[0:00]We want to take you now to the White House where President Trump is taking questions following an event with members of the 2026 FIFA World Cup task force. >> So, I'm very honored to have you. And we have the Olympics coming, too. That'll
[0:12]be great. And the 250 250 is going to be right out on the lawn. You're going to have a UFC event with Dana White and his people. He's going to have the greatest card they they've ever assembled. I was
[0:23]talking to Dana White the other day and they're going to have the greatest card they've ever assembled, Johnny. See, you'll be sitting up there with me and there uh we'll be watching it. So, right opposite the front door of the White
[0:34]House. It's going to be on June 14th. So, it's really going to be an amazing period of time. But, uh this is something very, very special. World Cup. All my life I've heard about it. Yeah. >> Mr. President, I have a question about
[0:46]Venezuela, but can I just first ask the help of the president's always news? Your voice sounds a little rough. Are you feeling >> I I feel great. I was shouting at people because uh they were stupid about
[0:56]something having to do with uh trade in a country and I straighten it out but I blew my stack at these people. >> Well, it sounds like there's a follow-up there. But can I ask you about
[1:08]Venezuela? You suggested what? >> It sounds like there's a follow-up there, but can I ask you about Venezuela? >> You said there was a palop and I said >> I don't want to hear that. >> A whole other issue. You suggested
[1:20]you've made a decision about what you want to do next about Venezuela. I understand you don't want to tip your hand, but is there anything you're ready to rule out at this point? Are you ruling out US troops on the ground? >> No, I don't rule out that. I don't rule out anything. We just have to take care
[1:32]of Venezuela. They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons. Nobody knows better than this young lady right here. She's done an incredible job with Tom Holman and
[1:43]all of your people. Been amazing. >> You know, we have a tight border right now. Nobody comes in. But we had millions of people pouring through a year ago. We had millions of people pouring through our border and many of
[1:55]them came from Venezuela, including Trend Oragua, the gang. And I guess what I'm hearing, Christie, is that's as bad a gang as there is anywhere. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. They are the worst.
[2:05]>> I mean, they're worse than MS-13. >> They're killers. They massacre people. They cut them up into pieces and they bury them in their communities where they grew up. They're horrible people. >> Yeah, we had a lot of them. And many of
[2:16]them, most of them, pretty soon, most of them are going to be out. Uh, but they sent them like we're a dumping ground. So, uh, I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love Venezuela. I
[2:28]love the people of Venezuela, but what they've done to this country. And I really say this, what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country can never ever be forgotten. >> You suggested Maduro wants to talk. Are
[2:39]you prepared to speak with him directly? Would you commit to doing that before you order strikes? Yeah, I probably would talk to him. Yeah, I talk to everybody on Garrett. Was that where you were? Was that India?
[2:50]>> Rebecca Zuck with Blaze News. So, in a recent interview, you had made some remarks about H-1B visas. You said about H-1B visas. You said that there were certain talents that Americans needed to
[3:00]outsource to foreign workers. Could you clarify >> until they learn that? Yeah. Like for instance, if you're going to be making chips, we don't make chips too much here anymore, but we are going to be in a
[3:11]period of a year. We're going to have a big portion of the chip market, but we have to train our people how to make chips because we didn't do it. We used to do it and then foolishly we lost that
[3:22]business to Taiwan. Very, very foolishly because if if they had a president that uh thought like I did, they would not have let let that happen. But it's all coming
[3:32]back. I think we're going to have a Within a a few years, we're going and not because of the chip chips act. The chips act was a disaster for this
[3:42]country. We gave away billions of dollars to other countries and other locations and companies and all they did was rob our money. But because of
[3:53]tariffs, the chips are coming back. Chip makers are all coming back. And I think within a very short period of time, we're gonna have maybe even the majority of the chipm in the world, we'll be
[4:03]right in the United States where it should have been all along. But because we had people that didn't believe in tariffs, they believed in them, but they didn't know how to use them. We would
[4:13]have had nobody leaving our country right now. And instead, you have almost 100% of the chips are made in Taiwan. It's so disgraceful. The good news is
[4:23]it's all coming back. Yeah, please. Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to just follow up on Venezuela. In these talks with Maduro, is there anything
[4:33]that he could say or do that would let allow you to feel like he could stay with your support? Is there anything that he could say that you would be okay
[4:43]if you can stay? >> It's hard to say that. You know, the question's a little bit uh tricky. Uh I don't think it was meant to be tricky. It's just that look, he's done tremendous damage to our country.
