TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Bilat with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, 11.18.25
[Video]
President Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today, and a friend of mine for a long time, a very good friend of mine. And I'm very proud of the job he's done. What he's done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else and he's the crown prince, the future king. And I just want to pay my greatest respect to your father King, who is an amazing man. I met him early on. He greeted me at the airport at an age that was pretty high up there and it was about 117 degrees, and he was standing on the red carpet as I came out of the plane and he's amazing. And when I met his brilliant son, it was at the Oval Office.
Shortly thereafter, you came in representing the country. And I called the father; I said this guy is fantastic. And I don't know if that helped you or hurt you, but obviously it couldn't have hurt too much because here you are, right? But we had a great meeting, and the office has changed quite a bit, and we inherited a mess. You actually told me you thought the country was in big trouble. I'm not going to use the exact word that you used. I refuse to say that you thought our country was dead a year and a half, two years ago, but our country was in trouble and now we have the hottest country in the world. You said that also. And we do -- the United States is, right now, the hottest country in the world.
And between the tariffs and the election, November 5th election, we've done things that nobody can believe. $21 trillion will be the amount invested in the United States -- or committed to invest -- in one year. So, I'm here nine months, we're up to almost $18 trillion. Biden -- as an example, the Biden administration, if you call it that, it's not -- to me, it was the Biden lack of administration, they were less than $1 trillion for four years. We're going to be $21 trillion for one year. I think that's hard to believe. The biggest in history was a certain country, $3 trillion, we're going to be $21 trillion. On top of that, prices are coming down. We inherited a mess with high prices, the worst inflation in the history of our country. We had inflation that was a single full four years, the worst inflation in the history of the United States.
Gas prices through the roof and that's after destroying our petroleum reserve, which was meant for wars and big emergencies, not to try and win an election. They opened up the reserves so that people get $3 less in gasoline and it didn't work. They got about $0.03 less because, as big as those reserves are, they're peanuts when you're talking about that kind of traffic and we're rebuilding the reserves. We're doing all of this, and we've done a job. We're also bringing down prices very substantially, and we've already brought them down very, very substantially. Gasoline is way down. I think you'll be seeing $2 gasoline, but we're now at $2.50, $2.45, some are lower than that. It was $4.50, $5, $6, $3.50, $3.75 under Biden, all different numbers, but way high.
And we have energy way down. But the biggest thing to me, because I know what it means in jobs, is the fact that we're at over $17 trillion, Scott, and we expect to be around $20 trillion, $21 trillion in one year and that's many times bigger than -- in history the highest number was $3 trillion and we're going to be at $21 trillion. That means new plants, new AI, new auto plants. We have auto plants coming in from Canada, from Mexico, from Germany, from Japan. Toyota just agreed to invest $10 billion on new auto plants, all American workers. We've never been in a position like this; you can go back to the beginning. Our country has never been in a position like this.
And it really is because of the fact that we used tariffs to bring all this money in. And you're going to see the results in a year when these plants start to open up. We have more plants under construction now than at any time in the history of our country. And these are big plants; these are the biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I want to thank you because you've agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States. And because he's my friend, he might make it $1 trillion but I'm going to have to work on him. But it's 600 -- we can count on $600 billion, but that number could go up a little bit higher yet. So, I don't know. We'll see, but we appreciate it very much.
So, Saudi is going to be investing at least $600 billion, and that means investments in plants, in companies, money on Wall Street. And what it really means for everybody that really counts is jobs, a lot of jobs, we have a lot of jobs. So, I just want to thank you. We've been really good friends for a long period of time. We've always been on the same side of every issue. I think we've done a great job in wiping out the nuclear capacity of Iran. Nobody else could have done that. No other president would have done it. We had the pilots in the Oval Office right here, we were celebrating a very successful attack. So, I had them in with that beautiful B-2 bomber that's over there.
