TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Bilat with Lee Jae-Myung of South Korea, 8.25.25
[Video]
President Trump: Well, that's a big crowd. This is a very large crowd. You get more than most countries. I have to say this is a very good crowd of the media.
Lee Jae Myung: [Inaudible]
Trump: It's an honor to be with President Lee of South Korea. Uh, we've known each other and gotten along very well. We have, uh, some additional trade because I hear they want to renegotiate the deal, but that's okay. I don't mind that. Uh, that doesn't mean they're going to get anything, but I don't mind. But we're going to have some very serious discussions about different things, including, uh, trade, where we do a lot of trade with South Korea, as you know. We are thinking about contract -- contracting some ships. They build them very well in South Korea. They're also thinking about coming to our country with some shipyards to start us on the process of building ships again. You know, at World War II, we built a ship a day. And today, we don't build ships anymore, which is ridiculous. We're going to start that again. But we were the -- we were like you. We were building ships all the time for everybody. And uh, presidents and people allowed that to slip by. And now we buy ships, but we're going to be buying ships from South Korea. But we're also going to have them make ships here with our people using our -- our people. And we're going to go back into the shipbuilding business again. Because really essentially, we don't build ships anymore, which is ridiculous how that ever happened. But we were the best at it. And you can take a look at World War II, in particular, where we were doing virtually a ship a day. And it's hard to believe. These were tankers and different kinds of ships. But we were very active. And you see a lot of those shipyards sitting there idle, but they're not so idle anymore. And you're going to come in also. And you're going to be doing a lot of ships in this country. So I look forward to that. But we have a lot of other trade things here, a big purchaser of our military equipment. We make the best military equipment in the world. And you saw that recently with, uh, if you take a look at what we did with the B-2 bomber, which you have one right there. They gave that to me. I guess the company gave that to me. The B-2 bomber was so, so successful in what took place in the little excursion that we made. 36 hours. And it wiped out the -- nobody's ever seen anything like it. 36 hours back and forth. Not a -- not a thing went wrong. Not a screw was missing, not a bolt was missing, not a plane, not even a little bit of a problem. And we actually had 52 tankers. We had many planes, but you know, you looked at the B-2, the way they handled that. Every single bomb hit its target. So they understand that we make the best military equipment in the world, and South Korea is a big buyer of military equipment and we're going to talk about that also. And we have many things to talk about and I look forward to it. And it's a great honor to be with you and congratulations on your election. That was a big one. And we're with you, 100 percent. Thank you.
Lee: [Via Translator] Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you on behalf of the Korean people. I would like to thank you for giving your time for today's meeting. And I heard that you recently redecorated the Oval Office and I would like to say that it looks very bright and beautiful. And it has the dignity of America and it symbolizes the new future and prosperity of America. I believe that making America great again is your goal and I believe that that is what is currently taking place in America. And I think the most symbolic thing of that is the Dow Jones index, which reached a record high recently, although it went down a bit, but it reached a record high. And so I think that America is becoming great again. So I believe that there is a renaissance taking place not only in the ship building sector but also in the manufacturing industry and I hope that Korea can be a part of that renaissance. And one thing that I would like -- that I wanted to say to you, is that America's role, not as a keeper of peace, but a maker of peace is being more -- is emerging more evidently. Many wars in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and in the Middle East are coming to peace because of the role that you are playing. So among the many world leaders, I believe that you are the only leader who has made such accomplishments. And I would like to mention that the only remaining divided nation in the world is the Korean Peninsula. And I would like to ask for your role in establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula. So I look forward to your meeting with chairman Kim Jong Un and construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf at that place. I believe he will be waiting for you. Korea was able to attain economic growth and development through our ironclad alliance. And going forward, I hope to develop our alliance into a future-oriented-alliance that encompasses areas not only limited to security, but also the economy and science and technology. The Korean people have great expectations for you, Mr. President. Thank you once again for your time.
