TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Announces a New Prescription Drug Discount, 10.10.25
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President Donald Trump: Hello, everybody.
Question: Mr. President.
Trump: Nice to have you. This is a big announcement. We have a lot of big announcements. They're sort of all big announcements, actually. It's wonderful to be in the Oval Office. I think you probably like it the best. You like it the best for press conferences? I sort of do. But today I'm excited to announce another historic achievement in our quest to lower drug prices for all Americans. You know, prices have come way down. We've gotten prices way down for groceries, for oil, especially. Today we broke $60, $60 a barrel. They'll be -- we think the oil is going to be under $2 a gallon very soon. That's about 70 percent lower than what it was just a year ago. So that's a big thing. And when the oil comes down, everything comes down.
It's pretty beautiful to watch. AstraZeneca, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the United Kingdom is committing to offer Americans major discounts on their vast catalog of prescription drugs, one of the great companies, by the way, and a Most Favored Nations pricing clause. So Most Favored Nation is you're going to pay whatever the lowest price anywhere in the world is. That's what you're going to be paying. And I was -- I had it going very well in my first term, but we were interrupted by a rigged election. So I was unable to carry it forward. We started it. But this was something I -- one of the reasons I wanted to run again was we had to have Favored Nations, where the world is not going to be paying just a fraction, just a tiny fraction of what we were paying.
I want to thank CEO Pascal Soriot, very highly respected, one of the most respected men in business and certainly in the industry for joining us today, as well as Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, and Virginia governor, a man who's done an incredible job and good luck with the upcoming election. I know you're working very hard. I watch you; you're right there. He's out there working. He wants to see that young woman win and the attorney general who I endorsed, etc., etc., cetera, Glenn Youngkin. Thank you very much, Glenn. Thank you for being here. For many years, Americans have paid the highest prices anywhere in the world for prescription drugs by far, by far, many times the amount that other countries are paying, ridiculous.
Upon taking office, I signed an executive order to make sure that Americans pay no more for prescription medications than the lowest price for the same drug in other locations in developing nations. Today, AstraZeneca is committing to offer all of their prescription medications to Medicaid at most favored nations prices. In other words, the lowest price anywhere in the world, that's what we get, a move that will save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. And I tell the story, Glenn, that in my first term, I had the honor of being the first president in 28 years to lower drug prices during the course of the year.
And we actually did and I was so proud of myself. We called a news conference, I announced it. It was one-eighth of one percent, one-eighth of one percent. Now drug prices are going to be going down 100 percent, 400 percent, 600 percent, 1,000 percent, in some cases. But for one-eighth of a cent, Bobby, think of that. I was so proud because for 28 years, nobody had done it. And now it's, I think, back to that. I said, I shouldn't have had that news conference, but it is true. I was the only one that did it, but it was not very much. And now we're going to get, in some cases, 1,000 percent reduction. That's going to have a huge impact on everything from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid.
Anything where they're buying any prescription drugs, it's going to have an incredible impact. It's going to lower itself greatly. AstraZeneca will also list many of their most popular drugs online at TrumpRx.gov, TrumpRx -- I don't know why they put the name Trump. I did not tell them to do it, but I'm honored to let them do it. It's true, actually. The heavily reduced Most Favored Nations cost, Americans can expect discounts, and as I said, of it could be in many cases way over 100 percent. And as an example, one particular drug that's hot, very hot, 654 percent, on inhalers, COPD and asthma, as well as certain diabetics medications. They're going to be averaging about 654 percent reduction in price.
You believe that one? The Democrats will say, well, he should have gotten more. It's crazy. In addition, all medications AstraZeneca introduces to the American market going forward will also be sold at these heavily discounted rates. Furthermore, AstraZeneca will invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years for research and development of new drugs and to onshore manufacturing facilities across the country, like the new plant that broke ground yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the governor attended. And they had a tremendous group of people attending. It's going to have 3,600 jobs just to begin with and that's going to be a fantastic plant. I saw a picture. It's going to be the best, right? It's -- you can't get any better. This is a tremendous victory for Virginia and for American patients and for everything, for the country.
It's an amazing company to have coming over to the United States in such a big way. That's going to be a big part of the company. Presidents have promised for years to lower the cost of health care, but my administration is actually the first to do it, and do it substantially, do it at numbers that nobody thought even I thought were not possible. When you think -- think of it, if you got a one percent, two percent, five percent, that's good. You did a good job. We're talking about 100, 200, 300, 500, 700, in some cases, some big, big numbers. And the largest drug companies in the world are working with us to make this a reality. And so I look forward to being at your opening of that incredible facility.