And they said, sir, for 22 years, we practiced this attack. Our predecessors -- these were very young guys -- so, 22 years, they said our predecessors and us practiced the attack on Iran, but no president ever gave us the go ahead. Three times a year, they went out and they practiced the attack. Nobody let us do it until you came along, and I let them do it because it was the right thing to do. You can't have a nuclear Iran. And so, we put you in a very good position. But I just want to say it's an honor to be your friend and it's an honor that you're here. And if you'd like to say a few words but thank you very much.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud: Thank you, Mr. President. This relation -- the relation for about five decades and we've been working together for a long time, but to me, it's a very important time in our history because there's also a lot of things that we're working on in the future. Uh, we believe in the future of America. We believe in what you're doing, Mr. President, is really creating a lot of good things and good foundations to create more economic growth, more business in America. And it will also you work for the world peace. I believe, Mr. President, and today and tomorrow we're going to announce that we are going to increase that, that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment, real investment and real opportunity by details in many areas. And the agreement that we are signing today in many areas, in technology, in AI, in materials, magnet, uh, etc. that will create a lot of investment opportunities.
Trump: So you are doing that now? You're saying to me now that the $600 billion will be $1 trillion? Definitely because what we are signing to facilitate that and -- good. I like that very much.
Unidentified: [Inaudible]
Trump: No, that's great. That's -- I appreciate that. That's great. It's -- no, we're doing numbers that nobody's ever done and in all fairness, if you didn't see potential in the US, you wouldn't be doing that. Definitely you don't want to lose money.
bin Salman Al Saud: As you said, Mr. President, it's the most hottest country in the planet, but what you're creating is not about opportunity today. It's about also long term opportunity for America that will affect American economy positively in the next coming decades, preparing the right foundation of emerging technologies, that -- that's a game changer for America in a good way and we want to be part of it.
Trump: Yeah, we're doing really well and this, you know, you don't see what we're doing so much because we have -- although the construction industry sees it, if you look at Caterpillar, who's been incredible, the -- you know, the, the tractors, everything else. The numbers that we're doing in construction are are unbelievable. You know, some of the plants that were built in AI and they're building their own electric plant. I gave them the right to build their own electric with the plant because no country, frankly, will have this. China is working very hard to produce enough electric, but we're beating China substantially at AI, which is a big thing. And we had a great meeting two weeks ago with President Xi. But on AI, we're -- we're doing well. And I have a man. David Bromell.
Unidentified: Yes, sir.
Trump: David, could you say a few words about, uh, what you're seeing on the job front and all of the, uh -- some of the assets and also how we've been helped by the Saudis in terms of the kind of investment they've made? Please.
Unidentified: Most certainly. Thank you for the opportunity. I am a facility leader for GE Vernova and if you look at the landscape for GE investment, over $750 million in the US focused on true manufacturing jobs here stateside. Uh, we're looking at tripling the output of our Greenville, South Carolina facility where we make the gas turbines that are supporting US needs as well as the Saudi Arabia needs. Um, so real jobs, uh, $300 million in gas investment, resulting in over 500 pieces of new equipment being installed in the Greenville, South Carolina facility. That translates into roughly 1,800 jobs across the board for GE Vernova. As we try to scale capacity to be able to meet this demand. Along with that, we're partnering with local communities to build the skill set that's required to -- to meet these capacity needs. So that talent pipeline is incredibly important. So it's real jobs in the manufacturing space.
Trump: Well, you've been great and thank you very much and we love that state. I won that state by record numbers. I want a lot of states by record. Texas, a lot of them, by Indiana. We're working with Indiana or something right now. We won that. We won a lot of them by records, but that was one of them. I want to thank you very much. Say hello to everybody.
Unidentified: Will do, sir.
Trump: Great job, you're doing a great job. Thank you.
Unidentified: Appreciate it, Mr. President.
Trump: Um, so just in wrapping up, we'll take a couple of questions, but I want to just tell you what an honor it is to be your friend. And I very much appreciate the investment of that $1 trillion. OK. I'm glad you got that out. I didn't want to be the one to tell them, but that's great news.
bin Salman Al Saud: Keep increasing, Mr. President.
Trump: I know.
bin Salman Al Saud: Each time the opportunities are just increasing more and more.
Trump: Well, the opportunities, right? We're doing better. If, uh, even if you look back six months ago, I mean, all of a sudden you feel even better. So -- and I think we're only going to go in one way, uh, does anybody have any questions?
Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President Mr. President, have you approved the export licenses for advanced chips to Saudi Arabia? The export licenses?
Trump: We are working on that, we're negotiating that right now. Marco, do you want to talk about that? Or Scott?
Marco Rubio: Well, I mean, that's part of what -- we may have announcements on that later today, uh, but that's what we've been working on is -- is the mechanics by which something like that can be achieved as part of the broader process. Part of this broader engagement and cooperation between our two countries.
Trump: Certain levels of chips.
Question: For the Crown Prince, Your Royal Highness, you're talking about $1 trillion of investment. Could the Kingdom continue to do that with oil prices in the mid 60s?
bin Salman Al Saud: Yeah, it's -- we're not creating opportunities to, you know, please America, please Trump. It's real opportunities. For example, when you ask about the AI and the chips, Saudi Arabia have a huge demand of a huge need of computing power. And we're going to spend, in the short term, around $50 billion by consuming, uh, those, uh, semiconductors for our needs in Saudi -- Saudi Arabia. And with the agreement that we're going to have that will allow us to focus that consuming power in short term by $50 billion from America and long term with hundreds of billion dollars in the long term. So -- so there's a lot of opportunities that fit our needs in Saudi Arabia and fit to our investment strategy.
Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Is it appropriate, Mr. President, for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you're president? Is that a conflict of interest? And, Your Royal Highness, the US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office.
Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with?
Question: Why should Americans trust you? And same to you, Mr. President?
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: I'm ABC News, sir.
Trump: You are with who?
Question: I'm with ABC news, sir.
Trump: Fake news. ABC fake news.
Question: But the question is legitimate, sir.
Trump: One of the -- one of the worst in the business, but I'll answer your question.
Question: Thank you.
Trump: I have nothing to do with the family business. I have left and when I've devoted 100 percent of my energy what my family does is fine. They do business all over, they've done very little with Saudi Arabia actually. I'm sure they could do a lot and anything they've done has been very good. That's what we've done. We've built a tremendous business for a long time. I've been very successful. I decided to leave that success behind and make America very successful. And I've made America more successful by far than it ever was and that it ever could have been. No matter who was president, there would be nobody bringing in $21 trillion, that I can tell you right now.
As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him things happened, but he knew nothing about it and we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.
bin Salman Al Saud: Yes, Mr. President, if you allow me to answer. You know, I feel painful about, you know, the families of 9/11 in America, but, you know, we have to focus on reality. Reality based on CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose is to destroy this relation, to destroy the American-Saudi relation. That's the purpose of 9/11. So whoever buying that, that means they are helping Osama bin Laden purpose of destroying this nation. You know, that strong relation between America and Saudi Arabia is bad for extremism. It's bad for terrorism and we have to prove -- proved him wrong. And to build our relation to continue developing our relations is critical in the safety of the world.
It's critical against extremism and terrorism. About the journalist, it's really painful to hear, you know, anyone that been losing his life for, uh, you know, no real purpose or nothing illegal, uh, way and it's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of, uh, investigation, etc. in Saudi Arabia and we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that and it's painful and it's a huge mistake and we are doing our best that this doesn't happen again.
Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Thank you. Mr. President. Um, the Crown prince has been instrumental in helping lifting the sanctions on Syria.
Trump: Sure.
Question: Um, will there be any joint investment between the US and Syria? And will you visit Damascus?
Trump: Are you from Syria?
Question: No, But, um --
Trump: Where are you from?
Question: I'm from Palestine.
Trump: Whoa, make a lot of progress, huh? [Laughter] Very good. They like -- the Palestinians --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Progress as well after you, sir.
Trump: The Palestinians are doing very well actually. I think we're working very closely with a lot of people that make everybody happy, including Israel, the Palestinians and everybody. That's very interesting. No, I think that, uh, I will tell you the crown prince called me, and he specifically asked me if I would, lift the sanctions on Syria because he wants to see Syria make it. As you know, the leader of Syria was just here. And we had a great meeting and he's a strong guy and I guess you need a strong person to run it. And I think Syria has made tremendous progress and we did lift the sanctions at the request of the crown prince, also the president of Turkey Erdogan called me specifically. He said, you know, if you don't lift the sanctions, Syria doesn't have a chance. If you do, they have a very good chance and between the two of them and some others I lifted the sanctions and the results so far have been pretty good.
