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President Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer News Conference. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 28, 2025 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A much higher quality.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: And -- and they're local people. I used a lot of your local people. You have -- you have really great local tradesmen here.

Yes.

REPORTER: But do you foresee a rate cut this week? Do you expect when the Fed meets --

TRUMP: A rate cut? Meaning a -- meaning a tax cut?

REPORTER: No, no, no. Do you expect the Fed to cut rates this week?

TRUMP: Oh, I think he has to. You had 11 cuts, you know? In Europe they had 11 cuts. In other places they had 10 or 11 cuts. And we had none.

But I'm not going to say anything bad. You know, we're -- we're doing so well even without the rate cut. With the rate cut, it would be better. It affects our housing a little bit.

Look, we should be three points lower. Each point is $360 billion. Can you imagine that? That's big numbers. Each point. One point of cut is the equivalent of $360 billion in savings. That's big stuff, you know? Those are big numbers in the U.S. Everything's big.

He should cut. A smart person would cut. You know, he leaves very soon. So, it's like one of those things. But I'll miss him greatly. I'll miss him.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) Turnberry, if I may. Have you, or will you enlist the prime minister in your effort to bring The Open back to Turnberry? And, Prime Minister, you described this beautiful course. Do you agree with the president that it's time to bring The Open back to Turnberry?

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, as you know, that's not a matter directly for me. That's for the sporting authorities. But look, I mean, it is absolutely -- the first time I've been here.

It's absolutely magnificent. Both inside and out. And looking at the courses itself and the building, it's -- it's incredible. But the decision on The Open is not a decision for me, as you'll understand.

I should just pick up on the earlier question, because I -- I, for one, will say, congratulations to the Lionesses last night. Our women's football team won the Euros.

TRUMP: Congratulations.

STARMER: Well, defended the Euros, I should say.

TRUMP: That's right. It's a big story.

STARMER: Which was a really big success. And the mental and physical resilience that they showed was quite incredible. So --

TRUMP: It's a big deal.

STARMER: There's -- there's a lot of bunting out today and tomorrow to -- to celebrate them bringing that cup home.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) chance to do any planning for the upcoming state visit? And how is that going to work? Where would you stay? And anything about this?

TRUMP: Well, I'm looking forward to it. It's never been done before. Twice. We had our original at Buckingham Palace.

STARMER: Yes.

TRUMP: And now, I guess, we're going to Windsor.

STARMER: Windsor, yes.

TRUMP: And it's never been done. And I'm a big fan of King Charles. I have -- I've known him for quite a while. He's a great guy. He's a great person, all right. He looks really well to me. He looks great. So, we look forward to coming over. It's going to be -- it's -- it was one of the most beautiful evenings I've ever seen.

I hate to say it, but nobody does it like you people in terms of the pomp and ceremony.

STARMER: Yes, it's -- it's true.

TRUMP: And I look forward to -- to being here with the ambassador. Our ambassador is a very, very successful man who just wanted to do this. And I said, how do you -- how are you going to be able to do that? And he -- he's so committed to, you know, the relationship between the countries. But he's very great guy and a very, very successful man. So, I very much thank you for doing this.

STARMER: Well, thank you for the honors.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: Mr. President, (INAUDIBLE) state visit, will you go to London or are you worried it's no longer (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: About what?

REPORTER: Will you visit London during a state visit? Or (INAUDIBLE) --

TRUMP: I will. I'm not a fan of your mayor.

REPORTER: Why not?

TRUMP: I think you're mayor -- I think he's done a terrible job, the mayor of London. But -- a nasty person. I think he's done -- I think -- no, I think he's --

STARMER: You know, he's a friend of mine, (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: No, I think he's done a terrible job. But -- but I would certainly visit London, yes.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) so, MP Nigel Farage has asked parliament to be recalled when you're there. (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Well, I like Nigel. I mean Nigel, as you know, is a friend of mine. Nigel's done very well. He's a friend of mine. And Keir's a friend of mine.

