Earlier today, President Trump delivered remarks at the plenary session of the GCC Leaders Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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00:00I have to say that I've seen such progress.
00:26It's really incredible.
00:27I've also seen great unity and friendships.
00:30I spent a little time with you just before this, and I've seen tremendous unity, tremendous
00:35friendship, and the whole world is watching the Middle East, and many are watching with
00:39envy.
00:40You have something very special going on.
00:43Incredible opportunities are within reach for this region.
00:47If we can simply stop the aggression from a small group of pretty bad actors, the Biden
00:53administration created havoc and bedlam by basically being incompetent.
00:59But for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently
01:08and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
01:12They cannot have a nuclear weapon.
01:14I don't imagine there's anybody at this table or anybody in this room that would say they
01:18can.
01:19I'm strongly urging all nations to join us in fully and totally enforcing the sanctions
01:25that I just placed on Iran.
01:27Iran.
01:28And we also placed secondary sanctions, which are in certain ways even more devastating.
01:34Iran, as you know, had no money when I left office.
01:38They were broke.
01:39They had no money for Hamas.
01:41They had no money for Hezbollah.
01:43There was no attack.
01:44There was no thought of attack.
01:45There would have been no attack if I were president.
01:47But bad things happened in that election.
01:51And I said, let's do it again.
01:54And by doing it again, it became much more historic.
01:57It's a much more historic election, much more powerful election.
02:03And we have a mandate.
02:04We won every swing state.
02:06We won by millions of votes.
02:08We won 2,750 districts, we call them districts, out of a total, if you look at the numbers, 2,750
02:22to 505.
02:25The whole map was red, red meaning Republican.
02:28So I will say recently we launched strikes on more than 1,100 Houthi targets in Yemen,
02:36as you know.
02:38And last week they agreed to stop.
02:40They don't want to be targeting our commercial ships anymore.
02:43And they said, that's enough.
02:45That's enough.
02:46And about 52 days, 52 nights, it didn't end.
02:52We just put in a budget of a trillion dollars.
02:54It's our biggest budget, military budget, we have ever put in.
03:00And the United States is very, very strong right now.
03:02It's amazing.
03:03In a short period of time, we've been there 100 days.
03:06And in a short period of time, we've done what a lot of people don't do in four years.
03:13We're a hot country, just like you're a hot area.
03:17And we're going to keep it that way.
03:19In Gaza, my administration shares the hope of so many in this region for future of safety
03:25and dignity of the Palestinian people.
03:27But that cannot happen as long as Gaza's leaders take delight in raping, torturing, and murdering
03:33innocent people.
03:34You can't have it.
03:36I greatly appreciate the constructive role that the leaders in this room have played in
03:42trying to bring the terrible conflict to an end, including by helping secure the release
03:48of American hostage, Edan Alexander.
03:51It was a big day yesterday, a very important day.
03:55I was told just before I left that they were going to be releasing Edan.
03:59We thought Edan was dead.
04:02Three weeks ago, they said Edan was no longer living.
04:06And it was a very, very good thing.
04:09Ultimately, all hostages of all nationalities must be released as a stepping stone to peace.
04:16And I think it's going to be happening.
04:17A lot of things are happening.
04:18A lot of very positive things are happening on every front.
04:22With the support of leaders in this room and the great leaders you are, we are currently
04:27exploring normalizing relations with Syria's new government, as you know, beginning with
04:33my meeting with President Ahmed al-Shara and Secretary Rubio's meeting with the Syrian foreign
04:41minister in Turkey.
04:42After discussing the situation with Crown Prince Mohammed and President Erdogan of Turkey, I'm
04:52also ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria to give them a fresh start.
04:57It gives them a chance for greatness.
04:58The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful.
05:02And I spoke to Mohammed and I spoke to a friend from Turkey who we just spoke to also by phone
05:11now.
05:12But I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance.
05:15It's not going to be easy anyway, so it gives them a good strong chance.
05:21And it was my honor to do so.
05:22So we've, we will be dropping all of the sanctions on Syria, which I think really is going to
05:28be a good thing.
05:29And it actually, we made a speech last night and that was the thing that got the biggest
05:34applause from the room.