Question: Mr. President --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Can I ask you a question about the F-35s that are being sold to Saudi Arabia? Are these the same ones that are being used by the Israeli military? And if so, how does that allow for the qualitative military edge for Israel? And then I want to ask you, because you brought up the plight of the Palestinians, are you aware of relocation flights to South Africa that are taking place right now?
Trump: Which flights?
Question: There are relocation flights that are taking place. Some Palestinians are being charged up to $2,000 a seat.
Trump: I'm not going to South Africa for the G20 because I think their policies on the extermination of people are unacceptable. So, I'm not going. So, I won't refer to anything having to do with South Africa. South Africa has behaved extremely badly. But I will say that when you look at the F-35 and you're asking me, is it the same, I think it's going to be pretty similar, yeah. This is a great ally and Israel is a great ally, and I know they'd like you to get planes of reduced caliber, I don't think that makes you too happy. They've been a great ally, Israel's been a great ally, and we're looking at that exactly right now. But as far as I'm concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line. Yes, please.
Question: If I could just ask for the Crown Prince.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Direct talks between --
Trump: That's all right, I'll give Steve one second, go ahead.
Question: Have you reached an agreement on a US-Saudi defense treaty today? And are you going to bring up the Abraham Accords in your discussion?
Trump: I already brought them up.
Question: What did you say?
Trump: I think I got a positive response. Would you like to respond?
bin Salman Al Saud: Yeah, so -- so, yeah. So, definitely we believe having a good relationship with all countries is a good thing. And we want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of two-state solution. And today we have a healthy discussion with Mr. President that we're going to work on that to be sure that we can prepare the right situation as soon as possible to have that.
Trump: I think we're -- you know, I don't want to use the word commitment, but we've had a very good talk on the Abraham Accords. We talked about one-state, two-state -- you know we talked about a lot of things; in a short period of time we'll be discussing it further, too. But I think you have a very good feeling toward the Abraham Accords.
bin Salman Al Saud: Yes, thank you, Mr. President, we want peace for the Israelis, we want peace for the Palestinians. We want them to coexist peacefully in the region, and we will do our best to reach that date.
Question: And a defense agreement, have you reached an agreement on that?
Trump: We pretty much have.
Question: Mr. President, A question for the Crown Prince if I could just --
Trump: We have reached agreement on that.
Question: I wanted to ask you about the direct talks between the United States and Iran. Have you been fully briefed on that? And are you concerned at all about how this might impact Saudi security interests?
bin Salman Al Saud: We are close allies, we'll be working closely together on that issue and we will do our best to help to reach a deal between America and Iran. And we believe it's good for Iran's future to have a good deal that that will satisfy the region and the world and the rest of America. So, we will do our best to see that they happen.
Trump: By the way, Iran does want to make a deal. I can say, I think they very badly want to make a deal. I am totally open to it and we're talking to them, and we start a process. But it would be a nice thing to have a deal with Iran, and we could have done it before the war, but that didn't work out. And something will happen there I think, but they would very much like -- I mean they may say something else, but they would very much like to have a deal.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Trump: Say it.
Question: You are planning -- you said you are planning to sell the F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Is it part of the security agreement? And how do you assess the defense partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States? And the question was --
Trump: Well, you said it. I mean, I'm going to -- we're going to sell them F-35s. That's the end of the question isn't it?
Question: Is this part of the security agreement, or no?
Trump: No, we're going to have -- no -- we're going to have a deal. They're going to purchase F-35s, They're buying them from Lockheed and it's a great plane. We make, by the way, the best military equipment. You saw that during the Iran little skirmish. We make the best planes, the best missiles, we make the best defensive missiles. We make the best military equipment in the world.
