- yesterday
President Trump meets with the Foreign Ministers of Congo and Rwanda after a peace deal was signed, and takes questions from reporters.
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00:00Hello.
00:06What's up, man? How you doing?
00:08How you doing?
00:09What's up, my man?
00:11It's great, huh?
00:1330 years.
00:1530 years.
00:30Well, thank you very much, and I'd like to ask Caroline, who's become very famous, big star, and she has a person who's a colleague of hers, a friend of hers, and that she has a lot of respect for, who comes from the area and knows exactly what's happening. Caroline, could I ask you to say a few words?
00:52Yes, sir. Here we have Haryana, who is from the continent of Africa. She's been a reporter here in the United States for many years, and she has a story to share with the press, with the media, and with these two fantastic leaders who have joined you today. So, Haryana, please.
01:06Why don't you come up here and talk so they can see me?
01:08Sure.
01:09That'd be great. Thank you very much.
01:12Thank you, Mr. President.
01:13It's a great honor.
01:14Thank you, Mr. President.
01:15So, as Caroline has mentioned, President, first of all, I want to let you know that I'm the only African reporter accrediting here at the White House and cover for the entire continent.
01:26So, I just arrived from Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, yesterday.
01:31Right.
01:32I went to see firsthand how the people is feeling and the President's message, President's fellows, about this upcoming peace deal.
01:41And let me tell you firsthand what I've witnessed myself. I spoke with the people on the street. I spoke with youth. They know your name. They know that our President named President Trump is working hard to finally bring peace to the country.
01:57I saw hope. They have hope now for a better day in Congo. They see what you're doing as a future, better future for Congo. And I had opportunity to sit down with President Felix Chiselle.
02:10For an interview, because I want to understand his mind, what he's thinking, his feeling about everything that your administration is doing. And he told me firsthand that for many years, many American presidents overlooked this conflict. They didn't do nothing. Even myself, I cover President Biden's administration. I press many times about this conflict. People are dying in Congo. This country has so much potential, but they need help because this war is destroying the country.
02:38They never gave me any answer. And he told me, President Chiselle, that he's very, you have no idea, he's very thankful for what you're doing, for what your administration is doing. Not only him, the entire Congolese people, they see that finally they will have hope.
02:53And President Chiselle also mentioned at the end of my interview that when peace finally comes to the Democrat Republic of the Congo, he's thinking to nominate you as a Nobel Prize Peace because he said you deserve, you have been working to bring peace in the world, not only at the Congo.
03:11And he's very hopeful to meet you in the future.
03:14That's so nice. Boy, that's so beautifully stated. And Caroline said, number one, she did say, and I shouldn't say this because it's politically incorrect.
03:22She said, she's beautiful and you are beautiful. I'm not allowed to say that, you know, that could be the end of my political career.
03:30But you are beautiful and you're beautiful inside. So I wish I had more reporters like you.
03:36So you covered Africa for a long time?
03:39Yes, for over 10 years. I covered even your first administration.
03:44Yes, I know that. That's great. Well, thank you. That's so nice that you said that. Appreciate it.
03:49And I have one more question, Mr. President. Since we know in July or in the future, both president of Rwanda and the Congo will be coming to the United States.
03:58In Africa, President John Lorenzo, the president of Angola, he's also the leader of African Union.
04:03Good. Yes, I know.
04:04He worked very hard to bring peace, but unfortunately...
04:07Let's get him here.
04:07Yes.
04:08Okay. Would you invite him for me?
04:10Of course.
04:11Okay.
04:12Of course.
04:13I know that he works very hard and he's the head of essentially the union.
04:18So the union all over Africa, not the kind of union that we have.
04:23This is the union all over Africa and I'd love to have him. So you'll let him know.
04:27Of course, Mr. President.
04:28Thank you very much.
04:30Now you'll go back to where you belong, right?
04:31That's great. That's a great job. It's real knowledge and a real heart, too. Congratulations.
04:40Okay.
04:41So we're here today to celebrate a glorious triumph, and that's what it is, for the cause of peace.
04:50And this is a long time waiting.
04:52The signing of a historic peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
05:00The conflict has continued, and it's been going on for many, many years.
05:07It's been going from, I guess, they say 30 years, the Great Lakes region of Africa for a long time, and maybe even a time before that.
05:17How is the Great Lakes region? It must be beautiful, right?
05:20Beautiful.
05:20Beautiful region, but they had a lot of war, right? A lot of fight and a lot of death.
05:25It's displaced countless people and claimed the lives of thousands and thousands.
05:30But today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity, and peace.
05:42That's been a long time waiting.
05:44I said, how long has the war been going?
05:46And a friend of mine who was very much involved said, 30 years, and at least 6 million people were killed during that period of time.
05:55It's incredible.
05:57And somebody said that was actually, it's the biggest war on the planet since World War II.
06:02So it's a shame, but we're going to bring it to an end.
06:07And I want to express my gratitude and congratulations to the representatives of the Democrat Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, who signed his pivotal agreement a short time ago.
06:20They just signed right in front.
06:23And let me also thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has worked very hard on this subject, and we've worked on it together, for his outstanding leadership,
06:31as well as senior advisor for African and Africa affairs, Mossad Boulos, who's, as you know, spends a lot of his time in Africa, and he's very comfortable there.
06:43I said, were you at all uncomfortable with all of the turmoil and all of the killing?
06:47And he said, no, I wasn't uncomfortable.
