President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, a move that could reshape America's economic strategy. Trump suggested that the fund might play a role in facilitating the sale of TikTok, raising questions about its broader implications. With experts debating the fund's potential impact on trade, national security, and global markets, this decision could mark a turning point in U.S. financial policy. Will this fund strengthen America's economic dominance, or will it spark controversy over government involvement in private sector deals? Watch the full analysis now!
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NewsTranscript
00:00I spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada,
00:04and we had a good talk in the morning.
00:06But I did ask him a couple of questions, like,
00:08you know, banks aren't allowed to do business in Canada.
00:11Canada is very tough.
00:12Canada is very — you know, we're not treated well by Canada.
00:16The numbers — some of the numbers are horrible,
00:18what he's found.
00:20A hundred — think of it —
00:22a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.
00:28Condoms to Hamas and many other things
00:31that are, frankly, even more ridiculous.
00:33And they're finding tremendous waste —
00:38really waste, a large amount of money.
00:40And one of the problems we have with the Russia-Ukraine situation
00:43is that we want to see some equalization,
00:48because we're in for close to $300 billion,
00:52and they're in for $200 billion less.
00:56Why are they in for less?
00:57Because Biden never asked them for money.
00:59He never said, you got to pay.
01:01They never did. All he did is hand out money.
01:04So, we're talking with them right now,
01:06and we're actually working some deals right now
01:08so we have some guarantees and some other things
01:14to keep that whole situation to go —
01:18really going. I mean, going.
01:20Some of it, frankly, and some of the things
01:22that they've been doing is just terrible.
01:25Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval,
01:31and we'll give him the approval where appropriate.
01:33Where not appropriate, we won't.
01:35But he reports in,
01:37and it's something that he feels very strongly about.
01:42We've done more in two weeks than Biden's done in five years,
01:45six years.
01:47They could be here between him and Obama.
01:50You add it up, okay?
01:52We've done more in two weeks than they've done in 12 years.
01:55Thank you very much. We have some very exciting news today.
01:58We have — numerous fronts are being covered.
02:01Before we do that, Will will give me certain proclamations.
02:05We'll sign them.
02:06And you'll hear a little bit about them.
02:08Will, please.
02:09First, we have, for your signature,
02:12five official designations of special envoys.
02:14The first is Mr. Steve Whitkoff,
02:17who's actually in the room to be your Middle East envoy.
02:25Where is Steve?
02:35Steve Whitkoff, everybody.
02:36He's done a great job in the Middle East.
02:39Really great. But we'll see how it all turns out.
02:43It's complex, but I think he's going to do very well.
02:47Next, we have Mauricio Claver-Coron
02:50to be your special envoy to Latin America, sir.
02:52Okay. Good man.
03:02Okay. Thank you, sir.
03:04Next, we have retired General Keith Kellogg
03:06to be your special envoy on Russian-Ukraine issues.
03:12We've made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine.
03:16We'll see what happens, but a lot of progress has been made.
03:19We're going to stop that ridiculous war.
03:23Okay.
03:31Thank you, sir.
03:32Next, we have designation of Richard Grinnell,
03:35Rick Grinnell, to be your envoy for special missions.
03:40I sent him to California to turn on the water.
03:43We turned it on. It was not easy
03:44because we had to go through a lot of environmentalists
03:47that are causing a lot of problems.
03:48And we have billions of gallons of water.
03:52It was on three days ago.
03:53You probably saw it should have gotten a lot of press,
03:56but it didn't get much.
03:57All we're doing is giving Los Angeles
03:59and the entire state of California
04:02virtually unlimited water,
04:03which they could have done five years ago,
04:05which I told them they should do.
04:08But the environmentalists stopped them, and we opened it,
04:11and we did it regardless of the state.
04:15And now the state seems to be very happy.
04:17I spoke with Gavin Newsom,
04:20and he's very happy.
04:23I almost called him by the other name, didn't I?
04:26My little nickname for him.
04:27But I think they're all happy.
04:29They have a lot of water in California.
04:31Too bad we didn't have it about two months ago, right?
04:36That was, by the way, that was a big move.
04:39We have, I don't know if you saw the pictures
04:41that were released of the water pouring down
04:43from the Pacific Northwest and Canada
04:47and lots of other places.
04:49And it's a pretty amazing sight.
04:53Mr. President, Rick Grinnell had a big Friday trip as well.
04:58He had a very big Friday trip. You're right.
