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President Trump Speaks on One-Year Anniversary of His Second Inauguration; Trump Takes Questions from Reporters; Trump Says His Board of Peace "Might" Replace U.N.; Trump: "I Lost A Lot of Respect for Norway" After Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize; Trump on How Far He'll Go to Get Greenland: "You'll Find Out" 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 20, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... people that were terminated and they're coming back into our military. Fired the woke boards of visitors at our military service academies, the boards of visitors were run by radical left, maybe communists, maybe not, but they were still heavily radical left and they were bad for us.

Signed an executive order to remove anti-American propaganda from federal museums and national parks. Required the federal employees to return to work in person or be fired.

We don't want them sitting in their home on their bed working. We want them in an office that we're paying for in Washington, D.C. or wherever it may be. And we've largely taken care of that mess. That was crazy. I guarantee you they're out on the ball fields. I guarantee you they're out playing golf and you can't run a country or a company that way. I think it's happening even so with countries and companies. But we had so many of our federal workers that wouldn't come into work.

Signed an order banning all government censorship and restoring free speech. Made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders. This was not a tough one. Two genders. Can anybody guess what they are? Male and female. I think the Democrats know that too, but they refuse to admit it. Banned the use of puberty blockers, hormone injections, and other chemical and surgical mutilation of children.

Can you imagine saying this 15 years ago? That we banned the use of puberty blockers, hormone injections, and other chemical and surgical mutilation of our children. You know, when I say it, I say, is -- do I have to say that? I actually ask my people today, yes, sir, because people, that's where the country went.

Banned men from playing in women's sports. Big Supreme Court case on that. I mean, I -- I can't believe it. Some of the justices were fighting hard for men to be able to play in women's sports. A couple of them. I can't imagine it, but I think anybody that rules that way should -- should lose a lot of credibility. But we banned men from playing in women's sports. All you have to do is look at the records. Look at weightlifting records. Look at swimming records. Look at track and field. It's not fair. It's very demeaning to women. Banned transgender ideology and critical race theory from our schools.

Secured unprecedented settlements with Brown University, Columbia University, and many other colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, where I went, the great old Wharton School of Finance. To restore fairness and merit, we're working with Harvard right now. They've been very antisemitic. Terrible, what they've done. And we'll see what happens. I -- I hear we have a deal, but who the hell knows with them? They have a lawyer that wants to show how hot he is.

Ended taxpayer-funded student loan forgiveness for radical left and anti-American activists. Can you believe it?

Began the process of abolishing the Federal Department of Education and returning education back to the states. And Linda McMahon is doing a fantastic job.

Ended Joe Biden's weaponization of our government and removed his hand-picked radical left Marxist prosecutors from the Department of Justice, like deranged Jack "Sick" Smith. He's a sick son of a bitch. They gave me the worst of the worst. And here I am. How did that happen? How did that happen? He's a sick guy. And Letitia James is sick. And Alvin Bragg is sick. They're sick people. And others. Fani -- funny -- you can't call her Fani. She doesn't like it. She wants to be called Fani. Fani Willis.

I won. Can you imagine putting somebody through that? And then if I suggest that somebody may be guilty of a terrible crime, oh, he's weaponizing government. Trump is weaponizing government. It's terrible. Can you imagine they say to me about -- I don't weaponize anything, but what they did to me, nobody ever went through what I went through. And here I am in a place called the White House. It's a beautiful place. Who would have thought, right?

Signed legislation to cut all taxpayer funding to woke and biased NPR and PBS. And they're sort of gone now, I guess. I heard they closed up. They were terrible. They were so unfair. They were so terrible.

Officially reinstated Columbus Day. I like the name Columbus Day. The Italian people are very happy about it.

[15:05:02]

Remember when you go to the voting booths, I reinstated Columbus Day. That was an easy one. Christopher Columbus.

