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One World with Zain Asher
Trump: Deploying National Guard Troops to Washington, DC; Trump: We're Going to Take our Capital Back; Trump: Deploying National Guard to DC Placing Police Under Federal Control, will "Bring in the Military if Needed"; Trump on Ukraine: This War Should Never have Happened; Trump: I'm Going to Tell Putin to "End" this War; Trump: I'll Call Zelenskyy, European Leaders after Putin Talks. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 11, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, Mr. President, it's an honor to be here and at your direction this morning, we've mobilized the
DC National Guard. It will be operationalized by the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, through the DC guard, you will see them flowing into the
streets of Washington in the coming week.
At your direction as well, sir, there are other units we are prepared to bring in other National Guard units, other specialized units. They will be
strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners. This is nothing new for DOD. As the president noted at the
border, we've got 10,000 troops down there who have been operating in defense cooperation areas, defense zones where there's 0 illegal crossings
because of troops on strikers scanning the border.
We've been protecting other people's borders for 20 years. It's about time we protect our own. And we're working with ICE and CBP. In Los Angeles, we
did the same thing, working with the California National Guard, working with ICE officers. ICE officers deserve to do their job and not be
attacked.
We will work alongside all DC police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe, this city is beautiful. And as I always say about
President Trump, to the troops, he has their back. And my message to the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Washington is we have your
back as well. Be tough, be strong. We're right behind you. Thank you, Mr. President.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm going to ask Pam, because she's now, as you heard me say, she's really in charge of a
lot of what we're talking about. She's done an incredible job. People are going to start to see the fruits of her labor. And Pam, maybe you could say
a few words about what we're talking about here.
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sure, president. Let me be crystal clear, crime in DC is ending and ending today. We are going to use every power we
have to fight criminals here. President, thank you for caring about our capitol families. Come here every summer.
Our museums are free. We have the National Zoo. We have the National Gallery. DC should be a place where everyone can come and feel safe. Behind
me and to my side, we have some of the best career law enforcement and prosecutors in the country who are ready to take this on.
As the president said, Terry Cole is going to be supervising the Metro Police Department. Gady Serralta, our U.S. Marshal, is going to be
supervising command and control the entire operation. Our Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche and I will be working with them closely, along with
our great FBI Director, Kash Patel.
Kash is going to talk to you in a minute about what we did in Virginia recently with Governor Youngkin. Many of you covered that, and it was
tremendously successful. Not only that, our secret weapon here in DC is U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, one of the toughest prosecutors and a former
judge.
And she is going to be talking about juvenile crime, how it's out of control here, and what she's going to do to fight back. No more crime
rampant in our beautiful capital. No more teenage girls beating a disabled man to death. No more of that, no more drive-bys. We're going to do
everything we can.
And working with the ATF. ATF, Director Driscoll and commander of the army, we're going to all work together. That's what we all do in this room, we
work together, we fight. Do not underestimate one person in this room. We're going to make DC beautiful. We're going to make DC safe again.
One other thing, just at the wharf a few days ago, the area of the wharf, Terry Cole reached out to me, not even nightfall on the weekend, where so
many families in tourist go, a guy is overdosing from fentanyl on a park bench in the middle of families around. They administer Narcan and saved
his life.
No more of that. The President of the United States is going to clean up DC, and we're going to be there to help him, and we're going to be
successful. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you -- Kash Patel -- Northern Virginia -- Northern Virginia, we had a big success.
KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for your leadership, Deputy Attorney General, rest of our
interagency partners. Mr. President, the following is what happens when you let good cops be cops, and I just want to highlight that before I get into
Northern Virginia.
This year alone, under President Trump's Administration, we've had over 4000 child victims identified and found. That's a 33 percent increase from
the same time period last year, 33 percent increase. We've had a seizure of 1500 kilograms of fentanyl up to this date. That is a 25 percent increase
since the same time period last year. And just to put it in perspective, 1500 kilograms of fentanyl is enough to kill 115 million Americans.
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115 million Americans. Cops are getting after it. The FBI has arrested 19,000 people this year alone. Thanks to President Trump's Administration.
That's double than where we were this time last year. And we have also arrested 1600 people who have committed violent acts against children.
270 of them are human traffickers of children. Mr. President, this is what happens when you have great leadership at the Attorney General, with Pam
Bondi, your administration's priority of protecting the homeland and protecting American citizens and protecting our children and the murder
rates are plummeting.
We are now able to report that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in U.S. history, in modern recorded U.S. history, thanks to this team
behind me and President Trump's priorities and how do we do it? And what are we going to bring to DC? What we did in Northern Virginia, thanks to
Terry Cole and Governor Youngkin and the team.
We stood up a task force out in my Northern Virginia field office, and we said, let's let good cops be cops. Let's get them the intelligence and what
they need, and let's get the red tape out of their way, and let's get DOJ partnered up with us to bring great prosecutions. And that's exactly what
we did.
In one month, we arrested 545 violent felons, 545 in the State of Virginia thanks to Governor Youngkin's partnership. And that simplicity in law
enforcement is what's coming to Washington, D.C., when you let good cops be cops, when you give them the Intel they need, when you work with our
Homeland Security Task Force, when you work with Terry and Gady and I go way back to Miami.
These guys are great leaders of the respective departments and law enforcement capacities. And when you have the DOJ and President Trump
driving behind this mission. We are going to clean up Washington, D.C., and we're going to do it the right way, the lawful way, and we're going to make
sure Washington, D.C. is safe again. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you Kash. So, the process begins right now. It actually started over the weekend. We confronted a lot of very bad
people. But it's going to be something that will be pretty amazing to you as you watch it. And I think most of you say it's a beautiful thing to do
it right.
