TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Bilat with Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, 6.16.25
[Video]
President Trump: OK. Thank you very much. We all know the great prime minister of the UK and we just signed a document. This is -- oh, sorry about that.
Keir Starmer: A very important document.
Trump: A little windy out here. Give me that. We just signed it and it's done. And so we have our trade agreement with the European Union and it's a fair deal for both, going to produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income and we have other many other ones coming. But you see the level of enthusiasm is very good, but the relationship that we have is fantastic. So I just want to congratulate you.
Starmer: Well, Donald, thank you very much. This now implements on car tariffs and aerospace, our really important agreement. And so this is a very good day for both of our countries, a real sign of strength. So thank you again, Donald, a really important day for both of us.
Trump: Great people. Great people.
Question: Has anything changed in the agreement since you spoke on the phone from the Oval Office?
Trump: Not much.
Starmer: No. This is [Inaudible]
Question: Mr. President, may I ask you a question, please? G-7 leaders are calling for de-escalation in Israel and Iran, but you are the key to unlocking that.
Trump: And here I am.
Question: And here you are. So can I ask you, sir, have you spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu? When might you speak to him and what will you say?
Trump: [Inaudible] Israel is doing very well as you probably noticed and I gave Iran 60 days and they said, no. And the 61st, you saw what happened, day 61. So I'm in constant touch and as I've been saying, I think a deal will be signed or something will happen, but a deal will be signed. And I think Iran is foolish not to sign one.
Question: Mr. President, Iran is accusing Netanyahu of attacking them to deliberately derail your nuclear plan that you had. What do you say to that? Do you think that's true?
Trump: No, no. Look, Iran should have signed the deal.
Question: And if it would help bring Iran to the negotiating table, would you guarantee that the US would not get involved militarily?
Trump: Well, I think this, I think Iran basically is at the negotiating table. They want to make a deal. And as soon as I leave here we're going to be doing something, but I have to leave here. I have you know this commitment. I have a lot of commitments. I have a commitment to a lot of countries, including the UK, where we just signed our deal.
Question: Mr. President, where are you settling on steel tariff with respect to the UK? Are those going to zero or are they staying at 25?
Trump: We're going to let you have that information in a little while.
Question: On Russia Ukraine talks, sir. [Inaudible] Russia talks, when will that be starting?
Trump: They're starting already.
Question: Mr. President. Do you agree to the European push to apply more sanctions on Russia? Does the US support that?
Trump: Well, Europe is saying that, but they haven't done it yet. Let's see them do it first.
Question: You told me earlier that you could sanction Russia, why wait? Why wait to sanction them?
Trump: Because I'm waiting to see whether or not a deal is signed.
Question: Can you guarantee the UK won't be --
Trump: And don't forget, sanctions cost us a lot of money. When I sanction a country, that costs the US a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money. It's not just, let's sign a document. You're talking about billions and billions of dollars. Sanctions are not that easy. It's not just a one-way street.
Question: And just quickly, do you think that Israel can -- [Inaudible] submarine agreement, is that still proceeding? You've initiated sort of review of that.
Starmer: Yeah. We're proceeding with that. It's a really important deal to both of us. I think the president is doing a review. We did a review when we came into government, so that makes good sense to me, but it's a really important --
Trump: We're very long-time partners and allies and friends and we become friends in a short period of time. He's slightly more liberal than I am, to put it mildly.
Starmer: We stand slightly on the left.
Trump: But for some reason, we get along.
Starmer: We make it work.
Question: Mr. President, did you just say -- Can I ask one thing on Russia? [Inaudible] way of [Inaudible] Israel? There is quite a few British folk worried by [Inaudible] can you reassure --
Trump: No, no. I just -- saving lives. I only care about saving lives. We have nothing to do with it except that Biden stupidly let us get into that mess and gave them $350 billion, $350 billion and yet despite that, you saw how we did in the Middle East. We took in $5.1 trillion. We have $15 trillion almost looking around that number going to be invested in the US. So the money is not the thing in this case. It's 5,000 young people are being killed every week in Russia, Ukraine. And if I can stop that, I'll be very happy. They're Ukrainian and they're Russian. So you could say what am I doing, but I'd like to see if I could stop it.
Question: Mr. President, would you consider going -- Do you think that Israel can fully eliminate the threat that Iran poses, this nuclear threat that they pose without the United States' military help?
Trump: Who said that?
Question: No, I'm asking if you believe they can.
Trump: It's irrelevant. Something's going to happen.
Question: Mr. President, would you consider traveling to the Mideast as part of any talks if it would help broker a deal with Iran?
Trump: Yeah, yeah, but I think we're doing pretty well. We're talking.
Question: So you don't think you'll need to?
Trump: We have a thing called a telephone, so we're talking, but it's always better to talk in person.
Question: Mr. President, do you want to see regime change in Iran?
Trump: I want to see no nuclear weapon in Iran and we're well on our way to making sure that happens.
Starmer: And we've had a discussion about that this morning in the G-7, absolute clarity in relation to the nuclear program. We do not want to see it.
Question: Mr. President, millions of people are so anxious about -- [Inaudible] tariffs --
Trump: What?
Question: Do you guarantee the UK will be protected [Inaudible] --
Trump: The UK is very well protected. You know why, because I like them, that's why. That's their ultimate protection. Thank you very much. The prime minister has done a great job. I want to just tell that to the people of the United Kingdom. He's done a very, very good job. You know, he's done what other people -- they've been talking about this deal for six years, right?
Starmer: Six years.
Trump: And he's done what they haven't been able to do. So he's done, really, a very good job.
Question: Wondering if you responded to Tucker Carlson, criticizing you for saying that you were complicit in the war.
Trump: I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so the people listen. Thank you.
Question: And quickly, have you spoken to Zelenskyy before your bilat? Any more trade deals to come, Mr. President?
Trump: Yeah, a lot of them.
Question: Japan?
Trump: A lot of them.
Question: How did it go with the Japanese, sir?
Trump: Well.
Question: Thank you. Where are you on 51st state?