Trump: Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to be with you. I will say that Kim Jong Un and I had a very good relationship, as you remember, and still do. And when I came in, I didn't know him. We had two summits, but we became very friendly, respect. It was great respect and it was not going to be that way had Hillary Clinton won the election. It would have been a disaster. But we think we can do something in that regard with respect to north and south. And I think you are much more prone to doing that than other leaders that I've been working with from South Korea, and we'll work on that. I think it's very good to work with that. If you remember, you were doing the Olympics and there was a great time of hostility with North Korea and you weren't selling tickets, because nobody wanted to be blown up in the stadium during the opening ceremonies, right? And you were not selling tickets. And I was also at my formative stage with North Korea and Kim Jong Un, and we were a little bit going at it about Rocket Man, Little Rocket Man, back and forth. And it was really nasty, and then I got a call one day and they wanted to get together. They wanted to talk and we started talking and then he said really brilliantly, he said, you know, the Olympics is going to be opening very soon and we'd like to be a part of it. They actually put teams in it. You got along great. And by the way, immediately upon that phone call, you started selling tickets and it turned out to be a tremendous success. So it went from being empty stadiums because people were afraid to go because it was a target potentially, to a great success. And I was very proud of that. You had one of the most successful Olympics and now we have the Olympics coming to the US, so we're very happy about that. But that was a great honor to get involved and make the Olympics so successful, that's correct.
Lee: [Via Translator] Mr. President, you mentioned about Chairman Kim. And thanks to your efforts, when you were in office during your first term, the situation on the Korean Peninsula was stable. But during the short -- the hiatus where you were out of office, North Korea developed further its nuclear and missile capabilities. And that led to a deterioration on the situation of the Korean Peninsula.
Trump: And they wouldn't have done that. They would not have done that if I were president.
Lee: [Via Translator] I completely agree with you. So when Kim [Inaudible], the deputy director of the Workers Party of Korea, issued a statement denouncing, uh, Korea, South Korea, uh, she mentioned about the good relation -- the not bad relationship between you and Chairman Kim Jong Un.
Trump: Um-hum.
Lee: [Via Translator] And I believe that this is a sign that North Korea is waiting. So I hope that you will usher in a new era of peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump: I will do that. And we'll have talks. He'd like to meet with me. He didn't want to meet with Biden because he had no respect for Biden. But we look forward to meeting with him. And uh, we'll make relations better. You'll help that. You had a lot of leaders. I've gone through a lot of leaders in South Korea. You know, it's been quick. You'll be there for a long time. But we -- uh, in the various leaders that I've dealt with, uh, they were not approaching it properly, in my opinion, having to do with North Korea. But I think your -- your approach is a much better one.
Lee: [Via Translator] So resolving this issue through my engagement is not an easy thing. And the only person that can make progress on this issue is you, Mr. President. If you become the -- the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker. [Laughter]
Trump: That's good. We -- we can do -- we can do big progress I think with North Korea, absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Good, good job. OK, questions please.
Question: Mr. President, when you met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, how soon did he say that he wanted to sit down with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy? Russia, as of now says, there's no meeting on the books and no agenda is set.
Trump: Well, that's going to be up to them. It takes two to tango. I always say it. And they should meet I think before I have a meeting and probably close the deal. But I think it's appropriate they meet. They do not exactly get along well, as you can understand. And I'm sure it's a meeting that perhaps he didn't like. But he wasn't happy about coming to the United States either. That was a big concession. And I appreciate the fact that he did. You know, I -- I've always had a very good relationship, despite a fake Russia, Russia, Russia haunt that we had. But we've always had a great relationship, very good relationship, strong relationship with Russia. That's a good thing, not a bad thing, by the way. That's a very good thing. And it's good to get along with Kim Jong Un, and get along with everybody, including President Lee. It's good to get along. And I get along with the foreign leaders. You see that with the biggest group of foreign leaders that we've ever had. Don't forget the European Union was here also representing a large group of countries, uh, just recently. So I believe that, uh, we're going to get that war straightened out. We're going to get it done. I don't know that they'll meet. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. They'd like me to be at the meeting. I said you on -- guys ought to work it out. It's between you, it's not us now. Now, in the meantime, we're not spending any money on, as you know on Ukraine. We're selling military equipment to NATO. NATO now is taking in -- excuse me. NATO now is taking in a large amount of money from the countries they're taking in five percent of GDP versus two percent. They're paying the five percent. They never paid the two percent. Most of them or a lot of them. Uh, NATO has a lot of money. We are selling military equipment to NATO at full price. And NATO is distributing that equipment to wherever they are. Many, perhaps to Ukraine. So NATO is working with Ukraine. Uh, Biden was giving hundreds of billions of dollars, just willy nilly just giving money. He had no idea where it was going. It was terrible what was happening. So we're not involved anymore in terms of the cost. We're in for $350 billion. As you know, I also got the rare earth deal done with Ukraine, which was worth much more than the $350 billion. But I'm not interested in the money so much even though we've done a great job in that regard. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in stopping a war where last week 7,109 soldiers died both Russian and Ukraine. It's such a waste of life and humanity. They're not from this country. They're not from any other country other than Ukraine for the most part other than Ukraine and Russia. But it's a very important thing to me to stop it. I stopped seven wars, wars that were raging, one for 31 years, the Congo. And as you know, Rwanda. One for 35 years. I don't have to go into them. You know the list better than I do. But we stopped a lot of wars, including you think about it, India and Pakistan, which was probably two weeks away from being a nuclear war. They were shooting down airplanes all over the place. So I was -- I'm very proud of that. I thought this would be, in many ways, the easiest way. I have a very good relationship with Putin. I thought it would be the easiest one to stop and it's really not. It's very complex. It's very personal from their standpoint. There's tremendous dislike personally between the two men. And we're going to have to straighten that out. But I would like to see them meet first. They'd like me to be there. I may be there, I may not. I'll see. But I wanted them to work out their differences first because it is ultimately between them. And when that happens, I think we'll get an end.
