TRANSCRIPT: Donald President Trump Meets with the Juventus Football Club at the White House - 6.18.25
[Video]
President Trump: Thank you very much. We have a great team behind us, Juventus of Italy and a friend of mine is the owner of the team. He's a fantastic business person, a young guy and I think it's got the longest string of ownership of just about any sports franchise, but it does have the record in soccer. That's John Elkann.
President Trump: I think you know John Elkann is a man that has done a fantastic job in the automobile industry, comes from a lineage of winners. And you have Gianni Infantino, as you know, and he's going to have the World Cup here. We have a game tonight. The game was over in D.C., the stadium.
John Elkann: Here, yeah. \[Inaudible]
President Trump: And it's totally sold out, I hope, right?
John Elkann: Of course. Yeah.
President Trump: OK. Great. Well, and you have two great American players on this team and would you just -- where are you, my American players?
Unidentified: Right here.
President Trump: Fantastic. So good luck. I hope you're going to be the two best players on the field. Well, so I just thought you might want to ask questions, anything about the World Cup or the game tonight, but anything about the World Cup would be great and Johnny's right here. So anybody have any questions? And I hope you like the -- well, I'm a little -- he's a friend of mine.
President Trump: It's hard to go against him, to be honest with you, but they have a good team. Who are you playing tonight?
John Elkann: We're playing against the Emirati team.
President Trump: Oh, that's good. Well, they spend a lot of money right \[Inaudible] money. Yeah, it's \[Inaudible]. Is it a strong team, good team tonight?
John Elkann: All teams are good. It's the best teams in the world. We're here in America.
President Trump: Right, Johnny, you think?
Unidentified: Best teams in the world are here.
President Trump: Well, we raised the American flag for you guys today. It looks nice out there, doesn't it, beautiful? Even you agree, right? I think so. Do you agree, no? Most of you agree. So do you have any questions, please?
Question: Do you know the latest on the evacuations out of Israel, Mr. President, and have you been updated on that?
President Trump: No. No, we're having a meeting in an hour. Have a meeting downstairs in one hour. Yeah.
Question: Mr. President on Iran, if regime change does happen there, if the regime falls, do you have a plan for what you think would happen?
President Trump: I have a plan for everything, but we'll see what happens. We've got a ways to go. Look, they should have made the deal. I had a great deal for them. They should have made that deal, 60 days. We talked about it and in the end, they decided not to do it and now they wish they did it and they want to meet. But it's a little late to meet, but they want to meet and they want to come to the White House.
President Trump: They'll even come to the White House. So we'll see. I may do that, but it's a shame. It could have been done the easy way.
Question: Do you think the regime there could fall?
President Trump: Sure anything could happen, right? Of that, sure, that could happen. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on who exactly was running the White House under Joe Biden. Who do you think that was?
President Trump: I think the man in the White House. We have an Autopen President before me. I think it's one of the greatest scandals in the history of this country, one of the biggest scandals. He wasn't making the decision, he was never for open borders, where people came in from all over the world from prisons and gangs and drug dealers and all of that, the mentally insane.
President Trump: He was never for that. He was never for open borders and he was never for -- if you think, he was never for transgender for everybody or men playing in women's sports. He was never for that. Have you ever had women -- could a woman make your team, fellas? Tell me. You think? Be nice. What do you think, think could a woman could make the team?
President Trump: \[Inaudible] managers, what do you think? \[Inaudible] close.
Question: We have a very good women's team, though.
President Trump: You do, but they should be playing with women, right? It's one of those things, one of those things. See, they're very diplomatic.
Question: As you're making your decision on Iran. Obviously, there's been a change from when you were pursuing a diplomatic negotiation. Now, you seem very open to the idea of potentially taking US action. Obviously, you're not going to tell us that. Can you walk us through what contributed to that change, how you got to where you are and making your decision now?
President Trump: Well, I think it started the first night. I mean, the first night was devastating and it really knocked the one side off, as you know. It was a devastating, devastating evening day and uh pretty much proceeded that way. I have a meeting in the War Room in a little while, situation room as some people call it. So we're going to meet, we're going to see.
President Trump: We're in the midst of a -- it's a terrible thing. I hate to see it. I hate to see all that death, so much death and destruction, but death primarily. That's what I hate to see.
