TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Cabinet Meeting at the White House, 10.09.25
[Video]
Will Scharf: Mr. President, we just have two quick proclamations for you to sign today. The first, today is Leif Erikson Day. Leif Erikson was a famous Viking explorer who discovered the coast of Newfoundland over a millennium ago. This is a hugely important holiday, particularly to Scandinavian-Americans who celebrate his legacy as a great explorer as a devout Christian and really, just a fascinating individual in the history of our continent.
President Trump: Sweden and various other countries. We have a lot of people from Sweden, a lot of Scandinavians. This is very important for Scandinavians and that's a great honor. OK. And now you have another one that's –
Scharf: This is –
Trump: I think very non-controversial, frankly. But some people would say it's controversial. Go ahead.
Scharf: This is like Explorer Day for you, sir. Today, we have your Columbus Day proclamation for Monday, which we're signing a bit early. Christopher Columbus, obviously, discovered the New World in 1492. He was a great Italian explorer. He sailed his three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in what's today the Caribbean. But this is a particularly important holiday for Italian-Americans who celebrate the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the innovation and explorer zeal that he represented.
Trump: In other words, we're calling it Columbus Day. OK? That was the press that broke out in applause. That was -- can you believe that? I've never seen that happen before. The press -- the press actually broke out in applause. Good. Columbus Day, we're back. Columbus Day, we're back, Italians. OK? OK.
Scharf: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you. Great. Thank you very much.
Scharf: Have a good one, sir.
Trump: So we covered Scandinavia and Italy, not bad. Now for the rest of the world. So I want to thank everybody for being here. As you know, last night we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East, something that people said was never going to be done. We ended the war in Gaza, and really on a much bigger basis, created peace. And I think it's going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace. Peace in the Middle East, we secured the release of all of the remaining hostages and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process. I'd rather not tell you what they have to do to get them. They're in places you don't want to be. But we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, and that'll be a day of joy. I'm going to try and make a trip over. We're going to try and get over there, and we're working on the timing, the exact timing. We're going to go to Egypt, where we'll have a signing, an additional signing.
Trump: We've already had a signing representing me, but we're going to have an official signing. And the amazing thing is all of the countries over there from Qatar to Saudi Arabia to UAE to all of them, I mean, the rich ones, the less than rich ones, they've all come together, something which is amazing, actually. They've all come together for this and they're really, probably the best relationships they've ever had. So it's been really something incredible that nobody thought it was possible to get it done. And very importantly, the hostages are coming back. The -- as you know, they consider them hostages. They talk about them as hostages. But there are approximately 28 dead people, mostly young, mostly men. But -- and boys, I mean, boys. The one woman talked about her baby. Her baby is 25 years old. But, you know, to her, it's her baby and we're -- we're bringing them home, we're getting them to -- we're getting everything. And to those parents, the -- the dead young man is just as important, as though it were -- as though this person were alive.
Trump: It's amazing. I've never seen anything quite like it. I've been very much involved. I've never seen anything quite like it, but it's -- it's really peace in the Middle East. And you remember October 7th was terrible, but also from the Hamas standpoint, they probably lost 70,000 people. That's big retribution. That's big retribution. But at some point, that whole -- that whole thing has to stop and we're going to see to it. Gaza is going to be slowly redone. You have tremendous wealth in that part of the world by certain countries and just a small part of that, what they -- what they make will do wonders for -- for Gaza. And I think you're going to see some tremendous countries stepping up and putting up a lot of money and taking care of things. But there's tremendous spirit like I haven't seen. And even the news, I won't call it fake news for this purpose because they really were very fair today, I must tell you, in all cases, but they covered it very well.
Trump: They covered it very fairly. Everybody loves it, everybody. People that were never giving us a fair shake, frankly, they -- they -- they can't even believe it. They're so -- they're amazed by it. A lot of people are. But it was -- just, everything came together. I think the attack was very important on -- on Iran. Because let's say that didn't happen, they'd probably, by now have a nuclear weapon, numerous nuclear weapons. And therefore, even if we signed a deal, there'd be a big, dark cloud over it and it wouldn't be the same thing. So Iran's different, but Iran wants to work on peace now. They've informed us. And they've acknowledged that they're totally in favor of this deal. They think it's a great thing. So we appreciate that and we'll work with Iran. As you know, we have major sanctions on Iran and lots of other things. We would like to see them be able to rebuild their country too, but they can't have a nuclear weapon. So I want to express my tremendous gratitude to the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey for helping us reach this incredible day and for being there, they were there with us all the way, and of course, as you know, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and so many. I will tell you, President Erdogan was personally involved in dealing with Hamas and some of the others. He's been great. They've all been -- they've all been really amazing. Indonesia's been amazing. Indonesia's been fantastic. The whole world has come together for this, people that didn't get along, people that didn't like each other, neighboring countries that, frankly they didn't like each other, but now there's just this moment in time.
Trump: So, we look forward to welcoming the hostages like you can't believe home to their families, and that will take place early next week, we hope Monday or Tuesday. And all Americans should be proud of the role that our country has played in bringing this terrible conflict to the end -- to an end. And I want to thank -- I mean some of the people. JD, you were fantastic. And Pete, you were great. Marco was fantastic. I mean, some of you were very much involved -- I'm looking around, some indirectly. I think almost everybody in this room was involved. Susie, I want to thank you very much. You were incredible. You've done an incredible job. And yes, John, what you've done was invaluable -- CIA, John Ratcliffe, and he's done an incredible job. So, I want to thank you all. And if I'm missing anybody, I apologize. But you've been amazing. And then you have Steve Witkoff, who worked so hard. And you remember, we settled seven -- this is number eight. We settled seven wars or major conflicts, but wars, and this is number eight. And the one that I thought would be maybe the quickest of all would be Russia, Ukraine.
Trump: And I think that's going to happen too. But in the meantime, they're losing about 7,000 people a week and that seems pretty bad. They're losing mostly soldiers, young soldiers. They go out to war and they're getting killed. And while it doesn't affect us in a lot of ways, we've got a big ocean in between, you don't want to see that happen. It was a big mistake. That war should have never happened. It would have never happened if I were president. So, we're here this morning for a cabinet meeting as my administration continues to deliver for the American people, despite the radical left lunatics that shut down our government. You have Democrats that -- they've lost their way. They have no leadership. We don't even know who to deal with over there. At least they know who to deal with. We have no idea who we're dealing with over there. It's like they have no idea what they're doing. Republicans have voted repeatedly to pass a clean nonpartisan bill to reopen government at the same funding levels.
