President Trump Takes Questions About Tariffs As Trade Deal Deadline Nears, Powell Replacement

Forbes

President Trump takes questions from reporters upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews.   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Let's go.

01:30I think we're over now as a country, we're over $15 trillion of investment, and there's

01:37never been anything like that.

01:38In the history of our country, there has not been anything like it, or even close.

01:43So, okay.

01:44Do you have any questions, Mr. President?

01:45The Press, you announced the Indonesia trade deal today.

01:46You announced the Indonesia trade deal today.

01:47How many more trade deals beyond the letters will you announce before on the purchase?

01:51The President?

01:52We're working on probably five or six.

01:53Of the five or six, I'm not sure I really want to do them.

01:54You know, you want somebody that knows how to negotiate.

01:56But we'll probably have two or three.

01:57You know, we insist on opening up the country, which is a big deal.

02:01Indonesia was great.

02:02He's a great president.

02:03And we made a terrific deal where they opened up the entire country to trade with the United

02:08States.

02:09We weren't allowed to go in and trade.

02:10I think something similar will happen with, I would say, India.

02:11And we have a couple of others.

02:12But I have to tell you, for the most part, I'm very happy with the letters.

02:21You know, the letters are a deal.

02:26You know, I can't...

02:28You know, I can't...

02:29I have to tell you, for the most part, I'm very happy with the letters.

02:31You know, the letters are a deal.

02:34You know, I can't...

02:37You know, the letters are a deal.

02:38You know, I can't explain it any better.

02:41The letters are a deal.

02:42The press doesn't want to pick that up.

02:45But I will veer from those deals on occasion

02:47when somebody is willing.

02:49Like if Japan would open up their country.

02:51They don't do that.

02:52They just don't do that.

02:54And I don't either, I don't subscribe to it

02:56one way or the other.

02:58But they won't do that.

03:00So we might just stick with the letter.

03:02If South Korea is inclined to maybe do that,

03:04so we'll let you know.

03:05But we have letters out.

03:07Every time I send out a letter,

03:09essentially, that's a deal.

03:11The Press on the date that you gave August 1st.

03:14The Press on the date that you gave August 1st.

03:16Why stick with the date if you're saying that you want

03:19you to have the date?

03:20The Press on August 1st.

03:22The only thing about that's really sacred about

03:24August 1st is that's when payments start.

03:27So they have to start paying billions of dollars

03:31to you and people.

03:32Are you a citizen of the country?

03:34The Press on August 1st.

03:35You're going to be very happy because you're going

03:36to be getting a lot of money.

03:38Just like they found a budget surplus.

03:41We have a budget surplus of $25 billion.

03:44Everyone said, how did that happen?

03:46It hasn't happened in many years.

03:47It happened because of good management and tariff.

03:51The Press on August 1st.

03:52The Press on August 1st.

03:53The Press on August 1st.

03:54The Press on August 1st.

03:54The Press were delivered.

03:55Read all their report.

03:56You were already supposed to.

03:56pull the divorce details into Vietnam China deals.

03:58Is there going to be paperwork release the public and

04:00all that about?

04:00The Press on August 2st.

04:01The Press on August 1st.

04:02I don't think it factors how much you release of the deal.

04:02We have a Vietnam deal.

04:04We have a Vietnam deal.

04:07And I would say that that deal is being pretty well set.

04:10It's pretty well set.

04:12Again, that's an opening of their country.

04:14They've opened it up.

04:15Just so you know, these were closed countries.

04:17They were wonderful people, wonderful leaders,

04:20very strong, smart leaders.

04:22But their countries were closed to us,

04:24but our country wasn't closed to them.

04:26And so I said, you've got to open up your country.

04:29So we're going to see.

04:30But the Vietnam deal, we may open it.

04:33I mean, I don't know.

04:33I can't tell you.

04:34Is it necessary?

04:35No.

04:36Yeah, I don't think so.

04:37Mr. President, why did you settle on giving Putin another 50 days?

04:42It seems like he's had a lot of time to show he wants to.

04:44I don't think it's a long time.

04:46I think really the question should be asked,

04:48why did Biden get us into that ridiculous war?

04:51Why did Biden bring us there?

04:53That should never, ever have happened, that war.

04:56This is Biden's war.

04:57I'm just trying to end it because we're saving a lot of lives.

05:00Why do you think his opinion will change in 50 days

05:03when it hasn't over the last...

05:04A lot of opinions change very rapidly.

05:07It might not be 50 days.

05:08It might be much sooner than 50 days.

05:10To that end, when do you think the first Patriot missiles,

05:13some of these weapons that our allies will buy...

