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Quest Means Business
Lecornu Resigns Less Than A Month After Becoming French P.M.; A Look At The Tangled Web That Is The A.I. Industry; French Markets Rattled By Political Instability; Donald Trump Speaks From Oval Office Amid Signing An Executive Order Authorizing The Construction Of An Access Road To The Ambler Mining District In Alaska. Aired 4-4:45p ET
Aired October 06, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:15]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall street, start of a new week together. The markets, well, it
is going to be a long and difficult week, but as you can see, we are down, not hugely throughout the course of the session and there is a slight bit
of a rally towards the end, and when the gentleman hits the gavel, trade will -- or stop pushing the button, sir. Hit the gavel. ZETA! Trading is
over.
We are down 63 points on the Dow. Now, those are the main markets and the events that you and I are talking about over the next hour.
The French government is plunged into chaos once again as President Macron's Prime Minister resigns only been in the job for weeks.
OpenAI is reshaping the chip industry one deal at a time. Now, it has a 10 percent stake in AMD.
And the U.S. government shutdown is just the latest setback in a tough year for tourism in America. I will speak to the interim head of the World
Tourism Council, WTTC.
We are live in New York. It is Monday, it is October the 6th -- it is October already. I am Richard Quest and I mean business.
Good evening.
We begin tonight with chaos once again as the French government falls. The Prime Minister has resigned barely four weeks into the job. Sebastien
Lecornu stepped down today, 24 hours after he named his government, and that's because it became clear his budget cuts were dead on arrival in
Parliament, which also did not approve of his selection of Ministers in his Cabinet.
When conservatives withdrew from the necessary coalition. Lecornu was left with no choice. He is President Macron's fifth Prime Minister in under two
years. Much of the public is outraged by President Macron's austerity plan. His position is more fragile than ever, as our correspondent in Paris,
Melissa Bell reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Another French Prime Minister steps down, this time after just 27 days in office
and only hours after naming his government, parts of which appeared unhappy from the start.
SEBASTIEN LECORNU, OUTGOING FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The very principle of building a compromise between political parties is to be
able to combine green lines and taken into account a certain number of red lines, but we cannot be at both extremes.
BELL (voice over): Sebastien Lecornu becomes the fourth French Prime Minister to fail to build a stable majority since the June 2024 dissolution
of Parliament. A staunch ally of President Emmanuel Macron, he took office after Francois Bayrou was ousted by lawmakers in September.
Before him, Michel Barnier had also lost the confidence of Parliament and much for the same reasons.
MICHEL BARNIER, FORMER FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We proposed a budget, a difficult budget where everything was difficult to
reduce our deficit. This deficit did not disappear by the magic of a no confidence vote.
BELL (voice over): After just three months in office, Barnier had been the shortest serving Prime Minister in the history of the Fifth Republic. Now,
he has been beaten by Lecornu, who served just days rather than months with the pressure on President Macron to call another parliamentary election
growing.
MARINE LE PEN, NATIONAL RALLY'S PARLIAMENTARY PARTY LEADER (through translator): I am calling on him to dissolve the National Assembly because
we've reached the end of the road and there is no solution, and therefore the only wise decision in these circumstances is to return to the polls and
for the French to give direction to the country.
BELL (on camera): Those calls from the far right growing all the more insistent that polls suggest that the party would do even better in a snap
election today than it did in 2024.
The problem for President Macron is that with this latest resignation, he is fast running out of any other options.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Now, OpenAI and the chip maker, AMD have struck a deal worth tens of billions of dollars. Shares of AMD closed up 20 -- well, 23 percent on the
agreement. It will supply OpenAI with up to six gigawatts of computing power, and it will give OpenAI a growing stake in its business.
This adds to the tangled web within the industry. Now, if we just take a look, I can show you exactly what we are talking about.
So far, you've got NVIDIA, which has agreed to invest in OpenAI. So you've got that relationship.
[16:05:02]
Now, of course, it also owns actually -- let's do this. You've got that -- push that button first and you've got that relationship. Now you've got
that relationship. So now if you add in this one as well, you end up with a sort of weird relationship where everybody, it seems, owns little bits of
everybody else.
But the core at the center of it all, NVIDIA, which seems be running the day.
Clare Duffy is in New York.