Trump: We're not going to do anything -- only good for health care. We're -- really, I think, become the party of good health care and they keep using health care as a cudgel. They want to try and get everyone thinking about health care. We're the ones that are saving health care. In fact, one of the things we're doing is we're going to be reducing the cost of medicines by 100 percent, 200, 300, 500 percent and even more than that because, as you know, we're in the process of favored nations right now. We've exercised a clause because we were subsidizing the entire world. The entire world pays a fraction of what the United States has been paying. And we've -- already numerous -- Pfizer and other companies have already signed. And other countries are a bigger problem because they've been getting a subsidized rate we've been paying for years. This has gone on for 30 years. We've been reducing the rate of drugs for other countries because we've been paying much more than we're supposed to. And they used all sorts of ideas like uh research and development. I said what about Germany; what about these other countries? Aren't they paying? No, no, we have to pay research and development
Trump: It was all nonsense, and I didn't -- I just -- I couldn't listen to it anymore. So, it's a very radical, big, tough shift, very tough. We got a lot of things going on there. But you know, and you probably heard me say this in my first term, I think it was my third year, we reduced drugs from one -- from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And I was so proud of it. I actually had a news conference to announce it, and it was 1/8 of one percent. Think of that, it was barely a reduction, but it's the first time in 28 years that there was a reduction in drug prices for the year. So, from the beginning to the end, it was 1/8 of one percent. And I was so proud of myself. I did something that nobody else could do, but when I started to think about it, I said does it make sense? And then I'm starting to look at numbers where a pill or a treatment, or some pharmaceutical product is selling in Europe for 10 percent of what we pay for in New York City or in any one of our places and cities, states.
Trump: And then I see people leaving for other countries to go buy their pharmaceuticals where they make journeys to various other countries, including Europe where they've got the best bargains of all. And I put an end to it, it's over. And now we're in major I guess disputes, but we're winning the disputes by a lot. With the countries -- a couple of countries said we won't do this. I said, well, it's unfair that we're paying 10 percent. And you're paying just a fraction of what we're paying for the same product made in the same plant. And they said, well, we just -- we're not going to do it. I said that's OK. You don't have to do it, but I'm going to put a tariff of nine percent or seven percent, or whatever the amount of money is. And I'm going to put a tariff on your country for the amount of money that you're taking advantage of us for. No, no, no, you can't. I said, yeah, I can do that. I'm going to do that, and they would immediately agree. And I'd make the tariff substantially more than the number we're talking about, and they would immediately agree. So, we have the consent, I think, Bobby, of every country essentially. They know that if they don't do it, we're going to put a tariff on for double the price and then they're going to do it. So, we never had that before.
Trump: You never had anybody in here that knew what the hell they were doing, I'll be honest with you. It really makes me angry because for years and years, and this started many years ago, and basically, we subsidized the world. So, this is going to have a huge positive impact on Medicare and Medicaid, even Social Security. But anything where there's pharmaceuticals, drugs involved it's going to have a tremendous impact. So, we're going to get drug reductions of 100 percent. I told you 1/8 of one percent, that I was proud of myself. Now you're going to get 100 percent, 150 percent, 200, 300, 400, 500 percent. You're going to get the biggest drug reductions that you've ever seen. And they're already -- I guess, they're starting to kick in. But we've made deals with numerous companies. And we're going for the full bore. We want whatever the price is. So, that would mean that the world price, because the world is bigger than the United States, a lot more people, but the world price will go up a little bit, and our price will come down a lot.
Trump: So, if a pill sells for $10 in London and $100 here, the pill will go to $20 in London and $20 for us, it's pretty simple. And that is a number that nobody can even fathom, it's a little like tariffs -- nobody knew how big they were. Nobody knew until they started seeing the trillions of dollars that has come in. I don't know why they didn't understand it. It's something they should have understood. We were taken advantage of for years with tariffs, and now, I don't want to say we're taking advantage, but we've become a very strong country because of the money that's coming in. Republicans have voted repeatedly to pass a clean nonpartisan bill to reopen our government. And remember, at the same funding levels both parties have supported in the past.
So, the radical Democrats have chosen to put the economy of our country -- we have the best economy we've ever had. We had the best economy in my first term, but we have an economy that's blowing it away and we have the Democrats are trying to obstruct. They don't want to have a good economy. I don't think they want to have a good country.
Trump: That's why they try and stop our law enforcement from doing what we did in Washington, DC. Washington, DC, we have a great safe, beautiful Capitol right now, beautiful. It's so safe you can walk down the street. Numerous people standing before me were mugged. And you're not going to get mugged anymore. We have a safe Capitol, one of the safest. We took it from one of the most unsafe places to one of the most safe places in the country. And we also beautified it. And we're in the process of doing even more so. So, we're very proud of our Capitol again. We were embarrassed by our Capitol, a lot of people being killed that come from Iowa, Indiana, Florida, they'd come up and they end up getting shot. They're not getting shot. We moved out 1,700 people approximately, right? Approximately 1,700 hardened criminals, career criminals, they moved them out. So, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and the Congressional Democrats are holding the entire federal government hostage. I will tell you; a lot of Democrats want to get this thing open too.
Trump: They do. They're calling us and they want it. They just want to get it open. And all we're doing is saying just play the same thing until we get it straight. And they don't know how to go about it. I mean, and the problem is we really don't know who the hell is leading the Democrats. You have this AOC, I don't know her at all, but I watched her the other day. She said, well, if they want, they could come to my office. That's not leadership, you know. The only one -- the challenger actually was Nancy Pelosi. Nancy's not looking too good, I don't know what to -- what happened to Nancy, but she's not looking great. But she was the only one. I give her credit. She was the only one to challenge it. But AOC said that they can come to her office and negotiate, the Republicans. And we're saying, oh, I didn't know she was in leadership. But she's taking Hakeem Jeffries' place and Schumer is afraid that she's going to run against him. And right now -- I don't know, it can change. Life is crazy, right? But right now, he can't beat -- I don't think he can beat anybody. So he'll be -- he'll lose in a primary.
Trump: I would say he'll retire before he -- before he loses in a primary. So I think Schumer is going to retire because he can't beat anybody. His polls are so bad. Meanwhile, the Democrat shut down is causing pain and suffering for hard-working Americans, including our military, our air traffic controllers and impoverished mothers, people with young children, people that have to live not the greatest of lives, but we're doing so many tax cuts. We've cut their taxes, the Great, Big, Beautiful Bill. We've cut their taxes at levels that nobody's ever seen. I mean, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. It's been a great thing for a lot of people. They're doing -- they're doing great. Despite all of the damage that it's caused, the shutdown has been, you know, pretty damaging. I mean, it's not yet because it's early, but it gets a little bit worse as it goes along. And we'll be making cuts that will be permanent. And we're only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell you. I guess that makes sense, but we're only cutting Democrat programs. But we're going to start that and we have -- Russell can talk to you about it if he wants to, but we're -- we'll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren't popular with Republicans, frankly, because that's the way it works.
