TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Joint Press Event with Benjamin Netanyahu, 12.29.25
[Video]
President Trump: You people could come in. Come on over, fellas. We had a big meeting with a lot of people, a lot of talent, from Israel and from the US. And I think we came to a lot of conclusion, a lot of conclusion and conclusions. And there's very little difference in what we're looking at and where we want to be, where we want to go. And so I just want to thank you for spending time. I know you're going to be over here for a couple of days and maybe will be surprising us on New Year's Eve. That would be fine.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Well, thank you.
Trump: And it's wonderful seeing you and Sarah and your whole group, very talented group. We've done very good work together and it will continue. So thank you very much, Bibi.
Netanyahu: Thank you.
Trump: Thank you very much.
Netanyahu: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. I have to say that -- I have to say that in addition to what I said, that we've never had a friend even close a friend as President Trump in the White House. I think he's been extraordinary in his friendship and his support for Israel, his principled positions, his willingness to just cut through and get to the essence of things, and I don't say that as a compliment.
I just mean it. People have heard me say that behind your back, Mr. President, many times. But I want to say something else. I think we have a partnership, if I can quote you, second to none. I think it's allowed us to do enormous things. You know, people said there was a different conception at one time, which means that America can advance its interests in the Middle East if it opens a lot of daylight between it and Israel.
And President Trump has done the exact opposite. He's achieved remarkable things in the Middle East because we work together. We talk about our ideas. Sometimes we have different ideas, but we work it out. And most of the time we see eye to eye. But it's been a remarkable experience and this was a very, very productive meeting. And may I say, a very good lunch. Thank you. Thank you for your friendship.
Trump: Thank you very much, Bibi.
Netanyahu: And thank you for your support. It's been from the heart.
Trump: Thank you. You know, as I said outside, he's been a wartime prime minister. And we were -- I guess I could say it was a wartime president, in more places than just Israel if you think about it. But Israel was a big factor and we're with you and we'll continue to be with you and a lot of good things are happening in the Middle East.
Trump: We have peace in the Middle East and we're going to try and keep it that way. I think we will be very successful in keeping it that way. And you've been a great friend and I've been a great friend to you and to Israel and it's been my honor. And the award that I was given was really surprising and very much appreciated.
Netanyahu: Well, President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people and then they figure out, oh, wow, maybe he was right after all. So we decided to break a convention too, or create a new one, and that is to award the Israel Prize, which in almost our 80 years, we've never awarded it to a non-Israeli.
And we're going to award it this year to President Trump. This was announced formally over lunch by our minister of education, who's responsible for the Israel Prize. It's going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people. I think there's -- it's such a fitting thing.
And it would honor us, obviously, Mr. President, if you could visit Israel on the occasion on our Independence Day, but I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the spectrum. They appreciate what you've done to help Israel and to help our common battle against the terrorists and those who would destroy our civilization. So, again, that's an expression of thanks and appreciation.
Trump: Thank you, Bibi, very much. That really is a great honor. Any questions, please? We'll go pretty quickly because pretty much we agree on most of the things, and you would know what most of those things are. Please, go ahead.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to know if you and the prime minister talked about having Israel pull back its troops before Hamas fully disarms. I know that's been an issue. Did you push for that today?
Trump: Well, we talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we'll see how that works out. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side, but if they don't disarm, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, then they'll be held to pay for them. And we don't want that -- we're not looking for that, but they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.
Question: Is Israel withdrawing its forces?
Trump: Well, that's a separate subject. We'll talk about that.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: Yes.
Question: Did you have a message for the prime minister about the West Bank? And are you at all concerned that settler violence -- Israeli settler violence could be undermining the peace plan?
Trump: Well, we have had a discussion -- big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn't say we agree on the West Bank 100 percent, but we'll come to a conclusion on the West Bank.
Question: If I could ask, what is the discussion?
Trump: Well, I don't want to do that. It'll be announced at an appropriate time, but he will do the right thing, I know that. I know him very well; he will do the right thing. Yes.
Question: And there is a growing fear of a confrontation between Israel and Turkey. How are you going to ease this tension given the fact that Erdogan -- President Erdogan calls Mr. Netanyahu Hitler and compares Israel to the Nazis.
Trump: Well, I know President Erdogan very well and, as you all know, he's a very good friend of mine. And I believe that -- and I do respect him and Bibi respects him, and they're not going to have a problem. They're not going to have a problem. I know him very well and you've seen me do things with President Erdogan and Turkey that nobody else could have done.
We're not going to have a problem. He's done a fantastic job. I'm with him all the way. I'm with Bibi all the way. Nothing's going to happen. Yes.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Are you concerned that Israel is not moving quickly enough to phase two of the peace plan?
