[0:00]It's nice to see you. And today we're announcing the creation of the US Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, the first ever stockpile of critical minerals that you've been hearing so
[0:10]much about. We have the greatest experts on Earth behind me for civilian use in times of emergency. We're pleased to be joined on this occasion by General
[0:20]Motors CEO Mary Barrow, who's setting records. Huh. I hear you're doing unbelievably 24 hours round the clock your factories and you're building brand new factories.
[0:31]Amazing. Great job, Mary. Of course, it helped that you have a president that uh knows what he's doing, but it's a great it's a great job. Proud of you. As well
[0:41]as founder and executive co-chairman of Ivanho Mines, Robert Freedelland. Thank you, Robert. Thanks as well to Secretaries Marco Rubio, Scott Bessant,
[0:51]Doug Bergam, Howard Lenik, and Export Import Bank Chairman John Yavanovich along with Senator Bernie Marino and Congressman French Hill and Bruce
[1:02]Westerman. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, French. For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions. Today, we're
[1:12]launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage. We don't want to ever go through what we went through a year ago.
[1:24]Just as we although it did work out. Thank you. Just as we have long had a strategic petroleum reserve and a stockpile of critical minerals for
[1:34]national defense, we're now creating this reserve for American industry so we don't have any problems. This historic initiative will combine $10 billion
[1:44]dollar dollars in export import bank financing with $2 billion in private sector financing. And we even expect the American taxpayer to make a profit from
[1:56]the interest on the loan used to start the project vault. It's an amazing thing. They've been talking about it for years. Other presidents did a lot of talking, but they didn't do anything.
[2:06]Over the past year, my administration has taken extraordinary steps to make sure the United States has all of the critical minerals and rare earths that we need. We're investing in mining
[2:17]projects. Ex really uh we're expediting federal permitting. You know, the federal permitting and a lot of it is Lee Zeldon who's been fantastic, but
[2:28]federal permitting is such a big deal and uh we're doing that. the permitting of mines and signing major critical mineral deals with countries from all
[2:40]over the world. And we're getting along with all of them. Every one of them, they want to be in the proper position. We're working very well with countries from all over the world. Today we're building on these achievements with this
[2:51]vital new reserve. And now I would like to ask Chairman John Yvanovich to say a few words followed by our friends from business and Congress. We'll go over that. But we have some great business
[3:03]leaders the best here today. And John, if you would start it off, that'll be great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. President. The president gave us a very clear directive. By clear directive, it was much more of an order
[3:15]for us to figure out how to for the first time in American history create a strategic critical minerals reserve in a way that would benefit the nonmilitary
[3:25]manufacturing complex. And the challenge was enormous, not simply because it had never been done before, Mr. president, but we knew that you expected us to deliver in a big way, in a way that was
[3:35]scalable, in a way that was designed for long-term success, and in a way that would help revitalize our domestic mining industry. But most importantly, most crucially, that it not be
[3:45]subsidized by American taxpayers. And so that's exactly what we've done. Mr. President, what you've announced today is a truly uniquely American solution. It brings together our capital markets
[3:55]which are the best and biggest in the world with our manufacturers, our innovators, our miners all pitching in to make this possible. Now, these things
[4:05]don't happen without the best and the brightest within industry being at the table. And Mr. President, everyone wants to engage with this administration, with
[4:15]your administration. The key ingredient here was your call to action. Your call to action allowed us to bring together the best players in the market, sometimes the fiercest competitors,
[4:26]getting them to work together to come up with a creative solution. Now, in addition to our great team at the Export Import Bank who worked around the clock, led by Brian Greley, Jeff Wilson, Sarah
[4:37]Whitman, many others, we benefited from having the biggest manufacturing CEOs, the smartest market players at the table, all looking to solve this
[4:45]problem. So what we have with Project Vault is marrying the capital solution with what we need when we need it most.
