President Trump announces the 2027 NFL Draft will take place in Washington, D.C., then takes questions from reporters.
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00:00Hello, everybody. It's great to have you. It's a very important announcement. Very,
00:10very amazing, I think, for D.C., but even for the country, because it's, to me, a very
00:17big deal. I'd like to thank NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Washington Commander's owner
00:24Josh Harris and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Secretary Scott Turner, Secretary Doug
00:31Burgum. And I see Howard Lutnick is here, too, Commerce and some others that if I could see
00:37past the press, I'd name you, but I can't. I'm pleased to reveal that the 2027 NFL draft,
00:45that's a big thing, will be held right here in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., on the
00:53National Mall, and you get a little glimpse of it.
01:03I don't think, I was just saying to Roger, I don't think there's ever been anything like
01:08that. That's a good idea. In fact, maybe we could use it for other things also. I have
01:12an idea. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be something that nobody else will
01:18ever be able to duplicate that, I don't suspect. It's very exciting. Every year, hundreds of
01:22young football players have their dreams come true as the NFL teams across the land, and
01:27you just saw that last week. Select the best young players in America to join their ranks.
01:33Hundreds of thousands of football fans will travel all across our country to cheer them
01:39on in person. We expect, would you say, more than 100,000 people, I think. What is the capacity,
01:46would you think, it can hold? Because the mall can actually hold up to a million people,
01:50if you go all the way back. What do you think?
01:52Over three days, we'll be over in May.
01:53Oh, yeah. You're going to have a tremendous amount of people.
01:56Who's the local businesses and bringing jobs and tourism to the heart of our capital?
02:02The draft is a celebration of one of our country's most cherished cultural institutions,
02:07and the annual highlights for football fans everywhere. Everyone in the world is going
02:12to be watching. We look forward to welcoming people from across the nation, from all over the
02:18world. Last month, the Washington Commanders and the D.C. government also announced a major
02:23deal to build a brand new 65,000-seat football arena at the site of the RFK Stadium in eastern
02:30Capitol Hill. And I don't think there is a better site anywhere in the world than that site.
02:35Incredibly exciting.
02:36You know, he's a friend of mine. He's a very successful guy. There's a reason for it.
02:40It's amazing. It sat there for years, and people were talking about stadiums in 25 different
02:45sites. I said, they're not talking about the best site. That's the best site there is,
02:50bringing professional football back into the district from Maryland. And not only are these
02:56announcements great for the NFL, but they also advanced a mission of making Washington, D.C.
03:01safe and clean and beautiful. And we're working very closely with the mayor, as you know. And
03:07we've made a lot of improvements in the last few months, and it's getting to look really strong.
03:13Crime is way down. And a lot of, there's a good relationship we have going with Muriel. So I
03:19want to thank you very much. And would you like to say a few words?
03:22Thank you, Mr. President.
03:23The mayor, please.
03:24Thank you. Thank you.
03:27Well, greetings. I'm Muriel Bowser. I'm the mayor of the best city in the world and also the sports
03:36capital. And we are delighted to be here, to be here with the Washington commanders, the NFL and
03:43the president to talk about this very exciting announcement for Washington, D.C. We believe in
03:50investing in sports because they have helped us transform neighborhoods. And the NFL bringing this
03:57event to the nation's capital will help us fill hotel rooms, our restaurants, and Americans from all 50
04:05states will come to their nation's capital and enjoy our beautiful city and museum. So we're just
04:11delighted to be here. And we want to thank everybody for all the hard work to get here.
04:16Thanks, ma'am.
04:22Well, Mr. President, thank you. We're honored to be here in the Oval Office and to have you
04:26announce the 2027 NFL Draft is a special treat. So thank you for your support.
04:31Also, thank you for your support in the commander's new stadium. We agree it's going to be a great
04:39site. We think it's going to be great for our fans here. And it's great to come back home.
04:44And so we're very excited about that. Josh is leading the way on our behalf and the mayor.
04:49So we thank both of them for that. We also want to thank you because in the first term,
04:55you helped us get a Canadian trade deal, which we want to make sure we note again and make sure you
05:01note that.
05:01Canada does not like me too much.
05:04They gave a great American company a lot of money that you deserved, frankly.
05:12The draft has really become one of the great entertainment and sports events.
