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One World with Zain Asher
Trump Holds News Conference At G7 Summit; Trump: Global Leaders "Thrilled" About Iran Agreement; Trump: Will Go "Back To Bombing" If Deal Isn't Done In 60 Days; Aired 12-1p ET
Aired June 17, 2026 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:00:42]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. U.S. President Donald Trump is now speaking to reporters at the G7 Summit in France. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To France for an extremely successful G7 Summit. I would say it's one of the most successful. And this
meeting could not have come at a better time.
On Sunday, we reached an agreement with Iran that achieves everything we set out to accomplish everything and much more. Ending the current
conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. That's what was all about. That was about 99
percent. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They can't develop it, buy it. They can never have a nuclear weapon.
At the same time with this announcement or close to it, as people started to think it was going to happen when Iran was making some very positive
statements, the stock market has surged to record highs, picking up thousands of points over the last short period of time, thousands of
points.
And oil is dropping like it has never dropped before at levels. It went in -- in numbers, down $7, down $8. They've never seen anything like that.
But if we didn't do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years. You would never have the
Hormuz Strait open. You would never have success. Your market would have, instead of going up at levels that nobody's ever seen before, we'd go down
at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929 or whatever.
Then, you know, all the tough guys -- tough guys don't realize that this wasn't a three-month deal. This was years in the making. You know why?
Because I was the one that killed General Soleimani.
If I didn't kill General Soleimani, we probably wouldn't be talking right now about this deal, because he was a mad genius. They never were able to
replace him. But a lot of people forget that the tough guys, you know, the tough guys that would drive the country right down the tubes.
The past two days have provided a chance to discuss the details of this historic agreement with many of our closest friends and allies, including
the G7 nations, and many presidents and prime ministers. As you saw, Prime Minister Modi was here. We had a long talk. He's a great guy.
They are thrilled that we made a deal. Every one of them. There's no one nation that came to us and said, please, sir, keep dropping bombs on them.
Please keep dropping bombs. The stupid people say that.
But I'm thrilled to report, and by the way, those last two days were brutal. $200 million worth of bombs. And, you know, it is expensive, too,
by the way, aside from everything else.
And they knew I was coming for a third night. We informed them. We're coming for a third night. They -- they didn't have their Navy. It sunk.
They didn't have their Air Force. It's gone. Not one plane.
They didn't have anti-aircraft equipment. So we got free rein. They didn't have their leaders. But they have a new group of leaders that I think is --
actually, I think they're smarter. I think they're very smart. I think they're far less radicalized.
And I think they're -- I think they're really good. They love their country. You know, you talk about regime change. Nobody will say that. But
I guess that's what -- one set of leaders is all gone.
The second set of leaders is all gone. The third set of leaders is a little bit gone. But for the most part, and, frankly, I think that's regime
change. I think they're going to behave much differently. I think they see a different way of life that they were never exposed to.
So the one thing I didn't want to see is I didn't want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened. But all I
know is every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shut up like a rocket ship. It never went down. They didn't like it.
[12:05:07]
The people -- you know, the stock market is more brilliant than anybody there is, including the people on this stage, other than me, of course.
Let's see. I don't know. What do you think, Scott? Is the stock market more brilliant than you think?
SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: No, sir.
TRUMP: Oh, that's it. That's a terrible statement.
All right. The stock market is quite brilliant. And every time we said something amazing, like, we're going to settle, it would go up. And every
time we said something negative, like, guess what? We're not going to be able to settle, it would go down very big, Peter. Very, very big. Tells you
something.
And, you know, I've studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great. And some really bad. We had one just recently.
And the one president I did not want to be was the late great Herbert Hoover. I didn't want that. And who knows what would have happened, but bad
things happened.
So, the past few days have provided a chance to discuss the details of the deal with the closest friends and allies, the heads of countries. They were
all here. A lot of them. Far more than the seven, as you know. A lot of them.
And they put out a statement. I think President Macron, who did a great job, by the way, did a really fan him. And Brigitte, they did a great job.
But they all put out a statement saying they love this deal because they want to see it over. And they love the fact that the Hormuz -- oh, yes, if
we were going to drop bombs, let's say we went another month, another two, three months, maybe weeks, could be another three months, could be
whatever. What do you have left? That may be nothing.
But you don't have -- the Strait will never be open because people that own billion-dollar ships, these ships, cost a billion-dollar zero like sailing
ships or having their ships participate when you go up the coast and you go through the Strait and there are rockets flying over your head. They want
to protect their billion-dollar investment.
You wouldn't have oil for maybe years. These are stupid people. But nobody was tougher than me. Nobody hit Soleimani. And when I hit Soleimani, people
thought that was the biggest thing to happen in the Middle East for 50 years. That was the biggest of them.
He was the -- the -- he was the boss of Iran and respected, but -- but he was a mad genius. He was a genius, the father of the roadside bomb.
When you see young men, and in some cases women, mostly men, walking around without legs, without arms, or the face that's been blown to smithereens,
it's Soleimani 95 percent. 96.2, they say, or something. Ninety-five percent. That was Soleimani did it.
Happened to come from Iran and I blew them up. You remember that? I blew them up in the Valley of Death. He got off his plane and we followed him.
And in all fairness, because they've been wonderful to me, Israel, but they didn't want to do that attack. They were all set the night before the
attack then for me. They didn't want to do it, so I had to make a decision. I made the decision to do it, but they were -- it was a joint venture, as
we say, in the real estate business. That was a joint venture between Israel and us.
We studied it for a month. We knew what plane he was going to be on, almost a month before. He only traveled on commercial airline those big ones with
lots of people because he knew we wouldn't shoot him down.