Explain the mess and the logic behind all these deals.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Richard, I mean, look, what OpenAI is essentially doing here with this AMD deal is hedging its bets. This is
so important for the company to have the computing power that it needs to continue to fuel its A.I. ambitions to advance and improve its A.I. models,
that NVIDIA is going to continue to be its main partner. It has agreed to build out ten gigawatts of data center capacity with NVIDIA technology, but
this is so important to the company that also wants to make sure that it has got six gigawatts of capacity from the number two player, AMD.
It wants to make sure that it has this computing power, in part because it is trying to build out this ecosystem of applications and tools to get more
people using ChatGPT and to make money from the ChatGPT technology, and also because unlike the Googles and the Microsofts of the world that
already have that ecosystem, OpenAI is betting on continuing to be the most powerful A.I. model maker, and to do that, it needs this computing
capacity.
QUEST: Okay, but if we go back to my sort of spaghetti chart and you'll see, so you've got this first deal of NVIDIA and A.I., which you've just
said is really the core of it all. You've then got this relationship between NVIDIA and Intel, which of course they've taken a stake.
Now, you've got hedging your bets with OpenAI and AMD. At what point does that become a conflict of interest such that everybody really nobody knows
what is happening?
DUFFY: I think it is a really good question, and I think this sort of intertwined nature of these relationships is fueling some of these concerns
that people have about a potential A.I. bubble that is waiting to burst here. You know, if one of these pieces of the puzzle starts to struggle,
you could be looking at a real problem.
But at the end of the day, I think you have NVIDIA in the most powerful pole position here. I don't think its necessarily worried about the fact
that its friend, OpenAI is going and forming this deal over here with AMD, because at the end of the day, all of these companies still need NVIDIA.
QUEST: Okay, so how -- I read a sort of one piece in my weekend reading that suggests essentially the U.S. market is now A.I. in a sense it is. It
is -- and I am not saying that's wrong, because of course A.I. is going to be at the forefront of the fifth, sixth, whatever it is Industrial
Revolution.
But the market, the U.S. market is essentially putting most of its eggs in that basket.
DUFFY: Yes, it is really interesting too, because OpenAI is still not profitable at this point. So much of these investment plans, whether it is
the ten gigawatts of computing capacity its going to be buying from NVIDIA or the six gigawatts of capacity it is buying from AMD, count on the fact
that this company is going to be able to continue raking in investment from, you know, investors get NVIDIA, you know, part of this, NVIDIA
investing $100 billion in OpenAI so that it can funnel that back into chip purchases.
But this is an unprofitable company that is making these massive commitments. At some point, you have to think that either it is going to
pay off because it is going to turn these sort of ChatGPT applications into strong enough revenue streams, or we run into a problem where it can't
necessarily keep up with these really significant and ambitious commitments that it is making.
QUEST: So you mean my 25 bucks a month to OpenAI is not leading them to the nirvana of profits?
DUFFY: Not when they are spending tens of billions of dollars to build out new data centers.
QUEST: And they dare not put the price up or who knows what will happen.
All right, Thank you, Clare.
Good to see you.
DUFFY: Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you.
QUEST: Now, as you and I continue tonight, a potential sea change at CBS News. It has a new outspoken and controversial boss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:11:58]
QUEST: IKEA which is owned by INGKA, the outgoing CEO, says his biggest legacy will be bringing IKEA into the future. I recently spoke to Jesper
Brodin in the C-suite in the sky, when he explained how IKEA furniture has been made more durable for second hand use. However, the chair that we
actually built, because I'd always said I've always wanted to build a piece of IKEA furniture with the CEO of IKEA to prove just how easy or difficult
it actually is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: I am having palpitations over this.
JESPER BRODIN, CEO, INGKA HOLDING: This is going to be a chair in a few moments.
QUEST: Just let's show it.
These are impossible to put together.
BRODIN: Absolutely incorrect and we shall prove it. Let's see.
QUEST: We have three implements.
BRODIN: Here we go. And you've got to be in charge of the assembly structure.
QUEST: Number one.
BRODIN: Yes. You know, can I tell you what's a good number one. Make sure we have all the screws. Okay?
QUEST: This is going to get embarrassing even before we've started.
BRODIN: Have you opened these ones?
QUEST: Its open. Yes it is open.
BRODIN: Yes, I would like to see them here.
