TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Signs an Executive Order on Alaskan Energy and Minerals, 10.6.25
[Video]
President Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We have a very big signing today having to do with Alaska, a place that I am very familiar with, and we're making it greater and bigger and more powerful and job-producing. It's an economic goldmine, so to speak. And I signed this years ago and Biden unsigned it for me. This was something that should have been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a lot of energy and minerals and everything else that we're talking about. And they undid it and wasted a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort. And now we're starting again and this time we have plenty of time to get it done and it's going to be done properly. I'd like to ask your Department of Interior head who has done a fantastic job, Doug Burgum, to say a few words about it and we'll go to Chris after you and anybody else that wants to say something. And it's a very powerful deal, very, very big deal from the standpoint of minerals and energy. So thank you all for being here. Doug, please go ahead.
Doug Burgum: Well, thank you, President Trump. Yesterday is a historic day. President Trump, as he promised when he was running in the election to the American people, that he was going to unlock the potential of this country. He was going to unlock America's mineral wealth. He was going to generate returns for American people. And he was going to, importantly, bolster the critical supply chains around critical minerals for our country. On day one, he signed a very important executive order, unleashing Alaska's extraordinary resource potential, and this is part of the continuation. There's a number of things that have already happened with Alaska that are moving forward.
There's more to come, but big milestone today. In reversing this Biden-era decision about the uh Ambler Road, this is a 211-mile long road that begins over 200 miles north of Fairbanks off the Hall Road that goes up to the north slope. This road goes through an area where there's no roads. Ambler Mining District at the end of that, has some of the richest mining deposits in all of America and in all of the world. And these are minerals that are absolutely essential to the -- to defense, to industry moving forward today. Just take copper alone, uh, this is one of the richest copper locations in the country. And of course today, to build a data center, you can have tens of thousands of tons of copper required for that.
Even a single-family home today may have as much as much as 400 pounds of copper in a home. And we have, as a nation, under the -- in the past, basically gotten out of the mineral -- mineral and energy and mining area. President Trump, when he said drill, baby, drill, he also was mine, baby, mine. We've got to get back in the mining business. China controls 85 to 100 percent of all the mining and refining of the top 20 critical minerals. And in this mine area, up here, we got copper lead, zinc, gold, silver, gallium, germanium, so rich in all of the minerals that we need for the -- to win the AI arms race against China and to prosper as a country. And so again, today, this was history being made. When some of this was set aside in 1980 by Jimmy Carter, there was a special authority created for presidents to decide if there was a dispute. And so for the first time in history, a president is actually using that authority, President Trump, as he does, using his authority for the benefit of the American people.
And the appeal came in from the state of Alaska asking that this road be built. Alaska is not a colony. They're a state. They have an opportunity to build roads like any other state. With this signing, President Trump, Alaska can go ahead and build this road. It'll be a toll road, not a public road. It's a toll road, so it'll be controlled in terms of traffic. It's a gravel road. It'll be sensitive to the environment. It'll be collaboration with the Native Alaskan corporations, in terms of how it's built and how it's used, supporting the Alaska Native tribes with subsistence hunting regulations on either side of this. But this opens up a wealth of resources. In addition, there's going to be an announcement made uh later today that is part of this announcement, that the Department of War, the United States government is making an investment in Trilogy Minerals.
They're one of the companies that has mining claims at the -- in this area that is remote wilderness right now. And again, making that investment so we can make sure that we're securing these critical mineral supplies and that ownership in that company will benefit the American people. With that, I'll kick it over to Chris Wright.
Chris Wright: Thank you, Doug. And what a huge thank you to the president today. This is a tremendous achievement for the people of Alaska. We were in the North Slope of Alaska a few months ago celebrating energy development there. They want jobs and opportunity to develop the resources on their lands. This is another major step forward. We say energy is the lifeblood of society, the circulatory system. Minerals and metals, they're the skeletal infrastructure. The physical upholding of everything we do everywhere we walk and operate your cameras, everything you hold are made out of metals and minerals. President Biden thought it was appropriate to offshore both of these industries outside of our country.
That has not left us in a strong place. President Trump, in his first term and even more strongly in his second term, is bringing those industries back to our country. America was a mining powerhouse for a long, long time and our mining industry got squelched. Now we're seeing it come back to life. You saw the president's truth not long ago about a deal for lithium production in Nevada just a week or so ago. This will more than tenfold increase American lithium production and this infrastructure, this mining road in the Ambler Mining District will just have immense impact on future mining opportunities for our country's security and economic opportunities for the people of Alaska. Our critical minerals and mining expert within the administration is standing right next to me, David Copley. I'll see if he wants to add any words.