He was very smart, but we knew he was going to be on that plane, followed him. And then Israel informed me that they won't do it. And I had to make a
decision. I had some very good generals and not the ones you see on television, very good.
And I want to thank also Pete Hegseth. And General Razin Caine is phenomenal. OK. These guys are phenomenal. They can't be better.
But I had some good generals and I said to them, well, if Israel's not going to do it, we're all prepared. Do we do it? Do you like doing it or
not? They say, sir, if you want to do it, we can do it. How well? We'll do it just as well or better. We'll do it ourselves. We don't need anybody. So
we took out Soleimani.
One of the biggest events to happen, the Middle East, maybe ever, but they say 50 years. They say 100 years. I was with the Prime Minister of
Pakistan. He said it's maybe the biggest event that has ever taken place. It's that nobody could believe it. So that's when it started. It didn't
start like three or four or five weeks ago.
And Obama wouldn't do it. What Obama did was he did the JCPOA. He loaded up a plane with $1 billion, $700 million in green cash from banks all over
Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
[12:10:16]
They were stripped of all their cash. They had no cash to do payrolls. It all went into a Boeing 757, a wonderful plane, and they flew it to Iran.
And they gave it out to people.
They bribe people. They thought they were going to get it done. Then they gave billions and billions of dollars after that. And they got a deal that
was a road to a nuclear weapon. I get so angry, I guess. I'm allowed to get angry when I watch these.
The Democrats, they talk about it all the time. We had this deal done. You had a deal that was going to give them, legally, a nuclear weapon. And if
that happened, Israel would have been blown away. And in all fairness to Bibi Netanyahu, who happens to be a good man, gets a little excited
sometimes.
But he happens to be a very good man. We've had an amazing partnership. He's been an amazing prime minister. We have a little dispute over Lebanon.
And I say, you can do it a little softer touch, Bibi. You don't have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that's from
Hezbollah.
But it's been an amazing partnership. But he will say, we're the big partner. And he's the very small partner. And that's true.
So he came to the country. And he begged Barack Hussein Obama, the president, not to do the JCPOA. He said, it could be the end of Israel. And
it would have been if I didn't come along.
And Obama didn't listen to him. Bibi actually went to Congress and pleaded with them. And he got nowhere. And they had this horrible deal that was
horrible for Israel. Horrible for Israel. And that's where it stood.
And then I came along and I terminated that deal. Had very little time left. You know, it was a short-term deal. You know, with countries, you
need hundreds of years. You don't need eight years and nine years.
This isn't like you're signing a lease on a candy store, the corner. You need hundreds of years. This was a short-term lease. It expired long ago.
Had I let it run, I'd expect you wouldn't have been around. And a lot of people wouldn't have been around.
But Israel would have been terminated. I think the whole Middle East would have been terminated. You saw that. When everybody was shocked, they'd all
these missiles. They were aimed at these different places.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. Think of it. Bahrain, Kuwait. They got hit. Nobody's got that. Even I, I didn't think it was going to happen. They
didn't think it was going to happen. They were going to take out the entire Middle East, including Israel. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would
have used it within -- within moments after getting it.
So, I made it very tough for them when I terminated the Barack Hussein Obama catastrophe. JCPOA, one of the worst deals. NAFTA might have been
worse, but that was worse economically.
This deal was really dangerous, what he did. He gave them everything, including a lot of money, which we don't give them, by the way, just in
case you have any question. We'll be giving this out so you can read it and you can see.
And it's a memorandum of understanding. If it doesn't get done in 60 days, that's all right. We go back to bombing. You know, I don't want to do that
because it's so good.
But we might have to because we're never going to let them have a nuclear weapon. But they've agreed not to. And you'll see that very clearly in the
agreement.
But then the second phase of that was they were building or they were enriching material, as they say. I call it nuclear dust. They were
enriching material under granite mountains. Granite being, for those not in the construction business, granite being a very strong, the strongest
stone.
It's not as pretty as marble, but it's much more -- it's much stronger. It's a lot stronger. Like the new granite I put on the stairs of the White
House, going to the Oval Office, the black granite.
It's rated 1 million years plus. No marbles rated that. Marbles rated 100 years if it's-- if it's outside. So these are granite mountains.
And the B-2s came along, and they hit those air shafts in the dark at one o'clock in the morning with no moon. They had a beam going right up. Those
guys did their job. And then they were criticized by certain members of the press, like CNN, for possibly not doing that much damage.
And it turned out that the damage was far greater. Those mountains collapsed right on top of everything. Nobody's going to get that for a long
time, unless we want to get it. We'll get it. But we're the only ones that can.
And they say China has the equipment to get it, and we have the equipment to get it. And it's actually not valuable. Not a lot of value, but we'd
like to get it psychologically, but nobody's touching it.
We also have cameras. That's what Space Force is. We have the best -- we have the greatest military in the world, by the way.
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But I'm proud of Space Force, because I started it. We have Space Force cameras on every single door. Every -- well, there are no doors. It's been
pretty was shattered. But every area of that -- if somebody walks in, and he's got a badge with his name on it, like, Mohammed (ph) something, which
is about a 50/50 guess, Mohammed something, they can tell the name, they can give you a serial number, they -- we can see things you wouldn't
believe, the quality of the stuff that we have. That's why we've been so successful.
That's why our blockade will go down to the annals of history as being unbelievable. Nobody's ever seen a blockade like that. It's just -- it's
like a steel wall.
So, what happened is we then terminated that. And I call it the nuclear dust. And that was the end of that.
But if we didn't hit that with the B-2 bombers, or if it wasn't successful, they would have had a nuclear weapon, a nuclear bomb at -- at a very high
level, not the highest, but it would have been a very high level, we have much bigger, but we hope that we're never going to have to use it.