Cut Social Security wait times. By 50 percent, served 65 percent more Social Security recipients by phone and are in track to doubling the service and performance compared to the Biden administration. We're two and a half to three times better and faster.

Slashed VA claims backlog to the lowest number ever recorded.

Created Trump accounts, starting with $1,000 for every newborn baby.

This is something that's become so popular. And I give Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dell, Dell computer -- who put in $6,250,000,000 started with nothing, and he actually invested all that money to give to kids so that when they grow up, they have an account that might be worth a lot of money. It'll -- it'll be riding with the markets. And, you know, they can at 20 years old, 21 years old, they could have a hundred thousand dollars, they could have a lot of money. That's going to be amazing. But I give a lot of credit to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dell, signed an A.I. executive order to ensure the United States dominates the future of artificial intelligence.

So, we're leading China. We're leading the whole world. We're producing more electricity than we ever have because I'm allowing every one of those plants to build their own electric facility. We're giving them very, very fast approvals, unlike Los Angeles with a fire.

So, the federal government, I want to give a lot of credit to Lee Zeldin. The hardest approval for the 20,000 houses or more that burned down in Los Angeles because they didn't have the water, they didn't allow the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest. They routed the water into the Pacific Ocean. So, we had no water there. No, he had -- I would say, open up the water, open it up to the governor, to the mayor. They didn't want to do it. They want to protect a tiny little fish that's -- you know, I said, how can you have a fish when you don't have any water?

It was just an excuse, I guess. But it's -- it's amazing. We took 20,000 houses. And Lee Zeldin, the toughest permit is from the federal government. Within two weeks, every single permit was given to the people to build their houses. Then you have the incompetent mayor of Los Angeles. He's no clue who decided to go to Africa during the fire. So, you have this incompetent mayor. And I had it out with her the night when I got -- right after the fire. I went there. She said, we're working on it so that we can have everybody starting to build within two or three years.

Remember that? I said, you mean two or three days? No, I mean, two or three years. And the place went crazy. Well, they still haven't gotten their permits. But every federal permit, every single one has been given a year ago. And Lee Zeldin has done a great job. But he's done a great job in the approval of all these big plants and factories and all of the electricity that they're creating for themselves. I said to Zuckerberg, I said to all of them, I said to Jeff Bezos, I said to everybody.

Mark Zuckerberg couldn't believe it. He -- he said, you know, where are we going to get all the electricity? Because you need double the electricity that the -- the current the country currently makes just to fire up those big plants. I said, well, nobody can do that. So, what we're going to do is let you make your own electricity. Nobody believed it. And I said, we're going to get your fast permit. So, we get it within two weeks. And they're coming up with some of the most incredible electric plants you've ever seen.

So, each one of those massive buildings, A.I. or otherwise, is building their own electricity. They're building their own plant. And it's incredible. Many of them are under construction already. You're going to have -- we're -- we're leading A.I. and we're leading China by a lot. Established a MAHA Presidential Commission.

Banned many artificial food dyes, as you know.

Issued new vaccine recommendations and created new real food pyramid. And Bobby and Dr. Oz have been incredible.

Provided $12 billion in aid for American farmers. Just gave them $12 billion in aid because they got screwed by other nations.

And the number of drug dealers have fallen every single month since I took office. Drug dealers are way down in the United States. And that's a small version of what's sitting right there. That's just a small version. We took a country that was dead and it's the hottest country in the world right now and that's after one year. So, let's go.

[15:10:01]

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: That's a -- that's a lot of people.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead, please. Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much, Mr. President.

I have a -- two questions for you. One, do you want your Board of Peace to replace the U.N.?

TRUMP: Well, it might. I mean, the U.N. just hasn't been very helpful. I'm -- I'm a big fan of the U.N. potential, but it has never lived up to its potential. The U.N. should have settled every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them. They should be able to settle those wars. They don't -- I -- I believe you got to let the U.N. continue because the potential is so great.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You invited Lula from Brazil to be part of the Board of Peace.

