[0:00]That meeting with President Donald Trump and the Crown Prince of Bahrain just started. Let's listen into what they're saying. >> Uh most perfect military maneuver that anybody's seen probably in 50 years,
[0:11]which took place a few weeks ago and Iran knocked out their entire potential nuclear capacity. And it was obliterated. You know, they I
[0:22]used that term. They said, "Well, maybe that's too much." I said, "No." Turned out it was more than obliterated. They can't go back. and uh we're just really uh going to talk about some things
[0:33]including trade. We're going to be discussing trade. We do a lot of trading with Bahrain and uh we're going to have lunch after this but we'll take some questions. But first, I'd like to ask uh
[0:45]the crown prince to say a couple of words. And uh he's uh he also has a father who's living and well and doing fantastically as I understand it. He is
[0:55]>> and somebody who's respected all over the Middle East and all over the world. And thank you very much for being here. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh thank you one and all. Uh it is indeed a great honor to be here on this fine morning uh
[1:07]to put into action uh the relationship that exists between our two countries. We will be discussing security issues. We'll be discussing trade and investment
[1:18]which is very important. >> We're very happy to be announcing 17 billion worth of deals uh that are uh coming to the United States. And this is real. This isn't >> it's real money.
[1:30]>> These aren't fake deals. These are real deals. They don't have to borrow the money. >> We don't have to borrow it. It's coming in and it only builds upon a legacy that we're very proud of. Uh we have had a
[1:41]relationship uh in the civil side of between our two countries since 1893 and formerly since 1948. So may it long continue and we look forward to many
[1:52]many more years of productive partnership. Thank you, Mr. President. >> We will have that. >> You'll honor us. >> We will have that indeed. many good years and I'd say right now is is your top year and I we appreciate the
[2:02]investment. It's a great we uh left as you know Saudi Arabia we were just there in Saudi Arabia and we
[2:11]Qar was so great is great we had uh UAE and we had a couple of other visits but all great places and we left with $5.1
[2:20]trillion of investment and uh they all want to be investing in the United States too. We have I think I think we have over $16 trillion of
[2:30]investment coming in which is a record and we're only a little bit into the year and let's say the first two months I sort of took it easy because we had to
[2:41]fix up the Oval Office. I devote my time to fixing it up but no we had to fix up our country. So we have I think everyone is saying we have the hottest country now anywhere in the world. We were dead
[2:52]a year ago. We are a dead country and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world and uh it's a great honor to have you here. >> Thank you, Mr. President.
[3:01]>> Uh any questions on any comments on the developments in Syria at the moment? >> Well, I can comment. I think I'll ask Marco to say a few words on Syria. >> Yeah, it's complicated. Obviously, these
[3:12]uh these are historic longtime rivalries between different groups in the south west of Syria, Bedwins, uh the Drews community, and it led to an unfortunate situation um and a misunderstanding it
[3:24]looks like between the Israeli side and the Syrian side. So, we've been engaged with them all morning long um and all night long with both sides. And we think uh we're on our way towards a a real
[3:35]deescalation and then hopefully get back on track uh in helping Syria build a country and and arriving at a at a situation there in the Middle East is far more stable. So in the next few hours, we hope to see some some real
[3:46]progress to end what you've been seeing over the last couple hours. >> Mr. President, Mr. President, Jerome Powell, do you have plans uh or if you're back considering firing Jerome
[3:57]Powell? Um and what's your justification if if you're thinking about this to do this? He's always been too late, hence his nickname, too late. Uh he should have cut interest rates a long time ago.
[4:08]Europe has cut him 10 times in the short period of time, and we cut him none. The only time he cut him was just before the election to try and help Kamala or
[4:18]Biden, whoever the hell it was, because nobody really knew. Uh obviously, that didn't work, but he tried to cut him for the Democrats, Kamla. And uh
[4:30]how did that work out? You'll tell me. It didn't work out too well, did it? But he's he's uh I think he does a terrible job. He's costing us a lot of money and we fight through it. It's it's almost
[4:41]the country's become so successful that it doesn't have a big impact, but it does hurt people wanting to get a mortgage. Uh people want to buy a house.
