TRANSCRIPT: President Donald Trump Remarks at White House Roundtable, 6.9.25
[VIDEO]
President Trump: Some of the things you're reading about in Los Angeles, thank goodness we sent out some wonderful National Guard. They've really helped. And a lot of problems that we're having out there. They were afraid to do anything, and we sent out the troops, and they've done a fantastic job. So I want to thank them very much. I also want to thank you for being here as we discuss one of the most exciting parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill. It is indeed a big, beautiful bill, and it's doing very well. The Trump accounts, as they call it, pilot program, which will make it possible for countless American children to have a strong start in life at no cost to the American taxpayer. Absolutely no cost. It's going to have a huge impact. I want to thank House Speaker Mike Johnson for number one, being a great Speaker, and number two, perhaps slightly less important, for being here today. Thank you, Mike. Along with Chairman Jason Smith, who's fantastic, and Representatives French Hill, August Pfluger, Blake Moore, Rob Bresnahan, and Frank Lucas. Thank you all, fellas. Thank you very much. We appreciate it very much. Thanks as well to many top business leaders from Invest America CEO Council. It's been a wonderful council. They've come up with some fantastic ideas. We're putting them into use. They're really the greatest business minds we have today. These men and women lead large, successful companies, and they're committed to contributing millions of dollars to the Trump account. And it's really going to be something incredible for children and for their employees, in many cases. Here's how the accounts work. For every U.S. citizen born after December 31, 2024, before January 1, 2029, the federal government will make a one-time contribution of $1,000 into a tax-deferred account that will track the overall stock market. In other words, it'll be pegged to an index that we'll pick. Right, Michael? We'll pick it. We'll pick a good one. Maybe you should be the index. I'd like to have that. These kids would be very wealthy, if that were the case. That would be good. I think we might do that, Michael Dell. These accounts will be private property controlled by the child's guaranteed guardians. And in many cases, those guardians will be the parents. We think probably the parents will be the guardians. They'll be open for additional private contributions each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations, and more. This is a pro-family initiative that will help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to lift up the next generation. And they'll really be getting a big jump on life, especially if we get a little bit lucky with some of the numbers and the economies into the future. In addition to the substantial financial benefits of investing early in life, extensive research shows that children with savings accounts are more likely to graduate high school and college, buy a home, start a business, and are less likely to be incarcerated. Trump accounts will contribute to the lifelong success of millions of newborn babies. They are fully—and this will be very interesting, I think, for everybody to hear—they are fully funded through targeted reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill, like the $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings welfare reforms to stop waste and fraud, a 3.5 percent remittance tax, and more. And it's just a part of that. The One Big Beautiful Bill is among the most important pieces of legislation in our country’s history. I don't think there's ever been anything bigger. And I think it's going to go down as one of, certainly, the most important things we'll ever have done. In addition to the largest tax cuts in the history of our country, including the most powerful border security measures ever, it delivers major economic relief to American workers, families. And there are so many things—rebuilding our military. We built it just eight years ago. We started and did a great job, but now we have to rebuild it again. Plus, technology change. All of a sudden, it's about drones. You know, we have a new form of warfare. It's drone warfare. So a lot of things change. We did a great job with the military, but now we're going to have to do some little tweaks, to put it mildly. And we'll be doing that. And we have it all nicely funded. I look forward to signing this into law. It's really something that we're having such an opportunity. And I have to say, he's here with us. He's a person that I've admired for a long time. You take a look at what he's done and followed his record. And it's Dell Chairman Michael Dell. He's done such an incredible job. As a business person, I study business people, and that's a perfect one to study. It should be almost mandatory reading. So I want to congratulate you on that. And thank you for the idea, because you're the first one that really brought this to my attention. I know that you and your friends have been talking about it for a long time, but other presidents didn't get it done, Michael. Right? So we got it done. Congratulations.
Michael Dell: Thank you very much, sir. I want to also give some recognition to my friend Brad Gerstner, who helped get us all organized.. And actually spearhead of this.
President Trump: And also, we have with us a very powerful man in the world of business, CEO David Solomon of Goldman Sachs. David, thank you very much. Thank you for your time, friend. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Where is Khosrowshahi? Thank you very much. That's a hell of a name, but you've done a hell of a job. So it's said—that's appropriate. And also, again, Chairman Smith for doing such a job. Nobody knows taxes better than Chairman Smith. When we have a problem, Mike, we go to see Chairman Smith. Right? So I want to thank you very much, Dara and Chairman Smith. I appreciate it. So I'd like to begin by asking Speaker Johnson to say a few words. And I think then we're going to go to Michael Dell, David Solomon. We're going to go to Dara and then to Chairman Smith. Thank you very much.