Trump: Well, I'm not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. I'm concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren't doing. But I'm not concerned. They've lived up to the plan. They're strong, they're solid. And sometimes they don't understand when somebody violates something that you want to give them a second chance.
We'll give them a couple of second chances, but no, Israel has lived up to the plan 100 percent. Don't forget, we made the plan possible by taking out Iran. And speaking of Iran, I hope they're not trying to build up again because, if they are, we're going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup.
So, I hope Iran is not trying to build up as I've been reading that they're building up weapons and other things. And if they are, they're not using the sites that we obliterated, but they're using possibly different sites. We know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, and I hope they're not doing it because we don't want to waste the fuel on a B-2, it's a 37-hour trip both ways. I don't want to waste a lot of fuel. OK?
Question: Mr. President, per your last remarks regarding the Herzog request of Prime Minister Netanyahu, her office told us that you have not talked after the official request of Prime Minister Netanyahu pardon. Can you clarify to us, did you talk about it?
Trump: Which request are you talking about?
Question: With President Herzog, the Israeli president, Herzog, did you talk with him directly?
Trump: President Erdogan?
Question: Herzog, Herzog, the Israeli president.
Trump: Oh, so, you're talking about pardon.
Question: Yeah.
Trump: Oh, well, you've got to say that. No, I think he's going to be in great shape. He's a wartime prime minister at the highest level. He's achieved tremendous success. And I'll say it, you know, if you had eight out of 10 prime ministers in his position right now, or before right now maybe, you wouldn't have Israel any longer.
Israel wouldn't exist, I'd say two of them would and eight of them wouldn't. Those are not good odds. You needed a very special man to really carry through and really help Israel through this horrible jam. You know, these are major factions and it started with our negotiation with Iran. I think it probably started with Soleimani.
That was really where you mentioned that today, it started with Soleimani, a bad guy doing bad things, hurting a lot of people, killing American soldiers and other soldiers. But it started -- right there would probably be the starting point. And then from that point forward. But you have a wartime prime minister at the highest level.
There could be other wartime prime ministers, but they'd lose. He won and I think the people of Israel appreciate it. I think a lot of the people in the world appreciate it actually. And because of that victory, we were able to get peace in the Middle East. If you had a different kind of a personality, if you had a weak person or a stupid person, and there are plenty of both of them, you would not have had success, and you might not have Israel and you report for Israel.
I know you're very proud of it and you do a great job. You might not have a job because there might not be an Israel right now if you had a different prime minister. That's a big statement. But to me, it's a very simple statement to make. I'm looking at Pete Hegseth, and he's sort of nodding. If they don't have a strong prime minister, Pete, you might not have Israel today.
I think he'll go down in the record books and, you know, I was a big help. I'll be honest with you, a big, big help. Somebody said in the room, if you don't have Trump -- you needed a proper combination of everything. And if you didn't have that combination, which they had, you would not have an existing Israel right now.
And the people of Israel know it, that's why they like me and that's why they really -- they actually like him. He's got a little bit of love/hate more than I do over there. But you know what? Even the haters have a lot of respect for him. There's a lot of jealousy about him, a lot of jealousy. Jealousy is a bad word, but I believe you would not have Israel right now. So, it's a big deal. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, a recent poll showed that as many as half of Gazans would be willing to leave the Gaza Strip if afforded the opportunity to do so. Back in February, you said that all Gazans should --
Trump: I heard that number today, half of Gaza would leave. I've always said it, I said if you were given the opportunity to live in a better climate, they would move. They're there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be a great opportunity, but let's see if that opportunity presents itself. But we're helping the people of Gaza a lot.
So is Israel by the way. So, we'll see what happens. But I saw that -- there was a poll, it was actually more than half the people would leave if they were given the opportunity. And I've been saying that for a long time. To me it was common sense. So, it's interesting.
Question: Why wouldn't countries accept them?
Trump: Look, let's not talk about it because we don't want the controversy. Right now, we're helping Gaza, but if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that. The person -- the group that did the poll is usually -- I call them negative pollsters. You have a lot of them. And yet this poll was, I think, very accurate, other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity, but they haven't been given that opportunity. So, we'll see what happens.
Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] the point of understanding regarding Syria.
Trump: We do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, your new president. I respect him. He's a very strong guy, and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put a choir boy -- you can't put, you know, somebody that's a perfect person. Everything's nice, no problems in life. You have the opposite there. He's a strong guy. We get along with him great. I can't ask for anymore. He's been with us all the way. We had that mishap with ISIS and he was with us all the way. He was fighting -- you know, he was fighting them. So, I hope Israel -- I'm sure that Israel and he will get along. I will try and make it so that they do get along, I think they will, Bibi, do you have anything to say about that?