Question: For his Royal Highness, I'd like to ask you about how you see the cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia and the technological -- advanced technological field, especially AI, and how it will support Saudi Arabia to serve its goal to achieve the vision of 2030.
bin Salman Al Saud: Well, I will try to answer that in short, but definitely there's a lot of interest in many industries between Saudi Arabia and America. We are signing a lot of agreements in different areas that will really add value to American economy, but also to add value to us in Saudi Arabia. And AI is critical for us because one of the long-term problems that we could have is lack of workforce. As you've seen in the past few years, some of them have reached 30 percent of the global migration to Saudi Arabia. So, we know that to assure the Saudi Arabia GDP growing with the lack of workforce that we have, we need to use a lot of computing power to replace jobs in the long term. So, that's huge demand in Saudi Arabia. And we want to link it to American private sectors and [Inaudible] the supply from America. So, there's a lot of opportunities in that area.
Trump: And we're also involved in AI in Saudi Arabia. So, we're working and, again, we're leading by a lot on AI by actually a lot. China will be in second place, but we're leading by a lot. And I have to say this, and our relationship with China has been very good. And as far as buying our farm products, they're pretty much on schedule. Scott. I'd like you to call them, say if they could speed it up.
Scott Bessent: I will, sir.
Trump: OK? But they're pretty much on schedule.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: I may have a question for both the conference heads.
Trump: Who are you? Where are you?
Question: [Inaudible] News, Saudi Arabia, your Excellency?
Trump: You should be a friend of Russia?
Question: Your Royal Highness, just picking up on something you just mentioned about how some people try to destroy the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Perhaps since the launch of division, we've been used to having the bigger picture and that everything fits into the bigger picture. Might you want to elaborate a little bit about where is the relationship, the bilateral relationship, the strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States heading? And what's the big picture there?
bin Salman Al Saud: Well, I don't think it's a relation that we can replace from the other side of the American side. It's a critical relationship for our political tent, for our economical tent, for our security, for our military, for many things. And it has been there for nine decades and the opportunities that we have today is huge. And it seems that it's going to be getting deeper in the next few decades. And what we are having today and tomorrow with President Trump, it's really a huge new chapter on this relation that will add value to both of us.
Trump: You know, when you think about it, I'm just sitting here, you're with the future king, a man who is respected by everybody. A man that doesn't have to be doing this really. I don't have to be doing it either. And yet we're sitting here taking questions -- any questions, we didn't say, oh, you can't talk about this then. And there's never been transparency like this even in his country, but there's never been -- in our country that's been acknowledged. But we didn't put restrictions, and I'm saying it's sort of wonderful to be taking questions from all over the world. Everybody's here, this is just a small group representative of tremendous numbers of media that are outside that are very jealous that these people were so selected, but they're representing a lot of people that are outside. I think it's terrific that we could be sitting here being this open and I think it's really a wonderful thing.
Question: If you don't mind, I have a personal question for you.
Trump: OK, here we go, I shouldn't have said that. [Laughter]
Question: So, apart from everything you mentioned in your opening remarks, you forgot to mention that you've de-escalated seven wars since you started. At least in our part of the world, you are seen as a peacemaker. And adding that to all the executive orders and everything else you've mentioned, I really have to wonder -- you in your speech in Saudi Arabia, I was there. You said that His Royal Highness does not sleep at night thinking how he does things better. We wonder in Saudi Arabia, how you manage your own time and what's your formula for managing it?
Trump: He does not sleep much, and I don't sleep much. I think we have the same schedule. We're thinking about our countries. And if you sleep a lot and you're president -- we just had one that slept more than any president. He broke every record. He sleeps all the time -- during the day, during the night, on the beach. The only guy who could fall asleep on the beach with the press watching. No, he's not a sleeper; I'm not a sleeper, but we don't -- we talk at night. We can talk -- I can call him almost any time. He goes, hi, how you doing? It's like the craziest times. But no, when you love your job, when you love your country and when you're in a position like we are.
Future king, highly respected crown prince and in my case, president, you're thinking about your country. You're thinking about making America great again, we're thinking about keeping Saudi Arabia strong and vital and in a pretty tough part of the world, tricky part, right, tricky part? A lot of tricky people. But they -- he thinks about his country, and I think about my country. I don't want to sleep.
