna be hit with a 100% tariff the day they mention that they want to do it. And they will come back and say, we beg you, we beg you not to do this. BRICS is dead since I mentioned that. BRICS died the minute I mentioned that. And I know, I remember when Obama, and Biden in particular, I guess he said that, oh, they have us over a barrel. They don't have us over a barrel. We have them over a barrel. If BRICS wants to play games, those countries won't trade with us. We won't trade with them. And if any trading gets through, it'll be 100% tariff, at least. On your cabinet, sir? You know what, when they hear that, what do you think they're gonna do? They're gonna say, look what happened to BRICS. They don't even want to talk about it. They don't even want to admit that they were a member of BRICS. That's what's happened. On your cabinet, sir, we saw Robert F. Kennedy Jr. get confirmed. He's gonna come in here and be sworn in. Mitch McConnell has now voted against several of your nominees. He voted against RFK Jr. as the next health secretary, citing conspiracy theories. What's your reaction to that? Well, I feel sorry for Mitch. And I was one of the people that let, he couldn't, he wanted to go to the end and he wanted to stay leader. He wasn't, he's not equipped mentally. He wasn't equipped 10 years ago mentally, in my opinion. He'd let the Republican Party go to hell. If I didn't come along, the Republican Party wouldn't even exist right now. Mitch McConnell never really had it. He had an ability to raise money because of his position as leader, which anybody could do. You could do it even. And that's saying a lot. But the fact is that he raised money and he gave a lot of money to senators. And so he had a little loyalty based on the fact that as leader, you could raise a lot of money. Senators would call me and they say, he wants to give me 20, 25 million. Can I take it? I'd say, take the money. Take the money. But he, so he engendered a certain amount of, I don't even call it loyalty. He, you know, was able to get votes, but I was the one that got him to drop out of the leadership position. So he can't love me, but he's not voting against Bob. He's voting against me, but that's all right. He endorsed me. You know, Mitch, do you know that Mitch endorsed me, right? You think that was easy? What? He had polio, obviously, and his son is- I don't know anything about he had polio. He had polio. Are you doubting that he had polio? I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn't have been leader. He knows that. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything now. He's a, you know, very bitter guy. And we have a very strong party and he's almost not even really a very powerful member. I'd say he's not a, he's lost his power and it's affected his vote. And you know, it's one of those things. But in the meantime, Bobby did great. Got more votes than anybody thought. And I think he's gonna do phenomenally, just phenomenally in that position. And everybody else likewise did well. Not only well, they got more votes than anybody thought. Tulsi, look at how she did. She did great. Marco got 99 votes. How about that? Marco got, Marco got 99 votes. And Marco, by the way, I have to tell you, Marco Rubio has done a fantastic job. He's been a great secretary of state. They're all doing great. But we're gonna have a, swearing in today and maybe we're gonna have a second one because I hear we have a couple of them coming up. And the man behind me is doing a fantastic job. Secretary of Commerce. And I think you're gonna see something very big come from today's signing. This is gonna be a very important signing. Okay. On U.S. deals, if I can ask very quickly, you said you'd meet with the head of that company and the Japanese company. Yeah, U.S. Steel is gonna be here. And a lot of the steel companies are coming. I think steel companies, they love what's happening to them. We saved it. If I didn't do the tariffs from my first term, you wouldn't have one steel company here. You wouldn't have one steel. There wouldn't be a steel company alive in the United States. And right now, they're going to be thriving. They're doing very well, but they're gonna be thriving. They're gonna be coming out. People are gonna wanna buy those steel companies like crazy. Are you still planning to mediate talks between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel? Yeah, I don't know. I think U.S. Steel right now has all the power. The tariffs have given U.S. Steel a new lease on life. Okay, thank you all very much. Thank you. Let's go. Let's go, guys. Thank you. Thank you, President. Appreciate it. We can leave the stage. Thank you, President. Okay.