05:00We'll talk about that. He's doing — he's a good man, Rick.
05:03Lastly, sir, we have a designation of Mark Burnett
05:06as your Special Envoy to the United Kingdom.
05:08You know who Mark Burnett is? Huh?
05:10I figured he should be good.
05:13He certainly had done a great job.
05:14A friend of mine and a very talented guy.
05:18We have very talented people working for us.
05:23I'll hold that one up because Mark gets so much television.
05:26We'll hold it up, right? He'll be thrilled to see it.
05:29He's going to do a good job.
05:31Thank you, sir.
05:33Next, your administration has smashed records
05:36for appointing large numbers of highly qualified,
05:39capable people at all levels of the federal government.
05:42These are 28 subcabinet-level officials
05:45being appointed to a number of different departments
05:48and agencies. Some of them are quite important positions,
05:50like departmental general counsels.
05:54But these are people who have been pre-vetted
05:55and have received your approval previously.
05:57The President. Very good. Okay.
06:06Thank you, sir.
06:08Next, this is an executive order.
06:10This charges your Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besant,
06:14and your Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick,
06:16to begin a process that will hopefully result
06:18in the creation of an American Sovereign Wealth Fund.
06:22It's a very exciting event.
06:26We're going to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund,
06:28which we've never had.
06:29We have a lot of things that create wealth,
06:31and you've seen that over the last two weeks.
06:34I think we've created more wealth.
06:37Other people have created de-wealth.
06:39The people, my predecessors, we're creating a lot of wealth.
06:42Scott, maybe you'd like to say something about it.
06:45And I'd ask also Howard to say something about it.
06:50Yes, sir. This is very exciting.
06:53We're going to stand this thing up.
06:55Within the next 12 months,
06:57we're going to monetize the asset side
07:01of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.
07:04We're going to put the assets to work.
07:09And I think it's going to be very exciting.
07:11We're going to study best practices.
07:13It's done around the world.
07:14It'll be a combination of liquid assets,
07:17assets that we have in this country
07:20as we work to bring them out for the American people.
07:26The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government
07:31and the business it does with companies
07:34should create value for American citizens.
07:38If we are going to buy 2 billion COVID vaccines,
07:42maybe we should have some warrants
07:44and some equity in these companies
07:45and have that grow for the help of the American people.
07:49So I bring all these things together.
07:52I think we'll create, Scott and I will create
07:54an amazing sovereign wealth fund for you, sir.
07:57So other countries have sovereign wealth funds
08:00and they're much smaller countries
08:02and they're not the United States.
08:04We have tremendous potential in this country.
08:06Tremendous. You're seeing that's what's happened
08:08just in a short period of time.
08:11And as an example, TikTok,
08:12we're going to be doing something,
08:14perhaps with TikTok and perhaps not.
08:16If we make the right deal, we'll do it.
08:18Otherwise, we won't. But I have the right to do that.
08:21And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,
08:23whatever we make, or if we do a partnership
08:25with very wealthy people, a lot of options.
08:29But we could put that as an example in the fund.
08:32And we have a lot of other things
08:33that we could put in the fund.
08:35And I think in a short period of time,
08:37we'd have one of the biggest funds.
08:38And, you know, some of them are pretty large,
08:41I must tell you, some of the like the Saudi Arabia fund
08:44is on the large side.
08:47But eventually we'll catch it.
08:49But we're going to create a lot of wealth for the fund.
08:52And I think it's about time that this country
08:54had a sovereign wealth fund.
08:55And these two gentlemen and some others
08:58are going to work with them very closely
08:59and they'll be heading it up
09:01and they're going to do a great job.
09:03Two highly respected people that have done unbelievably
09:05well in the world, in the real world.
09:09So that's a big deal, huh?
09:11Sir, I think I think it's going to create value
09:13and be of great strategic importance.
09:18Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk
09:21to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?
09:24Well, he's got access only to letting people go
09:27that he thinks are no good if we agree with him.
09:30And it's only if we agree with him.
09:32He's a very talented guy
09:33from the standpoint of management and costs.
09:36And we put him in charge of seeing
09:39what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers.
09:44The numbers, some of the numbers are horrible,
09:45what he's found.
09:47A hundred, think of it,
09:50a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.
09:56Condoms to Hamas and many other things
09:59that are, frankly, even more ridiculous.
10:01And they're finding tremendous waste,
10:05really waste more than anything else,
10:08I think you could say.