Question: Does that mean you haven't made a decision yet on what to do?
President Trump: I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven't made a final. I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, because things change. I mean, especially with war things change with war, it can go from one extreme to the other. War is very bad. There was no reason for this to be a war. There was no reason for Russia, Ukraine.
President Trump: A lot of wars, there was no reason for. You look right up there, I don't know, see the Declaration of Independence. And I say, I wonder if you -- the Civil War, always seemed to me maybe that could have been solved without losing 600,000 plus people. So a lot of -- it's very sad to see. It's very sad to see what's happening.
President Trump: But with that being said, I would say right now, Israel from the standpoint of winning a war is doing pretty well. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, in your meeting today with the uh Chief of Staff for the Pakistani army, did you talk about Iran? Did that come up? Is there anything you can share on that?
President Trump: Yeah, well, they know Iran very well, better than most. They're not happy about anything. It's not that they're bad with Israel. They know them both actually, but they probably maybe they know Iran better, but they see what's going on and he agreed with me. The reason I had him here, I wanted to thank him for not going into the war, just ending the war.
President Trump: And I want to thank, as you know, Prime Minister Modi just left just a little while ago, just left. And we're working a trade deal with India. We're working a trade deal with Pakistan and they were both here. But I was with Modi a few weeks ago. He was here actually, but now we speak to him and uh, I'm so happy.
President Trump: There was a deal that two smart people plus you know they had people on their staff too. But two smart people, two very smart people decided not to keep going with that war that could have been a nuclear war. Those are two nuclear powers, big ones, big, big nuclear powers and they decided -- so I was honored to meet him today.
Question: \[Inaudible] sir, and for anyone who may want to answer, how has the travel bans from certain countries affected fans maybe coming in for the games or is that not considered at all?
President Trump: Johnny go ahead.
Unidentified: Yeah, no, it's not. It's not a concern for us for the games now in the Club World Cup, everything has been done in a very smooth way. We have an excellent, excellent collaboration of course with the president, but with the task force in particular for next year, the World Cup, we have one more year to work.
President Trump: And the learnings that we have this year with the Club World Cup, which is historic as it is to all the Americans because it's the first ever Club World Cup and it's played in the United States of America. So the learnings will have for this will apply them next year. And they're largely sold out. So I don't know.
President Trump: I don't think he's too worried about the travel ban. He doesn't know what the travel ban, I don't think. Johnny, tell me what the travel ban is. He doesn't know what it is. He's largely sold out -- like tonight is totally, I have friends, they heard about this meeting, they said, can you get me tickets? I don't know if I can get tickets, he won't give them to me. Maybe John will give them to me. Yeah, please.
President Trump: Mr. President, two Questions if I could, one about Iran and then one domestically. With Iran, what's your message to Americans both here and abroad, who are not only concerned about the US potentially getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East, but worry about the potential for retaliation here at home?
President Trump: Yeah. Well, I don't want to get involved either, but I've been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I've been saying it for a long time and I think they were a few weeks away from having one and they had to sign a document. I think they wish they signed it now. It was a fair deal.
President Trump: And now it's a harder thing to sign. It's a lot of water over the dam. But it's great. I say it very simply. Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Too much devastation and they'd use it. You know, I believe they'd use it. Others won't use it, but I believe they'd use it. So that's it. It's very simple as far as I'm concerned.
President Trump: They can't have a nuclear weapon.
Question: And then domestically, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley came out this week as the lead sponsor of a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to \$15 an hour. It stands out because he's a Republican. There's still 20 states that have it at \$7.25. Do you support the legislation or the idea --
President Trump: Well, I haven't seen it. I'd have to speak to Josh. He's a very good friend of mine. That's interesting that Josh did that. He may have to think about that one. Some people agree with it, some people don't. Some people say it really turns away business, restaurants close, a lot of things happen. Other people agree.
President Trump: I'd have to speak to Josh. He's a good guy.
Question: For the possibility of an Iran deal, is the destruction or the dismantling of the Fordo Nuclear Enrichment Center, is that a prerequisite for a deal? Is that a red line for you?
President Trump: No, it's just something that people talk about having. We're the only ones that have the capability to do it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it at all. Yeah, we have the best military equipment in the world. You see that with this fight. We have planes that are undetectable flying around like nobody's able to see them.
