White House Holds Press Briefing by Trump

Hello, Steve. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. We have a very distinguished guest with us today. A lot of people think he'll be our new press secretary. And one thing about him, he doesn't play games because I've known him a long time, but I'll introduce him in a second. I do want to read a statement that I had an excellent conversation with Sheikh Mohammed. And you probably know who that is. He's Prime Minister of Qatar, wherein much was discussed with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most importantly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and others would prefer the status quo that we remain as is. In other words, a continuation of the. The greatest naval blockade in the history of our country, probably in the history of the world. Nothing has gotten through at all. It's been months, nothing has gotten through. Having a very devastating effect on, as you know and you've seen, having a very devastating effect on Iran. And also Operation Iron Gate, which was newly imposed, and that's land. So you have land and sea, total lockdown. I've agreed that Iran cannot have. And everybody's agreeing. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And that's a non-negotiable point. They understand that. They accept that. They don't admit that they accept it. And they will tell you that they don't accept it, but they accept it 100 percent, more than 100 percent. And should there be any change with respect to developments in the Middle East, the United States of America is fully locked and loaded with the best equipment ever made. And we don't think there's going to be any reason to use it. However, it's going very well. You know, we haven't lost a soldier in six months. If you look, you know, they talk about wars, Ukraine and Russia. And by the way, we're having a very good conversation about that in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine and Russia are losing about 25,000 people a month, mostly soldiers. Two months ago, it was 32,000 people. And compare that with us. We haven't lost a soldier. Six months and nobody, not even an injury, and yet we have the Strait is closed down and more oil has come, closed down to Iran. More oil has come out of the Strait over the last week than at any point in the history of the Hormuz Strait, so we're doing very well. But at this point, it won't be necessary taking the military action. It doesn't seem to be a very necessary thing, but we're locked and loaded, ready to go for any reason. That changes Israel and the entire Middle East are protected from Iranian danger and threats. And we're seeing momentum toward the end of this conflict. I think it's going to be ending fairly soon. We're also seeing a very strong inclination to end Russia and Ukraine. We're involved in that because I want to see people stop getting killed. Again, 25,000 a month on average are being killed with respect to Iran. In Vietnam, they lost 60,000 soldiers over a period of 21 years. In Afghanistan, they lost thousands over many, many years. In Korea, as you know, they lost about 50,000 soldiers over a period of four years. But numerous of these wars went for over 10 years. And basically nothing was won, nothing was... All that you ended up with was death. So we had two wars. We had Venezuela, which was over in 48 minutes, and we lost no soldiers, and we're taking in billions and billions of dollars a day. And we paid for that war many times over. And we're getting along very well with government. We're much in charge. We're totally in charge and getting along well. And the Venezuelan people love us because... The big oil companies are in there now. They're taking in a lot of money. They're seeing more money now than they've ever seen before. So Venezuela was 48 minutes it was over. So let's say one day, but 48 minutes it was done. And it's been, again, millions of barrels of oil are coming in every week. Millions of barrels and billions of dollars. So that's one. And the other is Iran. And Iran militarily is effectively over. We're just keeping it the status quo and we're doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbors. But it's a failing country. It's got 301 percent inflation. It's got problems like you don't want to even think about. They're not paying their military. They're not paying their guard. Their Navy is gone. The Air Force is gone. They have 158 ships that are underwater. They have 268 planes that were scattered all over the runways. of Iran. So their military is essentially gone. Their manufacturing capability is reduced to about, they can still make some limited numbers of missiles and drones, but it's basically about 85% gone. And they're talking to us and they're talking very politely and we'll see what happens, but there's a good chance that that could get ended. So at the conclusion of the military engagement, the American people and the people of the world will be far safer. And more secure than they've been in many, many years because Iran was killing many people. You know, that war was started in 1979. We didn't start the war, they did. Even if you go back to the SS call, that was their situation. A lot of people were