We have the most. Russia has second. China is very far behind, but going to catch up, unfortunately, you know, they're catching up, but we have the
most. We have the most powerful, but we also have the most, but Russia's not far behind.
And then you have China in third place, but then within five years, they'll be probably even. And we ought to make a denuclearization deal, it'd be so
great. We don't need all of that. We don't need to be able to blow up the whole world 300 times over. It's terrible. Really, if we could do a de-
nuclear (ph), I'd love it.
And one of those two is very willing to do it, I will tell you. The other one is less willing to do it. And you need all of them.
So the deal we reached with Iran on Sunday will be signed shortly, tomorrow, maybe the next day, thank you, subject deals. My whole life is
all about deals. That's all I ever did is make deals. And crazy things happen with deals I've gone into deals where it's a guarantee. No way it
can not be signed. And it doesn't get signed. And I've gone into deals that you have no chance of making. And they go like, no, I think so.
But we're going to most likely sign a deal. They want to sign a deal. And they've been acting very appropriately. They took a big two hits last week.
Those are two very big hits.
So importantly, Iran has agreed that they will neither produce nor procure a nuclear weapon, neither produce.
Because originally, they said, they talk about that -- that they will not develop a nuclear weapon. And some people found that OK, these guys didn't.
They don't offer this, but some people. But I didn't like it, said it won't develop. I said, what happens if they should buy? I don't know. It's pretty
-- very dangerous for somebody to sell, because whoever sells them a nuclear weapon will get nuked themselves.
If they sold a nuclear weapon, only a few they could do, they would be nuked. They wouldn't have that country long. So it's a very dangerous thing
for somebody to do.
But I wanted it in there, so it's developed, procure, buy, anything. And you'll see that when you see the agreement, but it's appropriate that we
release the agreement. And we did send a copy to Israel, by the way.
They've been a good partner. Again, I think they could do better with respect to Hezbollah. I'm not saying they shouldn't protect themselves. I'm
saying, when two drones are shot into the desert and drop harmlessly, you don't have to knock down buildings in Beirut. They could behave better. And
frankly, they could do a better job.
I -- I love them as a partner. They were terrific, but they could do a much better job with Hezbollah. On that, I don't think they're doing well.
And I feel very bad for Lebanon. Lebanon's been -- you know, it was a great culture. It was a great -- they had the professors, the doctors, the
lawyers. It was an incredible culture. Maybe the highest in the Middle East for years and years, centuries.
And for the last 50, 60 years, they have been just trashed. They have been -- they have been living in hell.
So, they'll work closely with us to turn over the so-called enriched material that's very deep the bowels of the earth. Very deep. Nobody can
get it.
So, it's not important that we do it quickly, but we could do it fairly quickly. When we have a chance, we'll do it. But in the meantime, we have
cameras on every inch of it. Nobody can do it. And if they do, we'll hit them with patriots, that's all. And they'll be gone. And they know that.
[12:20:59]
Technical discussions on the removal of all stockpiles of enriched materials will begin immediately. We're going to start that immediately.
And unlike Barack Hussein Obama who sent Iran pallets of Cash and any relief they receive under this deal, they'll have to get based on merit.
And it won't be from us. We don't have to give them anything.
But some people may want to invest. Like, what are you going to do to say you can never, ever invest in a country? I mean, it's pretty tough.
I don't mind being tough, but it's pretty crazy. You can invest in a country. You can invest in any country you want, but you can't invest in
it.
Well, they need investment because we did a trillion and a half, maybe $2 trillion worth of damage. So somebody's going to have to help them out.
There's no guarantee about helping them out and could be their neighbors will help them out a little bit. I don't know, but it's a lot of money.
Almost nobody has that kind of money. That's the kind of damage that was done.
But we're not investing any money. There was a fake story. There was a fake news story that got -- a man, a person, a good person, J.D. made a
statement. It was a perfect statement. And they reported it in a very strange way, but that's because -- that's why it's fake news, I guess.
So we don't give them money. We don't give them any of that. And what happens is with time, if they behave, if they be a -- a citizen of the
world, a reasonable citizen of the world, and I think this group -- again, I think I didn't do this for regime change, but I think this group is
regime change.
Hey, the first group is dead. One little morning having breakfast, the whole group, they thought they'd never be caught because we never bombed
during breakfast, but we bombed and they were all 88 people. And I'm not proud of that at all.
But the second group came in and they were very unreasonable too. And they were all gone. They were all gone.
And then the third group, we've been dealing with a couple -- couple left this planet. We've been dealing with them. And again, they've been fine. I
mean, I've had a lot easier. I've had some easier ones. They're tough. They're smart.
Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already increased very substantially. And the normal flow of energy will resume in the coming
days. And trillions of dollars will be made by the world.
And the stock market will, I believe, continue to rise. The only difference is that a player that's very volatile, very tough, very smart, frankly. You
know, they have in one way a primitive culture, but it's also a genius primitive culture. They're very smart people, very good negotiators, but so
are we.
So, rather than possibly going into a depression, rather than having your favorite president be Herbert Hoover, who was always the one I didn't want
to be. I wouldn't have preferred Nixon. I wouldn't have preferred -- there were plenty I wouldn't prefer.
But the one I always thought of, Herbert Hoover, and he caused it. He raised taxes too fast. And he raised interest rates too fast, all at the
same time. And he caused the Great Depression.
So, I don't think I'll make mistakes like that. I lower taxes. I don't raise taxes. In fact, we just gave you the largest tax decrease, largest
tax cut in the history of our country.
So, we'll be working on a parallel effort with the Gulf nations to address non-nuclear issues such as the conventional ballistic missiles, which we'll
be talking about and support them.
I mean, they have to have some because other people have some, and they've got to have some. So much -- you shouldn't give them one. And I have guys -
- I like some of these guys. But I don't think this -- I don't think they're smart.