REPORTER: Would you be (INAUDIBLE) parliament so that the president can talk to MPs?

STARMER: Well, parliament's in recess at the time. But, look, I do want to be clear, this is an unprecedented and very special state visit. This has never been done before. And there will be many elements of it that have never been seen before. So, this is going to be a historic occasion. And we're all very much looking forward to it.

And I was very, very pleased to be able to put forward the invitation when we were at the White House earlier this year. So, this is not just a state visit. They're always incredible occasions. And this is an unprecedented second state visit. So, you can imagine just how special that's going to be.

TRUMP: The fact that it's never done -- been done before. And that's because it's nonconsecutive. And that's the only reason it could be. It made it even more interesting, frankly. So, it's -- it's going to be great.

[09:35:00]

And being with Charles and Camilla and everybody. I've gotten to know because of four years and now six months. I've gotten to know a lot of the family members. They're great people. They're really great people. And in that sense, I think that the U.K. is very lucky. You can have people that weren't great people. I don't know if I'd say that, but you could have people that weren't. But --

STARMER: We're very lucky to have our royal family. They're absolutely fantastic.

TRUMP: Yes. So, we really look forward to that.

As far as parliament, I'll -- if he wants me to speak in parliament, I'll do it, OK, but it doesn't have to be then. It could be some other time. Maybe we should save it for another time. We'll -- we'll let the one visit speak for itself. But any time, if I could be helpful, I would certainly do it.

Thank you.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) are you considering to get the hostages out if there's no ceasefire deal?

TRUMP: Well, there are a couple of alternatives. Some are pretty, pretty strong. But the most sensible alternative is talk and negotiation. But I said a long time ago, at a certain point, they're not going to be talking because they're going to lose their shield.

The hostages are a shield for them. They did horrible things on October 7th. And the hostages are a shield. And I said, you know, you're going to get down a number and the number is going to be at a point where you're not going to be able to get them back unless you -- unless you're going to be very energetic, or, to put it a different way, unless you're going to be very ruthless and violent. It's a bad situation to be in. Very bad.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: Mr. President, with the EU deal last night --

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) you talked during the campaign about President Putin respecting you and not helping you have a relationship with him. Do you still feel that way, that he respects for you, considering the conversations you've had that have been really nice? (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Yes, I've always gotten along with President Putin. I had -- I had a great relationship with him. And he went through the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, too, you know? I mean it was -- we used to talk about it. We used to say, you know, it's too bad we really can't do anything between our countries, because if we did they'd say, oh, it's, you know, some -- look, I was tough on Putin because I was the one that closed up Nord Stream. And Biden came along and opened it up. I was very tough on Putin in -- in one way. But we got along very well.

And I -- I never, you know, I never really thought this would happen. I thought we'd be able to negotiate something out. And maybe that'll still happen. But it's -- it's very late down the process. So, I'm disappointed.

And, you know, the funny thing is that their economy isn't that big and it's having a hard time right now, but it's a relatively small economy. A strong military, but strong economy. And it used to be a strong economy. Now it's not. He's going through a lot economically. It's not easy. But it's pretty small, you know, compared to the magnificent size of that land. The land is massive. It's got, I guess, nine time zones or something. It's a massive piece of land.

Russia could be so rich. It could be so rich. It could be thriving like practically no other country. And they're holding that back because we can't -- he wants to do trade deals with us. He talks about it all the time. He wanted to. And I envisioned that a lot of trade with Russia. They have a lot of valuable things. When you talk about rare earth, they have serious rare earth, right? They have just about every form you can have.

So, you know, Russia could be such -- so rich right now. Instead, they spend all their money on war. They spend everything on war and killing people. And it doesn't make sense to me. I thought he would want to end this thing quickly. I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end, he -- he kills people.