killed. A lot of American people were killed. A lot of people throughout the world were killed. And if you go back just over the last seven or eight months, 75,000 at a minimum protesters have been killed. So it's a nasty place, but we think that it's in pretty good shape. We'll see what happens. I don't guarantee anything. But if we do have to go back in, we are locked and loaded and ready to go. With that being said, I was having a little fun, and I said, how about Dana White being the press secretary? He's a great guy. He's done an unbelievable job, most successful. You know, we talk Don King, who's a friend of mine. I got a lot of friends. When you talk about fight promoters, this is more than a fight promoter. This is a man that's done the most incredible job anybody's ever seen. UFC, it's like broadcasting the NFL, the numbers and what he's been able to do. And he's done a lot of press. And I said, you know what? I want to elevate you. I'm going to bring you into the press room. And Dana White could be our press secretary if he would only take the job. There would never have been, even Caroline would admit that Dana is really very unique. The only problem is he'll talk for a little while and then he's going to beat the hell out of you. So I don't know if Daniel would like that. I don't think Daniel wants to take him on, but he's built an amazing machine. He's got a big fight this weekend at Madison Square Garden with the two greatest women fighters of all time, as far as I'm concerned. The women's fighting, it's not a nice thing, but they are very tough. When I say no men in women's sports, that's great. I would not want to fight it. However, I would not. How would I do against one of them? Would I do well? I don't think so. Not well, sir. I said not well. I wouldn't do it again. This would not be a good occurrence. Anyway, but I thought I'd bring Dana here because he loves the idea and I love the idea. The only thing is we have other things we have to think about, but he's a unique person. And he was seeing me anyway, unrelated, and I thought maybe he would say a few words. And I think he'd probably like the job. He loves the country, and he would do a hell of a job. So you were here, he was here, and Dana, please say a few words. Dana White, thank you. I've always wanted to do this. Who has the first question? I have zero political aspirations. I was in a fight for Zuffa Boxing in London when he called me. Told me that he had done this in the last 24 hours of my life has been insane. Thank you for listening. But yeah, good to see you. Yes, ma'am. Between President Trump and former President Joe Biden, same age, same weight, and considering lifestyles, make fights. Could you give us an analysis of the toughest, most resilient human being that I've ever met in my entire life? Many times during, you know, the last. Eight, ten years, whatever it's been, I have told him, why do you keep doing this? Why are you doing this? When he was going through everything that he went through. And, I mean, as tough and as resilient as I thought he was after he got shot, I, yeah. He is a one-of-one, unique human being. Thank Would it be a knockout victory for President Trump? It would be. It would be very bad. Yeah, I think it would be very bad. I can't believe you actually have questions for me. Yes. you The president has said he might consider a pardon for Pete Rose. very What is your advice to the president about that? I don't advise the president on anything ever. much. But, yeah, I think it's fair. I think it's fair to pardon Pete Rose. Yes. How do I do this? But why does he need a pardon? He was not really convicted of a crime. It was tax charges, sir. Oh, he did? Yes, sir. I'd give Pete Rose a go. All right. I think Pete Rose was very mistreated. He was, you know, 4,200 and some odd hits, way ahead of anybody else. A record can never be broken. And he was caught gambling. Now it's legal, right? Right. He was gambling on his own team, David. He wasn't gambling against. That's different. He was gambling. He shouldn't have done it, but he went through 40 years of hell. And they should have given him a pardon. They should have given him into the Baseball Hall of Fame a long time ago. And I spoke to the commissioner about it. And he agreed to do it. And then he waited, though, and Pete Rose died. So it didn't help him too much. But I would give Peter as a point. Mr. President, did you tell the president no to the press secretary job? I don't tell the president no to anything. No, I didn't say no. I literally, everybody, every media outlet was calling me, and I didn't want to be disrespectful and say anything until he said something first. Mr. President, we're having a very bad press day. And I said, I don't know why, I thought of his name, he's been my friend for a long time. I said, you know, I think I'm going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary. And I said it to a group of the press, and that was it. I'm sort of kidding. And then they wrote the story as though I wasn't kidding, and you were inundated, and I was inundated, and he was here anyway, we thought it would have a little fun, and we brought Dana here. He would be... Mr. President, first of all, were