Sir, you shouldn't let them have any missile. I said, well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have
them? Yes, sir. Can't -- doesn't work that way, you know? It doesn't work that way.
And missiles aren't the problem. Missiles are -- they hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet.
So the Gulf nations will address the non-nuclear issues. We'll be talking about the ballistic missiles. And we'll talk also about the terrorist
proxies that they have that -- oh, we don't want that to happen.
But I want to thank our partners in both Pakistan and Qatar. These people work so hard. And they knew them a little bit. In the case of Pakistan,
quite well, in the case of Qatar, they were sort of at -- you know, Qatar was great because they had right next to it.
When I flew from there, from that location to Saudi Arabia, I'd fly for 40 minutes. And I'd fly to UAE for 40 minutes to -- great leaders there, by
the way.
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In the case of Saudi Arabia, the father is still alive, and it's fantastic, and the son is going to be great. It's going to be great. The Crown Prince
and Mohammed at UAE is an incredible warrior. He was dropping bombs.
Last week, I said, who the hell's dropping all those bombs? It was UAE. I said, who the hell's dropping all those bombs? He's a good fighter,
Mohammed (ph).
But every administration, for decades, has sought to get Iran to relinquish its nuclear ambitions, but the threat only got bigger. The words got bigger
and bigger and stronger and bigger and nothing ever happened.
And Iran got stronger and tougher. If we didn't blow them up the first time and then blow out those weapons, they would have been unstoppable.
This should have done -- what I'm doing and what I did, should have been done years ago. It would have been much easier, much less firepower, but it
wasn't. And again, I want to thank all those countries. And I want to thank Israel and Bibi Netanyahu.
So, obviously, the breakthrough would not have been possible without the unprecedented pressure the United States put on the regime over the past
year and a half.
But again, it started a long time ago. It started with the death of Soleimani. That was a big deal. No president in history has ever been
tougher on Iran than I have. And they know that.
And by the way, if they don't honor the agreement, or some things aren't even mentioned in the agreement, some memorandum of understanding. But we
have an understanding of certain things without writing it.
And if they don't honor that, we'll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it, you know? It's amazing what bombs can do.
So I say it. The Obama deal was a road to a nuclear weapon. And that's called it the Trump deal. It was a wall for a nuclear weapon that the
nuclear weapon could not get through. Nobody's going to get through it. We built a wall. They weren't going to have it. And that's what we have right
now.
And it says very clearly, the most important clause to me, too, number one, the Strait opens, but that's much less important than the other clause,
clause number, whatever, five, eight, is a very strong statement that they will never have a nuclear weapon. And it doesn't say they'll have one in
five years, or 10 years, or 20 years. With Obama, they were able to enrich very quickly.
This agreement now provides Iran with a historic opportunity. If they follow the path of cooperation, we'll have opened for them their country.
We'll have a chance to survive.
Now, think of it. You know, they have 91 million people. People want me to bomb the bridges. What do they bomb? I already did. Because, you know, they
went back on one of their promises, and they bombed their biggest bridge. The equivalent of the George -- that was the George Washington Bridge of
Iran, but we bombed that bridge. You saw that.
One quick strike by an F-22, the most beautiful fighter jet ever made, by the way. In fact, we're ordering some more of them. We're bringing it out
because it's so effective. It's incredible. It's incredible.
Look, we have the greatest military in the world. Those B-2 bombers are unbelievable. Who would have thought they could handle -- each had two
because the flight was so long. But they handled three of the biggest, heaviest bombs, hundreds of thousands of pounds, and they handle them like
they're nothing. It's amazing.
And also, they're undetected. Well, they flew into Iran. Totally -- think of it, totally undetected.
Now, Iran's waiting for them. They're waiting for them. And they never saw them. One o'clock in the morning. They never saw them. They're stealth. And
we just ordered 22 more. The newer upgraded version, which I guess is better. I don't know how you get better.
But as I expressed to the world leaders here this week, it's my hope that the peace agreement will be the beginning of a much larger deal all across
the Middle East. We're very close. Look at the job we've done in Gaza. Look at Hamas. Hamas has been very silent.
You haven't read anything about Hamas. And we're trying to get them unarmed. You know, they grew up with a machine gun in their hand. I think
they've actually -- when they were born, they came out with a machine gun in their hand. So, it's not the easiest thing.
But they've actually, you know, behaved pretty well, considering this was not the lifestyle that they were taught to have.
But including an end to all Iranian aggression, it ain't not going to be Iranian aggression. And an end to war and terror in Lebanon.
So, the Lebanon piece is something we'll have to work on a little bit. It's a very small piece of the puzzle, actually, but it still makes a lot of
noise.
The big deal is the Iran deal. That's where the money is, where the power was, but they have Hezbollah. And you've got to get that done one way or
the other. We'll do it. I think Israel can do a much better job on it.
[12:30:11]
Syria would love to do it. I was very responsible for the gentlemen at Syria that's now the president of Syria. He's done a tremendous job. He's
put that country together in a year and a half.
So they're like, our country, a year and a half. It's pretty similar size. They said, don't -- please don't put him there. He's a very violent man.
Al-Qaeda. They said, well, I know one thing, a boy scout's not going to work. And he's actually done a very good job.
He'd love to go in. You know, Hezbollah's an enemy of his. And he'd go in and he -- but he wouldn't knock down buildings every time he hears there's
somebody.
He'd just go and get him with precision. But I don't know that people want that. Maybe they don't. Maybe Lebanon doesn't. We have to be guided a
little bit by Lebanon.
And by the way, the president is going to be coming. Prime Minister, president, going to be coming over to see us very shortly over the next
week or two. Good man. He's -- you know, man is living. What a tough life he's got, because he's got tough groups of people.