Speaker Johnson: Mr. President, thank you so much for your bold visionary leadership. It is the key to all of this great success that we are achieving. And the one big beautiful bill, it is not an overstatement to say it will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress. There's a lot in here. And by extension, or I would say it is an extension of the figure who I believe will be the most consequential president of the modern era, if not all American history. And that's the gentleman sitting to my left. So I want to thank you for that.
President Trump: Thank you very much. A beautiful statement. Well, I like him, too. Thank you.
Speaker Johnson: It's a statement of objective fact. And every working American understands, I think, the principle behind this concept that we're discussing today. If you have a 401k, you understand the power of investing early for the future. Trump accounts take that same principle and they apply it from the very beginning of Americans’ lives. It's a pretty simple concept. The families that opt in will receive a one-time payment of $1,000 to a Trump account that parents can contribute to. It's a bold, transformative policy that gives every eligible American child a financial head start from day one. Republicans are proud to be the party that we always have been that supports life and families and prosperity and opportunity. And Trump accounts are all about setting up the next generation for success for future Americans. This early investment could really be the game changer. It could be a difference. It could pave the way for paying their way through college or buying their first home or starting a business even when they're young. So even a thousand dollars at birth will put these Americans in a better position than over half of American adults who sadly have no retirement savings at all. So this would be a remedy to that great problem. And it will encourage the free market. It will encourage investment and understanding of capitalism. All these things that we want to foster among the American people so that the economy and individual lives can flourish. Of course, none of this happens unless we pass our one big, beautiful bill through Congress. And we have at stake the largest tax increase in American history if we fail to deliver. And we will not have this rocket fuel to the U.S. economy. And that's why this is so very important. Passing this pro-growth legislation will help every single American, from Trump accounts—this is one of the components of it—to eliminating taxes on tips and overtime to reducing red tape on Main Street. And the one big, beautiful bill is going to drive prosperity. It's going to create jobs across the country. It will make all boats rise. Wages will go up. Job participation levels will go up. We'll have more opportunity, more economic opportunity for more people. You can climb up that ladder to the next step. The typical family with two children is going to see their take-home pay increase by up to $13,300 a year. That's real money to real people. This legislation is geared for hardworking Americans, and it is going to help everybody. And we are excited to deliver it. It can't happen soon enough. We are very close now to that finish line after about 14 months' worth of work that's gone into this. We're excited that we're almost there. Mr. President, thanks again for your leadership to all the great leaders around this table for all that they invest to our economy and our country and its government. And I will, as we say in the House, I'll yield back.
President Trump: Thank you very much, Mike. I appreciate it. And again, for a great job. Thank you very much. Michael, please.
Michael Dell: Thank you so much, Mr. President. I believe this is an incredible moment for all of us here today. And it's wonderful to be with some of the leaders of the most successful companies in the world as we come together to invest in the future of our country. We see the Invest America Act and the establishment of these Trump accounts as a simple yet powerful way to transform lives. Decades of research have shown that giving children a financial head start profoundly impacts their long-term success. With these accounts, children will be much more likely to graduate from college, to start a business, to buy a home, and achieve lifelong financial stability. Dell Technologies is proud to be one of the very first companies to support the Invest America Act, the bill that provides every child with a thousand-dollar seed investment account at birth. This is a straightforward step with enduring benefits. Following your inspiring lead, Mr. President, Dell Technologies will match the government's contributions, dollar for dollar, for every child born to a Dell team member. This isn't just a new benefit, this is an investment in our people, their families, our communities, and America's future. And it embodies our core belief that opportunity should begin at birth. My wife, Susan, and I also, through our family foundation, have been closely studying the Invest America Act. And assuming that it becomes law, we expect to make a very significant gift. We view this initiative as a powerful platform for philanthropic innovation aimed at helping children thrive wherever they come from, particularly those families who have been historically left behind. Mr. President, you articulated it perfectly. These Invest America accounts will give every new American child a genuine opportunity to participate in history's greatest engine of economic growth, the American economy. The funds in these accounts invested in American enterprise and innovation will grow over time into substantial nest eggs, providing support for education, home ownership, and starting families. The ability of families, friends, benefactors, and employers to match the government's generosity amplifies the life-changing potential of this initiative. Thank you, Mr. President, for your visionary leadership on this critical issue. These Invest America accounts will profoundly impact countless young Americans, ensuring they truly benefit from what Abraham Lincoln described as the right of every American—the right to rise.
President Trump: Thank you very much, Michael. We really have come a long way since you came to see me about six months ago with your beautiful wife. We had a nice talk. I said, that sounds pretty good. Let's think about that. And it's everybody I've spoken to about it, they can't even believe it. And because of great politicians and political leaders like we have, I think this is going to go quickly. Very well and very quickly. So I appreciate it. Thank you very much. David Solomon, please.