I hear it's something and it's in a great location, Glenn, right, one of the beautiful locations. So I'd now like to ask Secretary Kennedy to say a few words, followed by Dr. Oz, Pascal, Governor Youngkin and we'll take some questions afterwards. Would anybody like to have some -- yes? Oh, I'm shocked. OK. We'll take them right after. OK? Bobby, please.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. I talked about this a little yesterday in the cabinet meeting, but it's worth repeating because it shows the -- this historical achievement is really monumental. When I was in my confirmation process, virtually every Democratic senator showed me their preoccupation with making sure that we completed -- that I was going to continue -- to get a commitment from me to continue the IRA drug price negotiations. The IRA required the Democrats while the President Biden was in, in the first year of the IRA, to negotiate drug prices down. And then I was supposed to my first year negotiate 15 and 15 every year thereafter. And that was their plan. The Democrats claim that they had a 22 percent reduction and that that was a great success.
When we actually looked at that when I came into the agency, we realized we were actually paying more for eight of those -- eight of the 10 drugs. The 22 percent reduction was off of list price and Medicare ended up paying more for eight of the drugs, the equal for the ninth and about a two percent discount on the 10th drug. So that was the plan and that's what they did. We are continuing the IRA negotiations, but thanks to the president's leadership, we have achieved something extraordinary here, which is a dream that he's had for 20 years because he's the common sense president. He saw something 20 years ago. He learned that we were playing three, four, five, sometimes 10 -- 10 times for the same drug as they were playing in European countries.
Some of these drugs were manufactured in facilities in New Jersey and then sold for one-tenth the price in Great Britain, in London or Paris that Americans were being charged for them here. He saw that this was unfair. Every Democratic president, every Republican president has said that this was the -- this was the gold standard. This is what we needed to do. Nobody's been able to change it. And when we came in, I have to say, I was pessimistic about doing MFN. Dr. Oz was pessimistic. Our staff, John Brooks and Chris Klomp and the other people we brought in were all pessimistic. The president saw something that we didn't see, which is we had leverage. And that came through. Howard and the tariffs, and we had extraordinary leverage to -- to craft these deals. So last week we had Pfizer in which was one of the biggest American pharmaceutical companies. Today we have AstraZeneca in with Pascal Soriot, which is one of the biggest European pharmaceutical companies.
And -- and the president saw -- president asked us to do three things, one, to get MFN prices; two, to not bankrupt these companies. He understood that -- understood that America has to be the center for innovation. The drug industry needs to innovate that it's critical for its bottom line. It's critical for the health of the American people. And he asked us also to make sure that those companies would keep their promise to -- to reshore this industry, our national security purposes for our economy, it's -- it's critical. These companies are making these drugs in the United States. We were able to achieve all those things. And partially with the visionary help of Pascal.
Where is he? If Pascal Soriot who understood that innovation and the business doesn't work if if everybody is not pulling the oars, if everybody doesn't have skin in the game, oh, the whole world was riding on our shoulders and riding on our dime, 70 percent of pharmaceutical revenues comes from this country. We only have 4.2 percent of the world's population and we were paying for 80 or 90 percent of the innovation here and the rest of the world was -- was a free rider and Pascal understood that that's not fair and it's not a good sustainable long term business model and he came to the table, he was one of the first leaders to come to the table.
I want to thank him for his vision for operating with us in good faith and this is an extraordinary deal, not only that, but as the president just pointed out, he is also reshoring this industry here. He's building -- he has 19 facilities already operating in this country. He has this other facility in Albemarle County that Dr. Oz went with Governor Youngkin and broke ground on yesterday.
He has a third -- a second facility that is under construction in Kendall Square in Boston, another facility in Rockville, Maryland and a fourth facility in Copper, Texas right outside of Dallas, Fort Worth. And he's got plans for building many more in this country. Thanks to the president's leadership to the tariffs and to the common sense the president has demonstrated in his own commitment to make drug prices lower for hard-working Americans. So I want to thank the president for your visionary leadership. I want to thank Dr. Oz for his part and Marty Makary in negotiating this deal. Dr. Heidi Overton, Theo Merkel, Chris Klomp, and John Brooks, who all played critical parts in the negotiation and of course, Howard Lutnick, who was the key to these negotiations. Oh, who do we -- who do we bring up now? Dr. Oz.
Mehmet Oz: Thank you, Secretary.
Trump: [Inaudible] Uh, he'll take your place. [Laughter]
Oz: Oh, Pascal. I get to introduce Pascal, which I'll do with great joy and honor. So the world is watching as President Trump tries to make peace in every place he can go. But at the same time, President Trump is putting peace into the hearts of Americans and bringing peace of mind to them, especially Americans who cannot afford their medications. And just to put a number on this, as he releases us from the bondage of paying three times more for the exact same product made in the same factory in the same pill box in the same instruction manual overseas -- rather in this country than we pay overseas. It creates an opportunity for us because, Mr. President, you're turning the art of the deal into the art of the heal.