And it's amazing. Amazing there is a Lebanon with all they've been through. They have been treated worse than just about, I think, anybody.
Disrespected incredibly.
So the expansion of the Abraham Accords is the other thing that we hope we're going to get. And I think Saudi Arabia, if they lead the way, they'd
be doing themselves a big favor. Because everybody that's in it, you are -- you're winning right from the beginning. Again, he's a warrior.
And they never got out. Nobody ever got out. Do you think maybe during the war == they were all afraid of -- everybody was afraid of Iran.
And that's why we ended up with the original members. But then when the election was rigged, that's right. And I wasn't here at all. Nobody cared
about anything. The country went to hell in every way. That was the least of it.
Middle East was the least of the country who went to hell, allowing 25 million people into the country, unchecked and un-vetted. Many of them
criminals. Many of them murderers, 11,888 murderers allowed into our country. So this was the least of it.
But the past two days have also provided an opportunity to discuss a number of other key issues with members of the G7 and our partners.
Yesterday morning, we had a productive conversation on the war in Ukraine. I spoke with President Putin. I spoke with President Zelenskyy. And he was
-- he was there. And President Putin, I spoke over the phone with.
And something's going to happen. It means at a lot of people. A lot of soldiers are losing soldiers. Both are losing a lot. Russia's losing more,
because they're the offensive ones. And when you're offensive in war, you lose more. Pretty simple.
But I provided an update on my call Sunday with President Putin and expressed my continued hope. We had a very good conversation with President
Putin. And a very, very good conversation with President Zelenskyy.
I think they both want to do something. They just don't know how to do it. They want to do it. They just don't know how.
In our session yesterday afternoon on international partnerships, I offered an update on how the United States is leading the world and responding to
the Ebola outbreak in Africa, sending $375 million in aid, so far, to help stop and contain the crisis at its source. And we've done great.
Always with the president. A couple of presidents came over, by the way, from African nations. And they were so happy with what we did. But where
it's unfair is we gave $375 million.
The rest of the world gave essentially nothing. Maybe a couple of bucks, but nothing. And they were all saying, thank you so much. And I think
they've done a good job. It's a -- it's a terrible thing. The Ebola is a -- a terrible thing. That's an unbelievable one.
Fortunately, it's not like COVID where it's that easy to spread around, but it's rough. And we've done a good job. We've moved people to certain
quarantines, certain locations.
But today, we also had excellent meetings on the economy and artificial intelligence, which is amazing what's going on with that. It's going to be
the biggest thing ever. We have to be very careful with it. It's both great and could be bad. We have to be careful with it, but we're leading China.
We're leading the world on that. We're allowing them to do their own electric plants, because they need, as an example, those buildings are so
big.
And they're not taking the community's electricity. I gave them the right. It's my idea. I gave them the right to build electric plants like Con
Edison in New York, Dig We Must. And they've come up with plants that nobody's ever seen anything like them. Those are my very high I.Q. people.
[12:35:08]
So, they're actually building electric plants, so -- because otherwise, they could never build a building, because the grid is old and tired and
broken and a mess. So they're building it. And they're going to sell their -- very cheaply, they're going to sell their additional -- their extra
electricity into the grid.
So, we take care of a lot of things like California, which doesn't have nearly enough electricity. They don't know what they're doing there. And
instead of having blackouts and brownouts, they'll be able not to.
We found a great deal of unity here at the G7 and we signed a declaration on illegal immigration, the first time ever for a G7 statement. And they
did a beautiful statement.
We signed other agreements to stop up, the -- to step up and to really coordinate and spend a lot of time coordinating drug trafficking and
stopping of drug trafficking, which is crazy. It comes through Mexico, comes through the southern border, the little that comes through. They find
a way and they put it. And they're genius.
If they would use that genius for -- for good, they'd be very rich people. They have it in engines. They have it in hubcaps. They have it in areas you
wouldn't even believe. They have it in the structures of cars. Most incredible thing.
But we've done a great job on it. We have drugs coming through the border, down 61 percent. Drugs coming through water, the sea, ocean, sea, gulf,
down 97.2 percent. That's the ones that get hit. Just like we hit the Iranian minesweepers and mine droppers they call them, they dropped.
Who would have 28 mine droppers? Who has 28 mine droppers? They actually had them, but they don't have them anymore. We hit them just like we hit
the drug dealers.
But drugs are down by water, 97 percent. And over 60 percent they're down. And now, we're going to go and focus on the land. They come through Mexico.
Mexico has lost control of their country. The cartels run Mexico. And it's sad.
And the president is a very good woman, but she's a very scared woman. The drug cartels are totally running Mexico. It's not even close.
We agreed to accelerate our efforts to secure our critical minerals and rare earth supply chains, where we have great companies really going to
town. We're going to give everybody a big run because we do it better than -- and we had to get motivated.
The G7 also agreed that the United States' new approach to international development based on the private sector investment is working at levels
that they never thought possible. It's really working.
I held a number of very positive bilateral meetings, including with the president of France. It was a very good meeting, actually. The Emir of
Qatar, Sheikh Tamim, who's -- I tell you, I wish I could really know the guy. You know, some people say, well, he lived in that neighborhood. He
can't -- he can't be -- he can't be saying things that he'd like to have him say.
He was fantastic on this. And he's -- he's been a fantastic guy in terms of energy and getting energy out there.
President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed, who's an amazing warrior. President El-Sisi of Egypt. Prime Minister Modi of India. We spent
a long time together today.
I think I spoke to Mohammed. I spoke to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia a number of times. They're all so happy that they're still -- you have to
have them happy, too, you know.