Question: How soon -- Mr. President -- Maybe they don't. How long are you willing to let this play out? And if they don't meet, will there be consequences? And how soon for Russia?
Trump: Yeah, there could be very big consequences, but we'll see what happens. There might be very big consequences because this is something that has to end. This war would have never taken place. And for four years it didn't take place. But if I were president this war would have never taken place. There has not been a war like this since the second World War. This is the biggest thing that's happened in terms of warfare wars. It's a whole new form of fighting. It's a drone fighting. It's a drone war. You know, A drone war never existed before. And we're actually studying it from the standpoint of Pete Hegseth and everybody. We're studying it and studying it very carefully. This is a whole new form of war, but it's a violent war. And there has been nothing like this since the Second World War. Uh, so we'll see what happens over the next week or two. And at that point, I'll step in very strongly. And if I have to be there, I'll be there. And uh, we'll either have a deal, or we won't. But uh, a lot of people are dying. And I want to get us --
Question: Mr. President -- Mr. President --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President, Kim Jong Un wants to meet. When do you want to meet with him?
Trump: With who?
Question: You said the North Korean leader wants to meet. How soon would you?
Trump: Yeah, we want to have a meeting. I'd like to have a meeting. I get along great with him. You know you were there. We even had a press conference. He had his first press conference. Kim Jong Un had a press conference. This was a little different press conference. [Laughter] I said have you done a press conference before. No? And you know what, he did great. It was a great press conference, actually. It was historic. I doubt he's done one since. But I said, would you like to meet the fake news? He goes, whatever you want to do, and they came in, and they came in like you've never seen anything like it. And then he said, enough, and that was the end of the press conference. It was the end. It ended very rapidly, but he -- I think he had a good time. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future.
Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] the United States -- [Inaudible] Korea. Will you reduce the number of forces in South Korea so that the United States can have more flexibility in the region?
Trump: Say it.
Question: Would you consider reducing the number of US forces in South Korea so that the United States can have more flexibility in the region?
Trump: Well, I don't want to say that now, because we've been friends and we're friends. And look, we have a lot of people that -- we have over 40,000 troops in South Korea. As you know, South Korea agreed to pay for that during my last term. And then when Biden came in, they complained to Biden that I wasn't a nice person and he agreed not to pay. He gave up billions of dollars. We were getting paid billions of dollars, but then Biden ended that for whatever reason. It's unbelievable that he did, but we have a very good relationship militarily. They would say, but we gave you land. I said, no, you didn't. You lease us land. There's a big difference between giving and leasing. And maybe one of the things I'd like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort. You know, we spent a lot of money building a fort and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base. OK?
Question: Thank you. Mr. President. How are you planning to make -- I also want to ask this question to Mr. -- President Myung.
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: I am [Inaudible] I am from South Korea's Arirang TV.
Trump: Good. Good.
Question: Thank you so much. So as mentioned earlier, United States is South Korea's most important and closest ally. So in this point of view, I would like to ask you and also President Lee, what do you think are the key ways to make the South Korea US alliance greater?