REPORTER: Could a meeting help? And are you considering -- has been proposed (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I don't know. I'm -- I'm not, you know, I'm not so interested in talking anymore. He's -- he talks. We have such nice conversations. Such respectful and nice conversations. And then people die the following night in a -- with a missile going into a town and hitting -- I mean recently, I guess, the nursing home, but they hit other things. Whatever they hit, people die. So, I don't know. We'll see what happens.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: We just had a -- we just had a sense of your differences in political persuasion with Nigel Farage and Sadiq Khan came up in conversation. I wonder if you have any advice (INAUDIBLE) for a very divided, polarized world on how you make your relationship (INAUDIBLE) --

TRUMP: Not differences. Yes, it's not differences. I happen to like both men. I like this man a lot and I like Nigel. And, you know, I don't know the politics over here. I don't know where they stand. I would say one is slightly liberal. Not that liberal. Slightly. And the other one is slightly conservative. But they're -- they're both good men.

(CROSS TALK)

[09:40:00]

STARMER: Well, look, I mean, we like each other. We respect each other. We get on. And we both got a great love of our countries, of our families, and therefore there's a huge amount that we have already achieved actually together. And we'll achieve as we go forward leading our respective countries.

And, of course, the relationship between our countries. Donald, we were talking about this, this morning, that whether its defense, security, intelligence sharing, it's a close, historic relationship. We have fought together in the past. We've always stood together. And I, for one, am very pleased that we've got such a good personal relationship between us. And I think it just shows that even if you come from different political perspectives, different backgrounds, actually there's a huge amount of common ground when it comes to what is in the best interests of our two great countries. And they are two great countries. And I think that because we focus on what's best for our countries, we get along very well. And I'm very pleased that that's the case.

REPORTER: Mr. President --

TRUMP: Well, I do know he wants to cut taxes as much as he can. And, you know, politics is pretty simple. It's -- I assume there's a thing going on between you and Nigel. And that's OK. You know, it's two parties. But generally speaking, the one who cuts taxes the most, the one who gives you the lowest energy prices and the best kind of energy, the one that keeps you out of wars, he's kept you out of wars, but the one that keeps you out of wars, you know, you have a few basics. And -- and you can go back a thousand years, a million years. Whoever does these things. But low taxes, keep us safe, keep us out of wars, no crime, stop the crime, and, in your case, a big immigration component, you know, because I know that your -- your attitude has become strong on immigration, strong on the toughness of immigration.

But I think whoever's going to be -- I think I won because of -- I think I won because we had a lousy president, to be honest with you. We had an incompetent president. But I won because of -- I was very strong on immigration.

Now, we had inflation. We had sort of a bad economy with this guy. We had a lot of problems. But the -- I focused on immigration more than I did anything else. And I think I won because of immigration. I think I won because of the border. I had a bad border where millions of people were coming in to our country illegally. And as you know, in last month, zero people came into our country illegally. Zero. So, we went from a bad, incompetently run border, to the most competently run border that anybody has ever seen.

REPORTER: Prime Minister, the president makes it look easy dealing with illegal migration. You must be envious of his record in such a short period of time.

STARMER: Well, I think we -- I've been discussing irregular illegal migration is a huge issue in both of our countries. In the United Kingdom it is a real cause for concern. And that's why we must bear down on it in all its aspects, upstream, across Europe, where a lot of ours comes into through northern France, across the channel, working with our allies, with our colleagues, to break the gangs that are actually running this trade.

But equally, being very strong, but when people are -- have arrived in this country, have got no right to be here, then we should be removing them to their own country. And that's why I'm really pleased that we've been able to focus on this very intensely and get 35,000 people out of the United Kingdom who had no right to be here, because the message has to be, you can't make your way to the United Kingdom. We won't tolerate our rules being broken. And if you get here, you will be returned to where you came from. And it's really important that we bear down on that.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE). We're such an attractive place for people to come because they want a better life, because we are a (INAUDIBLE).

STARMER: People coming via the rules are always welcome. But, of course, we've welcomed talent and people into this country for centuries, literally. But what the British people will not tolerate is those that break the rules. Those that come through irregular routes. And that's the really important distinction here.