you surprised by the results of the midterms last Tuesday? And Mr. President, you, on the campaign trail, you had said that you had stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Why not just declare an end to the conflict and be done with it? Because we have some great allies there, and we have to make sure they're not hurt. They are right now a lot safer than they were six months ago, because Iran's been very much decapitated. But they're still the bully of the Middle East, at least a little bit. And I see that. We want to make sure they're OK. We want to make sure it's a long-term solution, not just a short-term one. They'll never have a nuclear weapon, but we have to make sure that's a long-term one. So it's ending quickly, but we want to take care of people that have been very good to us over the years. They'll never have a nuclear weapon, but we have to make sure that it's a long-term. So it's ending quickly, but we want to take care of people that have been very good to us over the years. You told 60 Minutes that you felt that your deportation policy may have gone too far, but then you named the architect of that policy, Stephen Miller, to be your chief of staff. Have you told him that you want changes to the deportation policy? We have a very strong deportation policy. There's no amnesty, no anything. We keep that. But we focus on the worst of the worst. We want to get the murderers out. We've gotten most of them out. We've gotten most of the really bad. You know, they allowed, Joe Biden allowed, underwhelmed. 25 million people to come in. Of that, 11,888 murderers, most of whom committed more than one murder. We've gotten most of them. We want to get the worst of the worst, and then we'll see what happens. But they came in illegally. Many of them have good jobs now. They're productive. Some of them are even paying taxes. And we're seeing what's going to happen. There won't be amnesty. Somebody suggested, will there be amnesty? No. But they came in. They knew the law. And we're working with a lot of different groups to see whether or not. But my policy hasn't changed. What we are doing is absolutely the worst of the worst. We're getting the murderers. They allowed people to come in from prisons. They emptied their prisons into our country. Many countries. And they emptied our prisons into our country. The drug dealers that we have. The people from the mental institutions. Mental institutions all over the world were emptied out. Prisons all over the world. The Congo. In the Congo, their prison population was emptied into our country. All over South America, all over Asia, they did that too. What Biden did to this country should never, ever be forgotten. And I hope the Democrats will not try and allow that to happen. But you said you were coming. We've seen the stock market really take, you know, up and down like a rollercoaster the last couple of days. Today, up. Last week, it tanked. Not last week. Right after the election, it went down to $3 trillion. That was because of the result of the election, because the stock market does not want to see Democrats. And your 401ks have gone way down because of the ridiculous result. It's not even a result. It's almost hard to believe. Now, I wasn't on the ballot. I shouldn't take anything personally. But I will tell you, I thought it was ridiculous. But the stock market went way down right after that event. Today it's way up because I think they feel we have things under control. Right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. When were you first informed that there was an issue with Jensen Huang and the affair? And what was presented to you at the time? What was the concern? I would say that... When I heard about it, first of all, I was amazed because I view him as a very high-quality person. I've known him a long time. It's actually the largest, I think by value, it's probably the largest or one of the largest companies in the world. He did that with a chip. You know, when you think about it, he's got a chip that's 10 years advanced. Can't be, because of the complexity, can't even, the Blackwell, can't even be copied. He's an amazing guy. I just hope it's, I hope there's no problem. If there is a problem, we'll let you know about it, but I hope there's no problem. I believe he's suffering greatly. I read his statement, and I believe he's suffering greatly, more so because of his family, his wife, who he loves, and his family. But he is definitely suffering. And I hope he's suffering. When were you first told of these issues with Mr. White? Well, I've been hearing about it, and I've been reading a little bit about it over a period of time. Thank Not too long ago and we'll look into it. I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of you something else and I think that he'll be in good shape. very Shame. Mr. President, you say the war with Iran will be ending fairly soon. much, You've made this claim dozens of times over the past eight months. Why should Americans... everyone. Well, no, I made the claim that they won't have a nuclear weapon and they won't have a nuclear weapon. Well, we knocked them out a year ago. That was... I said I was going to do that. And I kept my word on that. Now what