David Copley: This is a really big deal for the American mining industry and I think it shows the president's seriousness about getting this industry going and making sure we have the critical minerals we need for our defense industrial base and for our broader economy.
Trump: Thank you very much. And I think we want to get this going by a certain time, so I signed it. And Will, I'm going to give it to you and you get it filed.
Will Scharf: Yes, sir.
Trump: Good job.
Scharf: Thank you, sir.
Trump: It's a big job. Thank you very much. So we created a great deal of wealth for that part of the world and that part of our country, by doing this long, very difficult road to build. And we'll be talking about that sometime later, but it's been -- it's a great deal for the -- for our country. It's a great deal for the people of our country and for the taxpayers of our country. And if you have any questions on that, let me know. Steve.
Question: What would it take for the road to be constructed? How quickly will they get underway?
Burgum: Well, this road is an industrial road, it'll have ownership that'll likely be split between the state of Alaska, the federal government, and the Native Alaska corporations. We would expect that construction would begin next spring with planning throughout this winter. The 211-mile long road will be a gravel road with a solid design base to handle the weight of the trucks that are going in and out. This is typical design that far north because asphalt with a freeze thaw cycle very difficult with asphalt or concrete. So gravel -- a fantastic gravel road, is going to have the least impact on the environment. It's going to be the best-suited purpose. Alaska has done this in the past with the Red Dog Mine. They've built a toll road that, again, has ownership. The companies that use the road pay to transit that road. So this is an economic model used around the world in mining districts. We'll apply it right here. And again, it's going to generate revenue for the American people and for the citizens of Alaska, as opposed to a cost.
Trump: And also two bridges. We're going to build two bridges that we'll be able to complete and we'll get them up very quickly.
Question: And how long to complete? I mean, 211 miles, that's a lot.
Trump: Yes. We'll get it done in less than a year.
Burgum: It's going to come in three -- yeah, three phases. The first road is, as President Trump said, will go quickly, which is they call it a pilot road. We'll build a single lane gravel road through the full duration of it. That'll be then expanded into a second phase and then a third phase over time. But again, we want to get that pilot road built because then we can help get materials back to help the mine get started quickly as well.
Question: Mr. President, there's negotiations happening with your team in Egypt right now over your proposed peace plan.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: It was reported by Axios over the weekend that you had a call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, where you told him to stop being so negative and to take the win, when it came to Hamas's response to that. Is that true? And [Inaudible]
Trump: No, it's not true. He's been very positive. He's been very positive on the deal. Everybody is. I think every nation is. We have just about every nation working on this deal and trying to get it done, something that -- you could say 3,000 years, if you look at it in certain ways or you could say centuries. But this is a deal that, incredibly, everyone just came together. They all came together. No, Israel has been great. They've all been good. Caitlin.
Question: And in the negotiations, do you have any red lines in terms of Hamas disarming and whatnot? Or are there -- are there any places you're willing to?
Trump: No, I have red lines. If certain things aren't met, we're not going to do it. But I think we're doing very well. And I think Hamas has been, uh, agreeing to things that, uh, are very important.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President? On the government shutdown, Mr. President, uh, if the vote today fails in the Senate, will that trigger layoffs?
Trump: It could. At some point it will. And you know, the Democrats are the ones that started this. And if you think about it, it's about healthcare to a large extent. It's about -- we want great healthcare for people. We don't want to give the money away to other people that come pouring into our country. And they've already poured in, because nobody's coming into our country now. We have the border totally stopped. In fact, numbers were just announced again, we're at another zero. So we have zero for four months in a row. Zero people coming into our country illegally. That's a pretty good number. I'm not sure. Even I can't believe that, Doug, if you want to know the truth. Zero. We went from millions of people to zero.
But it's pretty close to that number. And we -- the way you stop them is not to give away -- not to announce that you're giving everybody free healthcare, free this or that. But what that does is it affects the American people. Because the American people are -- are unable to get good healthcare. Obamacare has been a wreck as you know. And to do that, we have to keep it propped up and keep -- do the best you can with it. It's a mess. But things are -- a lot of things are going on in that. You know, we talk about Hamas, and we talk about negotiations that we have going on right now. We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things.
Question: What kind of --
Trump: And I'm talking about good things with regard to healthcare.
Question: Are you speaking with Democratic leaders? What kind of negotiations are going on?
Trump: Well, I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that.
Question: OK.
Trump: But we are speaking with the Democrats. And some very good things could happen with respect to healthcare.
Question: Would you make a deal with them on the ACA subsidies?