[4:51]He's a terrible he's a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised, frankly, that uh Biden put him in and extended him, but uh they
[5:03]did. So, no, we're not planning on doing anything. We're very concerned. He's doing a little renovation for 2.5 billion of the Fed
[5:12]>> uh building building a a renovation and they have a close to $900 million cost overrun and it's a shame. But the biggest cost overrun is the cost overrun for interest
[5:24]rates because we should be paying three points lower and we would save a trillion dollars a year in interest if that were the case. And all it is is the stroke of a pen. And that goes for his
[5:34]board too because his board is not doing the job because they should try and reign this guy in. So he's doing a lousy job. But no, I'm not talking about that. we get fortunately we get to make a
[5:44]change in the next what eight months or so and we'll pick somebody that's good and we'll pick somebody I just want a fair job. We want to see lower interest
[5:54]rates. Our country deserves it. Uh we're making a lot of money. We're doing great as a country. We have no inflation. Uh record stock market, record business, record every everything's a record now.
[6:06]We had the worst inflation in history uh under Biden and now we have almost no inflation. We've done a great job and we should have the interest rates cut.
[6:18]>> So you're saying the other day um that Scott Besson you're so happy with him at at Treasury that you know he's not your top option to replace Trump whenever that may be whenever you decide what you want to do with him. Um
[6:28]>> is Scott's doing a very good job. I'm very happy with >> Is Kevin top your list? Kevin, somebody would consider you. Kevin is fantastic, too. Uh, we have a lot of good people
[6:39]with that job. It's not a tough job to be honest. Uh, assuming you're smart, it's not a tough job. If you're a dummy, then I guess it's a tough job. But, uh,
[6:50]it might be one of the easiest jobs I've ever seen. And now on top of it, he's building a close to $3 billion little nest egg for himself. He's, uh, he's he's not doing the right job. We should
[7:01]be saving a trillion dollars a year in interest. You know, when he talks about cost, we should be saving, think of it, a trillion dollars a year. Add that with the tariffs and everything else. But he just doesn't want he's a he's a
[7:13]knucklehead, but we'll we'll see how that we'll see. He's listening to this. That's a strange conversation, but you know, we like to say it like it is. Uh
[7:24]but we have a lot of people that want that job very badly. And uh I'm only interested in lowinterest people frankly because you don't need I know. So they
[7:35]had a you know the 71 different economists and people that they experts that they picked about a month ago. I was the only one along with one person
[7:45]from maybe the Wharton School of Finance. The two of us got it right. 69 people including Powell got it wrong. And he wants to hire thousands of new
[7:56]people to help him. uh decide where we're going in the f. It only takes one good mind. It doesn't take 5,000 good minds. So, they're expanding the Fed. It's the dumbest
[8:07]thing I've heard of, but you know, it's very autonomous. >> Just to follow up on that, sir, is there are you completely ruling out the idea
[8:17]of firing Jerome Powell? >> I I don't rule out anything, but I think it's highly unlikely unless he has to leave for fraud. I mean, it's possible
[8:27]there's fraud involved with the 2.5 2.7 billion renovation. This is a renovation. How do you spend $2.7 billion?
[8:38]Uh, and he didn't have proper clearance, etc., etc. So, you know, that's going on. So, you know, there could be something to that, but I think he's not doing a good job. He's got a very easy job to do. You know what he has to do?
[8:49]Lower interest rates. a letter. Have you drafted a letter to say pal? If you decide that you are going to fire him, have you drafted a letter? >> I haven't drafted a letter. >> So, you didn't show a letter to
[9:01]Republican lawmakers last night? >> No. I talked about the concept of firing him. I said, "What do you think?" Almost every one of them said I should, but uh
[9:10]I'm more conservative than they are. >> No, we did. We joked about it. In fact, uh we had 11 of the 12 people here
[9:21]yesterday for a very big bill having to do with crypto, etc., and and other things. And we all of the votes are going with us. Every single vote, but
[9:32]during the conversation when we were talking about it, I I asked, "What would you do about that?" They all said we'd fire him. >> Mr. President, >> Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, >> thank you for taking the question, sir. You were in Pennsylvania yesterday. You
[9:44]unveiled $92 billion worth of investments. One of those jumped out though, $15 billion in Homer City to build the largest national power plant ever. I was at the rally where you told
[9:55]Homer City residents that you would not forget them when the biggest coal plant in Pennsylvania closed down. Delivered for them yesterday. What message do you have to those res? >> Well, I'm happy. Homer City, um, I was
[10:06]there and I said, I'm going to produce something. I don't know what because they had shut down this massive coal plant, one of the biggest in the country. And it was just purchased by the gentleman that you met yesterday.