10:09Probably fraud and abuse can be added to it.
10:12The more standard waste, fraud and abuse.
10:15But they're finding tremendous amounts
10:16of really bad things, bad spending.
10:22You've been reading about, you've been writing
10:24about some of it, frankly,
10:25and some of the things that they've been doing
10:27is just terrible.
10:29Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval.
10:35And we'll give him the approval where appropriate.
10:37We're not appropriate, we won't.
10:39But he reports in and it's something
10:44that he feels very strongly about.
10:46And I'm impressed because he's running,
10:47obviously, a big company.
10:48Has nothing to do, if there's a conflict,
10:50then we won't let him get near it.
10:53But he does have a good natural instinct.
10:54He's got a team of very talented people.
10:56We're trying to shrink government.
10:58And he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else,
11:01if not better.
11:03Where we think there's a conflict or there's a problem,
11:05we won't let him go near it.
11:09But he has some very good ideas.
11:10And we have a lot of very other talented people also.
11:13We'll bring in the most talented people in the world.
11:15By the way, we're just unrelated,
11:17but we have two of the most talented people in the world.
11:20The legendary Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison.
11:23So, they are two legends in business,
11:27publishing, and probably every other.
11:29Rupert is, Larry, pretty much in a class by himself, right?
11:34I mean, although he may have a couple of bucks more.
11:36I don't know. But Rupert is in a class by himself.
11:40He's an amazing guy. And Larry is, Larry is Larry.
11:44Larry is one of the most serious players
11:46anywhere in the world. So, it's an honor to have you.
11:49This has nothing to do with you people,
11:51but they're here and I thought it would be appropriate.
11:53I'm sure you didn't recognize them.
11:55They're all going crazy.
11:57They're saying, what are they doing here?
11:59Mr. President, on the tariffs,
12:01is there any chance that Canada or China
12:03could also get out of the tariffs
12:05after you start the deal with Mexico?
12:06Well, nobody is out with Mexico.
12:08We had a great talk with Mexico.
12:12And we had President Scheinbaum is a woman.
12:17I like her very much. We've had good relationships.
12:20But we have to stop fentanyl from coming in,
12:22whether I like somebody or not.
12:24And we have to stop the illegal aliens from coming in.
12:27I think we've lost 200,000 people on average a year
12:30for many years, much higher than the 100,000.
12:33Could be even closer to 300,000.
12:36And they've agreed to put in 10,000 soldiers permanently,
12:41like forever, 10,000 soldiers at their side of the border
12:45and stop fentanyl and illegal aliens
12:47from coming into our country.
12:49They have a big incentive to do.
12:51Other than that, we've agreed to talk
12:53and consider various other things.
12:56We haven't agreed on tariffs yet.
12:58And maybe we will, maybe we won't.
13:00But we have a very good relationship.
13:02I also spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada.
13:07And we had a good talk in the morning.
13:09But I did ask him a couple of questions,
13:11like, you know, banks aren't allowed to do business in Canada.
13:14Canada is very tough. Canada is very —
13:17you know, we're not treated well by Canada.
13:19And we have to be treated well.
13:23Banks are not, as an example, allowed.
13:25Did you know that? That banks — American banks
13:27are not allowed to do business in Canada.
13:29Can you believe that?
13:30And that's one of many things we talked about.
13:32And I think we'll win most of the subjects.
13:36But for some reason, a lot of things
13:39have been very unfair with Canada.
13:40I noticed that in the first term.
13:42You deal with people, and after a while,
13:44you begin to realize, like,
13:45you learn that Larry Ellison is very tough to do business with.
13:49Okay? He's a very tough guy.
13:51I mean, I'm sure you're shocked to hear that.
13:54But Canada is very tough.
13:56They're very, very tough to do business with.
13:59And we can't let them take advantage of the U.S.
14:02They don't take our agricultural product, for the most part.
14:06They don't take our cars. They make cars.
14:08But they basically don't take our cars.
14:10And, you know, we don't need — and, look,
14:12I think we're going to have another good conversation today.
14:15We're actually speaking at 3 o'clock again.
14:18But we don't need them to make our cars.
14:20We don't need them to give us lumber.
14:22We don't need them for agricultural products
14:24because we have all the agriculture we need.
14:27They don't take our agricultural product,
14:29for the most part — our milk and dairy, et cetera.
14:32A little bit, they do, but not much.
14:34We take theirs.
