TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Bilateral Meeting With Mark Rutte of NATO, 10.22.25
[Video]
President Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to have a friend of mine, a very good friend of mine. We've become friends actually, through the trials and tribulations of everything, Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO highly respected, every country, almost every country in Europe. I think you can almost take away the almost pretty soon. But they -- they all have great respect for the leader and he is the leader and we've had some very good discussions today and things are going along pretty well, as regarding Ukraine, Russia. We thought it would be a little bit easier. That's turned out to be tougher than the Middle East. The Middle East was supposed to be the tough one and we've solved that puzzle. But this one will get solved also, so I want to just say it's an honor to have you, Mark. Thank you very much.
Mark Rutte: Thank you so much for -- for hosting again. And -- and we were texting, I think it was on the day when you were in Israel and in Egypt, this tremendous success you had under your leadership in bringing peace to the Middle East.
Trump: Thank you.
Rutte: And then we text each other and said the next big thing has to be Ukraine, Russia. And I want to help. NATO wants to help. My colleagues want to help to basically deliver on your vision of peace in Ukraine. And I really want to thank you for everything you're doing, including breaking the deadlock with Putin, starting the dialogue in February when you came in as president in January. But also for everything you did with NATO, the fact that we are now at this five percent, the huge success in The Hague at the NATO summit, the fact that Europeans are also stepping up when it comes to Ukraine, basically, the weapons from the US being delivered to Ukraine, paid for by allies, and Europeans coming together to discuss how can we sustain Ukraine post a peace deal.
All of this is evidence of your leadership of pushing the Europeans and the Canadians to do more, to deliver and to equalize in spending with the US. So on all of this and today we will talk more on how we can really bring Ukraine to the next phase and get this terrible war this -- this -- and all the bloodshed ended.
Trump: And as you know, we are going to be making a big trip next week. Some of you are going with us. We'll be going to Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, I'll be meeting with President Xi of China. We'll have a pretty long meeting schedule. We can work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together. So we look forward to that. I think something will work out. We have a very good relationship, but that will be a big one. We canceled the meeting with President Putin. It just -- it didn't feel right to me. It didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get, so I canceled it, but we'll do it in the future. But next week, we'll be with many of you in those locations that I told you. And then it's back -- back to Washington. So thank you very much, everybody. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, can you tell us a little bit about why you're elevating sanctions against Russia right now? What's the --
Trump: I just felt it was time. We've waited a long time. I thought that we'd go long before the Middle East. And Mark, as you know, we did the Middle East plus seven. So we did seven different wars from -- from Pakistan and India to so many --
Rutte: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Africa.
Trump: -- Which was -- which they said was impossible to do. All these wars I did. And the one that we have left, we have one left. It'll be nine and we have one left and I think we'll get that done too. I think we're on our way to getting it done.
Rutte: Absolutely. We have to Yeah.
Trump: Please.
Question: Mr. President, do you have a timeline for when you think this war is going to be over because of your leadership?
Trump: No, I don't have a -- in war, it's hard to have a timeline. You know, so many things happen in war. Go ahead.
Question: What about Tomahawk missiles. Putin is definitely afraid --
Trump: Well, the problem with the Tomahawk that a lot of people don't know, it'll take a minimum of six months, usually a year to learn how to use them. They're highly complex. So the only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot is if we shot it, and we're not going to do that. But there is a tremendous learning curve with the Tomahawk. It's a -- it's a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon and maybe that's what makes it so complex. But it will take a year. It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it and we know how to use it. And we're not going to be teaching other people. It will be -- it's too far out into the future.
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President?
Trump: Yes, please.
Question: I saw, Mr. President, that you said as recently as yesterday, that you still believe that Putin wants to end the war.
Trump: Yeah, I do.
Question: And then today, you took this step to [Inaudible] the sanctions and put more pressure on them.
Trump: Yep.
Question: What else are you going to do to encourage him to get there or can you explain why you do believe he wants peace?