[10:18]Very substantial man. I don't know if he's as maybe not as substantial as you. I'm not sure, >> but he's pretty substantial. You know who I'm talking about.
[10:27]>> And uh they're going to spend billions of dollars on rebuilding it. And it's going to be the largest plant of its kind in the in the world. I believe
[10:37]actually in the world and it's going to be great. So we really fulfilled that promise to Homer City, but it's to Pennsylvania basically. We we I won Pennsylvania
[10:47]and very conclusively won Pennsylvania. So we I I owe them a big debt of gratitude. But thank you for bringing that up. We raised uh 92, it's actually
[10:57]going over a hundred so it'll be over a hundred billion dollars to be invested in Pennsylvania. It's Pennsylvania Energy Project. So we had everybody was
[11:07]there. Larry Frink was there. I mean everybody was there and done done a great job. The senator did a great job and uh we were very proud. That was a great meeting yesterday. Thank you very much.
[11:19]>> Mr. Mr. President for for actually for each of you. So, um, uh, for the crown prince, um, you, uh, are you planning on
[11:28]taking any of the Patriot, uh, missiles that you're going to receive from the United States and divert those to help Ukraine? >> We have no current plans as we have an operational requirement inside Bahrain
[11:40]to keep them there. Okay. >> For the present time, >> he's got plenty of them, too. >> And, Mr. President, aren't the fentanyl bill? >> They're wonderful. They're wonderful pieces of kit. >> They work very well.
[11:50]>> American technology is the best. Yep. >> And on the Sentinel building, >> that's maybe the most important part of this. He has his choice of everything and we make the best military equipment
[12:01]by far in the world. There's nothing close, right? >> Far not. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> And on the fentanel bill that you're signing today, do you hope that that's going to restart law enforcement cooperation with China on getting the fentanyl?
[12:13]>> Yeah, I think China's been helping out. I mean, it's been it's been a terrible situation for many years with fentanyl, but since I came here, we're talking to
[12:22]them and they're making uh big steps. They're also, as you know, being penalized. You know that, right? They're being penalized with tariffs because of
[12:31]the fent. But uh they want to do something. We'll see what happens. >> Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, I know.
[12:42]>> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, an American from Tampa was uh beaten to death. He was killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. His family has been calling on you to help prosecute his
[12:53]killers. Are you going to do that? An American from Tampa. >> Yeah. Your first uh sentence is really Go ahead. >> An American citizen from Tampa, Florida
[13:03]has been killed in the West Bank. His family has been asking on you to prosecute him. Are you going to help finding his >> Yeah. Well, so first of all, have you seen yesterday, Ambassador Huckabe has asked the Israelis to conduct an
[13:15]investigation. We want to get all the information about who was involved. We protect all American citizens anywhere in the world, especially if they're unjustly murdered or killed. So, we'll we're gathering more information, but I I hope you saw yesterday Ambassador
[13:27]Huckabe in Israel asked the Israelis authorities to produce an investigation and concrete information about who was responsible for for his murder. >> They're reporting that tomorrow. We have a meeting on it. They're going to be
[13:38]reporting that to me. Yeah, please. Um, do you think that the Gulf area now is more secure and do you believe that a negotiation with Iran is necessary at this stage?
[13:49]>> Well, I definitely believe that the uh volatility of the situation has been reduced and uh we didn't know where it was going to go on the Sunday. We were very glad
[14:00]when we found out on the Monday. Let me put it that way. And should the Iranians want to negotiate, I believe the ball's in their court. Uh that is the true reality of where we stand today. They
[14:10]are the ones that stand to benefit from a negotiation >> and they do they want to negotiate. Uh they want to negotiate badly.