14:37And as far as cars are concerned,
14:39they took in a big percentage — almost 19 percent of the market.
14:43And, you know, I wouldn't mind making our cars
14:45in the United States. So we have a problem there.
14:48I'd like to make our cars in the U.S.
14:51We don't need Canada to make our cars.
14:53With that being said, we're going to have another call
14:55at 3 o'clock. We had a call this morning.
14:57It was a pretty good call, I'd say.
15:00So the call with Mexico went very well,
15:02in the sense that they're very strong now on the border.
15:05They're going to put soldiers there.
15:08Actually, they're best military soldiers.
15:12And they're going to be at the border — 10,000.
15:14That's a lot of soldiers. And they want to protect it also.
15:18You know, they want — they don't want people
15:20running through Mexico, coming through Mexico,
15:22to come into our country. So they're going to do that.
15:25And then we're going to talk about other things over the next.
15:27And we're going to have — over the next 30 days,
15:29we're going to have Scott, Howard, and Marco.
15:33Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, lead the delegation.
15:37And we're going to have a big negotiation with Mexico.
15:41I'll be involved, too. And President Scheinbaum
15:44will be involved to see whether or not
15:45we can work something out on the tariffs.
15:47What about China, sir?
15:49China. We'll be speaking to China
15:52probably over the next 24 hours.
15:53On fentanyl, Mr. Trump?
15:55We don't want fentanyl coming into our country.
15:59Now, we had another big thing, speaking of China.
16:03China is involved with the Panama Canal.
16:05They won't be for long. And that's the way it has to be.
16:09Marco just got back, as you know.
16:10He's in the process of coming back.
16:13I guess he's almost back by now.
16:15And he had a very long conversation
16:18with the leader of Panama, the respected man,
16:22and some others, the entire leadership group.
16:27And we're trying to work a deal on the Panama Canal.
16:31The Panama Canal was given, foolishly, years ago to —
16:37it shouldn't have been happened — years ago to Panama
16:41by Jimmy Carter and the group.
16:45We lost 38,000 people building the Panama Canal,
16:49like the — one of the great wonders of the world.
16:51It's the biggest job we've ever built,
16:53the biggest project we've ever built in this country,
16:56dollar-wise and every other way.
16:59Thirty-eight thousand people died.
17:01Americans, all men, just about.
17:04Laborers and construction people,
17:07they went to Panama.
17:08The mosquito got them. Between mosquito and snakes,
17:13we lost 38,000 people.
17:15It was the most expensive project
17:17ever built by the United States.
17:19Most — the biggest, most expensive project
17:21we ever built 110 years ago.
17:23If you bring it up to now, it would have been the equivalent
17:26of $2 trillion.
17:28The most expensive we ever built.
17:30And we gave it away for $1, okay?
17:33We gave it away, essentially, for nothing.
17:37And we either want it back,
17:40or we're going to get something very strong,
17:44or we're going to take it back.
17:46And China will be dealt with.
17:53And we didn't give that to China.
17:55We gave it to Panama.
17:56We shouldn't have given it to Panama.
17:58But Panama, as you know, has violated the agreement —
18:01totally violated the agreement.
18:03So that's in the process right now.
18:05But they did have a very good meeting
18:06with the head of Panama.
18:08The Press.
18:09In addition to tariffs on China,
18:11could you say your current thinking
18:13about whether China should be forced to pay reparations
18:16for fentanyl deaths and a million COVID deaths?
18:18No, I haven't talked about that.
18:20But they do have tariffs.
18:22Honestly, nobody — the amount of money that was lost
18:27and, most importantly, the lives lost because of COVID
18:31will — is not something that anybody could ever even imagine.
18:36It's probably $60 trillion,
18:38and all the countries in the world don't have $60 trillion.
18:41Right.
18:43The amount of death and the amount of destruction
18:45and the amount of money lost is probably $60 trillion.
18:49I had it figured by people about three months ago.
18:53I was just — it just said, figure it out.
18:55Nobody knows what the real number is,
18:57but it's an — almost an infinite number.
19:01The damage done — but I have not discussed that.
19:04What I have discussed is we'll have
19:06some good meetings with China.
19:08We have meetings planned, and we'll see what happens.
19:12But that was just an opening salvo.
19:15If we can't make a deal with China,
19:17then the tariffs will be very, very substantial.
19:20Okay, I'm going to sign this one.