QUEST: Oh no, no. They'll fall on the floor.
BRODIN: Okay, okay. Let's see, let's see.
QUEST: No, I mustn't argue. I must not argue with the CEO of IKEA who does actually know what he is doing.
BRODIN: We will see that in a moment. So we are going to start with these legs actually.
QUEST: Take the legs.
BRODIN: Yes. We take the legs.
QUEST: And we want the bit with the two holes at the bottom.
BRODIN: Right. So which way are they going to go.
QUEST: It goes -- yes, that bit. The prongs point away from the point -- the rounded bit.
BRODIN: Okay. Good. Here we are.
QUEST: Your reputation is on the line here.
BRODIN: Yes. I know. This is the risk we were taking, both you and I, I think, but particularly me.
QUEST: What do you think has been your biggest achievement in all of that time?
BRODIN: Well, I think to be honest, I think I've been leading two transformations. I think to be open to change and to be able to -- being a
legacy, strong legacy, to love the past, but also create the future.
QUEST: Number three, so now we've put these screws.
BRODIN: Now, we take the small ones. Yep. Right.
One-and-a-half years ago, we actually said in the aftermath of the pandemic, we decided to as we were coming out of pandemic, we saw a little
bit sluggish sales because people bought a lot of home furnishings during the pandemic, and we decided to actually reset after the inflation.
So we invested 2.1 billion euro in lowering prices, which actually made our last year's sales in money was flat, but the pieces and the customers grew,
incredibly.
QUEST: Right. Okay. So that's number four done.
BRODIN: So --
QUEST: Now we are on to number five -- oh, now come on. This is oh -- this is -- oh dear! This is really -- this is --
BRODIN: You're going to make it. It is probably going to slide into this one, right?
QUEST: What? Slide?
BRODIN: How about that?
QUEST: Oh I see, yes, it is sliding in there.
BRODIN: It is quite simple actually.
QUEST: No. Yes, there you go. There you go. So here we are.
How much is the reputation? You know, everybody loves IKEA stuff. And the quality level is good, but people still would like to see the -- sometimes,
just does it last? Does the furniture? Do you need to work on that more?
[16:15:14]
BRODIN: Well, we did actually, to be honest, back in 2000, I think '12 or '13, we took a good look at ourselves in the mirror and we had excellent
quality and we had some beauty spots, if I say like that. So, we did a total wash. But the interesting thing, the most interesting thing, Richard,
was our products weren't actually designed and engineered for a second hand.
So the first assembly works, but when you disassemble it and assemble it many times, it actually starts to crack.
QUEST: Oh, that! when you've built it.
BRODIN: So you had to actually redo all the engineering for a second hand.
QUEST: Right? So what would you prefer to do? Keep the obsolescence involved? In other words, once you've disassembled it, it is useless or not
as good or re-engineer so that second assembly is --
BRODIN: No, we made the decision those years way back, actually. We have to do it for second hand. So --
QUEST: All right.
BRODIN: All right, time has come to do the last moment here and we are so far so good and here we are.
QUEST: When you design these things, it is really clever how you actually design it, so --
BRODIN: You know, it is a very interesting design formula. It is called a democratic design. It is five things -- it is form, function quality,
sustainability, and then the most tricky one of all, low price.
So you need to do all of this and still make sure that it is -- and that is why engineering is so important.
QUEST: How often does your sustainability come into conflict with low price?
BRODIN: Today, honestly.
QUEST: Yes.
BRODIN: Sustainability is one of the biggest drivers for us to get cost and price down and when you look at it, it is not that difficult, right? If you
manage to make the flatpack flatter, you will save cost. If you find a way to save material, it will save cost. If you're building circular flows, you
save cost.
If you have renewable energy in your production, in your transport, you will save cost. So again, for us today, actually sustainability is one of
the big business driver.
Here we are. Beautiful, democratic design with a flexibility in it. Now you have to try it and see if you like it.
QUEST: All right. It is classic, isn't it?
BRODIN: It is. It actually has the flexibility as well. So it is built for comfort. It should be safe.
QUEST: What could possibly go wrong?
BRODIN: Nothing! We made it. So thank you so much.
QUEST: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Not only did we make it, but it was signed by the CEO and as you can see, it is still standing now, and I can even sit on it now.