Question: President Trump, do you expect a formal civil nuclear deal to be reached soon? Can you talk to us about that aspect, please?
Trump: With who?
Question: With Saudi Arabia?
Trump: I can see that happening.
Question: Do you think that that will -- an agreement will be set?
Trump: It's not urgent. It's always when you have civil nuclear but you have more oil than almost anybody else. We -- we actually have more oil and gas than they do, but I refuse to say that. We have more than -- we have more than anybody, can you imagine?
Question: And on those M35s, are those sales? Israel had reportedly wanted those sales to be conditioned on Saudi Arabia -- Arabia moving to normalize.
Trump: Israel will be happy. Israel is going to be happy.
Question: Is that a condition of the --
Trump: -- Israel's aware and they're going to be very happy. Okay. Yeah, please. Hello.
Question: Hi, hello. My name is Amanda from the [Inaudible] newspaper from [Inaudible]
Trump: Oh, good.
Question: I have a question for the crown prince and [Inaudible]. Crow Prince of Saudi Arabia, what -- how much you expected from developing the cooperation with United States in the field of [Inaudible], AI, uh, supply chain? How much you expected from that?
bin Salman Al Saud: No limit, we just continue pushing forward. There's no limit. So -- so we just push forward for all the opportunities that we have.
Question: OK, is this --
Trump: ,-- You have to understand this is really a great ally.
Question: Yes.
Trump: Just the fact that they're now doing -- I came in here at six -- I did not know that I was pushing for the -- the one trillion, but he didn't tell me that. Uh, now he told me. This is a great ally of ours. You know, when you invest a trillion, that's national security for us too because it creates jobs. It creates a lot of things and I would say, Scott, right, when you hear one country is putting a trillion into the United States that creates national security. And, you know, I think that they don't have to say that. But I think a big part of that is also the fact that tariffs are in play, uh, but even beyond tariffs, uh, that's a real ally that will do that. Creates a lot of power for the United States.
Question: Mr. President, we are also, Saudi Arabia, we are very happy for this, uh, much is, uh, Saudi --
Trump: -- Right, for the relationship.
Question: -- Money, and of course, it's come back for us for benefit. So it's, uh, it's complimentary, uh, interest. So this is -- this is what I too.
Trump: Well, I love the country of Saudi Arabia. I know the people very well. Uh, the level of treatment that we go when we go to Saudi Arabia is something that is incredible. And the people like us and I think they really like America, especially when I'm president. I don't think they liked America so much maybe for four years recently. I think Obama treated Saudi Arabia very, very badly -- very badly, as you know, uh, but -- and I think Biden didn't have any idea where the hell he was. I don't think Biden knew the difference.
Question: How would you describe the future? I mean, that from the executive aspects. How could you do it?
Trump: How would I say the relationship is with?
Question: Yeah, yeah [Inaudible]
Trump: I would say top of the line. It's as good as it can -- I don't think it can get much better. We have -- we have a country that trusts us and that's why they make that investment. If they didn't trust us, they couldn't make that investment. And we trust them. They've been very reliable. You know -- we, you know, we are -- I rebuilt our military in my first term and we spent trillions of dollars and we gave away some of it in Afghanistan stupidly because we had stupid people running our country, but we gave away -- but that's as much as it was. It's a tiny fraction of what we -- what we put here and we're, again, we're bringing our military to a new level, the highest level ever. Oh, we have those -- those plants are going out and again, it's all American jobs and everything else. So it's good for a lot of reasons. But as far as Saudi is concerned, no, I don't think our relationship could be better.
I don't think they had a great relationship under Biden and I don't think they had a great relationship under Obama, but they have a great relationship under Trump. When we did the Presidential Walk of Fame -- you saw that, right? And we're walking and I asked the crown prince, so outside of Trump -- outside of Trump because I blow everyone away, who was the best president for Saudi Arabia and you could -- maybe it's an interesting answer. I don't know.
bin Salman Al Saud: [Inaudible] That it was who started it, Democrat -- Democrat and Reagan is one of the historical president that have close ties with Saudi Arabia, but -- but we worked with all presidents --
Trump: -- Does Trump blow them all away?
bin Salman Al Saud: It's not about me, Mr. President. [Laughter]
Question: Mr. President! Mr. President.