We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on.
They've been very, very dirty, very -- got a lot of problems, but we've already started that. We're moving the encampments away, trying to take
care of people.
Some of those people, we don't know how they even got there. Some of those people are from different countries, different parts of the world. Nobody
knows who they are. They have no idea. But they're there getting rid of the people from underpasses and public spaces from all over the city.
There are many places that they can go, and we're going to help them as much as you can help, but they'll not be allowed to turn our capital into a
wasteland for the world to see. The Metropolitan Police Department and the federal authorities will be supported in the effort, a really big effort,
the 800 DC National Guardsmen that will put on and much more, if necessary, much more.
It's you remember, I said I offered 10,000 once, remember, I said to a certain person, person who I thought always was highly overrated, not very
competent. But I said, if you need them, we'll give you 10,000 of the military or the National Guard. They turned me down.
But, if necessary, we're going to move service members directly to joining the guardsmen. And that will take place very rapidly, and that will be done
in conjunction with Pam and with Pete and everybody else. Washington, D.C. should be one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in
the world, and we're going to make it that.
We're going to make it safe. We're going to make it smart. Going to make it beautiful. So beautiful some of the buildings we're going to add to it. You
see, what we've done at the White House, is White House is a whole different building. I do that in my part time because it's a natural
instinct.
As a real estate person. I was very good at that. And I was very good at fixing things up. I like fixing things up. You see what's happening? The
marble floors are being reinstalled, renovated, fixed. The whole place is becoming very beautiful. We're going to be adding a magnificent ballroom,
most beautiful ballroom.
I think anywhere we need it. I would have certainly loved to have had it today. I think we would have filled it up. A lot of you are standing
outside. Can't get in this room. I have never seen the room like this, which tells me that you want to talk about, I mean, this was a DC news
conference.
It tells me that you want to talk about crime in DC and beautification of DC. But I'm going to put that that's easy.
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And I think, frankly, fixing the crime with the pros, fixing the crime is easy, too. A person who I've known for a long time, and she's been
incredible. She was a fantastic, one of the best ever district attorneys in New York. She was in Westchester, and she became a judge, very successful
judge.
And then she went into showbiz because she was such a good DA and such a good judge, tough judge, but fair, always fair. Nobody ever complained
about that, but she was tough. And because of that and her reputation, she went into showbiz. So, a lot of people don't, you know, they think of
Jeanine showbiz actually showbiz was not her thing.
It was -- and she did great. She was on, along with a couple of other of my friends on the number one show, and she did great. But this is what she
loves doing. This is really her baby. What she's going to do is going to be incredible. And I'd like to introduce to speak for just a few seconds on
what she has in mind, what she wants to do.
We're going to be appointing some judges. You know, we have some open spots, and we're going to take people, because the judges are letting
killers out. They just say, go. That's OK. Don't worry about it. So, we're putting some Pam recommended, Todd recommended some judges that a great
Jeanine recommended.
Jeanine has given me three great candidates already. We've got 10 open spots, and we can probably create some more. We need them. Jeanine, would
you say a few words please?
JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Thank you very much, Mr. President, and thank you, Madam Attorney General, and to all my
partners here. We all want the same thing. We all want a safe city. We want a safe capital. We want to be able to bring our families here.
We want to be able to come and enjoy the history that makes this place great. And unfortunately, we are not in that position right now. And Mr.
President, I want to thank you for taking the step that we need right now to make criminals understand that they are not going to get away with it
anymore.
And I'm not going to stand here and go over and over the cases, but what I can tell you is this, I see too much violent crime being committed by young
punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else. They don't care where they are.
They can be in Dupont Circle, but they know that we can't touch them. Why? Because the laws are weak. I can't touch you. If you're 14, 15, 16, 17,
years old and you have a gun. I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest, intent to kill.
I convict him. And you know what the judge gives him? Probation. Says you should go to college. We need to go after the DC Council and their absurd
laws. We need to get rid of this concept of, you know, no cash bail. We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens,
and it starts today, but it's not going to end today, because the president is going to do everything, we need to do, to make sure that these
emboldened criminals understand.
We see you. We're watching you, and we're going to change the law to catch you. And my final note is this. These kids understand that the jurisdiction
is through the State Attorney General, Brian Schwalb. I did a poster of the young man from DOGE who was beaten, bloody, with a severe concussion, a
broken nose.
And then I did a poster of what happens to those kids, because I can't arrest them. I can't prosecute them. They go to family court, and they get
to do yoga and arts and crafts. Enough, it changes today. Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Thank you, Jeanine.
PIRRO: You're welcome.
TRUMP: Great job. Thank you. If I could, I just signed some executive orders I'd like to have. Will, please come up and we'll let the people know
what we signed. Do you want to put them down?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. A short while ago in the Oval Office, President Trump signed two crucial executive actions to deal with the
emergency crime conditions we currently face in the District of Columbia. The first of these was an executive order, as President Trump said, before
invoking his powers under Section 40 of the Home Rule Act to take federal control of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.
Along with that executive order, President Trump signed the statutorily required notification letters to Mayor Bowser and to the relevant House and
Senate committee leaders. The second major executive action that President Trump signed was a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of
Defense to utilize the National Guard to address the conditions we see on our streets here in DC.