Trump: Well, if we -- if we made the right deal, I'd make a deal, sure.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Would you -- So you would make a deal --
Trump: I mean, you have right now subsidies, you have subsidies. That's the problem with Obamacare. The subsidies are so much. It's billions and billions of dollars is being wasted. And we can have a much better healthcare than we have right now. And we're talking to them. I mean, I'm not saying that's going to happen. Because this has also been going on, not for 3000 years, but it's been going on for a long time. But, yeah, we're talking to the Democrats.
Question: So you would -- you would work to make a deal with them on --
Trump: I'd like to see a deal made for great healthcare. Yeah, I want to see great health -- I'm a Republican, but I want to see healthcare much more so than the Democrats.
Question: So Mr. President, on all of this, as you know, the American people are experiencing a lot of pain with any kind of government shutdown. And while you're dealing with Democrats and of course Republicans are standing their ground, what is your message directly to the American people who may encounter some of this pain and despair --
Trump: Yeah.
Question: How do you give them a voice?
Trump: Well, up until now, there hasn't been a great deal of pain. There could be a great deal of pain, but up until now there hasn't been. I will say this, just hang in there because I think a lot of good things are going to happen. That's all I can say.
Question: Well --
Trump: I mean, I think a lot of good things could happen. And that could also pertain to healthcare.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President -- A follow-up question? Mr. President? I have seen a surge in attacks on ICE agents across the country, including the shooting in Dallas. And over the weekend in Chicago, we saw ten cars boxing in on ICE agents and another one ramming into an ICE vehicle.
Trump: Oh, yeah.
Question: I've heard Secretary Noem saying that some of these attackers are actually organized and are planning to --
Trump: True.
Question: Ambush these officers.
Trump: Right.
Question: What are the consequences for --
Trump: Very severe. We're going to have very severe consequences. We're going to find out who's going after our federal agents. So when you look at Chicago, they've had probably 50 murders in the last 6 or 7 months, eight months. Many, many people shot like 30, 40, 50 people shot. Didn't die, but they've been shot. It's like a war zone. And then I listened to the governor and the mayor get up and say how they have it under control. They don't. It's -- it's probably worse than almost any city in the -- in the world. You could go to Afghanistan, you can go to a lot of different places, and they probably marvel at how much crime we have.
Then you go to Memphis where we are right now. Now it's -- it's headed -- just like in Washington -- Washington, DC, right now, you people know better than I do because you have to live right inside. And so many of the press have come to me. They've said, I can't believe it. It's changed so much. We have a safe city in Washington. Memphis will very soon have a safe city. Chicago can be a very, very safe. It's going to be very safe. But Chicago is going to be very safe. And you say why is it that a governor wouldn't accept free help from regardless, I mean whether it's a National Guard or the military or anybody? I mean, women raped and beaten and knocked to hell.
And the same with men where they're being shot all over the place in large numbers. I mean, we had a week in Chicago where 11 people were murdered and 38 people were shot. And then we have a governor get up and say, oh, it's safe, we can handle it. He can't handle it. He's an incompetent guy. That's why they throw him out of the family business. They throw him out. I knew the family business very well. And they threw him out. And now he's a governor. And he should say we'd love to have a safer place. Chicago's a great city potentially. You know, I told you, the head of the Union Pacific Railroad said sir, save Chicago. It's a great city. It's going to be lost if you don't do it. We have no choice but to do this.
And when judges give us rulings that, you know, you don't have to do it. Portland is -- is on fire. Portland's been on fire for years and not so much saving it. We have to save something else because I think that's all insurrection. I really think that's really criminal insurrection. So I appreciate the question. These are unsafe places. We're going to make them safe. So you see what's going on in Memphis. It's not pretty. But you know what? We're doing a pretty job because it's going to be a very safe place in a little while. And the people of Memphis are so happy that we're there. And the people of Chicago, so you have black women with MAGA hats on in Chicago all over the place.
They want the Guard to come in or they don't care who comes in, they just want to be safe. And they really don't care. You know, there was one woman. And she was great. She said, you know what? I don't care if it's a National Guard, the Army, the Marines, the Air Force. I don't care who comes in as long as we're safe. And that's the way most of the public feels. Uh, we're going to make Chicago really great again. And we're going to stop this crime. Then we're going to go to another one. And we're going to go city by city. We're going to have safe cities. And it was so great that we started with our nation's capital, one of the worst.
I mean, so many people every week somebody was killed. They'd come from Iowa. They come from Indiana. They want to see the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial. They want to see something. And they'd get shot. And you'd call their parents. I'm sorry, but your son is dead. And they go. What do you mean he's dead? He Came to Washington, DC. Not anymore. That's not happening anymore. We have a safe place. We have a safe capital. Uh, it's as safe as we have probably almost just about in the country. And if you look back six months ago, seven months ago, this was a death trap. You look back during the Biden, I mean, what -- what they did, how badly they managed things.