Trump: Yeah, it's a good question. Today is a very big day in terms of what we're doing. Look, these are tremendous sanctions. These are very big. Those are against their two big oil companies and we hope that they won't be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled. We just answered having to do with the various forms of missiles and everything else that we're looking at, but we don't think that's going to be necessary. We would like to see them just take the line that has been formed over quite a long period of time and go. And let's, you know, go home. Last week, they had almost 8,000 soldiers killed. Many Russians were killed last week. Many Ukrainians were killed last week. We think it's ridiculous and we'd like to have it end.
Question: Why do you think so? Why do you still believe that?
Trump: I think they want peace. I think they both want peace at this point. It's been -- you know, it's almost four years. You're going into four years and if I were president, it never would have started. But yeah, it's time.
Question: Mr. President, on the shutdown, were you -- do you plan to speak your Democrats before you head to Asia? And if not, why not even [Inaudible]
Trump: Well, I think it's a shame that it's shut down because we have the greatest economy, as you were saying before. We have the greatest economy in the world right now, by far, the United States. We have almost $18 trillion now. It was $17 trillion, now it's $18 trillion being poured into our country and it's no time for shutdowns. I don't think it's affecting what we're doing, but it's -- it's too bad for a lot of people. We have a lot of good people that aren't working right now that should be, and it's because the Democrats want to try and renegotiate the deal that they had negotiated. They want $1.5 trillion given to illegal immigrants who came into the country and it's going to hurt the healthcare of citizens of our country that have been paying into it, that have been working hard for it, that really deserve it. So we're never going to do that.
It's not going to happen. And I will tell you, there are a lot of good Democrats that really want to make a deal and I think -- all we need is five Democrats because we have a great support on the Republican side. So I think we need five Democrats, and there are a lot of them that want to make a deal. So I think at some point -- at some point, commonsense will prevail. Yeah, go ahead. You can finish up.
Question: On the drug boat strike in the Eastern Pacific --
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Can you explain to us what that was about, how it was conducted, who --
Trump: Yeah, sure. Well, they had one today in the Pacific. And the way I look at it every time I look because it is violent and it is very -- it's amazing that the weaponry that every -- everyone -- you know, they have these boats that go 45, 50 miles an hour in the water. And when you look at the accuracy and the power -- Look, we have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world and you see a little bit of it there, one shot, everyone dead center. And the only way you can't feel bad about it is you realize that -- you won't feel badly about it, is you realize that every time you see that happen, you're saving 25,000 American lives. Every one of those boats that gets knocked out is saving 25,000 American lives, not to mention the torn-up families all over the country.
And whenever I see that I say to myself, I just saved 25,000 lives. I will say that there are very few boats traveling on the water right now, actually that includes fishing boats. That includes any other kind of boat, but there are very few boats traveling on the water. So now they'll come in by land at a lesser -- to a lesser extent and they will be hit on land also. Go ahead, in the back, please.
Question: [Inaudible] you have the legal authority, if they do come --
Trump: Yes, we do. We have legal authority. Right. We're -- we're allowed to do that. And if we do buy land, we may go back to Congress, but we -- we have -- this is a national security problem. They killed 300,000 people last year, drugs, these drugs coming in. They killed 300,000 Americans last year and that gives you legal authority. We have a national security problem -- really, I will say this, when you look at the people we're dealing with and we know them, we know the people coming in. We know the boats. We know everything else. We're allowed to do it. It's in international waters. If we don't do it, we're going to lose hundreds of thousands of people.
Now, they'll be coming in by land a little bit more because they're not coming in by boat anymore. There are no boats in the water. There are no more boats. We know the boat almost immediately. You know, it's pretty unusual when you see somebody with a fishing rod and five engines on the back of the boat. You know, you don't need that to go fishing. Wait, wait, wait. And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land. And they haven't experienced that yet, but now we're totally prepared to do that. We'll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we're doing when we come to the land. We don't have to do that. But I think, Marco, I'd like to do that. You may respond to that if you want.