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It also authorized the Secretary of Defense to work with state governors to utilize their National Guard units, if necessary, as well. These are bold,
decisive steps intended to combat the out-of-control crime conditions we've seen on DC streets for far too long, and I for -- deeply proud to be part
of an administration that's finally coming to terms with these issues, sir.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you. So just to conclude, Washington, D.C. should be one of the safest, cleanest, most beautiful places anywhere
in the world. It was years ago. We had one problem that was pretty big problem. The radical left got out of control, and they started trying to
rip down statues.
And I said, let's go pass a law real fast. We're going to do it real fast. But we were blocked by the Democrats who do not want safety. Nobody gets
it. I don't get it. They don't get it because they can't get votes. I don't know how they can win an election with this, but they don't want safety.
And I found an old statute, very old early 1900s that said of you so much as touch or even think about destroying a statue or a monument in
Washington, D.C., you go to jail for 10 years with no probation, no anything slightly different than we have today. Today we have cashless
bail.
There, you get jailed 10 years. No curtailed sentence, 10 years and we took it out. Nobody used it. It was never used because, you know, it's harsh.
And you remember, they started to rip down the statue of Abraham Lincoln. I said, that's a tough one to rip down. That's these --he was pretty good,
Pam.
I think he was pretty good, when they when the ropes started going around Abraham Lincoln to pull him down Andrew Jackson, others. And they were
heading to the Jefferson Memorial, Thomas Jefferson, they're going to do a big number there. I said it's time, and I signed that statute immediately.
We had it updated. We made it use the same language all passed by Congress, and I announce it's 10 years in jail, no probation, no anything, 10 years,
no curtail sentence if you touch so much as touch a statue in Washington, D.C. And it was an amazing sight, beautiful sight.
Everybody just left. The ropes were hanging around Andrew Jackson, and there were two ropes around Abraham Lincoln. They left the rope. But
everybody just left. I know is the last problem we ever had. You know, that was the last problem that we ever had with the statues.
They were going wild, and we, somebody came to me said, sir, 1910, I don't want to give you an exact because you'll say Donald Trump gave us wrong
days around, like early on. You know, if I'm slightly off, they make you sound a little bad, so I won't be. I won't put myself in that position.
I won't put you in that position, because I think everybody agrees with what we're doing today. But when I signed that thing, it was like a
miracle. Everybody left. They were gone. They were starting to march down. They started the march toward Thomas Jefferson.
And I figured he was always going to be safe, but they found something with him, and they found something with Abraham Lincoln.
And even in the name George Washington and California, numerous places changed the name of George Washington High School and various other places
they took George Washington's name. This was a sick woke culture that I think we've largely ended and a lot of those people that were woke are now
turning out to be the opposite.
I won't go so far as to say MAGA, it's a very special category, but they've gotten out of that. But we have people that love this country, and they
love this, this really beautiful capital it is. I flew over it the other day and I say, what a beautiful place, but whether there's crime all over
the streets, when you get there, it doesn't look so beautiful.
But we're going to make it beautiful again. We're going to fix it with crime, and we're going to also, as we're doing that, we're going to start
doing things that we know how to do, that I know how to do better than anybody, I guess, because of my experience from previous life.
But not only are we stopping the crime, we're going to clean up the trash and the graffiti and the grime and the dirt and the broken marble panels
and all of the things they've done to hurt this city, and we're going to restore the city back to the gleaming capital that everybody wants it to
be.
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It's going to be something very special. All of these people are really tough. Can I shake your hand, Gady? Please. You're going to be so important
here. You're going to be you're going to be that guy. I hope I don't have to fire him in two weeks because he's too soft. I don't think he's too
soft.
If I do, I will though, is it OK, if you're soft, weak and pathetic, like so many people, I will fire you so fast you're not going to have to worry
about that. No, I think you're going to do a fantastic job. And everybody in this room, they may not express it, but they all want that to happen.
You know, they want to be safe, and they have families too. So, it's an honor to have such a large group. I have done this for years now. Hard to
believe. I've never seen this room so packed. In fact, I'm sure it's a violation of every fire code, but we'll let you stay anyway. You take it a
chance.
And with that, we'll say maybe if you could, oh, wow, we could be here all day long. If we could, keep the first questions perhaps to this subject,
and then we'll go on to a few -- please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President. Thank you so much. Can you talk about how personal of an issue this is usually talked about, flying over the
Washington Monument and seeing pride of what DC is? And do you believe that the status of the city, the cleanliness, the way that crime is LED is a
direct reflection on how the country is run --
TRUMP: Yeah, I do. I think the capital, look, everyone comes here. They all they're all coming, all the leaders, they're all wanting to come. And I say
it, I've said it again, but I'm really just quoting other leaders from NATO, from the Middle East, King of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE.
I was over there. We brought back $5.1 trillion of investment into our country. But I was a month and a half ago. I was at NATO. We had a great
thing. They agreed to put up 5 percent instead of 2 percent. 2 percent they didn't pay. 5 percent is already paid. We had a great meeting, and they all
said the same thing.
They said our country was dead. They thought our country was gone. One year ago, they said your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country
anywhere in the world. We do. We have the hottest country in the world right now. The tariffs have helped. It's given us not only the money, it's
billions, trillions of dollars of money, but it gives us great power over enemies.
We solve five wars with Pakistan and India with we just solved one Azerbaijan and as you know, in Armenia, it was a war was raging for 37
years. And the two leaders got up and they said, we never thought this would be solved. Russia tried to solve it. They all tried to solve it.
