In remarks to the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, President Trump spoke about the Houthis and military force.
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00:00As president of the United States, my preference will always be for peace and partnership whenever
00:10those outcomes can be achieved. Always. It's always going to be that way. Only a fool would
00:16think otherwise. In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with
00:22the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy
00:28to dispense justice for their sins. They loved using our very powerful military. And now it's
00:36really the most powerful it's ever been. We just are getting a budget approved. One trillion
00:41dollars. Highest budget we've ever had in history for military. One trillion dollars. And we're
00:49getting the greatest missiles, the greatest weapons. And, you know, I hate to do it, but
00:54you have to do it because we believe in peace through strength. You have to have the strength.
00:59Otherwise bad things could happen. But hopefully we'll never have to use any of those weapons.
01:05It seems to be an awfully big waste of money if you're never going to use them. But hopefully
01:09we'll never have to use them because the destructive power of some of those weapons are like nobody's
01:15seen before. I believe it is God's job to sit in judgment, my job to defend America and to promote
01:23the fundamental interest of stability, prosperity and peace. That's what I really want to do. I will
01:30never hesitate to wield American power if it's necessary to defend the United States or to help defend our allies.
01:39And there will be no mercy for any foe who tries to do us or them harm. We will have no mercy. They understand
01:54that. That's why I've been pretty lucky. A lot of people think, you know, he he's looking to fight. He's
02:00looking to fight and things get settled. It's an amazing thing when they really think you mean it. But we do. We
02:06have the greatest military, the strongest military, stronger than any. Nobody's even close. We have
02:12the best weapons in the world, but we don't want to use them. If you threaten America or our partners,
02:17however, then you'll be faced with overwhelming strength and devastating force. We have things that
02:23you don't even know about, you don't hear about. And if you did, you'd say, wow. In recent weeks following
02:30repeated attacks on American ships and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the United States
02:36military launched more than 1,100 strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. As a result, the Houthis agreed to
02:45stop. They said, we don't want this anymore. And it's the first time you've heard that from them, too.
02:53They're tough. They're fighters. But just days ago, we were asked to cease targeting commercial. The they were not
03:01going to be targeting commercial ships in any way, shape or form or anything American. And they were
03:07very happy that we stopped. But we had 52 days of thunder and lightning like they've never seen
03:16before. This was a swift, ferocious, decisive and extremely successful use of military force. Not that we
03:24wanted to do it, but they were shooting down ships. They were shooting at you. They were shooting at Saudi Arabia.
03:31We don't want them shooting at Saudi Arabia. That's OK. So we hit them hard. We got what we came for. And then we got out.
03:39Since January 20th, the U.S. military has terminated 83 terrorist leaders operating across Iraq, Syria,
03:47and Somalia, including ISIS's number two global leader. You read about that just recently.
03:54With the help of Pakistan, we apprehended the ISIS terrorists responsible for the attack on 13 American
04:01service members that abrogate that horrible, horrible disaster during the during this Afghanistan withdrawal.
04:12You know, that's another thing that we don't even think about so much anymore. 13 died, but 42 were horribly wounded.
04:18But hundreds of people died overall because I count the people on the other side. Hundreds of people just grossly incompetent.
04:26It's probably why Putin decided to go into Ukraine, something he never would have done if I were president.
04:33But we wouldn't have had the problems of October 7th if I were president. We wouldn't have had Ukraine Russia if I were president.
04:41We wouldn't have had Abigate because there wouldn't have been any reason we were getting out.
04:46But we were getting out with dignity and with strength and power. But the way they got out was not good.
04:53It was I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.
04:58And we've been working tirelessly to bring back all hostages held by.