And that is something that you're going to witness today and it's the second we have more coming. But this is a very important one because I want to set the stage here. Mr. Secretary, you're too modest. Secretary Kennedy did have a vision to push hard on this. He understood we could give the right medications to the right people at the right time. And there is nothing more MAHA than giving folks life-saving medications in a timely fashion to prevent illnesses and treat other ones that have already occurred. You save lives that way. That literally is what was on the line as we began negotiating this. So let's set the stage. Where are we right now? Why this order?
Last week in this very room President Trump welcomed the CEO of Pfizer and that company, a leading US pharmaceutical company, pledged to provide exactly what the president promised massive discounts to allow us to have most-favored nation drug pricing in this country. So we don't allow our people to pay more than folks overseas. And this was unthinkable -- unthinkable even six months ago, seven months ago when we came into office and Americans now have the ability to do that, but we needed to prove it was scalable. So we went to AstraZeneca, which is the leading pharmaceutical company, a leading company in the entire world, but a massive opportunity in this march to MFN, a march to most-favored nation drug pricing and to have this message land clearly, we needed to make sure that the president's demand for fair drug pricing was heard all around the globe.
And I actually think the single most powerful tool we had was the president because people take him seriously. And some of the things that they were hearing overseas were alarming them enough that they began to realize the jig was up. So let's talk about the deal specifically. What are the -- John Brooks, if you could be my Vanna White, please? Uh John, back there is Theo, Vince, Heidi were parts of the team. Uh, there are other members of the team. I'll speak of in a second. So these are the five deal points. This is what TrumpRx by the way which just launched TrumpRx.gov, which was a unanimous name by the way, Mr. President. He was not involved in picking the name, but it was not a difficult one to land on. We thought it had a catchy element to it. Um, all primary care medications sold by AstraZeneca are going to be available on TrumpRx, which means no more gaming, no more middlemen.
Starting early next year, when you go to the website, you'll be able to see a marketplace. We're not selling the drugs. We're just making information available to everyone so you go to the right place to buy the right medication. Second, drugs for lung diseases are discounted massively. And that's over here on this line. The president highlighted 650 percent. They're significant discounts and these are medications we just picked the ones for lung disease and one for metabolic syndrome diabetes. But there are others that are included. We have most-favored nation pricing for everyone who is on Medicaid in this country. That's why Governor Youngkin is able to do backflips with his nimble six-foot-six physique because for -- for governors, this is a massive problem.
If Medicaid prices continue going up, it crowds out. Other social services which he'll speak to. We also have MFN for all new prescription drugs. Mr. President, by the time this term is done, 95 percent of all drugs sold in America branded drugs and generic will be available at most-favored nation drug pricing. Americans are going to benefit if prices drop abroad. So Secretary Lutnick is going to make sure that if we get better prices for these companies, from our partner countries overseas, the American people see those benefits and there's going to be onshoring of manufacturing. And as has been mentioned, I stood with Governor Youngkin and Pascal Soriot as we broke ground yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia, a massive $4 billion facility.
That's the hard hat, Mr. President. I know you like construction, so that was all I could bring back. Um, but there was a lot of remarkable energy and here's what that event really does. It sends a signal -- it sends a signal for all countries around the world to stop freeloading off American innovation. It's done. It's not going to happen anymore with this president and if you aren't picking up your end of the bargain, then you're going to be welcoming a lot more companies to leave your shores and allow us to welcome them into our shores as they open up manufacturing facilities here. And for all the pharmaceutical companies out there, we're talking to all of you, pick up a shovel, this is a great place to build a facility as AstraZeneca has shown us. And I think it has a wonderful opportunity in the future as well as this country continues to support the innovation Secretary Kennedy spoke about because we're not compromising that at all.
We're just getting fair prices for the American people. To the team, tough negotiations. Mr. President, you know how hard it can be. You can't get there without world class negotiators and we are blessed by individuals to work with the AstraZeneca team who are killers head to head. And why? Because talented people out of the private sector are coming into government to serve this president in a generational opportunity that they feel in their heart will make a difference. John Brooks is part of that team, Chris Klomp, Inma Hernandez, numerous other folks contributed as well. But we're open for business and if you want a great position in a patriot like the folks who negotiated these deals, please consider coming with us because the president has made it clear that you will make a difference in government.