TRUMP: I did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What role do you expect him ...

TRUMP: I did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... to play, especially with Venezuela?

TRUMP: A big role. I like him. Yes, I like him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And another one, because the E.U. and ... TRUMP: Are you from Brazil?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. The EU and Mercosur just signed a trade agreement this weekend, which is going to be the -- the biggest trade zone -- free zone, in the world.

TRUMP: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the moment, you are talking a lot about tariffs. What is your reaction to that? So, two questions, Lula, and then ...

TRUMP: Well, look, I just think this -- I think we have trade like we've never had before. We're doing better on trade than we ever have before. We're not being ripped off by every country in the world like we were before. We're doing -- we're doing numbers that nobody has ever thought possible. We're the richest we ever were. It's because of tariffs and the proper use of tariffs and we're also the most secure.

As an example, Iceland, without tariffs, they wouldn't even be talking to us about it. So, we'll see what happens. I think it's going to work out quite well.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, right behind you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. How would you characterize your relationship with Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer right now? And have you spoken to them since your Truth Social post last week?

TRUMP: No, I haven't. But I think I get along very well with them. I mean, they -- they always treat me well. They get a little bit rough when they're, you know, when I'm not around. But when I'm around, they treat me very nicely and -- you know, I like both of them. They're both liberal. They've got to straighten out their countries. You can't -- you know, London is having a lot of problems. And if you look at Paris, got a lot of problems.

They have two problems, immigration and energy. They got to stop with the windmills and they got to go back like -- U.K. has an unbelievable asset called the North Sea. Norway uses it, makes a fortune. They have a better section of it and they don't do it. They could straighten out their countries and it would be good. But I get along very well with them.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you told Norway's prime minister that ...

TRUMP: Are you from Norway?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: You like you will be, but she looks like she's from Norway. Okay. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You told Norway's prime minister that you not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, did you feel less obligated to think purely of peace? Why ...

TRUMP: Well, I lost a lot of respect for Norway and I believe -- and I believe very strongly ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... but why would not winning that prize affect you?

TRUMP: ... that Norway controls the Nobel Prize. But you have to understand, I settled eight wars. I've had every one of those wars, every participant wrote, I didn't ask him to do it. They sent in strong -- you know, they make recommendations for that. But I settled eight wars. No president has probably ever settled one war. I don't know. Think of it. I did eight.

The reason I do it is because it's easy for me to do. And I didn't do it for a Nobel Prize. I did it because I'm saving a lot of lives. I'm trying to settle the final one. I'm trying to do Russia-Ukraine. And when Russia is ready, Ukraine's not. When Ukraine's ready, Russia's not. But they're losing 25,000 people a month, on average. And I'm trying to get that one done.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: But, no, I feel -- but I feel that Norway has tremendous control over who gets the -- the Nobel Prize, despite what they said.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?

TRUMP: You'll find out.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Kevin Hassett has said that those $2,000 tariff rebate checks would be up to Congress to decide whether or not to disperse that. Do you agree with Kevin Hassett on that?

TRUMP: I don't know ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or do you think you can do that unilaterally?

TRUMP: You know, The President. No, I don't -- I don't think we would have to go to Congress out. But, you know, we'll find out. The reason we're even talking about it is that we have so much money coming in from tariffs that we'll be able to issue at least a $2,000 dividend and also pay down debt for the country. But we'd do a $2,000 dividend to the people of our country. We'd probably set a limit of -- you know, income limit where it made sense. But we will be able to make a very substantial dividend to the people of our country. I believe we can do that without Congress.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night on Truth Social, you said that the British plan to hand the base of Diego Garcia over to Mauritius and then rent it back was an act of great stupidity. Previously, you backed that bill. Is it now your position that the deal should not go ahead?