[4:56]And the best part about it is that the American taxpayer will earn a return on financing the first ever strategic critical minerals reserve in history.
[5:07]And we thank you, Mr. President, for allowing this to happen. All of the people around around us today helped make it possible. Our cabinet
[5:16]secretaries, our top CEOs, their teams, top market players, whether it be GM, G, Vernova, Boeing, Clarios, Google,
[5:27]Mercuria, especially Brian Fall, Carter, Traxxas, our friend Robert Freedman. Um, all of us work together, Mr. President, to deliver this for you. So, and for the American people so that manufacturers
[5:38]and workers all across the country can rest assured they'll have what they need when they need it most. >> And you're covering everything with this. We're not just doing certain minerals and rarest. We're doing everything
[5:49]>> everything on. >> What about magnets? >> We're we're focused on the critical raw materials and we anticipate that that led by our great manufacturers will help breathe even more solutions.
[6:00]>> Great job. >> Thank you very much. >> Doug Bergam please. Uh, Mr. President, uh, again, I want to echo what John said, which is a great thank you to you. Uh, you've set the direction and when
[6:12]you took office, you've done more in the last year for mining and minerals in our country perhaps than any president in history. Uh, just like drill baby drill, you said mine, baby mine. And what's
[6:23]happened in our country is uh you've led us through uh deals with equity deals for the first time. in the United States of America is driving equity deals to help sustain and balance this market.
[6:35]You unlocked Alaska with the Amber Road project. Uh that opened up over 1,700 mining claims in Alaska and of course on beautiful clean coal. We've got critical
[6:45]minerals that are co co-located with that coal and we've unlocked that. Uh we we've we've the Biden administration did zero coal leases during the last four years. you've done hundreds of millions
[6:57]of tons of coal leases. Uh that's going to help drive electric prices down in in America. Permitting, you mentioned this in your remarks. There was some permits that had lingered for 29 years. They got
[7:07]done in four months last year under your administration. And and under your emergency authorities, some of these permits got done in as short as 12 days. uh you helped create a club of nations
[7:18]uh to help uh balance out the fact that we didn't have markets that were functioning around critical minerals. You led off with Australia, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. This
[7:28]week, we'll announce 11 more countries that are joining that club of nations as part of this global coalition. And behind that, the pipeline, there's 20 more nations that want to join under
[7:39]your leadership uh to allow for trade of critical minerals. Uh and then here we stand today uh with the teamwork that was described. This would not have been possible without uh the incredible
[7:49]cabinet that you put together. Marco Rubio, Scott Bessett, Howard Lutnik, uh Chris Wright and many others uh were involved in bringing this uh together through the vision. Standing with us
[8:00]today are some of our chairman of our great congressional leadership who also have supported this and helped us find a way to do this without any appropriations. This is happening without tax dollars. And of course uh
[8:11]our our team on the ground here at the White House including David CppPley and everybody else at the at the NSC uh David leading the global supply chain work uh the folks working with XM bank
[8:22]team working around the clock uh to make all this happen. So again when you when you lead when you put out a challenge the teamwork happens and then here we stand today. This is the largest XM bank
[8:33]deal in the history of the XM bank by more than double and this is going to help drive uh national security. It's great for American manufacturers. It's a great for American workers. Congratulations, President Trump.
[8:44]>> Thank you. You're doing a fantastic job, Doug. Thank you. Could I ask Mary Barah, the chairman CEO of General Motors, which is setting records every single
[8:54]day and she's doing a fantastic job. Just say a few words and also discuss how good the car business is now in the US. Please. >> Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your commitment to strengthening US
[9:05]manufacturing and supporting the auto industry. Also uh want to uh thank your cabinet and members of Congress and the whole team here that made this possible today. Having a resilient supply chain
[9:15]is critical for our nation and it's critical for all industry especially the auto industry. We have been strengthened with many of the different policies that have been put in place over the last
[9:25]year. So I want to thank everybody for that. It not only supports uh US manufacturing, it supports job creation, it also supports the consumer. So thank you. And uh business is is held very
[9:36]strong. We still see a strong consumer. So, I'm excited about 2026. >> I think it's going to be a record with all of your new plants opening up and everything else in our country. So, in our country, >> Robert, please.