And almost all of these cities, most of these cities are Democrat run. And we don't care Democrat, Republican, we're going to make them safe. So we have to save Chicago. It's very important. And you can't have a governor getting up and saying it's good when 11 people were shot over a weekend.
Question: And on --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: What?
Question: The insurrection? Under what conditions or terms would you --
Trump: Well, I'd do it if it was necessary. So far it hasn't been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I'd do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I do that.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I mean, I want to make sure that people aren't killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe. And it's turning out -- and -- and we started with DC. It's been so successful. Think of it. People wouldn't go to restaurants. The restaurants were closing. We were losing a lot of restaurants, as you all know. And now restaurants are opening and they're thriving. And I went two weeks ago, and it was great. I'm going to go again. I felt very safe, very safe. Forgetting about guards and Secret Service, and I would have gone. It would have been very safe. Uh, DC is a great -- and look at the cleanliness of DC. Look at how it's clean.
You don't have, uh, tents all over the place. We had parks where you couldn't even walk through the park. You had people in -- from tents. And they were violent people. Some of these people were violent people. We have a great safe capital again. And if you look at it in six months from now, it will be the most beautiful anywhere in the world. It's being cleaned. The graffiti is all gone now. The tents are all gone. It's -- it's -- we have a capital that you can be proud of, but it'll only get better with time.
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Tomorrow is October 7th, the two year anniversary of the original Israeli attack. Do you expect the Gaza till tomorrow or any sort of hostage deal tomorrow?
Trump: I think it'll happen soon. I think we're going to have a deal. Look, I -- it's a hard thing for me to say that when for years and years, they've been trying to have a deal with Gaza. But uh, I mean, literally for centuries, OK, if you really think about it. But uh, we're going to have a Gaza deal, I'm pretty sure, yeah.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: About the talks?
Trump: Well, I'm the one that got the hostages back. Remember that, you know.
Question: That's true.
Trump: I'm the one that --
Question: I was going to ask you that.
Trump: Yeah. I got them back.
Question: Is -- is Israeli citizens are celebrating what you've accomplished in this deal.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Should it come through, there would be a lot of celebration on the streets of Israel. The hostages' families, have they been in contact with you, with regard to this deal that could happen?
Trump: Yeah. They're so -- they're so happy about it. It's like they can't breathe. One said, I can't breathe. You know, it's very sad because you have hostages and you have people that are no longer living. But the parents, and I've said this to you many times, the parents want the bodies of their boy back, the bodies of, you know, their loved one back. In most cases, they're young men, and they're dead. And there's probably 32 or so, about that number. Nobody knows exactly what the number is. They want that body back as much as if their son were alive. And I've been with them -- you know, many have come to the White House to the Oval Office. I've been with many of the people that I got released.
We have a fantastic group working on it. Steve Witkoff has been amazing. Jared -- I have Jared. I took Jared out because Jared's a very -- you don't find anybody more capable. And we have -- we have the A plus team working on it. I think we're -- I think we've made tremendous progress. And yeah, the people of Israel -- the people of Israel want it to happen. But the people related to hostages, I mean, you see in Israel, tens of thousands of people. They really want the hostages back, and they really want things to end. And I think Hamas now has been. All I can say is they've been fine. They've been fine. I hope it's going to continue that way. I think it will.
I really think we're going to have a deal. We have a really good chance of making a deal and it will be a lasting deal. We want to have peace. This is beyond Gaza. Gaza is a big deal, but this is really peace in the Middle East. And the amazing thing is we have every Arab country, every Muslim country, we have every country surrounding, they all want it. I spoke with President Erdogan of Turkey. He's fantastic. He's been pushing very hard. He's a very powerful guy and he's been pushing very, very hard to get this deal done. And Hamas has a lot of respect for him. They have a lot of respect for Qatar. They have a lot of respect for UAE and Saudi Arabia. We have -- everybody is on our side to get this deal done.
There's never been anything like it. Nobody's ever seen it. There's always been like 80 percent of them don't want something done. I think, virtually -- we even had a signal, a very strong signal, as you know, from Iran. They'd like to see this done.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: On Portland, Mr. President?
Trump: Yes.
Question: Governor Abbott offered up the Texas National Guard to you.
Trump: [Inaudible]
Question: Have you had any other conversations with other red state governors?