Trump: Well, I think it's great now and I feel very warmly toward South Korea. I will tell you that I have a lot of people in business that I deal with that are from South Korea. They love Trump because they feel I've saved -- I think you would have had a nuclear war if I weren't -- I think you would have had a nuclear war, North Korea and South Korea. I think it would have been a disaster. You're only 60 miles away from Seoul. They don't even need nuclear. They have their cannons, you know, howitzers and they have them buried in the mountain. You know what I'm talking about. And I think you would have had -- if I didn't win that election, if Hillary Clinton, Crooked Hillary won that election, I think you would have had a nuclear war. It would have taken place and it would have been horrendous for everybody, including them. It would have been very bad for them because we would have had to enter the picture and we are the most powerful nuclear country in the world by far. Russia's second, China's third. China's going to catch eventually, five or six years. They're working to catch. One of the things we're trying to do with Russia and with China, is denuclearization and it's very important. One of the things I discussed with President Putin the other day, it wasn't just that, it was also other things. And I think the denuclearization is a very -- it's a big aim. But Russia's willing to do it and I think China's going to be willing to do it too. We can't let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great. OK? Thank you.
Question: Mr. President, I'd like to ask you a further question about South Korea and US alliance. I'm Anna from the Korea Times.
Trump: Good.
Question: I'd like to ask you about the trade deal that's on the table.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: You mentioned about the ship-building industry and President Lee mentioned about the manufacturing industry and what other areas or sectors that you intend to focus on this trade deal because Korea is bringing in many investments and create jobs as well.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: So I'd like to know the opinions of both, how to get a beneficial outcome for both countries through this deal.
Trump: Well, we're going to get along great because we -- you know, we really sort of need each other. We love what they do. We love their product. We love their ships. We love a lot of the things that they make and they love what we have. We're dealing with them on Alaska, having to do with the oil. They need -- You need oil and we have it. So we have a big advantage in that way. We have a big -- we have more oil and gas and coal and energy than any other country in the world by far, for whatever reason. God was very good to us. He gave us the greatest -- we didn't use it. We started to use wind. Wind doesn't work. They started to use solar panels. It took over the land all over the Midwest, where the farmers said, what happened to my land? They'd have a 10 mile by 10-mile solar field that they couldn't farm. The most valuable land farming land in the world, probably the most vibrant in the world and they put solar plants all over the place. It's ridiculous, big massive black fields of solar. It all comes out of China, all plastic, all comes out of China. But we have the greatest amount of energy in the world and we're dealing with South Korea, as you know, in Alaska. And we're going to be making a deal, a joint venture with South Korea. Japan is involved also, very strongly involved. So we have Japan and South Korea and we're actually the closest. You know, it seems like quite far away Alaska and Korea, but actually, it's right up right up the little ocean, right up the little Pacific Ocean. It's actually pretty close relatively speaking. But we have more oil and gas and coal than any other nation in the world, by far, and we're going to use it. And that's the thing that South Korea, I think most wants from us, I would think.
Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] meet with the North Korean leader?
Trump: Say it.
Question: Would you go back to the DMZ to meet with the North Korean leader?
Trump: I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy, especially Secret Service? I would say they [Inaudible] and I looked into those windows, you know the windows, the glass that you could only see if you looked direct, because there was all sorts of stuff. But I looked in and I saw more rifles pointing at me than you could -- There were a lot of rifles in that building. The Secret Service was not happy. You know the buildings I'm talking about, the two blue buildings on each side. And I walked up the middle and I looked in the window and I saw more guns in that room than I've ever seen in my life. I looked at the other side and it was the same thing. And yet I felt safe. I felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un. I hope it stays that way. I think it will. I have a very good relationship -- I understand him. I spent a lot of free time with him talking about things that we probably aren't supposed to talk about and you know, I just -- I get along with him really well. I think he has a country of great potential, tremendous potential.
Question: Is it possible you meet him this year, or maybe next year?