[9:48]>> Mr. President, thank you so much for what you've achieved. Everything we touch, uh, we either grew it agriculturally and you've helped the farmers or we mind it. All these cameras
[9:59]you see in front of you, they were mined. Every time you pick up a handphone, it was mined. and so stimulating the ability for the miners in this country to help you industrialize the country. They're the
[10:09]salt of the earth. And we're super excited that America is doing something for not only our national security, but for the re-industrialization of the country because you can't
[10:19]re-industrialize Detroit with a lot of metal. And I'm telling you on behalf of every minor I know, they're elated at the breakthroughs that have been achieved here. They'll make a lot more cameras in the future. and maybe you
[10:30]could help us teach everybody that everything you touch like that somebody mind it and we need your support and we'd really happy to get it. >> And congratulations. You're in the Hall
[10:40]of Fame. Is that the rare earth hall of fame or minerals? >> It's a bunch of pictures of dead guys that go back to Herbert Hoover who was a minor. [laughter] You know, you know, we're mining is down to 1% of the S&P
[10:52]500, but really everything you touch needs mining. And this is the first administration with your support where we've got hope. We can go out and really do it. So we as you you know I last met
[11:04]you in Saudi Arabia with Muhammad bin Salman. We're working in Chile. We want to bring these metals back to the United States and refine them and use them right here. And the the vision of this administration
[11:15]Lnik's been helping a lot. A lot of people at XM Bank have been helping a lot. I'm just telling you the morale of the miners is skyh high. >> You're doing a great job. Thank you very much. Congratulations. That's a big
[11:26]deal. Thank you. How about French Hill? Say a few words, please. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Well, on behalf of Congress, Chairman Westerman can talk about how he's helped unleash the ability to mine through permanent
[11:36]reform. And Senator Marino and I serve on the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee. And we're best in this country when we take the private sector and we leverage it to unleash the directions that you're
[11:47]made. And so together with our reauthorization of the XM bank, we leverage that recess with reset source with private sector dollars to make this a success. And it's going to be a huge
[11:58]strategic change in America's industrial capacity. >> Big difference, right? >> Big difference. >> It's never been really anything like what we're doing. Bernie, please. >> Uh, you know, not to be hyperbolic, but
[12:08]if you hadn't been elected, the auto industry in America would be would be over. >> Completely completely over. You >> the country would be over. Well, but the auto industry would have been gone first. Uh the what the Democrats had had
[12:19]done with electric vehicles, the mandates, what you were able to accomplish last year, Secretary Lutnik, uh what Secretary Bessett was able to do with your leadership has transformed the auto industry. And I tell you, it's
[12:30]never been better for people in the auto industry. I hear from all my friends, they are elated. And the worst part is that the people that you really saved were the car dealers in California and
[12:40]New York, New Jersey, right? >> And they fought me all the way, Mary. Right. They fought me all the way and now they're saying thank you very much. But you're doing a great job. Thank you
[12:49]very Scott. >> Sir, as you always say, economic security is national security and a country does not have sovereignty if we don't have control of our critical
[13:00]minerals, don't have control of our steel production and our industrial base and thanks to the work of everyone here through your leadership. Uh this was a public private partnership that only you
[13:12]could have assembled and we are taking back our sovereignty and we are going to have this vault project a strategic
[13:21]mineral reserve and I can't tell you the how innovative and exciting this is and the level of security it is going to give us going forward is phenomenal.