Finally, I want to thank Pascal Soriot. Pascal is an interesting, almost enigmatic individual. He's the CEO of AstraZeneca. He is born in France, Australian citizen, knighted in Great Britain, running their largest pharmaceutical company. So you figure out the lineage. But one thing I know is a very, very smart man who came here early on, took the President seriously and he recognized the inherent unfairness of the European model of global freeloading off our innovation. He appreciated the challenge and he wanted to be part of the solution. So Pascal, take it away.
Pascal Soriot: Thank you so much. So President Trump, it is really a pleasure to see you again, since I had a chance to meet you last time you visited the UK for your state visit. I know the King actually kept you late during the night, during your visit, late up at night. And I must thank you actually for returning the favor. I can tell you, you've kept me up at night and my team as well, but it has been really worth it. It's been worth it because today I'm really excited to announce AstraZeneca's commitment to your vision for a healthier America. Great leadership is about having an ambitious vision that can energize people and you appoint a very talented team that can deliver on this.
Your vision is exactly that. It is about lowering the price of medicines for American patients while ensuring that America remains a global powerhouse of innovation in biopharmaceuticals and that's not easy to do. We need to keep inventing the technologies and the products that will cure disease. But you actually gave us a key, equalization. That's an important word. You've assembled a remarkable team actually that together with us, found a way to deliver on your vision. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for your collaborative and your trusting approach throughout the discussion that led to this agreement. In addition, I would like to thank Secretary Lutnick.
I'd like to thank Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Oz and the CMS team, in particular, John Brooks, who is here today, but also Chris Klomp for their very straightforward approach and their collaborative work that together with my great team at AstraZeneca enabled us to deliver this agreement today. It is an agreement that allows a number of wins. First of all, a great win for American patients. This agreement will deliver improved access to our medicines at a lower cost. We've addressed the four points that you raised in your letter, ensuring Americans do not pay more than patients in other wealthy countries. So it's a big win for patients and the healthcare system as a whole.
But it's also a big win for the economy and for taxpayers because it supports rebalancing the cost of innovation across wealthy nations. For too long, America has shouldered a disproportionate portion of the world's R and D costs for breakthrough medicines development. That imbalance is not sustainable. It had to change. And equalization levels the playing field with wealthy nations contributing their fair share to the cost and the risk associated with biopharmaceuticals R and D. And I would say it's also a big win for state budgets because this Medicaid price reductions will have an immediate impact on Medicaid budgets and provide substantial relief to state budgets. Finally, your vision also secures America's strong position in life sciences and the onshoring of critical innovations and manufacturing. As a company. We will invest $50 billion in manufacturing and R and D. We already have a large presence in the United States. We have 19 sites and we employ 25,000 people around the country.
They're all developing the new generation of medicines, but we'll continue to increase our presence in this country. We're expanding our manufacturing footprint in Texas. We're building our second large R and D center in Kendall Square in Boston. We are building a cell therapy manufacturing plant in Rockville, Maryland. And there is more to come, so a lot of investment over the next few years. I want to say that I appreciate very much Secretary Lutnick granting us a three-year tariff exemption to localize the remainder of our products. Most of our products are locally manufactured, but we need to transfer the remaining part to this country, and also for your great support to convince other wealthy countries to share the cost of pharmaceutical innovation.
It is an important part of this agreement, rebalancing and the cost around the country -- around the world. Yesterday, I showcased our commitment to the United States with this $4.5 billion investment in the beautiful Commonwealth of Virginia to manufacture what we call API, active ingredients for medicines, but also antibody drug conjugates that are such a critical part of the future treatment of cancer care, which is called a smart chemotherapy, targeted chemotherapy. I want to thank Dr. Oz for joining us for the groundbreaking ceremony near Charlottesville, together with Governor Youngkin. And I actually love your AstraZeneca hat. I know you wanted to bring a shovel but didn't make it to this beautiful room. I have to say, it has been a really great pleasure to work with Governor Youngkin and his team in particular Secretary Segura on this investment.
Like you, President Trump, they are dealmakers that move at the speed of business and it's very important for us company to be able to work with people who understand who we are and move very fast. Our new facility will be a great example of Virginia supporting domestic production of medicines for America, enhancing national security in pharmaceutical supply, but also creates thousands of highly skilled jobs. Governor Youngkin gave me a beautiful Virginia flag that we will proudly fly alongside the American flag in front of our new facility. So AstraZeneca's commitment to the United States is very strong and this agreement ensures we'll make an even bigger difference for American patients. So Mr. President, thank you again for welcoming me in this beautiful office and for making this moment possible. Thank you so much.
Trump: Thank you very much, Pascal. Thank you very much.
Soriot: Over to you, right?