05:15They're already being shipped.

05:17From what countries?

05:18They're coming in from Germany and then replaced by Germany.

05:21And in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full.

05:24So what's happening, as you know, is the European Union,

05:29if you look, mostly European Union stuff,

05:32but let's put it in the form of NATO.

05:35It's very similar.

05:36But NATO is going to pay us back for everything.

05:39In some cases, we're going to be paid back

05:40by countries of the European Union directly.

05:44But we're always getting our money back in full.

05:47So we're not going to have any more investment to make.

05:50We're getting our money back in full.

05:53And if we can make a deal, that'd be great.

05:56We're saving 5,000 or 6,000 soldiers a week.

05:59They're Russian and they're Ukrainian soldiers.

06:01They're not American soldiers.

06:03And we won't have boots on the ground.

06:05But it's a shame.

06:085,000.

06:09Last week, they say 7,100 soldiers.

06:12Both Russian and Ukraine were killed.

06:16Can I ask you about Iran?

06:17Have you seen any progress in talks with Iran?

06:19We haven't really heard about that in a while.

06:20Well, they want to talk.

06:22I'm in no rush to talk.

06:24They would like to talk.

06:26I'm in no rush to talk because we obliterated their site.

06:30They'd have to start all over.

06:31In fact, it's obliterated to the point that it's not usable anymore.

06:36They'd have to pick a different mountain.

06:38That mountain is so blown up inside.

06:42And so unstable that they would have to pick a different mountain.

06:46Our people really did the job.

06:48Yes, please.

06:49On the Fed, sir, would you fire Jerome Powell over the Treasury renovation?

06:54Well, he spent $2.5 million building this place.

06:58I have to say this.

07:00I think he's terrible.

07:02I think he's a total stiff.

07:04But the one thing I didn't see him as a guy that needed a palace to live in.

07:08You talk to the guy, it's like talking to nothing.

07:11It's like talking to a chair.

07:13No personality, no high intelligence, no nothing.

07:18But the one thing I would have never guessed is that he would be spending $2.5 billion to build a little extension onto the Fed.

07:26Is that a fireball picture?

07:26Nobody's ever seen it.

07:27I think it sort of is.

07:29Because if you look at his testimony to the House and the Senate, you take a look at the testimony, it's under earth.

07:37That whole thing is, he's not, you know, he's not talking about the problem.

07:41It's a big problem.

07:42It's $2.5 billion, and that's $2.5 billion now.

07:46That's going to be a lot more money than $2.5 billion to expand.

07:50And with all of that, to house thousands of people to give him information.

07:55And yet, out of the 71 economists, and they included me, me and one other person got it right.

08:02I got it right, and one other genius got it right.

08:06They had everybody else was wrong.

08:0869 were wrong, and two were right.

08:10I was one of them.

08:12And I don't have a lot of people.

08:14I have Howard.

08:14I have Doug.

08:16I have a few people.

08:18He has thousands of people, and he got it wrong.

08:21No, I think when you spend $2.5 billion on really a renovation, I think it's pretty disgraceful.

08:29Mr. President, have you spoken to President Putin since your announcement yesterday?

08:34No, I have not.

08:35Do you think, when you speak to him on the phone, does he say that he wants peace?

08:40Yeah, he does.

08:41What is he saying?

08:42He says he wants peace.

08:43He does.

08:44So far, it's all talk and no action.

08:46But, you know, if you think about it, India, Pakistan, we did so many.

08:51The Congo, and I mean, look at the deals we've made.

08:54We've made all these peace deals.

08:57Look at Rwanda.

08:58It was an impossible deal to make with the Congo.

09:00I made that.

09:01I made all of these deals, Serbia, Kosovo.

09:05And here's the one deal.

09:07And actually, Vladimir called me up.

09:09He said, I'd love to help you with respect to making a deal with a couple of them, like Iran.

09:17I'd love to help you.

09:18I say, Vladimir, I only want to help with one deal, Russia, because you're the only deal that we're not doing too well on.

09:26He oftentimes, oftentimes, he said, no, he wants peace.

09:32And I think he does.

09:33I hope he does.

09:34We're going to find out soon.

09:35And it could be before the 50 days.

09:37Mr. President, twice yesterday, when you were talking about this, you mentioned conversations you had with the First Lady after talking with President Putin.

09:44Has she influenced your thinking on this at all?

09:46Mr. President, she's very smart.

09:49She's very neutral.

09:51She's very neutral in a sense.

09:52She's sort of like me.

09:54She'd like to see people stop dying.