Marco Rubio: Yeah. Well, I mean the question is, bottom line, these are drug boats. If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States.
Question: But does it doesn't matter if it's in the United States?
Rubio: Well, these are all in international waters. The boat --
Question: Would you do a strike in the United States or --
Rubio: Well, that's a different matter. Now you're talking about a law enforcement matter. In this particular case, there are people traveling on international waters headed towards the United States with hostilities in mind, which includes flooding our country with dangerous deadly drugs and they're going to be stopped and that's what's happening. And in the case last week, you saw there was a submarine, it was a submarine, it was a submersible. That's a drug boat all the way through. We know what these boats are. The president just said it. We track them from the very beginning. We know who's on them, who they are, where they're coming from, what they have on them. And if you're running drug boats, you're in grave danger.
Trump: And drug usage is way down and drug usage coming from the sea. They call it ocean drugs, a little term that they use, the ocean drugs is very close to non-existent right now. I wouldn't want to be in one of those boats heading away. You know, they're driving happily to destroy the lives of people and they end up -- that's the end of them. So the ocean drugs and the sea drugs, drugs by sea, they call it also, that's almost down to nothing as you can imagine. So they continue to come in by land and a little bit less because they see something is going to happen. They don't like it, they see -- and they're right, something very serious is going to happen, the equivalent of what's happening by sea.
And we're going to Congress just to tell them what we're doing, just to keep them informed. We have to do it for national security. We have to do it to save lives. Just as of today, stopped all payments going to Colombia, the country Colombia. Also the school Colombia. No, we settled. We made a settlement with them. But no, he's a thug and he's a bad guy and he's hurt his country very badly. They're doing very poorly, Colombia. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories. They grow all sorts of crap that's drugs, bad drugs coming into the United States, goes generally through Mexico. And he better watch it or we'll take very serious action against him and his country. His country is -- what -- what he has led his country into is a death trap. Please.
Question: Has the secretary general presented his Ukraine peace plan to you? Are you prepared to be chairman of the Board of Peace?
Rutte: Oh, it's no secretary general peace plan, but I'm here -- no, no, I really, I really want to correct it because I saw some of that in the media. Of course, many people are thinking how to bring this terrible war to an end and supporting the president in doing that. Why I'm here is to dialog again with the president, how I can be, how NATO, my colleagues and other colleagues in NATO can be of maximum support to get that done. And -- but there is no peace plan on the table. I mean, if there is a peace plan, it is what the President said last Friday and Sunday, which is stop where you are, stop the fighting.
Trump: This is about NATO. We're a very proud member of NATO. We have a great relationship with the countries of NATO, I think made much better by our visit a few months ago when they agreed to -- they agreed to five percent instead of two percent of GDP. That was a big concession. I think that was a concession that two years ago, nobody would have said, even a year ago.
Rutte: Nobody. Even nine months ago, before you were elected.
Trump: Yeah. They would have said that's not possible. And the difference is they're paying five percent as opposed to not paying two percent. There were -- a lot of them weren't -- with the exception of Spain. I think you're going to have to talk to Spain because they're not -- Spain is not a team player. So other than -- other than Spain, everybody's 100 percent. And you could solve this problem very easily, I think, if you -- Brian. Brian, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead and then we'll take Brian. Go ahead.
Question: The soybean farmers, are they going to be getting support from you soon? And your message to --
Trump: Yeah. Well, they do. So what's happened, you could say with that, you could say with beef, with all of it, the beef -- the ranchers, let's say, who have done a great job, have lost their shirts for many, many years. They've really been decimated. And I helped them a lot. I put tariffs on things coming in to the country, including beef. And that gave them a chance to finally have a decent industry. We are going to be talking to them. They're great people, but they've been hurt. For 25, 30 years, they've been losing because other countries have taken advantage of them. And by putting tariffs on, they've been able to make a few dollars. They've been able to have an industry, but I also want to keep the beef prices low.