And that's what we're bearing down on. And I'm really pleased that we're, through pretty well all of the international engagement I've done, all the meetings I've had, the country we've done deals with. We've done deals with countries in the last 12 months that many people thought it was not possible to do a deal with when it came to immigration, regular immigration.

And we've returned thousands of people who've got no right to be here. And that, I think, is, for the British people, we're a reasonable, tolerant country where people are coming lawfully to contribute to our communities, to our country.

[09:45:04]

Then, of course, they're welcome and have made a great contribution. But what people will not tolerate is those that are breaking the rules. And that is an issue of today. But it's a very British thing. We are people who respect rules. And we don't approve of those that break rules.

(CROSS TALK)

TRUMP: I can say, though, that I had one of the greatest victories. They say the most consequential in 129 years. So, I don't know about that. But it was pretty close. And we won all of the swing states, which never happens. We won the popular vote by millions of votes. We won, you know, tremendous Electoral College sweep. And I believe I did it, more than anything else, because of my strong stand on immigration.

And I don't think this country is any different in that sense. I think -- I think it's a big factor. And it is with a lot of the European countries. Some of the countries have, you know, have lost their way and they have tremendous crime because of it. I mean, you had countries with no crime that now have tremendous crime. And you know the countries. And I know the countries.

And so I think it's a -- it's a huge factor in any election. Not just this election, but in any election. I think the one that's toughest and most competent on immigration is going to win the election. But then you add -- you add low taxes and you add the economy. He did a great thing with the economy because that -- a lot of money's going to come in because of the deal that was made.

But I -- I think that -- I think that immigration is -- is now bigger than ever before.

REPORTER: Mr. President, your Treasury secretary is meeting with Chinese (INAUDIBLE) --

TRUMP: Right. Right now.

REPORTER: Right now. Have you received an update? Can we expect a deal when these talks are over?

TRUMP: Right. Yes.

REPORTER: Especially with the August 1st deadline?

TRUMP: No, they're meeting right now. And, you know, we have a good relationship with China. But China is tough. And like you're tough. You know we're -- we're all tough. Yes. But we're going to see what happens. We made -- we just concluded our deal with Japan. It was very good. Good for everybody. We're making, you know, great deals. We're making deals that are good for us. But we want them to be good for everybody. It's important. It's -- sometimes I'll do something that I shouldn't do because it's -- it's not very important for our country, but it's very meaningful for the country on the other side. And I'll let them have that point, because it's very important for them. So, I don't know.

But we've made a lot of deals in the last couple of months. And then, ultimately, as you -- you might as well know, we're going to just -- because we have -- you know, you have 200 countries, more, but people don't know that. You got a lot of countries. And I wouldn't want to sit down with 200 people and have to deal the way I -- he was calling me all the time, we want this, we got to have that, we have -- these a tough negotiators. These are, you know, look, they're smart people. They're tough negotiators. They know what they want. And -- but we're going to be setting a tariff for essentially the rest of the world. And that's what they're going to pay if they want to do business in the United States. Because you can't sit down and make 200 deals.

But we've made the big ones. We just finished Indonesia. They opened up their country. We just finished Japan. They opened up their country. You know, Japan opened up the country. They were totally closed. They opened up to our cars. Even to rice. Rice was a big deal. They would never take anybody else's rice. They'd take in rice. But they opened up their country.

Philippines, we just finished. They opened up their country. They were very closed. I'd love to see China open up their country. So, we're -- we're dealing -- we're dealing with China right now as we speak. Yes, we're dealing with China right now.

REPORTER: The deal you've got with the U.K. is better than the one with the European Union. Is that because you think Brexit was a good idea for this country?

TRUMP: No, look, you know, we have a very special relationship with this country. Like, you know, my mother was born here. And not only born here, loved it. She'd come back, I told you, religiously every year. And she'd go up to Stornoway and see her, her relatives. But she loved the country.

Yes, that probably has -- it always has an impact. Always has an impact. But, you know, Germany has a new leader. And I think he's terrific. I think you'll like him too.

STARMER: Yes. Yes, we get along.