[13:32]>> And how is your new and I think new and approved Fed chairman doing? How's that all going? >> Tell he's he's off to a great start. I think so. >> He had so much built-in credibility and
[13:43]as the American pe smart people the like representative Hill the Senator Marino they already knew him and as the American people get
[13:54]to know him. The important thing is that they will be able to trust the Federal Reserve to steer the economy for them. >> He's going to do great. Howard, please.
[14:04]So, prior presidents took America for granted. They let our critical minerals uh only be controlled by China. They let
[14:16]our mining business go to hell by closing all the mines, closing our coal plants while China opened them. Uh they let our auto industry, right? We used to
[14:26]produce 75% of our cars in America and when Biden left it was below 50%. We were just letting all of these industries just be shredded from
[14:36]America. And thank goodness you are in this chair changing it and taking it back. We are taking back critical minerals. We are taking back mining. We're taking back the auto industry. You're going to watch us take back
[14:48]pharmaceuticals. We're going to take back semiconductors. None of this could possibly happen without your leadership. And it is the most fun to stand back here with your leadership because we are
[14:58]changing America back and making it great again. >> That's very true. Anybody would like to say anything else? >> Amen. [snorts] >> You guys okay? Everything all right? >> Well, thank you, Mr. President.
[15:10]>> You're such a good man. Go >> ahead. A great day and it couldn't have happened without your leadership and I think people will be talking about this for a long time because we're bringing back American mining and American
[15:21]manufacturing. You know, God blessed our country with abundant resources. Uh, Secretary Bergam talked about the Amler Road, 49 critical minerals that can be mined in sufficient quantities just in
[15:32]that one area. But from northern Minnesota, Arizona, my home state of Arkansas, we are blessed with all these minerals, they're just in the ground. But when we get them out of the ground
[15:42]and not only mine them, but refine them and process and manufacture with them, it'll unleash great wealth for our country. and that'll just build on all the other successes. So, thank you for
[15:53]what you've done. It's a great day. >> And how does it feel to be in the Oval Office? Is that crazy? Were you ever here? >> No, I've never been here. >> Most people have. Mary's been here a little bit,
[16:03]>> right? But it's a special place. >> Never been Never been so beautiful either. Yeah. Questions, please. >> Mr. President, speaking of the Fed, um would you like to see Janine Piro drop
[16:14]the investigation into Chairman Powell to help Senator Tillis has basically said that, you know, he's not going to worked with administration to help bring war. So would you like to see the invested?
[16:24]>> No, just take it to the end and see you're doing a small renovation and they've spent almost $4 billion doing a small renovation. Uh I'm doing
[16:34]buildings. I built a hotel, the Waldorf it's called, and uh I did it for around $200 million is a much bigger job. They're spending almost it could be $4
[16:45]billion. I I'll tell you what, I don't even see an end in say I feel bad badly for the new Fed chairman because he may not have an office for four years. Uh I don't know what these people are doing.
[16:56]So it's either gross incompetence or it's theft of some kind or kickbacks. I don't know what it is. But Janine Piro is incredible and she'll figure it out. But no, you want to take it and just
[17:07]find out what happened because we can't go around doing a renovation of a small little complex, very small couple of little buildings, and spend billions and billions of dollars on it. Something
[17:19]went wrong. We have to find out what it was. Yeah, please. >> Mr. President, thank you. Speaking of renovations, you announced you wanted to build a new and spectacular entertainment complex at the Kennedy
[17:29]Center. Do you plan on tearing it down, and how much will all of the renovations cost? probably around $200 million. And you know, it's funny in real estate and
[17:40]building, I've done so much of it. I've done so well with it. You want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do. And you know, we sat with it. We ran it. It's in very bad shape. It's run down.