We're using their airports, not that they could stop us if we didn't want them to, but it'd be nice that I went to get that little sucker, but I
missed. I hate missing.
But we spoke to -- we spoke to all of them and many countries all over the world. So every country, I think, is real, too.
Look, think of what Israel's getting. They're not getting nuked. It's very simple. I told Bibi. BiBi, your biggest risk was that they drop a nuclear
weapon into the middle of Israel. They only need one, and there would be no more Israel.
Think of it, BiBi. You got the best -- the most important thing that you were asking for is that. So, I think they're happy.
Some people are going to be -- not him, but there are some people, some writers, some that I thought were friends of mine, but I don't want them as
friends anymore because they're either stupid or they're bad people.
But we stopped nuclear holocaust, and it stopped too. I mean, there's not going to be any of that. So from the beginning to the end, it was clear
that this week America's back, it's bigger and better and stronger.
[12:40:09]
We're more respected as a country right now, I think, than we ever have been. And we were a laughingstock two years ago. They would laugh at us. We
had a man that should have never been there. You know that. A man that would walk up to a podium once every year. And they'd ask him, what flavor
ice cream do you like? I like vanilla. Then he'd try and find the stairs, which he couldn't find most of the time.
And he'd leave. This is very unfair reporting. And then you said you didn't know about that. You didn't know there was something wrong. We can never
let that happen to our country.
Again, to me, the worst -- we had the worst inflation ever. We had the worst in prices and the costs. It's all coming down now because the oil is
bringing it down. You're going to see numbers that are going to be amazing.
But this evening, I look forward to a very special dinner with President Macron and his fabulous wife at the Palace of Versailles. I sort of like
that. Palace has a lot of gold. I want to check it out. It's a beautiful palace. And maybe the most beautiful of all. I hope you're going to get to
see it. The ones that are traveling with me, I hope you're going to get to see it because it's amazing.
But they asked me if I'd stay a little bit longer and go to Paris. So I'll get home a little bit later, but it'll be a nice dinner. But I'm interested
to see it. I love -- I mean, that's the ultimate, I guess. It's the ultimate of its type, Louis XIV.
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of America's founding and America's oldest alliance. And we're celebrating that a little bit tonight. They'll
have the biggest people in Europe at the dinner. And those people love our country. And hopefully Europe's going to find its way.
Europe is having a lot of hard times. They're doing some things very badly on energy and on immigration. They're doing things very badly. And we'll be
talking about that tonight.
So with that all said, if you want to ask us any questions, feel free to ask the people behind me. Yes. Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Bonjour. You've been clear, President Trump, the United States is not going to directly pay
Iran, but the U.S. is going to let the Iranians start making billions of dollars, selling oil, accessing this reconstruction fund.
TRUMP: Only -- only if they're doing things right. Only if --
DOOCY: Well --
TRUMP: Peter, only if -- we're not doing anything. We're not putting up money.
Only if they're doing things right. If they're doing things right, if people want to invest, they can invest. But they had this $300 billion
fund. It's only $300 billion fund. It's only if they're doing things right.
Remember this also. When you talk about billions of dollars, they've had much more than $1 trillion worth of damage done. They got a long way.
They'll be 15 to 20 years to rebuild what they have right now.
So they have to behave themselves. If they're not behaving, they get hit again. You know, they'll be hit again because we can do it very easily.
It's going to take a long way for them to build back their anti-aircraft stuff.
It's going to -- and you know the other thing, I want to thank China, President Xi. I was with him. And he stayed neutral, totally neutral. And I
appreciate it.
And I want to thank Vladimir Putin. He was very neutral. They could have made it much more difficult for us. And I want to say it. You know,
somebody would say, oh, that's terrible he's thinking. He's thinking President Xi of China.
Well, let me tell you, I had a long talk with him. You know, they have shoulder weapons to knock down airplanes that -- it's not like the real
deal, but they're accurate. They're fairly accurate.
I said, I would really appreciate you're not giving or selling any of that stuff to Iran. And you know what? For the most part, he didn't. So I just
want to thank them because they made it a lot better.
DOOCY: Explain though, what the difference is between giving Iran U.S. dollars and unfreezing U.S. dollars for --
TRUMP: Well, the unfreezing is an easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money. And we have their money. We have taken them as -- they're
not our money. It's their money. And we froze it.
At a certain point in time, I guess we're going to have to give it back. You know, if we didn't give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar
again.
If you took their money, because I thought about it, you know, I'm not the most perfect person, I said to Scott, Scott, why don't we keep their money?
What the hell are we giving it back to them?
But, you know, people from lots of nations, some nations, we don't agree with, they have their money. The dollars become very strong under me. And
they don't want to have a little conflict with somebody and end up having the United States just take their money. So, if you do that, you really
don't have a system.
[12:45:04]
DOOCY: And I did just want to ask you about this. A wise man once said, in January of 2020, Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation. A wise
man.
TRUMP: Who -- who said that?
DOOCY: Donald Trump.
TRUMP: That's what I thought you were going to say.
DOOCY: So -- so, how do you go back to the United States and convince a skeptical American public that this deal is a win?
TRUMP: Well, look, here, they lost militarily, OK? It's very tough because I know that no matter what -- if I would go --by the way, if I'd go another
three or four weeks, those same people that are critical would say he went too long. He should have done it, you know, no matter what.
If they raise the white flag of surrender, and if they said praise be to Allah, Donald Trump is the greatest president ever. We totally concede. We
totally give up. This war is over. We have failed.
"The New York Times" and CNN and a couple of others, they're not all that dishonest. They'd say, Iran had a great victory, OK? And they practically
do that.
