'They Were Shooting At You': Trump Discusses Taking On Houthis During Saudi Arabia Speech

In remarks to the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, President Trump spoke about the Houthis and military force.

Transcript

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.