we're doing is we're, it's really status quo territory. We're keeping it going. We have the greatest military blockade ever. We have the new Iron Gate. Iron Gate is land, so by land and by sea. And we will take care of business. Look, Iran, I hope we're going to be able to make a deal with them. Nothing's going to happen. And if we have to, we'll take very serious. We are so loaded. We just have another aircraft carrier. It's all loaded up to the gills with brand new, beautiful stuff. We're making more military equipment and munitions right now than at any time in the history of our country. We've built and are building more plants. Our defense companies are building more plants than ever at any time in the history of our country. And Many of those plants are open. Some opened and some are opening soon. We're building new Patriots. We're building new Tomahawks, new THAAD systems. And we have more under construction now than at any time ever. And we're taking it, and obviously we're taking it for ourselves first. What happened is, it wasn't so much Iran. Joe Biden gave $350 billion worth of free equipment to Ukraine. That was unbelievable. Now they pay, and we give it to the European Union. We have a very good relationship. We took them from 2% to 5% is what they're paying now, which is pretty amazing. Nobody thought that could happen. But they pay full for the equipment. Joe Biden gave free Free equipment, $350 billion. And we are now building more military equipment and munitions than at any time in the history of our country. We just had, just in case, we had another aircraft carrier, we have many, sailing over and just arriving in the Middle East, so we have three. And they're all locked and loaded. And hopefully we don't have to use them. Mr. President, are you going to bring up the case of Jensen Huang with President Xi when you visit with him next week? No, I don't think so. I mean, maybe I'm sure President Xi will ask me about it. I just know Jensen very well. I just think he's a very honorable man. I mean, he built a great company, American company. And I think he's a very honorable guy. And I feel very confident that he'll be in good shape. Cheers. When you went to China earlier this year in May, did you know about these alleged ties with the Chinese spy then? No, I didn't hear about it then. But a lot of people have heard about it. And Jensen totally denies that. I asked him today, because I did speak to him today, just to see if he's feeling all right, how you're doing. And I asked him about that. And he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy. I asked him that question. Did you have any idea that she was a spy? He said, I had no idea that she was a spy. And I really believe him. Yeah, I believe him. What do you hope he does right through on Ukraine at the talks in Abu Dhabi this week? And if so, why do you trust him? I just think that Ukraine and Russia are tired of fighting. They're tired of seeing dead young soldiers, mostly soldiers. Most of the people are soldiers. Think of it, they're losing 25,000. Danny, can you imagine 25,000? That's like a stadium, Madison Square Garden. You have your fights, 25,000, that's what it holds. And they're losing that every single month, dead. Young, beautiful people, and it's got to stop. You know, it doesn't affect us, but I'm able to get them together, and we're meeting now, right now as we speak, and the meetings are going okay, but we're trying to get it settled only because... We want to say, it doesn't affect us as a country, but it affects me. 25,000 people a month are being killed. Mr. President, a number of Senate GOP members are urging the conference to delay their leadership votes tomorrow. We know that John Thune is running unopposed in the Senate. Do you think that Mr. Thune has earned the right to lead Senate? Well, look, he's a very fine man. I know him very well. But that's really up to the Senate, and I like John Thune. I wish they could get more produced. You know, we've had Save America up there. We've had, you know, Voter ID and Proof of Citizenship and many other things. It's not easy. He's got some people that, first of all, you have 100% negative Democrats. They never vote yes. They always vote no. That means he has to get almost 100% of the Republicans. And you have some Republicans in there, I can name them, but why should I, that are very difficult. And, you know, I said as leader you have to get those people, John's a good man. I guess they're going to be voting tomorrow or maybe it's too late. I don't know what the status, but, you know, he's a friend of mine. I wish the Senate could get more done. I spoke about Venezuela. Do you plan on having elections there before the end of the term? At some point, yeah. At some point, yes. Mr. President, earlier today you posted on social media where you questioned whether the midterm election results were honest. Do you believe that the election was rigged? And separately, did you... Did you watch Senator Thomas Massie lay out his articles of impeachment this afternoon. No, I don't watch Massie. Look, Massie's a loser. He shouldn't be taking up the time of Congress or the Senate or anything that he's doing. You guys are a stone-cold