You know, it's amazing when we knocked out their last ship. They had 159 ships. When we knocked out the last ship, "The Times" refused to do a story
on it. They said, why wouldn't you -- they don't have a Navy, and you don't want to do a story on it. They don't have an Air Force, you don't want to
do a story.
We need a fair press. It's -- and that's why they're all doing so badly because they lost credibility.
When I went in a landslide, and I had 93 percent bad press, they'd take good stories about me and make them bad. But the only reason that happened
is because they have so little -- the media has so little credibility that the people voted for me.
Ninety-three percent of the stories on network. ABC is horrible. I think ABC is the worst. NBC is terrible. And CBS is terrible. CNN, obviously.
And I never get good stories. No matter what I do. I could do the greatest thing, I won't get good stories on this. I'll get it from fair media. I'll
get it from all over the world, they're writing good. But no matter what I do, I'm going to get bad press, I know that.
Now, if I did the opposite, if I went out and continued to bomb them for another four, just bomb the hell out of them, I get bad press on that, no.
There's nothing I can do. But what this does is it allows the ships to go.
If we -- if we keep bombing, those ships won't be going. And you're talking about 500, 600, 700 million dollars a day. It's a lot of money, a lot of
money. That's why the world is OK, it's liquid, it's fine.
Also, we run out of reserves in about four weeks. You know, there are reserves all over the world. And we would really run out. And there'll be a
time when you wouldn't be able to get it. And you want to see Bedlam.
So for all those so-called geniuses that want to show me how smart they are, ask them why didn't they blow up General Soleimani, ask that of the
general and a couple of other people that I like very much, but boy, are they wrong. Go ahead.
How about you? Thank you, Peter. I'll give you more, Peter. But people will say, I like you too much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Bonsoir, Mr. President.
TRUMP: So he tell me that first day in office. He asked me seven questions. I answered all of them. Is this true? He said, he just answered more
questions in one meeting than Joe Biden did in four years, OK? You know, I'm not going to get you in trouble, but that's what you said. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bonsoir, Mr. President. In the art of the deal, you write about the importance of leverage.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, you have a lot of leverage when it comes to Iran, whether --
TRUMP: Tremendous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it's military or through economic sanctions.
What leverage, sir, do you have when it comes to Israel and Hezbollah to ensure that they abide by the ceasefire?
TRUMP: Well, I think we have leverage just by the fact that we really have Iran now has to be good. They have to behave. And we might help. That's a
much smaller conflict. It's a conflict that should be able to be over with. I'm surprised it's taken so long. And it's a much smaller, but we have a
lot of leverage.
We have -- look, we have the greatest military anywhere in the world. We have the strongest, most powerful. Look at the blockade. By the way, the
blockade was more impactful than all of the bombing raids, where we dropped a billion dollars worth of bombs on Iran.
The blockade was so incredible. The naval blockade, the admiral, the whole thing, not one ship got through, that meant no money got through. They were
done. They had no money. They have inflation that's 250 or 300 percent. They have no money. We have tremendous leverage. We have the leverage of
the economy as an example. We'll get that done.
That's -- that's a small one. And we'll work with Israel and get it done, but I'd like to do it. I mean, you have people living there. Buildings are
being dropped on top of them or right alongside of them. How would you like to live there? It's -- it's so unfair.
[12:50:02]
Especially Beirut. You know, you go into Beirut and I -- I looked at the scene two days ago yesterday where they hit -- that was -- that was a big
hit. That was unnecessary in my book. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two questions. If you could clarify something you said just a few minutes ago. One of the goals of epic fury going into it? You
said was --
TRUMP: Say it again. Speak up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry. One of the goals of epic fury you said going into it was to destroy Iran's ballistic missiles and its capabilities to build
more.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is it acceptable to you now that they keep some of that capability? And Iran is -- Iran --
TRUMP: What are they keeping? What are they keeping? They have less than other nations now. We knocked out probably 84, 85 percent of their
missiles. The rest of them are underground. They can't even get them out.
You know, the other night's raid, I think it was on the first night. We knocked out hundreds of their missiles, actually by mistake. We were
hitting an area and it, you know, you can sort of see when the bombs are going off. And then you see one that looks like wow what happened? A lot of
missiles knocked out.
No. But what are you going to do? Let's -- let's spend another two weeks and give them that. They don't want to be firing missiles right now.
They're going to have a hard time rebuilding. They're going to have a hard time rebuilding.
And the people from the Middle East, you know, if people want to invest -- and again, they don't have to invest at all. But if they do want to invest,
it does have oil. It does have probably a future, but it's going to take a long time.
But are you going to let the 91 million people starve to death? I mean, one of the things I was very intent on, they have water desalination plants,
very good ones.
I could have knocked them out in five minutes, just like I knocked out Kharg Island. I knocked out everything but the oil. I said, 25 -- it was so
complete. The only thing there is the pipes coming with the oil because I didn't want to ruin the world market because they do a lot of money.
But I didn't want to do that, no. It would have been so easy. It would have been easier. And I would have satisfied a group of 10 percent of the
people, but it would have been the wrong thing to do.
And it could have caused an -- it could have caused an international depression.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran's position --
TRUMP: Maybe not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran's position has always been that their nuclear program was for civilian purposes. If they come back after the signing of
this and say they want to continue to have a civilian nuclear program, is that acceptable to you?
TRUMP: Well, I've said to them always, I say, look, you have probably the third largest oil reserves in the world. What the hell do you need nuclear
for? You need nuclear for some electricity. So -- so I've always felt that way. So we're -- we've been pretty tough in that.
You know, it's also it is a little hard though when you say that somebody wants it. Other people have it, other adjoining states have it. And you're
not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that. So, it's a little tough. You have to use a little common sense. Please.
"New York Times," please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President --
TRUMP: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- for the question.