Trump: So this is a confession that he's acting not to serve the people but to serve the partisan interests of his party. And I don't think he's serving him well because they're way down. Look, they just lost an election in a landslide. You know, it was interesting. I watched Kamala, who's a sad figure. I watched her the other day saying the election was very close. I said, no, the election was a landslide. We won the popular vote by millions. We won the Electoral College by, I think, 312 or 315 to 220 something. But there's another one that we won that's probably -- that's why when you see the maps, the maps are completely red. It's counties. The counties we won at 2,505 to 525. So 2,500 to 525. That's called one of the greatest, biggest landslides in history. And that's one that people are using now as a -- as a primer. But literally when you see it colored in the entire country is red, representing Republicans. So you know, they go around, they just lie. They just lie. And everything's a big lie with them. While the other side -- and the other thing I don't understand is, Kristi, I looked at crime numbers in Chicago.
Trump: They're through the roof and I have a governor stands up every day and tells us how wonderful Chicago is. I don't -- it's just a lie. It's like a con job. It's like Gavin Newsom. He says how well he's doing in California and they're doing terribly. Populations getting smaller, people are leaving, and other people are coming in. And you know, I wouldn't say it's an even trade.
While the other side is focused on playing games, the Trump administration is focused on creating jobs, bringing down prices, and we've really brought them down a lot. That's the other thing, we're bringing down prices a lot. We're bringing down grocery prices, but the big thing is energy. When you bring down energy, everything comes down, and the energy prices are way down. I see we're down to about $61 now a barrel. And what we're -- gasoline is going to be. I think gasoline is going to be below $2 at some point in the pretty near future. It's very low, much lower than it was under Sleepy Joe. And we're restoring law and order in our country. We're restoring it here, but we're restoring it. Right now, we're in Memphis.
Trump: We're going to Chicago, we're going to other cities. Many governors are asking us to -- including, Democrats are trying to ask, I don't know what the big problem is. If I were a Democrat governor, I'd be saying whatever you can do to get crime down, I'll take anybody. You can bring them in, any -- I don't care who it is. A lot of people said that. They interviewed women, these beautiful women in Chicago, Black women with a MAGA hat, a red hat. They said, we don't care who he brings in here but this place is really dangerous. We just want crime to stop. It's true. They don't care. You know, they don't differentiate between the National Guard and the Marines. They don't care. They'll take anybody. And that's the way it is. I mean, they want to see -- they want what we did in DC, they want to happen to them. And it's happening in Memphis already. It's -- I see in less than a week, the numbers are really good. And it'll be great and it will fix that. We'll go to various other places and we're going to be stopping crime in our -- in our cities.
Trump: And that's a great thing. And we won't get credit for it, but it's a great thing. We've launched a historic campaign to take back our nation from the gangs and the street criminals, violent repeat offenders, illegal alien lawbreakers, domestic extremists and savage, bloodthirsty cartels. And very little, by the way, is coming in by water, in case you haven't known. The drugs aren't coming in by water. In fact, we can't even find any boats in the water anymore. We had boats -- we were like a subway train with -- loaded up with drugs. Every boat, every single boat that you see getting taken out kills 25,000 Americans. Think of that. Because it's -- you know, it's pretty tough stuff, but it kills 25,000 Americans. So when you hear that, it's no longer tough. But here in Washington, we've deployed federal law enforcement and National Guard to restore public safety. And we're working to replicate that in numerous places all over the country. And we have a very powerful military. We have a very powerful National Guard.
Trump: I want to thank the governor of Texas who has been, as usual, great, Governor Abbott. He gave us 400 troops without even a question. And we have other governors likewise doing -- doing what has to be done, because they know we have to confront crime. We're directly confronting the sinister threat of left-wing domestic terrorism and violence, including the terrorist group, Antifa. You saw that yesterday. We had a news conference. Antifa is out of control in Portland and other places, but mostly Portland in the case of Antifa. We had people that were really badly affected by them. It was terrible. So one of those things, but we're knocking the hell out of them. And we're looking for the people that are funding them and those people are going to be just as guilty as the people that smack people over the head with a baseball bat. And I'd like now to ask Attorney General Bondi and Secretary Noem to discuss this a little bit and tell you where we are and then we'll go around the room. We'll go quickly. We're going to go quickly, if we can, because we have a lot of things to do, including -- I won't be spending that much time here because I'll be leaving fairly soon for the Middle East.
Trump: And it's -- I'm very honored to be involved with that, I'll tell you. It's a great thing, great thing for our country. People are so happy about it. I've never experienced anything quite like it. I've never seen such universal praise for -- for being able to do something. No. It's something that nobody thought was possible, and we're going to end up having peace in the Middle East. Who would have thought? So Pam, could you start and then Kristi, please?
Pam Bondi: Sure, President Trump. And despite the Democrats shutdown of our government, our law enforcement officers are out there working without paychecks round the clock to keep and make America safe. Secretary Hegseth and I were recently in Memphis. We had 1,100 law enforcement officers in one room with us. The Memphis PD, they were the happiest to see us, don't you think, Secretary Hegseth, of anyone?
Trump: Right?
Pete Hegseth: That's right.
Bondi: We had ATF, DEA, FBI, US marshals. I think -- I'm not sure if our park police were there. We had Treasury Secretary Bessent, and of course we had Secretary Noem's Homeland Security, all working together with the guard. They were so happy to have us here. We've been making arrests left and right. So far, we've made 562 arrests and seized 144 illegal guns, just in the short time we've been in Memphis.
Trump: And many of these people are career criminals. And when you take them out of a place, your crime rate just goes down. These people commit crimes every single day. They're sick. And we're taking them out. In some cases, we're bringing them back to their countries, where Biden allowed with his stupid open borders that we had in our country, to come in. But they're being brought back to other places or they're being put in jail, but they're career criminals.
Bondi: President Trump, last night alone, we made 91 arrests, 19 firearms off the streets and one was a homicide -- a warrant for a homicide and four sex offenders who had active warrants. One was a sex offender on a child. Everything we did in Memphis was worth it, in my opinion, for that one arrest.
Trump: Yeah.
Bondi: Think about that. We got a child rapist off the streets, but yet we've made 562 arrests and still going strong in Memphis, just what we did in DC. But it's because it's all of us. It's a team working for you to make America safe all together around the clock. Thank you, President Trump.
Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, Pam. You're doing a great job and it's amazing that we're not getting cooperation from Democrats. It's like it's a new issue. You know, we have all the old issues of the wall and the border and all of the things, and men playing in women's sports, who -- they still want that transgender for everybody. All these issues are so crazy, but we have a new one, it's called crime. We stop crime and they allow crime. They want crime, they -- it doesn't make sense. I think it's as ridiculous as the other things that we talk about all the time. But I've added it on to our list of a five-letter word called crime. We stop it and they actually incite it. It's crazy. You would think they'd want them, you'd think they'd want Kristi and Pam and all of the people, if we needed the military Pete will be there. We've got a massive military. We have the best numbers we've ever had for recruitment. We have a lot of people now. We have people that can't get into the -- in a great economy they want to be soldiers again. A year ago, they didn't want to even think about it. Same thing as with police and firemen, everything, they want to join. They're proud of our country again. Kristi, go ahead, please.
Kristi Noem: Well, sir, thank you for your leadership and for deploying all of government to help us keep our country safe. You have talked extensively about how threatened our ICE officers are, but all of our law enforcement out there. And we saw the shooting in Dallas at that facility. So, we're hardening all of our buildings and making sure that we have more security measures, snipers on the roof, people to protect our law enforcement while they're out there on the streets. But what I'm also doing, sir, and with your authority is we're purchasing more buildings in Chicago to operate out of. We're going to not back off. In fact, we're doubling down and we're going to be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there. And then I was there a few days ago and looked at some facilities that we can deploy more law enforcement out of. Because what they're trying to do with these riots and violence is distract us and keep us from going after those murderers and rapists that are out in the streets. And then I was in Portland went out and back on Tuesday, and met with the governor, met with the mayor, met with the chief of police and the superintendent of the highway patrol. They are all lying and disingenuous and dishonest people, because as soon as you leave the room, then they make the exact opposite response.
Noem: So, we're looking at new facilities to purchase there in Portland too and we're going to double down. And I told them if they didn't meet our demands for safety and security on the streets and work with us, then we were going to bring in more federal law enforcement. So, I want to thank Pete and the Department of War for all their help, they've been fantastic. But while we fight litigation and work with Pam on that, we're going to send more of our resources and men and women out there to keep everybody safe. So, no worries. What we see in DC and what we see in Memphis for -- benefits for people in the safety and security we'll see that in Chicago and Portland.
Trump: The numbers in Memphis -- it's only a week, but the numbers have been amazing I understand. The crime numbers are way down.
Noem: Fantastic. And it shows what a partnership can be between local law enforcement and the federal government. And if we have to do it the hard way in Portland and Chicago, we will, but the people demand safety.
Bondi: My lawyers are in court right now as we speak for you arguing in Chicago and Portland to keep them safe to bring in the guard. The government doesn't want it there, but we do -- we're going to keep their citizens safe, thanks to you.
Trump: The people want it. I don't understand the politics of it. I don't understand why Pritzker is trying to protect people that are really bad people.
Noem: They're more scared of the anarchists that are on the street and the politics of it than they are of doing the right thing.
Trump: I think they're afraid, I think they're threatened. They don't tell us, but I think Pritzker's threatened by people. There's no other reason that this could be possible that they don't want to have a safe Chicago and we can solve the problem very quickly, and we're doing that anyway regardless of if he doesn't want it or if he does want it, we're doing it anyway.
Noem: I asked the mayor that himself. He said that Portland was perfectly safe, a beautiful city, no problems. And I said, well, why did you clear the streets for me today then and build out a four-block radius to make sure I could get in and out of here? And these people on the street screaming death to ICE. There's graffiti that says Molotov's Melt ICE, we have the guillotines, we're going to use them -- the things that –
Trump: What's different, it's like anarchists, you know, it's really different than a lot of the others. This is a sick situation, but those are anarchists. Those are people that want to overthrow government, they're really degenerates. And we're finding out who is supplying all of those beautiful signs and everything else.
Noem: That's been fantastic. His team finding the financial networks is great. That's what everybody –
Trump: OK, Scott. Scott will do that. That's easy for Scott, right?
Scott Bessent: We've got a great team, sir.
Trump: That's good. How about we go to Marco? You can talk a little bit about what's going on and -- go ahead.
Marco Rubio: Yeah, Mr. President, I don't know the -- one day perhaps the entire story will be told about the events of yesterday. But suffice it to say, it's not an exaggeration that none of it would have been possible without the president of the United States being involved. It really began with your trip to the Middle East where these relationships were forged with partners in the region. Personal relationships, close relationships that created the foundation where all of this was possible. Where I think this really took a turn -- remember a month ago, no one thought this was possible. What really took a turn about a month ago, less than a couple of weeks ago, is when we were at the United Nations. And you convened an historic meeting, not simply of Arab countries, but of Muslim majority countries from around the world, including Indonesia was there. Pakistan was there and created this coalition behind this plan. Then on that following Monday you met with the Prime Minister of Israel here and that plan was presented.
Rubio: And then of course our great negotiating team followed up on it. In the interim, again, perhaps the stories will be told, perhaps they will never be told. The president had some extraordinary phone calls and meetings that required a high degree of intensity and commitment and made this happen. And I think what's important to understand is that yesterday, what happened was really a human story. There's a geopolitical aspect to it, there's no doubt about it, it creates the conditions for Gaza to one day be a normal place again and people to have a better life and Israelis to be safe. But yesterday was a human story. And because of the work you put in -- and honestly there is no -- not only is there no other leader in the world that could have put this together, Mr. President. But frankly, I don't know of any American president in the modern era that could have made this possible because of the actions you have taken unrelated to this and because of who you are and what you've done and how you're viewed. And this weekend, because of that, at some point very soon we are going to see 20 living human beings emerge from the darkness into the light for the first time in two years.
Rubio: And that is because not only were you -- you used the credibility and the power and the prestige of this office and the relationships you created, and you committed yourself to making it happen. And I think it will go down as a historic moment in the history of our country and something our country should be very proud of, that we have a president that's committed to not just peace but to the human aspect of reuniting these families. My last point on this is just a couple of days ago, Secretary Lutnick hosted us all, many of us, at the Kennedy Center. And we had these families; we've interacted with them for so many years -- for two years now and the stories are heartbreaking. both whose families are alive and those who are deceased as well who want their relatives back so that they can complete the process of grieving. And it was -- we had all hoped that perhaps that was the day that we would have an announcement for them on the anniversary of the seventh. But I know you were able to speak to some of those families last night and I just hope the whole nation understands how incredibly proud they should be of their president and of their country for the role that they've played.