05:17Just a week ago in Green Bay, we had over 600,000 people attend. The year before in Detroit,
05:25we had close to 800,000. As the president remarked, we believe it will be well over a million when we
05:31come here to D.C. in 2027. So we not only believe it's a great site, we believe it's consistent with what
05:38the president said, which is investing in our communities, investing specifically here in the
05:42nation's capital, one that I grew up here in Washington, D.C., and is particularly important.
05:48We think we can have a tremendous impact on this community, and it will not just be an event.
05:54It will be something that will show the world how far the nation's capital has come and where it's going.
06:00So we're very excited about that. And we thank everybody here. We thank you for your support.
06:06We know it's going to be a great event. Mr. President, we thank you again.
06:09Thank you very much.
06:10You're welcome.
06:10Good luck with it.
06:11Yes, thank you very much.
06:12Thank you. Mr. President, thank you very much. We wouldn't be here without you.
06:17Thank you for your leadership in terms of the stadium. And now, what a great day for Washington.
06:24I mean, to host the NFL draft in 2027 on the Mall, I believe we'll get over a million people,
06:32and it's going to be an amazing day. And it'll showcase what Washington's all about,
06:37but it'll also showcase what our country's all about. Washington is the gateway city to our country,
06:42country. And, you know, it'll be an amazing day. And we can't wait to get started. And I couldn't have done it without my partners,
06:49Roger Goodell, thank you, and Mayor Muriel Bowser. And we're ready to get to work. And I can't imagine RFK coming back. I grew up here.
06:59D.C. used to stop on Sundays, and everyone would be inside watching football, or everyone would be glued at the stadium.
07:10And so we want to bring that back. And football really is as essential to the culture of America.
07:17We all love it. We all watch it. And it brings people together. And so what a great way to celebrate the United States of America,
07:26the NFL, and the Washington Commanders. And, President Trump, we leave on your desk a Trump jersey.
07:33You are the ultimate commander, so it is a commander's jersey. There's no bird on it.
07:39But, you know, we appreciate you, and thank you for everything you've done, and look forward to the future.
07:48Thank you very much, Josh. Thank you.
07:50And I have to say that Josh had a very good draft a short while ago. You have a very good quarterback.
07:59You do.
08:00Great quarterback, I think.
08:01Great.
08:02Any questions, please, about the stadium, or any of it? Yeah, please.
08:08Yes.
08:08Thank you very much.
08:09Yes, thank you so much. About the draft, and I would like to have an event that it was already mentioned here, the World Cup.
08:18Although United States, the passion here is football, for the World Cup next year, how do you envision, Mr. President, this event here in the United States?
08:28It would be fantastic. I worked very hard to get the World Cup. It was, in fact, I think I have the trophy right here, right behind you.
08:34I don't have a picture taken with Roger in that trophy, by the way. But, no, they brought it in. Johnny, who's a good guy, but he brought that in.
08:43That's the actual trophy. It's interesting that you asked that. And it's made at Tiffany's, and they're leaving it here until just before the actual World Cup.
08:52Then it goes to the champion. But that's very exciting. We have the Olympics. So we have both of them.
08:57I worked very hard in getting both, and I said, you know, I'm not going to be able to be there as president.
09:03And then a strange thing happened, and it turned out I became president not for the term that I was supposed to be.
09:10I became president where we have the Olympics and the World Cup, and we have something that maybe surpasses everything, the 250th anniversary of our country.
09:20So that's going to be great. That's going to be a very big event, a year-long event.
09:23So thank you for the question. Very nice question. Yeah, please.
09:27So you often said you want the U.S. to be bigger, better, and stronger.
09:35Currently, Russia is the biggest country in the world, by landmass, followed by Canada and then China.
09:43So when you say that you want to annex Canada, is it so that it would be the biggest country in the world?
09:49No, I've never said that way, although I am a real estate developer at heart.
09:55I've never heard that question. Yeah, please, go ahead.
09:59Thank you, Mr. President. Will you have to hire more security and police in order to accommodate the million people coming in for the NFL draft?
10:06I think that there'll be something, and I know Roger will work it out, and Josh and all of us will work it out.
10:12It's such an honor to have that. I think it'll be great for everybody, great for our country.
10:17It'll be something very special. There's no scene like it. There's no site like it.
10:21I do. My whole life was based on sites, locations, and as soon as I looked at that rendering, it's going to be beautiful.