19:21Sir, this is — you've obviously made
19:23making America healthy, again,
19:25a key priority of this administration.
19:27A key component of that is obviously heart health.
19:29This is a ceremonial proclamation
19:32declaring the month of February to be National Heart Month.
19:35Okay. I hear we're doing very well with nominations.
19:39We'll see, but it looks like we're doing
19:41very well with nominations.
19:42Mr. President, have you been involved
19:44with calling senators who had some concerns
19:47about Tulsi Gabbard or —
19:48Yes. Yeah, I've gotten great response.
19:52And they want to do what's right,
19:53and we've had a good response.
19:55I think we'll do well.
19:57We have great people, like — people like this.
20:00We have great, great people coming in.
20:02I think I'd like to say the best ever recruited for government.
20:07I think we have the finest people
20:09ever recruited for government.
20:11Will it take an act of Congress —
20:12And you know what? You're starting to see that
20:14because we've done more in two weeks
20:16than Biden has done in five years, six years.
20:20They could be here between him and Obama.
20:23You add it up, okay?
20:25We've done more in two weeks than they've done in 12 years.
20:27Will it take an act of Congress to do away with USAID?
20:31Or do you believe the U.S. —
20:32I don't know. I don't think so.
20:33If — not when it comes to fraud.
20:35If there's fraud — these people are lunatics.
20:38And if it comes to fraud,
20:40you wouldn't have an act of Congress.
20:42And I'm not sure that you would anyway.
20:44But we just want to do the right thing.
20:46That's — it's something that should have been done
20:49a long time ago.
20:50Went crazy during the Biden administration.
20:52They went totally crazy, what they were doing.
20:55And the money they were giving to people
20:58that shouldn't be getting it and to agencies
21:01and others that shouldn't be getting it was a shame.
21:03So, they're tremendous fraud. But we'll be doing a report.
21:08We'll be giving you that report at the appropriate time.
21:10Yeah.
21:11The Press The first term though, USAID,
21:12was something that you liked, in some respects.
21:13The President I love the concept of it.
21:15Yeah, sure. I love the concept.
21:18But they turned out to be radical-left lunatics.
21:21And the concept of it is good, but it's all about the people.
21:25The Press Mr. President, you said you also want
21:26to impose tariffs on the EU.
21:29What kind of tariffs are you thinking about?
21:30Well, we have massive deficits with the European Union.
21:34Massive, like $350 billion, if you can believe it.
21:38They don't take our farm product.
21:40They don't take our cars.
21:41They don't take almost anything, but we take their cars.
21:44We have millions of cars coming in —
21:45BMW and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen
21:49and just so many different cars.
21:52And we don't do anything about that.
21:54And we don't charge them tariffs.
21:58They make it impossible to sell cars in the European Union.
22:02They make it a very difficult agricultural product.
22:04They actually don't take it.
22:06And they have a lot of excuses.
22:08Some of them are the pesticides
22:10and the different chemicals used.
22:11And Bobby Kennedy actually is looking into that very —
22:16very seriously,
22:17because maybe it's not necessary to use all of that.
22:20You know, we want to be the healthiest country,
22:22and we're not.
22:23We spend more money on food than anybody else
22:25in terms of its creation,
22:27but we're not the healthiest country.
22:29So maybe there is something to the fact
22:31that we shouldn't be using so much chemical,
22:35and maybe that'll stop.
22:36But Bobby Kennedy is the one — because he's —
22:38he is not a believer in all of the things we have done,
22:41and neither are the Europeans. So we'll see what happens.
22:44But they use it as an excuse not to buy our product.
22:48And they — you tried — I asked a couple of the leaders.
22:52I don't want to use names, but how many Chevrolets or Fords
22:55do you see in the middle of Munich?
22:57And the answer is none, because they don't take any cars.
23:00They don't take anything.
23:02So the European has abused the United States for years,
23:07and they can't do that. And they want to make a deal.
23:10Let me tell you, in all cases, they all want to make deals.
23:13There's nobody that doesn't want to make deals.
23:15They've been abusers, and they want to make deals.
23:18So we'll see about that.
23:20But we'll have, I think, some very fair —
23:24all we want is a fair deal.
23:26And, you know, there's a word, reciprocal.
23:28I'd go, right now, reciprocal tariffs on everybody.
23:32Because many of the countries that you feel so horrible
23:35about the way they're being treated by Trump —
23:37you're saying, oh, President Trump is so terrible to them.