It was a very tough situation, but we got it done. And I said to the two men, I said, are you guys' friends? And had a hard time. They've been
killing each other for 37 years, right? One was there five years. One was there for 22 years. He said, my whole life I've been fighting this war, and
you got us out.
But we did many of those. We did in the Congo and Rwanda that's been going on for 30 years. 8 to 9 million people killed that they know of. But it was
raging, and we got that solved. We got a lot of them done. It's a great honor. But you want to have, when they come, the leaders come to our
country to sign documents that the war is over, or whatever, or for other reasons.
They come for trade, and you want them to come through so beautifully. You ride down those roads. Everything should be perfect. You shouldn't have
medians falling down into the roadway. Median, you know, the metal things that are always somebody had a great lobbyist, because I've never seen them
look good.
I've been looking at those things with a little great they're always broken bad. But here they're really bad, and we're going to either put new or fix
it. And it's not expensive, it's not really expensive. And we're going to fix our roads a little bit. We're going to clean up our sidewalks.
You have countries where every Saturday, the people go out and they wash their sidewalks in front of their stores or their houses. They scrub their
sidewalks. So, we aren't quite at that level yet. I don't think Gady, we're not quite there yet, but maybe we will. They go. They go out and they
scrub.
I think it's so beautiful to hear that and to see those stories, but we're going to make it clean. But just to finish with your question, it's a very
strong reflection of our country, and when they see a bad city, you know, my father always used to tell me, I had a wonderful father, very smart.
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And he used to say, son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in, because if the front door is dirty, the
kitchen is dirty also, same thing with the capital. If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us. So, it's a
very good question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- question for you on the specific issue, do you expect more cities to follow DC's path if this goes through. So, the idea is that
Chicago, LA, San Francisco, would they expect similar action what we've seen in DC? Any other questions, sir, there is reporting that the
administration is going to reclassify marijuana?
Would that send mixed messages that, if marijuana is OK, drugs are some drugs are OK, but we're trying to clean up crime? How do they go hand in
hand?
TRUMP: We're only looking at that, that's early. But, you know, somebody reported it, which is fine. We're looking at it. Some people like it. Some
people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana, because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than
children.
But we're looking at reclassification, and we'll make a determination over the next, I would say, over the next few weeks, and that determination,
hopefully will be the right. One very complicated subject is, you know, the subject of marijuana. I've heard great things having to do with medical,
and I've had bad things having to do with just about everything else but medical.
And, you know, for pain and various things, I've heard some pretty good things, but for other things, I've heard some pretty bad things. The other
part of your question. I mean, we're just going to see what happens with it all. You're going to have -- we're going to have a tremendous success on
what we're doing.
Other cities are hopefully watching this. They're all watching, just like everyone's watching here. They're all watching, and maybe they'll self-
clean up, and maybe they'll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem. I mean, if you go
back, this whole thing with cashless bail is a disaster.
So many problems came that we never had before. So, they're watching us today, and if they don't learn their lesson, if they haven't studied us
properly, because we're going to be very successful. I have zero doubt about that. It's going to be so, it's a question of, will it be really
fast, like the border?
And everyone said they used to say, Biden used to say, I need legislation I need, you didn't need I didn't get any legislation. I called up our people,
and we did a great job. Tom Homan was great our as you know, our secretary did a great job. They did a great job. There's no games.
They didn't play games. And we're going to have the same thing here. But then I'm going to look at New York in a little while. Let's do this. Let's
do this together. Let's see. It's going to go pretty quickly, and if we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster.
We have a mayor there who is totally incompetent. He's an incompetent man, and we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent his
family threw him out of the business, and he ran for governor. And now I understand he wants to be president, but I notice he lost a little weight,
so maybe he has a chance.
You know, you never know what happens. But Pritzker is a gross, incompetent guy thrown out of the family business. But when I look at Chicago and I
look at LA, if we didn't go to LA three months ago, LA would be burning like the part that didn't burn, if he would have allowed the water to come
down, which I told him about in my first term.
I said, you're going to have problems. Let it come down. We actually sent in our military to have the water come down into LA. They still didn't want
it to come down after the fires, but that was it. We have it coming down, but hopefully LA is watching that mayor also, the city is burning.
They lost like 25,000 homes. I went there the day after the fire. You were there, and I saw people standing in front of a burned down home. It was
their homes were incinerated. They weren't like even the steel was literally it was all warped and literally disintegrated because of the
winds and the flame and the whole thing like a blowtorch.
They were standing on this beautiful day, maybe a couple of days after. We gave it a little time, because what they had suffered almost 25,000 homes.
And you see what's happening now, they didn't give their permits. I went to a town hall meeting. I said, we're going to get you the federal permits,
which are much harder almost immediately.
Lee Zeldin is a star. He did an incredible job. They have all their federal permits. They don't have their city permits. And the mayor said to me, we
think we can have them in two years. I was walking down the street, and I met with firemen and police. And I was saying hello to many people that
were standing in front of their homes with yellow tape.
You can't go in. You can't go onto the lot. And those people wanted to start rebuilding their homes then and there. And the mayor said we should
be able to get them the permits within two years. I said, that's a shame. Two years.
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Are you kidding? I'm going to get him the federal permit like almost immediately, two years, and she draws, she ruled back, well maybe one year,
the place was booing her out of the place. They don't have their permits to build their homes. And now they're talking about putting, this is among the
most beautiful areas was in the country.
Now they're talking about putting low-income housing there. Can you believe this? I love low-income housing. I made money with low-income housing. I
built low-income housing. I know more about low-income housing and luxury house. I know about everything real estate.