Glenn Youngkin: Amazing. Well, first of all, I just want to thank everyone for celebrating this landmark moment. This landmark moment is not just a moment to announce a new way to buy less expensive life-saving medicine, but it is a step function change in the way that Virginians and Americans can access medicines. And it is a step function change because historically there was an opaque pricing mechanism that had so many people standing between the manufacturers and the patients that no one knew really what it cost. Well, now we can go direct to consumers and that's what TrumpRx is all about, going direct to consumers, where a consumer can come and find that particular medication that they need and go direct to the company and get the best possible price. Second of all, the Most Favored Nation clause is a groundbreaking moment.
It's a groundbreaking moment because as you've heard, that American customers have been paying three, four, five times what international customers have been paying. That is just not fair. And Mr. President, I want to thank you for simply recognizing that America must come first and Americans deserve the best pricing, not the worst. It changes everything for a state. In Virginia, we have a billion and a half dollars a year of pharmaceutical expenditure under our Medicaid plan a billion and a half dollars a year. We save 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent. All of a sudden, $150 million, $300 million, $450 million in savings can be realized by a state.
Now, I firmly believe that's the people's money and it should go back in tax relief. But think about the change that that enables for a state as they manage their health care expenditures. Finally, Mr. President, you have driven a reshoring of critical supply chains that no one thought could happen. The industries that everyone thought were lost are now coming home and with pharmaceutical manufacturing and active pharmaceutical ingredients, particularly coming back to America, it changes everything. It's an economic moment for us, yes, $4.5 billion into the Virginia economy and that will in fact translate into $3 or $4 of extra economic impact for every dollar that is spent, 3,600 great paying jobs, but it's even more than that. This is a national security moment. And what you've just heard is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world is choosing America, and yes, Virginia, to invest nearly $5 billion to build the most critical manufacturing for the future of America's health.
It's not just a single example. It's happening all over. And, in fact, in Virginia, Mr. President, we've been blessed with nearly $10 billion of commitments to build new pharmaceutical manufacturing in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. And therefore, I believe this is a moment to celebrate to celebrate investment, but more importantly to celebrate breakthroughs for American citizens to get access to life-saving medicines at cost that they deserve because they're all made here. Mr. President, you and your cabinet have been amazing. As a governor, I have found that the cooperation with every one of your cabinet members and, sir, yes, you has been beyond compare that I could ever imagine. I want to thank you for helping us make Virginia great again too. Thank you. Thank you.
So we have at this moment, I think we just cracked $18 trillion in commitments and investments in our country. As an example, the last administration was far less than $1 trillion for four years. We're at plus $18 trillion for eight months. There's never been anything like it in history in any country anywhere in the world. So that's great, but maybe for purposes of this more importantly, we're going to bring drug prices down at numbers that nobody ever thought possible, Glenn. I think nobody ever even thought it was possible. So we're going to be doing a lot of business, but we're going to be also numbers that when you're two, three, four, 500 percent less.
I just noticed one of them over here, 654 percent discount, 654. The laggard is 98 percent, right? Nine -- is that what? 96 -- 96 -- 96, 238, 654 and we have some that top that by a lot. So it's -- it's really going to be incredible and that's going to be so good for Medicaid and Medicare and everything frankly for your life, it's going to be so good. So nobody ever thought they were going to see and don't let Democrats take the credit because you know they'll try, they'll say, oh, we worked so hard on it. They didn't work hard. They did -- they obstructed, they actually did the opposite. So that's really more important than even the tremendous investments being made in our country.
But think of it we cracked $18 trillion, with a T, trillion dollars and, uh, frankly $1 trillion for four years wasn't that bad. He did less than a trillion, but we did that in a period of eight months. So it's pretty, pretty record shattering by by many trillions of dollars, any country no matter what country you're talking about nobody's done numbers like that. So thank you all for being here. Do you want to have a couple of questions? Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, one on this if I could, one on China, if I may. Um, first on this, could you have brought these pharmaceutical companies to the table without that 100 percent tariff that you imposed?
Trump: Well, it's not 100 percent. You're talking about China, it might be 100 percent.
Question: I'm talking about the 100 percent you imposed on pharmaceuticals for that sector.
Trump: I would never have been able to bring them. Now, I'm not sure that Pascal would like to say, but behind the scenes he did say tariffs were a big reason he came here and also the fact he loved Virginia, he liked this guy, he liked me. I think the November 5th election was a very important date. We had a good election and that was important. But yeah, he -- he's here, a lot of -- a lot of -- I can speak for almost everybody that's here. Most of them are here because of tariffs because you have to understand he has no tariffs. If you build in this country, there are no tariffs so.