[15:15:07]

TRUMP: Well, I think that they -- you know, when they originally were going to do it, they were talking about doing some concept of ownership. But now they're looking to essentially just do a lease and sell it and I'm against that. You know, it's a reasonably nothing like Greenland, but it's a reasonably important area of the globe. Not to anywhere near Greenland, but I think they should keep it. I don't know why they're doing it. Do they need money?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, with your support to the Syrian government, most probably you avoided another civil war and a -- a bloodshed in Syria, especially after the fall of the regime.

TRUMP: I did a good job. I did a good job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so, the Syrian government, the last two weeks, had to use some force to -- to implement its force on specific areas and with your ..

TRUMP: Well, to -- to keep the prisoners, the terrorist prisoners, which is some of the worst in the world, at bay. So, they -- they were able to keep that. He's working very hard. The President of Syria is working very, very hard. Strong guy, tough guy. Pretty rough resume. But you're not going to put a choir boy in there and, you know, get the job done. I spoke with -- with him yesterday because we were talking about the prisons and, you know, what was going on.

We have some of the worst terrorists in the world in those prisons and he's watching it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Syria, sir.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President ...

TRUMP: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Gavin Newsom is going to be at Davos. If he's not already there, you're probably going to run into him. I presume that this is for him to raise his platform for 2028. But what do you anticipate his foreign policy platform is going to be?

TRUMP: I -- I don't know. I mean, I don't know that he's going to be the nominee. I -- I know this. I had a very good relationship with Gavin Newsom when we were, you know, in office together. I was President. He was the governor of California. We had a really -- he would talk about it often. And somewhere we just went astray. I just -- I just hate the way California is being run. We actually have people leaving. It's never happened before, but I hate the way it's being run.

He and I had a very good relationship, really close to the word exceptional. But now we seem not to.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... of Greenland, Mr. President. You're -- have you been hearing from (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

TRUMP: No, no ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much, President Trump. Cara Castronuova from Lindell TV's and you spoke earlier about the 2020 election. Now that Maduro -- Maduro is in U.S. custody and he was criminally charged. Has any more information emerged that you could share with us regarding Venezuelan election software and Venezuelan ties to tampering with the 2020 election? And would you consider speaking to Maduro personally in prison in New York to get some answers on Venezuela's involvement with the 2020 election?

TRUMP: No, I don't think I would be doing that. I think my lawyers would be very unhappy if I did.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, they've learned -- they've learned some things. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happens to the tariff threat to Greenland if the Supreme Court comes out and rules against you on the tariffs? And ...

TRUMP: Well, I have to use something else. I mean, look --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to use force?

TRUMP: You know, take a look at the word license. Take a look at other things. I mean, we have other alternatives. But the -- what we're doing now is the best, the strongest, the fastest, the easiest, the least complicated.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, if you move ahead with the -- the Greenland related tariffs on Europe, you secured almost a trillion dollars of commitments from them to invest in the United States. Does that go complete -- out the window if that happens?

TRUMP: I doubt it. Look, they want to -- they need that agreement very badly with us. They -- they really do. They fought very hard to get it. So, I doubt that. But we'll see what happens. We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland. I'm leaving tonight, as you know, Davos, and we have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland. And I think things are going to work out pretty well, actually.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Will you still go to Paris for the G7 emergency meeting as offered by President Macron?

TRUMP: No, I wouldn't do that. No.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Because, you know, Emmanuel is not going to be there very long, and, you know, there's no longevity there. He's a friend of mine. He's a nice guy. I like Macron, but -- but he's not -- he's not going to be there very much longer, as you know. And I think, you know, I have meetings with the people that are directly involved, not some of the people you're talking about.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. President.

TRUMP: You know, I've never seen this room like this. Is this a celebration of the first year?

ALL: Yes.

TRUMP: Have -- have you ever seen it? I've never seen this many. I hope we have a very good ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.

TRUMP: ... I hope we have a very good structural floor. You know, this used to be a swimming pool. You're sitting over a swimming pool. I could see that happening. But this -- we need a good structure here. Don't we have? Yes.