09:56You know, people said, are you for one side or another?

09:59I'm for the side of people stopping dying.

10:02We have 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000 people a week, at least.

10:07And that doesn't include people from the cities and towns that are having rockets lobbed in there.

10:14I mean, people are dying in the cities and towns, too.

10:17But we're talking about 7,100 in the last eight days died.

10:24And I'm for stopping that.

10:26Mr. President, on the Fed chair search, sir, is Scott Besson, your Treasury Secretary, your number one option whenever Jerome Powell leaves?

10:33Well, he's an option, and he's very good.

10:36Well, he's not, because I like the job he's doing.

10:39Right.

10:39That's why he's not.

10:40The Pressure Secretary, sir?

10:41I'd like the job.

10:42I don't know if he was on the planet.

10:44Maybe he wasn't.

10:46But I do like the job he's done.

10:47Right.

10:48So, in that sense, probably he's not that much of an option.

10:52Right.

10:52Scott's been great.

10:53He's been terrific.

10:54He did a good job today.

10:56He's a very soothing force.

10:58You know, he's soothing.

10:59All right.

11:00Mr. President, the pharmaceutical...

11:02The pharmaceuticals will be tariffed probably at the end of the month, and we're going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we're going to make it a very high tariff, because we've got to move them in.

11:18Look, there's two ways you do it.

11:20You make money, and or, and or, you have them move here so they don't have to pay the tariff.

11:26Those are the two ways.

11:27The pharmaceutical companies are moving back to America, where they should be.

11:33Semiconductor, sir?

11:34Is that in the same timeline?

11:35The semiconductors tariff?

11:37Similar.

11:40Actually, less complicated, but similar.

11:42Semiconductors and chips.

11:43Mr. President, I know you've urged people to move on, but I'm curious, why do you think your supporters in particular have been so interested in the Epstein story and so upset about how it's been handled?

11:55I don't understand it.

11:56Why they would be so interested?

11:58He's dead for a long time.

12:00He was never a big factor in terms of life.

12:04I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is.

12:09I really don't.

12:10And the credible information has been given.

12:13Don't forget, we went through years of the Mueller witch hunt and all of the different things.

12:18The Steele dossier, which was all fake.

12:21All that information was fake.

12:23But I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.

12:28It's pretty boring stuff.

12:29It's sorted, but it's boring.

12:31And I don't understand why it keeps going.

12:35I think, well, really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.

12:42But credible information, let them give it.

12:45Anything that's credible, I would say let them have it.

12:49Mr. President, a question on AI.

12:52How do you want Americans to think about it?

12:54Are you concerned about job loss or privacy?

12:58Or do you think the new technology?

13:00What's interesting, because we need jobs.

13:03We need a lot of people to work.

13:06You know, we're building, we're going to be building very shortly hundreds of factories, including AI.

13:11We're building a lot of car factories.

13:13They're all coming in from other countries now in order to avoid paying the tariffs.

13:17And we need people working.

13:19So if AI can help us with that, that's a positive.

13:23Because we're not going to have enough workers to take care of it if we don't create something.

13:27So whether it's robots or whether it's AI, we need somebody to take care of it.

13:32Do you agree with that?

13:33I agree.

13:34So many jobs to build.

13:36I mean, think about $15 trillion.

13:38That's 5 million people working in these factories, building them.

13:43Great, high-paying jobs in America that President Trump has brought back.

13:47So those jobs, of course, aren't in the wings.

13:51So let's go.

13:52Let's train America.

13:53And let's get it going.

13:55What would you say about this job?

13:58Well, I think with AI, as Howard and the President said, we're going to need more workers in this country.

14:03Because President Trump, as the greatest economic developer that this country has ever had, has brought back this record amount of foreign direct investment and a record amount of U.S. investment going back into job creation.

14:15But the mix is going to change.

14:17AI will take jobs away, like software development, because AI can write code.

14:22But AI can't wire a building, do plumbing.

14:24I mean, if kids go into the trades today, they're all going to be making $150 grand.

14:28And they'll have amazing, live-built companies, start businesses.

14:32I mean, this is part of the boom of America, because middle-class, working-class, working Americans will never have had it as good.

14:40They have lower taxes, lower regulations, and more opportunities to go to work to build things.

14:45We need people.

14:46We really need, because we're building so many factories in the country.

14:49And so AI can help with that.

14:51But what also is going to help are going to be robots.

14:54You know, the robots, I think, are going to be a big deal.

14:57And that's going to help also.

14:58On the Russian sanctions, sir, on the secondary tariffs,

15:01are you concerned that secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil will hurt American consumers, higher gas prices?