[4:55]primarily because of drugs, but really because we have that problem with other countries too, but more than any other country, uh the release of prisoners into our country has been a disaster.
[5:06]He's emptied his deals. Others have done that also. Um he uh has not been good to the United States. So, we'll see what happens. At a certain period of time,
[5:18]I'll be talking to Mr. M. >> Mr. President, can I just follow up? You mentioned your voice and you were shouting about trade. Um, which country in in particular upset you? Was it India?
[5:28]>> No. No. A country wanted to try and renegotiate the terms of their trade deal and I wasn't happy about it. >> Well, which country was it? People want to know. >> Why would I say that to you? Why? I
[5:39]can't believe it. >> Mr. President, I'll work up if you would. Uh, Seattle and the World Cup. Um, the new mayor elect of Seattle is a Democratic socialist. Um, Seattle has >> or beyond. I watched her. >> Right. Seattle has
[5:50]>> That's more than socialism, >> right? Seattle has six World Cup games. How close are you going to be watching that city with the crime in that city? >> Well, if we think and I'll have to speak to Johnny about this, but if we think
[6:02]that uh the mayor of LA is incompetent, everybody knows that. You know that I was there I guess two years ago and we got all the federal permits taken care
[6:12]of. Far more complex than the state permits and the city permits and Lee Zeldon, who's a superstar, got everything taken care of. The toughest part, you know, having to do with the
[6:24]fires. That should have never happened. If they let the water come in, it wouldn't have happened, right? Do you know that people aren't building their houses yet? I mean, can you imagine
[6:32]that? And if we didn't go in early on, Christie, I think we could say it. >> Well, the the head of their police department said it, they were unable to handle. You would have had not only did
[6:43]you have the fires, but you would have had total insurrection in Los Angeles. And if we didn't go in and the head of, you know, the gentleman, he said it and he said it strongly said we could not
[6:55]have done it without the federal government. We did a great job. Uh if we think there's going to be the sign of any trouble, I would ask Johnny to move that to a different city. We have a lot
[7:06]of cities that are will love to have it number one and we'll do it very safely. So if we think there's a problem in Seattle where you have a very very
[7:16]liberalcommunist mayor, I would say, you know, it's certainly beyond just liberal. I watched her over the weekend. Wow. That's another beauty we got there. But if we think there's going to be a
[7:26]problem, we'll Johnny, can I say we will move I don't think you're going to have this problem, but we're going to move the event to someplace where it's going to be appreciated and safe.
[7:36]>> Yeah. Well, I think safety and security is the number one priority. uh for a successful World Cup. Uh we can see today that people have trust in the
[7:48]United States when we see at the tickets uh ticket sales we we we sold I mean record-breaking figures of tickets almost 2 million already sold out of 2
[7:58]million uh that that we have been selling. This is because people they know that they will be coming here and they will experience a safe and secure world cup. This is the responsibility of
[8:09]course of the government uh of uh secretary norm of everyone and and and obviously uh we will I mean we will discuss we are working together we have
[8:20]a task force for this and uh we must ensure that uh all fans coming from abroad or being here they can experience
[8:29]a celebration of uh of coming together of the sport and this goes only with uh with 100% % safety. >> We are Mr.
[8:40]>> President, >> we we are communicating with all these mayors about what their responsibilities are. They know the safety and security of these events is their number one responsibility and we'll be there. The
[8:50]president's always there to keep Americans safe. Uh but he also makes sure the people that know their responsibilities and that they're prepared to host these events and do so in a safe manner.