TRUMP: I think he's terrific. My father was born in Germany. Or his -- Germany was his parents said we're just out. But so, you know, you have -- you have a lot of feeling for this -- for this part of the world. I do. I want to see this part of the world do well. Germany, Scotland, the U.K. I want -- I want this part of the world to do well.

[09:50:00]

All of the nations. You know, you feel -- you do feel a certain -- you have a feeling, a warm feeling toward a part when your parents are born essentially here. And oh, I think maybe it's slightly different. Maybe it's not. I don't know. But maybe it's slightly different.

REPORTER: Mr. President, you didn't completely rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell when you landed. Is that something you would ever consider, and why?

TRUMP: A pardon for who?

REPORTER: For Ghislaine Maxwell.

TRUMP: Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but I -- nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news about that. That aspect of it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it. So.

REPORTER: Mr. President, your opposition to offshore wind is well known and Scotland --

TRUMP: Wind is a disaster.

REPORTER: But in Scotland, and across the U.K., wind farm are (INAUDIBLE) --

TRUMP: I know, it's a shame. It's not his fault. I used to -- I used to tell Alex Salmond --

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) did you -- did you just -- have you spoken to the prime minister about (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: Well, I just -- all I can do is give my -- look, wind is the most expensive form of energy and it destroys the beauty of your fields and your planes and your and your waterways. And, look, look out there, there's no windmills. But if you look in another direction, you see windmills. If -- when we go to Aberdeen, you'll see some of the ugliest windmills you've ever seen. They're -- they're the height of a 50 story building. And you can take a thousand times more energy out of a hole in the ground this big. This big. It's called oil and gas. And you have it there, the North Sea. This big. That nobody would even see. You can take a thousand times more power because the wind is intermittent. It doesn't work. It's extremely expensive. All the windmills are made in China. There used to be Germany and China. Now they're mostly in China. They all come out of China.

They say that the blades, which are carbon, carbon fiber, you can't bury. Oh, OK, you can't bury. What are you going to do, dump them in the ocean someplace because they only last a certain period of time.

And remember, a windmill has a life of eight years, especially when they're out in the salty sea and they start to rot and to rust. You're going to have to replace them. It's very hard to replace them.

Wind needs massive subsidy, and you are paying, in Scotland, and in U.K., and all over the place where they have them, massive subsidies to have these ugly monsters all over the place.

So, I've restricted windmills in the United States. Now, a couple, we have, you know, the -- the -- the poor stupid people at the beginning, they approved them. So, they have their full approvals. But I've restricted windmills in the United States because they also kill all your birds. You know, they wipe out -- you know, it's interesting, if you shoot a Bald Eagle in the United States, they put you in jail for five years. And yet windmills knock out hundreds of them. They don't do anything. You -- explain that. So, it's a very expensive energy. It's a very ugly energy. And we won't allow it in the United States.

STARMER: So, we believe in a mix. It's going to be with us for a very long time. And that will be part of the mix. But also wind, solar, increasingly nuclear, which is what we've been discussing this morning, civil nuclear, as we go forward.

The most important thing for the United Kingdom is that we have control of our energy, and we have energy independence and security, because at the moment, whatever the attributes and facilities in the north sea, that is sold on to the international market. We buy back off the international market. That was an historic mistake in my view.

What we need is a mix so that we get the energy security that we need for the future. And that's the focus of everything that we're doing.

But what we have discussed today is that the energy prices are too high, which is why we recently took measures to reduce the energy prices, particularly for energy intensive businesses. But in the long run, the only way to reduce your energy price is to take control of your energy. And that's what we're doing, taking control of our energy.

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: Mr. President, the -- our King Charles, who you are a great friend of, is a big fan of eco windmills, as you call them. Is he wrong?

TRUMP: So, King Charles is an environmentalist. I will tell you. And I say that in a positive way, not a negative way. And every time I've met with him, he talked about the environment, how important it is. And I'm all for it. I think that's great, you know.