David Solomon: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm thrilled to be here with everyone and excited to participate in this important and timely discussion. I'd also like to acknowledge the efforts of so many in Congress on this very significant issue, and in particular, the members here and particularly the leadership of Senator Cruz and Representative Moore, who have played a big role in helping drive this forward. We also wouldn't be here today without the leadership of Brad Gerstner and Michael Dell and really having the vision, the energy, the passion, the commitment to help move this forward. So thank you both. There are many reasons why the United States has the largest and most dynamic and most innovative economy in the world. But one of the most important is the fact that our system of democratic capitalism incentivizes a culture that does not penalize people for taking risks. In fact, it incentivizes people to have a vision to go out and attract funding that's necessary to make their vision a reality. It is no mistake that many of the most important innovative companies in the world today started in a parent's garage or on a college campus or in any one of a number of unlikely places in the United States. One of my worries is that our current system, our current one of my worries is that our current and future generations of young people don't fully appreciate and aren't as educated as well as they can be on markets and capitalism. And while capitalism is not perfect, it helps fuel the American dream. This initiative gets at the core of binding those future generations to the benefits and the potential of America's great companies and markets. Early childhood investments have far-reaching benefits, and Goldman Sachs is proud to support this initiative. This is an exciting opportunity for public-private partnership and for both communities and companies to invest in young people. The future of America. Once we see the Invest in America Act signed into law, Goldman Sachs would be excited to further support this Invest in America initiative. We believe passionately in our capital markets. They're an enormous competitive strength for the United States. And we know that our economy's future vitality is dependent on young people understanding the power of investing for the long term and sharing in the benefits of ideas that bring value to the lives of people around the world. Thank you, Mr. President, for helping drive this forward. And I look forward to continued partnership on this effort.
President Trump: Thank you very much, David. Dara, please.
Dara Khosrowshahi: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mr. President, for hosting us here today. It's an incredible honor to be here in a place that symbolizes the very opportunity that has defined my life. Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Michael, for your vision. We all strive to build something that lasts, and the Invest in America Act is a legacy that is going to last for generations. President Trump, thank you for your leadership. Your support is going to turn this powerful idea into powerful reality for millions of young Americans. Now, I was nine years old when I came to this country and my family arrived in America having fled the Iranian revolution. We had lost everything that we had built, but we gained something far more valuable here. We gained a chance to rebuild again. We had a close-knit family. We had access to world-class education, and we had the one thing that fuels every American dream, and that's hope. So what if we could bottle up that hope? What if we could give that same power of hope, real tangible hope that comes from having a stake in your own future and a stake in the best companies in the world to every single child that's born in this country? That's the promise of the Invest America Act. It's not just an account, it's a launch pad. It puts the unstoppable engine of compounding to work for our kids, building a future for them from day one. This mission is personal to me, and it's core to us at Uber. Every day we see people using our platform to create opportunities for themselves, to save for home, to pay for tuition, to build their own American dream one trip at a time. And that's why Uber is so proud to support this bill, which also includes benefits for millions of Uber drivers and couriers in the form of no tax on tips. Mr. President, our earners are grateful for your support.
President Trump: Thank you very much. Right. What a great job. You know, when you think we're doing a lot of work on Iran right now, and I see that what you just said, you came here and they took it all away from you and you started and you've become one of the biggest anywhere in the world. What a great story that is. Thank you very much. Congratulations. We wish you all the success there. I thank you very much. We'll need it. We're going to need it for that. They're tough negotiators and tough. They're great negotiators. Yes. Among the best. Look at you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Jason, please.
Rep. Jason Smith: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to first start off by thanking you for your leadership, your vision, your commitment to workers and families throughout this country. The one big, beautiful bill would not have been possible without you. And it delivers the largest tax cut in U.S. history, the largest mandatory spending cuts in U.S. history, the most significant welfare reforms in U.S. history and the largest one-time investment in border security. So it's things to be extremely proud about. Representing Southeast Missouri, I'm extremely proud about how you're delivering for working families. No tax on tips. A waitress like the waitress in Nevada that talked to you about no tax on tips and the other four hundred— four million tipped employees in the country, they will see an extra seventeen hundred dollars in their paycheck because of the no tax on tips. That's significant for someone who's just trying to put food on their table and clothes on their backs. The linemen working overtime to restore power will get an additional seventeen hundred and fifty dollars into their paycheck. Seniors will get seventy-two billion dollars in tax cuts. The Trump investment accounts will be a game changer for new parents, even before their newborn baby can walk or talk. Their child will have money saved to one day learn a trade, start a business, or to buy a home. Every child, every child born under this policy will have a better shot at a future. It does not matter if they live on a city block or on a county road. This will make a significant difference to their lives. And it's because of your leadership, Mr. President. And we say thank you.
President Trump: Well, thank you very much, Jason. And hopefully we're going to get that through. And we have a certain date picked out, an ideal date. It takes a little longer. That's okay. But ideally, we're going to get by a certain date. And again, I think it's one of the most important pieces of legislation we've ever had before us and that the country has ever had. I'd like to ask if I might. Brad Gerstner, one of the most successful people in our country, a friend of Michael very much. And Michael has great respect. And if you don't mind, Brad, I'd like to say a few words, please. Thank you.