So I'll be talking with the ranchers and I'll be speaking with a lot of different people, including Scott and Howard. And we'll do something because prices are way down in our country. Energy is way down. I think you're going to see $2 gasoline very soon. I see that it's $2.50 in a lot of places, $2.50. We were heading to $5, $6 and $7. If Biden didn't go back to my policy toward the end, you would have seen -- but he didn't go back to the full policy and he missed the most important thing. So, we were up to -- you know, we were way up. I think you're going to see $2 gasoline. We could even break that number. That's a big difference. The only -- the only cost that's really up is beef and the fake news only wants to talk about beef. And what I did is I made it possible for those people to survive.
They're incredible people. But they were being decimated by other countries and I didn't want that to happen. So prices are way down, groceries are down, everything's down. Energy is way down, even interest rates with a bad chairman of the fed. He's terrible. He's a -- he's a fool, but even interest rates are down. So our country has never done better. We're going to take in, I think, $21 trillion, $20 trillion, $21 trillion this year. No country has ever taken in more than $3 trillion and we're going to take in $21 trillion of investments because of the tariffs. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be a mess. We would be a national security problem and we've -- we've done a job.
So I'm very happy about that. We're going to do -- we're going to do something very quickly and easily on beef to get it down. The -- the ranchers understand that they're so happy for what I've done. I saved them. I don't think you'd have any beef in this country if I didn't do that. So we're very proud of that. Yeah, Brian.
Question: Mr. President, yesterday in Los Angeles, immigration officials were attacked by some protesters --
Trump: Yeah, sure.
Question: -- in attempt to arrest an illegal alien. Gavin Newsom, other Democrats are using very aggressive language in terms of how to address ICE agents out in the field.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Is there any responsibility that we can place on Gavin Newsom and other elected officials for using such aggressive language?
Trump: Well, Gavin has to be careful. Remember that when I first came in, they had a terrible riot in Los Angeles. They had the fires, which shouldn't have happened. They didn't have the water for the fires. They should have had the water coming in from the Pacific Northwest. They didn't have the waters. They didn't have water in the hydrants or the sprinklers. So they had the fires and then they had the riot. And if we didn't go and take care of that riot, you would have lost Los Angeles. You would have canceled the Olympics, which is because of me in Los Angeles. And the police commissioner, the head of the police said, if the president didn't come in, we would have lost Los Angeles.
We did not have the capability of taking care of it. And he said it very strongly. And we did a great job and within a week it was all done. Within one day, it was done. But within a week, it was all done. And then they go back to their normal practice of weakness, of not taking care of criminals, meaning taking care of putting them in jails where they should be. Washington, DC, and you all are the best people for that because Washington, DC is now one of the safest cities. It was one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Now Washington, DC, believe it or not, I'm embarrassed to say it in front of you, but Washington, DC went from one of the worst, most dangerous cities, to you can walk down the street. You can send your child to meet you at a location, your child is going to be fine.
We have a very, very safe city, one of the safest. And, you know, very proud of that. Memphis, by the way, is coming along fantastically. We're in Memphis right now. We're -- we had the FBI in Chicago. We're doing things. We haven't served Chicago yet. When we do, Chicago will be very quickly, a very, very safe city. But if you look at what's happening in Memphis, it's great. But you got to look at Washington. People are coming up to me, people that work in the White House, they're saying thank you, sir. And I immediately know what they're thanking me about. It's thanking -- they can walk to work. They would never walk to work a year ago.
They can walk into work and they feel safe and secure and it's beautiful. And I'll tell you what, it's really an honor to add that great ballroom to the structures in Washington. It's going to be one of the great ballrooms of the world. And I think it's going to be something you're all going to be very proud of.