King Charles, more than anything else, loves the country. But I got to know him very well. He truly is an environmentalist. He wants clean air, clean water. You know, all of the things that we all want.

REPORTER: Mr. President, you -- you have said that you have not been briefed on the Epstein file, or your name has not appeared in the Epstein files.

[09:55:03]

But doesn't the AG have to tell you if your name is in the files (ph)?

TRUMP: Well, I haven't been overly interested in it, you know? It's something -- it's a hoax that's been built up way beyond proportion. I can say this, those files were run by the worst scum on earth. They were run by Comey. They were run by Garland. They were run by Biden. And all of the people that actually ran the government, including the autopen. Those files were run for four years by those people. If they had anything, I assume they would have released it.

The whole thing is a hoax. They ran the files. I was running against somebody that ran the files. If they had something, they would have released. Now, they can easily put something in the files that's a phony. Like, as an example, Christopher Steele, a person you know well, happens to be from your country. But Christopher Steele, as an example, wrote a book, a dossier. We call it the fake news dossier. And the whole thing was a fake. The whole thing was a fake. They can put things in the file that are fake.

But those files were run by bad, sick people. If they had anything, why didn't they use it when I was killing Joe? And then he gave out because he was 25 points down. And then I got somebody new. Nobody even knew anything about her. She was a horrible vice president. She was a border czar, but she never went to the border. She never once called a Border Patrol agent to find out how we're doing. But she -- she was the border czar. Her name was Kamala. Nobody knows her last name. It was Harris. But nobody knew her last name.

So, I ended up -- how would you like to end up in a race where you're killing somebody. You're beating them so -- and then they say, all right, we'll take him out. He's not working. Let's put somebody else. And then she had her six-week honeymoon. It was amazing. They predicted she will have a six-week honeymoon, and she did. And then she got slaughtered.

But -- but, think of it, those files were run by these people. They were run by my enemy. If there was anything in there, they would have used them for the election.

Yes. REPORTER: Do you think that drawing -- I think I heard you say

something the other day, that the drawing that was the subject of "The Wall Street Journal" report --

TRUMP: I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person.

REPORTER: Do you think it was fraudulent?

TRUMP: I don't do drawings.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Sometimes people will say, would you draw a building? And I'll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity. So -- but -- but I -- I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you. They say there's a drawing of a woman, and I don't do drawings of women.

And also, you know, Epstein was always a very controversial guy. I was at a very high position, you know, pretty much all my life. In all fairness, I've been -- I've been doing this for a long time. I had the top show on television. I had the number one bestsellers. I had everything, right? And I was a very successful business guy. He was a very controversial -- who would do a controversial drawing?

Now, with that being said, they say there were many letters done by many people. And -- and many big people. You know, big, successful people. But I just -- I just don't -- when you -- you know, when you talk about files, I just keep going back. And other people too. Even the enemy says this thing is not correct. Because if we had it, we would have used it on the guy. It's a bad issue. They say it's a good issue for Trump.

Do you know that my poll numbers are up four and a half points since this ridiculous Epstein stuff? My poll numbers have gone up four and a half points because people don't buy it, OK? People don't buy it.

And he's gone. And we want to focus on trade deals. I want to focus on the deal we just made with the European Union, which is the biggest trade deal in history. It's the biggest deal, I think, in history, not just trade deal. So, if they would have had something, they would have used it, yes.

REPORTER: And people keep writing stories about the time you threw him out of Mar-a-Lago. What -- can you settle that? What was it about? What caused the breach with him?

TRUMP: That's such old history. Very easy to explain. But I don't want to waste your time by explaining it. But for years I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn't talk. Because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, don't ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me. I said, don't ever do that again. He did it again. And I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata. I threw him out and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth. And, by the way, I never went to the island. And Bill Clinton went

there supposedly 28 times. I never went to the island. But Larry Summers, I here, went there. He was the head of Harvard. And many other people that are very big people. Nobody ever talks about them. I've -- I never had the privilege of going to his island.

[10:00:02]

And I did turn it down. But a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down.