[14:20]We're in no rush because you know we said we could have made a deal. They should have made a deal and then we bombed the hell out of there various
[14:30]places. We're we're in no rush but if they want to negotiate we're here. >> Mr. President, Mr. Mr President, I know you want to move past all this intrigue over the Epstein files, but I do want to ask you to clarify something you said
[14:41]this morning. You said this was all a hoax. Has your attorney general told you this was a hoax? What evidence have you seen? >> It's not the attorney general. No, I know it's a hoax. It's started by Democrats. It's been run by the
[14:51]Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Ray and these characters and Comey before him. And uh it's a bad group. It started actually look at the Steel Dossier that turned out to be a
[15:02]total hoax. the 51 agents, the intelligence so-called intelligence agents. It was a hoax. Uh it's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats. And some stupid Republicans
[15:14]and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats work. Uh the Democrats are good for nothing other than these. They're bad for policy. Uh they're bad
[15:26]for picking candidates that can get elected. Like in uh New York, we have a communist running. He may get elected too actually, but he's going to he'll
[15:35]destroy the city. Uh, no, no, it's I call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort. Instead of talking about the great achievements, we've had a great gentleman uh yesterday, as you
[15:47]know, went on CNBC and he made the statement that Trump may go down as the greatest president of all in the United States. And instead of talking about the things we've achieved, we've had
[15:57]tremendous achievement. They're wasting their time with uh a guy who obviously had some very serious problems who died
[16:07]three, four years ago. Uh I'd rather talk about the success we have with the economy, the best we've ever had, and all of the things we've done, including in the Middle East. I mean, you see it.
[16:18]Instead, they want to talk about the Epstein hooks. And the sad part is it's people that are really doing the Democrats work. They're stupid people.
[16:28]Yeah, go ahead. [Music] >> Mr. President, there's lots of reports coming into uh this meeting that you planned on firing Fed chair J Pal's reaction. Is that >> right? Those are reports, but they're not true.
[16:40]>> So, what would be useful to know? Are are you committed to picking someone from the outside? Are you going to inter interview individuals that >> so many people that want that job? I have people that I've known a long time.
[16:50]They're calling me begging for the job. Uh you know what you need there? smart person with common sense, but you need a very smart person for that job. I think it's one of the easiest jobs in
[17:01]government. You show up once a month and you make a statement about where the economy is going and we're going to raise or lower interest rates. It's probably the easiest job I've ever seen. That's why I'm trying to figure why does
[17:12]he want to expand and add more people? He's going to add more economists to tell him what to do. But the economist I was right. All the economists were wrong. They admitted it. They admitted
[17:23]it this morning. Quiet. President, >> Mr. President, on your own, you mentioned fraud in an earlier answer. Are you saying you want to investigate the Fed chair for fraud related to this renovation?
[17:34]>> Well, I think he's already under investigation. He spent uh far more money than he was supposed to on rebuilding. I didn't see him as being the kind of guy that would want to have
[17:44]parks, rooftop parks, and everything else on top of buildings. But, uh, who wants to spend that money for the Fed? the Fed is supposed to sit there and say where interest rates are going and a
[17:55]couple of other very easy things to do and he spent $2 and a half billion dollars. I think he's, you know, I think he's got some problems for Mr.
[18:07]>> Thank you, sir. You also reported a sur a monthly surplus in the month of June 27 billion. >> Ton of money uh with these new tariff rates coming into effect on August 1st,
[18:17]we're going to be bringing in even more tariff revenue specifically. How much revenue do you think we can consistently bring in from these tariffs? And how big of a gamecher is this? Not only for the economy, but also fiscal responsibility?