10:30It's going to really be beautiful. You know, interestingly, I didn't know exactly where it sat relative to the Capitol,
10:35but the stadium, if you go back, is right behind the Capitol, miles behind, but nevertheless, visually right behind it.
10:43So it's going to be an architect's dream, whoever the architect has chosen, and the owner.
10:49It's going to be something special. I think it's going to be great for the area.
10:53It's going to be, it will be top of the line. I know these people very well, and they only know about top of the line.
11:00And I would say that more will be put into the stadium than would be put into an identical stadium of a similar size.
11:08I think they're going to do a special, because of the importance of the location, I have no doubt they'll do a special job.
11:13Can you explain a little bit about how you would implement tariffs on the film industry, kind of how that would work?
11:20Well, that's a different story, but our film industry has been decimated by other countries taking them out,
11:28and also by incompetence, like in Los Angeles. The governor is a grossly incompetent man.
11:32He's just allowed it to be taken away from, you know, Hollywood.
11:36Hollywood doesn't do very much of that business. They have the nice sign, and everything's good, but they don't do very much.
11:42A lot of it's been taken to other countries and a big proportion, and I'm actually going to meet with some,
11:48because, you know, there's some advantages, I guess, and I'm not looking to hurt the industry.
11:52I want to help the industry, but they've given financing by other countries.
11:57They've given a lot of things, and the industry was decimated.
12:02If you look at how little is done in this country now, you know, you think we were the ones.
12:06We used to do a hundred, not long ago, a hundred percent. Now we do almost, like, very little.
12:13It's shocking to you in that business, too, because he's in so many businesses, you could explain it,
12:19but it's not a good situation. So we're going to meet with the industry.
12:23I want to make sure they're happy with it, because we're all about jobs.
12:28That's all what I'm, you know, it's very important.
12:30It's a big industry, but it's an industry now that's, it's really left, it's abandoned the USA, where it started.
12:39And we'll get it, we'll get it back. Yeah, please.
12:42Thanks, Mr. President. First, I just want to thank you for letting us in here.
12:45I'm with Zero Hedge and the last administration banned us on social media,
12:49so we're really grateful to be in the White House.
12:50And this is not exactly sports related, but I've been dying to ask you this question for a long time,
12:56which is that two and a half years ago, the Nord Stream pipeline blew up.
13:01And despite what people like John Brennan and all the hawks said,
13:04you were one person who said Russia probably did not blow up its own pipeline.
13:08If you can believe it, they said Russia blew it up, yeah.
13:11And so I'm wondering now that you're president,
13:12if you would consider launching a formal investigation into what happened there
13:15and who actually did blow it up.
13:18Well, probably if I asked certain people,
13:20I'd be able to tell you without having to waste a lot of money on an investigation.
13:23But I think a lot of people know who blew it up.
13:28But I was the one that blew it up originally because I wouldn't let it be built.
13:32And then when Biden got in, he allowed it to be built.
13:35And it's very interesting.
13:37But I think Russia, with the price of oil right now, oil's gone down,
13:42I think we're in a good position to settle.
13:45They want to settle.
13:47Ukraine wants to settle.
13:49If I weren't president, nobody would be settling.
13:51They're losing 5,000 people a day.
13:53They think of it.
13:53Here we talk about football.
13:55They're losing 5,000 people on average a week.
13:58Mostly Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers.
14:025,000 a week.
14:03Not including people that are, you know, killed as missiles,
14:08going to areas that they shouldn't be.
14:10It's a very terrible thing.
14:12And I think we're, we've come a long way.
14:14And it could be something will happen.
14:16But hopefully it will.
14:17As you know, President Putin just announced a three-day ceasefire, which doesn't sound
14:23like much.
14:23But it's a, it's a lot if you knew where we started from.
14:26Because they were not, we had a president that for three years didn't speak to Putin.
14:30And it all shouldn't have happened.
14:34This is a war that should have never happened.
14:37And you're going to be very disappointed when you find out the real number of people
14:40that were killed.
14:41It's far greater.
14:43Many times greater, I believe.
14:45But far greater than the numbers that you're putting out.
14:49It's a very, very deadly, horrible war.
14:52Okay?
14:52Yes, ma'am.
14:53Thank you, Mr. President.
14:54Some Catholics were not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope.