Trump: Yeah, I have. They're willing to offer -- every one of them is willing to offer whatever we need. We thank Governor Abbott of Texas. Every one of the red state, as you call them, red state governors is willing to give whatever we need because they want our agents protected. You know, these Ice agents have a tough job. They have to go in and get, in many cases, stone-cold criminals, hardened criminals, long time criminals, and every essentially Republican governor has offered up whatever we need. And some Democratic governors also. Daniel.
Question: Yeah, Mr. President, thank you. A quick question on the subject of the order. The Biden administration, previously speaking, they shut down Alaska for business. You reversed that, reversed it on day one. You opened it up, going after all the critical minerals. This mission of yours, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, to boost our own independent production of critical minerals, rare earths --
Trump: Yeah. Well, it's necessary, right?
Question: #NAME?
Donald Trump: Well, it's very necessary. You know, in the past we were able to go to other countries, buy whatever we want, but all of a sudden if those countries are hostile. And by the way, China hasn't been. We've made deals with China. You know, they approved the TikTok deal. Everyone said you'd never get the TikTok deal approved. They approved it and we have great people buying it. American -- big, strong American companies are buying it. The most prestigious companies there are, actually, and they're going to make sure everything's good. But President Xi was great. He approved it. So I'm not saying hostile, but it's good to have our own minerals.
And you know, we create a tremendous value by creating a road. We build a road that only we can do because we have the rights to do it, number one, and we have the power to do it. And so we build a road that's over 200 miles long, through a very beautiful area of the world. Actually, it's incredible. When you look at it, it's incredible, but a rough area from the standpoint of building. So we get a road done. And with that, we unleash billions and billions of dollars of wealth. It's pretty amazing when you think of it. And it's wealth that we need if we're going to be the number one country. You know, we're number one now with AI. You probably read. We're beating everybody with AI at levels that nobody ever thought even possible.
And one of the reasons we are is because of energy. So our grid is old and tired, like most grids are. They get old with time. I mean, you know, the older you are, the older the grid gets, right? But I've allowed the people building AI or other plants, other types of plants, but AI in particular because they need so much electricity. I've allowed them to build their own power. And it's been amazing. They're building massive plants. And with the plant, they're building their own electricity. They've become a utility in a sense. I said, maybe you'll do better with the utility than you do with the AI. I don't know. But we're letting them build their own electricity, so we don't have to worry about the grid, we don't have to worry about anything.
And they're going to build it in such a way that if they have excess capacity, they're going to put it back into the grid. It's pretty amazing. So when they build, we're giving them permits to build their own electric power plants and it's incredible when you see what they're doing. And because of that and other things that we're doing, we're leading every country. Nobody's even close to us with AI. And AI seems to be the big thing. I don't know. I can't tell you that. There are a lot of people building and a lot of people are -- have high stock prices because of AI. So a lot of people think it's great stuff. And I think it's great stuff. I look at it, it's amazing what it can do. In terms of medical, in terms of medical costs, in terms of knowledge, it's basically information and information at a level that nobody thought possible before, so we'll see.
But they're building plants where you saw the one overlay that I did where -- in this case, it's Meta. One of their plants is essentially the size -- almost the size of Manhattan, and that's a building. You know, it's a building that covers Manhattan. So it's big stuff and nobody's even close to us. We're leading AI by so much.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: Yeah, go ahead, please.
Question: Since the start of your administration, we've seen a lot more Americans wanting to join ICE. And as we're seeing more attacks on them right now, what's your message to [Inaudible] ICE agents who are trying to do their jobs, but are facing a 1,000 percent increase in attacks?
Trump: Yeah. I love your questions. You know, I like you. So who are you with?
Question: I'm with NTV.
Trump: Very good.
Question: I was the one who got mugged.
Trump: You were the one. That's what I thought. You got mugged. You're not getting mugged anymore.
Question: Not anymore.
Trump: She was really -- you're lucky to be with us with that deal that happened. I know all about that. Not anymore though. You feel -- a different world out there, right?
Question: Totally. [Inaudible]
Trump: Oh, good. Well, you're safe now. You're not -- nobody's going to be hurting you in any way.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: OK. Thank you very much.
Question: Mr. President, on the Supreme court today --
Trump: Thank you. So the bottom line on your question, we're just going to make things real safe. We're going to make -- we're going to have a country that you can be proud of, not a country that you read about every day where somebody gets mugged from behind or hit over the head with a baseball bat. Those people aren't with us any longer. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President --
Trump: Thank you very much.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. On today's call with Lula from Brazil --
Trump: Yeah.
Question: -- are you considering lower lowering tariffs after the call?