Brad Gerstner: Well, first, it's a great honor and privilege to be here. We wouldn't be here without your leadership. And for me personally, to be here with my son, Lincoln Gerstner, happens to be named after the gentleman over your right shoulder.
President Trump: Where is Lincoln? He's good looking. He's much better looking than you. What happened?
Brad Gerstner: You know, hey, we all want our kids to be better than ourselves. But it was around our small kitchen table that this idea was really born. I started off like Jason Smith in a small rural town in Indiana. My dad had lost everything in 1978 trying to start an auto parts company. And the Japanese were tearing apart our auto industry. We had double digit interest rates and inflation. Our family mortgaged the house to keep the company going and ultimately lost everything. So I know a little something about starting with nothing. And I know what it felt like that first time you had a little skin in the game where you thought you had a shot. You went from nothing to something. And like Dara said, that is the great story of America, the promise that there's mobility, the promise we can move up that ladder. But today, we've moved to a society of dependency. I saw somebody answer the White House's tweet on this today by saying the answer to socialism is more capitalism. This is more capitalism. This is aligning every child in America with the upside of free markets and the benefits. And that is your Main Street agenda, Mr. President. No tax on tips. That doesn't help rich folks. That helps the people who feel left out and left behind. No tax on overtime, no tax or deduction on Social Security and the Trump accounts. That everybody in this room are here and we've been working so hard on but would never come to fruition without your leadership. Those will change the game forever. It makes America an ownership society again because all of those kids will see the benefit of compounding. If you start with a thousand bucks and seven hundred and fifty dollars is added a year by parents, grandparents, by churches, by the companies in this room who will all contribute to the accounts of the kids of their employees, by the great philanthropists in America. I think seven hundred and fifty dollars is a low estimate per year. I think so. But if you start if you do that by age 18, Mr. President, these are worth fifty thousand dollars. By age 30, they're worth one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. And if you do it every year of your life, at age 50, they're worth a million bucks. You are giving the shot for every American to feel like they're in the game again. Part of America with that economic mobility, that dream that led Michael Dell to start Dell Computer in his dorm room. Dara to feel like he had a shot after coming here from Iran and a couple of poor kids from Missouri and Indiana to make it to where we are today. So thank you for your leadership. This would not happen without the reconciliation bill and the work of the many in this room. But spearheaded by the Speaker and Jason Smith, the big, beautiful bill. This is the vehicle to get the Invest America Act passed. So thank you, sir.
President Trump: Thank you very much, Brad. Great job. And nobody knew I was going to call you. He might have done the best job of the group. I've got to think about that. My good recommendation, Michael. Does anybody have any questions? I think it's something that's really got to be talked about because it's somewhat of a miracle that we're close to pulling it off. Please.
Speaker Johnson: We put Independence Day as a self-imposed deadline. And we certainly hope, I believe, we can still meet that. It's up to the Senate. The bill is in the Senate's hands now, but spoke with Leader Thune as recently as last night. He's feeling very optimistic. You see the Senate going through the same deliberations we went through in the House, except we had 14 months to do it. They've got a truncated time period to get that done. But as you all know, I've encouraged my dear friends and colleagues over there don't modify it too much because we've got a very delicate balance that we reached in a time when it took us a long time to get there. And we don't want to upset that balance too much. So they're putting their fingerprints on it. I think I hope it'll be a light touch and I'll send it back and we'll get this thing done and get to the President's desk.
President Trump: And really, we have tremendous spirit. I've never seen anything like it. There's just an unbelievable. We'll always have a couple of people. I don't want to use the word grandstanders. I never use such a word, but you'll always have that a little bit. But maybe you won't even have that. Who knows? Tremendous spirit for this bill. I think, like we haven't seen very much, Jason, right? We haven't seen too much. So I think it's going to go pretty quickly.
Question: With Prime Minister Netanyahu, you just mentioned Iran. Did you discuss Iran? Did you discuss the Gaza war?
President Trump: Yeah, we discussed a lot of things and it went very well. Very smooth. We'll see what happens. You know, we're trying to do something with a country we just spoke about, Iran. I think you should negotiate this. You might be. But I think I'm going to send you today. What a good idea. This could have been the idea of the day. We'll have Derek get up and negotiate. They are good negotiators, but they're tough. Sometimes they can be too tough. That's the problem. So we're trying to—we're trying to make a deal so that there's no destruction and death. And we've told him that and I've told him that. And I hope that's the way it works out. But it might not work out that way. We'll soon find out. Yeah, please.
Question: When you were talking about unrest in American cities, you said, quote, "We have to go by the laws. We can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested by a governor." What changed now? Why is this situation different to not consult with Governor Newsom about this ?