This is -- this is the chair. As you can see, it is holding good.
Now back to our top story that we are talking about.
Investors sold French debt and equities after the resignation of the Prime Minister. Sebastien Lecornu. The ten-year yield rose nearly six basis
points. Rating agencies have warned that France could be downgraded further if it doesn't get its house in order.
Fitch dropped France into the single category. As for French stocks, take a look, CAC 40 finished 1.3 percent lower.
Silvia Ardagna is the head of European Economics Research at Barclays, joins me from London.
Thank you for joining us.
So what is the market's fundamental fear now with France and the French economy.
SILVIA ARDAGNA, HEAD OF EUROPEAN ECONOMICS RESEARCH AT BARCLAYS: Hello and thanks for having me. Well, the fundamental worst case scenario for the
market is the political instability. So one, if France were to have new legislative elections, the market will continue to price that in a negative
way. But I think the worst case scenario is one in which President Macron would resign, and so also early presidential election would occur.
Even in the case of legislative election, obviously, political instability means uncertainty, means even lower growth than the already lackluster one
that France is experiencing.
QUEST: You see the point of just listening to what you were saying then, the point about this is there are no good options. Whatever happens is
going to be tumultuous, the market is going to be very volatile, would you agree?
ARDAGNA: Yes. I agree that the market will remain volatile. We know that President Macron asked the outgoing P.M. to try even one more to find an
agreement within the parties for a government and for a budget. If that doesn't happen and there will be election, yes, there will be a period of
volatility and then we will see what Parliament and what elections will deliver.
QUEST: What do you think the market -- does the market -- I know that's like saying, you know, the market is an amorphous group of people, but is
there a favored route? Would they prefer new elections? Would they prefer Macron's resignation?
[16:20:08]
What's the market's preferred solution?
ARDAGNA: I think for the short term, the markets would like to see a government in place that implements even a minimal fiscal consolidation
that could be politically viable and basically reduces the deficit to GDP ratio in an environment in which growth will go on.
I mean, if that's not possible without election, the market would rather prefer legislative election, I think without presidential elections.
QUEST: Is there any risk that France, the premier on French debt, goes much higher and essentially investors refuse to fund the bonds? We are a long
way off that, I get that idea. You know, somebody will always lend you money at a price eventually. But could we get to a situation where that
price becomes untenable?
ARDAGNA: Again, that's absolutely not our baseline case. Fiscal crisis, as you suggested happened very fast and what we think is that it would have to
be a combination of serious political concerns and instabilities and a government -- a new government and a new President in place that refuses to
address the fiscal fundamental problems that France has.
QUEST: Silvia, I am grateful. Thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate it. Thank you very much indeed.
We will take a short break. We will have more when we will talk about the new changes at the top of CBS News, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: It was reported by AXIOS over the weekend that you had a call with Prime Minister Netanyahu
where you told him to stop being so negative and to take the win when it came to Hamas' response to that? Is that true?
TRUMP: No, it is not true. He has been very positive. He has been very positive on the deal. Everybody is. I think every nation is.
[16:25:17]
We have just about every nation working on this deal and trying to get it done. Something that you could say 3,000 years, if you look at it in
certain ways, or you could say centuries, but this is a deal that incredibly, everyone just came together. They all came together. No, Israel
has been great. They've all been good, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: And in the negotiations, do you have any red lines in terms of Hamas disarming and whatnot, or are there are --
TRUMP: No, I have red lines. If certain things aren't met, we are not going to do it. But I think we are doing very well and I think Hamas has been
agreeing to things that are very important.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: On the government shutdown, Mr. President, if the vote today fails in the Senate, will that trigger layoffs?
TRUMP: It could, at some point it will, and the democrats are the ones that started this. And if you think about it, it is about health care to a large
extent. It is about -- we want great health care for people. We don't want to give the money away to other people that come pouring into our country
and they have already poured it because nobody is coming into our country, now we have the border totally stopped.
In fact, numbers we just announced again, we are at another zero, so we have zero for four months in a row, zero people coming into our country
illegally. That's a pretty good number. I am not sure even I can believe that, Doug, if you want to know the truth. Zero. We went from millions of
people to zero, but it is pretty close to that number.
And we -- the way you stop them is not to give away, not to announce that you're giving everybody free health care, free this and that. But what that
does is it affects the American people because the American people are unable to get good health care.
