BREAKING: Trump Takes Questions After Issuing 'Shoot And Kill' Order To US Navy In Hormuz Strait

Could you talk a little bit about why your Navy Secretary was fired yesterday? He's a wonderful guy. I just put out a statement about him. Very — he's a very good man. I really liked him. But he had some conflict with — not necessarily with some other — he's a hard charger. And he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ships. I'm very aggressive in the new shipbuilding. And somehow, he just didn't get along with him. He's an excellent guy. I think he would have gotten along great with me. I didn't really deal with him too much. But he's a — you know, I consider him to have done a very good job. I put out a nice statement about him. You got to get along, especially in the military. You got to get along, you know. And some people liked him. Some people didn't. And that's usually the truth about everything. But I found him to be a very good man. And I liked him a lot. How long are you willing to wait until you get a private spot? Don't rush me, Jeff. You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh. So we were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years. We were in for all the — I don't like to say World War II, because that was a biggie. But we were four and a half, almost five years, in World War II. We were in the Korean War for seven years. I've been doing this for six weeks. And their military is totally defeated. They're outside of the little Wiseguy ships. I call them the Wiseguy ships, the little boats that they have running around with guns in them. We'll take them out too when we see them. But their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. All of their anti-aircraft machinery is gone. Maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we'll knock that out in about one day if they did. We've done an amazing job. Their leaders are gone. You know, their leaders are all gone. Part of the problem is that — that's why I can't really answer your question — they have all new leadership, and they're fighting like cats and dogs. But who's going to control? Because we've created a real mess for them, but they've created a mess for the world over the last 47 years. They've killed a lot of our people. When you see a soldier, a young person or now an older person, but a person without legs or without arms or with a face that got blown to pieces, most likely it was from Iran. It was Soleimani who I killed. Soleimani loved the roadside bomb. He was an evil genius. He was a brilliant general. Probably we wouldn't be as far advanced had I not taken him out. That was the beginning of it all. And then I ended the Obama horror show. The nuclear transaction that he made was horror. It gave him a road to the — you call it — I mean, what — the deal that he did, the Iran nuclear deal, was so bad. It gave him a road to a nuclear weapon. And I will tell you, I deal with them. You cannot give Iran a nuclear weapon. This is all about a nuclear weapon. They cannot have the nuclear bomb, and they're not going to have the nuclear bomb. So we've taken out their military. We've hit about 75 percent of our targets. We stopped a little early because they wanted to have some peace. And we have a blockade that's 100 percent effective. And they're getting no business. And as you know, they're not doing well economically, financially. They're not doing any business because of the blockade. They want to make a deal. We have been speaking to them, but they don't even know who's leading the country. They're in turmoil. They're in turmoil. So we thought we'd give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved. But, you know — and I hope the fake news — people like you — I hope the fake news are going to be able to write about it accurately. Because when you say, oh, they're fighting very well, they're not fighting well. They were — they've obliterated, Jeff. Obliterated. 159 ships are in the Navy. You know how many ships are at the bottom of the sea, Jeff? 159. So, you know, and if you read the New York Times, the failing New York Times, subscriptions are way down, as you know. That's because people don't believe the stuff anymore. If you watch CNN, you'd think that they're doing well in the war. They're not doing well. They're getting absolutely decimated. Now, with all of that being said, we'll see what happens. They have a lot of — we have no pressure. It's only guys like you with a question like that about, what's your time? We've been doing it for five and a half weeks. But, sir, it's actually been eight weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran. You had initially said it would be four to six weeks. Well, I hope that. But I also took a little break. I gave them a break. And remember this. I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now. Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success? It would take them 20 years to rebuild. But I don't want to do that. I want to have it everlasting. I want to have it where they never get — they never have a chance to get — I mean, the way you asked that question, you know, I did say it. I thought it would take four to six weeks. And I was right, because at the end of six weeks, at the end of four weeks, their military was decimated. But now what I'm doing — I don't — I can't tell you that. I don't want to put that kind of a timetable on it, but it'll go pretty quickly. And we'll have the strait opened up. Now, right now, we have it closed. We have total control of the strait. And the fact that it's closed — you know, they would have opened it up three days ago. They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. And all my people were happy. Everybody was happy except me. I said, wait a minute, if we open the strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I'm the one that kept it closed. We have total control of it. And it'll open when they make a deal or something else happens that's very