They want to replace some of those homes with low-income housing. They haven't gotten their permits yet. We've gotten all the federal permits,
which are much tougher to get, and was done almost immediately through Lee Zeldin and federal environmental. And I watched the other day, those people
are angry, and now, you know, they had tremendous, they love that area.
They love the whole big area, different places, but they loved it. It was all luxury stuff and beautiful stuff. And some wasn't that luxury, but the
level of love for that neighborhood, their neighbors, was incredible. And you know what? I watch people on television, they want to go, they want to
leave.
They've lost their spirit. They've lost their heart, because the mayor is incompetent and Gavin Newsom is incompetent. Got a good line of bullshit,
but that's about it. He's incompetent. And you have Los Angeles is, you know, it's amazing, you know, I called the first thing I did, I got the
Olympics to go there.
I was the one that got it. And by a rare thing that happened, I'll be the president. I was very upset because I got the Olympics, and I said, I won't
be president when it comes but bad things happened, and illegal things happened. Really illegal things happen. Now it turns out one good thing
was, I'm going to be the president for the Olympics, for 2050 for 250 which is going to be fantastic, and also for the World Cup.
So, we have a lot of good things. And I hope 250 is going to be 250th anniversary is going to be the best. But when I looked at those people, and
I saw last night on television that they still don't have their permits. It's a disgrace. What's happened --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Thank you. The China tariff deadline is tonight. Do you plan to extend that?
TRUMP: We'll see what happens China's been -- we've been dealing very nicely with China, as you probably have heard. They have tremendous tariffs
that they're paying to the United States of America, and we'll see what happens. They've been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good
with President Xi and myself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- You mentioned your upcoming meeting with President Putin.
TRUMP: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us what you hope to get out of that, and what whether you consider inviting President Zelenskyy to join.
TRUMP: So, you have to understand, there's a war that should have never happened. There's a war that wouldn't have happened if I were president,
would have never happened, wasn't it? Was the apple of his eye got along very well with President Putin, but if you look under President Bush, they
took a lot of territory.
Under President Obama, they took a lot of territory. Under Biden, they essentially took the whole thing, you know, took just a question of time.
Under Trump, you know what they took? Nothing, nothing. I was the one that said you can't build your pipeline that was half built.
I came in, I stopped the pipelines. Court called Nord Stream two. Nobody knows that. You know, nobody ever heard of Nord Stream two. You might have
not even heard biggest pipeline in the world. I stopped it. I was not a friend of Russia, but I got along well with Putin.
Is always good to get along with other countries, if possible. But that doesn't mean, you roll over like Biden did. Biden came in and he
immediately approved the pipeline. I couldn't believe it. Then they say Trump wasn't tough on Russia. I wasn't tough. I was the toughest.
Putin said, if you're not tough, I would hate like hell to see I stopped the biggest economic development job, the biggest job that Russia had ever
built. I stopped it. It was dead, and this low IQ president came in, and he let them build a pipeline and supply oil and gas all over Europe, you know.
So, this is really a feel out, meeting a little bit. And President Putin invited me to get involved. He wants to get involved. I think, I believe,
he wants to get it over with. Now I've said that few times, then I've been disappointed, because I'd have, like, a great call with him, and then
missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv or some other place, and you'd have 60 people laying on a road dying.
I said, that's cold, that's cold, but it's a violent war. 5 to 7000 people a week are dying. And you know, there's nobody from here. They're all
Russian and Ukrainian people, and some people from the cities, much smaller number. But still, those missiles do damage, and they kill a lot of people,
but mostly soldiers.
[11:35:00]
And they're young soldiers, although in the case of Ukraine, they're getting much older. They're drafting 60-year-olds now. It's a terrible
thing to witness, and I think I have an obligation. Look, this is Joe Biden's war. This is not my war. I made a deal with NATO a month ago.
You covered it very accurately, actually, where we don't pay anything anymore. You know, we're not paying anything. They are buying things from
us, and NATO is paying us. I got it raised from 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent and they're paying us for everything that we send.
We're not paying but Biden approved $350 billion. Europe has spent 100 billion, the money that's been spent, and the death is incredible. It's the
worst thing that's happened, by far the worst that's happened since World War Two. So, I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin.
And I'm going to be telling him. You got to end this war. You got to end it. And he wasn't going to mess with me. This war would have never
happened. You know, we had a discussion about it one time, and we never had that discussion again would have never happened.
And when the election was rigged, and then Biden took office, which is barely took office, the auto pen took office, bad things started happening.
Bad things, stupid things were said, and it ended up in a war. And you know, the big and I don't believe this will happen anymore, because I have
that pretty well covered.
This could end up in a third world war. This could have been a third world war. I don't think that's going to happen now, but I thought it was very
respectful that the President of Russia is coming to our country, as opposed to us going to his country, or even a third-party place. But I
think we'll have constructive conversations.
Then after that meeting, immediately, maybe as I'm flying out, maybe as I'm leaving the room, I'll be calling the European leaders who I get along with
very well. And you know, I have a great relationship, I think, with all of them, and I get along with Zelenskyy, but, you know, I disagree with what
he's done, very, very severely disagree.
This is a war that should have never happened. Wouldn't have happened, but I'll be speaking to Zelenskyy the next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and
Putin, or Zelenskyy and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders.
I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying, well, I have to get constitutional approval. I mean, he's got approval to go into war
and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap, because there will be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through
conversations with everybody to the good for the good of Ukraine, good stuff, not bad stuff, also some bad stuff for both.