loser. Would always, he's a Republican, always he would vote against. We could come up with the best bill. We could come up with, and he would always vote against. There's something wrong with him. And I said, look, I've got to challenge him, and I challenged him, and he lost in a landslide to a very good man. We have a very good man, Ed Gailliard, who's great, took his place. But, you know, I went and did something that is very tough to do. Now, I challenged others also. I challenged Cornyn, I challenged Tillis, and I challenged, if you look at Louisiana. Cassidy, three. So that makes things a little bit harder to get their votes because I wouldn't say they like me. But of all of them, I would say there's something wrong with Thomas Massie. He was an automatic no vote. You could go in with the greatest bill. Bills where even Democrats were voting, and he'd be no. And I said, what is wrong with this guy? He's a sick guy. There's something wrong with him, actually. Now, he's after Pete Hegseth. He doesn't like Hegseth. But really, what has Hegseth done? He won the war. He was in charge. He won the war in Venezuela. As I said, 48 minutes. It was flawless. Nobody killed. And he certainly, I think he's won the war in Iran, but he's certainly winning the war. Iran would love to make a deal. And they've been obliterated, their Navy, their Air Force. So he won the war. In two places, two big places, very important, very impactful, and they were won. They're not like Vietnam when nothing was won, or Afghanistan, or Iraq, or any of these wars when nothing was won. There was nothing won, just lots of death, and then let's leave. In one case, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. In the other, we're making hundreds of billions of dollars for this country. So, I say this. Pete Hegseth won two wars. Oh, let's impeach him. What about impeaching the gentleman from Biden, his person that disappeared for two weeks and nobody had any idea where he was? What about impeaching the people that ran the Vietnam War? What about impeaching that went that ran Iraq and Afghanistan and all of these other wars where thousands of lives have been? You know, we lost 18 people, 18. They lost 65,000 in Vietnam. We're in there for seven months. They're in there for 21 years. What about impeaching those people? What about impeaching the leaders of these stupid wars that were done when nothing was gained? In Iran, they won't have a nuclear weapon. That's a big thing. Now, short term, probably bad for me because people want to have a little bit lower energy cost. We'll get it back down. I created the lowest cost. You know, it's even lower now than it was with Biden and Obama, but I've done something different. They won't have a nuclear weapon. That's a big thing. And with the other, we're making a fortune and we have tremendous amounts of oil. We have more oil, including Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, by far. In fact, by two. Yeah, please. Do you believe the midterms were rigged, sir, to follow? Well, I think the numbers were terrible in terms of those early votes. You look at all those early votes. And look at another one. I'm watching Alaska. So you have a guy named Dan Sullivan, and another guy named Dan Sullivan runs. And one's a J and one's an S. And the one with a J, which is a fake Dan Sullivan, tries to have his initial change to S. He never ran before. He never was a political person before. He was fraudulently put in the race. And then they tried to change his middle name, so it was an effort to confuse. So Dan Sullivan and the woman, Peltola, is, they're very close. He's only, I guess she's four or 500 votes up. But this fake Dan Sullivan, because of confusion, only because they're meant to vote, has 2,500, almost 3,000 votes. That means he wins the election. But in addition, they have a second person they put in and they made a big issue with the second. And that person is four thousand or five thousand votes. Those votes should go also. But even if you don't include that, you have a Dan Sullivan and a Dan Sullivan and the Democrats put him up in order to confuse the voters. So anybody that voted for that second Dan Sullivan, the fake Dan Sullivan, was supposed to be a vote for the real Dan Sullivan. So they stole it. And that election should be called right now because Dan Sullivan won easily if you add up the numbers. Now, if you add up the numbers for the second person they put in, he's leading by 6,000, 7,000 votes. Thank you very much. I'm starting to speak now. Go ahead, please. You have multiple times given Vladimir Putin. Yeah, I'll stand by him. You have multiple. Mr. President. Stand by him. You're a defense secretary. He won two wars. He was in charge. We all won. I had great people. You what? Massey's a loser, just like you're a loser at CNN, just like your ratings are a loser. Massey is a loser, stone-cold loser. I ran, I did something that nobody's done. I took on a guy that was, in his own way, sort of popular in his state, and I beat him badly, beat him easily with a man that never ran before, but a good man. Massey has a lot of hatred in his heart. I watched, I heard what Massey did. I don't want to watch. I don't want to waste my time watching