Rubio: And I don't want to let this moment pass, Mr. President, without also noting the incredible work of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. They're an incredible team working together, facing some substantial impediments to even being there this weekend and doing it. So, let me just leave it at that. And they've done a great job on your behalf, Mr. President, and they deserve a tremendous amount of credit. But thank you for what you've done for the world -- for the world.
Trump: Thank you very much, Marco, I appreciate it. I think because we have a very busy day with all that's going on, what we'll do is maybe just a few of you raise your hand if you'd like to say something that -- don't talk too long, Doug. [Laughter] He's doing such a great job, so good that he could talk all day. That's the problem, right? But go ahead and what we'll do is just take a few hands and then we'll go back to getting peace done, OK? We'll go a little bit quicker. We'll take a few questions from the press. Go ahead, please.
Doug Burgum: President Trump, I just want to double down on what Marco was sharing. It's such a remarkable accomplishment, agree that no other president could have done this. But what set the groundwork for you to be able to do that when you took office on January 20th, you made a 180 degree turn in our military strength with Pete's leadership. You are the masterclass in peace through strength. So, militarily, we've completely turned around. We've demonstrated that through execution against Iran and others. That we have force, we want to end wars, but we'll use power if we have to. And then secondarily peace through strength is also the prosperity, having the strongest economy and being willing to wield the power of a tariff, in addition to the military power, to reorder the globe.
Burgum: Those two things that you're standing on, both economic power and military power, allowed these negotiations to go forward. And I think as you've described, the importance of these economic negotiations and all the trade deals, but that also begins with another 180 degree turn and that was 180 degree turn on energy. You have used energy diplomacy to bring prosperity to the American people and you've used it to bring peace abroad. The combination of those three things have been remarkable and now we're seeing the remarkable result. And we got one more that I know you want to end with Russia and Ukraine. Energy is going to play a key role in that.
And now with this historic agreement, we're in a position working with the Middle East to also end the Russian Ukraine conflict. So again, congratulations.
Trump: Thank you very much, Doug. I appreciate it. Maybe I'll go to you for a second. You can just cap out what he said about the military, how well we're doing and how big it is and how strong it is.
Hegseth: Mr. President, you're exactly right. At the War Department, you don't get peace without strength and our job is to be the strength part of the equation and deliver that when necessary, as you demonstrated with your order of Midnight Hammer, and the entire world saw. And I just want to echo what Marco said. It is a personal honor to be able to witness the way you lead and negotiate. I wish people had a full understanding of what that looks like, that historic nature. A lot of us vets, you know, the vice president, Tulsi, Lee, Doug, probably after decades of war and the chaos that was unleashed through reckless and foolish.
Hegseth: American policies never thought this kind of peace would be possible. Yet, with your strength, with your ability to wield trade negotiations, personal relationships to open up that opportunity is truly historic on the world stage, and it creates a whole number of other cascading effects. And watching Marco and the vice president and Steve across -- and Jared, the CIA director, everybody come together to make it happen, you formed a phenomenal team, Mr. President. And at the War Department, our job is to make sure if, if and when there's question about American commitment. The whole world knows we've got the biggest, strongest, most lethal and most ready War Department in the world, which is true. Which is why you've seen -- we saw record recruitment in 2025, Mr. President.The first two weeks of 2026 already blows that out. FY 2026 already blows it out of the water. In fact, reenlistment is already met its year-long goal in the Marine Corps in 2026.
Trump: Records.
Hegseth: Two weeks. OK. You can't -- there's no other way to -- to create that kind of love and enthusiasm than with your leadership, sir. And it is an honor to work with Pam and with Kristi, and the cities across the country to make sure American citizens and law enforcement are protected with our National Guard, but that's a core mission. And last thing, Mr. President. On the southwest border, the first group that rotated in to lock down that border to zero crossings is now rotating out and with a new border medal, the Southwest Border Medal. It's actually called the Mexican Border Medal, revived from 1918, that we'll be pinning on their chest.
Trump: Good. That's good.
Hegseth: So thank you for renaming the department and we're trying to live up to it every day. Thank you, sir.
Trump: That's great. I mean, think of this, we have record numbers of recruitment. One year ago, there were stories, front page stories that we couldn't get anybody to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast guard, my beautiful, I call it our beautiful Space Force. I love our Space Force. It's turned out to be very important, but we couldn't get anybody to join. Nobody wanted to join, including our police and fire. They didn't want to join anything. Recruitment was embarrassing. We couldn't get anybody. And now we have -- we're brimming. Now it's -- and they're getting in based on merit now. A soldier is a soldier. They come in now based on merit, not based on woke stuff that anybody can qualify. You have to qualify for jobs. You have to qualify for certain types of jobs, and it's amazing. So we were embarrassed a year ago. Think of it, a little bit more than a year ago, a year ago. I think it stopped on November 5th. I think it really started -- this all started on November 5th, the election -- Election Day. But now everybody wants to be in. We have an overabundance and maybe we should raise it a little bit. I don't know.
Hegseth: I like that idea, sir.
Trump: But we could raise it. But we have so many people want to join and they're proud of our country again. JD, could I ask you to say a few words?
JD Vance: Yes, sir. So just a couple of things, Mr. President. First of all, congratulations on yesterday. It was a big day, to Marco, to Susie, to the entire team, but in particular, viewing it from this perspective where for months the fake news media attacked you, attacked the entire team, attacked your approach. You know, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again expecting a different result. The reason we're here is because the president actually charted a different course with a different team. He invested a lot of authority into Steve Witkoff in particular, and that's why we're here. It's because you did something different and I think it's important to recognize that. I also think the president -- you know, Marco mentioned the president's personal touch being a big part of this. The one thing I would say is, is obviously the President of the United States, a New York real estate billionaire, one of the most famous New Yorkers in the world, has a lot of interaction with a lot of people who are very pro-Israel.
Vance: I think that was an important set of experiences and life experiences that he brought to the table. He also, of course, knew one of the most famous Palestinians in the world, Chuck Schumer. And I think without that background of knowledge, it would have been impossible to get us to this moment. The second thing I would say, just on Chuck Schumer. The president -- the president mentioned this, that Chuck Schumer said this has been very good for us, this morning about the shutdown. One of the things that we talked about before, all the media came in and that all of us are going to work on for the rest of the day, we've been working on for days, is how to make the shutdown as painless as possible on the American people. So while Chuck Schumer brags about this being good, I think the president is right, it's not good for him politically as much as he might think that it is. It's causing real consequences for the American people. There's a low-income food program, the WIC program, that my mom actually used when I was a baby, that program is about to be underfunded and it's about to get cut off because Chuck Schumer won't open the government.