[17:52]It's dilapidated. It's sort of dangerous. PE things fall out uh fall out of ceilings. You've seen it. And uh we had some big events there. We had a lot of great events there over the last
[18:03]year. But uh you can't do any work because people are coming in and out and you have the workman. We have a marble man over there the other day. He said, "You know, every time I put down a piece of marble, people are stepping on the
[18:14]marble. They don't even have time to dry." And you can't do the same quality job you if you close it. And you know, we're fully financed. And so we're [clears throat] going to close it and we're going to make it unbelievable, far
[18:26]better than it ever was, and we'll be able to do it properly. I was thinking maybe there's a way of doing it simultaneously, but there really isn't. And we're going to have something that when it opens, it's going to be brand
[18:36]new, beautiful. Uh I'm not ripping it down. I'll be using the steel. So, we're using the structure. We're using some of the marble and some of the marble comes down, but when it's open, it'll be brand new and really beautiful. It'll be at
[18:48]the highest level. We can do a much better job. probably in a way a faster job in terms, you know, because when you do a peace meal, for instance, they have a play tonight and you can't do anything. You have to pull out
[18:59]everything and you can't have stansions all over the place and people are walking in to see a play. So, we'll be closing it uh sometime around July 4th. It's like we'll close it on July 4th in
[19:11]order to do something great for America. And then we're going to build it. We have great contractors. We're [clears throat] going to build it and we'll do it right. We're using uh the highest grade marbles, the highest grade
[19:21]everything. And it'll be brand new. Uh tremendous carriers putting in the air conditioning or I guess they're a bidder, but they're probably going to get it. Carrier. We're going to have all
[19:31]brand new air conditioning, heating. The steel will all be checked out because it'll be fully exposed. You know, it's been up for a long time, but as anybody knows, it was in very bad shape. Wasn't
[19:42]kept well before I got there. So, we're going to make it I think there won't be anything like it in the country, >> sir. Mr. President, >> yeah, please. >> About your meeting with President Petro
[19:52]later this week. Um, he's been quite critical of you since you spoke back in January after the Maduro raid. What would you like to hear from him tomorrow in terms of drug trafficking in Venezuela? What are your >> Well, we're going to see. I mean, he's
[20:03]been very nice over the last month or two. He was certainly critical before that, but somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. He changed
[20:13]his attitude very much. So, no, he I look forward to seeing him. He's coming in. We're going to be talking about drugs because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country and I look forward to see we're going to have a
[20:24]good meeting. Yeah. >> Steve is going to meet with the Iranian foreign minister on Friday. What are you hoping he'll get out of that meeting? >> Well, you're going to have u a lot of things are happening. You have Iran and
[20:36]you have Russia Ukraine and you have the Middle East. We have a lot of things going. A lot of problems were here for a long time before I got here. We settled
[20:46]eight wars and I think we're going to I think we're doing very well with Ukraine and Russia. For the first time, I'm saying that, you know, we're doing I think we're going to maybe have some
[20:55]good news. We're losing 25,000 people a month are being killed in that war. Ridiculous war. 25,000 was 31,000 last month. Think of it.
[21:06]Young, beautiful kids. you know, the kids of parents, their parents. It doesn't affect us in one way, but in another way, it's 25,000 souls that if I can solve it, you know, we're not
[21:17]spending money like Biden did. He's he gave $350 billion away. I make everyone pay. And the United Nations or, you know, they're a little bit involved, but
[21:26]uh if you look uh take a look at what's happening, the countries of Europe are paying us for the weapons. So we have NATO paying we send missiles over there
[21:36]they pay us in full doesn't cost us 10 cents and we make money I guess but I don't even want to talk about that because what I really want to do is save those people from n they lose Mary can
[21:47]you imagine 25,000 to 30,000 people a month that's like a stadium full of people >> tragic >> every single month and you know I mean I was blessed with something where I can
[21:58]get these things done got eight of them done I thought all eight were going to be more difficult than this one I thought my relationship with President Putin would give us a uh you know much easier road. But there's tremendous
[22:09]hatred between Zillinsky and Putin. Tremendous hatred. I mean, it's a shame, but uh it's taken longer than we thought. I did call up President Putin
[22:18]and he's agreed. He's put it out to they have the same cold wave that we do. Maybe different because it's pretty far away, but it's the equivalent. And Ukraine's a very cold country. It's much
[22:29]colder than us. It's colder than they say on average it's Canada or colder and on top of that they have a tremendous cold wave and I asked him if you
[22:39]wouldn't shoot for a period of one week no missiles going into Kiev or any other towns and he's agreed to do it so it's something about Iran's nuclear program you think Mr.