him. We won two wars. We won two wars. And we've made the world a lot safer place. And then we're supposed to be. Why haven't we gone after all these other people that ran wars that lost? What about this? What about, what about, what about good old Lloyd? Why didn't we go after him? Why didn't we go after the people that disappeared? They're in charge of the military and they disappeared. From, nobody knew, had any idea that nothing happened to him. Tim? What about all these people that lost wars? You don't have to, all I can say is this. We have the highest recruit, the recruitment numbers of, you know, when I came in, when I was campaigning, we had the worst recruitment, people wanting to join the military in the history of our country. We couldn't fill any of the spots. It was a disaster. Now we have the best numbers we've ever had. More people want to be in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, even the police, Space Force, firemen, anybody with a uniform. So now we have the best numbers we've ever had. And I will say this, the soldiers, the actual soldiers, the great people that do the work, the great patriots, they love Pete Hegseth. So if you go back two years ago, before I got into office, two years ago, we could not recruit people. And you know that better. The army was way behind everybody. Now we have waiting lists of people trying to get in. He's done a very good job. Vladimir Putin, you have given Vladimir Putin multiple deadlines over the last 22 months to enter into a ceasefire, but also to meet directly with Vladimir Zelensky. He has repeatedly ignored your demands, yet you have provided... Well, you say he's ignored. Has he been fighting us in the war? Yeah, yeah. Let me ask you this question. Who are you with? Who are you with? With MSNOW. MSNBC? That's a fake deal. Go ahead. Go ahead. MSNBC gets the worst ratings in their history. Used to be MSDNC. It's one of the worst. Of course. You're a fake network. Go ahead. Thank you. Jennifer, Jennifer, go ahead, Jennifer, go ahead, MSNBC, what a joke, go ahead, even Miller's doing a great job, I do think he's going to be great, he's been with me from the beginning, he's smart, he's tough, he's fair, and he actually will get along, I think, very well with the Democrats. Thank you. I want to put a finer point. They're going to try and, you know, I'm open to it. We're not going to have amnesty or anything. We're going to, you know, people are going to do it the right way. They have to do it. It's unfair to other people, but certainly I'm open to it. But he's open to it. Is Stephen Miller open to it? No, no, not you. Not you. Go ahead. I wanted you to put a finer point on when exactly you were made aware of the intelligence around Jensen Wang. Oh, I have to check. But this has been going on. Last year, did you read that memo? I'd certainly check with the intelligence people. They could have been mentioned. Certainly, it didn't make much of an impact on me. Yeah. What are your first tests for bipartisanship in this new era is going to be working with Democrats on this permitting bill, which is expected to get a vote. The permitting bill is a great bill that's supposed to be bipartisan. We are behind it 100 percent. Are you going to whip that in the House? Well, we may see, but the Democrats want that. I mean, maybe they've changed, but they want it as much as the republic. You're going to approve wind turbines in the future? You've been very critical of them. That's part of this bill. No, I will not approve wind turbines. Well, that's part of the bill, sir. A key part of the bill. You're not going to... Well, the bill hasn't been fully negotiated. I will not approve wind turbines, because wind turbines are a major loser. Go ahead. Do you still plan to take Cuba? As you said before, it was going to be your pleasure to take Cuba in your mandate. Do you still plan on taking Cuba? Well, Cuba's falling. It's a failing nation. It's got an ideology very similar to what the Democrat ideology is, and it's a failing nation. It's a communist nation, socialist nation, sort of everything all wrapped into one. We have tremendous people who were treated very badly, Cuban Americans, and they voted for me 94 percent. And we take care of those people. But Cuba is a failing nation. We will help them on a humanitarian basis. We are helping them, actually. But we'll see what happens. Cuba is going to be interesting. I would imagine it will fall fairly soon. I can't keep this man waiting. He's a very, very powerful man. So let me ask. Wait, wait, wait. So let me ask you the big question. Dana, would you like to be press secretary of the United States of America? Look at the sign. You'd have this behind you all the time. The White House Washington. Would you like that? Or do you just want to stay with this ridiculous UFC? I'm starting to see. Thank you for the offer, sir. For the offer, I do not want to be in politics. I am devastated to hear this. Goodbye, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Just to conclude, our country is doing really well. We're respected by everybody in the world, something that was not true two years ago. Our country is doing better than it's ever done before. Thank you very much.