Question: Let me ask you about China, if I could. I just want to confirm, have you canceled your meeting with President Xi and --
Trump: No, I haven't cancelled but I don't know that we're going to have it, but I'm going to be there regardless. So I would assume we might have it. But, you know, they hit the world with something that really is not anything that people are going to do and -- and it's, uh, it was shocking. I can tell you, Howard and I and Todd, we all we -- all -- Scott, we're all speaking about it before. And it was -- we said where did that come from? It was just -- that was out of the blue right out of the blue. They came up with this, uh, whole import export concept and nobody -- uh, nobody knew anything about it.
Question: So if they rolled back their export controls in the new announcement, would you roll back --
Trump: Yeah, well they -- look, we're going to have to see what happens. That's why it made it November 1st. We'll see what -- what happens, yeah.
Question: Mr. President, the last time -- Mr. President.
Trump: Go ahead, please.
Question: What else besides software could be on the table in terms of export controls?
Trump: Oh, a lot more -- a lot more. I mean, you have -- you have software, but you have a lot more. We have airplanes, we have airplane parts, you remember that from last time? And we were just surprised at China. I have a very good relationship with President Xi and they did that. This is not something that I, you know, instigated. This was just a response to something that they did and they didn't really aim it at us. They aimed it at the whole world. The whole world is -- uh, is subject to it. So I thought it was very, very bad. But we have many things including a big thing is airplanes, they have a lot of Boeing planes and they need parts and lots of things like that. Steve?
Question: [Inaudible] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the Gaza deal and what will be your message to the Knesset when you speak to them?
Trump: Well, he wanted it, you know. It's been a long time, he's been fighting a long time. He's been fighting hard, he wanted it. It's a great deal for Israel, but it's a great deal for everybody for Arabs, for Muslims, for everybody, for the world. And as you know, on Monday, the hostages come back, they're getting them now. I mean, they're getting them now. They're in some pretty rough places, under Earth. There are some pretty rough places. Where only a few people know where they are in some cases, so they're getting them. And they're also getting the bodies uh, approximately 28 bodies and, uh, some of those bodies are, uh, being unearthed right now as we speak.
I mean, they're working on it right now as we speak. It's -- it's a tragedy, it's a tragedy. No, he was very happy with it. And I can tell you that I saw Israel dancing in the streets, but they were dancing in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE. And many, many countries, uh, I saw Egypt, they were dancing, I'll be going to Israel. I'll be speaking at the Knesset, uh, I think early on. And then I'm also going to Egypt. They were terrific, but all of the countries were great. Indonesia was great. Jordan was great. They were all great. Everybody -- everybody wants this deal to happen.
Question: What happens in Gaza the day after the hostage release?
Trump: Day after what?
Question: The day after the hostage release, what happens there then?
Trump: Well, hopefully you're going to have great success for -- I call it, everlasting success. I think you will too. I think, uh, I think you're going to have tremendous success and Gaza is going to be rebuilt and you have some very wealthy countries as you know over there. And it would take a small fraction of their -- their wealth to do that. But -- and I think they want to do it and we're also -- we're also setting up, as you know, a Board of Peace. It's called the Board of Peace. I don't know if that's the final name, but the word peace is definitely in there. And they asked me if I chair it, we'll make sure things go well.
Question: And how confident are you that the cease fire will hold?
Trump: I think it will hold, yeah. I think it will hold. They're all tired of the fighting. Don't forget you had October 7th, which was a horrible day, 1,200 people killed, but, uh, Hamas has lost 58,000 people. That's big retribution -- that's big retribution, people understand that. So no, I think they're all tired of fighting. And this really gives the whole Middle East, this is beyond Gaza. Gaza is very important, but this is beyond Gaza. This is peace in the Middle East and it is a beautiful thing. You know, it's a term that you and I have been hearing since we were very young, right? And now we have a chance of really having that.
And as you know, most of the countries have passed all these resolutions, every country is there. Iran came in. I was very happy to see that. I was very honored that Iran came in. They said they supported. Russia came in. President Putin, he supports it fully very fully. So I was happy to see even countries that weren't necessarily involved in the process, they all supported it. I don't know of anybody that doesn't. And I've never seen happier people than many of these places, not just Israel. Many of these places. They're all dancing in the streets. I've never seen anything like it. Mr. President, go ahead please in the back.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: Go ahead please in the back.
Question: Sir, thank you. And what guarantees did you give Hamas to persuade them that Israel won't restart the bombing campaign once the hostages have been exchanged?
Trump: What did I do with respect to them? Well, you know, I spoke a little bit tough and that's what would happen. I mean, you have to speak tough. That's a tough world. That's a tough, as they say, neighborhood and they're tough people, they're very tough people and they're smart people that good negotiators, you know, they have a lot of things going. They put that to good use. They're going to be very, very successful, but they knew the retribution would be tremendous, unsustainable. It would have been unsustainable, would have been -- it would have been complete obliteration and, uh, they didn't want that and nobody wants it at this point. They want to get on with, you know, rebuilding the entire Middle East.