President Trump: Well, the biggest change from that statement is we have an incompetent governor. So I talked about governors, but I didn't talk about—he's an incompetent governor. Look at the job he's doing in California. He's destroying one of our great states. And if I didn't get involved, if we didn't bring the guard in—and we would bring more in if we needed it, because we have to make sure there's going to be law and order—you had a disaster happening. And they now admit it was a disaster. I watched the chief yesterday—was a good man, by the way—and he said, "Well, we're lucky we did this because they would have—they were overwhelmed." You saw what was happening. So we did the right thing. Everybody agrees to that. But you have a governor who let the city burn down and didn't want water to be sent down to him. And I said billions of gallons of water. I said I wanted to do it in the first term. He wouldn't do it. Over—I don't know. They have environmental reasons, but there were no environmental reasons. I think it's just a political philosophy, but it's lucky for the people in Los Angeles and in California that we did what we did. We got it just in time. It's still simmering a little bit, but not very much. Yeah, please.
Question: You called for his arrest, what crime has he committed?
President Trump: I think his primarily—primary crime is running for governor because he's done such a bad job. What he's done to that state is like what Biden did to this country. And that's pretty bad. It's a wrong philosophy. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them prisoners, are taking up your health care. They're taking up your space in schools. They're taking up your hospital. And in many cases, they're criminals. And we have to do something about it. And we're doing something about it. I want to thank the incredible patriots of ICE and Tom Holman, who has been incredible, and Kristi Noem, likewise, incredible. The job they're doing. And it's like an unforced error. There was no reason for this. Twenty-one million people were allowed into our country and many of those people were criminals. And it's a shame. It's a shame. But we're getting them out. And I will say, I think it's a ninety-five to five issue, just like so many other issues. Ninety-five five. And the Democrats lost an election in a landslide because they're on the wrong side of the issues. I mean, there's this it's not even conceivable that somebody would do the kind of things that he did. And then, you know, you talk about projects. They want to build a train going from San Francisco to L.A. And it's costing hundreds of billions of dollars more than they thought it was going to cost. It's not even believable to Brad and to people sitting here. Would you believe that a train it was going to cost X dollars and it might be 100 times X would have paid for this for about 50 million American children. You're right. Fifty million American children instead of a three mile train track that never got built. We could have put Lincoln in charge. With no experience, he would have done a good job. I guarantee you that. All right. Please, Peter.
Question: So it seems like Gavin Newsom likes the attention that he's getting right now from you. It seems like he does. If you look at recent history, somebody who was running for president, you who got arrested and had a mugshot, you could make the argument that politically that wound up helping you. Are you worried at all at this moment that talking about him getting arrested could be helpful to his political prospects? Because a lot of people think he wants to be sitting right where you are.
President Trump: Well, in my case, it was a witch hunt and everybody knew it. And I was able to explain that during the process. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. And it was a total witch hunt disproven to be a witch hunt. And you see what's happened in his case. It really is very obvious. You look at what's happened between the fires, between it. I could name 10 things right now. We talk about the trains. We talk about all of the costs in California. You talk about all of the people that are flowing and destroying life for everyone else. So, no, I don't think it's going to help them. I think it's I think it's actually very bad for them.
Question: And right around the time that we were walking in here, the governor and the state attorney general said that they're going to sue you for sending the National Guard. And they're saying there's no invasion, there's no rebellion. The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the president's authority under law.
President Trump: Well, you know, it's interesting. You watch the same clips as I did. Cars burning all over the place, people rioting. And by the way, we stopped it. We were able to make it much better, but it still looked pretty bad. And in watching clips last night, people were saying, this is really a big problem. And until we went in, if we didn't do the job, that place would be burning down just like the houses burned down. They were in big trouble last night, Peter, you know, and the night before and the night before that. And I feel we had no choice. I don't want to see I don't want to see happen what what happened so many times in this country. I watched Minneapolis burn. I watched. Look at what happened in so many different parts of California. You take a look at what happened in San Diego. There's so many different places where we let it burn. We want to be politically correct. We wanted to be nice. We want to be nice to the criminal. And what you're doing is destroying the fabric of our life in this country. No, we we did the right thing. We've been given credit for by people that I would least suspect why I would say that some of the people that came in and said, thank goodness, they said some of them. Thank God that Trump got involved. And I'm very happy I got involved. And I think Gavin, in his own way, is probably happy I got involved. Yeah, go ahead.
Question: What do you make of the fact that he says you want a civil war on the streets of America?
President Trump: No, that's just the opposite. I don't want a civil war. Civil war would happen if you left it. If you left it to people like him. And I liked him. You know, I always got along with him. Never had a problem with him, but he's grossly incompetent. Okay.
Question: Have you gotten an update from your team in London negotiating the China trade talks?