23:40Well, they charge us tariffs.
23:42European Union has a VAT tax, which is through the roof.
23:45Okay? It's a similar thing — similar to a tariff.
23:48It's a VAT. And they have it.
23:51And it's numbers like you wouldn't believe.
23:53And Canada — I told you about the banks,
23:56and I told you they charge us. And people don't say that.
23:59They don't like to say it.
24:01Just like they don't like to say that I opened up
24:03the water for California. It's a great thing.
24:05It's too bad they didn't do it themselves.
24:07I had to do it, and it was not easy.
24:09We did it a very rough way.
24:11And I didn't like to do it a rough way.
24:13We shouldn't have to do it a rough way.
24:15But a lot of these countries that we're talking about —
24:18you know, they're our so-called allies,
24:20but they don't treat us well.
24:21And just like I got $420 billion,
24:26and now it's actually over $600 billion.
24:29The Secretary General of NATO came in two weeks ago,
24:32and he said it was a miracle. When Trump came in —
24:35when President Trump came into NATO, I got —
24:38he said it was $636 billion by saying to them,
24:42No, you have to pay.
24:44And if you don't pay, we're not going to be there for you.
24:47You know, and somebody has to say it, and they paid.
24:50And it was a large amount of money.
24:52And one of the problems we have with the Russia-Ukraine
24:54situation is that we wanted to see some equalization
25:00because we're in for close to $300 billion,
25:04and they're in for $200 billion less.
25:07Why are they in for less?
25:08Because Biden never asked them for money.
25:11He never said, You got to pay. He never did.
25:14All he did is hand out money.
25:16So, we're talking with them right now,
25:18and we're actually working some deals right now
25:20so we have some guarantees and some other things
25:26to keep that whole situation to go —
25:30really going. I mean, going.
25:32We're telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earth.
25:37We want what we put up to go in terms of a guarantee.
25:42We want a guarantee.
25:43We want — we're handing them money hand over fist.
25:46We're giving them equipment.
25:47European is not keeping up with us.
25:49They should equalize.
25:51Look, we have an ocean in between.
25:53They don't. It's more important for them than it is for us.
25:56But they're way below us in terms of money.
25:59And they should be paying at least equal.
26:03They should really be paying much more than us.
26:05But let's say equal to us,
26:07and they're billions and billions of dollars below.
26:11So, we're looking to do a deal with Ukraine
26:13where they're going to secure what we're giving them
26:16with their rare earth and other things.
26:19The Press.
26:20Mr. President, you had a deal with Mexico this morning.
26:22Was that partially related to the market reaction
26:26and the criticism from Mr. Murdoch's own newspaper?
26:28He called it the dumbest trade war
26:31on the editorial page on Saturday.
26:33I'm going to have to talk to him about that.
26:35Was that a market reaction or was it about —
26:37I've been right over the Wall Street Journal many times.
26:40I don't agree with him on some things.
26:42No, it's — not only is it not dumb.
26:46You're going to see. You're going to see.
26:48Every single one of those countries
26:50is dying to make a deal. You know why?
26:51Because they're ripping us off really badly.
26:55And the United States is tired of been ripping —
26:58just being ripped off.
27:00And that's why we have $36 trillion in debt.
27:03We have it for a reason,
27:04because we make bad deals with everybody.
27:07And we don't allow that anymore.
27:10So, the Wall Street Journal is wrong because, very simply,
27:13every single country that you're writing about right now
27:16is dying to make a deal,
27:18because the deals they have right now are so good
27:21and so good for them and so profitable for them.
27:24You didn't know that Canada didn't allow our banks.
27:26You didn't know all of these different things.
27:30And I think, in the end, you're going to see
27:31that either very, very substantial tariffs
27:35are going to be paid by them,
27:36or they're going to make some kind of a deal.
27:38The Press Did you blink this morning or did Mexican
27:41President Obama blink?
27:42The President Did what?
27:43The Press Did you blink this morning?
27:44The President There was no blinking, no.
27:45She's a wonderful woman,
27:46but she did agree to 10,000 soldiers on the border.
27:49I would say that's a lot. Would you say that's pretty good?
27:5210,000 soldiers on the border?
27:54And the 10,000 soldiers are going to keep illegal aliens out,
27:59and they're going to keep them out — seriously out.
28:02And otherwise, they're going to have a big penalty.
28:04Mexico is going to be penalized.