Question: [Inaudible] meeting that's coming up with President Xi. What do you hope comes out of that meeting? What deliverables come --
Trump: I think we'll make a deal. I think we're going to make a deal on -- the rare Earth is the least of it. Look, the tariffs are much more powerful than the rare earth. The rare earth is a disturbance, but there's a lot of rare earth around. I'll tell you. I've had more calls on rare earth. We've got it. Everybody's -- we'll make a deal on, I think, everything. I think we're going to make a deal on soybeans and the farmers. I think we're going to make a deal on, maybe even nuclear. You know, President Putin in his call mentioned to me about nuclear, where we do a de-escalation and I'm fine with that. I think it's good. I think it's a very appropriate thing. We have the most nuclear weapons. Russia is second. China is actually third by a long way, but they'll be even within four or five years, too many. And we are talking about de-escalation. That's already being talked about. And I think we'll add -- we'll probably add China into the mix.
Question: Mr. President, can you convince President Xi to stop purchasing all that Russian oil that's funding this war against Ukraine?
Trump: Well, I think I'll be talking to him about it. I think it's a little bit of a different talk. India, as you know, has told me they are -- stop. You know, they're -- it's a process, you can't just stop it, but by the end of the year they'll be down to almost nothing. That's a big thing. That was almost 40 percent of the oil. India, they've been great. Spoke to Prime Minister Modi yesterday. They've been absolutely great. China is a little bit different. You know, they're a little bit different relationship they have with Russia. It was never good, but because of Biden and Obama, they got forced together. They should never have been forced together.
But they're a little bit forced, but they're -- by -- by nature, they're not -- they can't be friendly. They can't be. By nature, they can't. I hope they are friendly, frankly, but they can't be. The -- you don't want -- you should not have forced Russia and China together and Biden did that and Obama did that. They forced them together because of energy, because of oil. And so they are closer than they would normally be. I think I'll probably be talking about it. What I'll really be talking to them about is how do we end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether it's through oil or energy or anything else. And I think he's going to be very receptive. He -- he would now like to -- I don't -- I'm not sure that he did at the beginning. He would now like to see that war end.
Question: [Inaudible] Mr. President, do you think Xi plays an important role in terms of inserting himself and convincing Putin who he speaks to regularly stop the war right now --
Trump: Yeah, I do. I think he can have a big influence on Putin. I think he can have a big influence on a lot of people. Look, he's a respected man. He's a very strong leader of a very big country. Yeah, I think he can have a big influence and we will certainly be talking about Russia, Ukraine. In the back.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Liam [Inaudible] my question is actually for the Secretary General.
Rutte: Yes.
Question: Mr. Secretary, I don't know if you've seen this, but pulling out of Ukraine shows a massive collapse in Ukrainian support for the war, a Gallup poll had it just 23 percent. That's less than a quarter. Zelenskyy came out today praising President Trump's proposal for freezing the front lines of battle as part of a cease fire. He said that's a good compromise. So people view your coming here as, you know, you're lobbying the US government to continue its involvement in the war. You're obviously lobbying for more NATO weapons to be sent to Ukraine. But Ukrainians themselves don't want to fight the war, so how do you justify that morally?
Rutte: Well, I'm lobbying only for one thing and that is to make sure that we end this war and I don't have to lobby the president because we totally agree on this, and this is what he has been doing from day one. Everything he could do to break the deadlock is Putin, get a dialog going, dialoging also with Zelenskyy and getting this war done, it's crucial. And the fact that the US is now supplying weapons into Ukraine paid for by allies is extremely important, and that's now happening since two or three months, about $2 billion moving into Ukraine.
Question: [Inaudible] wind down. Why do you think that'll wind it down now?
Rutte: What do you mean?
Question: Do you think more weapons will wind down the war?
Rutte: No. I mean, there's more to be done. So what you need -- what the president said is we can't stop where you are. So basically, do a ceasefire and then have all your discussions about territory and whatever. But first, stop the war. This is what you said on Friday and on Sunday, right after me.