Trump: Well, I'm meeting a lot of people. I mean, it's hard to say that, but I'd like to meet him this year. President Xi would like me to come to China. It's a very important relationship. As you know, we're taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things, and it's a very important relationship. We're going to get along good with China. I hear so many stories about we're not going to allow their students or Ð no, we're going to allow their students to come in. We're going to allow it. It's very important, 600,000 students. It's very important. But we're going to get along with China, but it's a different relationship that we have now with China. It's a much better relationship economically than it was before, with Biden. Boy, what he allowed, that -- I mean, they just took him to the cleaners. You know the expression, they took him to the cleaners? I'm sure they have an equal expression in South Korea, but they took that guy out for a ride like nobody's ever been ridden before, terrible. But we have a very strong relationship, Howard, I would say economically with China now, getting much better. They have to give us magnets. If they don't give us magnets, then we have to charge them 200 percent tariff or something, you know, but we're not going to have a problem, I don't think with that. I think that's perhaps behind us. You know, China, intelligently went and they sort of took a monopoly of the world's magnets and nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago, let's all do magnets. There were many other ways that the world could have gone, but so -- it'll take us probably a year to have them. We're heavy into the world of magnets now, only from a national security standpoint, but we have a powerful thing. Its airplane parts, many Boeing jets. You know, they are 200 jets that didn't fly and I've sent them all -- based on his word, I sent them all of the parts so their planes can fly. I could have held them back. I didn't do that because of the relationship I have, and they're fly -- their planes are now flying. You know, we had -- 200 of their planes were unable to fly because we were not giving them Boeing parts, purposely. Because they weren't giving us magnets, therefore, we weren't giving them -- but we have a much more powerful thing, that's tariffs. If we want to put 100 percent, 200 percent tariffs on, we wouldn't do any business with China. And you know, it would be OK to if we had to. But the magnet situation, we have tremendous power over them and they have some power over us with magnets. We're going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we'll have so many, we won't know what to do with them, but you know the story, it's a very interesting history with magnets. And it really is because presidents not being businesspeople, they allowed that to happen. And they shouldn't have. But we have much more -- I mean, look, in terms of playing the cards, we have -- we have much bigger and better cards than they do. But with that being said, I think we have a great relationship. I spoke to President Xi fairly recently. And at some point probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we'll go to China. And I think we're going to see a magnificent site. It's a -- it's a great country.
Question: Mr. President on the National Guard -- You and President Lee actually are planning to go to China. You mentioned either this year or next year. Could you please share more details about your plans going to China? And also President Lee --
Trump: Well, maybe we'll go together. Do you want to go together? We can share a plane. We'll save energy. We'll save -- [Laughter] We'll save a little of, you know, the ozone, the ozone layer. Remember, President Obama used to talk about the ozone layer. And then he'd fly to Hawaii to play a round of golf in a 747. [Laughter]
Question: Mr. President, on the national -- Would you accepted the invitation, Mr. Lee?
Trump: It was sort of meant jokingly, but if you want you can. [Laughter]
Lee: [Via Translator] I would like to go with -- with President Trump. [Laughter]
Trump: I accept. If you want to go, I'm going to get special permission. I'm sure you can go. [Laughter] But we're going to have a great relationship with China. I mean, it's -- it's happening. You see it. It's happening. Um, they have some cards. We have incredible cards. But I don't want to play those cards. That would -- if I played those cards that would destroy China. I'm not going to play those cards.
Question: Mr. President, on the National Guard, you talked a lot about Democratic run cities and states.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Would you also consider sending the National Guard into red states and red cities that are also seeing high crime?
Trump: Sure, but there aren't that many of them. If you look at, uh, the top 25 cities that -- for crime just about every one of those cities is run by Democrats. And you know one of the bad things they did cashless bail. If you look back on time, when they allowed a murderer out that afternoon, you know, he'd kill somebody. And then a couple of hours later, he's walking the streets again, oftentimes, killing again rapidly. Cashless bail is a disaster. You saw we had a news conference today on that. We're wiping it out in DC. Immediately wiping it out. It started in New York. I must tell you. And uh, it's been a horrible thing for crime, especially violent crime. So we're going to end cashless bail. Yes? Thank you.
Question: How long --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: When will you deploy to Chicago? And how long are you keeping uh troops here in Washington DC?