Now that you're approaching a new phase in this conflict with Iran, can you now say whether you will hold anyone in your administration accountable for
the strike on a school that killed more than a hundred children on the first day of the war?
TRUMP: No. If it -- if it was a fault, and as you know, that's under investigation, it's such a strange question to be asked at this state.
Talking about a long time ago, but nobody did that on purpose.
I guess you'd have to say about them what about the thousands of soldiers that they blew up when they opened their car door? What about the thousands
of people that were killed by Iran? No. Mistakes are made. A war is nasty.
But I know it's under investigation. And I could have a report for you tomorrow or they'd -- I'd ask -- I would ask Pete. I would ask Pete Hegseth
that that question because they have it under investigation. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you've been saying all week that this deal permanently prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but the
drafts -- the drafts of the deal that have been floating around barely mentioned Iran's nuclear program.
So, can you explain how exactly the deal achieves that goal?
TRUMP: So, when I say permanently, it should be permanently. But if it's not permanently, we will bomb them. They will be bombed, just like I bombed
them on Wednesday night and Tuesday night. And was going to bomb them on Thursday night at a level that was three times greater and they knew that.
I will bomb them. Now, that's with me as president. If you have a weak pathetic president, maybe that doesn't happen, but I can only do the job
that I have to do. I have a long time to go. I have almost three years, close to three years. It's -- time is going fast.
But our country's become -- we're the most respected country in the world. Those leaders today. They said, we used to laugh at you. Two years ago,
they've let -- same guys did laugh at the country. Now, they say, you're the most respected country anywhere in the world.
Militarily. Even military. Take a look at what happened and -- and look at -- look at what happened in so many different locations. Afghanistan, that
horrible retreat that these people made leaving equipment behind. They weren't under any pressure. You take your time.
[12:55:12]
You can get out. I was going to get out. We're going to get out with dignity and pride. Take a hundred percent of the equipment. I was even
taking the tint stamp. But then they got in and they just left. They left all the equipment. I may get all that equipment back.
Now here's the thing. More symbolic because it's a little old now, but we may get it all back. Afghanistan is kissing our ass. You know that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bomb Iran if they don't comply, but there's nothing enforceable in the deal itself. Is that correct?
TRUMP: Doesn't have to be? I let them know. I said, look, if you don't adhere to the agreement, I don't want to do that, but we're going to bomb
the hell out of you.
And I don't think that they're going to veer from the agreement. What else am I going to do? Am I going to say, I'm going to take you to court? Let me
take you to court. Let me just -- let me sue you.
No, we're going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement. I don't want them to. I want them to honor the agreement.
Again, the Strait's close up. Bad things can happen. You know, in war, terrible things happen. Like you mentioned, the question before about the
school gets hit. Other things get hit. Bad things happen in war. War is a nasty place.
I see it. I see it. I see it better than maybe anybody has ever seen it.
Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, President Trump. Oil prices are now plummeting. How do you see this agreement further affecting energy prices
in the U.S. and the U.S. economy in the long-term?
And secondly, Mr. President, how do you think Vice President J.D. Vance did on "The View" yesterday?
TRUMP: Well, first of all, thank you for the word plummeting because that's what's happening. Oil prices are plummeting. And that means oil prices are
going to come down.
You know, if you make doughnuts, you have a heating, you have a stove, and you have to buy the -- the heat. You need the gas or the electricity or
whatever you're using.
And when oil prices come down -- oil is the biggest thing. Oil is -- you get oil prices coming down. And they're going to come down and we're
hitting into threes now for gasoline and doesn't come down a lot lower.
So, I was in Iowa just before this started. I was saying to myself, I can't believe we're doing so well, but I have to go. And we have to put out this
fire in Iran because I don't want them using a nuclear weapon. They would have used a nuclear weapon. A hundred percent they would have used it.
The only question was, was it going to be that day or that week? They would have used a nuclear weapon. They were on the way and I said, we're going to
have to put out the fire.
And I said, you know, oil prices, so gasoline, we passed two gas stations in Iowa. I made a speech up there. The people are great. I won it by so
much. And I love the people, the farmers. And we passed two gas stations, one was $1.85. One was $1.91. You know, that's Iowa.
But it was -- I mean, California has all those crazy taxes that they put on, you know, California taxes. But the -- the oil was down to $2 to -- I'd
say between $2 and $2.50. And it was -- it was heading down further. And we were going to have a great run.
We took a little journey down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we bombed the hell out of them. And now, they can never have a
nuclear weapon.
Now, we had a disturbance. But I must say, it was much less than anybody thought. They all never went to $350 a barrel. It went to 115, 120. They
all never went anywhere near that.
And the other thing, I thought the stock market would go down 25 or 30 percent. The stock market, a week ago before we started this, was higher
than it was when we started, which tells you that we have a very resilient economy. We have the strongest economy we've ever had.
Now, the word affordability is a fake word made up by the Democrats. Here's where it's fake. Because they made it up. Because I inherited these prices.
And when I had my first news conference, first day, they started screaming affordability, the Democrats. "Affordability, affordability," they're
screaming.
I said, what's that all about? They -- they gave it to me. They gave it to me. It's affordability. And they used that word to affair, they will.
Well, they were the ones that created the affordability crisis. I'm the one that got it down. Remember, highest insurance rates in history, highest
rates for everything. Eggs. Remember eggs? They were four times more expensive than they were in my administration. And I got it down, Peter,
very quickly.
Our secretary did a good job of agriculture. Brooke, she did a great job with eggs and everything else. And now that the oil is coming down, you're
going to see everything follow.
Everything follows the cost of energy. And we're going to end up having the lowest energy anywhere in the world.
Please. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President (INAUDIBLE).
No. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
TRUMP: You're from ABC. You're fake --
END