Trump: It's a war. I mean, your question is really a fair one. It's a war that should have never started. And you know -- you know how I feel about it, but it's a war that should have never started and we're not selling any weapons to Ukraine. We're selling them to NATO, which is different from before with Biden. He just gave $350 billion worth of weapons and cash right into Ukraine. And that was so foolish. But we sell them to NATO, and in theory, you can do what you want with them. It doesn't have to be Ukraine, but probably it is mostly [Inaudible]
Rutte: No. What nations are doing now is buying from this program and making sure that the supplies in Ukraine --
Trump: Europe
Rutte: -- Europeans and Canadians. For example, these are interceptors for the patriot systems, crucial to protect the cities. Today, again, a Russian attack has killed children, or at least seriously wounded children in kindergarten in Ukraine. So we need to make sure that the air defense systems are in place and we need the US systems to do that and the Europeans are paying for that. And this is exactly the type of actions we needed and the president is doing that and trying everything to get this war to an end, starting with the ceasefire.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: -- wants to take all of Ukraine?
Trump: I always felt that way. I always felt he wanted to. When I was in my first term, I was with -- you know, I was very close to him, relatively speaking. It was harder because of the Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax. But I would talk to President Putin about Ukraine and it was the apple of his eye. I'd say it, it was the apple of his eye, but it would have never happened. He knew the consequences were too great. When we had a rigged election and all of a sudden, I wasn't there, he said, wow. I think he looked at Afghanistan, how horrible that was handled so stupidly and I think that really gave him a little additional, you know, incentive. I always felt he wanted the whole thing, not a piece of it. But I think now he's willing to negotiate a little bit further and I think he's willing to make a deal. We'll see. We'll see. We don't -- we don't want him -- we don't want him to have the whole thing. Go ahead, please.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You have this big tariff case before the Supreme Court. It's November the 5th.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: You suggested you might actually show up to the Supreme Court.
Trump: Yeah, I'd like to. I think it's one of the most important decisions we'll ever have from the Supreme Court. With tariffs, we're a strong, sound country. We're a nationally secure and internationally secure country. We're a very rich country. Without tariffs, it's a slog for this country, a big slog. I think it's one of the most important decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. And I might go there. I really believe I have an obligation to go there. We are doing so well as a country right now because of tariff and you have to understand, tariffs have been used against us for many years, decades. And just -- I mean, just slowly but surely hurting our country so badly. That's why we owe $37 trillion.
We owe that because other countries have taken advantage of us over many, many decades, over many decades. And now we're a rich country. We're taking in money like we've never done before. Without tariffs, that would not be happening. And also, I solved, as you know, eight wars. Of the eight, five of them, maybe even six of them are because of tariffs. The threat of tariffs on these nations, if you want to fight, that's OK, India and Pakistan, if you want to fight, that's OK, but you're going to pay tariffs and they're going to be very substantial. And we're in the midst of a trade deal and they said, we don't want to do that. Two days later, they call up and they're not going to fight anymore.
The peace -- they have peace. But I've done that. Out of eight, I would say six, six times, five times, six times, tariffs are vital to this country. And tariffs have been used against us by China, by every other country and all we're doing is using them to negotiate fair deals. And as you know, we made a fair deal with Japan. We made a fair deal with all of Europe, the European Union. We made a fair deal with South Korea. These are countries that were taking so much money away from us, not sustainable. And now we're taking in hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars. If this country is not allowed to have tariffs, if this country is not allowed to have the president of the United States negotiate on behalf of it with tariffs, we are -- we are put in a position where we're going to be a third world country.
We can't let that happen. I think it's the most important case that we're going to have for many, many years to come, one of the most important cases we've ever had. With tariffs, we're a rich, secure country. Without tariffs, we're a laughing stock. We'll be a laughing stock and I don't want to have anything to do with that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.