06:50And that's what you need.
06:51You need somebody that's going to be able to get.
06:53So, Mossad, I want to thank you very much for the job.
06:56You've got an amazing guy, actually.
06:58And I also want to thank African Union, Qatar, Togo, for working closely with the United States.
07:06And I know Qatar was really working hard, and African Union, we just spoke about that.
07:12And I look forward to having them representatives here when we do the official meeting, and that'll be sometime in July.
07:19And we look forward to it.
07:21And you better be here covering it, okay?
07:23We're not going to stand anybody else covering it but you.
07:25But this is a tremendous breakthrough.
07:29In a few short months, we've now achieved peace between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, and the DRC in Rwanda.
07:37And a couple of others also, Serbia, you know, was, they were getting ready to go to war with a group I won't even mention because it didn't happen.
07:51We were able to stop it.
07:52But I have a friend in Serbia, and they said, we're going to go to war again.
07:56And I won't mention that it's Kosovo, but it's Kosovo.
08:04But they were going to have a big-time war, and we stopped it.
08:07We stopped it because of trade.
08:08They want to trade with the United States.
08:10I said, we don't trade with people that go to war.
08:12And we said that also with, if you take a look at Pakistan and India, it was great.
08:17They have two great leaders, two great leaders, and they were able to stop.
08:21They were in the midst of a big, a big fight, I guess, everybody saw, and it was going to get very bad.
08:26And they are nuclear nations, very powerful nuclear nations.
08:30In the months and years ahead, my administration will continue to work closely with all of the parties in this deal
08:36and ensure the agreements are fully taken care of.
08:42And you're going to do what's in the agreement.
08:44We'll say you better do what's in that agreement, right?
08:47Because if somebody fails to do that, bad things happen.
08:51But I have a feeling that after 30 years, I think after 30 years, you're all set.
08:54I think both of you have said that's enough, right?
08:58That's enough.
08:59You've seen it all.
09:00So this is a wonderful day.
09:03It's a great day.
09:04We've had some tremendous success.
09:05It's been a great week between just coming back from a very successful trip, NATO.
09:11NATO's really pulled together.
09:13It's going to be, they're going to spend over a trillion dollars a year.
09:17Nobody expected a thing like that to happen.
09:19And we had the war, as you know.
09:23We call it the 12-day war.
09:25It was exactly a 12-day war.
09:28We ended up with no nuclear weapons.
09:30That's what we wanted.
09:31They were just absolutely blown to pieces, those three sites.
09:38And there's no nuclear weapons.
09:39And hopefully there can be a lot of healing.
09:42And the healing is starting.
09:43And just, it's been a really pretty amazing week.
09:48And this is one that I really look forward to.
09:50This was set up a few weeks ago.
09:52And it was something that I really look forward to.
09:55If we can do this, and we do that, because we have a certain competence that's good, we're
09:59able to get people to be peaceful.
10:01I think we can do war better than anybody, but we don't want to.
10:05And we have the greatest military in the world.
10:07They showed that in Iran.
10:09Those pilots, they flew for 36 hours.
10:13And think of that.
10:16And they hit their target.
10:17The size of this desk, half the size of this desk, from about 52,000 feet in the dark of
10:24night with no moon, zero moon.
10:26They wanted it that way.
10:27Can you believe it?
10:29And they hit, every missile hit exactly half the size of this beautiful resolute desk.
10:34We don't want to talk about it when it comes to rockets hitting it, but half the size of
10:38this, and they hit dead center from tremendous heights, going at tremendous speeds.
10:44It's amazing.
10:45Nobody could do a thing like that.
10:46There's nobody has that weaponry, and nobody could do a thing like that.
10:50So we had a very busy and successful week.
10:54And in addition to that, our economy is doing great, setting records with the economy and
10:58a lot of other good things happening.
11:00But this is about Congo and Rwanda.
11:04And I'd like to ask, if I might, would you say a few words before we introduce our guests?
11:10Thank you, Mr. President.
11:12Yes.
11:12So under your leadership, Mr. President, and the full support of Secretary Rubio and the
11:17entire team at the State Department, we engaged with the two parties in early April.
11:24And within three weeks, they signed the Declaration of Principles.
11:27And now within about two months from that, we have signed today the final, this is actually
11:33the final peace agreement.
11:35You know, many people were wondering if this is preliminary.
11:37No, this is the actual final peace agreement that they've signed today.
11:41You have also expressed interest in inviting the heads of states to the White House for a
11:47signing ceremony.
11:48So there will be some other additional agreements that will be signed, in addition to this, which
11:56will become known as the Washington Accord, with regards to the Great Lakes region.
12:00That's great.
12:00There are some economic...
12:01Why not the Trump Accord?
12:03I'm all in here.
12:08I think that's a great Washington Accord.
12:12And there's an economic aspect as well that is extremely important for both countries.
12:16They have also worked...
12:19Last week, we finalized the regional economic integration framework, which both countries
12:26will be signing at the White House here during that ceremony.
12:31And...
12:32That's going to be a great ceremony.
12:33Absolutely.
12:34We're going to make that a great ceremony and bring other people that were involved,
12:39some other people, besides the gentleman we talked about who we know has worked so hard.
12:44If you think there are other people that are deserving, let us know.
12:47Okay?
12:48Sure.
12:49And there will be some bilateral agreements.
12:51We're negotiating a minerals deal with the DRC for critical minerals.