[9:00]>> Is there a timeline? >> Yeah, go ahead, please. >> Um there was some some news this morning from in a year's report that Senator Ted Cruz was laying the groundwork for a
[9:11]potential 2028 presidential run. Could I get your reaction to would you could you see yourself supporting? >> Well, he's a friend of mine. I mean, you know, I haven't spoken to him about it's a little early. It's three and a quarter
[9:23]years. That's a long time, but uh he's a very good guy. He's a very good friend of mine. You remember we had a quite a campaign against Ted and it worked out quite nicely. Let's
[9:34]see. Where are we? where the only but uh >> I'm not that surprised to hear that. >> Mr. President, on the on the tariff
[9:46]exemptions, you had some recently on a variety of different goods. I'm wondering, are you ruling out going forward no more exemptions on on products? You're mentioning a disagreement.
[9:55]>> We've taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff money. We're going to be issuing dividends later on some somewhere prior to, you know, probably in the middle of next year, a little bit
[10:06]later than that, of thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income. Uh we're going to pay down debt. You know, we have a lot of
[10:16]money from tariffs. If we didn't have tariffs, this nation would be in serious trouble. And uh we've taken in tremendous amounts of money. And you know what's more important than that?
[10:26]We've protected our businesses from being raided like we did with the chip business. Now we're bringing them all back. But our, you know, we had 100% of the chip industry and then they left.
[10:37]They went mostly to Taiwan and South Korea, but mostly Taiwan. And they have almost 100%. And we're going to have within a short period of time a big percentage of the chip business are
[10:47]coming back because of tariffs because they don't want to pay the tariffs because the tariffs will be very steep if they don't come back. and they're all they've committed to come back. Uh, as
[10:58]you probably heard, Apple is now up to $700 billion. We have Nvidia at $600 billion. We have tremendous amounts of money pouring in.
[11:08]Our country has become amazing again and really really rich again. I I will say this um we have a decision we're waiting for.
[11:19]It's a very big decision. uh the numbers that we've taken in if you talk about investments is trillions. Not with a not with a B, not with an M
[11:29]millions, but trillions of dollars. Uh I can't imagine having to give that money back uh on something that we're allowed to do. And
[11:40]the ones that are fighting us are countries largely. They're back in countries that have been ripping us off for years, using tariffs to rip us off. and now we're able to defend ourselves.
[11:52]It really is a matter of national security because economic security is national security. So, uh I think you're going to see another thing happening. I think you'll see food prices, they've
[12:03]come down very substantially since since Biden, but I think you're going to see food prices coming down very >> substantially. Saudi Arabia tomorrow you're hosting Saudi Arabia. Um, are you planning uh to
[12:15]sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia and also are you looking at doing a similar security agreement like you did with >> Yeah. No, I am planning on doing that.
[12:24]Yeah. They want to buy a great ally. >> They've got to like us very much. Look at the Iran situation. What we did in terms of uh obliterating, you know,
[12:34]their we obliterated their nuclear capability. Yeah. I I will say that we will be doing that. We'll be selling F-35s. Mr. President, >> something you posted on Truth Social
[12:45]last night. You urged House Republicans to vote in favor of this Epstein release bill they're going to vote on tomorrow. I just want to be super clear on your position. Do you want to see that pass the Senate? Would you sign that bill if
[12:56]it gets to your desk? >> Uh, I do want to Here's what I want. We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do. All of his friends were Democrats. You look at this Reed
[13:07]Hoffman. You look at Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, they went to his island all the time and many others, all Democrats. All I want is I want for people to recognize
[13:18]a great job that I've done on pricing, on affordability, because we brought prices way down, but they're going way lower. Uh on energy, on ending eight
[13:29]wars and another one coming pretty soon, I believe. Uh we've done a great job and I hate to see that uh deflect from the
[13:38]great job we've done. So I'm all for it. You know, we've already given 50,000 pages. You do know that. Uh unfortunately, like with the Kennedy situation, with the Martin Luther King
[13:49]situation, uh not to put Jeffrey Epstein in the same category, but no matter what we give, it's never enough. You know, with Kennedy, we gave everything and it wasn't enough. with Martin Luther King,
[14:01]we gave everything and it's never enough. Um, we've already given I I believe the number is 50,000 pages. 50,000 pages and it's just a Russia
[14:13]Russia Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans. Now, uh I believe that many of the people that we some of the people that we mentioned are being looked at
[14:23]very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, but they were with him all the time. I wasn't I wasn't at all. Uh and we'll see what happens. What I
[14:34]just don't want uh Epstein to do is detract from the great success of the Republican party, including the fact that the Democrats are totally blamed
[14:44]for the shutdown. You know, they cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars with that and a lot of inconvenience. So, uh I'm for any I I
[14:54]don't They can do whatever they want. >> We'll give them everything. Sure, I would let the let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it, but don't talk about it too much because honestly, I
[15:05]don't want to take it away from us. It's really a Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them. And it's a hoax. The whole thing is a hoax.