[18:28]>> Well, we're going to be bringing in already we've brought in over a hundred billion dollars. We'll be bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars. And the tariffs really haven't kicked in that
[18:39]much other than automobiles and steel. Uh August 1st is a big day. August 1st is when very substantial money comes
[18:48]into our country. Uh we've made deals with a lot of great places but uh we had one yesterday you know that was announced we have another one coming up
[18:58]maybe with India I don't know we're in negotiation when I send out a letter that's a deal in other words that's a deal they don't want to ever say that oh how many deals have you made the best
[19:09]deal we can make is to send out a letter and the letter says that you'll pay 30% 35% 25% 20% in one case 50% Brazil
[19:20]And because they're what they're doing to their former president is disgraceful. I know the former president. Uh he fought like hell for the people of Brazil. That I can tell
[19:30]you. And I I believe he's an honest man. I think what they're doing to him is terrible. So uh yeah, we have some uh we have some pretty good deals to announce,
[19:40]but every time we send out a letter, that's a deal. The big one really is going to be on the 150 countries that we're really not negotiating with and they're smaller. We don't do much
[19:51]business with them because you have a lot of countries. You have over 200 countries. A lot of people don't know this, but but we'll have a you know well over 150 countries that we're just going
[20:02]to send a uh a notice of payment out and the notice of payment is going to say what the tariff and we're it's all going to be the same for everyone for that
[20:12]group. Uh they don't you know it's not they're not big countries and they don't do that much business. is not like the ones that we've agreed with like China
[20:22]uh like uh Japan where we're negotiating with them but I think probably we'll live by the letter with Japan uh we're very close to a deal with India where they open it up Indonesia
[20:33]yesterday was uh it wasn't an open country now it is we and they they have tremendous copper quality copper and probably the most copper and we made a
[20:45]deal with Indonesia we pay no tariff zero and we have total access to trade. That's a phenomenal deal for our companies. Uh and we've agreed with them
[20:56]as you know on 19%. They pay 19%. And it's a good deal for them and it's a good deal for us. So in that case, but we have a number of them coming up. But
[21:06]overall, uh we're doing well and we're we're taking in a lot of money. A lot of money. We have the number one, you know, we have the most oil of any country in the world, even more than them, which is
[21:17]hard to find. >> But we have a little larger piece of land, right? We >> do, sir. >> But, uh, we have, >> we're number one in the world in oil. And we're drilling. And today, it hit
[21:28]$64 a barrel, which is great. And that'll help stop wars. Actually, you want to know the truth? It's going to help stop wars. And we hope to get it
[21:39]down a little bit more. But we have oil down to $2, $225, $250 in numerous states. We hit one at a $1.98
[21:48]a gallon. And that's a great thing. That's one of the reasons that inflation's in check. >> When you can do that, you stop inflation. What Biden did is he ended
[21:58]our policies, went to his policies with he doesn't have a policy. Some lunatic around the desk had a policy. Whoever operated the autopen had a policy which
[22:08]is by the way I think the biggest scandal that's the scandal they should be talking about not uh Jeffrey Epstein the scandal you should be talking about
[22:19]is the autopen because I think it's the biggest scandal one of them in American history >> so the so the economy is doing really well and
[22:30]uh people are seeing it yeah Will you ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to release more documents to finally put this controversy to bed? >> Yeah. Whatever is credible, she can
[22:42]release. If if a document is credible, if a document's there that is credible, she can release. I think it's I think it's good. But but it's just really it's
[22:52]just a subject. He's dead. He's gone. And uh all it is is the Republicans, certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats and they're following a
[23:02]Democrat uh playbook. And no different when than Russia, Russia, Russia and all the other hoaxes. They're they're started by the Democrats and some Republicans in this case. I was
[23:14]surprised, but uh they got duped. >> But have you talked about it? Who have you talked about it with for the last minutes? President, first of all, your
[23:25]your high ranking officials, whether it's been your your FBI director or Pam Bondi, they have made some inconsistent statements in the past. You've had >> Well, I don't know. I can't speak about
[23:35]him, but I can say that Pam Bondi, I I really think that she's done very good. She says, "I gave you all the credible information, and if she finds any more
[23:45]credible information, she'll give that, too." What more can she do than that? I mean, honestly, what more can she do? talked about >> and we do have bigger problems. You know, we have problems with millions of
[23:56]illegal people that came in here and they're killers and murderers. We have 11,888 murderers that were allowed in to our country by Biden. Sleepy Joe Biden.