It's not only Gaza, it's going to be the entire Middle East. They're going to be able to live in peace. Now we have some little hotspots, but they're very small. You know, the ones I'm talking about, they're very small. They'll be very easy to put out those fires are going to be put out very quickly. Yes, ma'am.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Talking about the Middle East still, going to the phases that come after this first phase, is there a consensus on the additional points in your plan or are the details still being fine-tuned?
Trump: I think there is consensus on most of it and some of the details, like anything else, they'll be worked out. Because you'll find out that when you're sitting in a beautiful room in Egypt, you know, it's easy to work something out, but then sometimes it doesn't work from a practical standpoint. So certain little things, but for the most part, there's consensus, yes.
Question: Do you intend to hash that out when you're in Egypt?
Trump: I might. Yeah. I mean, I'll be there because I'll be going to -- I think I'll go to Cairo. I think that's where we're going, as opposed to the place of the signing. And we have a lot of leaders from all over the world coming too. I know they've been invited. And then I'm coming back, I believe it's Tuesday night, for Charlie Kirk, a friend of mine, a friend of all of ours, a friend of a lot of the people right here. And we're giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor you get outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor, one's military, one's civilian. But it's -- it's the greatest honor. And Erika, his beautiful wife, is going to be here and a lot of people are going to be here. So you know, it's not easy for me to get back. It's -- it's a very quick trip, but I'll be making two major stops and then I'll be on the plane trying to get back in time for Charlie. They're going to have a great celebration at the White House, in the East Room of the White House.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: Yeah, please.
Question: Russell Vought said the reductions in force have begun related to this shutdown. How many layoffs have you authorized for this first round and from which agencies?
Trump: Well, quite a lot and it will be Democrat-oriented because we figure, you know, they started this thing, so they should be Democrat oriented. It'll be a lot and we'll announce the numbers over the next couple of days. But it'll be a lot of people all because of the Democrats. I mean, they want to give $1.5 trillion to people that came into the country illegally. More important than that, because we all have a big heart, we want people to be taken care of, but, you know, we have zero people coming in. You know that, Glenn, right? That's -- that's a pretty impressive number even for a successful governor. But we've had for the last four months, zero people coming in illegally.
They're coming in, but they're coming in legally. They're coming in through a process that's really, a really good process right now because we want people to come in, but they have to come in legally. So what we're doing is as -- as these different groups come do, we're going to make a determination, do we want them a lot? And I must tell you, a lot of them happen to be Democrat oriented. These are people that the Democrats wanted, that in many cases were not appropriate. We fought them at the time and it was ultimately signed in. And some of these people, these are largely people that the Democrats want. Many of them will be fired. Yes, please, behind.
Question: Yeah, the Nobel Peace Prize was announced this morning. Your thoughts?
Trump: Which one?
Question: The Nobel Peace Prize, your thoughts?
Trump: Look, I -- including a very big one, and I'm not sure, you know, when you say big, it's certainly, I think, to the mind of most -- the most important deal ever made in terms of peace. But the one we just signed, it's been signed, sealed and it's going to start taking place now. It's already started. Monday is going to be a very big day, when the hostages come back. But I made eight deals, transactions of wars, one was 31 years going on, 10 million people were killed. One was 34 years. One was 36, 37. One was 10. One was just starting. Two were just starting, actually, but they were well on their way. In the case of India and Pakistan, seven planes were shot down. It was -- it was a bad one.
And I did it largely through trade. I mean, that one. Numerous of them, I talked tariffs, I said, look, if you're going to do that, we're going to put very big tariffs on your country. And they were both great. They stopped, stop fighting and they were two nuclear powers. So you know, they're all big, they're every one of them big. You take -- you take a look at the Congo. You take a look at the Congo and Rwanda, 10 million people killed over a long period of time, got that one solved. We -- we did a total of eight as of this -- two days ago, I would have said seven, which I did say, but the other one was signed up, sealed. As you know, the -- Israel signed it just now.
They signed it and they approved it today, their parliament, and it's a great honor to be involved with so many. So the person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me and said, I'm accepting this in honor of you because you really deserved it, a very nice thing to do. I didn't -- I didn't say then give it to me, though. I think she might have. She was very nice. And I've been -- you know, I've been helping her along the way she they've -- they need a lot of help in Venezuela. It's a basic disaster. And you could also say it was given out for '24 and I was running for office in '24. You know, all of the transactions that we did in terms of closing.