Vance: We have troops. The secretary of War mentioned how well we're doing on recruitment. We're trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer is shutting down the US government. There are veterans' benefits that are going to suffer. There are Americans that are going to suffer because Chuck Schumer refuses to do his job. So while we're all celebrating this incredible success that we've had on the world stage, the country could be doing so much better if Chuck Schumer did his job and opened the government. Every single Republican, except for Rand Paul, has voted to open the government. A few moderate Democrats, to their credit, have voted with us to open the government. We just need five more Democrats to come to their senses and let the people's government serve the American people. I hope that they'll do that.
Trump: Thank you very much.
Vance: Thank you, sir.
Trump: Chris, please.
Chris Wright: Yeah, to follow up on that point, Mr. President, the Democrat or Schumer shutdown did not begin eight or nine days ago. It began eight or nine months ago with your inauguration. For the first time in American history, every Senate confirmed appointee, who are our deputies to run our department, every one of them has been filibustered.
Trump: One of the critical parts of my department is the National Nuclear Security Administration. It maintains, manufacturers our nuclear weapons and our engines for nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers. We are a key supplier to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. They filibustered -- the Democrats filibustered the leader, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, would not let him come into my department until the Republicans, two weeks ago, changed the Senate rules so they could confirm them and we could have a leader. They filibustered the leadership, now they're filibustering the funding. In the next six, seven days, we're going to run out of funding and the retooling of our nuclear stockpile, the ultimate guarantor of our sovereignty is going to be underfunded and we're going to have to slow down and creep to a crawl these efforts. Just incredibly irresponsible for Schumer to worry about his own reelection and not the 340 million Americans that count on the efforts of our military and all of our departments. It's truly offensive and we need to bring it to an end as soon as possible. Let's open the government back up. Thank you very much. And you're doing a great job. Thank you very much. Bobby, did you want to say something? You got a lot of things happening.
Kennedy: A lot of –
Trump: A lot of very positive things, actually.
Kennedy: Mr. President, I'm glad you're getting bipartisan accolades on the Mideast peace agreement. You should also get bipartisan accolades on the MFN agreement. It is an historic agreement that's going to benefit every hard-working American. It's going to lower the price of drugs for every Americans. At the time -- by the time this administration is over, we will have 95 percent of the drugs in this country will be the lowest price in the world. It immediately begins to affect Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the other government programs. I remember when I went through the confirmation process and the major -- the principal preoccupation of the Democrats during that process was whether I would continue the IRA negotiations on drugs. The Democrats negotiated 10 drugs I'm supposed to negotiate every year, 15. 10 that they negotiated, they claim to get a 22 percent reduction, but it was a lie. It was 22 percent under the list price, which was actually higher than the price we were getting. Medicaid Medicare ended up paying more for those drugs than they were paying beforehand. They only got a benefit on one drug, one was tied, eight of them were lower. So, they should be applauding what we're doing now.
Kennedy: We're doing something that every administration, Democrat and Republican, has been saying that it was going to do for decades. And you got it done because you understood the power of the tariffs. We had leverage over these companies, and you did it in a way which you asked us to do, to negotiate in a way that was not going to stifle innovation. That was going to make sure that those companies could bring their production home and they're doing that. And it was a profound success. It will affect every American for 100 years, and you should be getting bipartisan accolades on that. I'll say one other thing about Tylenol only because of this -- this morning before I came in here, somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman, eight months pregnant. She is an associate professor at the Columbia medical school, and she is saying EFF Trump and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. And the level of Trump Derangement Syndrome has now left political landscapes, and it is now in the realm of pathology. And a mother could overwhelm millions of years of maternal instinct to put her baby at risk.
Kennedy: And all you have to do is look at the studies which you and I talked about, there are -- it's not dispositive that causes autism, but it is so suggestive that anybody who takes this stuff during pregnancy, unless they have to is irresponsible. There are 15 rodent studies; every one of them shows if you give it to the mother, the babies, and particularly the male babies, have profound neurological and behavioral changes. There is a study from Johns Hopkins on cord blood where they divided women into three categories, those who had the least acetaminophen in their cord blood and those who had the most. The ones with the most had 3.6 times the rate of autism in their children, the middle category had 2.2 times. It was a dose-related response and there are dozens of studies that show that countries that use the most have the highest level of autism. Cuba has the highest -- the lowest level in the world of acetaminophen use and it has the lowest autism rate in the world. So, this is not dispositive, it is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof. But in the meantime, the precautionary principle should apply. And any mother who is taking this stuff during pregnancy, just to get back at Donald Trump is doing something that is pathological. And we're seeing that across the board. I've got a lot of other stuff to talk about, but I know we've got a short time here. Thank you, Mr. President, you're making our country healthier again.
Trump: Thank you, Bobby. Could you just say for the record -- state what the autism was, let's say, 20 years ago and what it is today?
Kennedy: In 1970, the largest epidemiological study in history was performed, 900,000 kids were looked at, they were looking for autism in Wisconsin children. They looked at every child in Wisconsin who was eight years old. They found autism rate of 0.7 per 10,000, so almost one in -- close to 1 in 20,000, less than 1 in 10,000. Today, the autism rates are nationally 1 in 31, but it's actually much worse than that because California, which has the best collection system, reports an autism rate of 1 in every 19 children, 1 in every 12.5 boys. This is a national security issue, there is nothing more important and I'm glad -- I'm grateful to you, Mr. President, because you know the flak that you take for even talking about this issue. You've shown courage and you've shown leadership, and I can't thank you enough for letting me do this work.
Trump: Thank you. So, think of that, one in 20,000 and now it's one in 12 for boys, one in 18 or 19 for girls. So, obviously, there's something that's artificially, I think, induced. Something, whether it's the vaccines in terms of these massive vaccines that are twice the size of a jar like that, of a glass of water like that, I mean into a baby's body. And I've suggested get them in doses, get them in maybe 20 percent, 30 percent, but smaller, not such a big -- I think you know that. Then we had certain recommendations of the MMR, take them separately. The measles is already separate now and it works out much better, but there doesn't seem to be any impact if you take it separately. If you take it as a combination, it's not so great and some other things. But I would say, don't take Tylenol if you're pregnant. And when the baby is born, don't give Tylenol, if you can avoid it at all, just don't give it Tylenol. Really, what do you have to lose? You really don't have much to lose. Yeah, go ahead.
Kennedy: I'll say this -- also there's many, many other confirmation studies. One of -- there's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. So, none of this is dispositive, but all of it is stuff that we should be paying attention to.
Trump: But you know, there's a tremendous amount of proof or evidence, I would say, as a non-doctor, but I've studied this a long time. You know, I met Bobby in my office 20 years ago, we were talking about the same thing 20 years ago, and I was a real estate developer, and it bothered me that it seemed to be getting worse. But it's so bad now when you hear these numbers, it's not even really sustainable. I don't know how people do it. But there is some very strong evidence on Tylenol. In fact, at one point, I guess, the company gave a warning. They gave –
Kennedy: They still don't recommend it during pregnancy; that's the weird thing.