Trump: Well, had a great talk with the President of Brazil, who's a good man. I met him actually at the United Nations. I was going up to make a speech and I didn't have a teleprompter. I was walking up to my teleprompter. I said, you know, I don't have a teleprompter. But just before that, I met with President Lula and I found him to be very good. I mean, we had a very good talk for about, you know, two minutes. And then I went up to make a speech and I was surprised to see -- how would you like that one, Doug. I've got every leader in the world sitting out there, my teleprompter isn't on. You know why, Daniel, because it was a rigged deal. But fortunately, I made a better speech than I would have if I read it off a teleprompter, which is pretty easy to do. So it was quite a day. It was a big day. But we met and we liked each other and yeah, we had a great conversation. Yeah, we'll start doing business.
Question: And are you considering traveling to Brazil for [Inaudible]
Trump: At some point, I would, and he's going to come here. We talked about that.
Question: And a follow up question on Israel. Israel government has been arresting and deporting activists that were traveling to Gaza. Today, Greta Thunberg, for instance --
Trump: Well, she's just a troublemaker. You know, I mean, she's -- I mean, she's no longer into the environment now. She's into this. She's a troublemaker. She has an anger management problem. I think she should see a doctor. She needs anger -- if you ever watched her. She's a young person. She's so angry. She's so crazy. No, you can have her. You can have her. She's just a troublemaker. Yeah, please.
Question: The Supreme Court is back in it's term today, Mr. President --
Trump: Say it.
Question: The Supreme Court is back in session.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: They rejected today an appeal by Ghislaine Maxwell to overturn her conviction. That means her only chance of getting out of prison is a pardon from you. Is that something you're open to?
Trump: Who are we talking about?
Question: Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump: You know, I haven't heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that?
Question: She wanted to appeal her conviction.
Trump: And what happened?
Question: They said that they were not going to hear her appeal.
Trump: I see. Well, I'll take a look at it. I'll speak to --
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I will speak to the DOJ. I wouldn't consider it or not consider it. I don't know anything about it, so. But I'll speak --
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I will speak to the DOJ.
Question: Why would she be a candidate for clemency, sir?
Trump: I don't know. I mean, I'd have to speak to the DOJ. I'll look at it. I'll -- I have a lot of people who have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy has asked me for a pardon.
Question: But she was convicted of child sex trafficking.
Trump: Yeah, I mean, I'm going to have to take a look at it. I'd have to ask DOJ. I didn't know they rejected it. I didn't know she was even asking for it frankly. Steve?
Question: Have you made a decision on whether to supply Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine or sell them to NATO and let them sell them to Ukraine?
Trump: Yeah, I've sort of made a decision, pretty much.
Question: Can you share with us?
Trump: if you -- if you consider -- yeah, I think I want to find out what they're doing with them.
Question: Yes.
Trump: You know, where are they sending them. I guess I'd have to ask that question. Um, that war should never have started, would have never started. Such bad judgment was used there. I think on both sides by the way. But nobody -- nobody looks good with the war with Russia and Ukraine, nobody. That's been -- horrible. This week they lost over 7000 soldiers between the two of them.
Question: And those missiles --
Trump: This is every week they're losing 7000, 8000, 5000.
Question: They have a range of like 1500 miles or something. And so they'd be able to --
Trump: Know, I know. No, no, I want to -- I would -- I would ask some questions. I want to see what's --
Question: Yeah.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: I'm not -- I'm not looking to see -- I'm not looking to see escalation.
Question: Yes -- But -- And tomorrow you're meeting with the Canadian prime minister. What's on the agenda for that, Mr. President?
Trump: Well, I guess he's going to ask about tariffs. Because a lot of companies from Canada are moving into the United States, you know. Everybody's moving back into the US. And he's probably going to be asking about tariffs. She's -- they're losing a lot of companies in Canada. They're coming into the -- they left here. They left here 20 years ago when presidents had said right at this desk weren't doing their job properly. They were probably good politicians, but they weren't good at business. And they allowed these companies to leave. And all they had to do was do what I'm doing right now. And you know, I'm not saying it's the easiest thing to do, but it is. It's effective.
We're a rich country again. We're a powerful country. Because you know, I've ended seven wars. At least half of them was because of my ability at trade and because of tariffs. If I didn't have tariffs to throw around a little bit, you would have at least four wars raging right now with thousands of people a day being killed that aren't happening. We've settled. You know, we settled seven. We're getting close to settling eight. That would be a big one. And uh, that's something that could happen. But -- so I think he's coming probably to talk about tariffs because a lot of companies are leaving Canada to come into the US. And they're leaving Mexico. And by the way, they're leaving China. They're leaving all over the world to come into the US.