05:35We had a very crowded room with thousands of people and the statement that got the biggest
05:40applause was dropping the sanctions on Syria.
05:44Likewise in Lebanon, there's a new chance for a future free from the grip of Hezbollah terrorists
05:51if the new president and prime minister can rebuild an effective Lebanese state.
05:55We just appointed a very good ambassador, a friend of mine who's Lebanese.
06:01And I didn't even know that.
06:02And I said, why do you want to be the ambassador to Lebanon?
06:05That could be dangerous.
06:07He said, I don't care.
06:08I grew up there.
06:09I love the, I love the country and I don't care if it's dangerous or not dangerous.
06:14I want to do that.
06:15And he's very capable man, very successful man from the United States.
06:19And he's going to be your ambassador.
06:21He's going to be, he's going to do a great job.
06:24But this is a once in a generation opportunity to forge a Lebanon that is prosperous and at
06:29peace with its neighbors.
06:32And I think things can really happen there.
06:34They've been, they've had a tough go of it for a long time.
06:40At the end of my first term, all of the momentum of this region was toward peace.
06:44I especially want to thank and congratulate the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for their
06:49vision and courage in signing the historic Abraham Accords.
06:54It was something that's a very big thing.
06:57We would have, I believe we would have had it filled out had the election been called fairly,
07:05which it wasn't.
07:06It was a rigged election.
07:07I hope that in the near future, we can continue that progress.
07:12We have a mandate from the American people, the likes of which people haven't seen for
07:15129 years, they say.
07:18It was the most consequential election in America in 129 years.
07:23So that sounds like a long time, so we'll take that.
07:26But in the future, we'll continue that progress by adding more countries to the Abraham Accords.
07:32We have four, and we're going to, they're going to be, I think they're going to be filling up very rapidly.
07:38Biden didn't do anything because he never did anything about anything.
07:42He had no capability, he had no ability.
07:45And it was a shame what he's done to so many countries, including our own.
07:51We had an interesting fact about a year ago, there was a story that we're having a hard time
07:57getting enlistments into the military, and it was at the lowest level almost ever.
08:03We just, people didn't want to go into our military.
08:06And it just came out last week.
08:08You probably saw that we have now the strongest enlistment in the history of our country.
08:14They say 38 years.
08:16One said 37, one said 32, and one said ever.
08:20So we just had the strongest enlistment in the history of the United States of America.
08:27So think of it.
08:28In one year, we went from they can't get people to enlist to we have the strongest enlistment.
08:33And that includes the police departments, too.
08:35We're having a hard time getting people to be policed, the great law enforcement arm that we're known for.
08:41And now we're setting records.
08:44It's hard to get a job.
08:47I mean, frankly, the lines of people wanting to be police officers and going to the military.
08:54And it's really, it's a matter of spirit.
08:56We have great spirit in the country right now.
08:58We've done a lot in 100 days, I'll tell you that.
09:01It all started on November 5th with the election.
09:04But a stable and peaceful Middle East will be a successful and prosperous Middle East.
09:09And that's what you've done and that's what you're doing.
09:12And, you know, it's amazing because when I was here last, it was fine.
09:17It was doing good.
09:18And then I see the things that you're doing here and in your countries.
09:22It's just incredible what you what you're doing is the whole world is talking about it.
09:27The whole world is watching us.
09:29Look at all the news over there, the fake news.
09:31Look at them.
09:32That whole world, the whole world is talking about what you're what you're doing.
09:37And you're the envy of the world together.
09:40We're in this room and we're going to forge a Middle East that will be a thriving commercial,
09:45diplomatic and cultural crossroads at the geographic center of the world.
09:50That's what it is.
09:51It's the center of the world.
09:52I look forward to working with you.
09:54And I want to thank Mohammed.
09:55I want to thank you, Crown Prince.
09:58We have a special relationship.
10:00We have long had a special relationship.
10:02But it was an honor to spend a couple of days with you.
10:05And I'll see you again soon.
10:07And I'll see you a lot.
10:09Thank you all very much.
10:20I'm gonna play it for you because I had a good idea.
10:22I'm gonna play it.
10:23I'm gonna play it.
10:24I'm gonna play it.
10:25I'm gonna play it.
10:28I'm gonna play it.