possible. But what do you say to the American public — excuse me, what do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know, that they are having such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam. How many years was Vietnam? How many years was Vietnam? Well, I did my — I took — I took — I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. I took it out militarily. Now all we're doing is sitting back and seeing what deal. And if they don't want to make a deal, then I'll finish it up militarily with the other 25 percent of the targets. We've hit 78 percent of the targets that we've wanted to hit. We've knocked out their manufacturing. We've knocked out their missile production. We've knocked out their drone production. We've knocked out everything. In some cases, when I say knocked out, 70, 80, 90 percent. It's amazing what we've done. So I've done that within that period of time that I mentioned. But I don't want to rush myself, you know, because every story says, oh, Trump is under time pressure. I'm not — no, you know who's under time pressure? They are. Because if they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode. You know what that means, because they have no place to store it. And because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens that only Lyn can explain. Something happens underground that essentially renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover fully. You can recover 50, 60 percent, but you can never have it like it is right now. And they have a matter of days before that event takes place. So I'm not under any pressure whatsoever. We've never had so much ammunition. Our ships are loaded. I call them locked and loaded. They're locked and loaded. They're ready to go. We have much higher-quality equipment than we did when we first started the war and — or the military operation, whatever you want to call it. And they're coming to us. The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now. Well, now, yesterday — and I was very pleased with this — eight young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6 o'clock. And I asked them, call it a favor or call it just a moral request that they not be executed? And they came back with an answer that they won't be executing. They're going to release — it was protesting. Eight beautiful young women, very young women. And they were — the picture is in the paper. And it's been a story for a little while, and I saw that. And I said, let's see if we can save them. And they were — it was very nice what happened. So they're not going to be — what they're doing is, as you know, they're releasing four of them very shortly, and they're going to keep four of them in jail for a period of one month and release them. So they won't be executed. Yeah, please. So if you're asking for more time to sort out negotiations with Iran — I'm not asking you for more time. I'm not asking for them. No. But if you need more time — I'm just — I'm not asking anybody for more time. If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future? For a little while. And you know what they get for that? You know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East. You want to see what shock would be? And I have to be honest, the stock market is at an all-time high right now. I thought it would have been down 20, 25 percent. Wait a minute. Can I finish my question, wise guy? Stock market's at an all-time high right now. I projected — and I'm pretty good at this — that the stock market, Howard, would drop maybe 20 percent, 25 percent. And I understood that, and I said, hey, it's a bad thing, but I have to do what's right for the country, even the world, because you can't have them — you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. So, the stock market, unlike what a lot of people were predicting, I thought they weren't necessarily wrong. The stock market today hit an all-time high. It hit an all-time high yesterday, the day before, and it's staying there. I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel. And oil is a very different number than anyone thought. In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use. We're actually — ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska. They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States, you know, while this is closed, the Hormuz Strait. So, if you look at what I said, I guess it was right because I said I'd have it four to six weeks. And in four weeks, we have totally defeated their military. So, right now, I don't want to rush it because you guys are, you know, trying to make us look as bad as possible. I don't want to rush it. I want to take my time. We have plenty of time. And I want to get a great deal. I want to get a deal where our nation and the world is safe from lunatics with nuclear weapons. Yes. But, sir, if it does go to $200, are you okay with that, sir? I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities or three. I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe. As you know, they don't reach us, but they reach Europe. But they will reach us at some time, probably the not too distant future, unless we stop them now. I think there would be nothing worse than having nuclear holocaust in Europe, London, Paris, various places in Germany, all targeted. No, what I what I say is you can't let them have. I don't think it will happen. By the way, I really think we actually it turns out that we are drill baby drill. And it turns out we're producing a lot of oil and they're buying the oil. They're going to Alaska. They're going to Texas, Louisiana. And our guys have done a fantastic job. We're putting out right now more oil and gas that we ever have in the history of our country. And one other thing. There are more people employed today in the United States than ever in the history of our country. Is it true that your administration is considering sending 1100 Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo? And if so, do