But there are those that say we did so much that they should have done it. But I don't take -- I'm happy because I saved millions of lives, many millions of lives. And speaking of somebody that saves lives, don't ever play golf with him, because Keegan Bradley just walked in, one of the greatest golfers in the world, the captain of the Ryder Cup. And man, I'll tell you, you did a good job. You almost came back. I turned on, I said -- you know, I sort of turned off, it wasn't looking good. And then a little while later, I turned on. I said, you guys might make it. That would have been the miracle. What a great job. He's respected by those golfers like nobody. And I just want to compliment you, Keegan.
That was an incredible job right here. We have a lot of unfriendly, fake news media, but -- and he's not used to that. He's used to getting only good publicity, I think, Howard. These are all golfers, but you're some golfer. I'll tell you that, and some -- some leader. Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you, Keegan.
Question: Mr. President, on China?
Trump: Yeah, please.
Question: On immigration, ICE are making arrests, targeted arrests at courthouses in New York City and around the country [Inaudible]
Trump: Criminals. They're arresting criminals. That's right. Yeah. Go ahead.
Question: What's your reaction to that?
Trump: I'm happy about it. I want them to arrest criminals. And if you take a look at DC, a year ago, DC was -- this, our great capital was a very unsafe place. You know that. Some of you were mugged and uh talk openly about it. Some of the media was mugged. But right now, DC is one of the safest places in the whole country. The restaurants are booming. They're opening up new restaurants. The restaurants are all closing. Now you can't get into a restaurant. They're opening up new restaurants. It took 12 days for us. We sent in, not politically correct military. We sent them in based on merit. You know, we won the case in the Supreme Court. Everything now is based on merit. Our country was founded on things based on merit. Like, Keegan Bradley is not going to be playing golf if he wasn't a great player. He's -- if he shoots lower scores, it's -- boy, there's no more merit system than that one, Keegan, right? You either -- if you miss a putt, they don't say, oh, that's OK, let's take it again, do they?
Question: No.
Trump: No, it's based on merit, Everything is based on merit and we're back to the merit system. And when they saw that military, that military is all about merit. They're big, strong people that want to -- they're patriots too and you take a look at DC, and now we're in Memphis. And Memphis was really crime-ridden. It was terrible, a lot of people being killed. And they say in 12 days, they can't even believe how much better it is. And it'll take probably a month over there. And we're heading to Chicago because we want to save Chicago. Do you know they had over 4,000 people killed in Chicago over a short -- 4,000 people and I have to watch this slob of a governor stand up and say that, well, everything's OK, we've got it under control.
They had 4,000 people murdered over a very short period of time. It's -- there's not a city in the world, I don't believe that can claim -- you know, you hear so much about different -- I won't, you know, embarrass anybody, like by saying Mexico City or by saying anywhere in Afghanistan. There's no place like that. And then I have to listen to the mayor who's got a five percent approval rate, maybe less. He's an incompetent man and the governor is an incompetent guy. He's a guy that was thrown out of his family business, like a dog. And I know his family very well and now he's a governor. And when I watch him trying to say that it's OK, we have crime under control.
I lost 4,000 people over a very short period of time, over, I believe it's like 6,000 or 7,000 people were shot, but didn't die, but 4,000 people died and then he gets up and talks about how it's not a problem. Or Portland, Oregon. I mean, every time I look at that place, the place is burning down. There's fires all over the place. When a store owner -- there are very few of them left. But when a store owner rebuilds a store, they build it out of plywood and they don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up because they know it's going to be ripped down. And then I hear how wonderful it is. It's not wonderful. It's a disaster.
That's almost an insurrection, that place. So we put our people in there and they do the job and they've really done the job. And the beautiful thing is we've done it. Twelve days, we had this place safe and now it's -- I would say, within a month it was beautiful and it continues to be. That was three months ago. I'll tell you, DC now is one of the hottest places, just like this country. We were a dead country and you've heard me say it a hundred times. We're a dead country. King of Saudi Arabia said it, others say. The Emir of Qatar said it many -- UAE ---- said it, the leader, great leader, UAE. All great leaders.
They said effectively the same thing, one year ago we had a dead country, now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I just want to thank everybody and I want to in particular, thank AstraZeneca. What a great company you have. What a company you've built. You've been there a long time and done some job. It's an honor to have you. I assume you're going to build -- so it's $4.5 billion for a plant. That's a pretty big plant, isn't it? I was going to say, could he make it a little bit more? Well, we have a couple of them where they're going to spend $65 billion on one plant. You know, the AI. All I know is it's -- you know, AI is based on information.
I hope they're right about information. I don't know. You got to make a lot of money to -- there's got to be a lot of information out there, but that seems to be pretty hot. But we have a lot. We're -- we're leading the world on information on AI, as you know, by a lot. It's not even close. So we're doing a job. And I want to thank everybody, but in particular, Pascal, thank you very much. It's a great honor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Have a good time.