12:57Many American companies have shown interest in investing in the DRC.
13:01And this, we're talking about long-term investments.
13:04Same thing with Rwanda.
13:05Many American companies have shown interest, and not only in mining, but also in the midstream
13:12and downstream, which will be the processing of minerals.
13:14We're also working and supporting the Lubito Corridor, which will help building the infrastructure.
13:20Just two days ago, the United States signed and supported a project of $1.5 billion for electric
13:30transmission from Angola to the DRC.
13:34And there are many other projects of that nature lined up.
13:37So we will be, under your leadership, Mr. President, will be working with the two countries very closely
13:41and with the support of Qatar to make sure that this agreement is implemented.
13:47And a lot of our companies are in both of these countries now, especially since we've been getting along so well.
13:54It's probably the way we were brought together, and we have a lot of our big companies are there between Rare Earth
14:01and all of the other things that they do in Africa, which is very greatly expanding, especially in these two countries.
14:09You have Earth.
14:10They consider it to be about the best in the world, actually, I've heard.
14:14So we're doing a lot of different things, and it's all going to bring everybody together.
14:18That's how this all began, I guess.
14:19But the big thing for me is there's really only one thing, and that's getting a peace treaty with two countries
14:27that have been fighting for 30 years.
14:30And I want to thank you all.
14:32Will, if you could, you could bring the letters over.
14:35Of course, sir.
14:36So in front of you, as you said, sir, these are the actual agreements that were signed,
14:40respectively, by the foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda earlier today,
14:45witnessed by Secretary Rubio.
14:47We've also prepared for you two letters.
14:50This is to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, expressing your appreciation and congratulations
14:56for everything that's happened already, and, of course, inviting him to Washington
15:00for, as Dr. Bula said, what we hope will be the Washington Accords,
15:03finally setting the terms for peace and prosperity in this region, hopefully for a very long time.
15:12That's great.
15:14That's beautiful.
15:17Very important.
15:19We're going to put a picture in there, right?
15:21As soon as this is over, they're going to put, we have a fast-moving photographer, Dan,
15:25who's going to put a nice picture of us here.
15:28Okay.
15:29That's good.
15:30And this is a letter to President Chickasideh, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
15:35again, congratulating him on settling this long-running war
15:38and inviting him to Washington, D.C. for the final conclusion of the agreement, hopefully soon.
15:45That's great.
15:52That's right.
15:55Thank you so much.
15:56So I'd like to ask J.D. to say a few words, a great vice president, and then Marco, and go ahead.
16:09Great.
16:10Well, first, let me welcome the foreign ministers of Rwanda and Congo.
16:13It's great to have you in the Oval Office.
16:15And second, let me say congratulations to the president, to Secretary Rubio, and the entire team.
16:19I think for the people of these two countries,
16:22they should know that the United States is committed to the pathway of peace.
16:25But to my fellow Americans, this is really a celebratory moment.
16:28This is a big moment for our country because under the president's leadership,
16:32we've taken what was 30 years of killing and war, the worst war in terms of death count since World War II,
16:40and now we're on a pathway to peace.
16:42And so if I think about what I know about these two countries,
16:45for 30 years, pretty much the entire time that I can remember these two countries being in the news,
16:51much of the story has been about them fighting one another, about them killing one another.
16:56And now we can look forward to a future where my children will look at this moment as the beginning of a news story,
17:01a story of prosperity and of peace.
17:03So thanks to the president, congratulations to the entire team, and to my fellow Americans.
17:07We should all be really proud because it's amazing what active presidential leadership can accomplish
17:13when it's geared towards peace and prosperity, and that's what we have in the Oval Office right now.
17:18So great job, sir.
17:19Thank you very much, Andy and Marco.
17:21And then we're going to ask the two principals to speak.
17:23Yes, sir.
17:24Mr. President, first of all, thank you.
17:25When I first came on this job a few months ago, you made it very clear that the priority of this administration
17:30under your leadership is going to be the pursuit of peace.
17:33And from day one, whether it's been in Ukraine and Russia, whether it's been Pakistan, India,
17:37whether it's been Iran and Israel, and in the continent of Africa, your priority has been on peace.
17:41And today we see this come to fruition.
17:43It's sad.
17:44Wars get a lot more attention than peace.
17:46But peace is harder than war, a lot harder.
17:48And I want to congratulate both of the leaders here and their respective presidents
17:51for choosing the harder path, which is often peace, than the easier path,
17:55which sometimes is war, as costly and as bloody as it may be.
17:58And I echo the vice president's statements, and that is that Americans should be very proud
18:02that the number one voice for peace in the world today is our president, your president.
18:07And so thank you, President Trump.
18:08And I want to, again, recognize Dr. Boulos and the work he's put into this from day one.
18:13He's really put a lot of time and effort, and as our friends from the respective countries can share with us.
18:19And last point, I do want to thank, you've done this already, but the African Union, Togo, and Qatar,
18:25who have been extraordinary partners and whose help we're going to need to continue to receive
18:29in order to bring all this to fruition.
18:31So congratulations to both of you, and thank you, Mr. President.
18:34Great job you've done it.
18:35Do you want to start?
18:38Either way, would you like to start?
18:39First, maybe.
18:41Thank you so much.
18:42Thank you very much.
18:43Thank you so much, Mr. President, for having us here.
18:46I think I can summarize my contribution in three main points.