President Trump: We are doing well with China. China is not easy. Just like just like your your home country is not easy there. I think we're doing very well. They're over there now. I'm only getting good reports. It's a little early, but they'll be calling in soon. In fact, probably when I get back, I'll have my first call from them. We want to open up China. And if we don't open up China, maybe we won't do anything, but we want to open up China. It'll be a great thing for China. Great thing for the rest of the world.
Question: Are you going to lift export controls when it comes to China? Did you give your negotiators any sort of limitation?
President Trump: We are going to see. Look, China has been ripping off the United States for many years. Nobody charged them 10 cents. No president had the courage to charge China for whatever reason. They didn't want to do it. I took in hundreds of billions of dollars. I put on tariffs on China when I got in first term and we took in hundreds of billions of dollars. And then I did it again, but I did it for a lot of others. If you look at the stats, the deficit last month was cut in half. Everybody was shocked. I wasn't shocked. I think a lot of the people at this table weren't because they saw the billions of dollars that were pouring in and the tariffs hadn't even started yet. Just about there weren't cars. They were in some countries at a very minor level. And we cut the deficit in half. And it was a big story a couple of days ago. They said, I don't believe one of the announcers on a business network went wild. Said, I can't believe these numbers. Those numbers are good. The numbers are going to be very good. I think we're going to have a great four years. You know, we had the greatest economy in history during my four years. I think this one's going to blow it away. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Question: Do you have a message for Greta Thunberg? And did she come up on your call with the Prime Minister today?
President Trump: Well, she's a strange person. She's a young, angry person. I don't know if it's real anger. It's hard to believe, actually, but I saw what happened. She's certainly different anger management. I think she has to go to an anger management class. That's my primary recommendation for her.
Question: Was she kidnapped by Israel as she says, was she kidnapped?
President Trump: I find it. I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg. She said that?
Question: Yes, and secondly, are you going to get rid of the Tesla and the Starlink service that you have here at the White House?
President Trump: No, I haven't heard that. I mean, I may move the Tesla around a little bit, but I don't think we'll be doing that with Starlink. It's a good service.
Question: Where are you going to move it to move it around? What do you mean?
President Trump: I have a lot of locations. I had so many locations that I don't know what to do with them all.
Question: Did you ever see Elon Musk get physical with the Treasury Secretary?
President Trump: No, I didn't. They did have an argument, but I didn't see it. I didn't see a lot of physicality there.
Question: And there was this New York Times report that he did not want to talk about. Elon Musk alleged that he, towards the end of his time in the White House, was blurring the lines between recreational use of drugs and medicinal. Do you think he ever had drugs here at the White House?
President Trump: I really don't know. I don't think so. I hope not. Look, I wish him well. You understand. We had a good relationship and I just wish him well. Very well, actually. Yeah.
Question: You mentioned now the flotilla. Do you have a response at all about Israel intercepting this boat? And can you give us an update on what's happening to the entry of aid into Gaza right now? We've had people being shot by Israeli forces who are trying to get from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
President Trump: Yes. Gaza right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas and Israel and Iran, actually, has involved. And we'll see what's going to happen with Gaza. We want to get the hostages back. It's all I can tell you. Yeah, please. In the back.
Question: You said yesterday that it was not insurrection taking place. But then on Truth Social, a bit later, you'd said they were insurrectionists after what you're talking about in L.A.
President Trump: Yes, sir. And I wouldn't call it quite an insurrection, but it could have led to an insurrection. I mean, that was a serious—that was a lot of—that was a lot of harm that was going on last night. I watched it very closely. And it was amazing, the job that the National Guard did. And by the way, the police were working very hard also. But, you know, the police are given instructions to be politically correct. I said, no, no, you don't have to be politically correct, you have to do the job.
Question: On Elon Musk, do you plan to speak to him on the phone anytime soon?
President Trump: I haven't really thought about it, actually. I would imagine he wants to speak to me. I would think that if I were him, I'd want to speak to me. But maybe he was already called. You'd have to ask him, ask him whether or not he's already called. But I'd have no problem with it. Well, I don't want to say that, but, you know, but I would imagine he'd want to talk to me. Yeah, please.
Question: You were supposed to get a counter proposal from iran today, have you gotten that proposal? And what is the main impediment…
President Trump: We have a meeting with Iran on Thursday, so we're going to wait till Thursday.
Question: And what's the main impediment to getting a deal?