[15:16]And I don't want to take it away from really the greatness of what the Republican party has accomplished over the last period of time. Yes, Mr. President, affordability.
[15:27]shutdown is now over and uh administration officials had said when the shutdown ends, they'll re-evaluate the farmer relief. Now we have the deal uh with China. Um so is the
[15:38]administration still looking to dish out farmer relief now that the government is back on? >> Yeah, we want I'm always going to help our farmers. >> Are you still looking to do that? >> I would do that. Yeah, if it's if they
[15:48]need relief, we'll be there for them. We're going to always be for our farmers. Yeah, please. >> Mr. Just speaking of the the e economic impacts of FIFA and possibly moving to
[15:58]another city some games if you feel it's crime is there like a timeline that you would do that because these cities there's sponsorships there's economic impact for these communities >> is there you know the governors are
[16:10]going to have to behave the mayors are going to have to behave you know in the case of uh California you have a problem uh you have high crime and you have a place that just suffered great fires and
[16:21]everything else and they didn't do a very good job and if we didn't go in from the crime standpoint, you would have had a disaster. It would have been it was not going to be handled properly.
[16:31]It wasn't able to be uh the head of the police said without, as I said, without the federal government, they could not have done it. So, here's the story. Uh I
[16:40]love Los Angeles. If they want help during this, I would love to send in National Guard or whoever is necessary to help them. I want it to be great. I'd love it to be in Los Angeles. I love the
[16:52]place. It's a natural for Los Angeles uh if we think they're gonna there's going to be crime if we are obstructed by the governor and maybe he won't obstruct. Maybe it'll be great. But I'd love him
[17:03]for for him to call and say, you know, we'd like to have some extra help because if there's even a hint of a problem, we want to get in there before the problem occurs. We want to make it
[17:14]totally safe for Johnny and FIFA and all of the great people that are going to be there. And I think that's going to happen. I would I would be honored to help uh California if they're going to
[17:25]have a problem. And if they think they're going to have a problem, they should say so. We can be in there in 24 hours notice and do a great job. >> Mr. President, a year by the by the end
[17:37]of the year, by the end of the first quarter. >> Well, I think this if they would tell us if they would tell us now, they're not going to have a problem because if we go in, they don't have a problem. Look at DC. There's no crime in DC anymore. And
[17:48]DC was a mess. Uh if they want us to go in, I'd like them to tell us right now, but if we go in, there will be no problem. There will be no crime. >> What's the message then to like local
[17:59]businesses who are considering sponsoring those >> governor to ask for federal help? We'd love to help them. >> Mr. President, are you also potentially
[18:09]launching strikes in Mexico or putting American troops or American personnel into Mexico to deal with? >> Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs?
[18:19]It's okay with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs, Mexico is Look, I looked at Mexico City over the weekend. There's there's some big problems over
[18:28]there. Uh if we had to what we do there, what we've done to the waterways, you know, there's almost no drugs coming in through our waterways anymore. Isn't it down like 85%. >> It is, sir.