Trump: Trump doesn't give a fist bump. [Laughter] I grab that hand. I don't give a hell where that hand's been. I grabbed that hand. When -- when, uh, remember Biden? He travels for 20 hours gets out and he gives a fist bump. No. When you get out of the plane and you get the future king and the man who's one of the most respected people in the world, you shake his hand, you don't give him a fist bump, right? We don't want to ask you about that, but I can't imagine you were thrilled. You were like a little bit surprised. He's a fantastic guy, you don't do that. Yeah, please.
Question: We're getting closer to the end of the year. Have you started the interviews for the Fed chair?
Trump: Yes.
Question: Who have you interviewed?
Trump: I think I already know my choice.
Question: Who is it?
Trump: Well, I liked him, but he's not going to take the job. He refused. Do you like Treasury better, right?
Bessent: Much better, sir.
Trump: Uh, so we are talking to various people. And the -- I mean, frankly, I'd love to get the guy currently in there out right now, but people are holding me back. He's done a terrible job. Uh, hurting housing a little bit it. The truth is we've been so successful. We've blown past his interest rate stupidity. He's been wrong. That's why I call him too late. He's too late. Jerome "Too Late" Powell. He was recommended to me by a guy that made a bad, you know, bad choice. And it's too bad, but despite that it's having very little impact because we have, you know, we have all of these things happening, but it has an impact on housing to a certain extent. He's a fool, he's a stupid man. But, um, we have some very good people.
Bessent: Yes, sir, you'll be sitting down with them in the near future.
Trump: And we have some surprising names that we have some standard names that everybody's talking about and we -- we may go the standard way. It's nice to every once in a while go, uh, politically correct. But we have -- we have some great names. Steve, please.
Question: Have you talked to President Maduro of Venezuela yet?
Trump: No.
Question: Are you still open to that?
Trump: No. He wants to talk.
Question: Yes, sir, yeah.
Trump: Yeah, I'm open to talk, I talk to everybody, But -- but no, he wants to -- they treated us very badly. They sent all of their prison population into the United States and we're getting them out rapidly. What do you say to all of this? And he sends drugs into the United States and other things. No, he treated us badly. He was dealing with a bad president and he was able to get away. We have -- now, I think we have the strongest borders anywhere in the world. Nobody's coming in unless they come in legally.
Question: Mr. President!
Trump: We've taken very weak borders where millions of people came in. For the last six months. I mean, I don't do these reports. They say zero people have been able to come in. They're pretty good. I don't know the numbers right, but it's pretty good.
Question: Mr. President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?
Trump: You know, it's not the question that I mind. It's your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It's the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who is highly respected asking him a horrible insubordinate and just a terrible question and you could even ask that same exact question nicely. You're all psyched -- somebody's psyched you over at ABC. They're going to psych it. Uh, you're a terrible person and a terrible reporter. Uh, as far as the Epstein files, I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert. But -- I guess I turned out to be right.
But you know, who does have? Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, who ran Harvard, was with him every single night, every single weekend. They lived together, they went to his island many times. I never did. Uh, Andrew Weissman, I hear. All these guys were friends of his. You don't even talk about those people. You just keep going on the Epstein files and what the Epstein is, is a Democrat hoax to try and get me not to be able to talk about the $21 trillion that I talked about today. It's a hoax. Now, I just got a little report and I put it in my pocket of all the money that he's given to Democrats. He gave me none, zero, no money to me, but he gave money to Democrats and people are wise to your hoax and ABC is -- your company, your crappy company is one of the -- the perpetrators --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: -- on your desk --
Trump: -- and I'll tell you something -- I'll tell you something --
Question: -- So why not just sign it now?
Trump: I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it's so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, the chairman, who should look at that because I think when you come in and when you're 97 percent negative to Trump. And then Trump wins the election in a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible and you're not credible as a reporter. So I've answered your question, you should go and look at the Democrats who received money from Epstein, who spent their time. Larry Summers was with him all the time. That creep, the fund guy, was with them all the time. What's his name?