President Trump: Well, they're just asking for things that you can't do. They don't want to give up what they have to give up. You know what that is. They seek enrichment. We can't have enrichment. We want just the opposite. And so far, they're not there. I hate to say that because the alternative is a very, very dire one, but they're not there. They have given us their thoughts on the deal. And I said, you know, it's just not acceptable. I would say, yeah, I don't know what else I can talk about—the weather. Pretty much. Pretty much. That's the main topic. Yeah. We talked about Lebanon also. Yeah, we did. Well, Lebanon's working very hard. They have a great new ambassador that I put there. Man, I know very well. He's very smart. I didn't even know he was Lebanese. And I said, why would you want Lebanon? He said, I was born there. I love it. I love the people. I said, you know, it's very dangerous going to Lebanon. There are some ambassadorships that are wonderful. There are some that are dangerous. I said, Michel, his name is. It's a he, Michel. Very elegant man. And I said, why would you want this? And he said, because I love my country and I love those people. I said, it's very dangerous. He goes, I don't care. This is not a man that lived in danger. He's a very successful man from here. And he wanted to be the ambassador, despite probably a very dangerous situation he's going into. You see what's going on. But I had great respect for that. He loves that country. He loves it. He was born there. He loves the country. Yeah.
Question: The President, you've got a big, beautiful parade coming up on Saturday.
President Trump: We do.
Question: What's your biggest expectations for that? Then I've got a second question in regards to Gavin Newsom. But go ahead and talk about some beautiful parade.
President Trump: It's such a thank you, Brian. It's such a, I think, important moment for this country. You know, two weeks ago, I was calling people and back and forth with leaders, including President Putin, including French President, including lots of different people. And all of them said, we're celebrating victory in World War Two. And I said, wow, isn't that amazing? We're the only one that wasn't celebrating, and we're the one that won the war. Now, Russia did help. They did lose 51 million people, in all fairness. People would say, oh, he's sticking up for Russia. No, they lost 51 million people. And, you know, can't forget that. But France was celebrating. And, as you know, Hitler made a speech at the Eiffel Tower. But when I spoke to President Macron, he said, oh, we are celebrating the great victory of World War Two. And I think that's great that he was doing it. But we're the one that won it, and we weren't celebrating. I said to myself, isn't that crazy? And I think it's time for us to celebrate a little bit. You know, we've had a lot of victories. We won two world wars, and then we go out and change the name of the forts, where we won the wars. You go out, we win world wars from Fort Robert E. Lee, from Fort Bragg, from all the different forts. And what do we do? We change the name of the forts because we want to be politically correct. So a lot of them, we're changing back. You probably noticed Fort Bragg and others. But I think it's a time to celebrate our military. You know, we've rebuilt our military largely. A little low on ammunition. That's because it goes out very fast to other countries, one in particular. But we're—we'll get that back very quickly. But we have a military the likes of which nobody has. Nobody comes close. We have the best equipment in the world. We make the best equipment in the world. There's no military like our military. We showed that with ISIS. I was told by the television generals it would take four years to win. And we did it in three weeks, and it was headed by General Raisin Caine, who's now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He's great. Just left him. No, I think it's time that we celebrate. And I sort of have to laugh at these people. Well, you know, you're going to spend a lot of money. A lot of that money is being paid for by me and people that make donations. I don't know if you know that. A lot of it won't even come out of the military. I think I can say that, Susie, right? We have people putting up money to do it. Not that it's necessary, because I think it's a great expenditure. We have many tanks. We have all sorts of new ones and very old ones. Old from World War One and World War Two. It's really a celebration of the Army. So the Army is a year older than the country. So next year, we celebrate 250 years. But we're celebrating the Army on Flag Day. And it's not my birthday. It is my birthday, but I'm not celebrating my birthday. I'm celebrating Flag Day. It happens to be the same day, so I take a little heat. But Flag Day is the appropriate name. And we're celebrating 250 years of the Army. A great service. And remember, you know, think of it, we won so much. We won World War One, World War Two, so much else. And then we became politically correct. But I can only tell you that I was told that ISIS would take anywhere from four to five years. And we did it in three weeks. You were there. You watched, right? We have the greatest military in the world. Nobody can beat us. As long as we have our right leadership, nobody can beat us. If we have stupid people running it, like you had in Afghanistan, when you look at that. First of all, Afghanistan should have been an easy victory as a war. But we were so, so sad the way we fought it. So ridiculous. We fight not to win. And but we didn't used to be that way. And we're celebrating because I think the day in Afghanistan was the saddest period of time in the history of our country. That was run by—I was—a Biden mess with bad generals like Milley and others. They were bad. They were incompetent generals. I know all the good ones and the bad ones. We got rid of most of the bad ones, but it was time to celebrate. And that's what we're doing. So it's on June 14th, and it's going to be a parade the likes of which I don't know if we've ever had a parade like that. It's going to be incredible. We have Arab—even though it's the Army—we have a lot of those Army airplanes flying over the top and we have tanks all over the place. So we have thousands and thousands of soldiers going to bravely march down the streets. It's going to be a beautiful day, I think. And we're going to celebrate our country.
Question: You spoke of leadership. And real quickly, speaking of Gavin Newsom, is he the right leader for California, considering how massive their economy is and all this U.S. investments coming in? Is he the right governor and leader for the future of California and for U.S. investments?