18:51First of all, thank you and congratulations, indeed, for this remarkable milestone,
18:56which is putting an end to 30 years of conflict and of suffering,
18:59and which is redefining the perspectives that millions of Congolese and of citizens of the Greater Great Lakes region will have.
19:07The second point is stay committed, stay on board.
19:10We need the United States to make sure that this agreement holds and that you hold us accountable.
19:16And the third point is if you stay on board, I think there are so many perspectives that we can transform our partnerships through
19:23and that can usher in an era of prosperity, of growth, and of shared bilateral relationships
19:30that go well beyond the challenges that we've shared together
19:32and that can at least or finally focus on the potential and of the wealth that we can share.
19:38So, again, our heartfelt gratitude to you on my behalf,
19:43but more importantly, on behalf of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
19:47Thank you so much.
19:48Beautifully spoken, and I look forward to seeing you, leader.
19:51They will be a highly respected person, as you know.
19:54Indeed.
19:54Highly respected all over the world, but in Africa in particular.
19:58So sometime in July we'll do something, a big ceremony.
20:02We look forward to it.
20:03Thank you very much.
20:04Please.
20:05Thank you very much, Mr. President.
20:06This is indeed a historical day because it's the signing of a peace agreement between Congo and Rwanda
20:15to end a conflict that has been going on for 30 years.
20:20And there has been many mediation facilitation in the past, but none of them succeeded.
20:28And we believe that it's because of your leadership and your steadfast commitment to this process
20:37with also a new approach of economic integration, regional economic integration,
20:43which is important to allow Rwanda and DRC working together because this is a very rich region
20:49with cross-border trade, with minerals, with natural wealth.
20:55So with the U.S. standing side by side with Rwanda and DRC, we believe that we will achieve a long-time peace.
21:04And we also believe that, as my colleague from DRC stated, it's important for the United States to stay committed
21:12because today we signed, but now we need to implement what we have signed in order to open this new era
21:20you were talking about of prosperity so that we can reap the economic dividend of peace.
21:28So for this economic integration framework to be implemented, it's important for the U.S. to accompany the parties
21:36to implement what we have signed because in the past we have signed so many agreements that were not implemented.
21:42And we believe that with your leadership, with the involvement of the United States administration, we will reach that goal.
21:50So thank you very much, Mr. President.
21:52Well, this will happen definitely.
21:54I can reach over. Do you want to just press them over to me?
21:57Let me have them.
21:59And I just wanted to give you each of these signed agreements.
22:03And we'll make sure that you follow through.
22:06We'll make sure you follow through.
22:07We'll make sure that you follow through.
22:10Okay?
22:10That's for you.
22:12And we have one other thing that we're going to give, that we give to special people only.
22:17It's a coin.
22:19And I hope you do that.
22:20And we're going to give you a second one for your leader.
22:22Oh, cool.
22:23Thank you very much.
22:23Okay?
22:23And likewise, we'll do that.
22:25He's a serious coin.
22:29You don't want to, you don't want to lose him.
22:32You'll be very, I think that your reporter from Africa should get one.
22:35What do you think?
22:35Is she allowed?
22:36I think I'm, yes.
22:38Are the reporters okay with it?
22:41Brian, yes.
22:42Darling, that's for you.
22:44Okay.
22:44You did a fantastic job.
22:46And I heard you do a great job of covering everything.
22:50And, Mr. President, we actually have the pictures that you took earlier of the foreign ministers here already.
22:55Thank you so much, Mr. President.
22:57Let me see that.
22:59They're in this folder right here.
23:00Okay.
23:01This one?
23:01Yes, sir.
23:03Oh, they look better than me.
23:05I don't like it.
23:06I don't like it.
23:08That's beautiful.
23:09That's very good.
23:12We have a good photographer.
23:16Beautiful.
23:19That's great.
23:22You better, I'll tell you, you better do the job here or we're going to come down.
23:28That's beautiful.
23:29Thank you very much.
23:30So we'll put them in.
23:32That's for you.
23:33I can do that.
23:35That's for you.
23:39This is for the call group.
23:41Thank you, sir.
23:41And what is it?
23:42For the call group.
23:43Yes.
23:45Okay.
23:47Let's see.
23:48Do we have two of them?
23:49I think so.
23:50Who wouldn't give us one?
23:51Who would have made a big mistake?
23:53Isn't that nice?
23:55That's for you.
23:56That's for you.
23:57Thank you, Mr. President.
23:58Thank you very much.
23:59And you're all set.
24:01And this is for you.
24:02You're going to get this.
24:04Good.
24:04Might as well hold it.
24:05Thank you so much.
24:06Thank you very much.
24:07Good luck.
24:08Do you have any questions?
24:10Yes, sir.
24:10It's on the central clear field.
24:12Why not?
24:15Why not Canada, by the way?
24:16Why?
24:17Because this is about a different subject right now.
24:20This is right now actually a much more important subject.
24:23We just ended a war that was going on for 30 years where 6 million people died.
24:28So don't ask me a trade question on Canada.
24:30Mr. President, Cara Castrono from Lindell TV.
24:33Now that your administration, and congratulations, has secured peace in Africa to a bloody horrific
24:38war that's gone on for decades and no other president could do it, do you think the mainstream
24:42media will finally-
24:43I'm over.
24:43I'm telling you.
24:45But you're right.
24:46No other president could do it.
24:47They tried and they- well, they didn't even try, I don't think.
24:50I don't think-
24:51I actually don't think they tried.
24:52Do you think Biden tried?