28:05They're not going to come through Mexico anymore,
28:08and they're not going to let the fentanyl come in from China.
28:11And China, hopefully, is going to stop sending us fentanyl.
28:15And if they're not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher.
28:18The Press Sir, I just want to clarify
28:19what you said about Ukraine earlier — the rare earths.
28:22Is that something you want them to give,
28:24the rare earths, to the United States?
28:25The President Yeah, yeah.
28:26I want to have security of rare earth.
28:29We're putting in hundreds of billions of dollars.
28:32They have great rare earth,
28:34and I want security of the rare earth.
28:37And they're willing to do it.
28:38The Press Sir, you mentioned earlier that you want to —
28:39The Press Sir, on Canada, when you talked to Justin Trudeau again,
28:42is there anything he can give you at 3 p.m.
28:44when you talk again to also pause —
28:46The President I don't know. I don't know.
28:47The Press — like you said, with Mexico?
28:49The President I don't know.
28:50We have big deficits with Canada,
28:51like we do with all countries.
28:52I mean, I look at some of the deals made,
28:54I say, who the hell made these deals?
28:57They're so bad.
28:58But with Canada, I have a talk with him.
29:02You maybe know, or maybe not.
29:03We're going to meet again or talk again
29:05at 3 o'clock, right after my next meeting.
29:10And we'll see what happens.
29:11I can't tell you what's going to happen.
29:12The Press You mentioned that he could agree to,
29:14to change their mind on the tariffs?
29:16The President Well, we can always —
29:17look, what I'd like to see, Canada become our 51st state.
29:21We give them protection, military protection.
29:25We don't need them to build our cars.
29:27I'd rather see Detroit or South Carolina
29:30or any one of our — Tennessee,
29:33any one of our states build the cars.
29:34They could do it very easily. We don't need them for the cars.
29:37We don't need them for lumber. We don't need them for anything.
29:40We don't need them for energy.
29:41We have more energy than they do.
29:43We don't need them for energy.
29:46So I say, why are we doing this?
29:47Why do we — why are we willing to lose between $100 billion
29:51and $200 billion a year? We don't need them.
29:54As a state, it's different.
29:56As a state, it's much different.
29:58And there are no tariffs. So I'd love to see that.
30:02But some people say that would be a long shot.
30:07If people wanted to play the game right,
30:10it would be 100 percent certain that they'd become a state.
30:14But a lot of people don't like to play the game
30:16because they don't have a threshold of pain.
30:19And there would be some pain, but not a lot.
30:23The pain would be really there.
30:24So we're going to meet again by phone at 3 o'clock,
30:28and we'll let you know when.
30:30The Press.
30:31Mr. Trump, you're very committed to Benjamin Netanyahu.
30:33Coming in tomorrow.
30:34Yes, you've mentioned in the past
30:35you're concerned about Israel being too small geographically.
30:39Would you support annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel?
30:42Well, I'm not going to talk about that.
30:44It certainly is a small —
30:47it's a small country in terms of land.
30:49I take — see this pen, this wonderful pen?
30:52My desk is the Middle East.
30:54And this pen, the top of the pen, that's Israel.
30:57That's not good, right?
30:58You know, it's a pretty big difference.
31:00I use that as an analogy. It's pretty accurate, actually.
31:03It's a pretty small piece of land.
31:07And it's amazing that they've been able to do
31:09what they've been able to do. When you think about it,
31:11it's a lot of good, smart brainpower.
31:14But it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.
31:17The Press. Mr. President, you sort of alluded
31:18that Elon Musk is doing everything with USAID.
31:21So is there anything that he has done thus far,
31:23going to all the agencies, shutting off access,
31:26getting access to federal payments?
31:28That all has your — you're okay with all that?
31:30For the most part, yeah. If we — I mean,
31:33if there was something that didn't have my okay,
31:36I'd let you know about it really fast.
31:38And you said there were some areas where you wouldn't let him
31:39work because he has conflicts of interest.
31:41If there was a con — no, no, I haven't seen that.
31:44And he would know not to do it. So we haven't had that yet.
31:47But if there was a conflict,
31:48we would let him work at that area.
31:49In early recent, on the Department of Panama,
31:51that you were going to make a deal
31:53where the U.S. was going to take it.
31:55How long do they have to meet that sort of deal?
31:57And are they still meeting on the table?
31:58We're going to meet with Panic —
32:00we're going to meet with Panama on Friday
32:03at about 3.30 in the afternoon, by phone.