[18:40]>> I don't know who the 15% would be. >> No, >> it wouldn't be you. >> No, that's for sure. No, I I think it's been uh >> tons and tons of >> You would say that's a big signal. >> Absolutely.
[18:50]>> We have almost no drugs coming into our country by the sea by you know the waterways and you know why. Okay. I mean it's
[18:59]pretty obvious. Uh would I do that on the land coroners? I would abs look every boat we knock out we save 25,000
[19:10]American lives. Not to mention the destruction of families. These families are decimated forever. The mother, the father, the children, they never recover
[19:20]really from it. You know, when you lose somebody like the way they live any if you lose them, but the way they die is horrible. >> So when we knock out a boat and we save
[19:31]25,000 lives, that's great. Now, do I feel the same way about the the corridors that they use? We know every one of them. We have every one of those
[19:40]carters under major surveillance. Uh we have nobody coming in through our southern border, but we know exactly how they get their things here, how they get
[19:50]the drugs here. A fentinol, cocaine. Uh Colombia is has cocaine factories where they make cocaine. Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do
[20:02]it personally. I didn't say I'm doing it, but I would be proud to do it because we're going to save millions of lives by doing it. >> Would you only do it with Mexico's permission, though?
[20:13]>> I wouldn't answer that question. U I've I've been speaking to Mexico. They know how I stand. We're losing hundreds of thousands of people to drugs. So, now
[20:24]we've stopped the waterways. But we know every route. We know every route. We know the addresses of every drug lord. We know their address. We know their front door. We know everything about
[20:36]every one of them. They're killing our people. That's like a war. Would I do it? I'd be proud to. I'd probably go into Congress and say, "Hey," and you know what? The Democrats and the
[20:46]Republicans would both agree, unless they're crazy. Uh and uh they are a little crazy on the Democrat side. But
[20:55]um we have we have lost hundreds of thousands of people a year death. And that's not talking about family destruction. That's talking about that.
[21:05]And much of it comes through Mexico. So, let me just put it this way. I am not happy with Mexico. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
[21:16]>> Thank you guys. >> All right. That was the president having a wide-ranging conversation with reporters there after um the FIFA 2026 World Cup task force meeting, covering a
[21:28]lot of ground from Venezuela to tariffs. uh to new visas to Ted Cruz and a possible presidential run. Let's go ahead and bring in CBS News White House reporter Olivia Raldi from our DC bureau. So Olivia, first the president
[21:39]was asked would he rule out US troops on the ground in Venezuela. He said he wouldn't rule out anything. What did we learn about the escalation there? >> Well, certainly a very newsy part there just at the end where the president was
[21:51]asked specifically about Mexico, not Venezuela. I want to start there because he did just say uh he's not happy with them at the moment. And when asked about strikes on Mexico to stop drugs from
[22:02]coming into the United States, the president said it'd be fine with him, he also added that he would be okay going to Congress and asking for authorization for what they're doing in that region,
[22:12]specifically as it relates to Venezuela. Uh because he called it like a war. He then projected confidence saying that they know the addresses, the front doors
[22:21]of every uh cartel leader, drug lord in that region, and they are happy with what they are doing. As you did mention though in your question to me, the president said he would not rule out
[22:32]anything as far as troops on the ground in Venezuela. We know from our own CBS News reporting that there are certain escalations he is considering that would include land strikes on Venezuela and
[22:44]our Charlie Dageda is based in Puerto Rico at the moment because there's been an extreme amount of military buildup on that island in particular. So certainly quite notable. The president was also
[22:54]asked about his relationship with Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, and if there is anything he can say to President Trump to prevent what could potentially happen on the ground there in Venezuela. Trump said he's done
[23:05]tremendous damage to the country, uh, like releasing prisoners into the US and added in a certain period of time, he will be talking to him. So certainly something to watch out for whenever that
[23:17]conversation happens and what could proceed after it. He was also asked whether he would sign a bill to release the Epstein files. We know that House vote is going up tomorrow in front of lawmakers. How did he respond?