14:59Oh, I see.
15:00You mean they, they can't take a joke?
15:02You don't mean the Catholics.
15:03You mean the fake news media.
15:04Not, the Catholics loved it.
15:06Cardinal Dolan.
15:07I had nothing to do with it.
15:08Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope.
15:11And they put it out on the internet.
15:13That's not me that did it.
15:14I have no idea where it came from.
15:16Maybe it was AI.
15:18But I know nothing about it.
15:19I just saw it last evening.
15:23Actually, my wife thought it was cute.
15:25She said, isn't that nice?
15:26My question about it.
15:27Actually, I would not be able to be married, though.
15:30That would be a lot.
15:31I'd have to.
15:33To the best of my knowledge, popes aren't big on getting married.
15:37Are they?
15:37Not that we know of.
15:38No.
15:39No.
15:39I think it's a fake news media that, you know, they're fakers.
15:43My question, though, sir, was about the fact that it was put out on the White House account,
15:47even though it was AI generated, it was a joke, it was a meme.
15:50Does it at all diminish the substance of the official White House account to have it go
15:56out on that particular channel?
15:57Give me a break.
15:58It was just somebody did it in fun.
16:02It's fine.
16:03You have to have a little fun, don't you?
16:05Yeah, please.
16:06Go ahead.
16:06Tell me about the program that's just been introduced to give undocumented immigrants living in the
16:11United States $1,000 to self-deport.
16:14Can you just tell us a little bit?
16:16Oh, the new program.
16:17Yeah.
16:18We have millions of people that have come into this country illegally through an administration
16:23that didn't know what they were doing.
16:24They didn't have a clue.
16:25And now we find out officially they didn't because the president was incompetent.
16:29But I could have told you that before.
16:30And they've allowed millions and millions of people to pour in murderers, drug dealers,
16:36the biggest drug dealers in the world, actually.
16:39Terrorists come in, emptied prisons from many countries, not just South America, all over
16:45the world.
16:45They emptied their prisons into our beautiful USA.
16:49And to get that many people out, 21 million people, we think the real number is.
16:55But let's say 3 million of them are serious criminals.
16:5811,888 murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person.
17:05It's hard to believe we have to even talk about this when we're talking about something so
17:08beautiful.
17:09But it's it's something we have to talk about having to do with the country because it's
17:13very important.
17:14So they came in by the millions illegally into our country.
17:18They just flowed in through an open border policy that was insane.
17:22And what we've done is we've offered, you know, the numbers, but we've because we're
17:27taking them out by the thousands.
17:28We're being obstructed.
17:30It's very unfair what's happening because the court system is being it's very unfair.
17:35We have to get them out fast.
17:36These are bad people.
17:37These are people that are killing and they've already killed many people in this country.
17:42Illegal immigrants that came in illegally through an open border policy, which is insane.
17:47We talk about common sense.
17:49That's not common sense.
17:50And they came in from the Congo all over all over Africa, all over Asia, all over South
17:55America, parts of Europe.
17:57They float in and just walked right into our country.
17:59We had no idea who they were.
18:0121 million at least.
18:03That's probably a low number.
18:04You know, you hear lower numbers than that.
18:06It's not.
18:07That's a low number.
18:07But many are really serious criminals and terrorists and people from jails.
18:12They emptied out jails.
18:13You know, Venezuela, their crime is down 72 percent because they took all the criminals
18:18off the streets and the gangs and they dumped them into our country.
18:23So we're getting them out.
18:24It's a very difficult thing with the courts because the courts have all of a sudden out
18:28of nowhere.
18:29They said, maybe you have to have trials, trials.
18:33We're going to have five million trials.
18:36Doesn't work.
18:37Doesn't work.
18:38You wouldn't have a country left.
18:40But hopefully the Supreme Court will save it.
18:43But what they've done is a very, very serious thing.
18:45You know, past presidents took out hundreds of thousands of people when needed.
18:50You look at Eisenhower, you look at many of them.
18:52And they took people out and they didn't go through any of this.
18:56But what we thought we'd do is a self-deport where we're going to pay each one a certain
19:00amount of money and we're going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came
19:06from and they have a period of time.
19:09And if they make it, we're going to work with them so that maybe someday with a little
19:13work, they can come back in if they're good people, if they're the kind of people that
19:17we want in our company, industrious people that could love our country.