Question: And would you --
Trump: Nobody's actually seen anything like it.
Question: Would you shift your position on tariffs in -- in response to whatever he says tomorrow?
Trump: Well, I mean, look, my position's turned out to -- everybody said I'm right. They find billions of dollars that they didn't even know they had. Recently, they said they found billions of dollars and they couldn't understand. I said check the tariff shelf. And they come in the next hour, and they said sir, you're right. It was from the tariffs. We're a rich, really rich country again. But more importantly, maybe, influence if I didn't have the power of tariffs, you would have at least four of the seven wars raging. I use tariffs to stop wars. If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down.
They were ready to go at it. And they had nuclear powers. And uh, I don't want to say exactly what I said, but what I said was very effective. They stopped. And that was based on tariffs. It was based on trade. Tariffs are very important for the United States. We are a peacekeeper because of tariffs. Not only do we make, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars, but we're a peacekeeper because of tariffs.
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? On the shutdown, Mr. President, the shutdown that occurred during your first term lasted 35 days.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: How long do you expect this shutdown to go?
Trump: Well, you don't know. Look, I can say this that it would have not happened except for the Democrats. The Democrats are very foolish. They've lost their way. And they have a -- we have a new -- a new thing now when you look at, say -- it's called crime. It's called absolute, as Biden would say, well, I won't say what he would have said. Remember when he said it's a three letter word. No. Remember that one? Everybody would say what was that all about? He probably meant exclamation point or something after the word. But this is a five letter word, crime, CRIME. And we want to put it out. And are putting it out. And they don't. They don't seem to care about it, but they do care.
I believe that Pritzker and this mayor of Chicago that like to say about we have it, they don't have it under control. Uh, not only is it not under control, it's the opposite. And I believe they're afraid. They're scared for their lives. I believe that the Portland people are scared. You look at what's happened with Portland over the years. It's -- it's a burning hell hole. And then you have a judge that lost her way that tries to pretend that -- like there's no problem. Actually, she's not even saying that.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: There's a huge problem in Portland. I'll tell you what the problem is crime, OK? Crime. There's a huge problem in Chicago, it's called crime. And we want to put out the crime. And they want to inflame the crime. And why they want to, I don't know, but it could be that Pritzker is scared for his life. Yeah?
Question: You --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: On that judge -- Do you have an update on the investigation into what happened to you at the UN last month? And also what's your message to Americans who are concerned about your and your family's safety as you're very out in the public --
Trump: Yeah, I am out there. There's no question about it. Well, at the UN, we had a problem with the teleprompter. We had another problem that nobody has actually talked about. The people in the room didn't hear my speech. Did you know that? The people in the room, they didn't have any loudspeakers and they didn't hear my speech. And I thought I made a really good speech. I mean, considering I didn't have the use of teleprompter, which is unusual. But uh, I made a speech. I could have walked off the stage. I guess most people -- Doug, I think most people would have just said we'll see you in about a half an hour, right? [Laughter] But you know, they -- they obviously turned off the tele -- I think they turned off the teleprompter, but there was a reason that it didn't work.
Uh, I actually know the reason. They didn't let the teleprompter person into the room, OK, which is essentially the same thing. So I made a speech that turned out to be a very good speech. It got good reviews. Uh, I went out to the audience after the speech. I saw my wife. I said how good was that speech? Was that unbelievable or what? She said I didn't hear a word you said. I said what do you mean? She was sitting in the front. I said, what do you mean? She said you couldn't hear anything that you said. The speakers were turned off. So I think that's pretty bad stuff, right? You know, especially since we support most of the United Nations.
And yet I still want to keep it in New York. Because I think the United Nations has tremendous potential. If properly run the United States has tremendous potential. But think of this. I settled seven wars. I never spoke to the United Nations about it, not one of them. You look at -- and those were wars that were raging a long time and in many cases. And I settled seven and I never heard from the United -- they didn't help me. They should be able to settle the wars. I shouldn't have to be settling the wars. Yeah, please.
Question: Last week you signed the security guarantees for Qatar.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Do you see any role for the Senate in that? Did they have to vote on that? Or do you think --
Trump: Well, I wouldn't mind if they did. If they want to, they'd let me know. Nobody said that -- that. But you know, Qatar has been very, very helpful to us in this process. And I think you'll find that. I think uh, maybe the most influential, very influential, very strong. With, uh, Hamas they're very strong. And uh, Turkey has likewise been helpful. I mean, honestly, UAE, Saudi Arabia, everybody's been helpful. I just spoke today with the king of Jordan, and he's been terrific too. We have -- I can't think of any country that's been negative about this. This is why it should happen. I mean, everybody wants it to happen. And usually when everybody, including, I think, Hamas. And when they want it to happen, it's going to happen.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: James Comey is being arraigned on Wednesday.