32:07And maybe there'll be some representatives that —
32:10you know, here or there.
32:12But we're going to be talking to Panama on Friday, essentially.
32:16And they've agreed to certain things,
32:18but I'm not happy with it.
32:20On the Middle East, Mr. President, if I may,
32:23do you still have doubts that the ceasefire will hold?
32:25On what?
32:26On the Middle East, do you think the ceasefire will hold?
32:29I have no assurances that it'll hold.
32:31I mean, I've seen people brutalized.
32:33I've never — nobody has ever seen anything like it.
32:35No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold.
32:39Steve, you might want to say something about that.
32:41Steve Whitcomb.
32:43It's holding so far.
32:45So — and we're certainly hopeful.
32:47And that's the President's direction.
32:50Get the hostages out, save lives,
32:52and come to, hopefully, a peaceful settlement of it all.
32:57So, so far, it's holding.
32:59Mr. President, on a different topic,
33:01questionnaires have been going out to FBI agents
33:03across the country
33:05who were involved potentially in the investigation.
33:07Do you believe anyone involved at any level should be fired, sir?
33:11Well, I think the FBI was a very corrupt institution.
33:14And I'm a victim of it, in a true sense.
33:17I was able to beat it.
33:19But other people have been treated horribly.
33:22I think the FBI has a great repu- — had a great reputation.
33:27I think its reputation was really damaged badly, as is DOJ.
33:33Look at what they've done in terms of weaponization.
33:36Look at what they've done to a political opponent.
33:38Probably got me elected by what they did, or —
33:41I think I was doing well anyway.
33:42But they might have got me elected.
33:44But you know what? We have to have pristine,
33:48beautiful, perfect law enforcement.
33:50And what we want to do — and I — Cash is the one to do it.
33:54He's the one guy that is going to do it.
33:57We have to bring the reputation of the FBI.
34:00We have to bring the fact of the FBI back to what it could be.
34:04Not even to what it was. Even better than it ever was.
34:07Because who would have thought that the FBI
34:09could have been corrupted like they were corrupted?
34:13Who would have thought that would have happened?
34:15Who would have thought they would have been used to go after,
34:17you know, political opponents, essentially,
34:19but me being the number one?
34:22And so many other things beyond that.
34:24And they've been hurt very badly,
34:26and we'll see what happens. But Cash is the one to do it,
34:29and I hear he's doing very well. Cash will straighten it out.
34:32We have great confidence that we can make the FBI great again.
34:36Okay, one or two more, and we'll be done.
34:40Say it.
34:42Yeah, I think Tulsi is going to be doing okay.
34:45I'm not sure. I can't guarantee anything.
34:47But she's liked by so many people,
34:50especially people in the military and law enforcement.
34:52She has a little bit of trouble with some senators
34:54over her faults on Edward Snowden.
34:56I know Snowden, you've mentioned in the past
34:58you're thinking about pardoning him.
35:00Are you still, and what do you think about that?
35:02No, I don't talk about it right now.
35:04I just, people feel very differently.
35:06Some people think he should be pardoned,
35:09and some people think it would be a terrible thing to do.
35:11But I don't get involved in that.
35:13Mr. President, what are you discussing with Mr.
35:15Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal?
35:17Just respect. I have great respect for Rupert Murdoch.
35:20I disagree with him a lot of times
35:22with the Wall Street Journal, but that's all right.
35:24We've disagreed before.
35:26And I'm sure they didn't have any idea
35:28what they were talking about,
35:29because already you see what's happening.
35:32Look at Columbia. Look at what happened with that.
35:35Everybody said that with Columbia,
35:37it was going to be a disaster.
35:39In one hour, everything was settled.
35:44You know why? Tariffs. Tariffs.
35:47Without tariffs, they wouldn't have been the same way.
35:51They wouldn't have treated me the way they treated me,
35:54which was extremely nicely.
35:58And I don't want to use countries.
35:59I don't want to use names, but tariffs are very powerful,
36:03both economically and in getting everything else you want.
36:06Tariffs are us. Nobody can compete with us
36:08because we're the pot of gold.
36:10But if we don't keep winning and keep doing well,
36:13we won't be the pot of gold,
36:14and then tariffs won't be so good for us.
36:17But when you're the pot of gold, the tariffs are very good.
36:21They're very powerful,
36:23and they're going to make our country very rich again.
36:25Thank you very much, everybody.
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