[22:50]Well, we're talking about that. We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones, biggest and the best. And we have uh talks going on with Iran. We'll see how it all works out.
[23:00]>> Mr. Mr. President, the Pentagon released national defense strategy last week. And it says, >> where are you from with that? >> I come from Europe, from Baltic states. National defense strategy says that US
[23:12]will provide critical but only limited support for European defense. What does that mean limited support? Uh, can will the US still provide? >> Well, we get along very well with Europe. I do because, you know, don't
[23:22]forget I got the GDP lifted from 2% to 5%. Nobody thought that could be possible. And they're giving us a lot of that money. They're we have the best military equipment. We're selling it to
[23:32]NATO. But I get along very well. But Europe has to be careful because, you know, there are those that say it's no longer recognizable between immigration and energy.
[23:43]you know, it's uh there's so much potential in UK. You know, you have the North Sea oil and they basically close it down and then they buy energy from
[23:54]Norway, which is the North Sea oil. So, you figure that one and Norway's got trillions of dollars. They have to be careful. You need energy and you can't do the windmills because the windmills, you're supposed to make money with
[24:05]energy, not lose money. So, I'm very disappointed. I look, I I love Europe. I love the people of Europe. and they have to be very careful. They're at a tipping point. You have
[24:17]tremendous immigration problems and you have tremendous energy problems. It's a bad combination. >> Mr. President, thank you, Mr. President. Christine just announced that you're deploying body cameras to Minneapolis.
[24:28]What's your thinking behind this decision? And do you want to see this? >> Well, it wasn't my decision. I would, you know, I leave it to her. Uh they generally tend to be good for law enforcement because people can't lie
[24:39]about what's happening. So, it's uh generally speaking, I think 80% good for law enforcement, but uh if she wants to do that, I'm okay with it. Remember one thing, we closed the border. We had a I
[24:50]got elected on a disastrous border, and we have nobody coming in through our border anymore. We had 25 million people come in in four years through our
[25:00]border. Many of them were murderers and drug dealers and mentally, those are mentally insane from mental institutions and insane asylums. And now we don't
[25:11]have anybody coming in for nine months now. I mean, they actually report zero. We have zero people coming in, which I find hard to believe, but the Democrats do that report. They tend to be
[25:22]left-leaning that do that report. So, I assume it's true. If it's not, it's a very tiny amount of people. But we basically have a tremendously perfect
[25:31]strong border. [snorts] And also crime levels are at the lowest point they've been in 125 years since 1900. We have the best numbers. And that's despite the
[25:42]fact that we had a lot of criminals and murderers. 11,888 murderers came in and we have the lowest numbers that we've had in 125 years. So,
[25:54]you know, so we uh we're doing a good job. If she wants to do the camera thing, that's okay with me. during January. Do you think this is due to your efforts and do you think blue
[26:05]states should see this as a sign that they should cooperate with you? >> Well, if there was one, I mean, we haven't had one in a long time. DC has become a very safe in-house homicide. It
[26:15]was in-house. It was a It was a dispute within a family. Uh we have had virtually no crime in DC. DC is now considered a very safe place and it
[26:26]should be. It's our nation's capital. And we sent in the soldiers. I read the Washington Post this week and it was incredible. They were trying to determine how come how did we get so low numbers, the low numbers in DC because
[26:38]we have very little crime if any. And uh they talked about everything except for the fact that we put our national guard and great soldiers inside our city. They
[26:49]didn't want to mention that. It's how dishonest because if we didn't do that, you'd have tremendous crime in DC. And I get thanked every single day by people that work in the White House. People,
[27:00]young ladies, men, they come up. Thank you, sir, for making DC so safe. They walk to work. Now, a year and a half ago, they wouldn't have walked to work. They would have been killed or mugged or something would have happened to them.