Obamacare has been a wreck, as you know. And to do that, we have to keep it propped up and do the best you can with it. It is a mess.
But things are -- a lot of things are going on in that, you know, we talk about Hamas and we talk about negotiations that we have going on right now.
We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things.
REPORTER: What kind of good things?
TRUMP: And I am talking about good things with regard to health care.
REPORTER: Are you speaking with Democratic leaders?
TRUMP: I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that. But we are speaking with the Democrats and some very good things could happen with
respect to health care.
REPORTER: Would you make a deal with them on the ACA subsidies?
TRUMP: If we made the right deal, I would make a deal, sure.
I mean, you have right now subsidies. You have subsidies. That's the problem with Obamacare. The subsidies are so much -- it is billions and
billions of dollars that is being wasted and we can have a much better health care than we have right now.
And we are talking to them. I mean, I am not saying that's going to happen because this has also been going on, not for 3,000 years, but it has been
going on for a long time. But yes, we are talking to the Democrats.
REPORTER: Any chance to take to make a deal with them?
TRUMP: I'd like to see a deal made for great health care. Yes, I want to see great health -- I am a Republican, but I want to see health care much
more so than the Democrats.
REPORTER: -- on all of this, as you know, the American people are experiencing a lot of pain with any kind of government shutdown. And while
you're dealing with Democrats and of course, Republicans are standing their ground. What is your message to the American people who may encounter some
of this pain and despair? How do you give them --
TRUMP: Well, up until now, there hasn't been a great a great deal of pain. There could be a great deal of pain. But up until now, there hasn't been.
I will say this. Just hang in there, because I think a lot of good things are going to happen. That's all I can say. I mean, I think a lot of good
things could happen, and that could also pertain to health care.
REPORTER: Mr. President, we have seen a surge in attacks on ICE agents across the country, including the shooting in Dallas and over the weekend
in Chicago, we saw ten cars boxing in on ICE agents and another one ramming into an ICE vehicle.
TRUMP: Yes.
REPORTER: Secretary Noem is saying that some of these attackers are actually organized and they're planning to kill and ambush these officers.
TRUMP: Sure. Yes.
REPORTER: What are the consequences for --
TRUMP: Very severe. We are going to have very severe -- we are going to find out who is going after our federal agents.
So when you look at Chicago, they've had probably 50 murders in the last six or seven months, eight months. Many, many people shot like 30, 40, 50
people shot -- didn't die, but they've been shot. It is like a war zone, and then I listened to the governor and the mayor get up and say how they
have it under control. They don't.
It is probably worse than almost any city in the world. You can go to Afghanistan, you can go to a lot of different places and they probably
marvel at how much crime we have. Then you go to Memphis, where we are right now.
Now, it is -- you had it just like in Washington.
Washington, D.C. right now, you people know better than I do because you have to live right inside, and so many of the press have come to me and
they've said, I can't believe it. It has changed so much.
We have a safe city in Washington. Memphis will very soon have a safe city. Chicago can be a very, very safe. It is going to be very safe. But Chicago
is going to be very safe.
[16:30:08]
And you say, why is it that a governor wouldn't accept free help from regardless? I mean, whether it is National Guard or the military or
anybody?
I mean, if women raped and beaten and knocked to hell, and the same with men where they're being shot all over the place in large numbers.
I mean, we had a week in Chicago where 11 people were murdered and 38 people were shot. And then we have a governor get up and say, oh, it is
safe. We can handle it.
He can't handle it. He is an incompetent guy. That's why they threw him out of the family business. They threw him out. I knew the family business very
well, and they threw him out. And now he is a governor and he should say we would love to have a safer place. Chicago is a great city, potentially.
You know, I told you, the head of the Union Pacific Railroad said, sir, save Chicago, it's a great city. It's going to be lost if you don't do it.
We have no choice but to do this.
And when judges give us rulings that, you know, you don't have to do it. Portland is on fire. Portland's been on fire for years, and not so much
saving it. We have to save something else. Because I think that's all insurrection. I really think that's really criminal insurrection.
So, I appreciate the question, these are unsafe places. We're going to make them safe. So, you see what's going on in Memphis. Not pretty, but you know
what, we're doing a pretty job, because it's going to be a very safe place in a little while.