Netanyahu: Yeah, well, our interest is to have a peaceful border with Syria. Our interest is to have, and we openly say it, we want to make sure that the border area right next to our border is safe, we don't have terrorists, we don't have attacks. And we also want to secure our Druze friends.
And by the way, I think not only the Druze but other minorities, especially the Christians, should be protected as well in Syria and throughout the Middle East and in Nigeria, and your efforts would back completely, because Christian communities are beleaguered around the world, and especially in the Middle East but in parts of Africa too and -- and we stand for the same thing.
Trump: And don't forget, it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan. And he never wanted the credit for it, but he really gets a lot of credit. Bibi agrees with that. I agree with -- I mean, I know it. And President Erdogan should get a lot of credit for what he did.
He got rid of some very bad people. And you know, they've been wanting to do that for a thousand years, with different names but for a thousand years in Syria. President Erdogan did it and we give him a lot of credit. I give him a lot of credit. But I think it's going to work out well between Syria and Israel.
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President?
Trump: Yeah, go ahead, please.
Question: The Lebanese government [Inaudible] is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement, has failed to disarm Hezbollah, actually. In your view, should Israel strike the terrorist organization again?
Trump: Well, we're going to see about that. We'll see about it. The Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage, if you think of it, with Hezbollah. But Hezbollah has been behaving badly, so we'll see what happens.
Question: Mr. President, on China. Are you going to -- Mr. President, how close are we to another operation of Israel in Iran? You said before the meeting with Netanyahu that you are in support of Israel if the ballistic missile project will take on and also the nuclear weapon. But after the meeting, after what you know from the intelligence, how close are we to another war with Iran?
Trump: Well, I don't want to say that, but Iran may be behaving badly. It hasn't been confirmed. But if it's confirmed, look, they know the consequences. You know, consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time. Yeah.
Question: And follow up --
Trump: And Iran should have made a deal the last time. I gave them the option. I said, you can make a deal, do it. I told them, do it, and they didn't believe me. Now they believe me.
Question: [Inaudible] evidence that Iran is behaving badly? And what do you mean by that?
Trump: This is just what we hear, but usually, where there's smoke, there's fire. Have you heard the expression?
Question: But what -- do you mean related to the nuclear capability?
Trump: Well, no, I'm hearing that they're -- not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear too. The sites were obliterated, but they're looking at other sites. That's what I've heard. They're looking.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: So it will take a long time. They're not going to go back to where they were, but they -- they have other places they can go. And if they're doing that, they're making a big mistake. Yeah, please. There's no reason for them to do it.
Question: Mr. President -- Mr. President, is the United States currently open to engaging in bilateral discussions with Tehran. We're hearing reports from numerous countries that there may be some discussions. Is that something you would support or something that is happening?
Trump: Yeah. I would. Sure.
Question: You would support that?
Trump: I would. Yes.
Question: Right now? Thank you, sir.
Trump: I have been -- by the way, before the war, I would support that. I said to him, Bibi, I said, let's negotiate and they didn't believe what was going to happen would happen. Yes, ma'am.
Question: Mr. President, on China. So China has been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan. Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that? What do you think about that? Have you had any discussions with China about that?
Trump: Well, I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it. And I don't believe he's going to be doing it.
Question: Does it worry you?
Trump: No, nothing worries me, nothing.
Question: But you said where there's smoke, there's fire, right?
Trump: Yeah.
Question: So if you're in [Inaudible] -- if you're doing naval exercises and air exercises --
Trump: Well, they've been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area. Now, people take it a little bit differently, but in fact, larger than they're doing right now. So we'll see, but they've been -- they've been doing that for 20, 25 years. Yeah.
Question: Mr. President, if you don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time they're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?
Trump: It'll be horrible for them, horrible. Going to be really, really bad for them. And I don't want that to happen, but they made an agreement that they were going to disarm, and you couldn't blame Israel. By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it. They said, let us do it for you if they don't. Countries that were with them wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm.
And now if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine. If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. They don't even need Israel. You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agreement. This is a real peace in the Middle East and Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it. But we have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the Middle East, as you know the Middle East.
They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. They don't want Israel; they don't need Israel. They want to do it because it's the right thing to do because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged, they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas. Yeah.
Question: President Trump, do you think that the PA should be involved in the day after in Gaza Strip even in the near future? And the same question to Prime Minister Netanyahu, do you see a real opportunity that the PA will be in Gaza?
Trump: Go ahead, Bibi.
Netanyahu: I think President Trump put clearly the conditions that -- of reform that he wants to see in the PA for them to be involved. And I think he put it very clearly what he wants to see, the kind of real reforms, not just perfunctory reforms, but real reform, stop pay to slay, change the curriculum in your textbooks, open up, you know, a different society and a different future. If they do it --
Question: [Inaudible] future --
Netanyahu: Well, you know, let them -- you know, I think it was clear. He put -- he put --
Trump: Pretty clear.