[24:06]Stupid Joe Biden. He allowed them into our country. And you know what? We got to do something about She's got a lot of things she's working on. And uh you know, it's it's very sad that somebody
[24:17]can be way late. they just get way late, but she's she's I think she's doing a great job. >> Social this morning, um you mentioned
[24:28]past supporters when you were talking about the the Epstein issue. Does that mean that you're effectively disowning any supporters who are now >> lost a lot of faith in certain people? Yeah, I've lost because they got duped
[24:39]by the Democrats. The Democrats are good for nothing. They've done a terrible job. They almost destroyed our country. If I didn't get elected, all these numbers you're hearing about, they found
[24:49]25 billion dollars and another 25 is coming in and hundreds of billions of dollars is pouring into our country. And we just got the biggest tax cut in history. We just got the biggest
[25:00]regulation cuts in history. There'll be no tax on tips. There'll be no tax on social security. There'll be no tax on overtime. There'll be no tax on so many other things. You're allowed to deduct
[25:11]your interest from a car payment. That's never happened before. You borrow interest. You borrow money to buy a car if you if the car is made in America. And by the way, factories are being
[25:22]built all over America. Car factories, AI factories, but you get a deduction on your interest. Nobody ever thought of that before. Never happened before. And you know, these are the things that they
[25:33]should be talking about. The big beautiful bill is one of the greatest pieces of legislation ever in this country. And the Democrats have nothing
[25:43]to combat it. So they say, "Oh, it's death." Death. Oh, that's good. And then they give it to the fake news, which is you and a few others. And the fake news
[25:54]talks about the bill is death. The bill is actually life. The bill is life and it saves our country. This bill is incredible. Look at the results already.
[26:03]So we have 16 trillion dollars being invested in our country. And this great gentleman and his family just came in with another billions of dollars. And if
[26:14]he didn't like the country, if he didn't like where we were going, he's very smart. He wouldn't he'd come, maybe he'd come, maybe he wouldn't even come. I think maybe he wouldn't even come. You'd save your time, but you know, it's one
[26:25]of those things. But, uh, if he didn't like where this country was, he wouldn't be investing billions of dollars in this country. But think of it, $16 trillion, more than has ever been even
[26:36]contemplated before. And we haven't even started yet. So that's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the success. And the Democrats have nothing
[26:46]to show for what they do. They almost destroyed. They allowed 25 million people to come into our country. Gang members, jailbirds
[26:57]from all over the world, not South America, from all over the world. They allowed them to come into our country from mental institutions, insane asylum, just walk right through. They couldn't come into your country. They couldn't
[27:08]come into any country in the world except our country. And they came in from the worst places. Gang members, drug dealers. They all came in. Turn it
[27:20]off, please. They all came in. And I'm doing something about it. We have it under check right now. We got rid of a lot of the murderers already. Some of
[27:31]them we put in our prisons because they're so bad. We don't want to take a chance in putting them in a foreign prison, have them come back. But uh we've done a great job. Our country is
[27:41]in great shape. We we literally have the hottest country anywhere in the world right now. And it's true what the king said, what a lot of people said. We were
[27:51]a dead country one year ago. One year ago, we were a dead country. We were laughed at all over the world. We had Afghanistan with that horrible
[28:01]embarrassment. Most most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Look what happened with Russia and Ukraine. That should have never happened. Look what happened with Israel. That would have never happened.
[28:12]Hamas had no money. Iran had no money. There was no money to do an attack like that. All these things that happened that wouldn't have happened if you had good leadership. And that's what you should be talking about. Thank you very
[28:24]much everybody. [Music]
[28:36]>> Thank you. >> Right. You were just listening to President Donald Trump there at the White House along with the crown prince of Bahrain. A lot was talked about some
[28:48]investment that the crown prince is making here at the United States and the president also talked about Jeffrey Epstein and whether or not there's more information out there to be released.