[27:11]So, it's, you know, it's a great honor, but you got to read the story in the Washington Post. They do it. Crime is way down in DC. Now, what's the reason for it? The
[27:22]reason for it is we have very big, strong, good-looking soldiers standing around and I think they make the place look better. But this is our capital and
[27:32]we have a very safe capital. We had a very dangerous capital before. Yep. >> Sir, yesterday you said you were speaking to people about Cuba to reach an agreement. What sort of agreement are you hoping to reach? Is that with the Cuban government?
[27:44]>> No, it's a failed nation now and they're not getting any money from Venezuela and they're not getting any money from anywhere. It's a failed nation. Mexico is going to cease sending them oil. So,
[27:55]uh, I'd like to take care of the people that are here from Cuba. You know, we have many people that came from Cuba. They were thrown out of Cuba or that fled Cuba. They came over on rafts. They
[28:06]went through sharkinfested waters. I don't know how they did it. And it was many years ago. Many would like to go back. Many would like to at least visit their relatives. And I think we're at a
[28:17]pretty close. We are dealing with the Cuban leaders right now. >> Mr. President, Mr. President, the Wall Street Journal reported uh that the royal family of Abu Dhabi invested hundreds of millions of dollars in your
[28:29]world liberty financial. Uh can you explain why you decided to take that investment? Was that a transaction? >> Well, I don't know about it. I know that crypto is a big thing and they like it. A lot of people like it. The people
[28:40]behind me like it. Uh my sons are handling that. My family is handling it. and uh I guess they get investments from different people, but I'm not I have all
[28:50]I can handle right now with Iran and with Russia and Ukraine and with all the things we're doing. So, I don't know. I don't know exactly other than, you know, I'm a big crypto person. I'm the one
[29:00]that probably helped crypto more than anybody because I believe in it. And the reason I believe in it is because if we don't do it, Scott, I think we can say then China's going to do it, right? That's right. >> If we don't do crypto, then China's
[29:12]going to do it. And it's just like AI. were leading AI by a lot and if we weren't leading, China would have led. You know, they're very capable. They're very good. Uh what do you have to say about that?
[29:23]>> You you've made America the digital asset capital of the world. We did the Genius Act for stable coins. Many of the people standing up here are working on
[29:32]the Clarity bill to uh market structure and we're bringing us best practices to an exciting the new industry digital
[29:42]assets innovation and It spreads everywhere. So the US >> and you agree that if we didn't do it, China and others would, but China would. >> Oh, China would have would have had the
[29:52]lead and then others around the world in terrible jurisdictions would have been doing it. >> And on Iran, sir, can you say what your threshold military action is? >> Well, I can't tell you what I'm going to
[30:03]do because right now, you know, we have a a tremendous force going there just like we did in Venezuela, even bigger, and they'll be there soon. And I'd like
[30:15]to see a deal negotiated. I don't know that that's going to happen. But I mean, if I knew, I wouldn't be able to. I wouldn't tell you. I'd be very foolish if I would tell you. But, uh, right now, we're talking to them. We're talking to
[30:27]Iran. And if we could work something out, that would be great. And if we can't, >> probably bad things will happen. >> Mr. President, >> Mr. President, government shut down. >> Yeah, please.