24:53He didn't know he was alive.
24:55Do you think the mainstream media will finally give you credit where credit is due?
24:58No.
24:59The media will never give me credit.
25:01But the people give me credit.
25:03That's why I'm here.
25:04The people didn't give me-
25:05That's why we're here in a landslide.
25:07We got all seven states.
25:08We won the popular vote.
25:10So the media won't give me credit, but the people give me credit.
25:13That's more important to me.
25:14Mr. President, honor-
25:15You're going to go down as a peacemaker.
25:17You're also going to go down for the president.
25:18You had zero border crossings in May.
25:20You secured the border more or less than anybody.
25:24But I don't know if you know this.
25:25You're on track right now to have the lowest murder rate in history in this country.
25:31And I think a lot largely goes to the fact we closed down the border.
25:35Do you want to comment on that?
25:36You might go down as the lowest murder rate in U.S. history.
25:41Yeah, I saw that the other day and that's an honor.
25:44I mean, and that's really even better because, you know, we've taken a lot of illegals into
25:51the country through Biden, through the Biden administration that are murderers.
25:5711,888 to be exact.
26:00And many of them are now gone.
26:02We got rid of them.
26:03They're back where they belong.
26:05But so it's a great honor.
26:06You know, if you took that out, the numbers would be even better because they've created
26:11a lot of problems.
26:13You chose earlier about getting money to the air traffic controllers and the big, beautiful
26:17bill, which hopefully, praise God, we get this thing signed.
26:21What does that mean to that industry that have been suffering the last couple of years,
26:26a couple of years, quite a decade, of being underfunded?
26:29How did that change the safety of air travel?
26:31Well, they've underfunded the airports for years and I started the process of getting
26:35it completed in terms of the equipment necessary to land the planes, where the planes, like the
26:41helicopter accident with the plane, would have never happened if they had the right modern
26:46equipment.
26:47It would have been, bells and whistles would have been going on all over the place.
26:51And I had that all set.
26:52But when I wasn't here, they totally dropped it.
26:54You had a terrible head of transportation.
26:57We have a very good one there, Sean Duffy.
26:59But you had Buttigieg and he didn't know a damn thing.
27:02He'd ride to work on his bicycle.
27:03He didn't know what the hell was going on.
27:05He was terrible.
27:06So he totally dropped that.
27:08It was a project that should have happened and I was all set.
27:11But we had a very sad experience with the voting.
27:15And so we didn't get to do that.
27:17But now I'm doing it and we're going to have a great system.
27:20And it's funded partially by the bill.
27:22The initial funding is by the bill and then it gets to be funded.
27:25The rest of it comes a little bit later as we build it out.
27:28But we're going to build out the best in the world.
27:30We have the best companies in the world.
27:32A couple of countries have very good systems.
27:34In fact, I noticed when I was landing, my pilot often would use the system of another country.
27:40And I said, what are you doing that for?
27:41He said, the United States system is so bad.
27:44So we have the best companies that do that in the world bidding.
27:49You have Raytheon.
27:50You have IBM.
27:51You have a lot of different companies bidding.
27:53And we'll get the best one, the best system for the best price.
27:57And they're going to go to town and give us a system that will be better than any other system in the world.
28:02And you won't have planes bunking into each other at 35,000 feet.
28:06Mr. President, Mr. President, on the subject of peace deals,
28:09how close are you and your administration to a deal in terms of Gaza ceasefire right now?
28:16Mr. President, often asked, and I think it's close.
28:20I just spoke with some of the people involved.
28:23It's a terrible situation that's going to Gaza.
28:26He's asking about.
28:27And we think within the next week, we're going to get a ceasefire.
28:32And we're supplying, as you know, a lot of money and a lot of food to that area because we have to.
28:37I mean, you have to.
28:38We're in theory not involved in it, but we're involved because people are dying.
28:43And I look at those crowds of people that have no food, no anything.
28:47And, you know, we're the ones that are getting it there.
28:49Some of it's being taken by some bad people, you know, where if you give it and you give it out,
28:56and they're supposed to be taking care of the people and they end up stealing the food and selling it.
29:00But we have a pretty good system now.
29:02But so we're helping with that.
29:05You see the lines of people that just get one meal, essentially.
29:10But it's too bad.
29:13Other countries aren't helping out.
29:14Nobody's helping out.
29:15We're doing that because I think we have to on a humanitarian basis like this.
29:21We didn't have to get involved in Africa, but we did because we thought it was.
29:25I mean, I've been reading, like J.D. said, he's, you know, from much of his life,
29:30he's been just seeing this about this brutal war.
29:33And it actually got a lot of publicity because of the level of brutality.
29:38It was it was nobody's ever seen anything like it.
29:41And to be involved in that, I mean, I consider this the most important of my conferences today.
29:47We just had a great Supreme Court victory today.
29:50And and everybody would say there was big.
29:53But, you know, we're talking about saving thousands and probably millions of lives here.
29:58This is more important than anything.
30:00So it's great.
30:02But we're working on Gaza, trying to get it taken care of.
30:04And again, you know, a lot of a lot of food has been sent there and other countries throughout the world should be helping also.
30:11And on another conflict that I know you've been working on, sir.
30:14Is it true that you have reached out with a letter to North Korea's Kim Jong-un?
30:20Well, if there is a conflict, I get along with him very, very well.
30:24And we'll get the conflict solved with North Korea.