So, it's good and there's bad, but it's very complex, because you have lines that are very uneven, and there'll be some swapping, there'll be some
changes in land. And the word that they will use is, you know, they make changes. We're going to change the lines, the battle lines.
Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They've occupied some very prime territory. We're going to try and get some of that territory back for
Ukraine. But they've taken some very prime territory. They've taken largely ocean, you know, in real estate, we call it ocean front property.
That's always the most valuable property. If you're in a lake, a river or an ocean, it's always the best property. Well, Ukraine, a lot of people
don't know that Ukraine was largely 1000 miles of ocean that's gone other than one small area, Odessa, it's a small area. There's just a little bit
of water left.
So, I'm going to go and see the parameters. Now I may leave and say, good luck, and that will be the end. I may say this, this is not going to be
settled. I mean, there are those that believe that Putin wanted all of Ukraine. I happen to be one of them, by the way. I think if it weren't for
me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now, but I'm going to meet with him.
We're going to see what the parameters are. I'm then going to call up President Zelenskyy and the European leaders right after the meeting, yeah,
and I'm going to tell him what kind of a deal. I'm not going to make a deal. It's not up to me to make a deal. I think a deal should be made for
both.
I think Russia has to get back into building their country. It's a massive country. I think they have 11 time zones, if you can believe it. It's a
massive by far from the standpoint of land, it's by far the largest. They have tremendous potential in Russia to do well. They're not doing well.
Their economy is not doing well right now because it's been very well disturbed by this. Doesn't help when the President of the United States
tells their largest or second largest oil buyer that we're putting a 50 percent tariff on you if you buy oil from Russia. That was a big blow.
[11:40:00]
And then they say -- he wasn't so tough. Nobody else would have done that. And I haven't stopped there. I mean, look, I was all set to do things far
bigger than that, but I got a call that they'd like to meet, and I'm going to see what they want to meet about. I'd like to see a ceasefire.
I'd like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties. You know, it takes two to tango, right? So ultimately, I'll have a meeting next
week. I had a great relationship with him, considering the fact that, you know, I was not nice to him because of the pipeline. I ended the pipeline.
I also gave the javelins. Do you ever hear of a javelin? Javelin is called a tank buster. They say that Obama gave them sheets, and I gave them
javelins. If Warren for me, all those tanks that were destroyed at the first days of the war because the tanks got stuck in the mud. Some
commander made a better state.
You know, they would have been in Kyiv in four hours going down the highway, but a Russian general made a brilliant decision to go through the
farmland instead. And they just had torrential rains, and the rains were so bad, and it was mud, and those tanks got stuck in the mud.
I don't know who that general is, but knowing Vladimir, he's probably not around any longer, because all those tanks were stuck in the mud, and they
went along with the javelins. I gave him the javelins. You know that, right? I gave him javelins. They gave him sheets. But I'm going to meet
with President Putin, and we're going to see what he has in mind.
And if it's a fair deal, I'll reveal it to the European Union leaders and to the NATO leaders, and also to President Zelenskyy, I think out of
respect, I'll call him first, and then I'll call them after. And I may say, lots of luck, keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal. I will tell
you this.
I've seen a poll coming out of Ukraine. 88 percent of the people would like to see a deal made. And if you go back three years, everybody was gung-ho
for war. You know, everybody's gung-ho for war until you have it. It's an amazing thing. I had it with a couple of countries where I couldn't get a
deal done with one particular country.
And I just couldn't a guy's great, he's a friend of mine, great, good leader, tough as hell. I couldn't get the deal done. And then he went into
war for a short period of time, you know where I'm talking about, first term. And it was nasty guys being killed all over the place.
And he went through one week of war, and I was able to get the deal done. He said, this is nasty. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- on what you were saying there. First of all, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not invited on Friday. He wasn't a part of it.
TRUMP: I would say he could go, but he's gone to a lot of meetings. You know, he's been there for 3.5 years. Nothing happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the definition --
TRUMP: I mean, do you want somebody that's been doing this for 3.5 years? What's the definition of a good deal? I'll tell you after I hear what the
deal is, because it could be many definitions. You know, you're talking about a very large and complex situation. I tell you the war that I just
settled with Azerbaijan and with as you know, and Armenia was almost as complex as this one, having to do with route --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- meeting on Friday with Vladimir Putin.
TRUMP: Well, we're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin. And at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly
whether or not a deal can be --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- why --
TRUMP: Because that's what I do. I make deals. Please go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. I ask you two questions, one about China, one about Russia. If I could on China, your administration
agreed to send the most advanced or advanced Nvidia and AMD chips?
TRUMP: No, obsolete. No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obsolete. Well, and then 15 percent of --
TRUMP: -- 20s. No, no, that's, this is an old chip that China already has. And I deal with Jensen, who is a great guy and Nvidia, the chip that we're
talking about, the H20, it's an old chip. China already has it in a different form, different name, but they have it, or they have a
combination of two, will make up for it and even then, some.
Now Jensen also has -- Jensen is a very brilliant guy, and Jensen also has a new chip, the Blackwell. Do you know what the Blackwell is? The Blackwell
is super-duper advanced. I wouldn't make a deal with that, although it's possible. I'd make a deal somewhat enhanced in a negative way.
Blackwell, in other words, take 30 percent to 50 percent off of it, but that's the latest of the greatest in the world. Nobody has it. They won't
have it for five years. But the age 20 is obsolete. You know, it's one of those things, but it still has a market.