President Trump: I don't think he is. I mean, I think he's done a terrible job. And, you know, as a guy, I always got along with him. You look at his past statements about me. I was a great president. I always took care of California, you know, all that. But I'm just talking on results. You look—you know, here's the advantage of beautiful weather, maybe the best weather of any state. When you think about it—beautiful weather, beautiful ocean, beautiful everything. You have all the advantages. And he didn't take advantage of that. And he's let people come in by the millions who are overrunning your hospitals, your education system, and your police. Your police are being overrun. Look at what's happened. He should only be happy I sent in the military, because if I didn't send him in, you would have had a problem there the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. Yeah, please.
Question: Thank you, Brian, very much. On supersonic flight, on supersonic flight, supersonic. Yes, sir. I know you just signed an executive order on it. Do you want to see a supersonic Air Force One in the next 10 years or so?
President Trump: Oh, well, I don't care too much about that, but I would like to see—you know, if you think about it, flight, the word flight is an interesting word, but it's probably the only category where we've actually gone backwards. Because we used to have the Concorde, and we could fly to London, Brad, very quickly and nicely. And today, it takes you two times and three times as long. It's the only thing where we've regressed. By the way, the Concorde, to my way of thinking to this day, Michael—because you're very much into aesthetics, I know—but to this day was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. It was a piece of art, the beauty of the Concorde. It was the most beautiful plane. But it was—it was, you know, got you there in half the time. Now you spend a lot of time, and there's no reason for it because, you know, they have the sonic boom. It's not a huge problem, but they have the sonic boom thing pretty well figured out. The technology changes—the change in the skin, the change in weight—all of the other things. There's no reason why we shouldn't do great. So we are making it possible for them to do supersonic and get us back on the track. I mean, think of it—30 years ago, we actually had planes that flew much faster than we do now. It took you half the time to get to a location. So we've regressed, and we're going to progress. Sort of an amazing, amazing thing. We've gone backwards. On Wall Street, they haven't done that. If Goldman Sachs was like that, you wouldn't have Goldman Sachs anymore. Yeah, please.
Question: Are you going to deploy Marines in California?
President Trump: We'll see what happens. I mean, I think we have it very well under control. I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It's now heading in the right direction. And we hope to have the support of Gavin because Gavin is the big beneficiary as we straighten out his problems. I mean, his state is a mess. And I'd like to get somebody involved in the rail because I—look, personally, it should have never been built because you can fly there for $2. And what are you doing? They're doing that. You could drive. You could do lots of different things. You know, if they did a study, if you gave every passenger the finest limousine service in the history of our world—the most expensive chauffeur-driven white glove limousine service—back and forth, we would have saved billions of dollars as opposed to building this monstrosity that's going up. And I've never seen anything—you know, I've seen cost overruns. I'm a person. I've always done well on cost overruns. I don't have them. But I will tell you, I have never seen cost overruns—you see it where they're 20 percent more, 50 percent, 100 percent more. These are thousands of percent. Nobody even knows. They have no idea. And it was supposed to be from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Well, they just made it way outside of Los Angeles where it's stopping in the middle of, I don't want to say nowhere because I happen to like one of those little cities very much, but it's way short of the destination. And our government is saying, you know, why are we involved in this thing? It's been handled so badly before him, but he really blew it. So, you know. All right. One more question.
Question: Your time at Camp David, can you speak to what discussions were had there and the purpose of that retreat?
President Trump: Well, I don't want to speak to discussions. I mean, I told you what we were there for a little bit. We had discussions on many topics. We had a group of people, a large group of people, including generals and admirals and lots of others. And all I can say is our country is in great shape. We're in great shape economically. The bill that Mike and Jason and all the people are working on is going to be, I think, amazing. I think it's going to be one of the most important pieces of legislation we've ever had in this country. It's going to do things that you wouldn't believe. We're going to, you know, I have a very simple phrase. We ran an election on very simple words, make America great again. That's what we're doing. We're making it great. We're making it safe. We're making it beautiful. And we're making it very wealthy again. You know, wealth is okay. Yeah, you need wealth to take care of lots of other people. We have to make our country better. It has to heal from four years of abuse. Our country was abused badly by a very incompetent person and a group of people that weren't incompetent, but they were radical left lunatics. And they ran the country with an auto pen. And I hope that law enforcement's looking at that very seriously. That's like a takeover of our country in a certain way, because this guy had no idea what he was doing. You saw that during the debate. You saw that in other cases. I mean, he had no idea. I saw it years ago. By the way, 40 years ago, he had no he was he was bad 40 years ago. We're not just talking about and they always like to say age, but it's not age. I know people, 88, 89, 92. Bernie Marcus, who just passed away, was 95. I spoke to him a year before. He was 100 percent age. It's something else. But whatever it is, you can't have that in this country. The damage he's done to this country is unbelievable. But the good news is we've got much of it fixed already and the rest of it will happen. Thank you all very much. Thank you.