30:27I've I've had a good relationship with Kim Jong-un and I've gotten along with him really great.
30:34So we'll see what happens.
30:35But somebody saying there's a potential conflict, I think we'll work it out.
30:39If there is, it wouldn't involve us.
30:42But again, we're very far away from a lot of these places that we're solving problems with.
30:47But I enjoy doing it.
30:48I like doing it.
30:49And it's the right thing to do.
30:50And we're able we have an ability to get it done.
30:52So we're solving things that we didn't have a lot to do with Serbia, Kosovo.
30:58I told you we solved a potential disaster.
31:02I can tell you that some of the countries that you're not going to hear about,
31:07but some countries that were ready to go to war with their neighbor are not going to go to war with their neighbor.
31:13And it's that's a great thing.
31:15We have a number of them.
31:16But I just I'm very happy about India and Pakistan because they have they actually have nuclear weapons.
31:22You know, when you talk about Iran, they were trying to get it.
31:25But India has nuclear weapons.
31:28Pakistan has nuclear weapons, high level nuclear weapons, both.
31:34And getting that solved was was really great.
31:37We did it through trade.
31:39So it was a great thing.
31:40Mr. President, when it comes to nuclear weapons, Mr. President,
31:43are you concerned that the Iranians may have some enriched uranium at Pickaxe Mountain?
31:49The last thing they're thinking about right now is enriched uranium.
31:54They're not thinking about what they want to do is they want to get back to life.
31:57And they do want to meet me.
31:59And we'll do that quickly.
32:01We're going to do it quickly.
32:02They may say that to you.
32:08Don't you think they want to meet me?
32:10Don't you think we have sanctions on there that they can't do anything?
32:13And wouldn't you think that they want to meet me?
32:15I mean, they're not stupid people.
32:18But they went through a lot.
32:21And they suffered.
32:22And so did Israel.
32:23Israel suffered greatly.
32:24It was a nasty 12 days.
32:27And, yeah, we'll see what happens.
32:30Are you considering sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine?
32:35Have you made up your mind about that yet?
32:36I may.
32:37Go ahead.
32:37On this conflict, Mr. President, there are a few unanswered questions that remain in this deal.
32:42For example, will Rwanda, on this deal, on this conflict, for example, will Rwanda troops pull back from parts of DR Congo?
32:49And also, will the M-23 rebel group be allowed to remain in parts of eastern DR Congo?
32:56Do you have any answers to those questions?
32:57Well, let me ask you that question.
32:59Do you want to answer that one?
33:00It sounds like an interesting question for you.
33:02Go ahead, please.
33:03Thank you very much.
33:04In the agreement we signed, we have taken the concept of operation for the neutralization of the FDLR, which is a vicious genocidal movement, and the lifting of Rwanda defensive measures.
33:17So this was already signed last year in November.
33:20So we will implement it, this concept of operation, to do both things, to neutralize this movement, which has been destabilizing Rwanda for many years, and to lift our defensive measures.
33:33As for the M-23, in the agreement also, we have decided to rely on the Doha talks, because there are currently talks between the AFC M-23 and the DRC government to have a peace deal also that will complement the Washington peace agreement.
33:50So both things are taken care of.
33:52Mr. President, will the United States be enforcing this agreement?
33:55Well, we're going to be working with them to get it enforced.
33:57They can enforce their own agreement, but we'll be putting a lot of pressure on to make sure it gets enforced.
34:02The two people in this room are very, very capable people, and they'll get it done.
34:07I think they'll get it done.
34:08They love it.
34:09One thing I learned very quickly is how much you love your country, and you want to get it done.
34:14And they know it has to get done, otherwise bad things happen.
34:17But I think we're well beyond that.
34:19Other presidents should have done what I'm doing right now.
34:22They never did it.
34:22I don't think they ever tried.
34:23I don't think it's like they couldn't do it.
34:26I don't think they ever tried.
34:27And if they did, they wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
34:29Mr. President, can you share with us what can happen if one of the parts violate this peace agreement?
34:40Because we don't want war to come back to.
34:43Well, I'd rather not say, I would just say that there are big penalties if they violate.
34:48And they're not going to, I don't think they will violate.
34:50I think they, but we have very severe penalties, financial and otherwise.
34:53Mr. President, back to your social post on Canada specifically, why are you deciding to end trade talks with Canada?
35:02And what rate are you looking to send?
35:04So Canada, I put a charge on some of our companies.
35:09And Canada has been a very difficult country to deal with over the years.
35:12Because, you know, we hear Canada, we have a great relationship with the people of Canada, but it's been very difficult.
35:18And they put a charge and they were a little bit early, we found out about it.
35:22So, and we have all the cards.
35:25We have all, every single one.
35:26We don't want to do anything bad.
35:27But they have, economically, we have such power over Canada.
35:33I'd rather not use it.
35:35But they did something with our tech companies today, trying to copy Europe.
35:39You know, they copied Europe.
35:40It's not going to work out well for Europe either.
35:43And it's not going to work out well for Canada.
35:45They were foolish to do it.
35:47So I said, we're going to stop all negotiations with Canada right now until they straighten out their act.
35:53Is there anything Canada can do to change their mind about this?
35:56Well, no, they put a tax on companies that were American companies that they shouldn't.
36:01A very severe tax.
36:03And, yeah, I guess they could remove it.
36:07They will.
36:07But I don't really, I mean, it doesn't matter to me.
36:10We have all the cards.
36:11We have all the cards.