Susie Wiles: Reid Hoffman, I don't know Reid Hoffman, but I know he spends a lot of money on the radical left. Reid Hoffman, in my opinion, should be under investigation. He's a sleazebag, and those are the people, but they don't get any press, they don't get any news and you're not after the radical left because you're a radical left network. But I think the way you ask a question with the anger and the meanness is terrible. You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you. Who else has a question?
Question: For the crown prince very quickly. I wanted to ask you how much money is Saudi Arabia giving for Gaza reconstruction?
bin Salman Al Saud: Well, we are in discussions about that, still there is no amount, I mean --
Trump: It'll be big.
bin Salman Al Saud: But we will definitely help.
Trump: Yeah. He's going to -- it's very important to him.
Question: And a quick follow up. The International Security Force, given your pledge there would be no US boots on the ground, what is the US role going to be in that? And how do you ratify the allegations that this could undermine Palestinian sovereignty and even the path to statehood.
Trump: Look, I think we're going to get along great with the Palestinians. We know their leadership, we just had a very -- you hate to say war, but it was a war, very, very successful. And you could say really it was on behalf of everybody. We did that on behalf of everybody. And the outcome was extraordinary because we had the best pilots, the best equipment, the best planes, the best everything. And Israel bought the best equipment. They bought it from us; everything is from us. It all starts here. This office -- I was talking to the crown prince a little while, you walk into this office, to somebody from the outside the Oval Office is the most powerful place in the world. You're standing right now in the most powerful place in the world.
And no matter how big you are, these are the biggest people, the richest people, they walk into this office, it's special, isn't it? Look at him? He's so happy to be here. But you walk into this office, it's the Oval Office, and we've done a lot of good with this office. I've stopped actually eight wars. I appreciated your question before, but I've actually stopped eight wars. I have another one to go with Putin. I'm a little surprised that Putin has taken longer than I thought, but we stopped India and Pakistan. I could go through the list; you know the list better than I do. I'm very proud and I stopped one that was almost ready to start again. You know, there was one that was ready to start.
Question: Do you have an update on where things are --
Trump: And they're doing very well. So, it all took place right here in the Oval Office, whether by telephone or whether by they came in. Many of these leaders have come in and they signed their peace deals right here in the Oval Office. So, no matter if it's the biggest businesspeople in the world or the greatest leaders in the world, the biggest leaders in the world, like the gentleman on my right, everybody walks into the Oval Office and they say, wow. And now by the way, the Oval Office is in the kind of condition that it should be in, whether you look at the wall or the marble floors or anything down the road. We're fixing the White House and we're building one of the greatest ballrooms ever to be built. You know, we have an event tonight and we're going to have about 118 people because we have a very small room.
For 150 years they've wanted a ballroom and now you're going to get a great ballroom. And I have to say, I probably made a lot of enemies because, in your honor, we're having a dinner tonight, a beautiful dinner tonight. And we have a very small room, right? It's called the East Room and it's beautiful. It's lovely, but it's like for a little cocktail before you go into a ballroom. It's a very small room. They've wanted a new ballroom for 150 years. We could have sold the big ballroom out three times in honor of this gentleman. So, I made a lot of enemies because I have a lot of people that are invited tonight or are unable to come because of the size constraint, but you know what we'll do before I leave office?
We'll have another dinner because we'll have it ready long before I leave office and it's going to be beautiful. It's a very popular thing what we're doing. And by the way, no government funds, it's all put up private money, all private money. And in the case, I think it's -- there's a restriction on foreigners, otherwise I could have asked you just for a check, OK? But there's a restriction, these are all private individuals that put up a lot of money to build the ballroom, not one penny is being used from the federal government. So, it's really a nice thing. But I look forward to it, I just pointed it out. This would be a perfect night to have that ballroom open, Susie. If we had that open, we'd have a lot of people very happy. Right now, we have a lot of unhappy people because they all want to be with us tonight to honor this great man. Thank you all very much.