[15:20:02]

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Happy one year anniversary.

TRUMP: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my question is on Syria. The Kurds, as the most loyal U.S. partners, facing attacks by some Syrian elements within the Syrian government. Will you do to ensure the Kurdish rights protected on their effective forces against terrorism in Rojava, Syria continue, as the Kurdish see you as a president that does not abandon his allies.

TRUMP: Well, I like the Kurds, but just so you understand, the Kurds were paid tremendous amounts of money. We're given oil and other things. So, they were doing it for themselves more so than they were doing it for us. But we got along with the Kurds and we are trying to protect the Kurds. That's correct.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... your speech in Davos, give us a preview of what we can expect as far as, you know, laying out the plans for Americans to be able to buy homes?

TRUMP: I think more than anything else, what I'm going to be speaking about is the tremendous success that we've had in one year. I didn't think we could do it this fast. Think of it. It's just now 12 months. And, you know, I say it often, we have the most successful country in the world. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world by far. And this country would have been absolutely stone-cold dead. And I'm going to be talking about it. I'm going to be -- because, you know, a -- a lot of them could use some of the advice as to what we did. They need energy that you take a look at their energy policy. They're going to destroy themselves with what they're doing with the windmills and all the nonsense.

They need energy help badly or they're going to be in big trouble and they need immigration help badly. How much longer do you want to go?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I -- I have -- I have a very -- I have a very important call with President Erdogan, who I like -- who I like a lot.

All right. One -- one or two more questions.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: The red blouse. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You talked a lot at the beginning of this about the economy, some positive economic indicators. Polling shows the majority of Americans don't feel the economy is doing well. Are you worried you're making the same mistake as President Biden by telling that ...

TRUMP: No, I hope I don't make the same mistake as him. Look, I inherited a terrible -- I mean, it's a great question because we inherited a terrible, terrible mess between the border, between all the problems. The whole country was falling apart. And in 12 months, less than 12 months, I mean, in 12 months, we have the strongest border we've ever had. We have prices that are much, much lower than they were for the last -- we inherited very high prices.

We inherited -- remember this, inflation was at a historic high. We had never had inflation like that. They say 48 years. But whether it's 48 years or ever, we had the highest inflation, in my opinion, that we've ever had.

Prices, because of that, were very high. I inherited -- we brought down eggs immediately. Remember the first news conference? They were screaming at me about eggs. I was in the position for two days and they're screaming. We brought eggs down to lower than what they were before. By the way, they continue that way. We brought the prices down from when I came into office and from what Biden had way down. We're going to bring them down further.

But the job we did is -- is a miracle. The -- one of the reasons I'm doing this today is to explain. We inherited a mess and we've made it a beautiful, beautiful picture. Think of gasoline at $1.99 in many states -- $1.99 a gallon. It was $4.50, $5, in some cases, $6 or $7. We're at $1.99. And energy is so big that, with energy, everything else comes down. But the prices are coming way down. And they're going to -- we're going to bring them down further. But we started up here with these guys.

We inherited a country that was broken. We inherited a country and I said -- I have a very warm spot. We've done very well with Venezuela. And -- and, by the way, that even, in itself, is going to help us bring down the oil prices. I mean, the Venezuelan oil, we've taken 50 billion -- 50 million gallons of oil. We've taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela in the first four days. We've got millions of barrels of oil left.

We're selling it on the open market. We're bringing down oil prices incredibly. And when they come down -- and they've already come down. Again, $1.99 a gallon for oil. Nobody thought they'd ever see it. All right, one or two more.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead. Go, go, go. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to ask you about Iran. Is the military option still on the table? And can you assure us that the killing in -- in Iran has stopped? And when -- with regard to the peace council, which members have to pay $1 billion?

[15:25:08]

TRUMP: So, with Iran, are you from Iran?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I cover the White House.

