TRANSCRIPT: President Trump is Interviewed by Trey Yingst of Fox News at the Knesset, 10.13.25
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Note: [Trey Yingst of Fox News interviewed Donald Trump at the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025. Three unedited exchanges were released on Fox News, Instagram, Twitter / X and other platforms. While it is unclear if more of the interview will be released, the three segments were unedited in question and response and are presented here. Video courtesy and copyright Fox News.]
Trey Yingst: Mr. President, thank you for speaking with Fox News.
President Donald Trump: Thank you very much.
Yingst: Tw --
Trump: You're doing a great job, by the way.
Yingst: Thank you, sir. Twenty Israelis who were held hostage by Hamas for more than two years were released today as part of your peace plan. What did that moment mean to you?
Trump: Well, everything you see, the -- the enthusiasm really beyond Israel, all over the world. I've never seen anything like it. And I think it just means peace for the Middle East. And it somehow represents -- they become representatives of peace for the Middle East. And that's why it's gone like this. Nobody's ever seen anything quite like it.
Yingst: Talk me through how this deal came together. There were very intense negotiations. Our reporting indicates that you were personally on the phone to get this across the finish line. What happened and when did you know that Hamas was going to release the hostages?
Trump: Well, I'll tell you, I think it really started when we took out the nuclear capability of Iran. When you look at what they had, you couldn't have made this deal of somebody sitting over there with a nuclear weapon over your head. And I think when we did that, and there were other obviously very warlike things that we did over the course of four or five years, if you, you know, setting the table. But when we did the -- when we took away that destructive capability from Iran --
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Yingst: Are you concerned that they may have moved enriched uranium before these strikes took place? How would you describe their nuclear program today?
Trump: Well, they don't have a nuclear program. It was obliterated. It was -- those B-2 pilots, and other things. You know, we had the Tomahawks, 30 Tomahawks coming in from submarines, too. But it was complete and total obliteration, and the atomic energy commission announced that not so long ago because CNN gave some fake news. Maybe the attack wasn't that devastating. It turned out that it was. And they've all -- now everybody sees it. I'm not concerned at all. And I don't think they want to do it. I think they've played that game. I think Iran is going to be a country that wants to get back into the world of good economies.
Yingst: Have they shown you any signs that they are open to diplomacy?
Trump: Yes, they have. They have.
Yingst: Any examples?
Trump: I don't want to do that, but I will tell you that we talk, and the last thing they're going to do is get into the nuclear world again, because look what it's gotten them. And I would just have to do it again. Now, maybe if they want to wait out three and a half years, who knows what, you know, who's coming next? But they know that they're not going to be able to do it and they can't do it and I don't think they want to do it. They -- they've just gone through it. They've been building that for years. This is going on -- you know, we looked at that attack for 22 years. The pilots of the B-2s came to the Oval Office because I wanted to see them and, you know, give them medals and things.
And we also had mechanics and we had a lot of people involved because it was a perfect operation, incredible operation. And the pilots came in, they said, sir, you know, we -- we've planned that attack, and our predecessors, you know, that are older now, pilots. But we planned that attack for 22 years. Three times a year, we planned it. We practiced that attack. But we never had a president that would allow us to do it. And if I didn't allow them to do it, Iran would have a nuclear weapon, I think, within four to five weeks from that time, and it would be a very different discussion we would be having. And it would be certainly -- you wouldn't have this, because nobody would have done it, number one.
And if they did do it, you would have this terrible dark cloud hanging over Israel. Right now, you really have freedom in the Middle East, if you think about it, because the bully of the Middle East has been taken down. And I think the bully of the Middle East may very well turn out to be a very productive partner for a lot of other countries, much different than what they -- look what that got them. Look what the big military experience got them. They got -- they got blasted. But the biggest event was when we took out their nuclear capability because it -- it put them in a very much different position.
Yingst: Have you spoken to the country's leadership since then?
Trump: Yes.
Yingst: The president?
Trump: I don't want to say who, but we speak to them, yeah, quite often, actually.
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Yingst: I want to ask you about the Palestinian people, more than two million of them inside Gaza. They're worried that the result of this deal could lead to them being displaced from their homes or being forced to leave Gaza. What would you tell them about this peace plan?
Trump: Well, the beauty is we have some of the richest countries in the world. And you know the countries I'm talking about. And they're headed by people that really were helpful and people that I know and that I think are tremendous people. And it's not always popular to say that. But I'm telling you, they're incredible leaders and there's some incredible people. They control vast amounts of wealth and they're willing to spend that wealth to make things good at Gaza. You could call it the old Gaza Strip in Gaza. And when you look at the destruction -- and even before the war, it was -- it was a hell hole, let's face it. Before this, before the bombing and everything else, people living in tents and they were living very much like they're living now.
This is obviously worse because so many buildings are down, but a lot of buildings were just falling down, and they were falling because it's had nothing but wars for so many years. So this is a great opportunity. We have countries of great wealth, enormous wealth, where a fraction of their wealth can help take care of this, and we'll be involved in leadership. And, you know, it's interesting when I watched all those people coming back, I'm looking at the people, really the faces of the people. those are people like you and like I. I mean, they were people that looked so fantastic. And they're walking back to a house that's demolished, to a building that's demolished, to places that are not even recognizable. But when I looked in the faces of those people, I saw good people.
Yingst: Will they be able to stay in Gaza?
Trump: I think so. I hope so. Yeah.
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