[30:37]>> On the government shutdown, do you think there could be a resolution to this issue? And have you gotten from House Republicans? >> Well, I spoke with Speaker Johnson. I spoke with Leader Thoon. And uh I think
[30:49]they're pretty close to a resolution. You know, we were at 5.6% GDP and we lost a point and a half because of the 42-day shutdown. Think of that. We would have been at seven. Nobody ever saw a
[30:59]number like seven. And I think Howard probably a point and a half was the number, right? >> Point and a half for the shutdown. Exactly right. >> And uh it's very bad for our country. But despite that, we have the highest
[31:11]numbers we've ever had. You know, we're doing well. We're we're going right through it. But I will say that I spoke with Senator Schumer numerous times and I don't think they want to see a shutdown either.
[31:22]>> Mr. President, are you going to see Trevor Noah last night in a post? You alluded that something could become >> Yeah. Well, he said that he said that I spent time on Jeffy's Jeffrey Epstein's
[31:33]Island. I didn't I mean, he's a lightweight this guy. He's a terrible I thought I think he's terrible. I thought he did a terrible job at the Grammys. I thought the whole Grammys was terrible. I watched part of it. It's not
[31:43]watchable, but he was a lousy host. I'd say not as bad as Jimmy Kimmel, but pretty close. And no, he made a statement about me and Jeffrey Epstein's I have nothing to do with that. I have
[31:54]nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. And in fact, if you look at the DOJ, they announced uh you know, they released three million pages. It's like this is all they're supposed to be doing. And
[32:04]frankly the DOJ I think should just say we have other things to do because that whole thing has turned out I mean other than Bill Clinton and you know Bill Gates and lots of people that have there are a lot of questions about it but
[32:16]nothing on me but it was even sort of better than that because they found that Jeffrey Epstein and this Leburg writer named Michael Wolf were conspiring against Donald Trump to lose the
[32:27]election. So Epstein was conspiring with a writer for me to lose the election. So right there, you know that I had nothing
[32:37]to do with this guy. But um yeah, it's a terrible thing that the amount of time that's being wasted. You know, when Epste was alive like 10 years ago, nobody cared about but they're only
[32:49]doing it. But now it's it's really hitting back on them because Bill Clinton is such a big part of it. The Democrats are pushing it. And the problem is that it's turning out to be the Democrats that were with and
[33:01]conspired with Epstein. So I think you're probably going to see a little pullback from them. But but think of it, they were working together to try and
[33:11]help me lose the election. But this is the Oval Office, so I guess that didn't work out too well. Okay, one more question. >> Mr. President, do you have an update on
[33:21]US troop level in Europe? Are you planning any force reductions? Now, we have a great relationship with Europe. We have a great relationship with our troops. You know, the greatest one of the best things that I can say is that
[33:32]when I if you go back a year and a half ago, so I'm running election, uh they had the worst recruitment numbers in the history of our country. Nobody wanted to
[33:43]join the military or nobody went wanted to join the police. Nobody wanted to join the fire departments. We we couldn't get anybody to be a proud member of our country.
[33:54]And now, Doug, as I told you before, now we have the best recruiting numbers that we've ever had in our military. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force,
[34:05]we love, and Coast Guard. Uh, I love the Space Force. It's doing great. But now we have waiting lists on everybody wants to join. You know why? Because people are proud of our country. Because our
[34:16]country is doing great. I think Mary can say the same thing. You had lots of people not working so well and now you I mean you just wish you could get them in
[34:27]faster. I know that it's hard hard to get them. >> Yeah. We continue to bring people in and have training programs. We're investing in the training of course. Yes. >> But uh two years ago you didn't see anything like this. It's amazing what's
[34:38]happened. So we have the number one in the history of our country. We've never had more people that want to join our armed forces than we do right now. And a year and a half ago, nobody wanted to
[34:50]join. They were embarrassed by our country. They were embarrassed by our leadership. And now they're proud of our country. And they're very proud of our leadership. And a lot of the leadership is right behind me. Thank you very much, everybody.
[35:02]>> Thank you, press. Thank you, press. >> Thank you, press. We'll turn out. Thank you,