TRUMP: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Palestinian-American.

TRUMP: So, with Iran, they were going to hang 837 people. And I let them be known that -- and we let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them. And they decided not to do it. They didn't hang the people. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but supposedly they've taken that off the table. But they were going to -- last week, they were going to hang on Thursday or Wednesday.

One -- they were going to hang -- hang, I think, 837 people. And they didn't hang anybody. So, we're just going to have to see what happens with Iran. Is the military option off the table?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, President Trump ...

TRUMP: Go ahead, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations on your first year.

TRUMP: Go ahead, I'll take your question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, thank you. Thank you, President ...

TRUMP: Go ahead, right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. You promised during your second inaugural to always put America first. I'm curious, how would you, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, improve the lives of average, everyday Americans? Why is this prize so important?

TRUMP: It wouldn't improve the lives of any, what -- what improved the lives of people are people that are living. I saved probably 10s of millions of lives in the wars. You know, if you add up the numbers, just -- just -- if you look at -- if you look at any one of those wards, you're talking about millions of people. You multiply it, times eight, but when you look at India and Pakistan, that could have been 10, 15, 20 million people, could have been more than that. So, I saved millions of people, so that, to me, is the big thing. (CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You suggested a moment ago that perhaps the reason why a positive story about the economy isn't getting through is because of, you know, bad communications with people. But are average Americans wrong to still feel high prices? And how much longer does the White House hope that they will stay engaged ...

TRUMP: So, I think a lot of people -- a lot of people are listening to the fake news a little bit. And I'm not blaming anybody. I think, I -- I blame ourselves. I think we've done a much better job than we're able to promote. We're not promoting. We're doing a great job, and we're sort of letting the promotion take care of itself.

One of the reasons I'm doing this news conference, I think it's important, we have taken a mess and made it really good. It's going to get even better. But if you look at prices from a year or a year and a half ago, you look at the Biden prices. They were way up through the sky. And, you know, they use the word affordability. They just say affordability and they don't talk about it. They created the affordability problem. And we are -- we are solving it. We have solved a lot of it.

Again, everybody agrees in this room. I think gasoline prices have come per gallon way down. When that happens, everything else comes down. But they've come down way down. Many of the groceries have come way down. It's all happening and it's happening strong. But if you go back a year, a year and a half, two years, take a look at those prices and look at the prices now.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... you made a condition that was ...

TRUMP: Where you're from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Spain.

TRUMP: Nice place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made -- thank you. You made a condition that the political prisoners should be free. It seems that they are not being as fast as they promised in the beginning. Would that be an issue for the current government?

TRUMP: Yeah. They've agreed that they're going to let, I guess, most of them out. It depends on what they did. But they have released a lot of -- they have a lot -- released a lot of political prisoners in Venezuela, please.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Mr. President, earlier on last year, you had mentioned you had indicated that you want to take back the Panama Canal. I know we've -- we've heard a lot about Greenland. Is that still on the table?

TRUMP: I don't want to tell you that.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Sort of. I must -- I must say, sort of, that's sort of.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Okay, one more. Yes, blonde, blue. Yes, go ahead. Ma'am, go ahead, with the blue, holding the computer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If a consequence of your determination to take control of Greenland is the ultimate breakup of the NATO alliance. Is that a price you're willing to pay?

TRUMP: You mean the breakup of -- of ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of -- of the ...

TRUMP: ... it's very interesting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of the United Nations alliance.

TRUMP: So, I think something's going to happen that's going to be very good for everybody. Nobody's done more for NATO than I have. As I said before, in every way, getting them to go up to 5 percent of GDP was something that nobody thought was (INAUDIBLE) and pay. At 2 percent, they weren't paying. At 5 percent, they are paying and they're buying a lot of things from us and they're giving them, I guess, to Ukraine. That's up to them. But they're giving them to whoever they're giving them to, but they're buying a lot.

[15:30:03]

I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very