Trump: We've heard a little discussion. Uh, I really want to be appreciated. You know, when we go into a city and wipe out the crime. So DC, it sounds so horrible. I'm embarrassed to say it in front of you because they don't have anything like this. Uh, Washington DC, sir, has not had a murder in 11 days. [Laughter] Now he's saying that's a horrible thing to hear because they don't have murders forever. But Washington, DC, if you go back and check, it's been many years since we went a week without having a murder. Now we haven't had -- and I would say that Washington DC right now is much safer than Seoul. Do you know why? Because we have a friendly neighbor. We have more friendly neighbors. [Laughter] You have a different kind of problem. We all have different problems. But Washington DC is a very safe city right now. People are going out to dinner. Restaurants are opening. Restaurants are going to close, are now going to stay open. Uh, friends of mine are going out to dinner all the time. They didn't go out to dinner for four years. It went rampant during the Biden years by just rampant. That's why it -- Susie is very close to the mayor and has a lot of respect for her. But I view it maybe a little differently because the mayor would say that it's gotten better. For 30 years, it's gotten better. No, it's gotten worse. And the worst day of all was when we just got to office for the second time. And it's in very bad shape. So the mayor shouldn't be saying that violent crime has been getting better. It's been getting much worse. And the day I took office, it was the worst. And we did some minor things, made it a little bit better. But then we said, look, we're going to stop it because too many people are getting killed. And uh, we have not had a murder in 11 days. It sounds crazy. I hate to say this in front of this gentleman who I respect. Because they don't have murders for years. But we have not had a murder in 11 days. And that's going to go on for a long time. And there will be -- I guess it will happen a little bit. But uh, we have a very safe city. This is one of the safer cities right now in the country. And in a short period of time it will be like the border. Nobody came in through our border for the last 90 days, three months we had zero illegal aliens from the Congo, from South America, from all over the world, from prisons coming in pouring into our country. Nobody. Not one person. And this is done by a liberal group, a Liberal think tank, they do the work. Not one person has come into our country. Think of that. It's been amazing. And I didn't have to go back to Congress and ask. Biden could have done this by himself. I did. I said close the borders. We had the great Tom Homan. We had Kristi, as you know, Kristi Noem, who did a fantastic job. She's doing a fantastic job. Uh, Pete Hegseth has been incredible with the, uh, as I call it, the Department of War. You know, we call it the Department of Defense. But I -- between us, I think we're going to change the name. You want to know the truth. I think we're going to have some information on that maybe soon. But I think because you know, Department of Defense, we won the World War I, World War II. It was called the Department of War. And uh, to me, that's really what it is. It's defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we're going to be changing. I'm going to -- I'm talking to the people, everybody likes that. We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War, then we change it to Department of Defense. So that's a little thing, has nothing to do with your country. But it's something that I think you're going to be hearing about or seeing about over the next couple of weeks. Probably that change is going to be made over the next week or so.
Question: Are there -- Mr. President -- North and South? Or is there one Korea waiting to be unified?
Trump: Well, I know it as two Koreas. And in, I just -- you know, there was one Korea, it was a very large country. And a very powerful country. And it was a country that went to war with China. President XI explained it, went to war with China many times over the last 2000 years. You had many, I think you told me 51 times. So I remember I went to President Xi. I said, you know we're having a problem with North Korea. Straighten it out, would you, please. He said, well, we have been to war with them. And I think he said 51 times. But at that time it was the whole of Korea. It wasn't, you know, North and South. And after he explained that I said all right, not going to be that easy. I guess you're right. [Laughter] But you know, you had one Korea. And it was a very big powerful nation. Now you have two big powerful nations, but you have -- essentially a wall in between.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President -- Mr. President -- Uh, comments -- posts and comments you made on South Korea earlier this morning, uh, like, uh, raids on churches, uh, going into US military base, uh, purge and revolution. Uh, how -- how do you think about it?
Trump: Well, I just --
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: Right, I heard from Intel.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I heard from Intel that there was a raid on churches. Uh, we're going to talk about that later. I haven't spoken about it yet, but will we meet. And you know, that would be too bad if that's the case. But I did hear that from Intel that there was a raid on churches closing some churches. So we'll talk about that later. I could ask you now if you want.
Question: Mr. President, what conversation --
Trump: Wait a minute please. If you'd like. Because it didn't -- it didn't sound to me like South Korea.
Lee: [Via Translator] So it hasn't been long since Korea is -- has overcame the political turmoil following the self -- self-coup by the former president. Currently there is a fact finding investigation by a special prosecutor that was appointed by the National Assembly. And this special prosecutor --
Trump: Is his name deranged Jack Smith, by any chance? [Laughter] They took him from our country, they pushed him. Deranged Jack. [Laughter] He's a deranged sick individual, but go ahead. [Laughter] Go ahead, please. I'm only kidding. [Laughter] Maybe.
Lee: [Via Translator] And that special prosecutor is not under my control. And so the special prosecutor is conducting a fact finding investigation. And I would like to explain about, um, the -- what you said about US bases.
Trump: Yeah.
Lee: [Via Translator] They did not conduct a search and seizure of American bases, but they looked into the control, the chain of command and the control system of the Korean military.