And the people of Memphis are so happy that we're there, and the people of Chicago, so you have Black women with MAGA hats on in Chicago, all over the
place. They want the guard to come in, or they don't care who comes in. They just want to be safe, and they really don't care.
You know, there was one woman, and she was great today. She said, you know what, I don't care if it's a National Guard, the Army, the Marines, the Air
Force. I don't care who comes in, as long as we're safe, and that's the way most of the public feels.
We're going to make Chicago really great again, and we're going to stop this crime, then we're going to go to another one, and we're going to go
city by city. We're going to have safe cities.
And it was so great that we started with our nation's capital, one of the worst. I mean, so many people -- every week, somebody was killed. They come
from Iowa. They come from Indiana. They want to see the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial. They want to see something. And they get shot. And
you'd call their parents, I'm sorry, but your son is dead. And they go, what do you mean he's dead? Came to Washington, D.C., not anymore. That's
not happening anymore. We have a safe place. We have a safe capital. It's as safe as we have probably almost just about in the country.
And if you look back six months ago, seven months ago, this was a death trap. You look back during the Biden, I mean, what they did, how badly they
manage things.
And almost all of these cities, most of these cities are Democrat run, and we don't care, Democrat, Republican, we're going to make them safe. So, we
have to save Chicago. It's very important, and you can't have a governor getting up and saying it's good when 11 people were shot over a weekend.
What? Well, I'd do it if it was necessary. So far, it hasn't been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact
it, I didn't -- I'd do that.
If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure I'd do that. I mean, I want to make sure
that people aren't killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe and it's turning out, and we started with D.C., it's been so successful.
Think of it, people wouldn't go to restaurants. The restaurants were closing. We were losing a lot of restaurants, as you all know, and now
restaurants are opening and they're thriving.
And I went two weeks ago, and it was great. I'm going to go again. I felt very safe, very safe. Forgetting about guards and Secret Service, I would
have gone. It would have been very safe. D.C. is a great -- and look at the cleanliness of D.C. Look at how it's clean. You don't have tents all over
the place. We had parks where you couldn't even walk through the park. You had people from tents. And there were violent people. Some of these people
were violent people.
We have a great safe capital again. And if you look at it, in six months from now, it'll be the most beautiful anywhere in the world. It's being
cleaned. The graffiti is all gone now. The tents are all gone. It's -- we have a capital that you can be proud of but it'll only get better with
time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, October 7th, the two-year anniversary of the regional Israeli attack. You expect a Gaza deal tomorrow, or any sort
of --
TRUMP: I think we're going to have it soon. I think we're going to have a deal. Look, I it's a hard thing for me to say that when for years and
years, they've been trying to have a deal with Gaza.
[16:35:08]
But I mean literally for centuries, OK, if you really think about it, but we're going to have a Gaza deal, I'm pretty sure, yes.
Well, I'm the one that got the hostages back. Remember that, you know? I'm the one that -- yes, I got them back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israeli citizens are celebrating what you've accomplished in this deal, should it come through, there will be a lot of
celebration on the streets of Israel the hostages' families. Have they been in contact with you with regard to this deal with that --
TRUMP: Yes, they're so -- they're so happy about it, it's like they can't breathe. One said, I can't breathe.
You know, it's very sad, because you have hostages and you have people that are no longer living. But the parents, and I've said this too many times,
the parents want the bodies of their boy back. The bodies of, you know, their loved one back.
In most cases, they're young men and they're dead, and there's probably 32 or so about that number. Nobody knows exactly what the number is. They want
that body back, as much as if their son were alive.
And I've been with them. You know, many have come to the White House, to the Oval Office. I've been with many of the people that I got released. We
have a fantastic group working on it. Steve Witkoff has been amazing. Jared, I have Jared. I took Jared out because Jared is a very -- you don't
find anybody more capable. And we have -- we have the a plus team working on it. I think we're -- I think we've made tremendous progress.
And yes, the people of Israel, the people of Israel want it to happen, but the people related to hostages. I mean, you see in Israel, tens of
thousands of people, they really want the hostages back, and they really want things to end.
And I think Hamas now has been -- all I can say is, they've been fine. They've been fine. I hope it's going to continue that way. I think it will.
I really think we're going to have a deal.