you have a response? Thank you, Mr. President. Breitbart News is Matt Boyle just published an interview with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, in which the prime minister said that he's rooting for you to succeed in getting a deal with Iran. And he also said he looks forward to hosting you in Greece later this year. Do you have any response? No, it's really nice. I mean, Greece has been very supportive, actually. Greece has been terrific. He's a terrific guy because he understands the importance of, you know, oil goes up a little bit. I hate it. You know, I was the one that had it down to $60 a barrel. And I looked at guys like Howard Lucknick. Howard, you remember it well. I said, well, we just hit an all time high in the history of the market. Think of this. When we hit 50000, I was told everybody was told when I won the election, November 5th, they said, well, during the four year period, it'll be impossible for the Dow to ever reach 50000. It'll be impossible for the S&P to ever hit 7000. Impossible. And you remember that, right? It was going to hit maybe six, seven years, eight years. But I did it in my first year, hit 50000. Now it's just about at 50000. And S&P is higher than it was when we started. And S&P had over 7000. And that was before the year ended up one year. So I can only tell you this, it'll end. I don't think it'll be very long, by the way, that they're delaying it because we don't know who to deal with. They are in you know, they know who the leader is in this country. We don't know who the leader is in Iran. Because remember, regime change. Khomeini is gone. He's gone to greener pastures. He's gone and all of his team is gone. Then a second group came in. They're all gone. And now you have the third group. And they're a little concerned about being gone, too. Sir, would you use a nuclear weapon against Iran? You posted on social? No, we don't need it. Why do I need it? Why would a stupid question like that be asked? Why would I why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've totally in a very conventional way decimated them without it? No, I wouldn't use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody. Given a timeline of when they were all very much looking forward to Prince Harry today has said that he would like to do more to end the war in Ukraine. Do you think it's appropriate for a royal to make those comments ahead of the visit on Monday? Prince Harry? Yes, sir. How's he doing? How's his wife? Please give him my regards. Okay. No, I don't know. I think I know one thing. Prince Harry is not speaking for the UK. That's for sure. I think I'm speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry. But I appreciate his advice very much. Great advice. Well, I look forward to the dinner. We're having King Charles come. He's a friend of mine. We're really looking forward to it. We've spoken and we're going to have a great time. I tell you, we if I had that ballroom built, it would be full. I wish we had more seats. You know, they've wanted a new ballroom for 150 years. Now they're getting the best in the world. We're going to have the best in the world. But, you know, we have little a room that's not big enough to handle what would be a big crowd. But we're going to have very great people that love the UK. I love the UK. I think they made a big mistake on energy. You should open up the North Sea in Aberdeen. You should open it up. And the other thing is they've made a big mistake on immigration. What do you hope to learn from Janine Pierro's investigation into the renovation? What do you hope to learn from the Janine Pierro's investigation into the Federal Reserve's reservation that you did not learn when you visited the site yourself? Well, look, you know, the Federal Reserve building is a small building. They're going to be in there by the time it opens, in my opinion, for four billion dollars. I built a hotel down the road for two hundred and one million that I believe is bigger than the Federal Reserve building. Two hundred and one million. The ballroom, I'm going to have the ballroom from three to four hundred million, depending on finishes like marbles to quality and quality finishes. We'll go top of the line. But that's a much bigger project. When you look at the fact that they've taken this beautiful building and destroyed it, they've taken down the beautiful ceilings with eagles, they've taken down the walls that are a foot and a half thick, masonry. You couldn't hear from office to office. They ripped it all down. They did. They ripped down because Kevin Walsh, who's terrific, said to you the saddest thing is they ripped down the nicest building in Washington for boardrooms and all. Did you know about that building? It was the boardroom building. It was beautiful. And they ripped it down and probably because it cost so much to fix it. So I would have done that job for twenty five million had money left over. It's going to cost more than, in my opinion, it's not going to open for a long time. You know, Kevin may not be able to have an office. I'm going to have to get him an office. Can you give him an office? Yes, please. Bobby, it's more than you think. But we're going to have Kevin sitting right next to you, Bobby. But it may not open for a long time. I looked at it the other day. It's a see-through, see-through. You know, that means the wall's already been up yet. This is after years and years of construction. And somehow you have to find out what went wrong that a small building. I could have done it for twenty five million dollars and had money left over. It would have been beautiful. And a small building can cost four billion dollars. It may never open. It may never open. And we have to get to that. On top of that, he's been terrible in interest rates because he should have lowered interest rates. That's why I call him Jerome. Too late, too late. It's his nickname. Jerome, too late, pal. He likes me a lot. Thank you very much.