19:20And if they're not, they won't.
19:23But it will give them a path to becoming, you know, to coming back into the country.
19:28If they miss that limit, they're going to be taken out of our country.
19:32And they never have, they have never, they will never get a path to come back in.
19:38And it'll be a much tougher process.
19:40And it's called self-deportation.
19:43And by doing that, you know, you're talking about so many millions of people.
19:47By doing that, we have, by the way, we've taken out thousands of terrorists, drug lords.
19:56What we've done is amazing.
19:58And as you're Tom Homan and Kristi Noam have done an incredible job.
20:02They really have done an incredible job.
20:03But it's a hard job.
20:05So we're going to have a self-deportation where they deport themselves out of our country.
20:13And we'll work with them.
20:14And we're going to try.
20:15And if we think they're good, they have, you know, the people we want in our country,
20:20they're going to come back into our country.
20:22We'll give them a little easier route.
20:23But if they don't work, and if we take them out after the date, then they're never coming back.
20:30That's the least of the problems that they're going to have.
20:33Yeah, please.
20:33What's your expectation for your meeting with the Canadian prime minister tomorrow?
20:37I don't know.
20:37He's coming to see me.
20:38I'm not sure what he wants to see me about.
20:40But I guess he wants to make a deal.
20:42Everybody does.
20:43They all want to make a deal because we have something that they all want.
20:47We have something that they all want.
20:49China wants to make a deal very badly.
20:51You see what's happening to China.
20:52China is being decimated, and I don't want that to happen.
20:56But they have to make a fair deal.
20:57We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
21:00We were losing five.
21:01Think of it on our trade policies with Biden.
21:05We're losing $5 billion a day.
21:08I think Josh, as a great businessman, would not let that happen too long, right?
21:12How many groups could lose $5 billion a day?
21:15If you lose $5 billion one day, that's the end of that company, right?
21:18You're fired.
21:19He says, you're fired.
21:20Get out of here.
21:21So we essentially did that, and we have it down to a very low number.
21:25We're doing really well, really well.
21:28Yeah?
21:29How did you decide to reopen Alcatraz?
21:32Can you walk us through that decision?
21:33Did I say what?
21:34To reopen Alcatraz.
21:36How will you use it?
21:37How did you come up with the idea?
21:38Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker.
21:41We started with the movie making, and we'll end.
21:44I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order.
21:49Our country needs law and order.
21:52Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate, right?
21:55Alcatraz, Sing Sing, and Alcatraz, the movies.
21:59But it's right now a museum, believe it or not.
22:02A lot of people go there.
22:04It housed the most violent criminals in the world, and nobody ever escaped.
22:10One person almost got there, but they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up.
22:17And it was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.
22:22Nobody's ever escaped from Alcatraz.
22:24And it just represented something strong having to do with law and order.
22:28We need law and order in this country.
22:31And so we're going to look at it.
22:33Some of the people up here are going to be working very hard on that.
22:36And we had a little conversation.
22:39I think it's going to be very interesting.
22:40We'll see if we can bring it back in large form, add a lot.
22:45But I think it represents something.
22:47Right now it's a big hulk that's sitting there rusting and rotting.
22:53Very, you look at it, it's sort of, you saw that picture that was put out.
22:58It's sort of amazing.
22:59But it sort of represents something that's both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak.
23:08It's got a lot of qualities that are interesting.
23:11And I think they make a point.
23:13Okay, are you guys okay?
23:15I want to just say that it's such an honor to be up here with my friends because this is a group of people that have done an amazing job.
23:25And all we can do, Muriel and I, is give them the greatest sight there is, I think, that I've ever seen for something like this.
23:32And I did very well in the real estate business.
23:34I think this is the greatest sight there is anywhere in the world for exactly what you guys are doing.
23:40And we'll work with you.
23:41We've got a lot of work to do to get it going.
23:43But we'll work with you and we'll try and make the dream come true.
23:46And I want to thank you all very much for being here.
23:49Thank you very much.
23:50We're going to help the people of Gaza get some food.
24:03People are starving and we're going to help them get some food.
24:06A lot of people are making it very, very bad.
24:09What do you, if you look, Hamas is making it impossible because they're taking everything that's brought in.
24:14But we're going to help the people of Gaza because they're being treated very badly by Hamas.
24:20Thank you very much.