Trump: They're not recommending it, and that's the company itself. So, just don't take it, don't take it. If you're a woman, don't take it and don't give it to the baby when the baby is born. And I think that's going to have an impact. But I'd also get the shots in smaller doses and there are a few things. We gave a few things that just seemed to be -- and I think you'd get that number way back up. Think of it, you have 1 in 20,000 and now it's just -- it's not even believable when you think that 20,000 drops to 12, 12 children. So, that's induced by something that's given or taken, and it should be able to be stopped. And you were talking about the Pennsylvania Dutch, you were talking about the Amish, where they don't take any of this stuff and they have virtually none, right? They have no autism, no autism. So, we're doing something very bad. Somebody's been given some bad things. Other countries, by the way, we have, I think, one -- we have 82 vaccines that we give simultaneously -- and I'm a vaccine believer, by the way, I believe in the polio vaccine, I believe in a lot of vaccines. But when you give 82 vaccines in a shot to a little baby that hasn't even formed yet, it's a lot of vaccines.
Trump: And in Japan, they give a much smaller number. In Germany, they give a much smaller, like 28 vaccines. That's a lot too. But 28 is a lot different than 82. So -- but I would say on the Tylenol, don't take it and that will be a -- I think it's going to be a big factor. I think it'll be a very good result. And I hope we're going to be able to see that result in the not-too-distant future because certainly people have heard us loud and clear. That's why I bring it up again. That's why I asked you to talk about it, because this is a horrible thing. And if you don't take it, I mean you have to tough it through sometimes. There are other things you can do, but you have to tough it out. It's easy for me to say, but I think you're going to see numbers that will be so -- it'll be so significantly improved and maybe fully improved. I mean, there's something there. There's something going on and we have to address it. And so, I'm addressing it the best I can as a non-doctor, but I'm a man of common sense. OK, any other questions?
Question: I'd like to comment on [Inaudible]
Trump: Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, a lot of people are calling to give you the Nobel Peace Prize after this peace deal that you managed to achieve in the Middle East. First of all, your opinion on that. And I was wondering about your trip to the Middle East. If you can tell us if you're considering to speak at the Knesset at the Israeli parliament?
Trump: Well, they asked me to speak at the Knesset, and I've agreed to. If they would like me to, I will do it. It's the first time a president has ever done that. So, that makes it very interesting, right? But yeah, so I will do it if they want me to, they have asked me to do it. Thank you.
Question: Families of hostages are out in the streets in Israel, dancing and crying tears of joy.
Trump: They're all dancing in the streets. Right now, they're dancing in the streets, they're so happy. Everybody's happy. They're dancing in the streets of Arab countries, Muslim countries. I've never seen anything like it. Everybody is happy. It's been really amazing. Thank you.
Question: President Trump, on the international peacekeeping force that's going to deploy to Gaza soon, do you expect that Pakistan, Turkey, other countries to contribute forces? Has that become firmed up?
Trump: Yeah.
Question: And also, the shutdown, it seems like in the House there's a majority support for a temporary extension of the Obamacare subsidies, perhaps minus the funds for illegal immigrants. Is that how you see the deal to end the shutdown happening?
Trump: Well, I see the deal just getting extended as we continue to talk, but we're willing to pay because we're paying. You know, it's very simple, we're paying. The Democrats are the ones that caused this problem and it's a big problem for them and they have a lot of -- a lot of break in their ranks, but -- so I see that, you know, I think that'll get worked out. But we want to get back before we do this. We don't want to have a gun held to our head. We don't like that, and the public doesn't like it either. So we want to get back. And I think it's going to work out. I think it's going to work out very well. It's something that shouldn't have happened. This was supposed to take place before the election. You know, this was supposed to take place on September 28th, before the election. We shouldn't even be talking about this right now. This is actually something that shouldn't have even happened. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, looking ahead, what guarantees Hamas disarms and that Israel doesn't resume bombing once the hostages are [Inaudible]
Trump: Well, the first thing we're doing is getting our hostages back. OK? And that's what people wanted more than anything else. They wanted these hostages back that have lived in hell like nobody has ever even dreamt possible. And after that, we'll see. But they've agreed to things and I think it's going to move along pretty well.
Question: But what is phase two? [Inaudible]
Trump: Well, I'm not going to talk about that because -- you sort of know what phase two is, but we will -- there will be disarming. There will be pullbacks. There will be a lot of things that are happening. You know, I gave you a whole list of 22 different things that will have -- will take place. And I think it will take place. And I think you're going to end up with peace in the Middle East. But we have to get our hostages back, and we weren't going to do it at the end. We're going to do it at the beginning. We said we want them at the -- we're not doing it. You know, we got the hostages back. We did as a group, with Steve and Jared and Marco and me and all of us. We got the hostages back. We got many of them back. Many, unfortunately, were dead, but we got many back that are now living with their families, with their parents in many cases, and with their husbands, families, wives, many of them. They celebrate all over. The ones that are celebrating the loudest. They're all over. There are a lot of them that we got out. But the last 20 -- and I always said, the last ones are going to be the most difficult. But it's been -- it's been a very big deal, getting the hostages out, but the rest is going to take place, too.
Question: And can you promise Palestinians they will be able to stay?
Trump: Well, they know exactly what we're doing. We're going to create something where people can live. You can't live right now in Gaza. You know, the place is a -- it's a horrible situation. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. So yeah, we're going to create better conditions for people. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, excuse me, what kind of security guarantees is the United States going to make for Gaza?
Trump: Well, we're going to work with very wealthy countries that love people, frankly. I know them very well. They love people, but they love Arab people and they love Muslims and they love -- they love -- I think right now, they love everybody and they're -- they're immensely wealthy and they're going to be involved and putting up money. And for them, it's a small amount of money. For somebody else, it's a large amount of money. But, you know, these are the wealthiest countries in the world and they'll be very much involved in making it -- making it as good as possible. Please. Go ahead.
Question: And what's your take now on a two-state solution, sir? Just to follow up on that.
Trump: I don't have a view I'm going to go with what they agree to.
Question: Mr. President, given that there are some tough provisions for Israel in this agreement, are you at all concerned that Bibi Netanyahu may not continue in his post Ð be in his post?
Trump: That Bibi may go a little bit out of whack?
Question: That he may no longer be prime minister.