[28:58]But he has said that he thinks all of that is a hoax. But if there is more information, he wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all of that information. Of course, he talked about
[29:09]uh Jerome Powell as well. Reporters asking him whether or not he plans to fire Jerome Powell. He says that is not the case, at least as of right now. But he does think that Jerome Powell
[29:19]obviously needs to lower interest rates. So, as we said, a lot of topics covered over there at the White House. And now we want to go live to the White House and CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe. Ed,
[29:31]I know what stood out to me from all of what we heard there, but I want to know what stood out to you. Well, the biggest most urgent headline out of that is is despite some reporting
[29:41]this morning that he was more seriously contemplating, at least publicly now, the president saying he has no plans in the immediate future to try firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome
[29:51]Powell. CBS News was first to report this morning that in a meeting with House Republican lawmakers last night here at the White House, the president floated the possibility of doing so and
[30:02]seemed to infer that he was planning on trying to remove Powell pretty soon. Uh there have been reports since CBS first reported this about some other details or or the thinking of the president, but
[30:14]as you saw there in his exchange next to the crown prince of Bahrain, he said there are no plans to do that. that perhaps there are House Republicans eager to see him do so, but he's not doing it. That would be inviting a few
[30:25]different things. First, potential economic uh chaos, certainly in the markets. If it happened during the day, you'd see a pretty fast tumble. Big concern around the world about the credibility of the US economy should its
[30:37]central bankers suddenly be removed by the president. And it would also invite a pretty serious legal challenge because while the Supreme Court has ruled in recent weeks, Mugo, that the president can remove members of independent
[30:48]agencies, regulatory bodies like the National Labor Relations Board, in the case where they decided that they called out the fact that they don't believe the president can remove the chairman of the
[30:59]Federal Reserve uh in such a way because it is a quasi independent entity. Remember, chairman of the nation's central bank are appointed to four-year
[31:08]terms. Jerome Powell was first nominated by President Trump during his first term. He was nominated for a second term in 2022 by President Biden. And
[31:19]President Trump in his second term has been upset with and speaks frequently about Powell because the Federal Reserve so far has declined to lower interest
[31:29]rates and instead holding them steady. The president argues if you bring them down, the economy will be in better shape. And to the president, lowering interest rates is a signal that the economy is doing well. And it's
[31:41]validation and it's a move by the central bank that he'd like to see happen because he'd argue it will signal that under the Trump presidency, the economy is in good shape. But they have so far declined to do that amid
[31:52]uncertainty about the tariffs that the president's threatening to put in place or has already put in place and a lot of the other economic moves that his administration and Republicans in Congress are making. So for now it
[32:03]appears Powell is fine. He mentioned there you heard him talk about I'm not removing him unless there's allegations or there's examples of fraud. What has suddenly become the White House's
[32:13]concern in the last few days is the fact that there is a$2.3 to$2.5 billion dollar renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters, which is just a few blocks away from here at the White House that's
[32:23]been underway for years. He's arguing there must be something that's gone wrong with that. And Powell has overseen most of that renovation. It began or it was authorized under his predecessor. Uh
[32:35]it it continues today. It certainly is an expensive price tag for a government building, let alone any structure. And Powell in recent days has asked the Federal Reserve's independent watchdog to conduct an investigation, put it all
[32:47]out there and lay bare any concerns or allegations of fraud as that construction project continues on the Epstein situation. Mugo, you heard him
[32:56]there again uh for what is now almost a week address the concerns and then quickly try to downplay them suggesting that his
[33:07]supporters, members of his party should not be discussing this issue, should be focused on more important issues like the economy, like the $17 billion in investment that Bahrain's announcing today and not worry about the situation
[33:19]regarding a man, as he put it, that's been dead for several years. The reality is he had a relationship or he knew Mr. Epstein. Uh there have been allegations
[33:29]raised about whether or not then businessman uh then presidential candidate or at least just in his past Trump had some
[33:37]kind of uh other relationship with Epstein uh and the allegations that he faced. The president was asked about this yesterday. He said there is no evidence that I'm on any kind of list
[33:49]involving clients of Epstein. Uh and again today saying that this is a matter that he believes is settled and that everyone should move on from. But it's members of his own party including the House Speaker just yesterday who
[34:00]suggested the Justice Department should release everything it has on this so that Americans can decide for themselves and so that these concerns can be allayed. >> And okay, you answered all my questions
[34:10]and my follow-ups as well. So we appreciate your time today on 247.