Trump: Right.
Lee: [Via Translator] And I would be happy to lean about this more in detail --
Trump: That's OK. We'll -- will work with you. I'm sure it's --
Lee: [Via Translator] During our lunch meeting
Trump: I am sure it's a misunderstanding, but you know, there is a rumor going around about churches, raiding churches, so we'll talk -- I'm sure that's going to be worked out fine. OK? Yeah. Please, go ahead.
Question: Mr. President, what conversations have you had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about what is going on in Gaza? There was a UN-backed report that said there was a famine in Gaza. Based on what you know and what you've been briefed on, do you agree with that?
Trump: So I mean, I deal with Bibi Netanyahu quite a bit and we had great success, obviously in Iran. We knocked out their nuclear threat that would have been a horror show, having them have a nuclear weapon. They would have used it too. We did very well there. Right now, they're talking about Gaza City. There's always talking about something. At some point, it's going to get settled and I'm saying you better get it settled soon. You have to get it settled soon and that means -- you know, nobody can forget October 7th. People forget October 7th. That was one of the most brutal -- I've seen some terrible things, some brutal things. That was about as bad as it gets, and nobody can forget that. With that being said, it's got to get over with. It's got to get over with because between the hunger and all of the other problem -- worse than hunger, death, pure death, people being killed. And I'm the one that brought back the hostages and I did it with that gentleman right there, Steve Witkoff and with Marco, all of us. The whole team, we worked together. Even the trade people worked on it with us and we brought back a lot of the hostages. Now we're left with, would you say 20, Steve, or would you say it's less than 20?
Steve Witkoff: I hope it's 20.
Trump: He hopes it's 20 because some could be dead. That's what he means, I assume.
Witkoff: Yes.
Trump: So we had 20, but there's rumors that some could be dead. It's a terrible situation over there, terrible, terrible situation, but it's coming to a head. It's coming to an end. We are sending -- we send $60 million of food over there, just recently. And I don't even know if people know it, we distributed ourselves. We're giving a lot of food spending, a lot of money on food, getting it over there. We have a lot of food. We have a lot of oil and we have a lot of -- we have the greatest farmers in the world, so we have a lot of food. But we're sending a lot of it over to Gaza and we're feeding a lot of people. But with all of that being said, it's a lot of people to feed. And I think that we will have - I think within the next two to three weeks, you're going to have pretty good, conclusive ending. I think it's a hard thing to say because they've been fighting for thousands of years, if you want to know -- that's been a hotbed forever, but I think we're doing a very good job. But it does have to end, but people can't forget October 7th either.
Question: Do you plan to attend Apex Summit to be held in Korea?
Trump: A summit in South Korea?
Question: Yes, sir, in November.
Trump: I'd love to. I'd love to. Last time I spoke in front of your Parliament, and I love doing that, beautiful respect they had for our country and a beautiful room. I remember how beautiful it was and I enjoyed doing it. No, I could see going. I think I'm going for a trade meeting to South Korea pretty soon. You're hosting a trade meeting. So I can sneak away from that trade meeting and we'll go and do something for the president, if he'd like me to do that. OK? But so we'll be going there fairly soon. You know about that?
Question: If you attend, then it's a good chance to meet up Kim Jong Un again or maybe Xi Jinping? And how do you think it'll be?
Trump: You mean set them up together?
Question: Yes.
Trump: That'd be interesting. We'll arrange a meeting between you and Kim Jong Un. Would you like that? I don't know. That's a very tough question right now. I don't know where that question is leading. Anyway, look, I get along great with Kim Jong Un and whatever I can do, having to do with South Korea and getting people together, you should get together, right?
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: Yes, ma'am. Oh, that's a beautiful smile. [Inaudible] and then she'll turn out to be the worst one in the room.
Question: Can I ask about MASCA project? MASCA, MASCA project?
Trump: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. We're going to do that. I think we're going to do that very strongly. We're going to have a big -- within a period of -- you know, it takes a while. That's a hard one to start. Some companies you can start easily. Shipbuilding is a tough one to start, but we'll be doing that. Now with that being said, we make the best submarines anywhere in the world. We make submarines. We're 25 years ahead of anybody else in submarines. So we do that. You know, we do that, but we really gave up the shipbuilding industry foolishly many years ago, but we're going to start it up again. We're going to be making our own ships again soon. OK. How about one or two more?