[11:45:00]
So, I said, listen, I want 20 percent, if I'm going to prove this for you, for the country, for our country, for the U.S., I don't want it myself. You
know, every time I say like 747, I want. I want, yeah, for the Air Force. So, I just wanted. So, when I say, I want 20, I want for the country.
I only care about the country. I don't care about myself. And he said, would you make it 15? So, we negotiate a little deal. So, he's selling
essentially old chip that Huawei has a similar chip, a chip that does the same thing. And I said, good, if I'm going to give it to you, because they
have a, you know, they have a stopper, what we call a stopper, not allowed to do it.
It restricted. It's really known as a restrictive covenant. And I said, if I'm going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because
I'm giving you a release. I released them only from the H20. Now on the Blackwell, I think he's coming to see me again about that, but that will be
an unenhanced version of the big one, like, I don't know if you know, we will sometimes sell fighter jets to a country and we'll give them 20
percent less than we have. You know what I mean, right --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Do you see a time, Mr. President, when there could be normal trade between the U.S. and Russia? Should your meeting go well?
Should there be peace?
TRUMP: I do. Russia has a very valuable piece of land. If Vladimir Putin would go toward business instead of toward war. You know, it's a warring
nation. That's what they do. They fight a lot of wars. A friend of mine said, Russia is tough because they just keep on fighting.
They beat Hitler. So did we, and they beat Napoleon. You know, they've been doing this for a long time. I asked a question to a very, very smart man
that some people like and some people don't like, Viktor Orban, right, from Hungary, the Head of Hungary, and he's in that same area, and knows the two
countries very well.
I said, this was before Biden didn't do anything to get us out of it. He could have gotten fist out of that. It would have never happened. I said,
so can Russia be beaten by Ukraine? He looked at me like, What a stupid question. He said, Russia is a massive country, and they win their country,
and they win their life through wars.
They fight wars. That's what they do. He said, China beat you with trade. Russia beat you with war. I was very interesting statement. China's not
beating us with trade, not when I'm in charge, but they were beating Biden with trade, but they never beat us with trade. Don't forget, China to pay
$400 billion worth of tariffs when I was last time.
That was last time. And if we didn't have COVID, all of this stuff would already, we would be loaded. You know, we're finding hundreds of billions
of dollars of cash is pouring into our country now because of tariffs. And all we're doing is we're doing what they do to us. It's so beautiful to see
it.
They find -- they found, last month, as you saw, $25 billion of excess cash flow. They say, where did it come from? I said, I'll tell you where it came
from. It came from a place called tariffs. And we're doing very well. We're really doing well. But I expect to have a meeting with Putin that I think
it'll be good, but it might be bad.
And I have, hey, I'm here for one reason, to get rid of a war that somebody else started. Should have never happened, and if I could end it great,
complex war, a lot of a lot of bad blood, a lot of bad blood. But Zelenskyy has been there for 3.5 years, so if you put them in a room.
Now I will say this, ultimately, I'm going to put the two of them in a room. I'll be there or won't be there, and I think it'll get solved. Yeah,
please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
TRUMP: -- excuse me. I'm going to suggest because unlike -- could you -- do you have any other questions on DC, because I don't want them. I don't want
them to be -- Wait, wait, wait. These are incredible people. I don't want them to be standing up here on subjects. Does anybody have a question of
them? And then you guys can leave -- a question. Brian, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President, all right.
TRUMP: And by the way, this is only in DC, and then they're going to leave, because it's unfair to have them stand up here all day long, Brian.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree. I've got two questions for you. First, about DC. This is personal for me as well.
[11:50:00]
Last year, I was robbed on the streets by one of these teenage thugs had a gun, got away with it. Let's talk about the effort that between law
enforcement, prosecutors and judges, because it's a recycling belt. These kids go. They don't fear the police. They know if you talk about how we've
got to get these judges and put these kids behind bars.
TRUMP: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adult crimes deserve adult penalties. And my second question after you answer that, please --
PIRRO: Do you want me to answer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever --
PIRRO: OK. OK. Do you want me to answer it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead.
PIRRO: Here's the problem. Assuming that they're 17 years -- older than 17 years old. I can get the case, if they're under 18 years of age. I can only
get the case if it's murder, rob one, rape, even if they shoot a gun, but don't kill you. I can't get it. So, the law has to be changed, as the
president said, cashless bail, that has to be changed.
All right, then, even assuming I get the case, I get jurisdiction, I get a conviction, the DC counsel has given the judges the ability to give
probation on shootings, and so then it's up to them all of these things, the Youth Rehabilitation Incarceration Reduction Act, and now they want to
seal records.
So, if we work hard, we get a conviction, they want to wipe it out. So that needs all to be changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
TRUMP: Pam, would you answer that?
BONDI: Yeah, and just back-to-back to that topic, let's be clear, though, we're going to charge them, and we're going to track every single thing
they do throughout every step of the court process and report back to you and let all of you know what's happening to them, because the people who
are prosecuting them, the judges who are trying them, they also need to be held accountable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President -- This is the most people we've ever seen in this brief.
TRUMP: I've never seen ever -- right? I've never seen any. Where's Karoline? Where's my superstar -- Where's Karoline? Come here Karoline --
Is she doing a good job, by the way, come here. Is this the largest crowd with that you've ever seen?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes. This is definitely the most packed briefing and I think all of you would agree. I think it's why
we need to build a ballroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- You're building the big, beautiful ballroom.
TRUMP: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could we build a big, beautiful briefing room?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Technology or seats?