Netanyahu: He put guidelines that were, by the way, in the Trump plan of 2020. And they were put then in the 20 points and it's up to them.
Trump: Remember this, if we didn't do what we did to Iran, just to make the subject just slightly different, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a deal signed in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a deal, because other Arab nations, which are great, great, great people. I know them very well.
I know them. They're great people. They wouldn't be able to have agreed to peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over everything. It wouldn't -- it wouldn't have been possible. So Iran has been greatly reduced in power, prestige. I don't want to use the word humiliation because, you know, they're trying to build up again.
But we can't let them build up because if they build up, there can't be peace in the Middle East. It was a mistake. You know, when they wiped out Iraq, Iraq and Iran were about the same power and they fought each other with different names for a thousand years. And then our country came out and blew up one of those two countries, namely Iraq.
Trump: And all of a sudden, Iran had the whole Middle East all to itself. But that's not true anymore, that's not true anymore.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: Say it.
Question: Tell us something about your plan to expand the Abraham Accords. If you can tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.
Trump: Well, the Abraham Accords are a great -- a great achievement of Jared and everybody. I mean, it was one of the great achievements. They'll be expanded. Countries are already talking about expanding it and they'll be expanded fairly quickly. Yeah, please.
Question: [Inaudible] on Saudi Arabia, is it still on the table?
Trump: Saudi Arabia is great. We have a great leader and a friend of mine and a friend of a lot of people, also an enemy of some people, but those people aren't doing so well. You know, Saudi Arabia has been very good as far as I'm concerned. They've done everything that we can ask for.
Question: [Inaudible] normalization with Israel --
Trump: They're getting along great with Israel. They will. And at some point, they'll sign the Abraham Accords.
Question: Mr. President -- So one of the big domestic tasks ahead of you is to pick a new chairman for the fed.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: You're -- you've said that you have one favorite --
Trump: I do, still do.
Question: -- but you're also doing interviews.
Trump: Hasn't changed. Yeah, I'll announce him at the right time. There's plenty of time.
Question: Are you -- is there any chance --
Trump: In the meantime, we're doing numbers that nobody's ever seen. We have $18 trillion coming in. We had a 4.3 percent GDP. They thought it was going to be two percent, and that's despite the Democrat shutdown. Had the shutdown not occurred, we would have had an extra point and a quarter. Think of that. We are doing -- and also, despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve.
I mean, Biden reappointed him. It's too bad. You would have thought he wouldn't have done that. But he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve, or he's doing a renovation of a building. Bibi, he's up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction. He's spending more money than any building has ever spent per square foot on the renovation of -- as an example, I'm doing a magnificent big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years it's a massive job and it's a tiny fraction of that number, and we're under budget and ahead of schedule.
Now it's bigger than I told you, it's you know -- after realizing we're going to do the inauguration in that building, it's got all bulletproof glass, it's got all drone -- they call it drone free roof.
Drones won't touch it. It's a big, beautiful, safe building. But it's -- you know, it's a big project for a tiny fraction of that. We're under budget and ahead of schedule and they've wanted it for 150 years. Think of it, the Federal Reserve building, two buildings there, they don't know what they're doing.
They're way over budget. I mean, almost -- this was built during the Biden administration. And I drove by it the other day and it's headed by the head of the Federal Reserve, too late -- you know, too late Powell. Too late because he's always too late with interest rates except before the election. He was too early because that would have helped -- that was supposed to help get her elected.
It had no impact. We won all seven swing states. But no, no, we're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence because, think of it. These are two -- these aren't outstanding buildings; these are small buildings. He's at $4 billion more. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion, $4 billion.
It's the highest price of construction -- again, Democrats -- highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world. There's never been -- gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price. So, we're thinking about bringing a gross incompetence -- what's called a gross incompetence lawsuit.
It's gross incompetence against Powell and it was his baby. And the guy's just incompetent. There is nothing you can do about it; he's just a very incompetent man. But we're going to probably bring a lawsuit against him. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Bibi, congratulations.
Question: Mr. President, when do you expect an announcement on Powell's replacement?
Trump: January some time.
Question: And will you ask Jay Powell to resign entirely?
Trump: Well, he should resign, it'd be a favor to the nation. He's come close. I mean, we're getting pretty close. I would fire him. I would love to fire him, but we're so close -- maybe -- but maybe I still might.
Question: Will you sell F-35s to Turkey? Are you going to approve a sale of F-35s Turkey?
Trump: We're thinking about it very seriously.