Trump: Look that's politics. It could be. I don't know. I think he's very popular right now. He's much more popular today than he was five days ago. I can tell you that. Right now, I think maybe people shouldn't run against him. Five days ago, it might not have been a bad idea. No, Bibi's become -- this has been a very good thing. I don't think he did it for that reason, OK? But I think just looking as an analyst would look at this, I think it's been -- I think Bibi should be very popular right now. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, what will happen if Hamas says that it cannot locate or was not able to find all of the deceased hostages' bodies within the timeframe –
Trump: Well, we'll have to see. I think that's going to be -- it's largely been answered. We know where most of them are. Actually, the bodies are a bigger problem, because some of the bodies are going to be a little bit hard to find. It's a terrible thing to discuss, even, but you understand. We're all -- we're all people. We're grownups. We understand life. Nobody can understand this, though, because this could have taken place. But the -- we have the hostages for the most part, and -- so I don't think it's going to be overly big. The -- the situation with the bodies, you know, they say 28, some are going to be a little bit hard to find, but we're going to do the best we can.
Yeah, please, behind you. Yeah, behind you. Please.
Question: Thank you, sir. Regarding Jared Kushner's role in negotiations, can you explain a little bit about why he came on at the last minute? And then with regards to the WIC program that the vice president mentioned, do you know when the funding that you promised through the tariff revenue will actually go through to communities?
Question: Because there's reports that WIC providers are actually saying it goes down today.
Trump: Well, OK, let me just answer the Jared. So Jared's a very smart guy. He did the Abraham Accords, some people say the Abraham Accords, which I love the way that sounds, but he did the Abraham Accords. It was a great thing for -- big countries joined. If I were president, if the election would have been a correct election, which it wasn't, you'd have every country in there.
Maybe even Iran would have been in there, frankly, but you would have every country. And now, by the way, that's going to be filled up rather quickly. People want to join the Abraham Accords. And I put Jared there because he's a very smart person and he knows the region, knows the people, knows a lot of the players. And the combination of him and Steve Witkoff and Marco and Cooper, who as I hear has been fantastic, and others that were involved. JD was very much involved. I mean, we had a very smart group of people working. This was -- we had a lot of different players, different countries and very diverse countries, very different from each other.
They had certain things in common, but they had a lot of things, mostly things that were not at all common to their countries. So we have -- we had a very smart group of people. These are high IQ people, OK? You know, I talk about how many low IQ people we have in our government. We got some real low ones, but -- some shockingly low. But these are very high IQ people and that's what we want. I like high IQ people. Yeah.
Question: Mr. President, thank you. Sir? Can I ask you about the -- China. You're meeting with President Xi. The Chinese have now set to put in new export controls on rare earth minerals, and they've stopped buying soybeans from the US. What do you hope to get out of that meeting now with President Xi?
Trump: Well, we'll see. I mean, I just heard this a little while ago before we came in, so I haven't been briefed on it. The export -- I mean, look, we have the ultimate export. We have -- we have import and we have export. We import from China massive amounts and, you know, maybe we'll have to stop doing that. But I don't know exactly what it is, neither do you, neither does anybody. It's a little bit soon. I just heard about it. So Scott and Howard will figure that out and I'm sure we'll be able to handle it.
Question: Can I ask you about the soybeans? What is the plan to help farmers? Is it direct checks? Is it tax [Inaudible] have you sorted that out yet?
Trump: Well, what happens with soybeans is we're going to see more and more, I think, opening up and part of the reason that we'll be discussing. He's got things that he wants to discuss with me and I have things that I want to discuss with him, and one of the things is soybeans. I had a great deal with China, where they would buy $50 billion worth of our farm product and -- and manufacturing and other things, but farm product. And it was going along well, then when the election turned out to be a rigged election and we had the wrong guy get in there, he didn't do anything about it. I used to call up President Xi every two weeks or I'd call up people in China, say, you got to keep going, you're not buying the amount that you agreed to. And this went on for, you know, ever since we signed the agreement.
Trump: It was a great agreement. So they used to do $15 billion and I got it up to $50 billion, 50, and it was great. Then when Biden got in, they just never adhered to the agreement and nobody in Biden's group, as you can imagine, did anything about it. So it just sat there for four years and they didn't adhere to the agreement. And we -- you know, it's hard to go back after four years of nobody calling them, but I used to call them every two weeks. I'd say, you know you're a little low -- or I appreciate it. Oftentimes, I'd say, thank you very much, you are totally adhering to the agreement. But we had an agreement they would buy $50 billion worth of our product, mostly farm product. And the farm -- remember, I said to the farmers, buy larger tractors and more land and that's exactly what happened. They did well. But we -- we do suffer. I'd like you to discuss that maybe for a second, Brooke.
Brooke Rollins: Sure.
Trump: Very quickly, by the way.
Rollins: Yes, sir.
Trump: But would you just talk about how Biden let us down? Biden -- every single thing, every problem the farmer has is because Biden didn't do anything for four years. Go ahead.
Rollins: No, I think that's right. This president has been unequivocal in his support of the farmers. First of all, in term one, we worked on it so hard and opened up markets, but especially this term. But here's what everyone has to understand. The farm economy is in a very uncertain time, but that isn't because of the current trade negotiations, although certainly the China part is part of that. But we inherited a slew of issues. First of all, as the president said, when we left Trump one, we had an agriculture trade surplus. When we came back for Trump two, a $50 billion ag deficit -- that is in everything, that's just agriculture. The second part is the cost of inputs for our farmers increased on average between 30 and 38 percent, but that includes fertilizer, it includes fuel, it includes interest rates, it includes labor. All of this came about under Joe Biden, a 47 percent increase in the cost of labor that now Secretary Chavez, Deremer and Noem and I are working on. Fuel is coming down, thank you. Interest rates thankfully are coming down; a 73 percent increase in interest rates for our farmers. They couldn't get loans to make sure that they could move forward.
Rollins: So that's all really, really important. And I think we have to realize what the president's commitment is is this, that we are moving into an era of rural prosperity, of a golden age for our farmers in rural America, the trade renegotiations and the trade realignment that Jamieson and Scott and Howard have led with the president's leadership is unlike anything that's happened in the history of our country. And those that will benefit the most are the original Americans, our farmers and our ranchers. The president has committed if we need a bridge, he has talked about that to get us from the Biden years to the new Trump era. That's what we're working on every day. We've got to get the government reopened so that we can move forward on that. And once we do, we'll be able to move out a significant program to help our farmers. Long term, we have to change this hamster wheel of government. We've got to ensure that the farmers have the market to sell. And it's a national security issue in onshoring a lot of the food as well. So, sir, thank you.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I think that's enough. Thank you.
Aide: Thank you, press. Let's go. Thank you.
Trump: The country is doing very well. Thank you very much, everybody.