We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it will be a lasting deal. We want to have peace. This is beyond Gaza. Gaza is a big deal, but
this is -- this is really peace in the Middle East.
And the amazing thing is, we have every Arab country, every Muslim country, we have every country surrounding they all want -- I spoke with President
Erdogan of Turkey. He's fantastic. He's been pushing very hard. He's a very powerful guy, and he's been pushing very, very hard to get this deal done.
And Hamas has a lot of respect for him. They have a lot of respect for Qatar. They have a lot of respect for UAE and Saudi Arabia. We have --
everybody is on our side to get this deal done. There's never been anything like it. Nobody's ever seen it. There's always been like 80 percent of them
don't want something done.
I think virtually, we even had a signal -- a very strong signal, as you know, from Iran, they'd like to see this done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Abbott offered up the Texas National Guard to guard you. Have you had any other conversations with other red state
governors?
TRUMP: Yes, they're willing to offer. Every one of them is willing to offer whatever we need. We thank Governor Abbott of Texas. Every one of the red
state as you call them, red state governors, is willing to give whatever we need because they want our agents protected.
You know, these ICE agents have a tough job. They have to go in and get in many cases, stone cold criminals, hardened criminals, long time criminals.
And every essentially Republican governor has offered up whatever we need, and some Democratic governors also. Daniel (PH)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you. Quick question on the subject of the order. The Biden administration previously, speaking, they shut down
Alaska for business. You reversed that. Reversed it on day one, you opened it up, going after all the critical minerals. This mission of yours.
Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright to boost our own independent production of critical minerals. (INAUDIBLE) How important that is over the next four
years, sir?
TRUMP: Well, it's very necessary. You know, in the past, we were able to go to other countries, buy whatever we want, but all of a sudden, if those
countries are hostile, and by the way, China hasn't been, we've made deals with China. You know, they approved the TikTok deal. Everyone said you'd
never get the TikTok deal approved. They approved it.
And we have great people buying it, American big, strong American companies are buying it, the most prestigious companies there are, actually, and
they're going to make sure everything's good.
But President Xi was great. He approved it. So, I'm not saying hostile, but it's good to have our own minerals. And you know, we create a tremendous
value by creating a road. We build a road that only we can do, because we have the rights to do it, number one, and we have the power to do it.
[16:40:02]
And so, we build a road that's over 200 miles long through a very beautiful area of the world. Actually, it's incredible, when you look at it, it's
incredible, but a rough area from the standpoint of building.
So, we get a road done, and with that, we unleash billions and billions of dollars of wealth. It's pretty amazing when you think of it.
And it's wealth that we need if we're going to be the number one country. You know, we're number one now with A.I. you probably read. Well, we're
beating everybody with A.I. levels that nobody ever thought even possible, and one of the reasons we are is because of energy.
So, our grid is old and tired, like most grids are, they get old with time. You know, the older you are, the older the grid gets, right? But I've
allowed the people building A.I. or other plants, other types of plants, but A.I. in particular, because they need so much electricity, I've allowed
them to build their own power, and it's been amazing.
They're building massive plants, and with the plant, they're building their own electricity. They've become a utility, in a sense. I said, maybe you'll
do better with the utility than you do with the A.I., I don't know, but we're letting them build their own electricity.
So, we don't have to worry about the grid, we don't have to worry about anything, and they're going to build it in such a way that if they have
excess capacity, they're going to put it back into the grid. It's pretty amazing.
So, when they build we're giving them permits to build their own electric power plants, and it's incredible when you see what they're doing. And
because of that and other things that we're doing, we're leading every country, nobody's even close to us with A.I. and A.I. seems to be the big
thing. I don't know. I can't tell you that. There are a lot of people building and a lot of people are have high stock prices because of A.I.
So, a lot of people think it's great stuff, and I think it's great stuff. I look at it, it's amazing what it can do in terms of medical in terms of
medical costs, in terms of knowledge, it's basically information.
QUEST: President Trump talking on a variety of issues just there about A.I., we also heard him talking about Gaza, got him talking about the
shutdown, a variety of nothing particularly new, as far as I can see coming out of it at the moment, but around Robin on events that he has been
talking about.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, I'm Richard Quest in New York, whatever you're up to, you know the answer, I hope it's profitable. "CONNECTING
AFRICA" is next.
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(CONNECTING AFRICA)
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