36:12You know, we do a lot of business with Canada, but relatively little.
36:16They do most of their businesses with us.
36:19And when you have that circumstance, you treat people better.
36:23They've had farmers that are getting like 300, 400, 200 percent in tariffs.
36:29Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
36:31We have cases, you don't read this, and the people don't report, but they charge us 400 percent on some dairy products.
36:40400 percent.
36:42Nobody writes that.
36:43It's not fair to our farmers, and we've got to protect our farmers.
36:47Sir, you just, sir, you mentioned how much of a rate cut we could do to the interest on the debt.
36:56Earlier today, Director Pulte was on CNBC talking about how he suggested Powell should resign.
37:04Any comments on whether or not Powell should step down?
37:07I know you've been...
37:08Well, I don't have a comment.
37:09I'd love him to resign if he wanted to.
37:11He's done a lousy job.
37:12Look, if you were there, you'd say, well, you know, the United States is doing well.
37:19They have no inflation.
37:20And if they do get inflation in a year or two, we'll put, we'll start raising the rates.
37:25We'll get rid of the inflation, you know, and do other things.
37:29Biden had the worst inflation in the history of our country.
37:3319 percent, but I think it was much higher than that.
37:36Frankly, they say 19 percent.
37:37I say, I think it's a lot higher than that.
37:40And we have almost no inflation now.
37:41We've done a great job in a short period of time.
37:44Energy prices are way down.
37:46Gasoline now is down to close to $2 in a lot of places.
37:50A couple of places, I see it even broke.
37:52It's like $1.98 a gallon.
37:54We've done a great job on inflation and honestly, pretty much everything else.
37:59I think that, I think it's very sad the way people act.
38:06You know, you have a guy in there that with the stroke of a pen could lower interest rates
38:11and save us hundreds of billions of dollars a year, but he's a stupid person.
38:17You know, it's very interesting.
38:19He, I'm not sure if he doesn't understand it, because you should be able to understand it.
38:26It's sort of one-on-one economics, but I'm not sure of that.
38:29But think of it with the stroke of a pen.
38:32And he talks about costs.
38:34We can save $600 billion, maybe even, these are nice numbers for you, right?
38:41$900 billion, $950 billion by lowering interest rates.
38:45And it's really just more of a paper movement.
38:47It's not like, you're not cutting anything, you're not cutting jobs.
38:50It's just interest rates.
38:52And we're number 40 or 44, number 45.
38:57Some places that you wouldn't believe that, you know, I don't want to be disparaging,
39:01but they pay a lower interest rate than the United States of America.
39:05And without us, everything blows up.
39:07You know, we sort of control the world in that sense.
39:10But we have a guy that's just a stubborn mule and a stupid person that is making a big mistake.
39:17He's making a mistake.
39:18And it lasts for years because when you do the debt, now, I've instructed my people not to do any debt beyond nine months or so.
39:26Get this guy out.
39:28And whoever is in there will lower rates.
39:31If I don't, if I think somebody is going to keep the rates where they are or whatever, I'm not going to put them in.
39:36I'm going to put somebody that wants to cut rates.
39:38There are a lot of them out there.
39:40And I said this morning, a lot of the business shows today were saying, you know, Trump is right.
39:44He should be cutting rates.
39:46Think of it.
39:46We have a great country.
39:47We're making a lot of money.
39:49We're taking in billions of dollars in tariffs.
39:51We have one.
39:51We have 15 trillion dollars of money that wants to be invested here, which is a record.
39:57In two months, it breaks any record that we've ever had for a whole year and not even close.
40:0415 trillion.
40:06And it's going to be much higher than that.
40:07That's after essentially two months because, you know, we've been doing it for about two months, two and a half months.
40:1215 trillion dollars breaks every record in the book.
40:16There's never been anything like this.
40:18We have factories moving in.
40:19We have car plants moving in.
40:21We have everyone wants to be part of the United States.
40:24And as I told you, and I say to everybody when I was in the Middle East, the king of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, all great leaders.
40:32They have all great leaders.
40:34All three of them said you got the hottest country in the world and you did it.
40:37And at that time, I was there for four months because we got back a little while ago.
40:41But everybody says it, not only them.
40:44We have the hottest country in the world right now.
40:46The only thing is we have a Fed chairman that is, he doesn't get it.
40:51And you could have substantially low, like if we cut him two points, would save more than 600.
40:58Think of it more than 600 billion dollars just because you cut.
41:01But you can't go out to the market and say, well, we have a guy that's got us at 4 percent or four and a half percent.
41:06And we want to pay 2 percent or 1 percent.
41:09I think we should be paying 1 percent right now.
41:12And we're paying more because we have a guy who's, you know, suffers from, I think, Trump derangement syndrome, if you want to know the truth.
41:19But he's not good for our country.
41:22The president of the president, did you push for the president?
41:27A related question on banking.
41:29There have been reports, Mr. President, that your administration is considering issuing an executive order about debanking,
41:35which is the practice of banks denying services based on people's political beliefs or industries such as crypto, if you want to involve in that.
41:43Would you be open or interested to sign such an executive order targeting debanking?
41:48Well, I think the debankers, I think that banks, I can tell you because I've been a victim myself because of my politics that big banks were very nasty to us.
42:00And I actually think it was Biden's people that told him to be because the one group of people that banks are afraid of are the regulators.
42:08They are petrified of the regulators.
42:11And I've seen the biggest banker.