President Trump: Stealth, you guys want to be stealthy tonight. You can be stealthy, you'll never lose, right? But these are incredible planes and weapons. We have the best weapons in the world by far. Nobody close and we're -- I mean, certain countries take advantage of that. Israel has incredible weaponry. So we'll see what happens.
President Trump: I've been asked about it by everybody, but I haven't made a decision.
Question: Mr. President, you talked earlier today about having daily conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu. How have those conversations weighed on you in terms of getting more involved? You've been lobbying for US to get more \[Inaudible] sir.
President Trump: Look, we talk and I'd like to see everything done. I would have preferred having just an agreement, a strong agreement, verifiable agreement. But it was such a shame. They were so close. Iran was very close to signing what would have been a very good agreement for them and maybe that could still happen, I guess.
President Trump: They do want to come and see us, they want to see me in the White House. That's a big statement, but it's very late.
Question: Is it enough of a statement to hold off getting --
President Trump: We're going to see what happens. Look, we'll see what happens, ending it as soon as you can would be good.
Question: Have you closed the door on meeting with them?
President Trump: No. No.
Question: OK. So it's still open to them coming here?
President Trump: Yeah, I mean they asked if they could come. We'll see if that happens. It's not that easy for them to come. They can't get out. They're in Iran and in one case they wanted to come so badly, but he can't get out because there's bombs dropping all over the place.
Question: Have you seen the Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz interview? It seems like this issue on whether or not the United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters.
President Trump: No, my supporters are for me. My supporters are America First and Make America Great Again. My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. Tucker is a nice guy. He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong and I appreciated that. And Ted Cruz is a nice guy.
President Trump: I mean, he's been with me for a long time. I'd say once the race was over, he's been with me ever since, right? But very simple, if they think that it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me, but nobody thinks it's OK. I don't want to fight either. I'm not looking to fight. But if it's a choice between fighting and them having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do. Maybe we won't have to fight.
President Trump: Don't forget, we haven't been fighting. We had a certain amount of genius to everything, but we haven't been fighting at all. Israel has done a very good job of that, but we'll see what happens. The bottom line is they can't have nuclear. And if Ted, I can't imagine that Ted Cruz said it's OK for Iran to have nuclear, including Tucker.
President Trump: I don't think Tucker says it's OK. The problem is then they get themselves into a thing. They don't want them to have nuclear, but then they say, well, we don't want to fight. Well, you're going to have to make a choice because it's possible that you're going to have to fight for them not to have nuclear.
President Trump: And it's interesting because I did ask Tucker, I said, well, are you OK with nuclear weapons being in the hands of Iran? And he sort of didn't like that, he didn't want to, but he sort of didn't like that. And I said, well, if it's OK with you, then you and I do have a difference, but it's really not OK with him.
President Trump: Therefore, you may have to fight and maybe it'll end and maybe it'll end very quickly, but there is no way that you can allow, whether you have to fight or not, you can allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, because the entire world will blow up. I'm not going to let that happen.
Question: Mr. President, you had a bit of a rowel with President Emmanuel Macron of France the other day at the G-7 --
President Trump: No. He's a nice guy. Look, he said I was going back home to make a ceasefire, not a ceasefire. We're long beyond ceasefire. And I said, why do you say that? Why would you say ceasefire? It's a bad term to use, because a ceasefire means everything's going swimmingly. We'll take a little time off. We're not looking for a ceasefire.
President Trump: We're looking for a total complete victory. Again, you know what the victory is, no nuclear weapon. So I thought it was a very badly worded statement by him and obviously I let him know that.
Question: On the southern border you've had record low numbers for the month of May, 95 apprehensions, zero releases, compared to that of the previous administration exactly a year ago. More than 60,000 releases, what do you attribute that success to?
President Trump: I like you. Who are you with?
Question: Turning Point USA, sir.
President Trump: Well, they're very good turning point. Charlie, very good. See, that's what I call a good question. One out of ten, John, one out of ten, but that's a really good question. No, we had record good numbers on the border and people are coming in, but they have to come in legally. Like some of these guys behind me, they have to come in legally and if they come in legally, we want them, they have to say they love America, they love our country and if they can't say that we don't want them.
President Trump: Thank you very much. Very nice. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hey, Doug, take a good picture. Pulitzer prize winner