15:07I don't think so.

15:08I think that whole thing is going to go away eventually.

15:11It should have gone away.

15:12And Putin does say, oh, I want peace, I want peace.

15:14But so far, he hasn't lived up to that.

15:17So I think it's going to go away.

15:18But we're going to find out soon.

15:19We're going to find out soon.

15:20Can you give us more details on the sanctions?

15:23Is it 100% safe?

15:24I don't want to do that.

15:25But they're very biting.

15:26They're very significant.

15:28And they're going to be very bad for the countries involved.

15:31I mean, they'll be very, very powerful and very bad for the countries involved.

15:36And I hope we don't have to pull that string.

15:39And maybe we'll see.

15:41We've got to end.

15:42We've got to stop the killing.

15:43Mr. President, were you frustrated today that the House wasn't able to move on that crypto legislation?

15:48No, you know, the interesting thing is the 12 votes were votes where they wanted it to be stronger in terms of crypto people.

15:56I figured, oh, wow, that's sort of interesting because I was focused really on today's meeting, not that.

16:02But the interesting is the votes, those negative votes, were because they wanted it to be at the same country.

16:08They wanted it to be stronger for people with Bitcoin or crypto.

16:13They wanted more strength, which is interesting.

16:15What do you want to refine in the U.K. trade deal?

16:18We have a little to discuss, but the deal is really very well done.

16:23But I'll meet with the prime minister.

16:25We have a good relationship.

16:26And I think it's going to be, and it'll be very shortly, and it'll be probably in Aberdeen, Scotland.

16:33Mr. President, at the event, which state decides taxes would you like rubble payments to gerrymander?

16:39Say it again?

16:39Which state decides taxes would you like Republicans to redraw the congressional?

16:42Well, there's about four of them.

16:44I'll let you figure that one out, but we have about four of them.

16:47In three cases, it's one.

16:50And in one case, it's two or three.

16:52And Texas would be five.

16:55Are you concerned California will turn around and do the same thing with Republicans?

16:57Well, we'll fight them.

16:58You know, they're so corrupt in California, you never know what's going to happen.

17:01But we've done pretty well in the courts in California, as you see.

17:05We're batting about 1,000, ultimately.

17:08We start off a little slow, and then we get a lot of hits.

17:11Mr. President, you said today at the event in Pittsburgh that if it wasn't for Mr. Ludnick and Mr. Besson, who want to do more deals, that you would basically just go with the letters.

17:22You've said that a few different times.

17:23I just want to clarify.

17:25Do you just want to go with the tariffs and move on?

17:27I think they would like to make deals more than me.

17:30I'm satisfied with it.

17:32But they would like to make deals more than me.

17:34I'm not saying they're wrong.

17:36I'm just like, in my opinion, he and Scott and maybe even Doug to a certain extent, you're more like me, I think.

17:44But they would like to make deals more than me.

17:46I'm very happy with the deals the way they are.

17:48Those are very, right?

17:50Those are very simple deals.

17:52It's whatever the percentage is.

17:54And we base that on a lot of things, including the deficit and, you know, various things.

17:58And, you know, I think it's a much faster way.

18:02Don't forget, we'll be releasing a letter soon talking about many countries that are much smaller,

18:09where you're not going to do letters per se.

18:10You might do an individual letter, but it's going to go very quickly.

18:13And the number will also be less.

18:15Which countries are those?

18:16These are countries that are, many of them, you know, like 200 countries.

18:22You understand?

18:23Caribbean countries, African countries.

18:25You have a huge amount of countries that are small.

18:27And the president is just going to deal with them sort of the way he thinks is the right way to deal with them.

18:32We'll probably set one tariff for all of them.

18:35Over 10 percent?

18:36Over 10 percent tariff?

18:38Probably a little over 10 percent.

18:39We don't do a lot of business, but we do.

18:42You know, it's still significant.

18:44What about Israel, Mr. President?

18:45And is that related to your other, like, the Gaza negotiations?

18:48Is that tied up in other issues?

18:50No, I think Israel is going to be fine.

18:54We had a great victory with Israel.

18:56That was a great, great victory.

18:57What we did with the B-2 bombers and all of that.

19:01And, you know, I never thought of it.

19:04But so many people are thanking me.

19:05They say no president had the guts to do it.

19:08Because, you know, this has been going on for 25 years.

19:11In fact, when the pilots came to the Oval Office, they said,

19:14Sir, we and our predecessors have been working on this attack for 25 years.

19:22Have a good time, everybody.

19:23Thank you, President.

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