Trump: Um-hum.
Question: Obviously, after his indictment. Are you worried that your own statements calling for his prosecution could help him actually in his defense of this case?
Trump: No, I think he's a crooked guy. He's a dirty cop. Comey, I think he's a dirty cop. He's -- recognized by many people to be a dirty cop and dishonest guy. So all I have to do is -- I mean, I have nothing to do with the case. I just say good luck --
Question: But you called on [Inaudible] to prosecute him and opposed --
Trump: No, no, I don't call anybody. You know what? I'm allowed to do that if I wanted to do that. But Comey's a crooked guy. He has been for years. And he got caught. Look, he lied. This is just a simple case. He totally lied. And then he confirmed the lie on, I guess, numerous occasions or at least one occasion he confirmed the lie. He said that's what I said and I stand by it. And you know, I mean the guy -- and he didn't say to the best of my knowledge. He didn't say, well, I don't remember. He made a very definitive statement and a very important statement concerning him. And he got caught in an outright lie. And that's why a group of people -- it wasn't me that voted. They voted to indict him. But he's a crooked guy, in my opinion, and we'll find out. The court's going to determine that in a little while, I guess. Yeah.
Question: Do you expect to announce farm relief this week?
Trump: Yeah, I'm going to do some farm stuff this week. Yeah. Yeah, please.
Question: [Inaudible] Navy yesterday, celebrating their 250th --
Trump: It was unbelievable.
Question: Can you talk about that? And as we get closer to America's 250th, you've initiated a prayer initiative as well.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Talk to me about both of those events and why they're so important, particularly the prayer initiative going forward to the [Inaudible]
Trump: Well, we have -- and we're dealing, as you know, with all of the different -- and not just evangelicals, Christians. We've -- we're dealing with lots of different faiths, religions. And I felt for a long time that if you don't -- if a country doesn't have religion, doesn't have faith, doesn't have God, it's going to be very hard to be a good country. You know, there's no reason to be good. I want to be good because you want to prove to God that you're good, so you go to that next step, right? So that's very important to me. I think it's really very important. And yesterday was amazing. We went out -- we went to the naval base, the largest in the world actually.
And I saw things that were incredible, the level of -- of -- I don't -- just, I don't want to use the word weapons, but they are weapons, is the technology on these planes, on the carriers, on all of the different things that we saw. They gave us missile displays. They did the whole -- I don't think they've ever done anything like it, but it was really impressive. And the talent of the pilots, where they can land -- you know, the aircraft carriers look massive, but when you put them in the middle of like the Atlantic, or in this case, pretty far off the coast of Virginia and it's sitting in a big ocean -- and it was pretty calm yesterday, but it's still a little bit testy, right?
And you have these guys land right on that thing and come to a sudden, screeching halt and they're really something. They were taking off yesterday, and they look over, yes, sir. And then you see them -- and you see them just get ripped back into their seat because the G-forces are so great. And actually, if you're not in great shape because they were doing maneuvers that were incredible yesterday. And the admirals were explaining that if you're not in really good shape, you don't make it because you pass out. You know, these guys -- and women. I met some women pilots that are -- I mean, it's incredible what they're able to do. So we saw something that was great. And you saw the spirit, because we had for a couple of thousand -- I think they had probably 20,00, 22,000, largely sailors, all dressed in the most beautiful white.
There wasn't a spot on any of those uniforms. I looked at them. It was just a wave of white and it was a great crowd and great reception. So you know, getting back to a very important question that was asked. When you go back a year ago, people weren't joining the armed forces. They weren't joining the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, the Coast Guard, Air Force. If you look at, you know, any of them, they weren't joining, the Space Force. And now we're setting records recruitment, and that goes for the police and fire now. They want to be policemen. They want to be firemen. And firemen, people don't mention them. They're incredible. I know so many of them. They're brave as hell I wouldn't want to do it, I tell you.
But they weren't able to recruit. The police weren't able to recruit and the military wasn't able to recruit. We were really off. And I got elected -- and it really started on November 5th. I got elected and somehow the country developed a spirit, financially, yes, but also with the military. And now we have record levels of people wanting to be in. Every force is filled. We have waiting lists to get into the Marines, to the Army, to the Navy, to the Air Force. We have -- Coast Guard. We have waiting lists to get in. It's amazing actually what's happened. We have a country that's -- it was a dead country. And I say it all the time, we had a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
And it's nice to see you. I've watched you for years on television, so it's nice to meet you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.