[23:29]>> Well, we know that if that happens and they agree to pass that bill, it then heads over to the Senate. The president said he would look at what the Senate would be doing or excuse me, what he said was let the Senate look at it being
[23:41]a very non-committal as to whether or not he would sign it. The president also said what he would actually like out of everything that has gone on in the Epstein saga is for people to recognize
[23:51]the job he's done on pricing. Those were his words. So really trying to pivot there back from talking about Epstein to talking about affordability and talking about the economy. So clearly signaling
[24:01]he doesn't want to be talking about this. Uh and it's certainly not something he wants top of mind for voters and people in the country. Uh so he is non-committal it seems about whether he would sign that bill if it
[24:13]gets to his desk. But of course we saw in a truth social post last night that he has done a reversal on his opinion now telling House Republicans it's okay if you vote to release the files after a
[24:24]pressure campaign uh to prevent enough people from signing on to that discharge petition uh to prevent this from going to a house vote. Uh so certainly the
[24:36]president wanting to uh really let House Republicans vote on it, but asking for them to focus more on affordability, something he believes is a winning issue for him. >> And so on that note, and it might also
[24:47]be an issue that some of his allies are saying he needs to focus more on. Some Republicans, including former ally and now it appears perhaps turned foe Marjorie Taylor Green. They've split on several issues, saying, "I wish he would
[24:57]focus more on the affordability crisis." The president said his voice was horse. He said he blew his stack when a country wanted to renegotiate its trade deal. He wouldn't say which one. What else did he say about trade and affordability?
[25:09]>> Well, certainly the main focus has been really for this White House is trade negotiations uh and really reshaping the US economic relation with a variety of countries around the world. We know last
[25:21]week they announced a new uh trade deal with several countries as it relates to products that Americans consume every day like coffee and bananas. Uh there was also a trade deal with Switzerland
[25:31]that was agreed to. But even White House aids have been telling the president, you need to focus on affordability. This is what you need to talk about, especially at a time when Americans are really feeling the pinch. Uh Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
[25:43]We know those Walmart prices have gone up. Americans are certainly feeling that. Um but to your question and to your point, yes, the president did sound quite in that Oval Office meeting just
[25:54]there. He said that it was because he was yelling at people over trade that someone called him, tried to renegotiate their trade deal, and he lashed out at them. He was pressed several times to
[26:04]say who in what country uh was asking to renegotiate their trade deal. He did not say who uh but and added that he would not uh out that information and talk
[26:14]about it, but certainly comes as he's trying to keep the focus on trade and affordability. something that even having to have a tough conversation with it seems like uh with someone on the
[26:26]phone about their trade deals with the US, this remains top of mind for him. >> The president also announced a special visa program for FIFA World Cup participants. What did we learn?
[26:36]>> Well, yeah, this was the basis of this Oval Office meeting. It was with the FIFA task force. As you know, North America will be hosting the FIFA World Cup next year with a variety of those
[26:47]games being held in the US, in New York, uh at Foxboro Stadium in in uh Massachusetts, in Los Angeles, Seattle, a variety of countries. But the president announced today this new
[26:59]initiative allowing several ticket holders to apply for visas on essentially a fasttrack to get prioritized interviews for those visas. Uh the president did say he's encouraging people to apply early for
[27:11]those. As we know, there's been a mass immigration crackdown in the United States. So the goal here is to make sure there are no snafoos as it relates to the World Cup and people coming to
[27:21]support their countries for games here. Uh so he is urging people to you know get on this FIFA pass fasttrack soon have these interviews and get their
[27:31]visas uh to prevent any issues as there's going to be a lot of tourism next summer around these games. >> All right, Olivia Raldi, thank you so much on helping us unpack that press
[27:42]conference. The president there meeting with the FIFA task force for the World Cup 2026 being asked many questions by reporters ranging from his trade and
[27:51]tariff policy to the Epstein files. uh asking uh he was asked if he would sign uh that bill that would release the files and the president saying he didn't want to take away from the greatness the
[28:01]Republican party has accomplished and also diving into some of the tensions not only with Venezuela but as Olivia mentioned also with Mexico.