42:13I can tell you, you see him on television all the time.
42:15If a regulator walked into the room, he gets all nervous and crazy.
42:19They're afraid of the regulators.
42:22And if the Biden people order the banks to be virtually closed, they could do anything they want.
42:28The regulators control the banks.
42:29It's not the president of the bank.
42:31The president of the bank is far less important to a bank than a regulator.
42:35And a regulator can put that bank out of business, just like bad prosecutors are very dangerous.
42:41You know, we had a couple.
42:42I had deranged Jack Smith and some others.
42:45And we kicked their ass.
42:46But it was, you know, it's a tough kind of a situation.
42:50Prosecutors are very dangerous.
42:51A great prosecutor is an amazing asset for a country.
42:55But a corrupt prosecutor, a bad prosecutor is very bad.
42:58Well, the regulators are the same thing.
43:01And when they tell the regulator to go and make it make life impossible for big banks or little banks, they really control it.
43:08So there is a lot of debanking.
43:09And there's a call it debanking called a lot of different names.
43:13Essentially, they make it impossible to do business.
43:15And those people are very bad and very dangerous.
43:18And they shouldn't be doing it.
43:20On taxes, Mr. President, could you please explain how taxes would go up by 68% if the bill isn't passed?
43:29Where does that number come from?
43:30Well, it comes from the fact that you have automatically the Trump cuts, which were the biggest cuts that we've ever had.
43:36Now, these cuts are even bigger.
43:38But from the last administration, we had the Trump cuts.
43:41It was a five-year deal and it comes due.
43:43When you add that to the cuts that you already have and other things,
43:47it amounts according to what they tell me about 68%.
43:51That would mean you'd have a tax so that you know that the tax cuts that they got,
43:58the biggest tax cuts in our history, would immediately go up to that level.
44:03And that alone is a big chunk of the 68%.
44:06And then you have the other taxes that would accumulate.
44:09And they say that you'd have about a 68% tax increase.
44:13Sir, you said a moment ago that it won't work out very well for Europe on trade.
44:18Does that mean you want to cut off those negotiations as well and just tell them what they should be doing?
44:21No, well, they've been very tough.
44:23The European Union was formed in order to take advantage of the United States on trade.
44:27That was why they were formed.
44:29And they're nasty.
44:30They're very nasty.
44:31We have a good relationship.
44:33I'm dealing with Ursula right now and the group.
44:35But it's a very tough situation.
44:39They have been unbelievably bad to us.
44:43If you look at past precedents, they've treated them very badly.
44:46They're being very nice to me because I get it.
44:48I know the system.
44:50And we have the cards.
44:51We have the cards far more than they do.
44:54And they have not treated us well.
44:56And they're coming to us right now.
44:58You know, I said I was going to put on a 50% tariff.
45:01As soon as I said that, I put it out on truth.
45:03As soon as I said that, they came to the table.
45:06They didn't want to come to the table.
45:07My people were telling me, Scott was telling me, and the whole group was telling me, that
45:12not a good situation.
45:15They want to tap it down the line.
45:17They don't want to really deal.
45:18So I said, we're going to put a 50% tariff on you.
45:21Then Howard, as you know, was very much involved.
45:25Lutnik Commerce.
45:27And he said they don't want to talk.
45:29As soon as I put that on, I was getting calls from them like, can we meet tomorrow?
45:34And the problem is they have a lot of very unfair taxes.
45:38They have a lot of taxes that you wouldn't put on.
45:41And they sue all our companies.
45:43They're constantly suing Apple and Google and all of these companies.
45:48And getting, you know, in front of judges that essentially almost work for them.
45:53I guess they do work for them, the European Union judges.
45:56And they're getting these crazy rewards.
45:58Apple was fined $17 billion.
46:01And others are being fined tremendous numbers of dollars.
46:04They're nasty people.
46:06And I don't want them affecting U.S. companies.
46:10I don't want that.
46:11If anybody's going to affect a U.S. company, I want it to be us.
46:14And if they're going to have to pay a penalty or a fine, let it be to us.
46:18So they've done this for a long time, for years.
46:21But they're very nasty.
46:23The European Union is very nasty.
46:24There's no question.
46:25But they'll learn not to be so nasty very soon.
46:28They know that.
46:29They know it's coming.
46:32Vladimir Putin reached out to you to help you with the Iran crisis.
46:38We made some nice statements today.
46:39Did you see the statements?
46:40I saw the statements.
46:41Very nice.
46:42Vladimir Putin made some very nice statements today.
46:44Look, he respects our country again.
46:47He didn't respect it a year ago, I can tell you right now.
46:50But Putin respects our country.
46:53And President Xi of China respects our country.
46:56And Kim Jong-un respects, they respect our country again.
46:59We were not a country that was respected just a year ago.
47:02We had a president that was incompetent.
47:05We had bad people circulating around this desk, this beautiful resolute desk.
47:09They had, I guess, evil intentions.
47:12You couldn't be that stupid.
47:13I mean, they had evil intentions.
47:15But the world respects our country again.
47:20Thank you very much, everybody.
47:21Thank you, press.
47:22Thank you, press.
47:23I'll write the story.
47:24Thank you, press.
47:25Congratulations.
47:26Thank you very much.
47:28We're going.
47:28Thanks, guys.
47:31Thanks, everybody.
47:40Thanks, guys.
47:40Thank you, press.
47:45We're going to do a prayer with Paul around the devil.