TRUMP: I don't want to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seats --
TRUMP: I don't want you to be comfortable -- No, I don't want to make life comfortable. So, look let's just do this. Let's do this. It's going to be a
big thing. We're going to Russia, that's going to be a big deal. What happens? Happens. I'll let you know what happens. You'll be the first to
know.
I'll be calling the European leaders. I'm going with totally I mean, we have a lot of talks. They're great people. They're great leaders, actually.
And they want to get back honestly. As one of them said, I've OD'd on trying to settle Ukraine. They've OD'd meaning, they've overdosed on the
settlement of Ukraine.
Not a nice expression, but boy, is it accurate. They're tired of it. They want to get back to spending money on their countries. You know, they're in
-- we're in -- Biden gave them $350 billion. Europe gave 100 billion. It should be much more than that. Shouldn't have been that kind of they should
have had equalization, but they didn't.
But you know what? Still, a lot of money. They want to get back to building their own countries. They really want it resolved. My relationship with the
European leaders, as you saw, is extremely good, like it's perfect, it's beautiful. Wait. And we're going to try. I'll be in touch with them.
I have five of them called me. And you think it's easy, a lot of European leaders, but they rely on me. Very much rely on me. If it wasn't for me,
this thing would never get solved until the last person breathing is dead - -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you be talking -- before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Yeah. I'm talking to him right now. So, I'm talking to the European leaders. I'll be talking to President Zelenskyy. I'm going to get
everybody's ideas. I go into that thing fully loaded right up there, and we're going to see what happens. Now, I think one of two things is going to
happen.
It's going to be a good meeting, and we'll go a step further. We'll get it done. I'd like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly, very quick. I'd like
to see it immediately, but I'd like to see it very quickly. And we're going to be dealing with the European leaders, and we're going to be dealing with
President Zelenskyy.
[11:55:00]
And hopefully we're going to have a great success as far as this, what we did today, and I think you were here for DC more so than even Russia,
because Russia will be, you know, we have a couple of days to go, but the Russia is going to be very interesting. But to me, what is very exciting.
And we're going to take back our capital, we're going to make it beautiful again, but we're going to make it, more importantly, safe again. It's going
to be so safe, it's going to be a model. And then we'll look at other cities also, but other cities are studying what we're doing, and you have
some capable people in other cities, they can do it too, but we have a great group of professionals.
We're going to have a safe, beautiful capital, and it's going to happen very quickly. Thank you all.
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Live from Atlanta. I'm Lynda Kinkade. You've just been listening to President Donald Trump speaking at the White
House there, where he announced the federal takeover of the police department, as well as the deployment of the National Guard to Washington,
D.C.
He called this Liberation Day, saying the cleanup efforts will begin in DC and then expand to other cities. He also spoke about his upcoming summit
with Vladimir Putin of Russia, ruling out that the Ukrainian President will not be there. I want to welcome our Stephen Collinson, who was listening to
that press briefing, as well as our Clare Sebastian, who's in London.
Stephen, first to you, the president claims that DC is overrun with crime, which is the opposite to what we've seen from press releases from the U.S.
Attorney's office earlier this year, which said that crime is at a 30 year low in the capital. Explain these emergency powers that the president is
using?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, I think everybody that lives in Washington, D.C. would like to see less crime, but you're
right that the crime levels of homicides, carjackings, other violent crime, has been falling. So, what is happening here is that the president is doing
what he did on a number of other issues, including tariffs.
He's declaring a state of emergency in order to unlock new presidential powers, and he has the special capacity to do this because Washington, D.C.
is a federal district and not a state. And I think we need to look at the political backdrop of this. I think the idea of police on the street --
more police on the streets, more federal agents and even reservist soldiers in the National Guard on the streets of Washington, D.C., is going to be
seen as very tough action.
It's going to please elements of Donald Trump's base, and that, I think, is what the politics is all about. For people that don't support Trump, I
think it will be seen as, yet again, another sign of authoritarian creeping here. The president has clearly been itching to put troops on the streets
of democratic cities, especially democratic cities, for a long time you recall he sent federal troops to Los Angeles during some unrest there.
So, I think there are very troubling overtones, and I think that is what's going to dominate this. This is all about President Trump using power and
looking tough, and it's very much a political ploy as well as a law enforcement play, I think.
KINKADE: Yeah, exactly. And he's looking to expand that. I do want to go to Clare Sebastian, because the president also spoke about his summit, which
is set to take place with the Russian President this Friday in Alaska. He said the Ukrainian President would not get an invite to that meeting.
How is Europe responding right now, especially with the talk of a coalition of the willing to guarantee Ukraine security in any sort of ceasefire?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Lynda, I think that was more or less the biggest headline out of what President Trump had to say. It was a
little vague in parts, but he seemed pretty clear that, in his words, Zelenskyy wasn't part of this meeting, but he would be calling him, he
said, out of respect, right after it, alongside European leaders.
And he did say that he was going to be telling Putin to end the war, though we of course don't know how he's going to persuade him to do that. Russia
has given no sign that it wants to step back from its maximalist goals in this war. So meanwhile, over here in Europe, we have this frenzy of
diplomatic activity.
We have a virtual EU Foreign Ministers meeting that we understand is still ongoing. Right now, about two hours in. We've also heard that the German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is convening a virtual meeting on Wednesday that will involve European leaders and also President Trump to discuss this
summit in Alaska.
So, they really are here in Europe trying to control the narrative, trying to reinforce the point that Ukraine should get a seat at the table, that a
ceasefire should be in place for real peace talks to happen.
END