Question: Mr. President, have you been briefed on the search of John Bolton's home and office from Friday? Have you been briefed on that?
Trump: I have not been briefed. No, I read it just like you did. I was never a fan of his. I thought he was stupid. I thought he was a guy that only wanted to go into war. He liked killing people. I thought he was essentially a bad guy, but I'm not involved in that. No, you'd have to ask Pam Bondi about that.
Question: Question on -- Are more raids like that coming, sir? Are more raids like the one on John Bolton's house coming?
Trump: More raids, I don't know. You'd have to ask the Department of Justice -- they raided my house, I can tell you that. They did a raid on my house. They took away everything that wasn't pinned down and they took away some of that too. No, they raided Mar-a-Lago. They started that. These were bad people that we had in our government before. They raided Mar, a Lago. They went into my wife's area. They went into my son's area, my young son. And what they did was a disgrace. But how did it work out? Oh, I see. We're in the Oval Office. I guess it didn't work out too well for them, did it? They are bad people. They're sick. They're sick people and they came in with their guns into Mar-a-Lago and like 98 people. I wasn't there. Fortunately, I wasn't there, but they are very evil, very sick people, that group. And if they would have won the election, this country wouldn't exist as we know it. This country would have been a failed country and now it's the hottest country anywhere in the world by far. We are the hottest country in the world by far. OK. [Inaudible]
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President?
Trump: Yes, sir. Go ahead.
Question: Yeah, President Lee met with Japanese Prime Minister [Inaudible]
Trump: That's good.
Question: So is there something to discuss regarding the cooperation among the South Korea, US and Japan?
Trump: I think so. Look, Japan is a great ally of us and I had a little bit of a hard time getting you two together because you're still thinking about comfort women, right, comfort women. That's all they wanted to talk about was comfort women. And I thought that was settled a few times over the decades, but there is an overlapping problem with that. Perhaps I'm wrong in saying it, perhaps this isn't right, but the whole issue of the women, comfort women very specifically. We talked and it was a very big problem for Korea, not for Japan. Japan was wanting to go. They want to get on but Korea was very stuck on that. Do you understand? So I don't know, perhaps you'd like to answer. It's a good question. It was hard getting Japan and Korea together because of what took place a long time ago. But Japan wants to do it, I can say. Korea is a little bit more tenuous. Please.
Lee: [Via Translator] The trilateral cooperation among Korea, the US and Japan is very important and better Korea-Japan relations is also important for the Korea US relationship as well. Because I know that, President Trump, that you put emphasis on trilateral cooperation.
Trump: Right.
Lee: [Via Translator] I made a visit to Japan before coming to the US to settle the difficult issues that we have.
Trump: Good. Well, Japan wants to get along very well with you and I find them to be great people, great country, obviously, and they want very much to get along with South Korea. And you have something in common, you know, you want to solve the North Korea problem. But Japan very much wants to get along with you and I'm sure they will. I find the people that I deal with to be wonderful people, as they do with you.
Lee: [Via Translator] So when I visited Japan and met with Prime Minister Ishiba, I realized that many of the obstacles that existed between our two countries have now been removed.
Trump: That's true, during my term. We removed them during my term. There was an overlay a little bit, but we removed many of those obstacles during my term. And if you look at Prime Minister Abe, who was a great man, he was a great friend of mine and he was assassinated, but he felt very warmly toward your country; I can tell you that. And the current prime minister, who I've gotten to know very well. It feels the same way. So I think you're going to have a great relationship with Japan. Steve, go ahead.
Question: Just to close the loop on Gaza, is there a diplomatic push underway to try to get all this to end?
Trump: Oh, there's a diplomatic push.
Question: No, is there?
Trump: There has been. Yeah, sure. Right now, Steve, I would say very serious diplomatic push. Marco, or Steve. Marco, do you want to answer that first?
Marco Rubio: Yeah. It's never stopped. We've always looked to find a solution there. Ultimately, as the president said, we wanted to end. It has to end with no Hamas.
Trump: Steve, where are we?
Witkoff: I would say that we wouldn't be anywhere but for the president's truth last week, which was a statement to Hamas that they better get their act together and get to the peace table. But for that, it would have been all stalled. So as usual, he is the man who moves it.
Question: Thank you, sir.
Witkoff: Thank you.
Trump: Thank you very much, everybody.
Aide: Thank you, Press. Thank you, Press. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Transcript courtesy of CQ Factbase.